Carl Quintanilla of CNBC promotes irresponsible behavior, bad public policy (Today Show)

On yesterday's Today Show, CNBC anchor Carl Quintanilla offered a highly sympathetic report on a mixed-status family: the father and children are U.S. citizens, the mother is a former illegal alien now living in Mexico. As could be expected, Quintanilla puts his ethnicity ahead of proper public policy and support for the concept of personal responsibility. The text report is entitled "Families Torn Apart by Immigration" (link):

None of this changes the fact that these families, in most cases, broke the law. And anti-immigration advocates argue the U.S. isn't tearing families apart. The law is the law, they say, and mixed-status families are always welcome to reunite in their country of origin.

But what about the children who are born here, through no choice of their own? Although they're natural-born citizens, they're born into a life of family turmoil -- unaware of the ways in which the debate over immigration in this country is altering their daily lives.

1. Very few people are "anti-immigration".
2. Shouldn't the families have thought about the impact that their choices would have on their children? If someone embarks on a career of, say, making knock-off jeans aren't they putting their current or future children at risk? Didn't all the parents in prisons and jails throughout the world put their children at risk? Oddly, Quintanilla doesn't go into that side of things, but instead segues into a heart-string-pulling paragraph.
3. The first thing to do is to stop encouraging the formation of mixed-status families. Yet, Quintanilla's implied solution (comprehensive immigration reform) would send the message that we don't really enforce our immigration laws, and that would lead to more mixed-status families. Clearly, Quintanilla isn't promoting the correct public policy.
4. Isn't there a significant cultural cost to what Quintanilla promotes, in that many Hispanics don't think our laws apply to them?

Quintanilla finishes with a demographic threat:

It's part of the experience of Latinos in America. And, for better or worse, it will shape the way Latinos view this country, as they become a more formidable force in American culture, politics and policy.

The threat is apparently aimed at the GOP; Carl Quintinilla is implying that those who don't support massive Hispanic immigration will reap the whirlwind.

Tue, 06/16/2009 - 10:09 · · Importance: 4