Julia Preston/NYT uses unique case to advocate against 287g program

Julia Preston of the New York Times offers "Immigrant, Pregnant, Is Jailed Under Pact" (link), an attempt by the NYT to advocate against the 287g program under which localities contact ICE regarding jail inmates. A pregnant illegal alien was stopped without a driver's license, taken to jail, and gave birth after being shackled to a bed. The article, as most ones from NYT do, contains the seed of its own destruction:

"Whether this lady was documented or undocumented should not affect how she was treated in her late pregnant condition and as she was going through labor and bonding with her new baby," [her lawyer Elliott Ozment] said.

Indeed. The issue here is how that jail treats pregnant inmates. Julia Preston, the New York Times and others want to jump from there into blocking the 287g program. The more the New York Times advocates for illegal activity, the more I have to wonder whether they've got a sideline or something.

Comments

Did you catch her arrogant complaints about being treated like a criminal? No license. Driving recklessly. Possibly no insurance. Illegally entered this country twice, including once after deportation. Why on earth would she be treated like a criminal?

I just had to click on the link just to make sure it was not a lampoon curtesy of The Onion. Incredible. Best parts _Mrs. Villegas, who is 33, has lived in the United States since 1996, and has three other children besides the newborn who are American citizens because they were born here._ _After she was discharged from the hospital, Mrs. Villegas was separated from her nursing infant for two days and barred from taking a breast pump into the jail, her lawyer and a doctor familiar with the case said. Her breasts became infected, and the newborn boy developed jaundice, they said._ Infected breasts from not manually extruding milk without the use of a breast pump supplied at taxpayer expense. Dam these Immigration Lawyers are good!!!

ICE says they have a significantly lower incarceration death rate than other prison populations but we get a series of articles about alleged abuses but only about those in immigration detention. OK. But is the implied message to clean that up or a broader anti-immigration law enforcement policy goal? Same with any politician who gets all sanctimonious about Eight Amendment issues--but only for aliens. Isn't it a little obvious?