Fox News host Jesse Watters claimed to be able to tell if someone is an undocumented immigrant just by looking at them during his program "The Five" on Tuesday, according to The Daily Beast.
The remark came while Watters and his co-hosts discussed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's renewed commitment to busing migrants into Democrat-run cities, particularly New York Mayor Eric Adams' critique that Abbott was "targeting" cities with Black mayors.
Abbott has been transporting migrants into the city since at least last August, in part as a form of retaliation against the Biden administration's opposition to Title 42, a Trump-era policy set to end May 11 that cites COVID-19 as a reason to expel more people.
Watters called Adams' claim "stupid," saying that it's "like a lawyer complaining that all of these people are coming to them with problems. That's what you signed up for. You're a sanctuary city!"
He went on to deny that race played a part in Abbott's decision, citing border apprehensions as the reason why Abbott didn't transport migrants during former Mayor Bill de Blasio's term and asking the race of Martha's Vineyard's mayor as examples. (Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis arranged for migrants to be flown to the island, which is comprised of six towns governed by their own select boards instead of mayors, last September.)
Watters then shared an anecdote of his commute to the Fox News studios in the city that day, where he claimed to have seen undocumented immigrants "digging through the trash."
"I saw on the way into work an illegal immigrant family digging through the trash looking for recyclables," Watters began.
Co-host Jessica Tarlov quickly jumped in, asking him how he knew the family was "illegal."
"You can tell," he responded, adding after her exclamation of disbelief that he's "a city guy. And, you don't want me to get into it, but I can tell."
Jesse Watters: "Now, I saw on the way in to work an illegal immigration family digging through the trash looking for recyclables."
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) May 2, 2023
Jessica Tarlov: "How did you know they were illegal?"
Watters: "You can tell." pic.twitter.com/PyQxdrScgc
"It is the saddest thing to see because they're not able to work here," Watters continued. "They came to work, but they're not able to work here. And the point is this. You have to be able to choose the people that come into the country based on needs. If you need this type of person, you need this, bring them in. But to just say yeah, come everybody in and oops, you know, and now people are looking for a five-cent bottle. That's not right. And you can't blame the guy down in Texas for that."
Watters shifted the blame to President Joe Biden, whose administration has seen a surge in border crossings.
"Joe Biden is the common denominator for all of this," Watters said. "It's like a bad manager that doesn't do his job. Then everybody on the staff is pointing fingers and bitching about the other person. But if the manager would just do their job, everybody could stay in their lane. Texas could focus on Texas and New York could focus on New York."
According to Mediaite, Watters also commented on some migrants' appearances last year during a similar discussion about Abbott's actions on The Five.
"And they dress so nicely," he reportedly said in April 2022. "Athleisure, one guy had on matching Nike head to toe. The kicks were clean. If you're fleeing a war-torn country seeking asylum and you think you're gonna die, and you show up looking that good, nobody's going to buy that."
