Thousands of migrants have been
essentially living under a bridge
in the border town of Del Rio,
Texas waiting to either be let into
United States or
deported from the United States.
US Border Patrol said
that more than 9,000 migrants,
mostly from Haiti are being held in
a temporary staging area under
the Del Rio International Bridge
as agents worked as quickly as they
could to process them.
All right, now we all know what's
been going on in Haiti lately,
correct, right?
You've got the assassination of
a president,
there was a major earthquake.
The country is very unstable and
yet the United States continues to
deport many,
many Haitian immigrants.
Some have been in the states for
year, back to that unstable
country.
But that doesn't matter.
Because the Lieutenant Governor of
Texas, Dan Patrick, is looking at
this situation in Del Rio and
describing it in a very
particular way.
Calling it an invasion designed by
Democrats.
Take a look.
>> The revolution has begun.
A silent revolution by the Democrat
party and Joe Biden to take over
this country.
Tomorrow's Constitution Day.
And folks if you haven't read it,
you need to read Article 4,
Section 4 very quickly.
The United States shall guarantee
to every state in this union.
And shall protect each of them
against invasion and
domestic violence and guarantee
a republican form of government.
We need every state, every red
state because the blue ones won't
do it, to send an invoke Article 4,
Section 4 of the Constitution.
To tell the President
that we are being invaded.
Now invasion,
properly defined by most says,
it's an unauthorized,
uninvited, unwelcomed incursion in
your territory or property.
This is not authorized by the state
of Texas.
It's not welcome
by the state of Texas or
any other Republican state that
I know, and they're not invited.
>> Great, so there's
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick
of Texas explaining what the word
invasion means for some reason.
And then
likening the asylum seeking and
refugee crisis that happens at
our southern border to that.
And saying that red states should
essentially invoke the Constitution
to say this is an invasion,
like an act of war.
Not by, what?
Central Americans,
the Haitian government?
No no no no, by Democrats.
Senator Turner,
your thoughts on this.
>> It's madness.
There was a period of time if we
can just walk our family back down
memory lane, especially in the 18th
and 19th century, where it was
relatively just come on in.
Statue of Liberty, bring them all,
let people come.
You know what the difference was
during that time?
Is where people were coming from.
Okay, that is the primary
difference.
We went from a country that
was very welcoming of Europeans,
particularly Northern Europeans,
to a country in the 21st century
that says, if you are black or
brown you're not welcome here.
And even into the 18,
I think was 1882 or so,
the Chinese Exclusion Act.
I mean, we have a history in this
country of excluding
primarily people of color and
something is wrong with it.
And this man, Mr.
Patrick, something is absolutely
wrong with him to be in that type
of leadership position and
to talk about immigrants as if they
are the other.
And let me add this on here.
As if Haitians have not already
been catching enough hell, they
continue to be treated differently,
a lot of African immigrants.
And I encourage the viewers to go
look this up.
A lot of, or excuse me,
Haitians are.
But a lot of immigrants of color,
particularly immigrants of African
descent.
So wherever they are in
the diaspora, I'll put it that way,
they are oftentimes treated
differently than other types of
immigrants, and
especially Haitians.
I mean, they had natural disasters,
they have not been able to catch
a break.
And yet you have a man in
a leadership position that is
as heartless as this.
And to constantly paint folks as
the other,
to get Americans all riled up.
This whole gospel of scarcity
is the problem.
And Republicans specialize in the
gospel of scarcity, especially when
it comes to immigrants of color.
And then when you look at people
who are citizens of this country,
if you are poor,
among the working poor and
barely middle class, they got that
same scarcity gospel as well.
>> Okay, so if you notice
he said you should read
the constitution really quickly.
>> Yeah. >> That's because if you
read it with any kind of care,
you would notice that that clause
has nothing to do with immigration.
Just totally made it up.
So now we often talk about how the
country is a country of immigrants.
And so since the recent immigrants
are more brown and
black people assume that that's
what people are talking about.
No, we've been immigrants from day
one, including the Mayflower.
And by the way, Dan Patrick, said
anything that is unauthorized and
uninvited is an invasion.
Did Christopher Columbus get
an invite?
I don't remember that.
Did the Mayflower get an invite?
I don't think they
were authorized, were they?
So I guess they were all illegals
and they invaded this land.
And so we should kick them out?
No, from day one this has been
a country of immigrants,
both invited and uninvited.
And so later immigrants like myself
by the way,
we did it the legal way.
