Fox News host Sean Hannity admitted during his show Wednesday night that the overwhelming majority of migrants looking to enter the U.S. are just in search of a better life and not looking to commit crime.
"For some people in the media, it's been like a numbers game," Hannity said during his interview with Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen.
"We do know Americans die. I'd argue probably 98% of people that want to come here want hope, opportunity, liberty, freedom, and all the things we may even take for granted ourselves. But it's the 2% I worry about that are part of the gangs, the drug cartels."
Hannity also said he is worried about "terrorists who have tried to cross our southern border and we've apprehended them."
Read more: CNN host calls out Trump supporter—"Spare me the BS…the shutdown is on your head"
Just six immigrants picked up by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the U.S.-Mexico border between October 1, 2017, and March 31, 2018, were non-citizens on the government's terror watch list, reported NBC News, which obtained the figures.
In total, 41 people on the list were detained at the border, 35 of them either American citizens or permanent residents. By comparison, 91 people on the terror list were picked up in the same period at the northern border with Canada. Of those, 41 were neither citizens or residents.
In October, Newsweek obtained Defense Department documents showing intelligence officials did not anticipate any terrorist infiltration and only limited involvement of criminal gangs in the several-thousand-strong migrant caravan heading up to the border before Christmas.
"We have talked about the thousands of terror watchlist individuals who have traveled through our hemisphere last year," Nielsen told Hannity. "To pretend there's not a danger on an unsecure border, on an open border, is just ridiculous. It belies common sense."
The federal government is currently shut down because Congress cannot agree on a budget. President Donald Trump and the Republicans are demanding $5.7 billion to build a wall along the southern border with Mexico to keep out undocumented migrants.
But House Democrats are refusing to pass a budget that allocates any funding for the wall, arguing it is an expensive and ineffective political gimmick responding to a security "crisis," as the White House refers to it, that does not exist.
Trump, who took responsibility for the shutdown, accuses the Democrats of unwillingness to negotiate and claims his wall is essential for border security.
Democrats say they are willing to spend more on border security, such as new infrastructure, personnel, and technology—but nothing on the wall, a flagship policy of the Trump campaign in 2016.
On his show, Hannity listed the names of individuals killed by undocumented migrants, and used it as evidence that Democrats are wrong to say Trump has "manufactured" the border security crisis.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Shane Croucher is a Senior Editor based in London, UK. He oversees the My Turn team. He has previously overseen ... Read more
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