Laura Ingraham Allegedly Uses Taco Bell Ad To Mock Undocumented Immigrant Children
Conservative media personality Laura Ingraham allegedly mocked undocumented immigrant children with the use of a Taco Bell slogan. According to Raw Story, Ingraham used an old television commercial from Taco Bell to “make light of immigrant children” who were complaining about conditions at an Arizona Detention Center.
The Huffington Post reported that Ingraham used the Taco Bell slogan from the 1990s to “poke fun” at the children at the detention center because they were refusing food that they claimed was making them sick.
“The consul of Honduras is saying that the illegal immigrant children are complaining to the consulate of Honduras that the burritos and eggs they are being given in their holding areas are making them sick. So they’re complaining about the food. I bet there are a lot of American kids who would like free food before they go to bed at night.”
The Huffington Post continued on to say that Ingraham’s “counterintuitive portrayal of impoverished Central American migrants as spoiled” was immediately followed up by a recording of the old Taco Bell slogan “Yo Quiero Taco Bell,” which means “I want Taco Bell.”
Raw Story reported that the US Customs and Boarder Patrol had been shipping immigrant children apprehended along the border in South Texas to a warehouse in Arizona. They also stated that KPHO reported that officials were trying to improve the conditions for the children, and according to the consul of Honduras to Arizona, Tony Banegas, the children had been complaining that the food was making them ill.
“This morning they switched to burritos, but they complained the eggs were cold,” Banegas explained earlier this week. “They couldn’t eat them and even made them sick. They complained they had a burrito but had to throw it in the trash.”
Was Ingraham using the Taco Bell clip to mock the immigrant children? After the clip of the Taco Bell slogan, she slips in the comment “They’re already complaining.” It’s statements like these that have caused some conflicting opinions. Was she mocking the children? Did she really intend to call them spoiled because they were complaining about the food that was being provided to them?
Before she makes the comments regarding the immigrant children, she made the following comment that the Huffington Post claims is a “nonsensical sentence fragment.”
“I love children. Of course there are wonderful children. I remember the children in the Iraqi orphanages that I visited, that I had to leave behind, that I wanted to bring to the United States, but they wouldn’t let me adopt any of them. I remember those children. Heart broke for them. But we have something going on here that is profound, and our sovereignty, our rule of law, our financial resources, our military bases.”
What point do you believe Laura Ingraham was trying to make with the Taco Bell slogan thrown into her conversation? Want to hear her comments for yourself? Just check out the clip below!
[Image via Wikimedia Commons]
