Crossing the U.S. border without authorization is a federal crime, yet you would not know it listening to Geraldo Rivera. The former Fox News personality embarrassed himself this week during a fiery exchange on Piers Morgan’s “Uncensored” program, where he tried to argue that illegal immigrants are not actually lawbreakers.
Rivera insisted that “the only crime the vast majority of these people have committed is coming here illegally.” His opponent, conservative commentator Benny Johnson, quickly seized on the contradiction. “Do you understand the definition of the word illegal?” Johnson pressed. Rivera shot back with a terse, “I understand everything.” But when Johnson reminded him that he had just admitted they came here illegally, Rivera froze. For nearly ten seconds, the veteran broadcaster sat in silence, staring off-camera, while Johnson’s clip of the awkward moment later went viral. Johnson even layered the “Jeopardy!” theme over the footage, a cheeky reminder of Rivera’s inability to answer.
Instead of admitting defeat, Rivera shifted into outrage, accusing Johnson of stoking fear. “I am absolutely dismayed by the attempts to sow terror in the homes of Latino people,” he yelled, raising his voice as the crosstalk grew more chaotic. Johnson, refusing to let the veteran anchor off the hook, challenged his logic further. “What do you mean by they’re not criminal aliens?” he asked. When Rivera fired back by asking whether Johnson carried his passport around like many Latino families feel compelled to do, Johnson replied, “I always carry an ID with me… and a gun.”
The debate underscored just how far Rivera has drifted from his early days as a hard-hitting journalist. Once considered a conservative voice at Fox News, Rivera grew increasingly liberal in his later years. By 2023, he stepped away from “The Five,” citing disagreements with producers. Fox management, he admitted later, did not exactly beg him to stay.
Now in semi-retirement, Rivera pops up for television debates that often turn him into a punching bag. His lenient takes on illegal immigration repeatedly spark ridicule online. Back in March, he even claimed that “many of the folks most concerned with illegal immigrant aliens have never actually seen one,” an assertion that critics blasted as detached from reality.
From his perch in Shaker Heights, Ohio—one of the state’s most affluent and liberal enclaves—Rivera continues to downplay the very real consequences of illegal immigration, leaving audiences with more questions than answers.
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