As the United States Senate is expected to take up consideration of the DREAM Act as an amendment on the Senate floor, several immigrant youth will join national organizations and coalitions in Washington, DC tomorrow, Wednesday, September 19, 2007 to urge their Members of Congress to support the DREAM Act under the chorus, "Our Dreams Can't Wait."They brought along two students; compare their descriptions in the release from the first paragraphs offered by "reporters" in "news" stories. The release is basically just a PIIPP in raw, unprocessed form:
Rodrigo came to the United States, at the tender age of six, after his father was killed in front of him. After graduating high school as valedictorian with a 4.0 GPA, Rodrigo entered the University of California, Berkley where he majors in Rhetoric and Ethnic Studies. Rodrigo aspires to attend medical school.I don't know about those professions; wouldn't it help pull the heartstrings better if they wanted to join the FBI or the CIA?
At 14 years old, Lizbeth left her native Oaxaca, Mexico where the family's financial situation was crumbling to embark a new life in the United States. After plenty of sacrifices, Lizbeth is one year away from graduating on the Dean's honor list in Chicana Studies at the University of Southern California. She wants to become an immigration or civil rights lawyer.
Douglas McGray (douglasmcgray.com, dmcgray *at* comcast.net) of the New America Foundation offers "A uniquely American DREAM" (link), a guest editorial supporting the anti-American DREAM Act. In addition to being a massive and nearly unlimited amnesty, that bill - currently attached to a defense bill - would allow illegal aliens to take college discounts from U.S. citizens. Please contact your Senators and let them know you oppose it or just go here to send a free FAX.
The editorial is highly similar to the "news" reports in this genre; if you aren't familiar with them read a few of those then compare them to McGray's spiel. This is truly propaganda by the numbers:
...[Congress] might start by considering young people like Lucia... By seventh grade, she made it from remedial English classes to the gifted-and-talented program. She joined the California Cadet Corps, a kind of junior ROTC. She was voted queen of her high school prom and named valedictorian of her graduating class. She had a plan. She wanted to enlist in the Marines, go to college and apply to work for the CIA -- she liked spy movies... ...[Her parents] told her they had come to the United States illegally all those years ago. That meant she was an illegal immigrant too... ...She graduated two years ago. But she couldn't apply for a paying, professional job and start returning America's investment in her...
Supporters of illegal immigration are really cranking up the pressure: just yesterday another propaganda piece featured an illegal alien who wanted to be an FBI agent. Could this be a sign of some form of coordination between those who produce or who push these articles?
Note also that this is a bit of a retread for McGray. In April he offered an "This American Life" (NPR/Chicago Public Radio) segment "Just One Thing Missing" (newamerica.net/publications/articles/2007/this_american_life_5124). You know what's coming!
Martha doesn't like to talk about her future anymore. She'd wanted to go to med school, become an OB-gyn...
Etc., etc. No word on whether she also wants to join the NSA.
On yesterday's CBS Evening News, Kelly Cobiella offered a slab of pro-illegal immigration propaganda entitled "Teens Lobby Hill For New Immigration Bill" (link) about the two illegal alien brothers pushing for the anti-American DREAM Act. See the story from Tim Padgett of Time for the background on the case, and see the other posts in this category for other very similar articles promoting that Act.
If Cobiella were a real journalist she would have dealt with this story from a public policy perspective rather than the human interest treatment that she gave it, including trying her best to make the viewers sympathetic to their cause.
It also includes this ludicrous statement:
"To help these brothers, but more importantly to help so many others, because we finally put a face on the problem," Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., told the teens.
Supporters of the DREAM Act have planted dozens of reports "finally put[ting] a face on the problem" for years. In Cobiella's defense, she does include half a sentence and a quote from Brian Bilbray indicating that some might actually oppose the Act, but in no case is this report anything other than propaganda.
You can contact CBS News here: cbsnews.com/htdocs/feedback/fb_news_form.shtml
The DREAM Act is an explicitly anti-American bill that would allow illegal aliens to take discounted college educations from U.S. citizens. Corrupt newspapers and "reporters" have offered a long line of propaganda pieces - called around here "PIIPPs" - in support of the legislation. That propaganda is invariably strongly biased towards the Act and rarely if ever mentions its downsides.
Now, here's one in magazine form, from Tim Padgett of Time ("Can Two Kids Alter Immigration Law?", link):
When teenage brothers Juan and Alex Gomez were awakened at dawn on July 25 and arrested by U.S. immigration officials, they simply became two more among the thousands of kids who get snared in deportation dragnets along with their parents. But this week Juan's Internet-savvy high school friends in Miami have turned his case into a cause celebre in Washington - and even if the brothers eventually do get deported, the publicity they've garnered may well boost the passage of a federal immigration bill that would keep other young people like them from suffering the same fate in the future.
Their parents brought them here as toddlers on a tourist visa, which they overstayed. One would imagine that if there were any mitigating circumstances - such as the parents applying for asylum or similar - they would have been mentioned. Since they aren't, perhaps Padgett could have asked their parents what they were thinking. Oops: that's not part of the PIIPP playbook. I've yet to see a PIIPP where a "reporter" asks the parents whether they feel they have any sort of responsibility.
The rest of the article follows the playbook, using euphemisms like "undocumented" and false statements like "the current anti-immigration mood on Capitol Hill". See this category for several past examples highly similar to this one.
But, give Padgett some credit. He manages to offer one (yes, just one) sentence alluding to the possibility that some might have some objections to that which "reporter" Padgett clearly supports:
Critics call the DREAM Act - which was part of President Bush's failed immigration reform package and is now a stand-alone bill - just another amnesty reward for lawbreaking.
Even that contains a half-truth: what failed was legislation written with the input of several others, not just Bush. Surely, a real reporter would have offered more than one sentence with the downsides, right?
Since they don't seem to have a reader's rep, please write letters *at* time.com with your thoughts.
[...Eleven highly emotional paragraphs describing the feds picking up two illegal aliens from the house of two legal immigrants...]One thing is clear: the New York Times opposes immigration raids. Can anyone see Sam Freedman changing his tune if "comprehensive immigration reform" passes? Won't he just continue to say these same things over and over about the raids that are supposedly part of "reform"? And, won't that tend to water down "reform" and continue to allow illegal immigration to occur?
Such was the triumph of Operation Cross Check, the federal raid against illegal immigrants that went on for four days last month in this community of about 18,500 people. To the Department of Homeland Security, the operation was a success, catching a convicted sex offender and several welfare cheats among its 49 arrests. In a news release announcing the toll, an immigration enforcement director for Minnesota said, "Our job is to help protect the public from those who commit crimes."
Yet more than half of those arrested had committed no crime other than being in the United States illegally, doing the jobs at Jennie-O that prop up the local economy. And, as the experience of Alex Sorto demonstrates, the aggressive, invasive style of the sweep instilled lasting fear among Willmar’s 3,000 Hispanics, many of them students born or naturalized in the United States. These young people are the political football in America’s bitter, unresolved battle about immigration.
With only a month to her high school graduation, May sees a daunting number of obstacles ahead.
More than anything, she wants to go to college. But as an illegal immigrant with a longstanding deportation order, May has little access to financial aid. If she scrapes the tuition together, there are no guarantees she will be allowed to stay in the country.
Even with a college degree, she wonders, what kind of job can an undocumented worker get?
..."They've worked hard, and they've studied. Many of these kids have lived nowhere else. They don't even remember where they came from," said U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, one of the [DREAM Act's] sponsors.
