This is the speech I'd write for President Trump - I think it's time he directly calls out the media. They hate him so naming networks or papers won't do harm. I do give credit because he did address some of these points in his recent presentation of the Angel Families.
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Good evening. I'd like to provide you with information about the immigration situation that the news media won't share with you. And by news media, I'm calling out ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, and MSNBC as well as major newspapers like the NY Times, the Washington Post, and Time magazine along with many other publications in their coverage of my Administration's efforts to enforce the existing laws prohibiting illegal immigration.
Because of the stepped up enforcement, there has been a lot of talk about separation of families at the border. I'm not happy about children being separated from their parents any more than anyone else, that's why I signed an Executive Order to end the practice and why the Justice Department is going to Federal Court to seek a modification to a Court Settlement negotiated by the Clinton Administration that could limit how long we can allow children to be with their parents in custody.
There has been a lot of talk about how many of the people arrested crossing the border are seeking asylum. That's not entirely true. Anyone who comes to any official border crossing location and walks up to a Border Patrol or Government Official and says "I'd like asylum" is not arrested and these families are not separated.
Who was being separated? People who entered the United States illegally by crossing the border at some place other than an official border crossing. Now some of those individuals upon being arrested for committing a crime have requested asylum and those asylum requests will be heard. But the fact is by crossing the border in that manner they have committed a crime and will be arrested.
You might ask - what's the difference? It's the difference between someone coming to your front door, knocking on it and asking for help versus someone breaking into your house and only when they are arrested saying "well I came here to ask for help." If someone from another country wants to ask for asylum all they should just walk up to a border crossing and ask for it and not try to enter the country illegally.
Regarding children who were separated from their families, the media has repeatedly provided fake news.
The media outlets I mentioned spent hours covering these stories until they were shown to be fake news but they never spend the same amount of time apologizing for misleading the public or dissecting how these fake stories occurred or explaining to the public how they will do a better job preventing fake news stories like these from being published in the future.
Time Magazine, by the way, printed a correction admitting it's story about the girl in the photo being separated from her mother was not accurate. Nevertheless, it stands by its cover using that photo. Time deserves credit for essentially admitting that truth and accuracy don't matter when they are trying to promote a point of view. If only the other media outlets would be as honest as Time magazine in this regard.
By the way, there are people who say my criticism of the media is an assault on the 1st Amendment. To those individuals I respond - are we really encroaching on Freedom of the Press when we are simply asking the media to do their jobs and verify the accuracy of photos and stories like these before they report them?
There are so many other points the media either mislead about or don't want to share with you but the most important omission is why are we cracking down on illegal immigration.
How often does the media discuss the problem of drugs being smuggled into the United States? How often does the media tell you about human trafficking across the border? In January of 2016, the Associated Press identified more than two dozen children who were caught entering the country illegally and then released by the Federal Government to adults who "subjected them to sexual abuse, labor trafficking, or severe abuse and neglect." One advocate interviewed said "this is clearly the tip of the iceberg."
Then there is the issue of crime. The media likes to quote a disputed study that suggests illegal immigrants commit fewer crimes than American citizens. What they won't tell you is according to a government report issued by the Obama Administration in 2011, the arrests attached to illegal immigrant population included an estimated 25,000 people for homicide, 42,000 for robbery, nearly 70,000 for sex offenses, and nearly 15,000 for kidnapping. They won't tell you that in Texas alone, within the last seven years, more than a quarter million illegal immigrants have been arrested and charged with over 600,000 criminal offenses.
Just think, if there were no illegal immigrants in Texas then there would have been 600,000 fewer crimes committed in the last seven years. That's why we are getting tough and cracking down on illegal immigration.
The Media also refuses to provide the same coverage of the story of American families separated from their children that they provide to the story of the separation of families entering the country illegally.
Like Time magazine, the media have a point of view and only want to run those stories which fit that narrative. Complaining about children illegally entering the country being separated from the adults who accompanied them - children who then receive medical treatment, food, and shelter - that's the narrative they want to report. The narrative they don't want you to know about are the children who are separated from their parents permanently - and that's the key word, "permanently" - through deaths that are usually brutal and horrifying.
To give you a specific example of what I mean, MSNBC and CNN cut away from a press conference I was having with Angel Families - these are families who as I said have been permanently separated from their loved ones by people in this country illegally - to return to reporting about illegal immigrants who had been only temporarily separated. Those networks clearly did not want their viewers to hear about American families who have been permanently separated due to the lax border enforcement of previous Administrations because it runs counter to the point of view they are trying to promote.
Regardless of what point of view the media is trying to convey through fake news or selective reporting, what we are doing right now is enforcing the law, nothing more and nothing less. If you don't like the laws on the books contact your US Senator or Representative. You'll recall that I asked Congress to change some of the laws and provided them with time to do so before we stepped up enforcement. Congress chose not to act. In the meantime, if someone enters the United States somewhere other than at a border crossing they are illegally entering the country. Under my Administration, illegal immigrants will be arrested and prosecuted.
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Good evening. I'd like to provide you with information about the immigration situation that the news media won't share with you. And by news media, I'm calling out ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, and MSNBC as well as major newspapers like the NY Times, the Washington Post, and Time magazine along with many other publications in their coverage of my Administration's efforts to enforce the existing laws prohibiting illegal immigration.
