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A month after her controversial remarks at Tucson High Magnet School, labor activist Dolores Huerta has come forward to defend her speech.

After remaining quiet through most of the subsequent debate about her April 3 "Republicans hate Latinos" comment, Huerta appeared on the Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" on Tuesday to talk about her remarks.

Huerta, who has not returned calls from the Arizona Daily Star, dodged questions from host Bill O'Reilly about her position on whether the U.S.-Mexican border should be open or closed. But she defended her "Republican" comment, which O'Reilly called a "disservice" to the students.

"I believe this is a free-speech issue," she said. "When I was speaking to the students, I was telling them what was going on with the immigration debate."

Huerta's speech at Tucson High attracted national interest after she encouraged students to start a postcard campaign with the theme "Republicans hate Latinos." O'Reilly devoted two segments of his show to the incident. Even state lawmakers got involved.

TUSD officials say Huerta, who helped organized the United Farm Workers Union with César Chávez, was invited to motivate students to do well on the AIMS test. But that became a brief mention in a speech in which she also expressed her views on abortion, gay marriage and taxes. School officials have defended the visit, although they say they were "surprised and saddened" by Huerta's statement about Republicans.

O'Reilly asked Huerta if she sincerely believes Republicans hate Latinos, especially given that Democrats also supported the congressional bill that Huerta alluded to when she made the comment.

"Look, half the country is Republican," O'Reilly said. "So you think half the country — because they want strict border enforcement and they want the immigration laws enforced — hate Latinos? Come on."

Huerta said her comments were derived not just from the ways lawmakers have approached the immigration issue but also from past actions by Republicans, such as then-California Gov. Pete Wilson's opposition to affirmative action in the 1990s.