Univision anchor Jorge Ramos is crediting President Trump for a precipitous drop of illegal crossings into the U.S. via its southern border.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper interviewed Mr. Ramos this week to discuss reports that illegal border crossings from Mexico dropped 40 percent last month. The Univision star summed it up in two words: “Trump effect.”
“Let me just say that fear is stronger than any wall. What we are seeing right now is the ’Trump effect,’” Mr. Ramos said Thursday. “It’s people calling their relatives an their friends in Latin America and saying, ’Don’t come here. This is not the right moment.’ I think it is positive, really. No one wants illegal immigration, even undocumented immigrants. It is very risky for them. It’s better to do it in a legal way.”
Mr. Ramos then said that Americans should dismiss any rhetoric that likens a large influx of illegal immigrants to an invasion.
“There is no invasion. No one is invading the United States,” Mr. Ramos said. “Mexicans are not invading the United States. The undocumented population has remained stable at about 11 million for the last decade. So those are the positive things. The negative is that this is the ’Trump effect.’ This is created because of the policies of fear, and xenophobia and cruelty.”
The Univision star sent a different message on Fox News just one day earlier. Mr. Ramos told told Tucker Carlson on March 8 that America, for all intents and purposes, belongs to anyone who crosses the border — legally or illegally.
“So at an event several weeks ago in February you said this, and I wanted to ask you about it, and I am quoting you,” the Fox host said. “’I am a proud Latino immigrant here in the United States. You know exactly what is going on here in the U.S. There are many people who do not want us to be here and who want to create a wall in order to separate us. But you know what? This is also our country. Let me repeat this, our country, not theirs, it’s our country.’ Who is the us, and who is the they? Whose country is it?”
“This is our country, it is yours, it is mine and it is ours,” Mr. Ramos replied. “The interesting thing is with the Trump administration and many people who support Donald Trump they think it is their country, that it is a white country and they are absolutely wrong. This is not a white country, this is not their country, it is ours, and that is precisely what I’m saying.”
Exit polls from the 2016 U.S. presidential election showed Mr. Trump’s campaign netting 29 percent of the Latino vote, compared to 27 percent for the previous GOP presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, in 2012.
.@jorgeramosnews on border crossing down 40%: Fear is stronger than any wall. What we are seeing is the Trump effect https://t.co/epcLf42doA
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) March 10, 2017
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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