Watch: NPR’s Hinojosa Compares Illegal Immigrants in Flint, MI to the Underground Railroad

Maria Hinojosa, anchor and executive producer of NPR’s “Latino USA,” said Saturday on MSNBC’s “Melissa Harris-Perry” that illegal immigrants in Flint, MI are reluctant to open the door to officials in fear the authorities could be immigration agents, which she compared to the underground railroad used by enslaved African-Americans in the 19th century.

“When we think about living in the United States of America with this kind of fear, we’re talking about an underground community. And I was thinking about my notes, and I was writing — you know, ‘underground.’ This is what an underground community — and I was like ‘underground railroad.’ We have to understand that there is an underground now in this moment in history that is before our eyes. And actually, I think that if the good people of Flint knew where their neighbors were who are undocumented, I believe that they would actually go and help them.”