In the race to the bottom in the category of the most dishonest, unethical reporting in 2017, Telemundo delivered a real year-end whopper.
In a year-in-review piece, NBC’s Spanish-language sister network lambasted President Trump for following through on his long-standing commitment to enforce the immigration laws on the books, calling it "an all-out war against immigrants."
EDGAR MUNOZ, CORRESPONDENT, TELEMUNDO: From the moment that Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States, he has waged an all-out war against immigrants.
CONGRESSMAN LUIS GUTIERREZ (D-IL): I believe it’s (2017) a terrible year, horrible, without precedent in my 25 years.
Correspondent Edgar Muñoz went on to chronicle the 43% increase in detentions of persons unlawfully present in the United States since Trump took office and quote the President’s senior advisor, Carlos Díaz Rosillo, stating the simple truth that people know “with this President the laws will be enforced."
Predictably, Muñoz also spotlighted the President’s decision to sunset the Obama administration’s temporary executive DACA amnesty, but he did not mention that the President did so while also calling on Congress to make the relief for the DACA population permanent as part of an overall immigration reform deal.
The report went on to show DACA demonstrators descending on Congress, in a less than humble, supplicant or deal-making spirit, shouting “Undocumented, unafraid” and “All of us” (in reference to amnesty for the entire 11-million population of unauthorized immigrants in the country) or “none of us.”
Below is the transcript of the referenced excerpts of the report, which aired on the December 27, 2017 edition of Noticias Telemundo.
EDGAR MUNOZ, CORRESPONDENT, TELEMUNDO: From the moment that Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States, he has waged an all-out war against immigrants.
CONGRESSMAN LUIS GUTIERREZ (D-IL): I believe it’s (2017) a terrible year, horrible, without precedent in my 25 years.
...
EDGAR MUNOZ, CORRESPONDENT, TELEMUNDO: This year the government increased the detention of undocumented immigrants by 43%.
CARLOS DIAZ-ROSILLO, SENIOR ADVISOR TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: They know that with this President the laws will be enforced.
DACA PROTESTERS: Undocumented, unafraid!
EDGAR MUNOZ, CORRESPONDENT, TELEMUNDO: The toughest battle on immigration are the 800,000 DACA youth who saw the immigration relief fizzle out when President Trump announced he would end the program in March of next year.
CRISTINA JIMENEZ, UNITED WE DREAM: They have been arrested, they have been deported. Many to countries like Mexico, and this has been what has caused much fear in the community.
DACA PROTESTERS: All of us or none of us!
EDGAR MUNOZ, CORRESPONDENT, TELEMUNDO: And despite many efforts, shouts and protests, they ended the year disappointed.
