Illegals Today

Over at Media Research Center we find the following summary of "Election in the Streets."

Spurred by a passionate public outcry against the tide of illegal immigration, on December 16, 2005, the House of Representatives passed a bill to curb the flow of illegal aliens and give the federal government more responsibility for detaining and deporting them. On that night, ABC, CBS, and NBC didn’t cover the vote. But when left-wing advocacy groups for illegal aliens organized large protests against the House bill in the spring, as the Senate considered its own immigration bill, the networks suddenly, fervently discovered the issue and gave the advocacy groups not a mere soapbox in the park, but a three-network rollout of free air time. Protest coverage, often one-sided, stood in stark contrast to polling data showing that a stricter approach to illegal immigration was broadly popular in the country.

To determine the tone and balance of network coverage of illegal aliens, MRC analysts evaluated every ABC, CBS, and NBC morning, evening, and magazine show news segment on the immigration debate from the outbreak of protest coverage on March 24, 2006 through May 31, 2006. In 309 stories, analysts found the following trends emerged:

• While they celebrated immigration protests with crowds, the broadcast networks largely avoided scientific polling data that showed the protesters were in an overwhelming minority. The USA Today-Gallup poll asked whether illegal immigration is out of control or not out of control. Fully 81 percent said out of control. Fox News asked how serious illegal immigration was as a problem: 60 percent said very serious, 30 percent said somewhat serious. That's 90 percent. These polls were never cited by ABC, CBS, or NBC. In contrast to hundreds of words emphasizing a huge of pro-immigrant activism, the networks aired only 16 mentions of nationwide polls on immigration that considered the opinion of non-protesters. Two of them were CBS polls emphasizing support for a guest worker program after a long list of conditions.

• Advocates of opening a wider path to citizenship were almost twice as likely to speak in news stories as advocates of stricter immigration control. Advocates for amnesty and guest-worker programs drew 504 soundbites in the study period, compared to just 257 for tighter border control. (Sixty-nine soundbites were neutral). On the days of pro-illegal-alien rallies, their critics nearly disappeared from the screen. For instance, on the night of April 10, the soundbite count on the three evening newscasts and ABC’s Nightline was 43 to 2 in favor of the protesters. When the debate shifted to Capitol Hill in May, coverage grew more balanced.

• While conservative labels were common, liberal labels were rarely or never used.In the study period, reporters referred to “conservatives” or “conservative” groups 89 times, most intensely during legislative debate in May, when President Bush was presented as having to “appease” his “conservative” base. NBC’s Matt Lauer even referred to Bush’s base as the “far right.” By contrast, the “liberal” label was used only three times – all of them by ABC. CBS and NBC never used the word, even as hard-left protest organizers described the House bill on public radio as full of “horrendous and macabre clauses, fascist clauses.”

• While protests centered on underlining the vital role illegal aliens play in the American economy, the burdens of illegal immigration in added government costs or crime were barely covered. While the networks poured out their air time to the sympathetic stories of hard-working immigrant families, only six out of 309 stories mentioned studies that illegal aliens cost more to governments than they provide in tax dollars. Only six stories gave a mention to the problem of the cost or threat of criminal aliens.

HT Morning Coffee

"Although the incidence of tuberculosis in the United States has declined each year since 1993, tuberculosis remains an important infectious disease in the United States and worldwide. In Minnesota, the incidence of tuberculosis increased during the 1990s and peaked at 4.9 cases per 100,000 population in 2001. From 2001 through 2005, 81% of tuberculosis cases in Minnesota occurred in foreign-born persons; this finding can largely be attributed to dynamic immigration patterns that have included an influx of persons from areas of the world where tuberculosis is endemic (1).

Somalia ranks in the top 15 countries of origin for foreign-born persons with cases of tuberculosis in reported in the United States (2). Minnesota has the largest Somali population in the United States (3). Although Somali persons constitute <1% of Minnesota's population, they accounted for 30% of tuberculosis cases reported statewide from 1999 through 2003. The unique epidemiologic characteristics of foreign-born tuberculosis patients in Minnesota, and Somali tuberculosis patients in particular, have been described (1,4)." Emerging Infectious Diseases, Vol 12, No 9, Sept 2006

Sherriff Jones has a blog.

On Nov 8 he wrote:

"I have recently mailed a bill to the Federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) for prisoners believed to be “Undocumented Aliens” currently housed in our jail. This bill, calculated through the end of October, is for a total of $71,610.00 covering the fifteen (15) identified individuals currently in jail, some of whom have […] "

"We didn't speak a word of English when we came here". . . the first year was rough. . .he got over the language barrier through television. "I had no friends. . .I'd choose certain words and practice them in front of the mirror. My role model was Ricky Ricardo." Samuel Botero, b. 1945 in Colombia, an immigrant who rose to be a top international designer, pp. 136-137. It's fortunate that modern education theorists didn't get ahold of him and cripple his initiative and English. I love inspiring stories about immigrants. [from my Collecting my thoughts blog commenting on the Sept. 2004 issue of Architectural Digest]

Lithuania has border problems too. Illegals attempting to get into other European Union countries, enter through Russia and Belarus and get tangled up with authorities in Lithuania where they are detained. These illegals don't get along with each other. There are also ethnic Russians who have converted to Islam who are causing concern because they join terrorist groups but are hard to spot (some countries can profile). Russian is a second language in several east European countries so they can easily mingle.

Southern Europe gets illegals via the Canary Islands. On the news recently:

"Belarus has borders with EU states Latvia and Lithuania as well as Poland, and illegal immigration across the three borders has become a serious problem for the Belarus authorities.