On Sofia Alvarado's 46th birthday, she stood beaming
at the stove
in her
South San Jose home
mashing and stirring a clay pot of pinto beans
The rare afternoon was a mother's coveted gift: all five of her adult children
and
four grandchildren relaxing
at home together at the same time
Her eldest daughter kicks
a ball
out front
with her young daughter
A son watches over a grandchild while another
son sleeps off his graveyard shift
Another daughter coos over an infant
The youngest daughter arrives from school
How do you spell "perseverance?"I am not making any of that up. The article appears to have been rewritten as an Associated Press story here, it appears in the Houston Chroncle here, the Salt Lake Tribune here, and as a Scripps "news" story here. It's refered to here as a "kleenex box moment".
When 13-year-old Kunal Sah stands before television cameras May 30-31 to represent Utah - for the second time - at the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., his parents won't be there with him.
Ken and Sarita Sah were deported back to India last July after 16 years residing legally in this country. They ultimately lost their battle to remain under tough U.S. immigration regulations in the post-9/11 atmosphere...
[...heart-wrenching moments deleted...]
How do you spell "heartache?"
Sah's asylum claim? He feared Muslim persecution in his home country. That might engender sympathy—until one realizes that his home country is India, which has 800 million fellow Hindus for Sah to live amongst. And that Sah's basis for fearing persecution was because, as a member of the radical Hindu nationalist organization Vishwa Hindu Parishad, he "took a very active part in organizing and conducting [anti-mosque] meeting[s]" and that he "actively participated in the riots to [attempt to] demolish the Babri Mosque." (Vishwa eventually succeeded in destroying the mosque in 1992, causing religious riots that killed 900 people.)
Victoria Perez traveled to the state Capitol Tuesday to ask for a future... Perez, a senior at New Haven's Wilbur Cross High School, aspires to go to college next year to prepare for a career in criminal justice. But she has no idea how she'll foot the bill... The problem: She's in the United States illegally, and therefore doesn't qualify for in-state tuition rates at Connecticut's public colleges and universities. Out-of-state tuition costs three times as much.Showing either a complete lack of understanding of logical reasoning (or perhaps a knowledge that there are a lot of useful idiots about), Perez doesn't think that's fair:
"We're all created equal. I mean, we're all humans."Needless to say, James doesn't try to help her understand fundamental concepts.
"These kids were brought here, sometimes without any choice or against their will," Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said. ...[Regardless of the cost], Blumenthal said, the price would be fully justified, calling it "an investment that will repay itself many times over."Partially redeeming himself, James includes some critics:
During Tuesday's hearing before the higher education committee, Sen. Dan Debicella, R-Shelton, called the bill "a massive subsidy" for illegal immigrants.
"If someone has not followed the laws of the U.S. to become a citizen, why do they deserve to get the same level of tuition as legal residents?" Debicella asked.
"This seems to reward behavior that we seek to deter," the senator said.
Rep. Pamela Z. Sawyer, R-Bolton, worried the measure could hurt the state's aspiring college students by heightening the competition for admission. Many community college students are single mothers struggling to make ends meet, she said.
"There are a lot of pressures on education dollars currently in the state of Connecticut," Sawyer said.
Posted at 10:10 AM | Comments (4)
A pro-illegal immigration series the Washington Post did in December of last year is described here. Five WaPo writers wrote three articles telling the story of an illegal alien who fled from cops and fell from a bridge. As you might expect, the WaPo did a complicated dance around his immigration status.
The writers involved were: Mary Beth Sheridan, Ian Shapira, Candace Rondeaux, Allison Klein, and Theresa Vargas.
The link also includes this quote from Washington Post Ombudsman Deborah Howell:
"Journalists tend to be softhearted toward the afflicted or the underdog, which tends to make them less critical of illegal immigrants."
Actually, I believe there's something else at work, at least at a level higher than that of the lowly reporters. In the Washington Post's case, they've advocated for illegal immigration in order to keep the "boom burbs" outside DC humming away. Perhaps some other paper should "follow the money" and see whether the WaPo has some sort of a profit motive somewhere.
Posted at 05:06 AM | Comments (0)
One of the film's dominant themes - more stressed in the film than the book - is immigration. And the comparisons are obvious. Some right-wing Republicans in the United States wish to restrict immigration. One Republican House Representative recently said he wanted to restrict the flow of people of a certain religious group into the United States, and others have been accused of racism. In another early scene in the film, the audience sees newspapers plastered on a wall, one of which reads "Immigrants Protest Against Government New Racist Policies." An allusion to the immigration protests that occurred in spring and summer of 2006 in the United States while the Republican-dominated House of Representatives passed racist "immigration reform"?Furthermore, "immigrants" are put into prison camps, and the film's hero works with a group that tries to keep them out of the camps.
...In the film, the government assaults the population with propaganda to make them afraid of illegal immigrants. At one point, a government propaganda broadcast reminds citizens that "to hire, feed, or shelter illegal immigrants is a crime." Republican-controlled Congress almost passed a bill in the summer of 2006 which would have outlawed any charity provided to illegal immigrants in the US, in a draconian measure which would have seen soup kitchen employees serve prison time. Democrats, ultimately successful in blocking the measure, protested at the time that the bill under consideration put forth by a group of radical right-wing Republicans would have essentially "criminalized the Good Samaritan."
A bleak portrait of a dystopian future set against a backdrop of infertility, totalitarian politics and death, it plays like a nativity story for our age, a spirited humanistic message, as well as a welcome ray of hope for the future of cinema itself.Likewise, the NYT's Caryn James says:
But the social problems [PD James] could spot in 1992, like immigration, are even more disturbing now because they are more topical. A member of the novel's ruling Council of England makes a comment that could come from a right-wing radio show in America today. "Remember what happened in Europe in the 1990s?" he says. "People became tired of invading hordes," who expect to "exploit the benefits which had been won over centuries by intelligence, industry and courage."National Review is less kind, but doesn't call the film on its apparent misstatements.
Posted at 12:07 PM | Comments (3)
Todd Spivak of the Houston Press offers "Shorthanded: Foreign pickers aren't getting through the post-9/11 barricades to harvest U.S. crops". As you might have imagined, it's yet another in a long line of the "crops rotting in the fields because we can't get enough illegal aliens" articles. As in the other articles, you've got weeping growers pining over their supposedly rotting crops:
"It's very emotional," [Bernie Thiel] says. "You have a certain amount of time to get it done and if you don't get it done, that's it, it's over."
You've got the stolid GOP members who are turning their backs on the GOP because of supposed attempts to enforce our laws
Carnes, the cabbage farmer in Uvalde, had always voted Republican in major contests until this year. Fed up with Texas Gov. Rick Perry for campaigning on border enforcement without also stressing the need for a guest-worker program, he reluctantly decided to cast his vote for Democratic long shot Chris Bell...
He should take heart because Perry is definitely not on America's side in this issue. And, you've got the grower who's got a picture of himself with a conservative leader:
A lifelong Republican, John McClung served as spokesman for the USDA under Ronald Reagan, and a photo of him posing with the late president hangs prominently in his office. These days, however, his loyalties are wavering.
While Spivak does have a couple good quotes from the CIS, he doesn't try to dig into the issue in even the shallow depth that the SacBee attempted.
