Univision Anchor Jorge Ramos: US-Mexico Wall 'A 700 Mile Mistake'

SAN FRANCISCO--Jorge Ramos is a former journalist in Mexico, and is the Emmy-winning anchor of Univision's nightly newscast, Noticiero Univision for the last 20 years. Univision is the country's largest Spanish-language network. Ramos is also a best-selling author, a nationally syndicated columnist and radio commentator. He joined Odette Alcazaren-Keeley, anchor and producer of New America Media's newscast on its radio program, "Upfront," by telephone from Univision's Miami studios. He told Keeley that he wants to continue being the voice for voiceless Latinos in the United States.

NAM: In a recent column, you called the proposed border fence a "700-mile mistake" and pointed to a great irony about the construction of this border wall.

JR: The great irony is that undocumented immigrants might end up building a wall that's supposed to prevent other undocumented immigrants from coming to the United States.

As long as we have immigrants or Mexicans or people in Central America without a job, or people making $4 or $5 a day, and jobs for them in the United States in which they can make the same amount of money in 30 minutes or one hour, they're going to keep on coming. Immigrants are contributing incredibly to the economy of the United States. So not only are those immigrants needed in the United States, we're going to be needing even more immigrants in the future to keep on having the growth that we're so used to here.

NAM: In the early part of this year, we saw historic protests all over the country for immigration reform. Did Univision play a role, as did Hispanic media in general, in mobilizing thousands to take to the streets?

JR: I should point out that we at Univision follow exactly the same journalistic principles as other major networks. In other words, we are not supposed to, and we do not, give our opinion on the air. On the other hand, many people working in radio stations, especially in Los Angeles, with names that many Americans are simply not familiar with -- like El Piolin or El Cucuy -- people who are simply well-known in the Hispanic community and in the immigrant community, they were responsible for mobilizing hundreds of thousands of immigrants to the streets for the first time since I can remember, and I have been in this country for 23 years.

These mobilizations, these immigrants, made visible what has been invisible to many Americans. In other words, when you go to a restaurant, you simply do not realize that the prices you are paying are lower thanks to the labor of undocumented immigrants. And this happens in every single aspect of economic life in the United States.

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