Juxtaposition: Immigration
An immigration reform bill was introduced in the Senate, and I found it interesting that Fox News Latino ran a story that spun it in a very favorable light:
Top Senate Democrats launched on Wednesday another bid to pass a comprehensive immigration reform they say will enhance U.S. economic productivity and national security even as it provides a path to legalization for 11 million undocumented immigrants.
That made me wonder how the regular Fox News website framed the story, so I went to check. In fact, they chose not to mention the bill at all. Instead, the top story today under immigration began with the following:
For the first time, minorities make up a majority of babies in the U.S., part of a sweeping race change and growing age divide between mostly white, older Americans and predominantly minority youths that could reshape government policies.
Very telling.
2 comments:
Mr Weeks :
Very interesting information, everything contained in the article and the links.
Demography may not be destiny but it is very important, and is part of History and necessary for explanations after big elections and events.
With respect to President Barack Obama I suspect that he is stronger than what is assumed by the Press and Media.
Even if this attempt at Immigration Reform fails ( most probably ), it is a useful and very valuable trial balloon.
.
SALON.COM : Last Friday, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a memo saying that field agents and office directors should focus on only deporting dangerous illegal immigrants, instead of just any illegal immigrants they find.
SALON.COM
The right's real problem with immigrants
By Alex Pareene
Thursday, Jun 23, 2011
http://www.salon.com/news/immigration/?story=/politics/war_room/2011/06/23/punish_the_immigrants
Some excerpts :
The conservative press, obviously, dubbed this a "stealth DREAM Act" and an act of "loosening the border rules for 2012." (The DREAM Act was the bill that would've allowed some minuscule number of basically perfect Americans unlucky enough to have been born elsewhere the opportunity to eventually become citizens. It failed. Repeatedly.)
That's obviously, patently absurd: The White House is still deporting more people than any previous administration and this memo only calls for some discretion in deciding whom to deport, because the nation literally cannot deport them all. ("Also on Friday, Mr. Obama extended the deployment of some 1,200 National Guard troops who are backing up immigration agents along the Southwest border." Why won't the president protect us from the Mexicans?)
But the question of whether we should allow immigration agents more discretion in deciding whether to defer or cancel deportations is not really what everyone is mad about, on the right. They're just mad at the thought that some immigrants might not get in trouble.
It's an urgent need to punish the "illegals" that animates so much anti-immigration rhetoric. It's probably related to the old conservative fear that, in Ta-Nehisi Coates' memorable formulation, somewhere, somehow, a black person is getting away with something. But the higher-brow arguments (as opposed to Lou Dobbs' rantings) aren't even particularly informed by anti-Latino sentiment: It's just people of privilege judging others for "not playing by the rules." It's a lot easier to play by the rules when you're born a winner!
........................
As long as our immigration system remains so badly broken, just about anything an otherwise responsible undocumented American does to stay in this country seems justified to me. "Playing by the rules" is a literal impossibility for millions. The fact that an "illegal's" mere presence in her own home is a violation of the law makes it an unjust law.
....
Post a Comment