Because of the stepped up enforcement, there has been a lot of talk about separation of families at the border. I'm not happy about children being separated from their parents any more than anyone else, that's why I signed an Executive Order to end the practice and why the Justice Department is going to Federal Court to seek a modification to a Court Settlement negotiated by the Clinton Administration that could limit how long we can allow children to be with their parents in custody.
There has been a lot of talk about how many of the people arrested crossing the border are seeking asylum. That's not entirely true. Anyone who comes to any official border crossing location and walks up to a Border Patrol or Government Official and says "I'd like asylum" is not arrested and these families are not separated.
Who was being separated? People who entered the United States illegally by crossing the border at some place other than an official border crossing. Now some of those individuals upon being arrested for committing a crime have requested asylum and those asylum requests will be heard. But the fact is by crossing the border in that manner they have committed a crime and will be arrested.
You might ask - what's the difference? It's the difference between someone coming to your front door, knocking on it and asking for help versus someone breaking into your house and only when they are arrested saying "well I came here to ask for help." If someone from another country wants to ask for asylum all they should just walk up to a border crossing and ask for it and not try to enter the country illegally.
Regarding children who were separated from their families, the media has repeatedly provided fake news.
- Remember the report that 1500 children have been "lost?" That was fake news - an official from President Obama's Administration confirmed the kids were not lost, they were reunited with family and were choosing not to respond when we try to find them.
- Remember the photos of children in cages? Twice now the media has run photos of children in cages before verifying where those came from. The first was a picture taken in 2014 during the Obama Administration and the second was a staged photo, yet both were used to criticize our enforcement efforts until the press were forced to recognize these were fake news.
- Just recently there was a photo of a 2 year old girl crying that was widely circulated and used on the cover of Time magazine. Again - fake news. The mother of the child was standing right next to the girl, she said the child was simply tired and thirsty, and the two were not being separated. Recently the father of the child has reported that both the mother and daughter are safe and sound.
The media outlets I mentioned spent hours covering these stories until they were shown to be fake news but they never spend the same amount of time apologizing for misleading the public or dissecting how these fake stories occurred or explaining to the public how they will do a better job preventing fake news stories like these from being published in the future.
Time Magazine, by the way, printed a correction admitting it's story about the girl in the photo being separated from her mother was not accurate. Nevertheless, it stands by its cover using that photo. Time deserves credit for essentially admitting that truth and accuracy don't matter when they are trying to promote a point of view. If only the other media outlets would be as honest as Time magazine in this regard.
By the way, there are people who say my criticism of the media is an assault on the 1st Amendment. To those individuals I respond - are we really encroaching on Freedom of the Press when we are simply asking the media to do their jobs and verify the accuracy of photos and stories like these before they report them?
There are so many other points the media either mislead about or don't want to share with you but the most important omission is why are we cracking down on illegal immigration.
How often does the media discuss the problem of drugs being smuggled into the United States? How often does the media tell you about human trafficking across the border? In January of 2016, the Associated Press identified more than two dozen children who were caught entering the country illegally and then released by the Federal Government to adults who "subjected them to sexual abuse, labor trafficking, or severe abuse and neglect." One advocate interviewed said "this is clearly the tip of the iceberg."
Then there is the issue of crime. The media likes to quote a disputed study that suggests illegal immigrants commit fewer crimes than American citizens. What they won't tell you is according to a government report issued by the Obama Administration in 2011, the arrests attached to illegal immigrant population included an estimated 25,000 people for homicide, 42,000 for robbery, nearly 70,000 for sex offenses, and nearly 15,000 for kidnapping. They won't tell you that in Texas alone, within the last seven years, more than a quarter million illegal immigrants have been arrested and charged with over 600,000 criminal offenses.
Just think, if there were no illegal immigrants in Texas then there would have been 600,000 fewer crimes committed in the last seven years. That's why we are getting tough and cracking down on illegal immigration.
The Media also refuses to provide the same coverage of the story of American families separated from their children that they provide to the story of the separation of families entering the country illegally.
Like Time magazine, the media have a point of view and only want to run those stories which fit that narrative. Complaining about children illegally entering the country being separated from the adults who accompanied them - children who then receive medical treatment, food, and shelter - that's the narrative they want to report. The narrative they don't want you to know about are the children who are separated from their parents permanently - and that's the key word, "permanently" - through deaths that are usually brutal and horrifying.
To give you a specific example of what I mean, MSNBC and CNN cut away from a press conference I was having with Angel Families - these are families who as I said have been permanently separated from their loved ones by people in this country illegally - to return to reporting about illegal immigrants who had been only temporarily separated. Those networks clearly did not want their viewers to hear about American families who have been permanently separated due to the lax border enforcement of previous Administrations because it runs counter to the point of view they are trying to promote.
Regardless of what point of view the media is trying to convey through fake news or selective reporting, what we are doing right now is enforcing the law, nothing more and nothing less. If you don't like the laws on the books contact your US Senator or Representative. You'll recall that I asked Congress to change some of the laws and provided them with time to do so before we stepped up enforcement. Congress chose not to act. In the meantime, if someone enters the United States somewhere other than at a border crossing they are illegally entering the country. Under my Administration, illegal immigrants will be arrested and prosecuted.
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