Elon Musk Shifts Attention To Illegal Immigrants

The influential billionaire wants to shine a spotlight on issues close to his heart.

No doubt that this year has brought Elon Musk to the fore regarding so many social and business issues.

In recent months, Musk has talked about, and been talked about, more regarding his positions on politics than on issues concerning, for example, two of his flagship companies, Tesla  (TSLA) - Get Free Report and SpaceX.

He has notably distinguished himself by steering up controversy about the limits of free speech, of which he claims to be an inveterate defender.

He's displayed this by reactivating extremist accounts on the microblogging platform Twitter, for which he paid $44 billion in a deal that closed in late October.

He also reinstated the account of former President Donald Trump, who was banned on Jan. 8, 2021, after his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol, attempting to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the November 2020 presidential election.

For Musk, any speech is acceptable on Twitter as long as the messages posted do not break the law. This approach has already scared away many advertisers, who do not want to see their ads associated with hateful content. The exodus of the advertisers is a big financial setback for Twitter, with 91% of its revenue in the second quarter coming from advertising.

'Why Is This Never in the News?'

However, Musk is not changing course. He repeats daily that his mission is to rebalance things between conservatives and liberals on social networks and in the media. He has now doubled down by raising a very important and sensitive issue: illegal immigration. He says the mainstream media do not want to address it. 

For a few days now, the serial entrepreneur has been tweeting out comments on the conservative Fox channel's often alarming reports on the surge of illegal immigrants in the southern U.S. He hopes that his influence and his 128 million followers will provide a sounding board for this complex question.

"Harvard Poll: 75% think less than a million illegals entered last year," posted an anonymous Twitter user, who describes themselves as "fighting, exposing, and mocking the woke left." 

"When told the correct number (2.75 million), 67% want stricter laws," the user continued.

That's when Musk stepped in, expressing surprise that these data had never been covered by the media. Musk implied that there is some kind of omerta on the subject of illegal immigration. 

"Why is this never in the news?" the billionaire asked.

"The people running the news companies in America hate America & Americans," one Twitter user replied.

"How did it come to be this way?" the billionaire responded.

"Unfortunately, the MSM [mainstream media] has been moving the political needle more and more to the left over time. What used to be considered the center, or moderate, is now considered the right wing. Many colleges and Universities are also incorporating this agenda in the curriculum," responded one Twitter user.

"True," Musk agreed.

"One party, the Democrats, controls 90% of the media and what is good for America is bad for their party," answered Ryan Saavedra, senior writer at @realDailyWire.

"How do you calculate 90%?" Musk asked Saavedra.

"In the 2016 presidential election, 96% of the donations from journalists to either Clinton or Trump went to Clinton," the reporter answered. "Only 7% of reporters are Republicans."

A Major Deadline: Title 42 Expiration Looms

Contrary to what Musk says, the press has been covering the surge of illegal immigration in Texas in recent weeks, as the expiration of Title 42 looms. 

News outlets have been warning that the situation at the border is catastrophic and will degrade once Title 42, which was used to expel migrants on public-health grounds, is no longer active.

The Title 42 provision was activated by former President Donald Trump at the start of the pandemic in March 2020. It enabled the U.S. to immediately expel migrants crossing the land borders of the U.S. without visas, even those seeking asylum.

At the time, the Democrats denounced what they perceived as an aggressive anti-immigration measure. Since Joe Biden came to power, he has been trying to put an end to it. 

The measure, which expires on Dec. 21, has deterred more than 2.5 million migrants from crossing since March 2020.

But now El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, are bracing for a surge of unauthorized border crossings. 

The press devotes significant coverage of the situation in El Paso, the main entry point for migrants from Mexico. In the newspapers, on television and other news outlets, the same images of men, women and children crossing the Rio Grande are shown.

El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser has issued an emergency declaration, seeking additional local and state resources for shelter construction and other emergency services.

Between 2015 and 2018, border agents observed between 400,000 and 500,000 illegal immigrants crossings per year. 

The figure jumped to 1 million in 2019, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics. 

The number went down to 500,000 in 2020 because of covid-19, but the number more than tripled in 2021 to 1.7 million, and more than 2 million are expected this year.