August 25, 2005

Pro-illegal immigration propaganda from CBS News?

Let's take a look at the report "Arizona Border Dispute" from Bryan Sanders of the "CBS News Political Unit." At first glance it might look like just a standard rundown of the two main massive amnesty schemes: Kennedy/McCain and Cornyn/Kyl.

But, there at the start of the fourth paragraph, sticking out like a big ol' propagandistic thumb, comes this:

There is emerging consensus at the state and national level that the U.S. immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed.

Here's an Orlando Sentinel editorial from a few days ago: Clearly, it is past time for Congress to fix this country's broken immigration system.

And, here's a David Brooks editorial: The system is out of control.

Another instance here, and more in "America's immigration system is broken, and needs to be fixed".

There is the distinct possibility that they are indeed all reading from the same script.

Returning to the CBS News report, we come to this bit:

A Pew Hispanic Center poll released last week shows 84 percent of Americans favor a plan allowing illegal immigrants to stay and work in the United States with an opportunity to become citizens later. The same poll shows Americans, to a slightly lesser degree, are also sympathetic to the Kyl-Cornyn approach.

See if you can spot the mistake the reporter made in this blurb about the study in question:

Although an overwhelming majority of Hispanics expresses positive attitudes toward immigrants, relatively few Hispanics favor increasing the flow of legal immigration from Latin America and a significant minority, concentrated among native-born Latinos, is concerned that unauthorized migrants are hurting the economy. One hotly-debated means to discourage unauthorized migration--laws that deny drivers licenses to people who are in the country illegally--draws support from a majority of the native born, according to a survey of the Latino population in the United States conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center...

I have trouble believing it could escape anyone's notice that this survey was just of "Latinos" and not of Americans as a whole, but let's just assume that's an honest mistake.

Back to CBS:

For Republicans considering a run to succeed Mr. Bush as the party's nominee for the White House in 2008, immigration is a thorny issue. They are under pressure to strike a balance between the concerns of conservative primary voters favoring a hard-line approach, and those of Hispanics, who are largely sympathetic to the plight of migrant workers, and represent a pivotal voting bloc in the general election...

Apparently the great majority of Americans - those who think the immigration laws should be enforced - are hard-liners. And, apparently we should allow one racial group to dictate our immigration policies. But, what do most Americans really think? To help us find out, let's turn to CBS Poll: 63% oppose "work permits" for "illegal immigrants".

Posted to Immigration2005b at August 25, 2005 02:05 PM

Comments

It's really two to one against any amnesty proposals that legalize and worsen the problem. Latinos in a position to vote are even more likely to oppose any visa giveaway to foreign criminals. Republican operatives say that they are courting the future hispanic voters, but this is no excuse for defying democracy today. These are unprincipled politicians who tremble that the leftists will call them racists. Having millions in prison would have been considered racist and immoderate 12 years ago; the cynical moderate right had ignored the outcries of the overwhelming majority for many years prior to that, just as they are fearfully doing on the issue of foreign criminals today. Officials will give you as much aggression as you will let them get away with.

Posted by: John S Bolton at August 25, 2005 05:53 PM

I guess I am one of the "hard liners" they are talking about. All I know is that the border is still wide open and it needs to be secured. And I "do not" want any kind of "guest worker" program. I only want the border fixed; either build a wall, dig a moat, line up the National guard along the border, whatever, just get it done.

Posted by: DG at August 25, 2005 11:11 PM