Fox News host Jesse Watters was under fire for claiming he could identify illegal immigrant families just by looking at them.
Watters made the claim many felt was "racist" during a recent episode of the conservative news channel's roundtable talk series, The Five.
The show features Watters along with fellow hosts Greg Gutfeld, Dana Perino, Jeanine Pirro, as well as rotating hosts Jessica Tarlov, Geraldo Rivera, and Harold Ford Jr.
They were discussing Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott's migrant busing plan that transports asylum-seekers to Democrat-led cities such as Washington, D.C., New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia stemming from the GOP's criticism of Democratic President Joe Biden's immigration policies.
New York Democratic Mayor Eric Adams condemned Abbott's directive and accused him of "targeting five cities run by Black mayors."
On Tuesday night's episode of The Five, Watters said of Adams:
“The mayor here is complaining about a couple thousand, with more resources than any other city in the entire country?"
"That’s ridiculous."
He continued:
"I saw on the way in to work an illegal immigration family digging through the trash looking for recyclables."
When Tarlov asked Watters how he knew the demographic he observed was "illegal," Watters remarked:
“You can tell. Trust me.”
You can watch a clip of the moment here.
\u201cJesse Watters: "Now, I saw on the way in to work an illegal immigration family digging through the trash looking for recyclables."\n\nJessica Tarlov: "How did you know they were illegal?"\n\nWatters: "You can tell."\u201d— Justin Baragona (@Justin Baragona) 1683062836
Taken aback by his comment, Tarlov said, "Jesse..."
Watters doubled down on his observational skills and said emphatically:
"I can tell. I'm a city guy."
"You don't want me to get into it but I can tell."
"It is the saddest thing to see."
3DPrint journalist Ed Krassenstein had a pointed response for Watters' vile rant.
\u201cFox News\u2019 Jesse Waters just made a disturbing claim tonight, saying "I saw on the way in to work an illegal immigration family digging through the trash looking for recyclables."\n\nJessica Tarlov then asked him, \u201cHow did you know they were illegal?"\n\nWatters responded, \u201cYou can\u2026\u201d— Ed Krassenstein (@Ed Krassenstein) 1683078390
He called Watter's statement "propaganda" and condemned his on-air remarks.
"This is propaganda. You can’t tell the difference between illegal immigrants and legal immigrants."
"The vast majority of immigrants entering legally or illegally are coming here because they want to make a life for themselves and their families."
"They want the same opportunities that we have from birth."
Krassenstein added:
"When you are on the top, it’s easy to be king of the hill. It’s easy to demonize, criticize and stigmatize those who are trying to reach where you are at."
"Deep down most of us want the same things. Just because your ancestors immigrated here a little sooner doesn’t give you a right to treat them like crap."
"There are no easy answers to the immigration problem, but treating them any less humane than we want to be treated [is] just wrong."
Twitter users clapped back at Watters that they could tell the kind of person he was too.
\u201c@justinbaragona Jesse Waters is a racist, how can you tell? His words\u2026\u201d— Justin Baragona (@Justin Baragona) 1683062836
\u201c@justinbaragona Jesse Watters is what you get when you cross breed your racist uncle with the frat guy in college you knew was slipping women roofies.\u201d— Justin Baragona (@Justin Baragona) 1683062836
\u201c@justinbaragona So he basically just outted himself. Racially profiling.\u201d— Justin Baragona (@Justin Baragona) 1683062836
\u201c@justinbaragona jesse waters has super powers - he can look at someone and know if they are documented\u2026wow! or\u2026perhaps it\u2019s just that he thinks anyone with dark skin belongs somewhere else\u2026\u201d— Justin Baragona (@Justin Baragona) 1683062836
\u201c@justinbaragona @JesseBWatters How do you say you\u2019re a racist without saying you\u2019re a racist\u201d— Justin Baragona (@Justin Baragona) 1683062836
\u201c@EdKrassen His comments are gross, yet unsurprising\u201d— Ed Krassenstein (@Ed Krassenstein) 1683078390
\u201c@justinbaragona Jesse is competing for Tucker\u2019s old slot by cranking the prejudicial shock factor to 10. This is cringy.\u201d— Justin Baragona (@Justin Baragona) 1683062836
\u201c@justinbaragona .@JesseBWatters \n\nNow, I saw on the way in to work Jesse Waters digging through @GOP trash looking for racism to recycle.\n\nHow did I know it was Jesse Waters?\n\nYou can tell.\n\nHe works at @FoxNews.\u201d— Justin Baragona (@Justin Baragona) 1683062836
\u201c@justinbaragona Now, I saw on the way in to work a criminal begging people for money.\n\n"How did you know they were a criminal?"\n\nIt was Donald Trump.\u201d— Justin Baragona (@Justin Baragona) 1683062836
The GOP has criticized Biden and suggested his Administration's immigration policies were responsible for the current asylum-seeking crisis.
In response, Biden said Republicans were using immigrants as pawns to promote their political agenda.
