On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “America Reports,” Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-IL) claimed that Haitians trying to come to the U.S. “were met with whips and chains from like a bygone era and turned away.” Jackson later acknowledged after being corrected that Border Patrol agents didn’t whip migrants, but it “was a far cry from give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses that yearn to breathe free.”
Jackson stated, “We’ve got a gentleman named Barbecue…in Haiti. … We can’t go in there and shore up what should be our longest, oldest ally in this hemisphere, Haiti, to bring stability? … And then we saw what happened when Haitians tried to come to the United States, they were met with whips and chains from like a bygone era and turned away.”
Co-host John Roberts then cut in to ask, “Wait a minute, you’re talking about the reins and the Border Patrol?”
Jackson responded, “[T]he people on horses turning back the Haitians.”
Roberts cut in to counter, “But they weren’t whipping them, Congressman.”
Jackson then said, “No. But I’m saying, they were on a horse that looked like they were chasing people.”
Roberts then cut in to state, “They were twirling their reins to try to keep folks away from the horses.”
Jackson responded, “Well, that was a far cry from give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses that yearn to breathe free. These were people that had children, and were being chased away on horses.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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