With millions of Americans eagerly anticipating Monday’s total solar eclipse, Fox News delivered an ominous warning to its viewers: The dramatic celestial event presents a “real opportunity” for migrants to illegally cross the southern border.
While mainstream news coverage focuses on the eclipse’s path of totality and the potentially troublesome weather forecast, the conservative cable giant’s “hard news” programming found a way to link the event to Fox’s nearly round-the-clock fear-mongering about immigrants.
“Fox News alert! A rare celestial event collides with a policy failure on the ground,” America’s Newsroom co-anchor Dana Perino declared on Monday morning. “The southern border will be directly in the path of totality today when the moon covers the sun for nearly four minutes.”
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Taking the ball from Perino and running with it, co-anchor Bill Hemmer added that officials at the border “are bracing for higher traffic than usual,” which means “a real opportunity for smugglers and cartels and migrants to come right in.”
He continued: “Fox News has reporters far and wide following the total solar eclipse as it crosses the U.S. The first location of totality is actually the southern border. That’s where we find Bill Melugin, live in Eagle Pass, Texas—a place you are well familiar with, Bill.”
Eagle Pass is stuck in the middle of an escalating legal standoff between Texas and the Biden administration over Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to seize control of the city’s scenic Shelby Park and erect razor wire to stop an “invasion” of migrants. Abbott barred Barring Border Patrol agents from the park and has ordered Texas National Guard troops and state law enforcement officials to patrol near the Rio Grande River. The move has essentially screwed up the small city’s plans to attract tourists for the eclipse.
“We got double duty down here in Eagle Pass today,” reported Melugin, the network’s top border correspondent. “Eagle Pass is expected to be the very first spot in all the United States where the totality of this eclipse is supposed to be seen. But that is only if the weather cooperates. So, right now, it’s not looking too good. We got forecasted overcast skies all day long in Eagle Pass today.”
“And while everybody is gonna be looking up, if you’re looking down here at the border, here is what you’ll see. Take a look at the video from nearby New Mexico, which is seeing a surge of illegal alien evaders and gotaways,” he added. “You’ll see illegal immigrants dressed in dark clothing, sometimes camouflage, actively trying to sneak into the United States as suspected cartel scouts and coyotes watch from a mountain above... It is a constant game of cat and mouse down there.”
While standing in front of the razor wire fence in Eagle Pass, Melugin teed up another video of migrants crossing the border in New Mexico, once again pointing out that the “evaders” were “dressed in dark clothing.” He warned that Border Patrol agents recently “arrested another one of those suspected Venezuelan gang members,” tying that “powerful gang” to the “illegal alien Bronx squatters.”(In recent weeks, right-wing media has been in a full-fledged meltdown over a supposed migrant “squatting” epidemic, even though experts say New York City does not actually face any such problem.)
“One of those Venezuelan guys, ICE says when he was just arrested, he self-admitted to being a Tren de Aragua gang member who spent time in a Venezuelan prison,” Melugin concluded. “He crossed right here in Eagle Pass in October 2022, and despite claims of vetting here at the border, he was released into the United States and made his way to you guys in New York City.”
