On Wednesday's New Day, during a report about a group of more than 100 illegal immigrants trying to rush the border from Mexico into California that threw rocks at Border Patrol agents, CNN correspondent Leyla Santiago suggested that President Donald Trump was to blame for the violence as she cited complaints by illegal immigration advocates about the administration making it more difficult to have asylum requests accepted.
At 7:32 a.m. Eastern, Santiago gave CPB's account that after the illegals rushed the border, they threw rocks at agents, leading them to fire teargas to hold them back, and resulting in the arrests of 25.
After noting that the attack was similar to the most recent caravan's attempt to rush the border, she brought up the claims of culpability by the Trump administration made by liberal activists: "Immigration advocates will tell you this is a result of the Trump administration's policies -- asylum seekers being turned away at port of entries when they try to go in to say, 'I'm here to seek asylum,' fleeing poverty and violence."
She then added:
Even so, an HHS internal report from last year said that such a practice would encourage illegal immigration. So immigration advocates are now pointing to this incident as yet another way of proving that the Trump administration policies are not working at the port of entries.
Santiago did not put into perspective that, even during the Obama administration, about 80 percent of asylum seekers from Central American countries had their claims ultimately rejected, so the overwhelming majority of these migrants likely would have been rejected by even the Obama administration if they had applied for asylum.
Not to mention that they are also free to apply for asylum from the Mexican government.
