Left-wing television dramas this year have been attacking border state governors for busing illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities. Last night, CBS's FBI: Most Wanted was the latest show to criticize a border state leader for daring to take these cities at their word.
Tuesday's episode, "Clean House," opened with two teenage girls from Venezuela entering New York City on a bus. The girls, illegal migrants who crossed through Texas, look with hope at the skyline.
After they disembark, a man named Carlos (Gabriel Sloyer) convinces the girls that he can get them house cleaning jobs. His cleaning service is really a cover for a sex trafficking operation.
The girls realize they have been tricked after discovering a dead body in Carlos' van. One of them tries to fight Carlos, but is killed. The other girl, Xiomara (Silvia Dionicio), attempts to run to a house for help. Carlos grabs Xiomara and throws her back in the van as the owner of the house watches in horror through her window.
The FBI is brought into the case and quickly learns that the girls are illegal migrants. FBI Special Agent Kristin Gaines (Alexa Davalos) immediately brings up the governor of Texas:
Gibson: Her name's Regina Marquez, 16 years old. She's an asylum seeker from Venezuela. CBP has her crossing the border in El Paso two weeks ago, and it says here she's registered on a bus that arrived here last night.
Gaines: Well, governor of Texas has been busing migrants up from border cities in New York. Part of their ongoing publicity stunt explaining our status as a sanctuary city.
Sanctuary cities like New York were once proud to virtue-signal their opposition to immigration law. Then border states held them to their word, sending a small portion of the thousands of illegal crossers that border states receive each month.
Now, New York City mayor Eric Adams is seeking to revisit his city's sanctuary status. "Clean House" gives a clue as to why Adams would be eager for New York to alter its original policy.
"We've had over 50,000 migrants bussed here since last year. Most of them come here with nothing, knowing no one," a shelter worker tells the FBI.
Those are insane numbers, but only a fraction of what border towns face. Yet, the show puts blame for this disaster on the Texas governor, not the U.S. president who refuses to protect our nation's sovereignty. The episode focuses on underaged illegal immigrants who are victims of exploitation and sex trafficking, yet it never once mentions the federal policies that facilitate such a nightmare.
The character of Carlos is Latino, but the man being "serviced" by his trafficking operation is Easton Harcourt (Paden Fallis), a diabolical, rich white man. Harcourt has grown increasingly psychopathic and is killing the migrants after raping them.
Viewers can always know the primary villain in contemporary television shows without any need for deduction. As soon as the white guy shows up on the screen, you know he's the root of all the evil.
At the end of the episode, an FBI agent tells Harcourt: "These women, these girls, they mattered. They're not disposable. They were loved."
Yes, young desperate women like these fictional characters do matter. They are vulnerable human beings who should never be encouraged to make a dangerous, illegal trek into another nation. Perhaps instead of attacking governors who are trying to raise awareness of this tragic state of affairs, Hollywood writers could - for once - criticize the White House occupant who's responsible for it.
