Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra was caught on camera berating staff during a virtual meeting, for not processing unaccompanied migrant minors at the border quickly enough. But you’d never know it if you rely on the corporate Spanish-speaking press for your news, where the callous comments from one of their darlings were HIDDEN from the public.
Watch Becerra´s demeaning words in a video first shared by Hannah Dreier in a New York Times investigative report about the alarming increase in forced child labor, which the Latino networks buried:
XAVIER BECERRA O/C: If Henry Ford had seen this in his plants, he would have never become famous and rich. This is not the way we do an assembly line and kids aren’t widgets, I get it, but we could do far better than this.”
In other words, Telemundo, Univision and CNN en Español chose to censor Becerra´s utter disregard for migrant children by pushing for their early release and putting them in vulnerable situations where they are more likely to become victims of exploitation.
The networks, however, found time to report the alarming 70% rise in child labor violations since 2018, ONLY after the Biden administration reacted to the NYT story with plans to crack down on the illegal employment of minors.
The reality of growing numbers of unaccompanied children entering the country and being released into the hands of “sponsors” who end up exploiting them, while extremely worrisome, is hardly breaking news. That the head of HHS wants assembly line treatment to allow more children into the country to exploit, that is breaking news.
“If Henry Ford had seen this in his plants, he would have never become famous and rich. This is not the way we do an assembly line and kids aren’t widgets, I get it, but we could do far better than this.”
But the networks chose to protect one of their own- a longtime guest and now “historic” Cabinet secretary. Bitter words coming from the mouth of the Secretary of Health and Human Services, one we would like to think sets policies aimed at our children´s- and our own- well-being. Apparently, for the Latino corporate press, protecting the public persona of an important ally in the pursuit for a guaranteed, steady audience, matters more than revealing his blatant disregard for children.
The above mentioned segment was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Kellog´s. Their contact information is linked.