What did Jesse Watters say about migrants? Fox News host slammed for recent insensitive remarks

Jesse Watters. (Photo via Getty Images)
Jesse Watters. (Photo via Getty Images)

American commentator Jesse Watters was slammed online after he made some insensitive remarks about immigrants. On May 2's episode of Fox News' roundtable talk series The Five, the 44-year-old personality, alongside Dana Perino, Greg Gutfeld, Jessica Tarlov, and Jeanine Pirro, were discussing the claims how Texas Governor Greg Abbott is busing migrants to New York and other "Black-run cities."

The discussion came after Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, on May 1, said that Abbott had recently given up plans to continue sending busloads of illegal immigrants-turned-asylum-seekers to New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, and Washington, D.C., only to resume the "morally bankrupt" program again.

On the Fox show, Jesse Watters said:

“The mayor here is complaining about a couple thousand, with more resources than any other city in the entire country? That’s ridiculous. Now, I saw on the way into work an illegal immigration family digging through the trash looking for recyclables.”

Tarlov suddenly cut in and questioned:

“How did you know they were illegal?”

Jesse responded:

“You can tell. I can tell. I’m a city guy, and you don’t want me to get into it, but I can tell.”

Jesse Watters' remarks sparked an uproar online, with several people slamming him for his insensitive comments.


Twitter reactions to Jesse Watters' comments on immigrants

After Jesse Watters' claim that he could spot an illegal immigrant because he is a "city guy" went viral, Twitterati was furious. Several users branded the host racist and mocked him for his so-called instincts of knowing who an immigrant is and who isn't.

Others compared him to Fox's former anchor Tucker Carlson and demanded Watters be fired like him.


Jesse Watters continued explaining his stance on illegal immigrants

After making controversial comments on The Five, Jesse Watters continued to speak about illegal immigrants, stating it is the "saddest thing" to see since they aren't able to work in the country.

"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 responsibility to President Joe Biden, whose administration has witnessed an increase in border crossings.

"Joe Biden is the common denominator for all of this. It's like a bad manager that doesn't do his job. Then everybody on the staff is pointing fingers and bi**hing 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."

Watters' boast comes right after Fox News was said to have fired Tucker Carlson for a racist text message found during the Dominion case.

As per a New York Times report, Carlson allegedly said something that was the last straw for Fox in the text that praised a mob for beating up an accused Antifa member.

“Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously. It’s not how white men fight.”

As of this article's writing, Jesse Watters has not responded to the online backlash for his controversial comments.

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Edited by Shreya Das
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