Fusion reporter Jorge Ramos asked Hillary Clinton if she thinks she “has a Latino problem,” tapping into growing Hispanic unease with the probable Democratic presidential candidate after her call to deport thousands of illegal immigrant children.
On Monday Fusion released a teaser clip of an interview conducted Friday with the former secretary of state. In it, Ramos references a comment Clinton made back in June about the flood of illegal immigrant children crossing the southern border into the United States.
“Just because your child gets across the border, that doesn’t mean the child gets to stay,” she said at the time (RELATED: Hillary Clinton: Deport The Illegal Children Back To Central America).
“Do you think you have a Latino problem?” Ramos asked bluntly.
It was a question that seemed to surprise Clinton. “I hope not!” she laughed nervously. “I never have before, so I hope not! Obviously we have a lot of problems we need to address together.”
“Well here’s why I’m saying that,” Ramos explained. “Because recently you said about the Central American children coming to the United States, that we have to send them back.”
“Well that was sort of a short circuit of what I have said overall,” Clinton claimed, noting that a distinction must be made between “migrant children” — those simply seeking to enter the United States for any reason — and “refugee children” — those fleeing from extreme violence or persecution in their home countries.
“But who would you deport?” Ramos pressed.
“Whoever was in the category of where they don’t have a legitimate claim for asylum, where they don’t have some kind of family connection — those children should be returned to their families,” Clinton explained, later adding that “we send kids back all the time.”
Ramos seemed a bit put-off by the answer. “But don’t we have a responsibility if something happened to them?” he asked. “I think no government should be in the business of deporting endangered children.”
WATCH (video via Fusion):
[h/t Mediaite]