CNN Political Commentator Van Jones, who on the first day of Republican convention decried it as a “hate-fest,” praised the Democratic convention’s tone on illegal immigration on Monday. “What I saw last week, whenever you talked about immigration, it was almost a criminalization of that whole community,” Jones stated, “Tonight you're seeing a humanization of that community.” Most of the Anderson Cooper 360 panel agreed with Jones and paid little mind to the humanization of the victims of illegal immigrants.
“The only undocumented people we talk about at the Republican convention were the very few who had committed crimes,” whined Paul Begala, “And they tried to generalize that as demagogue will.” “The Democrats want to personalize them, they want to humanize them,” Begala continued, talking about illegal immigrants, “It’s putting a human face on a real crisis.”
Jeffrey Lord, Trump supporter and NewBusters contributor, was the only dissenting voice. He argued that it was also important to put a human face on the victims of crimes committed by illegal immigrants:
At the Republican convention, they had Jamiel Shaw Sr., an African-American man who lost his 17-year-old son, a star student, who was headed for a good college and he wanted to be a sports agent when he grew up. And he has shot to death by an illegal immigrant from Mexico. And Mr. Shaw, needless to say, has a very different opinion about this. He loved his son. He is very angry about this. He feels no one paid any attention to him and Donald Trump is. And I think right there is the difference.
Lord also pointed out that in recent days a Mexican newspaper argued that their country should build a wall on the southern border to keep illegal Guatemalans out. Jones chided that, “It means Donald Trump does not have a monopoly on bad ideas.”
The panel was ready to continue but Host Anderson Cooper cut them off because he wanted them to watch the Funny or Die video about to be played on DNC’s big screen.
Partial transcript below:
CNN
Anderson Cooper 360
July 25, 2016
8:30:00 PM EasternVAN JONES: Look, what I saw last week, whenever you talked about immigration, it was almost a criminalization of that whole community. Tonight you're seeing a humanization of that community. And I—that little girl had me crying up here. To hear that little girl, to see it through the eyes of a child that you have to be afraid that your mom and dad won't be there for you. And so, I think that's an important contribution that they're making tonight and I'm proud of them for doing that.
ANDERSON COOPER: I'm wondering how it reads though beyond a democratic audience. David Frum tweeting out tonight, “Is tonight's message Hillary Clinton won't enforce any immigration laws at all?”
PAUL BEGALA: No. The message is what Van is talking about. Is, rather than demonize – the only undocumented people we talk about at the Republican convention were the very few who had committed crimes. And they tried to generalize that as demagogue will. And try to pretend—as Trump said in his announcement speech, “Mexicans come here and they’re rapists and murderers. Some of them might be good people.” That’s classic demagoguery, that’s classic racism.
The Democrats want to personalize them, they want to humanize them. So you see Karla, you see Astrid, you see people. And it's really important to win the issue. No just to win the White House or to persuade Bernie voters to stop protesting. It's bigger than that, it’s putting a human face on a real crisis. There are 11 million people who Donald Trump wants a deportation force to drive out of this country. And Hillary is saying, no. The Democrats are saying no. These are all American kids and their moms and their dads. It’s a really important way to do this.
COOPER: Jeffrey Lord, as a Trump supporter how do you see it?
JEFFREY LORD: At the Republican convention, they had Jamiel Shaw Sr., an African-American man who lost his 17-year-old son, a star student, who was headed for a good college and he wanted to be a sports agent when he grew up. And he has shot to death by an illegal immigrant from Mexico. And Mr. Shaw, needless to say, has a very different opinion about this. He loved his son. He is very angry about this. He feels no one paid any attention to him and Donald Trump is. And I think right there is the difference.
…
PATTI SOLIS DOYLE: I just need to jump in here. My father was an illegal immigrant, okay? He came here illegally because he wanted a better life for me and my brothers and sisters. So this is a very human issue for me personally. And for you to say that one act of criminal activity by an immigrant sort of casts us all in the same –
LORD: It doesn’t cast you all.
SOLIS DOYLE: It does. That's how you're speaking about it. And that's how Donald Trump has spoken about it. He has taken the humanity out of it. Completely.
LORD: This is a country of laws and rules.
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SOLIS DOYLE: I agree.
LORD: And other immigrants come into this country and they wait and they do their thing and eventually they get in. That's the only issue here.
SOLIS DOYLE: Coming here illegally was the only law my father ever broke. And you know why?
LORD: Why?
SOLIS DOYLE: It was that important for his children to be able to have a better life than he did.
LORD: Do you know there's a Mexican newspaper in the last day that has written that they should have a wall on the southern border of Mexico to keep immigrants from Guatemala from coming over.
JONES: Do you know what that means? It means Donald Trump does not have a monopoly on bad ideas. But god bless him. But, I just want to say something that I think is important. There is a deeper patriotism at work here. I think that sometimes people -- if you're at home, you’re a conservative, you may this is--
COOPER: I got to interrupt. This is a video by a -- produced by Funny or Die. Let's watch.
