First, the liberal media refused the admit there was a crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border. Then, they said there was and it was all President Trump’s fault. Now, according to Tuesday’s CBS Evening News, they’re back to claiming the Department of Homeland Security was not overwhelmed by a massive influx of illegal immigrants.
“President Trump announced new proposals to easies what he says is an overwhelmed immigration system. This includes charging those who seek asylum an application fee,” announced anchor Jeff Glor as he came back from a commercial break.
Shortly after Glor handed the report off, correspondent Mireya Villarreal lied about the reality on the border. “Last month, border agents say more than 100,000 people crossed into the country, some illegally,” she falsely claimed. As CBS had previously reported at the start of April, it was actually 100,000 arrests (not just people crossing), which meant they were entering the U.S. illegally.
Villarreal seemed aghast that “acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan is now asking for $5 billion to fix the problem.” She then scoffed at McAleenan’s construction projects and seemed to argue that some 1,087 vacant spots in a couple of detention centers should have been enough to handle the influx:
But there is room. We've learned Homeland Security already has detention facilities that are operating well below capacity. The Berks detention facility in Pennsylvania, which can house 96 people, only has nine. And the Dilly detention site in Texas, which we visited last August, can hold over 2,400 women and children. Right now, there are fewer than 1,000. Yet, DHS has authorized two new tent cities that will hold 500 men, women, and children.
“Immigration attorneys, like Katy Mertz, assays the $37 million price tag is a waste of money,” she added.
CBS played a quick soundbite of acting Secretary McAleenan pleading with Congress: “The new waves of vulnerable populations arriving here and exacerbating the already-urgent humanitarian security crisis at the border, we don't have room to hold them...”
But the network edited out the rest of McAleenan’s comments. “[W]e don't have the authority to remove them fairly and expeditiously, and we are not likely -- they are not likely to be allowed to remain in the country at the end of their immigration proceedings,” the extended soundbite from Fox News Channel’s Special Report showed.
Earlier this month, CBS decried the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy for those seeking asylum (many of whom don’t qualify) despite reporting that Border Patrol had run out of space and had to detain people under an overpass for a short time.
Looking back at other immigration stories from Villarreal, it becomes clear she’s possibly not a supporter of Border Patrol. In July of 2016, she championed a woman caught on camera berating a Customs and Border Protection agent. She also once described a border wall as “distraction politics.”
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CBS Evening News
April 30, 2019
6:47:08 p.m. EasternJEFF GLOR: President Trump announced new proposals to easies what he says is an overwhelmed immigration system. This includes charging those who seek asylum an application fee. As Mireya Villarreal reports from Donna, Texas, tonight, the government actually has hundreds of vacancies at detention facilities.
[Cuts to video]
MIREYA VILLARREAL: Just across the U.S. border, we saw hundreds waiting for a chance to legally ask for asylum. At the Way of Life shelter in Reynosa, Mexico, run by pastor Hector Silva, names are kept on this list.
HECTOR SILVA: We're going to see what's going to happen today. We don't know. We just about by whatever they call us.
VILLARREAL: They are part of the surge in asylum seekers. Last month, border agents say more than 100,000 people crossed into the country, some illegally. Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan is now asking for $5 billion to fix the problem.
KEVIN MCALEENAN: The new waves of vulnerable populations arriving here and exacerbating the already-urgent humanitarian security crisis at the border, we don't have room to hold them.
VILLARREAL: But there is room. We've learned Homeland Security already has detention facilities that are operating well below capacity. The Berks detention facility in Pennsylvania, which can house 96 people, only has nine. And the Dilly detention site in Texas, which we visited last August, can hold over 2,400 women and children. Right now, there are fewer than 1,000. Yet, DHS has authorized two new tent cities that will hold 500 men, women, and children.
Immigration attorneys, like Katy Mertz, assays the $37 million price tag is a waste of money.
KATY MERTZ: These new facilities is another example of what we've already seen over the past five years of family detention, which is traumatizing and unnecessary.
[Cuts back to live]
VILLARREAL: An ICE spokesperson tells me the recent surge is overwhelming their transportation resources, and it's part of the reason why their other facilities are not full right now. Jeff, we've also confirmed the military is planning to send down 320 people very soon to deal with this humanitarian crisis here along the border at a cost of $7 million.
GLOR: Mireya Villarreal, thank you very much.
