On Monday, Univision anchor Jorge Ramos appeared with CNN's Anderson Cooper on his nightly show to trash congressional Republicans for proposing an immigration plan that would include any measures for deporting illegal immigrants. Ramos concluded that this, along with Republican advocacy for a merit-based immigration system, was clear evidence of the party's members wanting to "Make America White Again."
From the beginning of the segment, Ramos saw evil intent in the current Republican immigration plan, describing it as "immigration revenge," not "immigration reform." What is the plan seeking vengeance for? According to Ramos, the latest Republican proposal being debated in the Senate, which prioritizes increased border security, cutting back on chain migration, and border wall funding in return for DACA amnesty, is actually a nefarious attempt to rip apart illegal alien families:
"For the dreamers, what they’re asking them is the impossible, because Republicans are saying: You know, we want to legalize you. However, we want to deport your father, your mother, your siblings. That’s simply an impossible choice for them."
Cooper followed up with Ramos by asking him if it is up to Democrats to compromise more given their minority position in Congress, but Ramos completely rejected this framing of the question, instead pivoting towards painting Republicans as not-so-secret white nationalists:
"The fact is that Republicans with these negotiations, they want to change the essence, I think, of the United States. I mean, do they really want to Make America White Again? Is that, is that the deal?"
Ramos later answered his own question by simply declaring that yes, Republicans are crafting policy on the explicit basis of balancing racial demographics. While doing so, Ramos also praised the 1965 Hart-Celler Immigration Act for creating an "incredible demographic trend" towards a non-white majority:
COOPER: What is, in your opinion, wrong with, uh, with merit-based immigration in terms of somebody's professional capabilities, somebody's educational background?
RAMOS: Well, I think family reunification has merits too. I think it has worked beautifully since 1965. I mean, look, 40 percent of all the founders of Fortune 500 companies are immigrants or sons of immigrants. So, in other words, this is a system that works. And when they [Republicans] talk about chain migration, what they are really saying is: You know, we want to have a white country again. We want to go back to 1965 when almost 80, 90 percent of the people were non-Hispanic whites. That’s no longer the idea of this country. I think we had agreed after 1965 that we wanted a diverse, multi-cultural, multi-racial country. And the way they want to do it is, I think, they want to reverse this incredible demographic trend that by 2044 is going to make America a minority-majority country.
During the segment, Ramos did say that he believed Democrats and "dreamers" would be "willing to negotiate DACA for a few miles of wall, maybe 300, 350 miles of wall. That's as much as they can go."
Check out the video of Ramos and Cooper's exchange via Real Clear Politics here.
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