Beck: "Mexico is run by nothing but criminals and ... I pretty much stand by that"

Summary: A day after he stated that Mexico "has been overtaken by lawbreakers from the bottom to the top," Glenn Beck said that even though he "got beat up yesterday" for making that comment, he "pretty much stand[s] by" his claim that "Mexico is run by nothing but criminals."

On the March 28 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, host Glenn Beck declared that he "pretty much stand[s] by" the claim that "Mexico is run by nothing but criminals," even though he "got beat up yesterday" for making similar comments about Mexico. Media Matters for America noted Beck's March 27 claim that Mexico "has been overtaken by law breakers from top to bottom," and that what immigration advocates are "protesting for is to have lawbreakers come here."

Beck, who was recently hired to host a new program on CNN Headline News, was responding to recent protests against proposed immigration restrictions. During the past week, hundreds of thousands of people in Los Angeles and other U.S. cities have marched in the streets to protest a federal immigration bill that would criminalize the provision of aid to undocumented immigrants and make it a felony to cross the border illegally.

Media Matters has urged its readers to contact CNN and call for the news channel to stop providing a platform for Beck's conservative misinformation and offensive statements.

From the March 28 broadcast of Premiere Radio Networks' The Glenn Beck Program:

BECK: You know, I got beat up yesterday -- people said, "Oh yeah, Glenn Beck was saying on the radio that Mexico is run by nothing but criminals." Uh-huh, yeah, pretty much stand by that. You want dirty politics? Let's go south of the border. Just read a recent survey -- 50 percent of Mexicans say they feel unsafe in their own home.

From the March 27 broadcast of The Glenn Beck Program:

BECK: First of all, you are -- you are protesting -- and I appreciate the fact that it was peaceful -- but you are protesting for something that is illegal. You are protesting for others to stay here, who are here illegally. And I don't understand that. I don't understand that for a couple of reasons. You want to leave Mexico for a reason, and that reason is, it is so riddled with corruption that you cannot have a job and make money there. It is so riddled with drugs and corruption and mob that you cannot raise a family. It is a country that has been overtaken by lawbreakers from the bottom to the top. And now, what you're protesting for is to have lawbreakers come here. And you might say: "Well, they're just trying to get here, that's only one law." It's a law.

—B.F.