The nightly newscast of the Univision network makes little effort to report on legitimate concerns about immigration. Last week, for example, it ignored the CIS report on the high rate at which immigrants make use of federal welfare programs.
But on Tuesday, the newscast came out of a commercial for Kellogg's cereals with this information:
The economy of Arizona would lose $48.8 billion dollars if the state expelled all the undocumented. This massive departure would eliminate 581,000 jobs. By contrast, giving legal status to the undocumented in Arizona would inject $5.6 billion into the economy and create 261,000.
Univision presented this as an assertion of fact. It identified no source for the information and offered no opposing voice.
A Google search shows that the source of the information was the Immigration Policy Center, a think tank affiliated with the American Immigration Lawyers Association that advocates reforms that would provide legal status to illegal immigrants and broadly expand legal immigration. It is a counterpart to CIS, whose work highlights the costs of such "comprehensive" reforms.
The Tuesday newscast also reported, this time with clear identification of the source, on the IPC report that criticizes the Obama administration's deportation of illegal immigrants who have no criminal background.
According to the IPC, of the 682,000 illegal immigrant deportees over the past two years, 450,000 had committed no criminal offense other than violating immigration law.
The IPC says the deportations are inconsistent with President Obama's position in favor of a sweeping legalization. It says the president should move in that direction without waiting for Congress to take up legislation.
"The president has executive powers that he can use," the IPC' Michelle Waslin told Univision. "He has executive tools to reform the broken immigration system."
Waslin was followed by UCLA professor Raul Hinojosa. Said Hinojosa, "It is perceived that the president is prepared to sacrifice Latino families in a constant effort to placate the right (as he works for) an immigration reform negotiation that is not taking place."
While putting Waslin and Hinojosa on camera to present views consistent with Univision's views, the newscast simply used written text to present the response of the DHS. The core of that response was this:
"The Obama administration has fundamentally reformed enforcement of the law, giving priority to the identification and deportation of criminal aliens who threaten public safety and pursuing employers who consciously and repeatedly violate the law."
Univision repeatedly violates fundamental journalistic responsibilities in the coverage of the complex and sensitive issue of illegal immigration. Its reporting conforms to the biases of anchorman Jorge Ramos, who has openly scorned those who oppose illegal immigration and favor enforcement of the border. Ramos has written that such concerns are illegitimate, based on nothing but racism. His own bias and willful blindness permeate his newscast.
