February 28, 2005

I stopped at "Gestapo tactics"

The Naples Daily News' Dianna Smith violates Godwin's Law and just about every acceptable journalistic practice in the article "Haitians targeted unfairly in immigration sweeps, advocates say". It reads like a parody of biased, weepy "reporting":

The sky was still dark the morning the women heard knocks on their doors. The noises came from husky men dressed in black, pointing flashlights into the windows like burglars, holding them like guns...
...The wives and children were left helpless with hurting hearts, pleading so desperately it was like they thought the drivers would somehow hear them and turn around...

...Collier County is one of several Florida counties where officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, quietly appear during odd hours of the night, sometimes at places of employment, to capture people they call fugitives...

...But not all are crimes like most would think.

Some of those picked up by the task force are people with families, full-time jobs and homes. But, for one reason or another, they were found ineligible by an immigration judge to live in America and they later ignored deportation notices, which is a felony, Pruneda said.

[Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center in Miami] said there are 400,000 undocumented immigrants living in the United States...

"The strategy is - simply throw them out, ask questions later," [Casey Wolff, an immigration attorney in Collier County] said. "Most people caught in the web of immigration rules ignore them until something happens or are not aware of them. Congress has not fixed a broken system and they continue to use Gestapo tactics..."

Not only is Casey Wolff a member of the AILA, he's written at least one article for this same paper.

And, of course, the 400,000 number is off by 20 to 40 times. The source was probably referring to those who have received final deportation orders.

It probably won't do any good, but the Naples News' Editor is pplewis *at* naplesnews.com and their Managing Editor is whblanton *at* naplesnews.com

Posted to Immigration2005a at February 28, 2005 04:15 PM

Comments

"It probably won't do any good,..."

Yeah, I know.

Posted by: eh at March 1, 2005 01:54 AM