Melissa Joskow / Media Matters

Fox News’ Laura Ingraham has drawn widespread rebuke following a racist anti-immigrant rant on the August 8 edition of her Fox show. During her far-from-subtle diatribe, Ingraham bemoaned “massive demographic changes, … changes that none of us ever voted for, and most of us don't like,” and complained, “In some parts of the country, it does seem like the America that we know and love doesn't exist anymore.” Later in the program, she questioned whether “Black-on-Black” crime is a larger issue for the Black community than the racism that infects the criminal justice system. Her comments are a nearly perfect parallel of the rhetoric used by white supremacists and were embraced and commended by former KKK leader David Duke. Outside of white supremacist circles, however, politicians, activist groups, and other media figures widely condemned the rant.  

Following the criticism, Ingraham defended her comments, arguing that the goal of her monologue was “to point out that the rule of law, meaning secure borders, is something that used to bind our country together.” Ingraham’s deflection, however, is disingenuous and undermined by her history of racist commentary and anti-immigrant rhetoric. Her Fox News show, The Ingraham Angle, is less than a year old, but Ingraham has already turned it into a racist, extremist cesspool.

It isn’t difficult to find examples of Ingraham’s boundless hostility toward immigrants and her obvious apathy towards non-white communities. Here are just a few highlights from over the years (seriously, there are many more):  

Ingraham has spent years demonizing and mocking immigrants.

 

• On The Ingraham Angle, she dismissed asylum claims from Hondurans fleeing violence because, according to her, “it’s not our problem.”

• She claimed that children torn from their parents as a result of the Trump administration policies and who were not yet reunited with their families were being protected by the administration because, “due to domestic or drug abuse, many of these parents are now deemed unfit to care for their children or dangerous for their children.”

• Ingraham said, “Most people believe that if you come into the country illegally, it's sad when your family gets separated, no one wants to see that, but it's your responsibility.”

• She hosted John Lott, president of the conservative Crime Prevention Research Center, to defend his debunked report alleging that undocumented immigrants in Arizona commit more crimes -- and more dangerous crimes -- than other Arizonans.

• During a 2015 appearance on Fox News' Special Report with Bret Baier, Ingraham urged then-presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Scott Walker to support ending birthright citizenship to “throw something to the conservatives on immigration.”

• During a 2013 appearance on the now-defunct Fox show The O’Reilly Factor, Ingraham claimed that a lot of recent immigrants “have wreaked havoc upon communities.”

• Ingraham suggested that the United States should shoot deported immigrants who attempt to re-enter the country: “Why don't we ship [imprisoned undocumented immigrants] back home and say you come again, you'll be shot crossing the border?”

• Ingraham defended then-candidate Donald Trump’s claim that Mexico is “sending rapists” to the United States and argued that Mexicans “have come here to murder and rape our people.”

• She mocked children detained by U.S. officials after being separated from their families, calling the detention centers “essentially summer camps,” comparing them to “play spaces,” and saying that people’s outrage over children being held in cages is “hilarious.”

• She claimed that immigration from Mexico would make the U.S. a “hellhole.”

• She smeared the American children of undocumented immigrants as “anchor fetuses.”

• Ingraham compared DACA protestors to “wild dogs” and attacked DACA recipients who serve in the U.S. military, saying, “This is the American military. This is not the military of mercenary illegal immigrants!"

• She once claimed, “Nobody has a right to be here except the people who are born here.”

• Ingraham blamed Muslim and Latino immigrants for Republicans losing elections in Virginia and added, “It will become increasingly difficult, for sure, for Republicans to win if Republicans don't get a handle on immigration.”

• Ingraham contended that the middle class is frustrated that “everybody has to bow down to the new immigrant class.”

• Ingraham celebrated her radio show’s role in blocking comprehensive immigration reform, commenting to viewers, “Guess who helped stop it? You’re listening to one of the reasons it was stopped.”

• In 2014, she argued that the Hispanic Caucus should be called the “open borders caucus.”

• She bemoaned that an “all-immigrant population have come and moved into Northern Virginia,” claimed that “we have a mass influx of illegal immigrants in Virginia,” and called immigrant communities “rabid fanatics.”  

