MSNBC, Fox tease White House meeting on immigration by showing footage of border-crossers
SUMMARY: In teasing a White House meeting on immigration, MSNBC and Fox News again aired footage of people apparently crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, despite the fact that such footage largely distorts the issue.
In teasing the White House meeting on immigration later in the day, MSNBC and Fox News again aired footage of immigrants jumping over fences. However, as Media Matters for America has noted, this frequent and long-standing practice by media of featuring footage of people apparently crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally -- jumping border fences, hiking through the desert, or being pursued or detained by law-enforcement officials in what appears to be the vicinity of a border -- largely distorts the issue. It does not address in any meaningful way the reality of their lives or the nation's challenges in dealing with the issue. Moreover, the footage does not even capture the common experience of undocumented immigrants, nearly half of whom, according to a Pew Hispanic Center report, entered the country legally.
As Media Matters noted, during a segment on immigration reform on the June 24 edition of Special Report, Fox News ran a graphic stating, "Run For The Border," while airing footage of what appeared to be immigrants in the vicinity of a border fence.
From the 9 a.m. ET hour of MSNBC Live on June 25:
From the June 25 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom:
What the hell does that mean? So we are supposed to look the other way and open our borders because of the reality of their lives? If they enter illegally and stay here they are breaking our laws, that's the reality.
It means it leaves out a lot of the story. Particularly, the part of the story where many of these migrants are being guided into the United States by coyotes working for American companies that like using the abject poor of Mexico for cheap labor rather than pay Americans a decent wage for what is often dangerous work.
We don't have an illegal immigration problem in the United States, we have an illegal EMPLOYER problem. Make the penalties for bringing in people from other countries for the purposes of exploitation stern enough to force compliance, and the immigration part of it will take care of itself.
I think that is good news.
Do you have any link to support your contention. This is the first time I've heard of it.
When I hear people talking about closing the border, they almost always talk about those "dirty hispanics", and other such tripe that tumbles from their mouths.
I do agree that we have to punish to COMPANIES hiring these folks, because, if you take away what they came here for, then there is a good chance that they'll stop coming. No jobs, and no reason to head over the border illegally.
I also realize that the vast majority of illegal aliens who are here are decent and upstanding people, who work hard, and are just trying to make a life for themselves here. They pay taxes normally under fake social security numbers, have good families, work hard, and lead quiet lives.
But I do believe that a lot of the folks I hear talking about enforcing the borders are just outright racist.
I don't.
So we are supposed to concede the issue to either those who want relaxed borders, or the racists who hate Mexicans? Sorry, there are fringes on all sides of issues and that is not the good faith positions that those without such motives should be saddled with. It's unfair, unproductive and solves nothing, for anyone.
Here are the stats I found:
The US population totaled 281 million in 2000. About 35 million, or 12.5 percent, were Latino. The Census Bureau projects that our population will reach 439 million in 2050, a 56 percent increase over the 2000 census. The Hispanic population in 2050 is projected at 133 million – 30 percent of the total and almost quadruple the 2000 level....
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0528/p09s01-coop.html
...Nineteen percent of federal inmates are not citizens...
...Thirty percent of public health patients in the county are illegal immigrants, he testified.
http://www.10news.com/news/9620142/detail.html
Why?
The issue is not that some of the people coming here are decent and upstanding, it is that we cannot survive as a country when we, as a country, have to support millions of people who pay little or no taxes while consuming billions of dollars of services.
It would be great if everyone wanting to come to America could do so, but that is an impossibility. It is much better for our country to allow skilled and educated people in, so they can add to wealth of the country rather than, low skilled, low educated types that are an expense. Check out these statistics.
the education costs for children of illegal aliens is about $34.5 billion per year.
In 1980, our Federal and state facilities held fewer than 9,000 criminal aliens but at the end of 2003, approximately 267,000 illegal aliens were incarcerated in U.S. correctional facilities, as follows
* 46,000 in Federal prisons
* 74,000 in state prisons
* 147,000 in local jails
http://www.usillegalaliens.com/impacts_of_illegal_immigration_crime.html
A 1998 National Academy of Sciences study found that more than 30 percent of California's foreign-born were on Medicaid—including 37 percent of all Hispanic households - compared with 14 percent of native-born households. The foreign-born were more than twice as likely as the native-born to be on welfare, and their children were nearly five times as likely to be in means-tested government lunch programs. Native-born households pay for much of this, the study found, because they earn more and pay higher taxes - and are more likely to comply with tax laws. Recent immigrants, by contrast, have much lower levels of income and tax compliance (another study estimated that only 56 percent of illegals in California have taxes deducted from their earnings, for instance). The study's conclusion: immigrant families cost each native-born household in California an additional $1,200 a year in taxes.
he bottom line is that all immigrants, legal and illegal, use welfare more than natives, uneducated immigrants use welfare even more, and if illegal immigrants are legalized through amnesty they will use twice as much welfare as they are currently using.
http://www.usillegalaliens.com/impacts_of_illegal_immigration_american_infrastructure.html
I wasn't presenting an either/or example. I was illustrating his absurdity.
Obviously you don't get it.
The assumption that just because a child does not get assistance from the State means that the child will either die by starvation or illness is simply ludicrous.
How much assistance from the State did your parent's get when you were born? Apparently you did neither of the above.
Loonz presented a "forced choice" that was so outlandish only a liberal would fall for it. :-)
Hahaha... Thanks for making my day!
I really don't see what's ludicrous about this concept, and I don't think you do either.
George Borjas estimates that American workers lose $190 billion annually in depressed wages caused by the constant flooding of the labor market at the low-wage end.
The healthcare cost of the illegal workforce is especially burdensome, and is subsidized by taxpayers. To claim Medicaid, you must be legal, but as the Health and Human Services inspector general found, 47 states allow self-declaration of status for Medicaid. Many hospitals and clinics are going broke because of the constant stream of uninsured, many of whom are the estimated 12 million to 15 million illegal immigrants. This translates into reduced services, particularly for lower-income citizens.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0528/p09s01-coop.html
Your statement: "hundred of people crossed back and forth between East and West Germany in spite of the small army guarding the border." proves right ONs point.
hundreds crossing the border versus millions is a very compelling argument for fences and border patrols.
Nice try but you are again wrong. I only used bwither's example to make a point. That is clear to any who are reading this thread.
Your purposeful misreading of my post only shows you are not arguing in good faith.
Well done. Your statement cuts right to the chase and avoids the trap of the weak-kneed psycho-babbling about the issues facing our country...a country that has been overrun by illegal aliens.
Step up enforcement at the border...punish all employers that are hiring illegal aliens...deport illegal aliens every time and every where they are found.
The problem won't be corrected overnight because it didn't happen overnight...but we can sure as hell get started.
And you of all posters, who just yesterday demanded everyone have a decent wage, can sit there and justify illegal immigration when it is driving down the price of labor for the poorest among us. So that was just blustering nonsense you posted yesterday, or this is today. Because the two are as far apart as you can get.
We are all anchor babies of one sort or another.
The barn has burned down, the property reposessed, a stripmall is planned for the property. Go ahead and close the door now.