You would think that during March Madness, the CBS pre-game show would have enough basketball to talk about that they wouldn’t need to swerve into immigration policy, but you would be wrong.
On Sunday, after airing a feature on UCONN star Alex Karaban, a first-generation American of Belarusian immigrants, former NBA great Charles Barkley took that opportunity to launch into a diatribe about his perception of how illegal immigrants are treated in America.
“I want to be very careful with my words right now, because this is a really touchy subject for me,” Barkley started by saying. “I love that kid and his family, but the way some of these other immigrants are getting treated in our country right now is a travesty and a disgrace.”
He continued, “I think there’s a difference between amazing immigrants and criminal immigrants, and I think what’s going on in our country — what we’re doing to some of these amazing immigrants, is really unfortunate and it’s really sad.
“And that’s a great immigrant story — we have a lot of great immigrant stories out there, whose stories need to be told. But some of the stuff that’s happening to immigrants in our country right now is really unfortunate and is really unfair. But immigrants built this country, and we should admire them and respect them.”
Barkley’s rant wasn’t all that well-received on X.
Some X users also pointed out that Barkley’s rant starkly contrasted with his comments to ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith in 2024, when he pleaded for border security.
Ironically, Barkley seemed more passionate about border security as long as the administration in power showed no interest in addressing it.
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