• Ingraham used a drug-related arrest of one man to besmirch immigrants as “trash.”

• She argued that one way to “enforce our immigration laws” would be to “end birthright citizenship.”

• In 2014, she derided Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder's plan to attract skilled immigrants to work and live in bankrupt Detroit, saying “we can then wall off Detroit” to keep those immigrants from moving to other parts of the country.

• Later that year, she referred to the thousands of unaccompanied children fleeing from violence in Central America as “an invasion facilitated by our own government."

Ingraham has demonstrated particular vitriol for Muslim people, especially immigrants and refugees.

 

• On The Ingraham Angle, she questioned White House chief of staff John Kelly about why Trump is bringing in so many “Islamic” refugees.

• She was an early defender of the idea of a “Muslim ban” and suggested that Trump’s proposal “isn’t broad enough.” She claimed that she would “go further” and “do a pause on all immigration.”

• She also said that Middle Eastern countries should be told that “we’re cutting you off,” adding, “You’re not going to come into this country and destroy what’s good about America.”  

• Ingraham stated that the U.S. should only accept refugees that “we can verifiably say are Christians” and that Muslims should “stay in the Middle East.”

• She has fearmongered about Muslim women, asking, “What’s under that Burqa, baby?”

• She questioned why we even allow Muslim immigration when we “can’t tell if an Islamic individual is going to be radicalized.”

• Ingraham argued that, in contrast to Muslims, Christian refugees do not “try to blow us up.”

• She compared mosque surveillance to “body cameras on police.”

• She questioned why “the Muslims” are “never supporting the conservatives on” anti-LGBTQ initiatives.

Ingraham is routinely dismissive of any language that is not English and frequently demeans languages spoken by immigrants.

 

• She has insisted that English “should be the national language of this country.”

• She stated, “You’re only going to be here if you’re speaking our language.”

• Ingraham argued that multilingual schools are "costing the good people, Catholics, Christians ... opportunities and money.”

• She claimed multilingual schools make “you think you're in a foreign country.”

• She mocked MSNBC's Jose Diaz-Balart for translating for a Spanish speaking guest.

• Ingraham attacked a person who was protesting deportations for speaking with an accent.  

• She compared someone reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic to a “skinhead” reciting the pledge and argued that “most people who love this country love it enough to speak” English.

Ingraham has a history of making other racist and anti-Semitic comments, as well as disparaging organizations that serve minority communities.

 

• On The Ingraham Angle, she said that Black NBA players LeBron James and Kevin Durant should “shut up and dribble.”

• Ingraham called NFL players who kneel during the national anthem to protest police brutality “bratty players” who “disrespect the country.” On a separate occasion, she also stated that “a lot of these guys are punks.”

• She said that she “would’ve prefered Madea doing political commentary” instead of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA).

• On her Fox show, Ingraham praised Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee as a “truly great” man, and on Fox & Friends, she decried the destruction of a Confederate statue.

• During an appearance on Fox & Friends, she accused the NAACP of “becom[ing] a push organization for racist sentiments in many ways."

• Again on Fox & Friends, Ingraham claimed that terrorism is “the price ... to pay for multiculturalism."

• During an appearance on The O’Reilly Factor, Ingraham asked, “Are we supposed to hold the bar really low for President [Barack] Obama simply because he’s half-Black?”

• She once argued that minority voters picked Obama because he was “half-Black.”

• Ingraham called activist group Black Lives Matter “a complete fraud” and said they didn’t care about Black-on-Black crime.

• She contended that “affirmative action is “shafting people who are not of the appropriate color, or background, or ethnicity.”

• Ingraham once stated that she doesn’t “think of Jewish people as minorities because they’re so successful.”

• She attacked Univision and Telemundo as “toxic," “Hispanic-centric outlets,” that “revile the American experience.”

• She also accused Spanish language media as a whole of teaching undocumented immigrants “how to avoid deportation.”

• In 2014, Ingraham claimed that the left wants “a system of racial spoils in place to level the playing field.”