July 06, 2005

Can you trust the Las Vegas Sun?

To help you answer that question, take a look at the article "Plates help Aztec descendants become citizens" from Timothy Pratt.

It concerns a group called the Citizenship Project led by one Rev. Phil Carolin, which helps immigrants fill out citizenship paperwork and the like. That organization (whose full name appears to be Immigrant Workers Citizenship Project) has a deal with Nevada where a portion of the sales of a license plate design are donated to their coffers. The good reverend spends the money to print up posters, hire staff, get a part-time immigration lawyer, and so forth:

From Dec. 1 to May 31, the state has sold 1,201 of the Aztec calendar plates. Those sales make it the third best-selling among 25 specialty plates statewide, behind one celebrating the 100th birthday of Las Vegas, and another with a patriotic theme.

Other than that ironic note, it all sounds great! But, just to double-check, I decided to search for the name of that organization at www.DiscoverTheNetwork.org. I didn't think they'd have anything because it appeared to be a small, cozy group. However, as it turns out they do have a page about this group, and it stands in very stark contrast to the wholesome picture portrayed by the Las Vegas Sun:

A nonprofit organization founded in October 2001, the Immigrant Workers Citizenship Project (IWCP) works hand-in-hand with the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride Coalition (IWFRC), the group that sponsored what was essentially mass participation in a federal crime by transporting illegal aliens across state lines in October of 2003...

...Though it claimed to be an effort to secure fair representation and labor laws for legal immigrants, the Ride was in reality a smokescreen for an agenda of legalizing uncontrolled mass immigration. As David Ray, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, observed at the time, "Equating this to the civil rights movement is nauseating."

...The IWCP was founded by the Rev. Phil Carolin, who is an Episcopal priest, along with several union representatives. Rev. Carolin is one of twenty clergy who form the Las Vegas Interfaith Council on Worker Justice, a group that partnered with the AFL-CIO and picketed the New York-New York hotel/casino, located in Las Vegas, in 1997. Several local business leaders have claimed that the group is nothing but an excuse for union strong-arming in clerical garb. Rev. Carolin and the Interfaith Council have also joined forces with the American Civil Liberties Union to oppose police background checks on potential Las Vegas employees...

(Another worthy group that was involved in the "Freedom Ride" was the National Lawyers Guild. Their Winter 2003 newsletter, available here, makes it quite clear where they're coming from on this issue.)

Given this sharp contrast, should you trust what the L.V. Sun tells you?

Posted to Immigration_piipps at July 6, 2005 12:32 PM

Comments

"In addition to helping people fill out the paperwork needed to obtain an interview for becoming a citizen, the project offers classes in English and to help applicants prepare for the citizenship exam."

THIS HAS GOT TO STOP!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: Ralph at July 7, 2005 08:20 AM

Simply more notice from our masters that the democratic process is an irrelevancy. The vast majority of US citizens support the enforcement of democratically enacted immigration laws, but the elites of both parties and the business community actively support subversion of those laws. Let's see now: we are fighting for democracy in Iraq, but ignore it(or mock it) at home. I wish some White House spokehole would explain this apparent contradiction to me.

Posted by: perroazul del norte at July 11, 2005 01:20 AM