September 10, 2006

Peter Prengaman/AP ignores Peter Schey Mexican government links

Peter Schey is the head of Los Angeles' Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, a group that's collaborating with the Mexican government on a website. Schey is also representing some illegal aliens who were arrested under a new Arizona law, and there is some kind of involvement of the Mexican consul in the case. And, an "opposition research" paper he wrote appears on a Mexican government website.

So, when quoting him about immigration matters, wouldn't you expect a news organization to mention something about his other activities?

Not, of course, if that organization is the Associated Press. From the AP-hosted version of Peter Prengaman's "Low Turnout at L.A. Immigration Rally" (link):

...The rally culminated this week's National Latino Congreso, billed as one of the largest gatherings of Hispanic leaders in decades.

Sessions included speeches and workshops on registering Hispanic voters, running Hispanic political candidates, wage gaps between Hispanics and whites, environmental issues and a lack of access to health care in immigrant communities.

But the week's central issue was creating new strategies to urge lawmakers to offer a path to citizenship to illegal immigrants.

"We need to frame this as a national security issue," said Peter Schey, president of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Los Angeles. "It's ridiculous to have immigrants at airports giving their fingerprints when there are 12 million people in the country illegally."

This is the third time that the AP has failed to inform their readers of such a material fact. The last time was when discussing the Border Human Rights Working Group.

Write feedback *at* ap.org with your thoughts. Better yet, choose a few instances of this report at random, and send emails to their wire services editor or managing editor suggesting that they review AP reports for completeness and accuracy.

Posted to Immigration at September 10, 2006 04:36 PM

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