Tucker Carlson suggested immigrants make the U.S. ‘dirtier’ — and it cost Fox News an advertiser

By Alex Horton December 15 at 12:16 PM

In less than three minutes, Tucker Carlson suggested immigrants make the United States “dirtier,” contradicted himself on their values and gushed over Mexicans frustrated with Central American caravans. The opening tear cost his Fox News show an advertiser, at least for now.

Few advocates, if any, argue the economic merit of immigration, Carlson said in his opening monologue Thursday evening. The nation needs skilled workers, but Carlson said that is not who arrives here. (Fact check: Not true.)

“Our leaders demand that you shut up and accept this,” he said, while namechecking Reps. Navy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis). “We have a moral obligation to admit the world’s poor, they tell us, even if it makes our own country poorer, and dirtier, and more divided. Immigration is a form of atonement.”

Carlson added: “They’re nice people; nobody doubts that,” before changing his tone minutes later in his own monologue, over reports some caravan leaders demanded $50,000 in reparations for U.S. involvement in Central America, calling them “cynical shakedown artists.”

Pacific Life, an insurance company, said in a statement Friday that it “strongly” disagreed with Carlson’s immigration comments.

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