Almost two weeks after they showed their viewers how to evade Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on their evening newscasts, ABC, CBS, and NBC marveled at their work Tuesday night as they celebrated the activists who obstructed ICE raids last week.
CBS Evening News’s floundering new anchor, Norah O’Donnell, appeared to mock ICE for only arresting 35 of the over 2,000 with deportation orders signed by judges. “Adriana Diaz explains why the number of arrests is far lower than the President promised,” she chided as if it was a failure of President Trump.
“Activists informed undocumented immigrants of their rights and stepped in to intervene. On Monday, in Nashville, when local residents saw their neighbor being targeted by ICE, they formed a human chain around his van, allowing him and his son to run into their home,” boasted Diaz.
After recalling how one illegal immigrant “barricaded himself in his own home,” Diaz touted that “some [ICE] agents were even under surveillance which also impeded arrests.”
The human chain that blocked ICE officials was a hot topic over on ABC’s World News Tonight, where sensationalist anchor David Muir hyped it up as a “flashpoint”:
And we turn next this evening to an immigration flashpoint. Tonight, the images from one Nashville neighborhood where ICE had arrived. Neighbors then forming a human chain to try to protect a father, his young son right there. This lasted for hours.
“What you're looking at is neighbors working together to keep ICE out and protect residents who feel afraid in their own homes,” bragged ABC correspondent Steve Osunsami. “Near Nashville, they formed this human chain, successfully blocking two ICE agents from taking away a father who’s lived here for the last 14 years. He and his son were hiding inside the white van.”
Osunsami continued to boast of “similar scenes are playing out in cities across the country.” He also touted how “bystanders” were interfering in lawful arrests by “protesting and recording the drama on their cell phones.”
Both ABC and CBS tried to mock President Trump by strangely comparing his deportation rate to that of President Obama. “Deportations during President Trump's first two years in office are down roughly 40 percent compared to President Obama's first two years,” Diaz quipped.
That’s a strange thing for the media to brag about because it demonstrated that Trump wasn’t the monster on immigration that they’ve trying to paint him as for literally years.
NBC Nightly News didn’t miss the forest for the trees and strategically left that statistic out of their report and set out to make ICE officials look like a bunch of violent thugs. “ICE agents are under the spotlight tonight after the violent arrest of an undocumented Kansas City man while he sat in his car with his family,” spun NBC anchor Lester Holt.
While repeatedly playing a clip of a car window breaking, NBC correspondent Miguel Almaguer bemoaned how “agents smashed his window and dragged him out while his small children cried in the back seat and his partner recorded the incident,” after refusing to exit his car.
After playing a soundbite of the man’s partner crying about she wanted “people to know that this is happening in our community, that this is real, and it can happen to anybody,” Almaguer finally noted that the man was “a fugitive with ‘a prior criminal history which includes misdemeanor offenses.’”
As he was wrapping up his report, Almaguer touted the same human chain the other networks did. Clearly, this was the type of obstruction of justice the liberal media supported.
The transcripts are below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s World News Tonight
July 23, 2019
6:43:04 p.m. EasternDAVID MUIR: And we turn next this evening to an immigration flashpoint. Tonight, the images from one Nashville neighborhood where ICE had arrived. Neighbors then forming a human chain to try to protect a father, his young son right there. This lasted for hours. And here's ABC's Steve Osunsami now.
[Cuts to video]
STEVE OSUNSAMI: What you're looking at is neighbors working together to keep ICE out and protect residents who feel afraid in their own homes. Near Nashville, they formed this human chain, successfully blocking two ICE agents from taking away a father who’s lived here for the last 14 years. He and his son were hiding inside the white van.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: More than half the people who showed up were just neighbors who wanted to help their own neighbor out.
OSUNSAMI: Similar scenes are playing out in cities across the country. This family in Kansas City was broadcasting live on Facebook as ICE agents broke through the car window.
CHEYENNE HOYT: I told him not to, because I didn't want them to shoot him in front of my kids.
OSUNSAMI: While federal immigration agents try to take suspected undocumented immigrants into custody, there are bystanders protesting and recording the drama on their cell phones. Here, it was a mother of two detained by ICE agents in Los Angeles.
[Cuts back to live]
One point being underlined tonight, the number of removal orders carried out by the current administration still falls below the number carried out under President Obama. David?
MUIR: All right, Steve, thank you.
CBS Evening News
July 23, 2019
6:43:04 p.m. EasternNORAH O’DONNELL: Tonight, we had the results of the nationwide deportation raids that President Trump had threatened for weeks. More than 2,000 migrants were targeted but only 35 have been arrested, including 18 who had final deportation orders, and 17 others who were swept up in the raids. Adriana Diaz explains why the number of arrests is far lower than the President promised.
[Cuts to video]
ADRIANA DIAZ: Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested less than two percent of the 2,100 targeted in its sweep that began earlier this month.
It's called Operation Border Resolve, and it's directed at families with deportation orders. A key reason, according to ICE officials, is that activists had time to plan for the highly publicized crackdown which was announced ahead of time by President Trump.
Activists informed undocumented immigrants of their rights and stepped in to intervene. On Monday, in Nashville, when local residents saw their neighbor being targeted by ICE, they formed a human chain around his van, allowing him and his son to run into their home.
Others readied themselves, like this man, who barricaded himself in his own home. According to ICE acting Director Matthew Albence, some agents were even under surveillance which also impeded arrests. Despite only 35 people taken into custody so far, President Trump praised the effort last week.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The ICE raids were very successful.
DIAZ: Deportations during President Trump's first two years in office are down roughly 40 percent compared to President Obama's first two years. In Chicago, activist Cecilia Garcia handed out fliers.
CECILIA GARCIA: I think it would have been more if we had not raised the awareness to the community.
[Cuts back to live]
DIAZ: ICE says it's made 899 arrests overall in the past two months. And as for Operation Border Resolve, ICE's acting director says that he does not believe any families have been separated as a result of arrests. That operation is ongoing. Norah.
O’DONNELL: Adriana Diaz, thank you.
NBC Nightly News
July 23, 2019
7:22:44 p.m. EasternLESTER HOLT: ICE agents are under the spotlight tonight after the violent arrest of an undocumented Kansas City man while he sat in his car with his family. Miguel Almaguer has details.
[Cuts to video]
UNIDENTIFIED MAN 1: It’s time to step out and kind of take care of it, buddy.
MIGUEL ALMAGUER: For 25 minutes ICE agents in Kansas City tried to make the arrest.
FLORENCIO MANUEL VASQUEZ: I still have rights.
ALMAGUER: But when Florencio Milan Vasquez refused to get out of his car, agents smashed his window and dragged him out while his small children cried in the back seat and his partner recorded the incident. Today she spoke out.
CHEYENNE HOYT: I just want people to know that this is happening in our community, that this is real, and it can happen to anybody.
ALMAGUER: Calling Milan Vasquez a fugitive with “a prior criminal history which includes misdemeanor offenses,” ICE stands by the arrest while community outrage grows.
In Nashville, a similar scene, but neighbors here formed a human chain, preventing the arrest of a migrant outside his home. After a nationwide immigration sweep that aimed to net 2,000 people, today ICE says only 35 have been arrested so far.
In a separate operation, nearly 900 immigrants, many with criminal records, were arrested. Tonight, their work remains under scrutiny. Miguel Almaguer, NBC News.