Previously in this long line:
NYT: Growers want to be subsidized (they already are)
Posted at 10:07 PM | Comments (1)
James Poniewozik is Time's TV critic, and he offers a ludicrous slab of pro-illegal immigration propaganda in "Ugly, the American". It's about the 'Ugly Betty' TV show:
...Smart and sweet-hearted, she embodies the Puritan-Shaker-Quaker principle of valuing inner good over outer appearance. She's as Norman Rockwell as a chestnut-stuffed turkey. The actress who plays her is even named America Ferrera.
Well, that cinches it. Anyone who's named "America" must be an "American", even if the name is meant to represent the hemisphere and not the U.S.
And yet--if you listen to some politicians and pundits--she should have been booted out of the country years ago. Betty's father is an illegal immigrant from Mexico. To hear Lou Dobbs and Pat Buchanan tell it, our fellow citizens are boiling with resentment against people like Betty. Taking our kids' spots in college! Helping themselves to our orthodontia! Stealing low-paid magazine jobs that rightfully belong to American trust-fund babies!
Does such elitist condescension play among those who read TV reviews? I don't know her character's immigration status, but there's the possibility that she's a citizen, and thus his complaints about Dobbs and Buchanan are simply smears. And, of course, he appears to be unaware of the issues of anchor babies, as well as the problems with the anti-American DREAM Act, as well as problems with illegal aliens driving down wages for low-wage U.S. citizens. These are all issues that a lightweight propagandist such as Poniewozik is unable to understand and analyze.
And, he doesn't discuss the meta of the show, such as the involvement of Selma Hayek, someone who's previously expressed pro-illegal immigration views. While the show is almost certainly for the most part an attempt to make money, it's also certainly at least partly a propaganda vehicle, much like Poniewozik's column.
Posted at 12:38 PM | Comments (5)
Tim Dickinson of Rolling Stone offers his list of the 10 worst Congressmen. As you might expect from that publication, it's biased (9 of 10 are Republicans) and their complaints consist mainly of lightweight analysis and smears. Let's take a look at their entry on Rep. Tom Tancredo. It includes a great deal of name-calling, and it starts with a quote from the Council for Conservative Citizens supporting him; the reader will note that the recommendation is not reciprocated and this is thus the logical fallacy of Guilt by Association. (RS readers: did Dickinson not know this argument was fallacious, or did he think that you wouldn't know it was fallacious?)
Then:
Elected to the House in 1998, Tancredo has not only led the fight to deport every undocumented worker in America -- a proposal that would cost at least $200 billion -- but has called for halting all immigration, legal and otherwise. In one unforgettable move, Tancredo wanted to deport the family of an undocumented high school boy who was profiled in The Denver Post for his perfect grades.
* Tancredo doesn't support the mass deportations that Wilkinson implies that he supports; he support attrition through enforcing our laws.
* The $200 billion figure refers to the Center for American Progress study "Deporting the Undocumented". That study uses a highly-flawed methodology described at the link.
* The word "halting" might be misleading; Tancredo has called for a moratorium, not a permanent end to all immigration.
* And, there's much more to the last sentence than Wilkinson lets on; for instance, the Denver Post collaborated with the Mexican government to run a profile of said high school student.
Rolling Stone readers are encouraged to get their news from a more accurate source.
Posted at 12:52 PM | Comments (0)
Crops are rotting as a consequence of recent immigration raids in Orleans, Niagara, Monroe and Genesee counties.Vagg doesn't disclose two of Torrey's key links: she's co-chairman of United Fresh Produce Association, and on September 13 she and Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) held a rally on Capitol Hill in support of the AgJobs amnesty, something that Torrey Farms has also endorsed.
"I'm probably going to end up leaving $2 million worth of crop in the field and it's adding up every day," said Maureen Torrey, who owns Torrey Farms, located in Orleans, Niagara and Genesee counties...
Torrey likened her recent experience with immigration officials to war.She wasn't likening it to "war", she was likening it to Nazi Germany, with ICE in the role of the Gestapo. A similar statement from a cheap labor pimp is in this post, which links to other pimps saying similar things. One wonders whether Vagg wasn't paying attention or whether she just needs extra help to understand how inflammatory Torrey was trying to be.
"It's a dirty job and we stand next to them, working together, and then to see these people chased, you feel like it's Germany all over again," she said.
Watching those she works with every day get taken away is like having a death in the family, Torrey added...
Torrey said she was raided once before, in 1997. The workers at Torrey Farms are referred to her by the NYS Department of Labor.If that's true, and if some of those refered workers turn out to be illegal aliens, does that mean that the NYSDL isn't checking immigration status of those they refer, or did they check but they put them through anyway? Maybe a real reporter should check that out.
[Robin Roberts, owner of Lynnette & Sons in Kent] and other local growers have requested a meeting with Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to discuss the reasons why the government is targeting agriculture workers.He'll probably be sympathetic to their "plight"; the last link has a quote from him verging on him supporting declaring New York state to be a sanctuary for illegal aliens.
Posted at 05:38 AM | Comments (4)
...Oh yes. Jobs. This really confuses us Martians. Apparently the influx of eastern Europeans has meant there are no jobs for local students in the holidays. Now for one thing, all through your local history, seasonal jobs have been filled by immigrant labour. Not from eastern Europe perhaps but from outside Wisbech. A bit like Londoners going fruit picking in Kent. Second, how do those people get the jobs if local employers don't offer them? Doesn't this have two sides?Then, we turn to Christin Ditchfield (the host of the syndicated radio program Take It to Heart, and the author of A Family Guide to Narnia: Biblical Truths in C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia) who offers a response to a reader's question in "Immigration Frustration":
And I've heard of employers who insist on eastern European labour because of reliability. And if it's a question of cheapness then maybe it's also a question of exploitation. Or at least your TUC [Trades Union Congress] thinks so.
Are you racist? We Martians have been discussing that and we're undecided. The OFSTED [Office for Standards in Education] inspection of The Queen's School identified evidence of racism amongst pupils there but where would the children learn it from? Presumably not the teachers?...
...It's important to remember that not every immigrant is an illegal immigrant. And in fact, at some point or another, everyone living on the North American continent originally came from somewhere else. The United States is a nation of immigrants, built by hardworking men and women searching for religious and political freedom and the opportunity to create a better life for themselves and their families. Don't let the strong emotion of the immigration debate harden your heart toward an entire race or ethnic group. It's not an excuse for prejudice. Many of the problems you describe afflict communities where immigration isn't an issue. The widespread degeneration of our culture cannot be blamed on "foreigners." The sin nature is alive and well in people from all walks of life, every socioeconomic background, race, religion, or creed.Of course, there's no racism evidenced in the original question. The original question doesn't even use the word "foreign*", that comes from Ditchfield. She continues with the effort to recast the question as derived from racism:
You have the privilege to vote for legislation you believe will protect and provide for the needs of the community—and to hold elected officials accountable to enforce those laws. But let me also encourage you to make a concerted effort to get to know some of the people of other races and cultures who share your community. Visit a church whose congregation is diverse. With the love of Christ, reach out to the poor and needy—whether they seem "deserving" or not. It will help you see them for who they really are: people who—like you—are precious in God's sight.After people like this finish with their prattling, be sure and make sure you've still got your wallet.
Posted at 04:12 PM | Comments (1)
It looks like Katie Couric is spreading pro-illegal immigration propaganda. Last night, CBS Evening News' "freeSpeech" segment featured an illegal alien whose identity was concealed. This was the video version of one of the other PIIPPs ("pro-illegal immigration puff pieces") discussed in this category, and like many of the others it promoted the anti-American DREAM Act. In fact, from their page on the segment:
His future and the future of thousands of other students who have grown up in the U.S. depends on the Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act) now pending in Congress. For more information visit the website, www.dontjustdreamact.com.
