The New York Times allowed William Gheen, president of the anti-immigrant Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC), to push the canard that immigration will increase unemployment.

The Times quoted Gheen in an August 9 article on the effect of the Obama administration's policy of allowing certain young immigrants the opportunity to gain work permits. According to the Times, Gheen said that Obama's policy is poison because it supposedly harms American workers:

Opponents of the policy argue that it is ill-timed, given a dismal job market that is especially grim for Americans under 30 who do not have college degrees. Talk of harvesting “wasted talent” is “just sugar to make the poison go down,” said William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration, a political action committee. Mr. Obama is harming American workers by “placing more illegal immigrants up against them as competitors,” he said.

The Times did not attempt to fact-check Gheen's claim that Obama's immigration policies harm American workers. In fact, numerous economists have pointed out that higher immigration does not mean higher unemployment. Indeed, study after study has found that immigrants' economic impact is positive.

Gheen has regularly demonized immigrants as disease carries, murders, drunk drivers, and gang members. His group ALIPAC is also supported by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated as an anti-immigrant hate group.

Nevertheless, the Times and other top print outlets continue to regularly cite ALIPAC in their papers.