But this week most attention remained focused on flows of immigrants by sea across the EU's southern border into the Canary Islands from the west coast of Africa, and into the Italian island of Lampedusa from Libya.

Several thousand migrants in frail boats have made the crossings in the past week. About 60 are missing presumed drowned after two boats sank off Lampedusa last Sunday, one of them after being accidentally rammed by a ship of the Italian coast guard.

The Red Cross says that more than 100,000 would-be immigrants are waiting in Senegal for the chance to make a crossing. Unemployment in Senegal is more than 40 per cent." (New Zealand Herald)

In the mornings I talk at the coffee shop with a college student from eastern Europe. I wrote about these "guest workers" in July 2004. I reread that entry today and things haven't changed. Read it here.

Last week we heard a lot about the 12 Egyptian students who were supposed to be in Montana for a short term language program, but had disappeared off the radar. I think most of them have been found--at least one was in Montana.

One of the things the liberals are unhappy about is SEVIS, Student and Exchange Visitor Information System. If they found them, or at least knew they were missing, I guess that means SEVIS is working. (Do you believe that gov't story of a few years back about the Syrian musicians on the airplane having meetings in the restroom?)

"The United States officially has permitted foreign students to study in its high schools, colleges, and universities since the Immigration Act of 1924.5 In 1996, with the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, Congress mandated the creation of a monitoring program to collect data on foreign students. SEVIS was the program that resulted. The USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 and the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Reform Act of 2002 enhanced and expanded the tracking program. SEVIS was fully implemented in 2003." (EPIC.org)

Estimates of the number of illegal immigrants living and working in the United States vary, but I've heard the figure 12 million, or more than the population of the state of Ohio, a state which itself has many illegals working in construction, food service, landscaping, and tourism/leisure, jobs that Americans will definitely do.

But because they aren't in one state, no one tracks what our 51st state is doing. Since 1982, the states have been required to provide education for children of illegals, whether or not they were born here. When the GAO was charged with finding out the costs of educating these children, its researchers discovered no one was tracking this. Read the report (pdf) here.

"Of the 22 state governments we surveyed, only 3 provided information on the costs of schooling illegal alien children. Seventeen states said that they did not have such information, and 2 states (Florida and Georgia) did not respond."

Some states used a variety of figures to estimate the costs:

"We did not evaluate the estimation procedures these states used. The annual cost estimates that they provided to us ranged from $50 million to $87.5 million in Pennsylvania to $932 million to $1.04 billion in Texas."

Some states said it was illegal to track the cost of educating illegal aliens, certainly a very conservative view of that federal mandate; another district in the southwest actually said they had Mexican children, living in Mexico, who crossed the border to attend in their district! Is that a liberal or conservative method of tracking illegals?

"Of the 17 states that said they did not have information on the costs of schooling illegal alien children, 6 indicated that it would be illegal to ask about children’s immigration status. Three of these 6 mentioned the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision we cited earlier. . ."

The Census Bureau is no help--they don't record the legal status of foreign born persons in the US, but keep in mind, the Census counts residents, not citizens, so in planning for government give-aways, it is to the locals' advantage to pump up their figures with Census Bureau stats. And although the writers of this GAO report don't use this word, the DHS figures for number of illegals are really screwy--their word is "problematic."

Three years ago the Census Bureau said it was developing a research plan aimed at eventually developing new information on the population of illegal immigrants residing in the United States, according to this GAO report. I won't hold my breath. Besides, even this aborted plan doesn't include tracking the educational costs of illegals' children. I support the Bush Administration on many things but they are beholden to business interests who want cheap(er) labor, powerful unions who need new members, a minority group flexing its political muscle, greedy pols who want someone to pay into our growing healthcare costs, and distractions of a foreign war to do much about our own porous borders.

This issue alone is costing him a lot of support among his Republican base.

While on my evening walk I listened to NPR's Marketplace which was featuring a story about Central American workers who face very tough labor situations in Mexico--much worse than any immigrant finds in the U.S.A.

"69-year-old Jose Antonio Ventura keeps a steady rhythm as he hacks brush with a machete. He's spent the past 54 years earning his living with this 22-inch Colima blade.

Ventura is from Guatemala, but he's cleared coffee plantations all across southern Mexico."

Sonia Nazario author of Enrique's Journey, the story of one Central American boy's harrowing trip through Mexico and into the United States says, "The Mexican government talks about how they want the United States to open their arms to more American [Mexican?] citizens, and yet Central American immigrants are horribly abused by the authorities, among others. They certainly are not welcomed with open arms."

Conditions are so harsh in southern Mexico, many just continue north.

Mexico needs to fix its economy. That would solve our immigrant problem.

It won't be this. "Once I thought to write a history of the immigrants in America. Then I discovered that the immigrants were American history." (Oscar Handlin, The Uprooted, 1951). That's the America I learned about.

Today, that view is considered triumphalist, xenophobic, racist, quasi-religious, colonialist, distorted and simple minded.

Modern scholars hate Handlin's positive view of the end result of immigration. But having spent an hour Thursday chatting with a first generation American who started out very poor and now lives on a yacht in California, has a summer home in Miami, and tours the country in an RV so is currently parked here in Lakeside, Ohio, let me assure you that we still need immigrants with a "can do" attitude. She is as concerned as I am about illegal immigration and the number who come here, not for a better life or to escape a Castro or Stalin or Mao, but for the state supplied benefits.