For future reference: the first link also describes another "freeSpeech" segment featuring Los Angeles Times reporter Sonia Nazario promoting illegal immigration.
Posted at 04:23 PM | Comments (2)
A discussion of foreign sources that support illegal immigration is a bit rare around here, but Catherine Philp is a U.S.-based reporter for The Australian, so if you run into her you might want to ask her about the article "Whites drive out Latinos who saved their town". Yes, that's the real headline.
You might ask whether she come up with that headline, and if not whether she supports it. Does she think it's accurate? Does she think it's horribly biased or not?
Or, you might ask where she learned to write a PIIPP:
FRANCIS Rodriguez, a Dominican immigrant, moved from the big city to Hazleton, a small town in northern Pennsylvania, in search of a better life. He found what he was looking for: a home, a job, schools for his children and a friendliness he had never encountered in New York.
Was it from studying the works of the WAPOLATNYT, or do they teach how to write articles like that Down Under?
Or, you might ask her about this:
Legal immigrants feel the city legislation, which some call the Nazi law, is aimed at the whole Latino community. "It's in the open now - people feel it's OK to hate," says Anna Arias, who sits on the Governor's Committee on Hispanic Affairs.
Shouldn't she also have pointed out that those using such terms are extremists who reject assimilation, or that Pennsylvania Democratic governor Ed Rendell is anti-American and doesn't support U.S. laws?
In the past I've speculated that one of the reasons newspapers support illegal immigration is because they're part of the local business community and their peers profit from that illegal activity. I don't know what The Australian's game is however. Perhaps they're just angry about Australianism not catching on.
Posted at 11:24 AM | Comments (1)
SAN FRANCISCO – When he started high school, Matias Bernal's English was so limited he stumbled over the words for numbers and colors.The article goes on to promote the DREAM Act, an anti-American bill that would take discounted college educations away from U.S. citizens and give them to illegal aliens. There have been literally dozens of highly similar articles promoting that bill, and almost all of them - including this current article - have a highly similar structure.
Four years later, he was on the wait list at Princeton.
Posted at 03:41 AM | Comments (2)
[...background para deleted...] If that's the case, then I think these leaders need to hear from Carla [1], a bright, ambitious 17-year-old Dallas student who will be directly affected by whatever they decide. This is what she'd tell them:[1] The sympathetic subject is introduced.
After watching her mother clean other people's bathrooms for 14 years, she wants something more for her life. She's worked hard, and she's now poised to graduate from high school in the top 10 percent of her class [2]. She wants to go to a good college, but she can't – unless Congress acts. Because Carla (who asked that her last name not be used [3]) is in this country illegally [4], she doesn't qualify for most financial aid. Even if she manages to work her way through school with a low-paying job – the only kind available to her – without legal status, she would be blocked from pursuing her profession... [5]
Posted at 01:48 PM | Comments (1)
[Dan Harris]: "He's an alien, from Krypton; he has come to Earth to be kind of a savior for this world, not our country ... And he has no papers."HUAC 2 would be a rash move, but I'd suggest boycotting their "work" lest you end up supporting illegal immigration propaganda.
[Mike Dougherty]: "What would happen with the immigration laws we have now?"
[Dan Harris]: "I'd like to see someone kick him out!"
Posted at 04:54 PM | Comments (4)
The New York Times' Nina Bernstein - a frequent author of pro-illegal immigration propaganda - is back with the three-screener "On Lucille Avenue, the Immigration Debate".
It tells the story of illegal immigration opponent Patrick Nicolosi, who's portrayed as a busy-body who complains to the local authorities about local illegal aliens and who's generally disliked by his neighbors for doing so. On the other side are a legal immigrant family who are falsely accused of being illegal aliens and a family with a developmentally disabled child. All of the latter are - surprise! - portrayed as the salt of the earth.
Obviously, there's no "debate" in the article. It's just a one-sided hit piece designed to portray illegal aliens as wonderful people and those who oppose illegal immigration as bad, mean people. An actual debate might consist of Nina Bernstein finding someone who can ask her some tough questions, and then those questions being printed. That's something that the NYT won't do, because they know they'd lose.
Posted at 05:21 AM | Comments (2)
Giovanna Dell'orto of the AP offers "Citizenship by birthright up for debate". Here's the first, PIIPPish paragraph:
Laila Montezuma was 16 when she sneaked across the Rio Grande from Mexico with her mother, only to be abandoned by the smuggler paid to get them into the United States. They had to hire another "coyote" to reach Houston.
The article goes downhill from there, showing how the AP has reduced the "debate" to the level of a Sally Struthers infomercial.
Out of its 22 paragraphs, here's the breakdown:
* 11 deal with 4 sympathetic illegal alien victims and their heartwrenching stories;
* 6 offer biased background information
* 2 are devoted to supporters; one of those features a quote from the Migration Policy Institute
* 3 are devoted to opponents, including a quote from Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA)
That's "balanced" according to the AP's guidelines.
Posted at 04:36 AM | Comments (3)
This Sacramento Bee article really made me start to think about my position on illegal immigration. I'm a strong opponent of general amnesty and extending government services to illegal aliens... That being said, when I read this article, I really felt for the two students whose stories appear in the article...I am currently swearing on a stack of Bibles that I did not look at the article before leaving this comment:
I didn't even bother reading the article because I've seen dozens like it, as a glance at my pro-illegal immigration propaganda category will show.Only after leaving that did I look at the article, and... I was right! According to "reporter" Deepa Ranganathan:
Without reading the article, I'm going to bet it starts with a sentence like, "Esmeralda is a high school honors student with a keen interest in becoming a lawyer." Then, we're informed that she's "undocumented".
Then, like a golden ray of bat pee, the solution shines forth: the DREAM Act or similar.
Please bear this in mind: every discounted college education given to an illegal alien is one less given to a U.S. citizen. A discount is taken from a U.S. citizen and given to a citizen of another country. As a side effect, that lowers the worth of U.S. citizenship.
If you care about "Esmeralda" or whatever the poster child they feature in such propaganda, start a private fund.
Beto's rage is nearly palpable.To all the "Daves" of the world: this is propaganda. They're playing with your emotions in order to get you to support amnesty for illegal aliens.
The 22-year-old once dreamed of becoming a firefighter or a police officer. He wanted an assignment in a tough neighborhood, like the block in south Sacramento where he grew up.
Beto's family smuggled him over the Mexican border illegally when he was 5...
...Two bills recently introduced in Congress seek radically different outcomes for undocumented U.S. residents...
Posted at 09:43 PM | Comments (3)
When Anna Salazar was first dating her husband, Roberto, it didn't occur to her to ask his immigration status.In this particular case, the intro is followed with a series of misleading statements:
Sensenbrenner's bill [HR4437] would build 700 miles of fencing along the border and have Anna Salazar, too, charged with an aggravated felony -- "harboring" her undocumented husband. She could face more than a year in prison, loss of her children to foster care during that time and forfeiture of her assets.It sounds so ominous, doesn't it? Almost as if that evil Sensenbrenner person would come to their home and personally arrest her.
By contrast, a bill pending in the Senate would create a path to legal residency for most of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United StatesAnd, it would also lead to many more similar cases, as millions upon millions of new illegal aliens came here to take advantage of their amnesty.
