CNN contributor David Urban reminded fellow panelist Ana Navarro that she immigrated into the United States legally during a heated segment of “The Lead” with Jake Tapper on Tuesday.
Urban made the point that many of the migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border were safe as soon as they crossed the border into Mexico, suggesting that if asylum was truly their goal, there was no need for them to continue the dangerous journey to the United States.
He said, “Just to make a point — not too fine of a point — they were safe when they crossed into the border of Mexico. So these kids — and the families fleeing murderous regime in El Salvador or horrific conditions in Guatemala —they are safe in Mexico and why do they come to the United States? For jobs. It is economic. They are safe — ”
Navarro interrupted, “And whether people like it or not, the United States — I can answer this. As somebody that came to the United States — ”
“You came here legally,” Urban reminded her.
Navarro argued that her parents would have brought her anyway, saying, “Because I had money. Because my parents had money and my parents had — but even if they had not had money, my parents were fleeing a dictatorship and fleeing a communist totalitarian regime and they would have done anything desperate parents do to bring their children.”
Urban reminded her one more time, “But they came legally.”