During Monday night’s edition of the Fox News Channel's Tucker Carlson Tonight, the eponymous host clashed with Univision anchor Jorge Ramos over whether immigrants should become or remain citizens of two nations in general and live in sanctuary cities in particular.
Instead of responding to Carlson’s questions, Ramos accused him of trying to "criminalize all immigrants" and repeating comments made by Donald Trump -- whom he described as “the most anti-immigrant President since the 1950s.”
The host began the segment by referring to Denver, Colorado, where Ivan Zamarripa-Castaneda killed a truck driver in a hit-and-run automobile accident. “Federal law enforcement wanted him held in custody,” Carlson explained, but -- thanks to the city’s sanctuary city policies -- “they let him go.”
He then introduced Ramos, an anchor on the Univision American Spanish-language broadcast network and author of a book entitled Stranger: The Challenge of a Latino Immigrant in the Trump Era.
Carlson began the interview by reading a tweet from Ramos in which his guest wrote: “I got my voter credential to vote from the United States in the elections in Mexico on July 1st. Now, I have to register and wait for my ballot by mail.”
“It's an expensive and complicated process, but you have to do it,” the host read before asking his guest: “I thought you were an American.”
Ramos responded:
I am Mexican and I am American. That's completely legal.
I was born in Mexico. I became a U.S. citizen. … I feel very proud of being from Mexico. I'm very proud of being from the United States.
“There's nothing wrong with being from Mexico,” Carlson replied. “What is wrong is that, when you became a citizen,” you took an oath “to renounce all allegiance to any foreign state you have ever been a citizen of.”
“I am voting in Mexico, and I'm voting here in the United States,” Ramos stated. “And the relationship between Mexico and Mexican-Americans is perfectly legal.”
“Last time I checked,” he continued, “Mexico is not invading the U.S., and we are not at war.”
However, Carlson noted, “Mexican citizens live in this country, vote in Mexican elections and then write books telling Americans like me how we should run our government. Why should I take you seriously, with respect?”
“I happen to be also a U.S. citizen,” the guest noted. “And sometimes, and that's precisely the title of the book, I do feel like a stranger because it seems, as you just pointed out, that for many Americans I am not American enough.”
“So now it seems that I cannot complain about Donald Trump being the most anti-immigrant President since the 1950s,” Ramos added.
“Of course, you can complain all you want,” Carlson responded.
“I don't know why you want to become state media, Tucker, because you are criminalizing all immigrants,” the guest stated.
“What do you mean, state media?” the host asked. “I'm not criminalizing anybody.”
“Of course, you're just repeating what Donald Trump is doing,” Ramos asserted.
“Spare me your Univision talking point,” Carlson noted. “I'm asking you a real question.”
The Univision anchor continued to dodge the query by stating: “The argument is that the vast majority of immigrants -- and you have heard this argument, the vast majority are not criminals.”
“I agree with that,” the FNC host responded.
“You cannot criminalize every immigrant all the time,” Ramos continued. Instead, “it's about sanctuary cities,” which are “doing a great job defending immigrants that nobody else wants to defend.”
“I'm not here to defend criminals,” he added. “It is completely unfair to criticize the whole population or a whole group simply because of one person.”
“Of course, I agree with that,” Carlson stated.
“I think sanctuary cities is a good idea,” Ramos stated. “I think that somebody has to defend immigrants.”
“Who is going to defend the rest of us?” the host asked.
Instead of answering Carlson’s question, Ramos said: “Let me give you another argument” before describing the situation in Los Angeles, California, which is another sanctuary city.
“Sexual assault dropped 25 percent in Los Angeles; the reports of domestic violence decreased 10 percent within the city -- the Latino population,” he continued. “So this is happening. This is real. And you don't want to see it.”
Carlson had to quickly end the interview because the segment was out of time.
As NewsBusters previously reported, Sean Hannity also had little success in getting Ramos to answer his queries when the Univision anchor was on Hannity's FNC show last week.
Apparently, Ramos has mastered the art of filibustering and is now more than capable of filling the time in any TV segment without directly answering any uncomfortable questions.