"Roberto's case is an example of how some people luck in and some people luck out," said his pro bono attorney, Anita Sinha of the International Institute of the East Bay. "A lot of it has to do with arbitrary deadlines."A google search of her name is like entering into a carnival maze of acronyms. She's identified here as a member of the National Immigration Law Center (NILC, site). Since that time she's joined the International Institute of the East Bay (IIEB,site). On this 2003 page she's identified as represented the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NIRP, site). And, in 2005 she was a candidate for the board of the SF chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG).
Posted at 07:46 AM | Comments (2)
That reporter offers "Migrants say they'll stay, legally or not". It's a highly-skewed "news" piece that doesn't look beyond the plight of those who came here illegally. It doesn't even have any quotes from those who support our laws, and it doesn't discuss things like political corruption.
Posted at 11:28 AM | Comments (2)
M.M. is a small man and he speaks softly, but he wants his words to be heard.He apparently entered illegally and applied for asylum. His application was denied, and despite that he's continued to remain here. And, he has three U.S. citizen children. Obviously a difficult situation, and that's just the way the AP likes it. While we need to have some degree of fairness, supporters of illegal immigration would like to apply that same "fairness" to anyone who can manage to sneak over the border.
M.M. -- he asked that he be identified only by his initials because immigration authorities could deport him if they find him -- has lived in the area around the meatpacking town of Worthington for more than a dozen years, the past five illegally.
He disagrees with what politicians and officials are saying about getting tough on illegal immigrants, but he says most people like him are afraid to make noise.
"I want this to be heard for all the people," M.M. said this month at a community education center. "We are all afraid to speak up. That's what's happening. The reason we're afraid is we don't have the documentation. As human beings, we all have rights -- this is how it should be."
No one knows for sure how many of the immigrants living in Worthington -- they make up a third of the town's 11,300 residents -- are illegal. Social service providers don't ask. Neither do the police, unless they're investigating document fraud or other crimes related to a person's immigration status, Police Chief Mike Cumiskey said.So, basically, the local cops look the other way. A question: if the local pork plant cost the town money, would they still look the other way? Do they look the other way because the pork plant brings in most of the town's money? What do we normally call such a situation?
But Jose Comparan, an immigrant from Mexico, says a large share of the immigrants who work at Worthington's pork plant are living in the country illegally.
Sean McHugh, vice president of communications for Swift & Co., which owns the plant, declined to comment. McHugh said the Greeley, Colo.-based company is looking closely at the issue of immigration. The Worthington plant employs about 2,000 people.
Posted at 12:59 PM | Comments (1)
This site extends congratulations to Long Island Newsday's Bart Jones over being selected as a co-winner of the Third Annual VDARE.COM Worst Immigration Coverage Award. He was selected for his work on that paper's "Immigration Q&A" column, and his co-author Mae Cheng shares the award.
Note that Jones' news reports have been featured here in the past. While he's shown his not-completely biased side, his reportage has been pretty horrific. For an example, see "Help Bart Jones of Long Island Newsday find the border!"
Posted at 11:23 PM | Comments (1)
Order a new batch of hankies, because the NYT has a new PIIPP ("pro-illegal immigration puff piece"). It's called "More and More, Women Risk All to Enter U.S." and it's from Lizette Alvarez and John M. Broder. Here's the first paragraph of this specimen:
It took years for Normaeli Gallardo, a single mother from Acapulco, to drum up the courage to join the growing stream of Mexican women illegally crossing the border on the promise of a job, in her case working in a Kansas meatpacking plant for $5.15 an hour.
Like other PIIPPs, it drones on and on informing us of the plight of her and others with whom we're supposed to have sympathy. But, as usual, there are a few things the NYT doesn't discuss.
First, didn't Americans used to do meatpacking jobs for a much higher wage? (See "Tamar Jacoby dissed, discredited"). Of course, that was before illegal aliens were brought in to bust unions and lower American wages.
So, why is the New York Times supporting union busting and lowering wages for low-skilled American workers?
And, another uncomfortable question: did Lizette Alvarez' ethnicity "inform" her coverage?
And, if the Mexican government paid the NYT to promulgate pro-illegal immigration propaganda, how would that differ from this article? Was the Mexican government - or one of our own Fifth Columnist organizations - involved in the genesis of this article in any way? How exactly did the NYT run across Ms. Gallardo? (These questions aren't that far-fetched, at least for the Denver Post).
And, let's consider this:
...a growing number of single women... are coming... to find jobs, send money home and escape a bleak future in Mexico.
Why is that, New York Times? Why is the country of Mexico - a country with more millionaires than Germany - unable to take care of its own people? Has the NYT looked into that, or was it too busy writing articles that Sally Struthers would consider too treacly?
...They come to find work in the booming underground economy...
Is that a good thing? Perhaps the NYT should look into whether that "booming underground economy" is actually having an extremely corrosive effect on our country, undercutting our laws and spreading corruption. What other kinds of underground economies are OK? Will we see weepy articles about streewalkers, pimps, crack dealers, or those who sell illegal animals?
Now, let's look at this bit and see if we notice anything questionable:
[The NYT's victim spent] eight hours at night and committ[ed] $500 to a coyote, she stumbled down a rocky hill near Tucson and broke her ankle. The coyote left her sitting on a nearby highway in the desert, where the Border Patrol eventually found her, took her to a local emergency room and deported her to Nogales, Mexico, the next day... A Mexican immigrant group, Grupo Beta, took her to a Mexican hospital where she was told she needed surgery on her ankle at a cost of 3,000 pesos, or seven weeks' salary. She also owes the friends who gave the coyote $500.
The NYT won't tell you this, but Grupo Beta is funded by the Mexican government. Simply calling them a "Mexican immigrant group" is misleading.
And, note how things changed when the NYT's sympathetic victim crosses the border: she's immediately expected to start paying for things. On our side - the side where the NYT believes that money grows on saguaros - she wasn't asked to pay - or will not pay - for the emergency room visit. On the other side, things aren't quite so generous.
Please write public *at* nytimes.com and suggest they find less biased reporters and editors.
Posted at 09:55 PM | Comments (7)
| Houston Chronicle
Immigrants struggle with illegitimacy Elena Vega and Tony Freemantle |
Lowell Sun
"Immigrant family in Lowell fears years of making a life in U.S. will end in deportation" Evan Lehmann |
|---|---|
| Their dream was a small piece of land in Mexico City, a place to build a modest house, a refuge from the inner-city barrio where they made their living selling used handbags on the street. | It started on that bare apartment floor. They slept there, the family of four. Launched a new life from that Lowell floor. Found America there. |
| Their plans included Houston, but only as a temporary step. Francisco would come here for a year, make some money and return to Mexico City. | The Brazilian children, then 5 and 9, had an old mattress six months later, rising up from that foreign floor. Progress. Two years after that, the parents spent wages earned cleaning homes and delivering pizzas to lift themselves onto a mattress. |
| They never thought that eight years later they would be living in a small, neat apartment in southeast Houston, or that one of their children would be a U.S. citizen, or that having a share of the American Dream within their grasp could be so seductive, and so elusive. | Now, five years after they found that floor, they own a house in Lowell. The children have attended public school. The parents, in their early 40s, still deliver pizzas and clean homes for more money than they ever earned in Brazil. They pay taxes, have a credit card and speak some English. |
Posted at 06:48 AM | Comments (1)
"Today I have approximately 290 people working in the field," Jon Vessey said recently. Vessey runs an 8,000-acre winter vegetable farm with his son, Jack, near El Centro, Calif. "I should have 400, and for the harvest I need 1,100. . . . There's a disaster coming."I guess they meant to mention that there's a link between the two paragraphs, but an editor took that out. Or something like that.
