Fox panel accuses lawyers of “taking advantage of” migrants with lawsuit against DeSantis
Published
Citation From September 21, 2022, edition of Fox News' Outnumbered
EMILY COMPAGNO (CO-HOST): It's pretty stunning what causes outrage among the left in the Biden border crisis. Turns out it is not the record-breaking number of illegal immigrants that have snuck into our country, or the totally dangerous terror suspects among them, or the horrifying videos of smugglers tossing children over the boarder wall or migrants who were raped or killed while trying to get here. Or that Texas National Guard member who died after jumping into the Rio Grande to save migrants. No the Democrats and the media have been virtually silent on all of that. But when 48 migrants were flown, almost first class, to ritzy Martha's Vineyard, courtesy of Florida Governor [Ron] DeSantis, the reaction was immediate and explosive. Democrats and the media tore into DeSantis. A Texas sheriff launched a criminal investigation and now a left-wing activist group has filed a class action lawsuit. All of it to sparked by 48 migrants in Martha's vineyard for 44 hours. Raymond, representing .00025% of the border crisis volume are those 44 migrants. And yet that is what somehow has sparked outrage.
RAYMOND ARROYO (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): We are asking the wrong question and having the wrong conversation, this isn't about Ron DeSantis sending a few migrants, and it's a handful compared to the 2 million that have crossed the border, and that's just estimates. The question is, what were the policies that created the crisis that we are seeing. Biden has turned our border patrol into travel concierge and child care specialists. They pick these people up, I've been with them, I've seen them. They have to care for them, change diapers, get them formula, move them from one house to another. All DeSantis did was say wait, if you're really a sanctuary jurisdiction, a sanctuary city, here are some people for you to give sanctuary too. Care for them. I agree with Charlemagne the God, DeSantis was a genius because he's because has brought this to national attention, he has put it in the center of the conversation before the midterms, and it is a crisis that has been bedevilling all of the southern states for many, many years. It needs redress. So I'm glad we are talking about it. The question is what do we do about it next? I hope the Republicans step up as well. Meaning Republicans in Congress, with real legislation, to find a way that we have clean, ordered, and legal immigration. We need that, and I say look, I'm a child of an immigrant, my father came here but it took him eight years to get to the country and he served in the military once he arrived. That must be the path, so you become part of the American experience and not a visitor taking selfies of the people of Martha's Vineyard.
EMILY COMPAGNO (CO-HOST): Yeah, and unfortunately Kayleigh your prior boss, and the former president, was on an excellent trajectory to do just that, and yet the current administration that had their campaign tenets be fixing the system, have done no such thing and it appears in their predictable defensiveness lately about what they have been calling a political stunt is maybe the fact that it's a political vulnerability for the current president.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY (CO-HOST): Oh it currently is. And his press secretary went out on MSNBC last night and she said — I'm summarizing here, but she said — Ron DeSantis literally put people's lives at risk. Okay, because taking a flight to Martha's Vineyard is putting your life at risk. Come up with a new one, Karine Jean-Pierre. Actually, it's not Ron DeSantis, it is your boss, President Joe Biden who is putting migrant lives at risk. Even CNN is covering it, 750 migrants have died this year coming here. That is way more than last year, also on Biden's watch, which was at 557 and we know DHS is no longer reporting those numbers. I wonder why. You look at the terror watch list, we know we've had almost 80 come in on the terror watch list that's just what we know, all of this while the sham lawsuit, and I know you know all of the ins and outs of this. It's a sham against Ron DeSantis. In fact only three of the 50 migrants, according to the Texas Tribune, signed up for the lawsuit. Three. They were from the same family and this is organized by left-wing groups who have an agenda not — against Ron Desantis essentially.
[CROSSTALK]
ARROYO: They all signed consent forms before they were put on the bus. So he's in the clear.
COMPAGNO: But according to Newsom, they were kidnapped. But Cheryl, and to Kayleigh's great point, the narrative now, the headlines that we're being inundated with across the country is "migrants sue DeSantis." But the reality is that there's been some activist groups that have teamed up with other activist legal groups and says, "Hey, sign here on the dotted line." Ironically taking, probably, advantage of them that way. And the only information we have is that three who are all members of the same family have joined in. So why is it a political pawn usage, when you fly them to a space where there's plenty of room and not in this case?
CHERYL CASONE (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): A place where it probably has a lot of jobs where they could be working, OK, and being members of society and actually stay and have a good future, which they didn't have many in Central and South America, I understand that. At the same time though, what I think is so rich about the Democrats response to all of this is that Texas Gov. [Greg] Abbott and DeSantis have been absolutely brilliant to your point about making this an issue because I grew up in Texas and Arizona. Let me tell you something. If somebody in Chicago woke up and they had dead migrants in their backyard, if they woke up and they had their dog killed in their backyard. If they woke up, and they saw bodies strewn around their property, oh, they would call it a crisis. It's taken them two years to acknowledge what is going on. So I mean, I applaud Gov. DeSantis. I applaud Gov. Abbott. Good for them. This political group is doing nothing but just trying to pounce.
COMPAGNO: Yeah, and Natalie, what are we supposed to feel when we see people who have signed up and have served in uniform, that have sacrificed their lives saving migrants coming over illegally across the border and then we have an administration that has ignored every step of the way until right now, and a media that has ignored it every step of the way until right now for this faux-outrage. When it's real lives that have been at stake, 53 that died in the truck. There's so many along the way that had been virtually ignored until now.
NATALIE BRUNELL (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): Absolutely, and why isn't the administration angry at the cartels that are having people come on these dangerous journeys. I actually covered the border crisis when I was an investigative reporter in Los Angeles. I know Bill Melugin very well, who has been covering the border crisis. These people are coming from about a hundred different countries, they are coming because of the incentives of this country saying that, "Hey, you will be let in, and you'll be allowed to have free health care, you'll have jobs," and now they're coming, they're making these dangerous journeys. And we have people in ivory towers saying, "Yes we care about them," but the second they are at the gate they say go away. So we need a comprehensive plan because I too, I come from a first generation, I'm an immigrant, I came from Poland. My family wanted to flee communism, they waited 20 years to come here legally and another 13 for us to be naturalized. There is a process that has to be in place, you can't just allow people to be dumped at the border and then blame people for that problem.