While promoting his new book State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America (Thomas Dunne Books) during the August 24 edition of CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck, MSNBC political analyst and former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan declared that President Bush is “scared” of “antagoniz[ing]” Hispanic immigrants. Buchanan stated that this is because Bush and other leading Republicans believe Hispanics are “the one minority bloc we can get, and we need one of them because the white Americans, who have been the base of the Republican Party, are shrinking.” Also during the discussion, host Glenn Beck said that immigrants “are not melting into our melting pot -- they're here for the cash,” and added that “illegal immigrants” are “tak[ing] the culture away from us.”

Buchanan contended that while Bush believes former California Gov. Pete Wilson (R) “killed the Republican Party in California” by advocating Proposition 187, a California ballot measure “to prevent illegal aliens in the United States from receiving benefits or public services in the State of California,” the measure actually “saved Wilson and the Republican Party in California.” As Media Matters for America has noted, California voters approved Proposition 187 on November 9, 1994, but a court blocked its enforcement. Then, on December 14, 1994, U.S. District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer struck down parts of the initiative that required state officials to verify a person's immigration status and to notify law enforcement of violations of the law. California subsequently settled the case in July 1999 when newly elected Gov. Gray Davis (D) decided to drop the appeal pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

Buchanan also described illegal immigrants as a "fifth column" within the United States and again claimed that immigration could make the “Southwest” become “like Kosovo is to Serbia” because the Mexican government is “pushing” its citizens into the United States as part of a "reconquista." As Media Matters noted, Buchanan has been on a media blitz to promote his book, which asserts that “Mexican agents” are seeking “to take back through demography and culture what their ancestors lost through war.”

Buchanan concluded by advocating for “a national Prop[osition] 187” and for a “reinterpret[ation of] the 14th Amendment. You can sneak in this country and have your baby; your baby's not a citizen.” The 14th Amendment provides that "[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside."

From the August 24 edition of CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck:

BECK: You know, earlier this week, I told you about the five-part plan that I believe may lead to the end of the West as we know it. I called it my perfect storm. One of the elements of that perfect storm is illegal immigration. It is still a great way for terrorists to come here and mess with us. But even if that doesn't happen -- at the very least, illegal immigrants are attacking our culture, and our way of life. They are not melting into our melting pot -- they're here for the cash. Pat Buchanan -- a pioneer of being labeled a hatemonger, one of the first, I believe -- writes about this and more in his chilling new book, State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America.

Pat, welcome to the program.

BUCHANAN: Thank you very much, Glenn.

BECK: Let's talk first about culture, because this is the simplest way. I mean, we've got all these threats coming in from overseas, but the simplest way is for us to lose the culture of the West is just to do nothing and let illegal immigrants not melt in and take the culture away from us.

BUCHANAN: The road to culture is language. And there's no doubt about it in the Southwest -- Los Angeles now, something like 5 million of the 9 million people don't even speak English in their own homes. Many of the Hispanics coming in now, they're patriotic Mexicans, they want to keep their Spanish language and culture and music. And Glenn, when that happens over a period of time -- and the numbers are so enormous, and there's no melting-pot ideology anymore in America, what you're going to have is two languages, two cultures, and eventually two countries.

BECK: Let me play devil's advocate with you. You know, there were -- my wife's family, Italian. And when they came over here, the kids learned Italian, but a lot of the old, you know, folks didn't learn English. You know what I mean? They came over and the kids learned English, everybody else stayed --

BUCHANAN: Did your grandparents think that Italy owned the eastern United States, that it had been stolen from them?

BECK: No. Yes.

BUCHANAN: And they were going to get it back, and 58 percent of them, like 58 percent of Mexicans now believe the Southwest belongs to them. The Italian government wasn't sending Italians over here for a reconquista of any part of the United States?

BECK: Hold on. Are you claiming that the -- that Mexico is sending people over here?

BUCHANAN: Pushing them.

BECK: The government is sending them?

BUCHANAN: [Mexican President] Vicente Fox says they are heroes. They've given them maps. They give them cartoons -- how to get by the border patrol, how to get to the welfare office. What they're doing is they're removing the social, revolutionary pressure on themselves, move the illegals into the United States. They send back 20 billion in remittances. They tell the illegals, become American citizens and vote Mexico's interests in the United States.

What I'm saying is, we've got a fifth column here, European-Americans are leaving California. And in an amount of time, by 2050, this will be so Mexican, it'll be like Kosovo is to Serbia, and we will lose the Southwest. Not militarily -- ethnically, linguistically, socially, culturally.

BECK: Pretty heavy charge to level against --

BUCHANAN: It's not a charge, it's what's happening.

[...]

BUCHANAN: They're all there. And the president of the United States is scared. He thinks that [former California Gov.] Pete Wilson killed the Republican Party in California, because of Prop 187, when it saved Wilson and the Republican Party in California. And so they will not enforce the law because they say this will antagonize the one minority bloc we can get, and we need one of them because the white Americans, who have been the base of the Republican Party, are shrinking. We're not 89 percent of the population as we were in 1960, we're 67 percent. Midcentury, we'll be at 47 percent and sinking.

BECK: You know how this works. I've got 10 seconds. Is there a solution?

BUCHANAN: There's a solution in my book, final chapter.

BECK: One that would actually work, that doesn't require Washington to --

BUCHANAN: A 2,000 mile border fence all along the entire border, start punishing businesses that hire illegals, a national Prop 187, no welfare benefits except emergency, reinterpret the 14th Amendment. You can sneak in this country and have your baby; your baby's not a citizen.

BECK: Pat Buchanan, thank you, sir.

BUCHANAN: Thank you, Glenn.

BECK: Keep up the good work.