The Western Growers Association, which represents 3,000 farmers, is lobbying the Bush administration to make it easier for farmers to tap the labor pool just below the border.
It's going back to 1982, but a leopard does not change its spots. Jon Vessey is the CEO of Vessey & Co. which lost a case in that year filed by the UFW. The Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) found that the respondents (Vessey, Maggio, ...) had bargained in bad faith with the union regarding the contract for lettuce pickers. Remember the iceberg lettuce boycott? The findings of the ALRB are available [in this PDF file].
Posted at 10:32 AM | Comments (2)
All Florida students in kindergarten through second grade would get mandatory Spanish lessons starting in 2007 under a new bill filed by state Sen. Les Miller, D-Tampa.The article does not provide a quote from anyone expressing doubts about the concept. Let's put the Tampa Tribune on the list of papers with little credibility.
"More and more of our young people need to learn a second language," said Miller, the Senate minority leader. "We just thought that this was a good start for these young people."
Some people like the idea but wonder about its practicality...
Posted at 07:15 PM | Comments (4)
One of the sub-category of PIIPPs ("pro-illegal immigration puff pieces") is that which promotes illegal aliens getting home loans using ITINs instead of SSNs. The Palm Beach Post has printed the latest in this long line, entitled "New mortgage rules help open doors for immigrants". They've found a twist: the sympathetic subjects in this case are here on a temporary visa. If that expires, are they going to go home to Venezuela, or are they going to become illegal aliens?
A snippet:
"We think we deserve the right to homeownership as well as other decent, taxpaying citizens who live in this country," said Pablo through a translator. He asked that his last name not be used in this story.
There seems something a mite fishy about that. Pablo's not a citizen and he's been here four years already and you think he'd know enough English to say the above. Call me mean-spirited, but perhaps we don't need people like Pablo here. Just working isn't enough, and perhaps we should make a few more demands of "immigrants" other than just contributing to our economy.
As for the article, it's very similar to other ITIN articles, which tends to make me quite suspicious. Who's behind all these stories from various newspapers? Are the banks or immigration lawyers sending press releases? Are the banks using an "in" at the paper to get things like this printed? Are these basically advertorials? Are these articles basically propaganda?
If a newspaper prints propaganda, should you trust the other articles they print?
Here's the first paragraph from this article:
Like many immigrants, Pablo and his wife, Eudalis, work hard, pay taxes and dream of owning a home.
And, from March 15, 2005's "Banks Find Mortgage Clientele in Undocumented Immigrants" by Katherine Reynolds Lewis of the Newhouse News Service:
Dalila and William Timal look like any other couple signing a home mortgage. They've picked out paint colors for their new four-bedroom house in Indianapolis and can't wait for their 18-month-old son to play in the yard.
And, from August 17, 2005's "Bank Calumet opens home ownership to illegal immigrants" by Keith Benman of NWTimes:
For years and years Javier Palacios Perez worked hard in the factory, paid taxes and made sure he and his wife, Josefina, were able to raise their three children properly.
And, from August 24, 2005's "Count Them In" by Dan Frosch of the Santa Fe Reporter:
Maria sinks into the soft cushions of the living room couch, hoping to catch a few moments of quiet.
I don't know about you, but I'm not going to put much trust in other articles from those sources.
If you want to contact the reporter, her email is susan_miller *at* pbpost.com. Their managing editor is bill_rose *at* pbpost.com.
Posted at 10:34 PM | Comments (4)
The post "NYT: Devastating hurricane hits Gulf Coast; illegal aliens hardest hit" was such a big hit, let's now discuss the AP's "Illegal immigrants afraid to get storm aid" from E. Eduardo Castillo:
Some sneak into shelters at night and then slip out in the morning, praying they won't be noticed. Others avoid government help altogether, preferring to ride out the chaos and destruction alone in a foreign land... For illegal immigrants, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has meant not only living without a home, money or belongings, but also steering clear of the government officials who have flocked to the area, for fear of deportation...
Now, let's pause here for our "liberal" visitors, who are busy building up their strawman arguments.
First of all, please engage whatever critical facilities you have, and read the article. Note also the inescapable fact that the reporter is Hispanic. Now, do you think this article qualifies as pro-illegal immigration propaganda? Isn't this article like something you'd read from a group that favors illegal immigration?
Since that's probably not too clear to "liberals", let's try this: do you think Katrina and other disasters give groups a chance to push their own agendas? So, for instance, some libertarian group might point to the Katrina aftermath as an example of why we need a smaller, leaner government.
Likewise, do you think the AP is taking advantage of Katrina to push their own pro-illegal immigration agenda? Sure, the article does have news in it, but, isn't it correct to say it's written from a certain mindset? Unless you want to be intellectually dishonest, you're going to have to admit that this is indeed pro-illegal immigration propaganda.
Now, dear "liberals", let's think for a moment what's the best way to prevent things like those described in the article from happening.
Is it to give illegal aliens all or many of the same rights as legal residents and citizens?
Can you think what would happen if we did that?
C'mon, really think this through. Think hard!
Yes, that's right. If we did that, we'd have millions more illegals come here, and they'd be even more of a drain on our country than they now are.
On the other hand, if there were no illegal aliens in the U.S., none of this would be an issue. Wouldn't that be the best solution of all? Isn't that the adult, grown-up, American way to do things?
Remember: millions of illegal aliens in the U.S., problems like those in the article. No illegal aliens in the U.S., no problems like those in the article.
So, while we shouldn't deny emergency aid to illegal aliens now, in order to avoid problems in the future, we need to start reducing the numbers of illegal aliens here.
Really, think hard about this. Think things through, and imagine what all the side effects of your decisions are.
If you don't do that, well, you end up looking like a "liberal".
Posted at 12:23 PM | Comments (3)
Seattle Times editorial columnist Kate Riley offers us "Putting a human face on the immigration debate". Like many other PIIPPs ("pro-illegal immigration puff pieces") it supports Orrin Hatch (R-UT)'s anti-American DREAM Act. That Act would take discounted college educations away from U.S. citizens and give them to illegal aliens.
What sets this apart from other similar articles is that she's an editorial columnist and she's not pretending it's a news story. But, don't fear, because it's objectionable on other grounds.
The article is a sales job for that Act, and we're informed that the "immigration debate too often forgets people like [the current poster child for the DREAM Act]." Sorry, no it doesn't. In fact, newspapers prefer to generalize from the case of one or two outstanding, upstanding, sympathetic illegal aliens. They frequently ignore all the issues surrounding this one-sided "debate."
As I read this article (and the previous one she references: "Fouled-up system victimizes worthy immigrant students"), I couldn't quite figure out whether Riley is just a ditzy, less than well-informed, gushing heart "liberal", or something else. I began to hear a bit more of the Tokyo Rose in the voice of her articles, so I'm favoring the "something else" part.
