The shooter suspected of killing five innocent people in a rampage last Friday has finally been apprehended by police in Cleveland, Texas . Francisco Oropesa, 38, who murdered his neighbors in cold blood over a noise dispute, was found hiding beneath a pile of laundry like a rat following a statewide manhunt. A woman thought to be his wife was also taken into custody on the charge of inhibiting the apprehension of a known felon. They deserve every ounce of justice coming to them.

But they are far from the only guilty parties in this story. In the days since the murders, which included an execution-style shooting of a 9-year-old boy above the neck, it has come to light that Oropesa entered the United States illegally and had already been deported at least four times , according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement . The fact that ICE can’t even definitively say how many times he’d been deported, or how long he’s been in the U.S. since his most recent deportation, underlies the terrifying reality that the southern border is wide open. Monsters such as Oropesa are free to come and go with impunity.

Despite attempts to change the subject, the Biden administration is keenly aware of this fact. The recent announcement that an additional 1,500 troops will be deployed to the Mexican border to restore order ahead of an expected surge in migrants following the end of pandemic-era restrictions is an implicit admission of the chaotic and untenable situation. (A similar order made by a Republican administration would doubtless be treated by the legacy press as an admission of xenophobia.) Polls also indicate that the public has come to view immigration, long relegated to the back bench of national priorities, as a top-tier issue .

But despite the urgent nature of the border crisis, the national conversation has once again been derailed by an excruciatingly stupid comment by a leading conservative voice. Speaking on the top-rated show The Five, Fox News host Jesse Watters recounted a time when he claimed to have seen a family of undocumented immigrants rustling through a dumpster. And how did he know they were undocumented?

“You can tell,” Watters said. “I can tell! I’m a city guy. You don’t want me to get into it, but I can tell.”

Sometimes it feels as if conservatives enjoy sabotaging the causes they purport to champion. Thanks to Watters’s ugly and foolish comments, a precious opportunity to make real progress in winning hearts and minds on the matter of this national crisis appears wasted. The remarks only serve to reinforce the Democratic Party’s narrative on immigration politics: that the conservative view is born of racism and xenophobia. It’s incalculable how much damage comments such as these do to conservative causes. And as a result, solving a complex problem such as the border crisis is only made more difficult.

Watters’s comments demand a rebuke, especially in the wake of Tucker Carlson’s sudden axing from the 8 p.m. slot on the Fox News prime-time lineup. The search for Carlson’s replacement has kicked into gear, and Watters’s name is frequently mentioned amid debates over who might fill the highly coveted spot.

However, this incident should disqualify Watters from consideration. As the 2024 election season commences, let us dispense with the farce that cable news channels are somehow disinterested news organizations and not political actors. The choice of Carlson’s replacement has real political consequences.

To be clear, elevating Watters as the face of Fox News, and therefore as one of the principal Republican Party figures in America, will not help Republicans capitalize on their gains with Hispanic voters in recent elections nor help them recapture the suburban women vote. And as a result, GOP priorities will suffer, including solving the crisis at the border.

We can only hope that Fox News looks elsewhere to find its new face.

Peter Laffin is a contributor at the Washington Examiner and the founder of Crush the College Essay. His work has also appeared in RealClearPolitics, the Catholic Thing, the National Catholic Register, and the American Spectator.