May 23, 2007

Samuel G. Freedman helps show how New York Times would scuttle "reform"

Samuel G. Freedman of the New York Times offers "Immigration Raid Leaves Sense of Dread in Hispanic Students":

[...Eleven highly emotional paragraphs describing the feds picking up two illegal aliens from the house of two legal immigrants...]

Such was the triumph of Operation Cross Check, the federal raid against illegal immigrants that went on for four days last month in this community of about 18,500 people. To the Department of Homeland Security, the operation was a success, catching a convicted sex offender and several welfare cheats among its 49 arrests. In a news release announcing the toll, an immigration enforcement director for Minnesota said, "Our job is to help protect the public from those who commit crimes."

Yet more than half of those arrested had committed no crime other than being in the United States illegally, doing the jobs at Jennie-O that prop up the local economy. And, as the experience of Alex Sorto demonstrates, the aggressive, invasive style of the sweep instilled lasting fear among Willmar’s 3,000 Hispanics, many of them students born or naturalized in the United States. These young people are the political football in America’s bitter, unresolved battle about immigration.

One thing is clear: the New York Times opposes immigration raids. Can anyone see Sam Freedman changing his tune if "comprehensive immigration reform" passes? Won't he just continue to say these same things over and over about the raids that are supposedly part of "reform"? And, won't that tend to water down "reform" and continue to allow illegal immigration to occur?

Once again, the NYT should just come right out and admit that they want a loose borders system, where anyone who makes it over the border and can stay here for a while gets to become a citizen.

Posted to Immigration_piipps at May 23, 2007 09:29 AM