Maria Hinojosa Discusses Her MSNBC ‘Illegals’ Moment on Newest IN THE THICK Podcast

Nov 4, 2016
3:52 PM

It has been an interesting week for award-winning Maria Hinojosa. Last Saturday, Hinojosa got some online attention for AM Joy appearance after telling Donald Trump surrogate Steve Cortes that “illegals is not a noun.” The response pretty intense, and it took off after a Fusion Facebook video about the appearance generated more than two million views.

On the newest In The Thick podcast (produced by Hinojosa’s Futuro Media Group), guest host Julio Ricardo Varela (yes, the founder of Latino Rebels and now Futuro’s Political Editor) talked with Hinojosa about the MSNBC appearance.

The one-on-one with Hinojosa and Varela starts around seven minutes into the podcast, which also featured The New Yorker‘s Jelani Cobb and Julianne Hing from The United States of Anxiety.

In the interview, Hinojosa said she experienced anti-Semitism and “real anger” the appearance.

“It’s the venom. It’s the insults. It’s the c-word. It’s the, you’re a bigot, you’re a racist,” Hinojosa said. “And that’s when it really begins to feel hurtful. That tone is something, I think, we’re not shocked by any more.”

“No one has ever spoken to me in the way that people are addressing me now,” Hinojosa added. “No one has taken this tone, this language, this particular kind of language—the insulting and profane language. No. It’s new for me.”

Hinojosa also reminded people that she is the one who did not said that “human beings are not illegal.” She said she was referring to what Elie Wiesel had said in the past on this issue, and it was Wiesel who told her that it was the Nazis who first labeled a human being “illegal.”

“[Wiesel] was the one that was saying that if you open the door to dehumanize people, there are real consequences,” Hinojosa said.

“The volume level of the hate has definitely increased,” Hinojosa added. She did say that the current election season has played a direct correlation to tone of dialogue.

Nonetheless, Hinojosa said that she was still hopeful about the future of the country.