Media Perpetuates Falsehoods on Immigration Issues

Over and over again, I lament the lack of real journalism in our mainstream media.  However, it’s one thing to skew the facts; it’s quite another thing to create and propagate falsehoods about a social issue.

One of the best examples is the way the mainstream media reports on the effects that enforcing immigration laws has on the families that are in the United States illegally.  Media for years has often highlighted how families are “brutally” separated when some members of the families are caught here illegally and deported.  Even President Barack Obama in his speech on immigration yesterday tried to spotlight such a falsehood.

The fact is that no law enforcement organization is keeping families from staying together.  If a person is deported, the other family members of that person are free to go back to the country of origin. That is true for anyone who is deported.  The reality is that the other members of the family who are in the United States illegally don’t want to leave, and so they are creating the situation by which they are separated, not any local, state or federal official.

The sad thing is that the media has been so biased in its reporting on the illegal immigration issue, you would come away from their reports with the impression that the people who are here illegally are victims, not lawbreakers.  Of course, anyone who wants our immigration laws enforced are also subjected to be characterized as racists by many in the news media.

I challenge our so-called journalists in the media to really examine the issue of immigration.  When I say examine, I mean also revealing the immigration policies of other countries, which, for the most part, are far more stringent than the immigration laws in the United States.

There is also a broader issue at play in this debate.  When you see public officials and advocates in the media supporting lax enforcement or no enforcement of immigration laws, they are actually undermining respect for all laws.  If you don’t like a law, work to repeal it. 

In a real sense, public officials who find it politically inconvenient to enforce certain laws are violating their oath of office, but can you imagine anyone from our biased news media challenging an office holder on that issue?  When you have so many advocates in the news media, many legitimate questions are unfortunately never asked.