North Carolina State radio broadcaster Gary Hahn was suspended indefinitely after making a reference to “illegal aliens” in El Paso, Texas.
Hahn made the comments during the Wolfpack’s 16-12 loss to Maryland in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte on Friday.
Here's what got NCSU announcer Gary Hahn immediately and indefinitely suspended after today's broadcast: pic.twitter.com/4qkyQ1jzT2
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) December 30, 2022
“Down among all the illegal aliens in El Paso, it’s UCLA 14 and Pittsburgh 6,” Hahn said. “That’s with 11:15 to go in the second quarter.”
Following the game, Wolfpack Sports Properties general manager Kyle Winchester announced that Hahn had been suspended indefinitely.
“Learfield has suspended Wolfpack Sports Network play-by-play announcer Gary Hahn from his agreement indefinitely following comments made during today’s Duke’s Mayo Bowl radio broadcast,” Winchester said in a statement relayed by the school.
Andrew Sanders and Ernie Myers were already slated to broadcast the basketball game against Clemson on Friday, with Hahn and Tony Haynes occupied with football.
Hahn has been the voice of NC State football and men’s basketball since 1991. He was the North Carolina Sportscaster of the Year in 2011 and 2020.
This comes a month after El Paso officials declared a state of emergency as migrants have continued to cross into the city from Mexico seeking asylum.
El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser had previously resisted declaring an emergency, claiming that seeing people out in the cold on the streets of the city drove him to take action.
“That’s not the way we want to treat people,” Leeser said during a news conference.
The U.S. has been seeing massive migrant numbers since President Joe Biden announced in April that he would be lifting “Title 42,” a controversial border policy implemented by former President Donald Trump back in March 2020 that allowed the border agency to turn migrants away.
Since then, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reported that nearly 2.4 million migrants were detained at the border for the fiscal year ending in September, breaching the already-historic number of 1.7 million migrant detainees in 2021.
The numbers are likely to increase only with the impending expiration of “Title 42.” The DHS reportedly has a six-point plan in place to deal with the imminent influx in population that it anticipates will occur. This includes an increase in resources and manpower, as well as a greater use of alternative authorities more frequently.
