Along with their horribly slanted 2024 election segment fluffing Vice President Kamala Harris and sneering at former President Trump plus more screeching about Elon Musk, Tuesday’s CBS Mornings sent a correspondent down to the border to paint a contrast from what they said was Trump’s “ugly picture of migrants.”
Safe to say, it was mission accomplished as CBS not only declared local officials believe Texas towns affected by the crisis are “safe and secure,” but argued illegal immigrants were a tremendous benefit. For good measure, they dedicated part of a 2024 series meant to be conversations with swing-state voters over incredible food to breakfast with illegal immigrants.
'CBS Mornings' lamented Trump 'has painted an ugly picture of migrants, blaming them for a whole range of issues, including crime, but we wanted a reality check," so they sent a correspondent to the U.S.-Mexico border and Texas to declare....EVERYTHING'S GREAT!
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 22, 2024
Peaceful! Safe!🙄 pic.twitter.com/ctCpvcmMO1
Sometimes, the jokes write themselves.
Co-host Tony Dokoupil kicked off the first segment, lamenting “[f]ormer President Trump has painted an ugly picture of migrants, blaming them for a whole range of issues, including crime, but we wanted a reality check on all of that and more.”
To kick off “our series Border Towns,” Texas-based correspondent Omar Villafranca proclaimed from El Paso that he usually covers the border through the lens of “some sort of migrant surge or some drug seizure, something that’s not really great news, but despite all of the rhetoric about cartels and violence, the people that we’ve talked to down here in the border town so far say they feel safe and secure in their communities, which have deep cultural and economic ties to Mexico.”
Villafranca spun more of this allegedly fantabulous web:
So one of our first stops was Laredo, Texas, far south Texas. You may not know this, but last year, Laredo was the number one port of entry for commodities entering the United States, receiving more than $300 billion worth of international goods on the back of a record year for U.S.-Mexico bilateral trade. Laredo’s mayor told us the city has not had significant issues with migrants who are coming into the U.S. illegally. Well, on Monday, we drove to remote Presidio, Texas. A business owner there says his city actually relies on workers who live in Mexico and cross the border every day to work at local stores.
He conceded Laredo’s mayor “want[s] to beef up [Customs and Border Protection], but only because he wants more cross border commerce through Presidio’s small port of entry” and “worries that this current political rhetoric is having a negative effect on business.”
Fast-forward to the second hour and CBS Mornings released the newest entry in its genuinely fun and surprisingly balanced series, Three Meals.
Arizona was the new stop with White House and election correspondent Ed O’Keefe tasked with breaking bread alongside Arizonans.
But this time, O’Keefe had a twist by sharing a sunrise with illegal immigrants who said they were from, yes, Mexico, but from as far away as Bangladesh and Cameroon (click “expand”):
O’KEEFE: The sun is rising on the southern border near Sasabe, Arizona illuminating this glaring gap where this section of border wall built during the Trump years abruptly ends. He lost before it could be completed. Cartels who often abuse and exploit migrants then leave them here at the doorstep of America. When we were driving up, they thought we were the Border Patrol. We asked why risk it — with her son and daughter, who’s just three.
[ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SPEAKING SPANISH]
O’KEEFE: To give them a better life.
[ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SPEAKING SPANISH]
[O’KEEFE SPEAKING SPANISH]
[ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SPEAKING SPANISH]
O’KEEFE: Oh, the hot chocolate.
SPEAKING SPANISH]
O’KEEFE: At this rugged camp along a remote part of the border, breakfast is free.
[PASTOR RANDY MAYER SPEAKING IN SPANISH]
O’KEEFE: Burritos cooked on a camp stove —
[MAYER SPEAKING IN SPANISH]
O’KEEFE: — by Pastor Randy Mayer —
[MAYER SPEAKING IN SPANISH]
O’KEEFE: — the first meal in America for about 35 migrants from Mexico, Bangladesh —
[O’KEEFE SPEAKING SPANISH]
[ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SPEAKING SPANISH]
O’KEEFE: It took you six months. It was an even farther trip for this group from Cameroon. [TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT] Did you have a burrito or —
WOMAN: Yes, yes, yes.
O’KEEFE: — yes, and when was the last time you would have eaten?
MAN: Like two months ago.
GREEN VALLEY SAHUARITA SAMARITANS FOUNDER PASTOR RANDY MAYER: So this used to be a pretty active spot where people would cross.
O’KEEFE: Mayer, an ordained minister, makes this dusty, two hour drive each week with the aid group he founded the Green Valley Sahuarita Samaritans.
MAYER: Jesus went to the margins. We’re coming to the border, because this is an incredible wound.
O’KEEFE: Within an hour, Border Patrol agents drive in Dubuque and begin processing the migrants.
[BORDER PATROL AGENT SPEAKING SPANISH]
O’KEEFE: Mayer says most here will be deported within a day.
To see the relevant CBS transcript from October 22, click here.
