Conservative talk show host Lisa Benson warned on Sunday that Somali refugees control the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and insisted that she will not ride in taxis with Somali drivers out of fears for her safety.
“There is an exclusive contract with the Somali community both for janitorial services and for taxi driving” — not exactly sure how an airport has an “exclusive contract” with an ethnic community, but she goes on — “the refugee community has unrestricted access at my airport to baggage, to planes, to many, many things.”
“Getting out of the plane last weekend I went to a taxi stand and quietly asked the attendant to put me in a cab, preferably not a Somali cab – that was my first mistake as I was trying to protect myself,” she said, suggesting that she would be a victim of an anti-Semitic attack if she was in a car with a Somali driver.
CAIR reported on Benson’s remarks and noted that “Benson’s Board of Advisors includes notorious Islamophobes such as Nonie Darwish, Steven Emerson and John Guandolo.”