NBC Up in Arms That Those Fleeing Communist Dictatorships Get 'Arbitrary' Asylum Preference
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court saved President Joe Biden’s administration from itself: It upheld Title 42 regulations that allow the government to summarily deport most illegal immigrants, regardless of whether they’re claiming to seek political asylum.
Title 42, for the unfamiliar, refers to a World War II-era public health code invoked in the early days of the COVID pandemic by then-President Donald Trump’s administration to expediently deport almost all who entered the country illegally.
Joe Biden campaigned on ending Title 42 restrictions, but dithered on the promise as the border crisis heated up. When the administration finally announced its decision to rescind the order earlier this year, it was blocked at the last minute by a judge.
Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling means the protections will stay in place for a bit longer. That means we get more liberal moralizing about illegal immigration, all while they pretend there’s no human catastrophe taking place on the border between the United States and Mexico, nor that there are any costs associated with illegal immigration.
Of all the ridiculous hand-wringing you’ll hear this week, however, it’s doubtful any will top NBC News’ Tuesday morning report about Title 42 being applied unequally, with individuals from some “arbitrary” countries being allowed to apply for asylum while others are deported.
NBC correspondent Sam Brock’s report singled out three countries in particular as either being “green-lighted” for asylum claims or for being shortlisted for future “green-light” status: Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
“It’s clear most of the people we speak with are from Venezuela or a handful of other countries,” Brock said, reporting from El Paso, Texas. “That’s partly because of how Title 42 is being applied, allowing asylum seekers from some countries but not from others.”
Then we cut to a video conference segment between Brock and Josiah Heyman, director of the University of Texas at El Paso’s Center for Inter-American and Border Studies.
“It feels arbitrary which countries are getting a green light and which aren’t,” Brock said.
“Absolutely. It absolutely is. Currently green-lighted [are] Nicaragua and Cuba, potentially forthcoming Venezuela, and also the so-called Northern Triangle of Central America,” Heyman responded. “They’re in the same boat as the Venezuelans.”
Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela: What could these countries possibly have in common?
The same communist dictatorship Biden is courting with his Cuba Thaw 2.0 tried to buy thousands of tear gas canisters from Spain. Thankfully, the purchase was denied.
Cuban dictatorship tried to buy €350 million in tear gas from Spain this year – https://t.co/jTfTJkmmKa pic.twitter.com/xMRvPsflOV
— Alberto de la Cruz (@albertodelacruz) December 24, 2022
Daniel Ortega was decorated by the Communist Party of #Russia under the logic that he “contributes to peace.” Paradoxically Ortega governs Nicaragua with an iron hand, sending paramilitaries and police to repress unarmed citizens. #SOSNicaragua https://t.co/uTNnfTLDan pic.twitter.com/E4bOegv7y5
— Victims of Communism (@VoCommunism) January 16, 2019
Pictures of the bishop, priests and seminarians who were arrested today by the Communist Ortega regime in Nicaragua. pic.twitter.com/7U8sPU5fm0
— Sachin Jose (@Sachinettiyil) August 19, 2022
Venezuela A Communist country.
Inflation, 2018: 12,615%
GDP growth, 2016: -17%
GDP growth, 2017: -15%
GDP growth, 2018: -16%
Economy since 2011: Shrunk by 70%
Share of population living in poverty: 87%
Average weight lost per person in 2016: 8kg
weight lost/person in 2017: 11kg pic.twitter.com/wwzY2fr673— Ashok Nair (@achunair) December 20, 2022
The only ‘coup’ in #Venezuela was orchestrated by Communist #Cuba which maintains the Maduro regime in power #OperaciónLibertad 🇻🇪 pic.twitter.com/LBxewaxVjZ
— Rey Anthony (@ReyAnthonyFL) April 30, 2019
Photo of the Day | José Víctor Salazar Balza (28) catches fire amid violent clashes with riot police during a protest against President Nicolás Maduro, in Caracas, Venezuela, May 2017. By @rschemidt, @AFP, part of the special exhibition ‘People, Power:’ https://t.co/0M6eTVt5OH pic.twitter.com/qhPd5VnVGd
— World Press Photo (@WorldPressPhoto) November 4, 2020
Oh, yeah — all three are brutal communist dictatorships that crack down on dissent with a spiked whip. But other than that …
To judge by this short segment, all reasons for wanting to illegally immigrate to the United States and lodge an asylum claim are effectively equal (at least if one is doing so from south of the U.S. border and if, statistically, one’s children are more likely to vote Democrat).
Someone who wants to escape Ortega’s brutal repression of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua is, apparently, no different from someone from a country where violence may be high and economic opportunities low, but where the government isn’t actively persecuting dissent with whatever power it can muster.
And, in a remarkable display of media bias, NBC News is clearly up in arms about the situation.
Brock, as Newsbusters notes, didn’t even bother to say the C-word (or its milder cousin, the S-word) once during the segment. Neither communism nor socialism was brought up. Nor were the names Castro, Ortega or Maduro.
That would have run the risk of pointing out how these “arbitrary” asylum practices under Title 42 are anything but arbitrary.
And we can’t have that, can we?
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