Posted at 12:01 PM | Comments (5)
| Chicago Tribune | N.Y. Daily News |
|---|---|
| Maria Herrera has a 4.0 grade-point average at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, serves her community and lobbies for better legislation. | Carlos will graduate with honors from Brooklyn College next month with a mathematics degree. It's a subject he loves and hopes to teach one day to elementary school students. |
| But because she's an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, she won't be able to use her degree to start a career in the United States. | But the former high school valedictorian, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, will have to settle for working off the books selling ice cream. |
| "I'll have a degree, but no job," she said. "It's such a waste of talent." | Like Carlos - who was featured four years ago in a Daily News article about the difficulties of financing college with no immigration status - undocumented grads have no hope of a job in their learned profession. |
| ... It also drew attention to the Dream Act, federal legislation that would give undocumented students a chance to finish school and become American citizens. | ...CUNY administrators are hopeful that U.S. lawmakers will resurrect the Development, Relief and Education for Minors (DREAM) Act. Introduced in 2004 by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the bill would allow undocumented students who entered this country as minors to apply for a conditional green card, provided they go to college or enter the military. |
Posted at 09:18 PM | Comments (1)
An angry Suffolk Executive Steve Levy lashed out at the news media Monday, including Newsday, for its coverage of the Mexican day laborer evictions in Farmingville and said it is missing the real story -- the many residents who support the crackdown on illegally overcrowded houses...As can be expected, the other side was present:
Levy, a Democrat, said residents of Farmingville "cheered" the housing crackdown that started June 19, but their happiness "changed to dismay when they saw in the media the focus of the attention ... This is not an issue about race or immigration or long-term housing. It's an issue about the integrity of neighborhoods."
Levy is "missing the real sentiments of Long Islanders," said Patrick Young of the Long Island Immigrant Alliance, who has called Levy "public enemy No. 1" in the Latino community and whom Levy has labeled part of a "lunatic fringe." The Latino community "has to be dealt with respectfully and cannot simply be rousted out of their houses and thrown out onto the streets."Young is or was the chairman of the New York Immigration Coalition. The link tells you all you need to know about that fine, American institution.
Posted at 06:32 PM | Comments (2)
After reading the report "Mexican nationals learn how to transfer funds electronically" I'm left wondering. It describes how local banks (presumably chartered in the U.S.) set up booths in front of the Mexican consulate in Ventura to teach "immigrants" how to send money back home.
Like other such reports, it reads like an advertisement, describing what a wonderful way to send money this is. But, I slightly expected to find, somewhere down in the 14th paragraph or so, something like "but some people worry about illegal immigration" or similar. Yet, nothing like that is to be found.
In fact, the only conflict in the article concerns the disputed amount of Mexico's income from remittances. And, it includes this:
Other than households, the money sent from the United States to Mexico could be money used to pay for guides who bring Mexicans across the border, which costs about $2,000 dollars per person, or money transferred for business through personal accounts.
"Guides"? You mean, like for people who climb mountains or something? No, Ventura County Star reporter Audrey Reed, those are what we Americans call "smugglers". They aren't "bring[ing] Mexicans across the border", they're smuggling illegal aliens into this country.
Returning to reverso-world, it also includes:
The Oxnard Mexican Consulate also issues a matricula consular card, an alternative form of identification for Mexican nationals. Some immigrants enter the United States with no identification, making opening a bank account impossible. With this card, a bank account may be set up and transfers easily made.
Well, Audrey, that "alternative" is what we in right-side-up land refer to as "IDs for illegals." Mexican consulates pass them out to illegal aliens specifically so they can function here illegally. And, while I thought the NYT's Nina Bernstein had the market cornered on euphemisms for illegal aliens, the Ventura County Star has outdone even her with "immigrants enter the United States with no identification".
The article does have one redeeming feature, as it informs us of this:
Partnership for Prosperity is a program between the Mexican and U.S. governments that also aims to promote development, through these effort, in parts of Mexico where economic growth has slowed, causing migration.
There appears to be little information on this organization, but their website is at p4pworks.org
You can send feedback to their publisher, Tim Gallagher, here. Other staff contacts are here.
Posted at 12:56 PM | Comments (5)
From Dec. 1 to May 31, the state has sold 1,201 of the Aztec calendar plates. Those sales make it the third best-selling among 25 specialty plates statewide, behind one celebrating the 100th birthday of Las Vegas, and another with a patriotic theme.Other than that ironic note, it all sounds great! But, just to double-check, I decided to search for the name of that organization at www.DiscoverTheNetwork.org. I didn't think they'd have anything because it appeared to be a small, cozy group. However, as it turns out they do have a page about this group, and it stands in very stark contrast to the wholesome picture portrayed by the Las Vegas Sun:
A nonprofit organization founded in October 2001, the Immigrant Workers Citizenship Project (IWCP) works hand-in-hand with the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride Coalition (IWFRC), the group that sponsored what was essentially mass participation in a federal crime by transporting illegal aliens across state lines in October of 2003...(Another worthy group that was involved in the "Freedom Ride" was the National Lawyers Guild. Their Winter 2003 newsletter, available here, makes it quite clear where they're coming from on this issue.)
...Though it claimed to be an effort to secure fair representation and labor laws for legal immigrants, the Ride was in reality a smokescreen for an agenda of legalizing uncontrolled mass immigration. As David Ray, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, observed at the time, "Equating this to the civil rights movement is nauseating."
...The IWCP was founded by the Rev. Phil Carolin, who is an Episcopal priest, along with several union representatives. Rev. Carolin is one of twenty clergy who form the Las Vegas Interfaith Council on Worker Justice, a group that partnered with the AFL-CIO and picketed the New York-New York hotel/casino, located in Las Vegas, in 1997. Several local business leaders have claimed that the group is nothing but an excuse for union strong-arming in clerical garb. Rev. Carolin and the Interfaith Council have also joined forces with the American Civil Liberties Union to oppose police background checks on potential Las Vegas employees...
Posted at 12:32 PM | Comments (2)
...the mayor will not be looking the other way anymore. And that's good news...Mayor Mike, according to the NYDN, is not looking the other way anymore on not helping the federal government enforce immigration laws. (In case you're right-side up, turn yourself over so you can understand their position a bit better.)
Posted at 06:02 PM | Comments (3)
The man from Mexico City said he came to Farmingville looking for work so he could give his wife and two children a better life back home.Now, if you didn't know any better you might think some great injustice had been delivered upon these "immigrants", none of whom are identified as being all or mostly illegal aliens anywhere in Jones' tale. In fact, he doesn't even use "undocumented" or even more complicated euphemisms.
Yesterday, he found himself homeless in the land that was supposed to fuel his dream. He was among dozens of Mexican day laborers evicted from 33 Woodmont Place in a crackdown on overcrowded housing by authorities...
Suffolk police yesterday arrested the owner of a rundown 900-square-foot house in Farmingville that has been home to as many as 64 Hispanic immigrants at a time, each paying $200 to $250 a month in rent...It further describes the long legal process that lead up to the eviction, and it discusses the wacky activities of the Coalition of Landlords, Homeowners and Merchants that supports the landlord.
"They used every square inch of space to squeeze in more clients," said Suffolk Deputy Inspector Douglas Rilling. "It's a house that was built for a family with a couple of kids."
...The house on Woodmont Place first came to the attention of authorities on April 2, 2003, when soot buildup in a chimney sparked a fire. Firefighters found 45 mattresses, according to records...
