The push to strip our border enforcement agencies of any funding received a big boost from NBC's sister network, Telemundo. A recent report on the network's evening newscast served as a virtual infomercial for the "Defund ICE" movement, without offering any opinion or perspective to the contrary.
Watch as Telemundo Washington Bureau Chief Lori Montenegro showcases two liberal Members of Congress and their overt hostility towards funding ICE:
LORI MONTENEGRO, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, TELEMUNDO: They fear that in the negotiations over border security that considers funding for the wall, there may also be a funding increase for ICE and the Border Patrol.
U.S. REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASO-CORTEZ (D-NY): DHS and ICE deserve not one more dollar…
MONTENEGRO: Beyond controlling the funding that these agencies receive…
U.S. REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D-TX): We oughta take the enforcement responsibilities away from ICE…
MONTENEGRO: The chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus believes that ICE should be stripped of their law enforcement powers because they are not transparent, he says, in how they operate.
There was a time in the not-too-distant past, where the Spanish-language networks, in their quest to provide a news story with the full spectrum of coverage, would feature immigration activists making their pitch for open-borders policy, show a supportive congressperson's takes, and then go to someone with the opposing view. But that time is long gone.
We still get the activists and the supporting Members of Congress, as we see above, but Telemundo didn't see fit to showcase anyone who would speak in defense of a sovereign nation's right to secure its border. Never mind a wall. The issue here, increasingly presented as a yes-or-no proposition, is whether to even fund border enforcement agencies currently under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security.
The idea that the U.S. border should go open and unenforced by starving enforcement agencies of critical funding is treated not as an outlandish idea worthy of universal mockery, but as a serious policy proposal worthy of attention. That patina of seriousness comes via the report's showcasing of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rachida Tlaib (D-MI), and Joaquín Castro (D-TX), current chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Such glaring bias as this makes it obvious that Jorge Ramos was right: the future of domestic Spanish-language television largely depends on a sustained, high immigrant inflow (legal or otherwise). If anything has changed since then, it's that no one seems to pretend to hide it anymore.
Below is a full transcript of the above-referenced report, as aired on Telemundo's Un Nuevo Día, on February 8, 2019.
ANCHOR: The debate regarding the functions of ICE makes its way to Congress. Activists and lawmakers fear that budget negotiations may yield more funding to an agency to be considered the deportation force. Lori Montenegro tells us more.
LORI MONTENEGRO, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, TELEMUNDO: Once again, there are calls to cut funding for the department of immigration and customs, known by its initials as ICE. Activists say it is Trump’s deportation force.
JEFFERSON ARPI: ...Then the government…
MONTENEGRO: Jefferson traveled to the capital from New York in order to speak for his father, held at an immigration detention center for over a year.
ARPI: It is so heartbreaking to imagine my father (being) locked up in there like an animal.
MONTENEGRO: At her eight years of age, Jocelyn says that she cries for father every night.
JOCELYN ZHININ: I want to say that they can help get my daddy and the others out, because they are suffering very much, like I am.
U.S. REP. RACHIDA TLAIB (D-MI): What Jocelyn’s mother is going through today…
MONTENEGRO: The Michigan Democrat Rachida Tlaib, was (visibly) moved when saying that she couldn’t imagine being separated from her children. They fear that in the negotiations over border security that considers funding for the wall, there may also be a funding increase for ICE and the Border Patrol.
U.S. REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): DHS and ICE deserve not one more dollar…
MONTENEGRO: Beyond controlling the funding that these agencies receive…
REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D-TX): We oughta take the enforcement responsibilities away from ICE…
MONTENEGRO: The chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus believes that ICE should be stripped of their law enforcement powers because they are not transparent, he says, in how they operate. It was also this week that the president, in his State of the Union address, reiterated his commitment to ICE and to the task they perform, which he says is important in order to protect the nation. But this was not the only immigration matter discussed in the Capitol. House Democrats held a hearing in order to continue analyzing the detention of unaccompanied minors that come across the southern border, as well as the zero-tolerance policy that separated thousands of children from their parents. At the hearing, several governed officials said that had they been consulted (beforehand), they would’ve never greenlit that policy. In Washington, Lori Montenegro, Noticias Telemundo.
