Watch as Ex-Secret Service Agent Absolutely Takes Geraldo Apart on Immigration
In the early hours of Dec. 26, 2018, 22-year-old Newman, California Police Cpl. Ronil Singh was shot and killed, allegedly by an illegal immigrant he had been investigating for a DUI.
The accused, Gustavo Perez Arriaga, had two prior DUI arrests and gang connections, yet was still in this country.
The case has provoked a lot of debate, including a heated one on Fox News’ “Hannity” on Monday. On one side was Geraldo Rivera, one of Fox’s resident liberals (assuming he’s still liberal this week, of course). The other was Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent and conservative commentator.
Rivera thought it was “grotesquely unfair to use these anecdotes to make a political argument.
“You started by saying we have agreement about the wall, the barrier, the fence, whatever you called it. I think this is now a political discussion,” Rivera said.
While Rivera said President Donald Trump had earned a mandate for a wall because of his election, he said the Democrats had also earned themselves amnesty for so-called “Dreamers” — those brought to this country illegally at a young age.
“The vast majority of the undocumented here,” he implied, are-law abiding — something Hannity gave him. He then kicked it over to Bongino, who had a lot to say.
“This is fascinating that — Geraldo, you’re making a political point, too,” Bongino said. “I mean, you’re sitting here talking about all of the positive components of immigration, and when Sean brings up one of the unbelievably — not even negative, but tragic, horrific components of illegal immigration, the death of American citizens through crime by people who had no right to be here at all, all of a sudden it’s a political point?”
“You know as well as I know that these people commit fewer crimes than citizens commit!” Geraldo yelled. (That issue is very debatable, mind you, given the likelihood of underreporting in immigrant communities. I’d also like to point out in this case it’s somewhat irrelevant when you consider that Arriaga had already committed a crime.)
And then there was also something Geraldo was omitting: They were already committing a crime by being in the country illegally.
“Let me give you the statistics: 100 percent of the people shouldn’t be here,” Bongino said. “Dispute that.”
Geraldo wasn’t going to argue this, instead noting the contributions illegal immigrants had made. That didn’t impress Bongino.
“Geraldo, a hundred percent shouldn’t be here. A hundred percent shouldn’t be here!” Bongino said.
“If one of them goes on to kill someone, the parents aren’t interested in your college-level statistics course. They’re interested in the fact that the person shouldn’t be here. Why do you not get it?”
Geraldo went on to say he felt “equally upset” about other victims of violent crime in the United States. He also continued to wax sentimental about illegal immigrants and the role they’re apparently playing.
Bongino was having none of it.
“Geraldo, what about people who are documented, like my wife and my mother-in-law, who followed the rules?” Bongino said.
“Why are you so concerned about people who broke the law, other than the millions who came here illegally and the American citizens who finance it?”
After a bit of crosstalk, Bongino finished by asking a question: “Is there a global right to citizenship in the United States? Is there any limiting factor you’re willing to support here?”
And that’s eventually what it comes down to: We have borders because we don’t know the motives of who we’re letting in.
We don’t know if they’re drug traffickers or gang members. We know most of them are law-abiding, although the statistics that they commit less crimes may in fact be distinctly skewed. And most importantly, even if you were to assume that statistic was correct, you would also make the assumption that it would stay that way — that cartels or gangs like MS-13 wouldn’t take more of an interest in our country and come over in even greater numbers.
There is no global right to citizenship in the United States. There is a reason why we have limiting factors. And if the charges against Gustavo Perez Arriaga are true, one of those reasons is the death of Ronil Singh.
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