CNN’s Camerota: ‘Shutting down the border worked,’ we don’t need wall

CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota said Monday that the incident Sunday in which a group of immigrants charged the border and were deterred with tear gas proves that a border wall is not needed.

“As unfortunate as this incident is, I’m not sure that it proves that we need a border wall. In fact, it’s the opposite,” Camerota said on CNN’s “New Day” during a discussion with CNN reporter Nia-Malika Henderson and other CNN panelists.  

“The border worked. Border security here worked,” added Camerota. “So, however many people rushed the border, 39 were arrested. They are going to be deported. No one breached the border. So shutting down the border worked.”

Mexican authorities attempted to stop the group charging the border Sunday, but failed to do so, after which U.S. authorities fired tear gas, dispersing the crowd.

Mexico has said that it will deport about 500 people who it says tried to cross the border “illegally” and “violently.”

Trump has reiterated his calls for the border wall since the incident, saying that the group’s attempt to cross illegally indicates its necessity.

Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries. Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are NOT coming into the U.S.A. We will close the Border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the WALL!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2018

Trump has threatened to veto any spending bill that does not include funding for the wall.

Camerota disagreed, however, that the wall is necessary given that the crowd on Sunday was turned away.

“And it also proves, I think, that we don’t need a border wall because the migrants went out of their way to go to the Tijuana entrance because the rest of the border was considered too hazardous, too dangerous to cross, so they went an extra hundreds of miles to the port of entry of Tijuana because they considered that the easiest,” she said. “So in other words, the system is actually working. But, you know the politics better than us, and so how will this play out over the next two weeks as we lead up to a government shutdown?”

Henderson responded that the president is using the incident to argue that “a violent band of migrants” wants to overtake the border and “at all costs” must be kept from entering the country.

She also said it was clear there were no easy solutions to the problem, as she said a key reason why migrants are headed to the border to escape violent communities is that they are fleeing drug violence funded by the appetite in the United States for cocaine.