Tucker Carlson pinned down Univision host Enrique Acevedo during a segment of his show Tuesday evening, arguing that if the migrants truly weren’t safe in Mexico then all of Mexico should be eligible to claim asylum in the United States.
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“The caravan is not a monolithic group, Tucker. It’s 8,000 different stories, 8,000 different realities. And according to the government’s own numbers, less than ten percent, without any evidence, but according to those numbers, less than ten percent have any criminal background. You are talking about a group of 600, among more than 8,000 people, so 90 percent of them, the majority of them have a legitimate claim to a request asylum, that is according to secretary of DHS, Kirstjen Nielsen,” Acevedo stated.
Carlson responded, “For one thing, I would say if 600 out of 8,000 are ‘Known criminals,’ that is a higher percentage than a cross-section of the American population. We are getting way more criminals per capita than we have already in this country.” (RELATED: Tucker Calls Out Reporter Covering The Caravan Who Says It’s Mostly Women And Babies)
They then talked over one another trying to make arguments for their own cases.
“Just because you don’t have a criminal record does not mean you are eligible for asylum. So please address Buck Sexton’s, I thought very incisive point, that if you are seeking asylum, you are, by definition, required to ask for it in the first safe country you reach, where you don’t face a mortal threat, and that was Mexico, where they were offered asylum, but they didn’t take it,” Carlson added. (RELATED: Filmmaker Ami Horowitz Embedded Himself In The Migrant Caravan)
The most recent caravan reached the U.S. border this past weekend. Officials closed the San Ysidro port of entry after several hundred migrants attempted storming the border between Tijuana, Mexico and the San Diego area on Sunday. Border agents used tear gas to disperse the crowds trying to cross into the country.
Acevedo fired back, “Keyword being safe, not a country where thousands of people are being killed every year actually. More than, you know, 500,000 people have been killed in Mexico in the last decade or so. So it’s not a safe country. I wouldn’t characterize Mexico as that.”
Central American migrants -mostly families with children- taking part in a caravan to the US, queue along the highway to get a ride to Irapuato in the state of Guanajuato on November 11, 2018 after spending the night in Queretaro in central Mexico. (ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP/Getty Images)
“Oh, so that leads to my second question. I knew you were going to say that. Let me ask you the logical follow-up, which is, if Mexico is so dangerous, that you could not seek asylum there because you are in peril just by being in Mexico, then why isn’t the entire population of Mexico eligible for asylum in the United States?” the show host asked.
“This is the thing, Tucker. You see the immigrants, these Central American immigrants going across Mexico, they are victims of extortion, rape, they are victims of murder, and sometimes they are recruited by criminal gangs. That is why, in part, they are now moving across Mexico and a group because they know they have security, —” Acevedo followed up.
“So let me pin you down here, you’ve said they can’t accept the offer of shelter, Mexico said, ‘we will shelter you, we’ll give you asylum,’ they offered that, good for Mexico,” Carlson continued. “I just want you to answer one question, why is the entire population of Mexico, since you said it’s too dangerous to live in, why are they not all eligible for asylum in the United States?”