As CBS set the stage for Sunday night’s Elite Eight sport between UConn and Duke, the community aired a characteristic section on Huskies ahead Alex Karaban and his household, who’re immigrants from the Eastern European nation of Belarus.
In an emotional, off-script response to the Karabans’ story, TNT Sports commentator Charles Barkley used the chance to name for fairer treatment of immigrants in the United States.
After stating that he needed to be “careful” addressing the “touchy” topic of immigration coverage, Barkley delivered a fervent protection of “amazing immigrants” in America and referred to as for higher treatment of foreign-born people in the U.S.
“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,” Barkley mentioned.
“I feel there’ s a distinction between superb immigrants and prison immigrants. And I feel what’s gone on in our nation and what we’re doing to some of these superb immigrants is de facto unlucky, and it’s actually unhappy.
“And that’s a great immigrant story, and we have a lot of great immigrant stories out there … but some of the things that’s happening in our country to immigrants now is really unfortunate, and it’s really unfair. But immigrants built this country, and we should admire them and respect them.”
“The way some of these other immigrants are getting treated in our country right now is a travesty and a disgrace… 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.” – Charles Barkley on CBS pic.twitter.com/uEllZpD57u
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 29, 2026
In the 2024 election, President Donald Trump carried a majority of the vote to win the presidency a second time on a platform constructed round mass deportations. Since taking workplace, Trump has deployed federal brokers far and huge. Protestors have met these enforcement officers in equal or higher numbers in cities throughout the nation, most notably Minneapolis, the place two protestors had been killed over the winter.
Barkley was on-air in January when information broke of Alex Pretti’s dying in Minnesota. The Inside the NBA host said on the time that “two people have died for no reason.”
On the subject of immigrants themselves, Barkley additionally came out against a Department of Homeland Security raid on a popular sports bar chain in Phoenix throughout a podcast episode in early February.
While the nationwide information cycle has been much less targeted on immigration in current weeks, Barkley introduced the difficulty again to the floor with an pressing monologue on Sunday in the midst of NCAA tournament coverage.
