Tags
18th Street, crime, criminal illegal immigrants, deportations, gangs, illegal immigrants, illegal immigration, Im-Politic, Immigration, Mainstream Media, MS-13, Open Borders, The New York Times, Trump
Another Fourth of July has come and gone, and here’s hoping everyone had a great holiday. One recent development that put a damper on mine, though: The latest instance of the Mainstream Media bending over backward to coddle or overlook criminal behavior by illegal immigrants, in an apparent effort to promote further the idea it’s fundamentally illegitimate for a country (like the one that just celebrated a birthday) to control its borders and the inflow of foreigners.
Suggestively, the methodology used in this deceitful exercise – which appeared in The New York Times on June 27 – was almost exactly the same as employed in previous cases of closet Open Borders propaganda: Dismissing the seriousness of numerous categories of offenses that would surely be regarded as extremely serious if mentioned in any context other than illegal immigration.
According to the authors of the article, titled “MS-13 Is Far From the ‘Infestation’ Trump Describes,” “[President] Trump’s statements conflating immigrants with barbaric ‘thugs’ are misleading. Among undocumented immigrants convicted of crimes who were apprehended by Border Patrol, relatively few were convicted of violent crimes such as assault and homicide. ” The clear implication: The Border Patrol patrol is (“tragically?” “inexcusably?” “wastefully?” “cruelly?” – pick your favorite disparaging adverb) focusing its efforts on individuals that in a truly just world would be left alone.
Indeed, as shown by the third graphic in the piece, between October, 2015 (under the Obama administration) and May, 2018, 27,589 illegal immigrants apprehended by U.S. authorities were convicted of crimes. More than half (14,374) were guilty of illegal entry or reentry into the United States – which the authors obviously consider no big deal.
But now look at what the other 13,215 illegals (nearly 48 percent of the total) were arrested for. On top of the 13 convicted of homicide or manslaughter, nearly 4,900 (the largest group in this subset) were drunk drivers (a practice outlawed because of its great potential to kill and maim). Nearly 3,700 possessed or were selling illegal narcotics. More than 2,100 committed assault, battery, or domestic violence (the latter of course disproportionately harms women). Another 347 were sex offenders (a crime that also usually victimizes women). Nearly 1,700 others are being punished for burglary, larceny, theft, and fraud. And 488 committed various illegal weapons-related crimes (portrayed as especially heinous, dangerous offenses by a large percentage of the progressive left).
Moreover, keep in mind that these conviction totals cover only a two-and-a-half year period, not the grand total of all illegal immigrants arrested. In addition, surely numerous illegals who have committed these crimes have not been apprehended yet. And don’t assume that those arrested for illegal reentry had been “solid citizens” otherwise, either. It’s all too common for them to have been deported in the first place for much more serious offenses.
Just as outrageous, this Times article used an even more transparently phony ploy to depict the Trump administration as shamefully hyping the illegal immigrant crime threat. As suggested by the title, the authors tried to minimize the threat posed by Central America-tied MS-13 gang with figures purporting to show that it is “not particularly large, nor is it growing. The evidence, they contend, is in the second chart appearing in their article.
But here’s what readers aren’t told: The gang at the top of the chart – 18th Street – is closely tied to Central America as well.
Finally, the presentation of this piece by The Times was unusual – to put it diplomatically. It was posted as an “Opinion” piece by the paper – which is a good start. But the three authors are identified as regular Times staffers. True, they’re all “members of the Opinion graphics team” at The Times. But they’re not regular columnists or any other kind of opinion writer. And The Times is decidedly not in the habit of permitting news or any other staffers from writing opinion articles. “News analyses,” which as suggested by their name allegedly fall into a third category, are as far as the paper will go, and this privilege is extended only to experienced reporters. Yet there’s nothing in this post to indicate that the authors are recognized authorities on immigration policy, or that they have any credentials of any kind in this field – or any other.
From all appearances, the authors are simply three people who happen to work at production-related jobs at The Times and who don’t like Mr. Trump’s immigration policies. And it seems that on that basis alone, the paper’s Opinion staff decided that their (transparently flimsy) claims merited this prestigious, influential news organization’s bright spotlight. It’s hard to know whether to label this post “fake news” or “fake punditry.” But it’s just as hard to deny legitimately that it represents a new twist on pro-Open Borders media bias.
