Tonight's 60 Minutes had a segment called "More Migrants Dying To Get In". That link provides a rough transcript of the segment, but there are some not insignificant things they left out, such as Tancredo briefly referencing workplace enforcement and Ed Bradley not following up on that remark. And, Ed offered a little bit of editorializing, in effect agreeing with one guest that we need a guest worker scheme because we need those illegal workers. (That guest was Mark Reed; more on him here, here, here, and here.)
Here are some of the things Ed forgot to include in his report:
- Who exactly is responsible for not enforcing our immigration laws at workplaces?
- What role does political corruption play in all this? If politicians take contributions from companies that profit off illegal immigration, isn't that corruption and a threat to our entire political system?
- Who was governor of Nebraska during the meatpacking raids Ed discussed, and what's his current job? (I believe that would be Mike Johanns, who is now our Secretary of Agriculture.)
- If Bob just comes to work, well, who could refuse Bob a job? And, if Fred just comes to work, well, we don't want to deny ol' Fred what he wants. But, when you've got millions of people "just coming to work", doesn't that have a major impact on our economy and our way of life? Why didn't Ed say anything about that?
- Why didn't Ed discuss the Mexican government's continual attempt to meddle in our internal politics?
- Why didn't Ed discuss any of the threats to our country discussed in Heather MacDonald's recent piece on the actions of Mexico's consuls in the U.S.?
- Why didn't Ed discuss those U.S. politicians who occasionally act more like Mexican politicians?
- Why didn't Ed disclose that a major chunk of Mexico's population would come to the U.S. if they could?
- Why didn't Ed discuss how illegal immigration will undercut any immigration system, and the way to stop that - and stop desert crossings - is to go after the employers and reduce or eliminate non-emergency public services?
- Does Ed think Americans are stupid enough to think that the fact that no terrorists have (supposedly) been caught at the border indicates that a) they haven't tried or b) they haven't already succeeded?
- Does Ed think terrorists who infiltrated our borders would then, for instance, send CBS a press release to announce their presence?
I realize there's only so many minutes in a segment, but by providing such a superficial report Ed Bradley undercuts his own credibility and does a disservice to his viewers.
UPDATE: There's an annotated transcript here.
Immigration2005b · Sun, 12/11/2005 - 19:45 · · Importance: 1
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Comments
For the last 60 years it has been obvious to me that the government has absolutely no interest in securing the Mexican border. They are however, hell bent on keeping the border wide open. The only way to secure the southern border is for the average guy (people like the Minutemen) to take the bull by the horns and do it themselves. If in fact such a group does manage to secure the entire Mexican border, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week (and that's what it will take)then don't be surprised if they start taking gunfire from both sides of the border. The Mexicans will be firing from the south and the US troops will be firing from the north. Both sides will be aiming at the Minutemen.
Posted by: Boofugg at Dec 11, 2005 10:09 PM