Posted at 08:05 PM | Comments (1)
Esteban Navarro's disappearance broke a lot of hearts at Trenton Central High School, where the dropout rate among Hispanic students is triple the state average...I knew what was coming next, because I've seen so many very similar stories. In fact, there have been so many stories printed almost exactly like this one in tone, content, and structure that I've almost been programmed to give illegal alien advocates everything they want, and more. First they describe just how wonderful an affected child is and his or her plight. Then, like a bright, golden ray, comes hope:
...One solution is embodied in the In-State Tuition Act, first introduced in the New Jersey Legislature in 2003, which would allow illegal immigrants like Mr. Navarro to attend public colleges at in-state tuition rates...Why, it's almost like a sales pitch in its wonderful use of the language! It's unfortunate that you printed hateful thoughts however:
..."If someone from Philadelphia wants to go to school in New Jersey, and an illegal is getting in-state tuition, that angers students a great deal," said Jean Oswald, executive director of New Jersey Commission on Higher Education...Boo! Grown-up talk about policy is such a downer! I want to hear wonderful heart-tugging stories about immigrants struggling against oppression! Thankfully, you didn't explain what she means by "litigious" (example: "Twenty-Four Americans Challenge Law, Claiming New Policy Discriminates Against American Citizens").
..."One of the underlying issues from a policy perspective was the inequity this bill would create in a litigious state like New Jersey," Sharon Ainsworth, director of state relations at Rutgers, said in her testimony. "There is a whole category of students whose parents are here working on visas. We would be providing a benefit to an undocumented student and not to a documented one."
A National Honor Society student, Dina was awarded a scholarship to a local two-year college, where she is studying to become a nurse. Since Dina is an illegal immigrant, she is using a false Social Security number...Isn't that wonderful?
Posted at 03:29 PM | Comments (0)
Carlos will graduate with honors from Brooklyn College next month with a mathematics degree. It's a subject he loves and hopes to teach one day to elementary school students...The tear-jerking story goes on to explain that he's "undocumented", and thus won't be able to find a job. Then, after trying to engender as much "liberal" guilt as possible, it includes an ad for the anti-American DREAM Act:
CUNY administrators are hopeful that U.S. lawmakers will resurrect the Development, Relief and Education for Minors (DREAM) Act. Introduced in 2004 by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the bill would allow undocumented students who entered this country as minors to apply for a conditional green card, provided they go to college or enter the military.Nowhere in their story is it pointed out that there's only so much money to go around. Every discounted college education that an illegal alien receives means one less discounted college education for a U.S. citizen.
"We have a choice to either keep these talented young people underground, or give them a chance to contribute to the United States," Hatch told The News. "I believe that our laws should not discourage those with bright, young minds."
Maybe some day some newspaper will write the real story: how do things like this end up in newspapers?As you might expect, I didn't receive a reply.
Perhaps you wouldn't mind telling me. How exactly did this article come about? Did someone at CUNY or an "immigrants' rights group" pitch it to you? Or, did one of your editors read about the DREAM Act and they thought it was a good thing without realizing what it really does?
Posted at 07:44 PM | Comments (3)
The Columbian Missourian has a splashy article entitled "Pursuing the American Dream" complete with three custom, USA Today-style graphics. Exactly how many readers can there be in Columbia, MO? Are they trying to sell this to other papers? Trying for a Pulitzer? Keep trying.
Posted at 02:43 PM | Comments (0)
Nothing like a New Jersey PIIPP:
Source: Trenton Times
URL: this
Date: Saturday, February 26, 2005
"Reporter": Eva Loayza
TRENTON - Mayra Ovalle's words are heavy with resignation and defeat.Her husband was arrested in the couple's home almost two weeks ago by federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on a deportation order, and she is being shipped back to Guatemala, too.
But it's not her plight or her husband's that saddens her the most. It is that of their 11-year-old daughter, who will be forced to leave the country where she was born and holds citizenship.
[She and her husband entered illegally...] he applied for political asylum and was able to get a work permit. Ovalle said Jovany, who worked as a cook, received seven extensions on his work permit.
[...applied for and denied political asylum, they applied for yet another amnesty program, that was denied too...] She said the judge told them they could either leave voluntarily or have him sign deportation orders for them.
The Ovalles chose voluntary departure, but never left.
Attorney Joseph Asir, who is currently representing Ovalle...
Lesson: don't have kids here while your immigration status is up in the air expecting them or soft-brained liberals to be able to bail you out. And, when you say you're going to leave, do so.
Posted at 02:31 PM | Comments (1)
Nina Bernstein - the NYT's answer to Sally Struthers - offers us "Caught Between Parents and the Law". Apparently the barrage of letters to Daniel Okrent have had an effect, because none of the usual euphemisms or outright lies jumped out at me. Nevertheless, I keep getting the feeling that, like other immigration-related sob stories - this story somehow found its way into the NYT with the assistance of the AILA or some similar group. Here's the bottom line: don't have children here while you're an illegal alien or your status is not clear expecting "liberals" to save you. It's not fair to the children, to you, or to us.
Posted at 09:19 PM | Comments (0)
A PIIPP ("pro-illegal immigration puff piece") has been spotted in NYC, but for a change it's not from the NYT.
From NY Newsday's "Driven by DMV alert" by Robert Polner:
When Jose, a house painter, got the letter at his Brooklyn home this summer, he panicked. He was among 600,000 people notified by the state Department of Motor Vehicles that they had 15 days to produce a valid Social Security number or face the loss of their driver's licenses.
Without a license to operate his company van, the immigrant from Mexico says he has no legitimate way to support his wife and American-born son. And without legal residency, Jose cannot get a Social Security number.
The first sentence qualifies this as a PIIPP; the second paragraph qualifies this as Kafkaesque.
The readers of NY Newsday are going to be awfully confused by this article. If you think this newspaper should do their job and disclose that Jose is an illegal alien (not an "immigrant") and therefore he's ineligible to be working here in the first place, please send a short, polite email to nyc@newsday.com. These addresses might work as well: deborah.barfield@newsday.com, ken.fireman@newsday.com
Posted at 07:55 PM | Comments (1)
Education Week inadvertently lets us know how PIIPPs ("pro-illegal immigration puff pieces") are born. The piece "Immigrant Grads Get Charter’s Help" contains the following:
Educators at a charter school in California have gone to extra lengths to make sure that undocumented immigrant students who graduate from the school receive financial support to go to college...
[Mara Simmons, the vice president of education for the school] noted that passage of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act by the U.S. Congress would enable many undocumented youths to attend college. The bill, which hasn’t yet been approved by the Senate, would permit such youths who have succeeded in U.S. high schools to gain legal residency and qualify for in-state tuition.
I have a feeling that many of the PIIPPs you see are started by people like Simmons who contact "news" sources with heart-warming tales of immigrants who just happen to be here illegally. Some are made into PIIPPs, some are made into the one-sided reports like that above.
I suggest we all send Education Week a link to this:
[With the DREAM Act, Orrin Hatch] and his colleagues are literally taking opportunities and tuition assistance away from the children of citizens and giving them to illegal aliens... Supporters of this bill are unabashedly placing the interests of illegal aliens above American families who have paid taxes and played by the rules..."
Contact Education Week's managing editor Gregory Chronister at gchron@epe.org
Posted at 11:37 AM | Comments (1)
A possible PIIPP ("pro-illegal immigration puff piece") has been spotted in the Lincoln (NE) JournalStar. Here's the first paragraph of "Dozens rally to support proposed immigration law":
Oscar Rios Pohirieth dreads the conversation he's had again and again with some of Lincoln's Hispanic high school students.
Yes, it starts like other PIIPPs. However, apparently Oscar is not an illegal alien, and he's not the subject/victim of the story, he's just an external agent designed to introduce the story.
Nevertheless, I'm tentatively naming this a PIIPP-at-least-in-spirit.
The rest of the advocacy piece/article goes on to advocate for the explicitly anti-American DREAM Act:
[With the DREAM Act, Orrin Hatch] and his colleagues are literally taking opportuniti