Univision host Jorge Ramos started his Al Punto interview with D.A. King, Georgia’s immigration law enforcement advocate, which aired last Sunday, by accusing King of hating immigrants.
“We don’t agree on anything on immigration,” Ramos said. “After reading what you said and after seeing what you’ve said, my first question is: Why do you hate immigrants so much?”
King responded, “Oh Jorge, you know I don’t hate immigrants.”
King was a guest last Sunday on Al Punto, the network’s influential Sunday program that Ramos hosts. The interview took place on Friday in Miami. The clip of the interview on Univision’s website labels King as anti-immigrant (“anti-immigrante”).
Ramos went back on the attack, saying King has called illegal immigrants “illegals” and “invaders.” He asserted that humans cannot be “illegal.”
“The concept, quite frankly, is offensive that I hate anybody, but particularly immigrants,” King later replied. “That is not accurate.”
King said that “immigrants, by federal definition, come to the United States lawfully with the intention of permanent residence. I don’t think the word hate has any room here.”
He noted that his adopted sister is an immigrant, as are many who support him.
King also emphasized he believed in “reasonable, legal, sustainable immigration to the United States” and noted the United States takes in more real, legal immigrants than any other nation.
When Ramos pressed King on his use of terms like “alien” and “illegals,” King said, “if you break the law, then you are an illegal alien.” He said that definition “denotes someone who is not a citizen of the United States of America.”
King also said that if people enter the country illegally and “march in the streets demanding the law not be enforced for your particular group,” then there are a “large number who would support the description of invaders.”
King also debunked the notion that his stance against open borders was personal. As he has said before, King noted that he learned about the impact illegal immigration was having on the wages of working class Americans when his brother-in-law gave him a computer. He became more of an activist after 9/11 and when he went to the U.S.-Mexico border and saw how porous it was. That prompted King to start The Dustin Inman Society, which advocates for secure borders, in honor of a child who was killed on Father’s Day weekend by an illegal immigrant.
The debate between two fierce advocates on opposite sides of the issue was mutually respectful despite Ramos’s opening salvo. In comments on Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot channel 125, and to Breitbart News, King emphasized how “at home” he felt at Univision and how graciously and professionally he was treated by Ramos and the show’s staff and producers.
King said he was grateful for the opportunity to present his views–he noted mainstream media organizations have not invited him for similar debates–on Univision. Ramos, on the program, also said he was enjoying his conversation with King.
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