Fox News host Tucker Carlson and refugee advocate Jose Antonio Vargas got into a heated argument on Tuesday night when the Fox News host started off the interview by asking, “What would happen if I showed up in the Philippines, as a non-citizen, there illegally and started saying, ‘Hey Philippines, I hate your immigration policy?”
Vargas, a journalist who once wrote a New York Times column detailing his life as an undocumented immigrant, responded that he was only 12 years old when he came to America, so he wouldn’t have asked those kind of questions.
Vargas attempted to explain the relationship between America and the Philippines when Carlson asked him to answer his initial question. Vargas fired back, “Tucker, do you think I came to this country so you could beat me up and call me illegal and criminal on national television?”
Carlson chuckled and said, “I’m hardly beating you up,” as Vargas asked, “How do you legalize people you call illegal?”
Carlson told Vargas he was contradicting himself by saying the country has the right to protect it’s boarders while “simultaneously” arguing that illegal immigrants should not be referred to as illegal.
“Being here without documentation and authorization is a civil offense and not a criminal one,” Vargas said.
“OK, whatever, it’s still against the law,” Carlson responded. “What’s your point?”
Vargas went on to tell Carlson, “You don’t operate in facts,” and argued he’s simply a pundit, which is different from a journalist. He then started to explain that the history of America impacts how the country should treat immigrants.
“You claim to be a journalist,” Carlson said at one point. “Tell me why the United States, like many countries around the world, once had slavery, a grave sin, it doesn’t have a right to control who comes across it’s boarders?”
The two went on to fight about it for a few more minutes, with Vargas telling Carlson he doesn’t deal with context.
Watch the video above.