But the original European folks who
came in, didn't ask permission and
then devastated the local populace.
That was an actual invasion.
They actually did murder
the indigenous people and enslaved
others and brought them here, etc.
And it's so much of what you see
from the right-wing is projection.
And we've talked about this before.
I talked about it with Keith Boykin
the other day on The Conversation.
They are so afraid that minorities
are going to do to them what
they did to minorities.
But guys, we're not like you.
And in this case, I don't mean
minorities versus white people.
We're all humans,
we're the same either way.
But progressives want to get you
higher wages, better health care.
We don't want to ruin your life.
We want to help your life.
We're not going to do the same
thing that you did to to others.
Because we're
not interested in injustice,
we're interested in justice.
And the other part of it is decency
and empathy.
So I'm a legal immigrant,
my family are legal immigrants, we
quote unquote did it the right way.
But let's note that from my
perspective, I was super lucky.
Why?
because I had an uncle who
was a doctor, so
it made legal immigration easier.
So now,
am I going to turn around and say,
well, I did it the right way?
As if I'm some sort of hero because
I had an uncle who was a doctor.
And then those desperate families
that sometimes went thousand of
miles and are so
worried about the kids.
And guys, who believe in America.
They risk their lives to come to
America.
Am I going to blame them and
say, no, they're illegals,
they're invading us?
No, of course not.
If you're a decent human being,
your heart goes out to them.
But that really is an important
qualifier if you're
a decent human being.
>> Yeah, I mean for me
the thing about this quote is just
the fact that he's talking about
this is part of Democrats plan.
As if Democrats have lifted
a finger on immigration, I'm sorry,
since Joe Biden got into office.
Let's be real, he has not.
And it's definitely a to-do, right?
Second myth that he's dabbling in
and he's trafficking in is the idea
that the 11 million undocumented
immigrants in this country and
growing, that they vote?
That they have voting rights?
They do not have voting rights
currently, right?
Many places they are not able
to access health care, right?
We happen to be in California where
they can access health care, right?
Where they can have driver's
licenses and contribute and
pay taxes.
Arguably they should vote, but
they don't and that's one of
the biggest fallacies.
The idea that, millions of
undocumented immigrants vote.
They don't, but they do pay taxes.
But they do do the jobs that you
just love to underpay.
And that's the last thing is,
this is all about if you really,
really care about working people.
If you care about Americans,
you should care about immigration.
Because the key to actual power
when it comes to working class is
immigration reform is actually
a pathway to citizenship.
It's not pitting people against one
another to clamber to
the lowest common denominator so
you can hire the workforce
that's the most precarious.
That is the most on
the line, right?
That's why meat processing plants
are full of undocumented people
that ICE raids every five months.
Folks who get up at the crack of
dawn doing the most disgusting jobs
get the least pay for it.
The exploitation is unreal.
And the way out of that is
solidarity with those folks is
a pathway to citizenship.
because migration's not going to
stop, right?
As much as Vice President Harris
will say, don't come.
Sorry, they're going to come.
In part because yeah, the United
States has helped devastate Haiti
for decades, decades.
The amount of money that
we have poured into that nation.
Anyway, it is dangerous and
it's scary.
I will say, Laura Ingraham through
all this was surprisingly didn't
jump on the hate train.
And I was like, okay Laura.
Maybe it's the one thing, she was
having an off night I guess.
>> Well, she brought up- >> Well,
my grandmother used to say,
even a broke clock is
right twice a day so.
[LAUGH] >> Yeah, and look,
it's not like she's surprised by
what Dan Patrick said.
She brought him on to say that
hateful stuff.
So I'm not giving much credit
there at all.
Okay, last thing I'll say is that
isn't interesting that they assume
all those folks will become
Democrats?
Why? I mean,
a lot of people that come in have
what you claim you're in favor of,
conservative family values.
A lot of more Catholic,
a lot of them are deeply religious.
There's a ton of reasons why they
they could be Republicans,
at least if you believed anything
you said in your marketing.
But no, they look at them,
they see brown people and
they go yeah, that's it.
No way,
they're all going to be Democrats.
They're actively rejecting them.
And guys,
if you think it's not racial,
keep it real.
So Melania Trump and her parents,
there was excellent evidence that
they did things wrong as they were
applying for
immigration status here in America.
And I'll believe that it isn't
racial when I hear right-wingers
say in current-day America,
I've had enough of those damn
European immigrants.
Never heard it.