Hannah Dreier /MediaMatters misleads about Nancy Pelosi position on raids (Lou Dobbs)

Hannah Dreier of Media Matters for America offers a misleading view of Nancy Pelosi's recent remarks in Dobbs falsely claimed Pelosi said "immigration law enforcement is, quote-unquote, 'un-American" (mediamatters.org/items/200903240035):

Summary: On his radio show, Lou Dobbs asked his guest for his "reaction" to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "saying last week that enforcement in the workplace, immigration law enforcement is, quote-unquote, 'un-American.' " In fact, Pelosi criticized as "un-American" immigration raids that separate undocumented parents from their documented children, not "immigration law enforcement."

Perhaps Dobbs should have been more lawyerly in his language, but her cavil is a distinction with not much of a difference. Here's the relevant portion of Pelosi's earlier comments:

How then could America say it’s ok to send parents of children away? What value system is that? I think it’s un-American. I think it’s un-American... ...Who in our country would not want to change a policy of kicking in doors in the middle of the night and sending a parent away from their families?

In the first part of the quote, Pelosi is discussing mixed-status families; in the second part, she's apparently trying to restrict it to fugitive/criminal alien enforcement (rather than workplace raids). However, the first part makes the second part moot: workplace raids can result in family separation just as much as other types of raids.

Note that there are somewhere around between three and five million U.S. citizen children with at least one illegal alien parent. And, a good number of current illegal aliens have been here for many years.

That means that any immigration raid has a good chance of resulting in some form of family separation, unless the illegal alien takes their children home with them. Since there's no law or policy mandating that only those without children can be deported and that all those who have children will not be deported, Pelosi is indeed opposing raids in general. In Pelosi's view, pretty much any form of immigration enforcement other than border enforcement is "un-American".

Wed, 03/25/2009 - 07:53 · · Importance: 4