Tucker Carlson, Indispensable Border Champion

April 27, 2023

By Brian Lonergan

The news that Tucker Carlson and Fox News have “parted ways” did more than just send shockwaves through the cable news business. It removed Carlson from a number of critical roles in which he has served the nation the last six years: educator, investigator, and a check on corruption and power. Nowhere has this function been more important than in bringing attention to the causes and effects of the crisis at our borders.

Why were Carlson’s broadcasts on the immigration issue arguably more important than the many other topics he discussed? Because the issue concerns America’s past, present, and future like no other. It is an existential problem in the most literal sense. The way we address it or ignore it today will have serious ramifications for America in the years and decades to come.

Plenty of other news shows cover the border crisis. Unlike most others, Carlson didn’t just play video clips and shrug his shoulders at the problem. He asked difficult, probing, and politically incorrect questions, including “Who is responsible for this?” and “Why would we choose policies that make our country bankrupt and out of control like this?”

For the heresy of speaking the truth about what is plain for any objective person to see, Carlson was vilified by those who profit from lies and deception. In 2019, he was predictably attacked as a racist and xenophobe for saying, “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.”

To radical antiborders activists, there is gold in such a statement. It can be twisted and manipulated into whatever pushes their agenda forward. If Carlson’s statement is taken in context with the data, however, it is factually correct.

At the start of this year, even when factoring in tax revenue paid by illegal aliens, the gross negative economic impact on the country from illegal immigration is more than $150 billion. We are undeniably weaker financially as a nation as a result of our foolishness in not protecting our borders.  

Tucker’s critics tried to spin his “dirtier” comment by suggesting he accused immigrants of being physically unclean. This is false and disingenuous. One of the consequences of allowing rampant, unchecked illegal crossing of our border is the harmful effect it has on our environment.

This is inconvenient for the forces that seek revolution in America, because runaway illegal immigration and climate change activism are both high priorities. Despite this, there are now muted admissions within the environmentalist movement that mass migration will inevitably increase migrants’ greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, in fiscal years 2011 and 2012, when Arizona was experiencing over 120,000 border apprehensions, more than 65,000 pounds of border trash was being collected annually. That’s more than 32 tons of garbage—plastic water bottles, abandoned vehicles, human waste, medical products and much more—on the ground. Given the Biden Administration’s near-complete abandonment of border enforcement in the years since, the damage to our desert ecosystems is compounded.

Carlson used his platform of the most-watched program on cable news to relentlessly alert viewers of the danger from our border policies, and he didn’t sugarcoat anything.

“What’s happening at the border is not a crisis . . . this is an intentional act,” he said last year. “This is the [Biden] Administration bringing felons, violent criminals, into our country on purpose. Why would you do something like that? Only to destroy it.”

Some coverage of Tucker’s departure sounded like an obituary, as if his voice had been silenced and he would not be heard from again. That is almost certainly not the case. He will return, most likely in a bigger and better way than before.

That should be celebrated by people who seek truth and transparency, even if they disagree with his opinions. In a world run today by too many who are weak and cowardly, Tucker represents boldness and courage. His persistence on the border issue is indispensable.

Brian Lonergan is director of communications at the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a public interest law firm working to defend the rights and interests of the American people from the negative effects of illegal migration.

Also published at American Greatness, April 27, 2023.