Watch An Undocumented Immigrant Debunk Right-Wind Media's Mass Deportation Myth On Fox

Jose Vargas: “Poll After Poll Has Shown ... The American Public Want Us To Stay”

Written by Cydney Hargis

Published

During an interview with Fox News' Megyn Kelly, immigrant rights activist Jose Vargas debunked right wing media's advocacy of mass deportation, correctly citing multiple polls that show a vast majority of Americans are opposed to the deportation of undocumented immigrants. Jose Vargas pushed back on the right-wing media idea that Americans support mass deportations explaining on the November 12 edition of Fox News' The Kelly File, that “poll after poll” shows the American people oppose mass deportation and supports legalization of immigrants:

MEGYN KELLY: Jose, thank you for being here. So, you know Mr. Trump hasn't signed --

JOSE VARGAS: Thank you very much for having me here.  

KELLY: He hasn't signed on to that, you know, Operation Wetback as his exact plan, but he does believe in a deportation force. What say you? 

VARGAS: Well, the term “deportation force” and “humanely” don't go together. I don't even know what that means. There are 4.5 million U.S. citizen kids in this country, who has at least one parent who's undocumented. How is that “humanely” to those U.S. American children? Not “anchor babies”, but U.S. American children. And I have to say, by the way, Megyn. Like, it's been fascinating these past few months hearing Donald Trump talk about people like us as if we're insects off their backs. I would love for Donald Trump, maybe bring his son, you know come here in Los Angeles, the epicenter of the undocumented community in this country. Let's go to McArthur Park, you want to have a conversation about undocumented immigrants and illegal immigration and deportation? Come here, sir. We want to talk to you about it.

KELLY: Why? What do you mean, what's your point? 

VARGAS: Well, the point is, he has been doing, he has been giving these speeches, he's been talking to people, but has Donald Trump actually faced at least some of these eleven million undocumented people that he's talking about? Like when he says humanely, what does he mean by that?  

[CROSSTALK]

KELLY: His point is they broke the law, and what we do, one of the reasons we have immigration enforcement agents is to deport those people who came into the country illegally. 

VARGAS: By the way, when I outed myself as undocumented four years ago, Megyn, it's to say “What do you want to do with us?” Poll after poll has shown by the way, that a majority of the American public want us to stay, and be given some sort of a path to legalization. Poll after poll has shown that. By the way, I mean this is the other thing that I find interesting, Donald Trump is running in the Republican ticket. Don't Republicans believe in small government? If you believe in a small government, why would you want to create a large, another large bureaucratic system to deport 11 million people?

In fact, a May Pew survey found 72 percent of Americans think undocumented immigrants should be allowed to stay in the U.S. legally, while only  17 percent of respondents, including about a quarter of republicans, favored an effort to deport all who are here illegally. And according to an August Gallup Poll, 65 percent of adults favor a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.