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

Posted Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 10:09 am

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.

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Comments

Anonymous (not verified)

Wed, 06/17/2009 - 06:33

Amnesty (or whatever euphemism) is a formal declaration that your immigration policy is everyone who can get here, by any means, gets to stay. If you've already been ordered to leave, you get to stay. Already deported, and come back, even ignoring U.S. authority multiple times--you get to stay. Just got here yesterday and not sure if you want to stay? Might as well say you've been here longer, grab a Z-visa (or whatever it will be called next time) to keep your options open. How could any non-subversive of immigration law support this? It's flushing your sovereignty down the toilet.

Deborah Sherman... (not verified)

Thu, 06/18/2009 - 04:08

My complaint about this piece was the focus on Mexicans. It gives a false impression that this is unique to those people. I am presently dealing with six immigrants having problems with INS. Not one of them is Hispanic. Four of them are white professionals. Five of them came here legally. Four were here legally when picked up by INS. Three are now in danger of being deported partly due to mistakes made by INS in their paperwork. Three of those six have been the victims of domestic abuse and slavery by a spouse who is a citizen - the immigration laws as they are now written and enforced facilitates this. Of those three caught in domestic slavery - two are men. The one person who did come here illegally tried to come legally, but it was going to take years (A military friend of mine just got the right for his wife to come here legally - it took five years). This man's wife, a citizen of this country, told him she and his young daughter were in danger of being homeless if he did not come to help her right away. She could not join him outside this country as she also had a child from a previous marriage. What would you do under such circumstances? If you are married with kids and your answer is you would obey the law and leave your family to fend for themselves you might not want to share that sentiment with your spouse - unless you like sleeping on the couch. I have not gone looking for any of these people. I just set out to help one friend. I'm an advocate for men's rights - not immigration issues. I am finding that there are a number of immigration issues that are, in fact, men's rights issues . . . did you know that a spouse or girlfriend who is a citizen need only make a charge of domestic violence against an immigrant male and even if he is here legally and is the one with physical injuries from her attack on him - and there is no case proved against him - that charge alone will get him deported. It just takes the word of a woman who is tired or pissed off at her man to get him tossed out of here. You can talk about obeying the law all you want, but those laws are making it more and more risky to be a man in America - citizen or not, legal or not. I'm a woman. My ancestors came here hundreds of years ago. It's not my hide that's at stake here, but if you are a man and not born in this country - legal or not, you might want to recheck the safety of yours.

Leave it to Beaner (not verified)

Fri, 06/19/2009 - 00:46

How to avoid all the problems listed above and any in the future..... like these for instance: Overcrowding and Gridlock Education Stagnant Wages Gang Crime Water Rationing English Only Multiple squabbling nationalities Welfare State Militarize both borders and enforce all immigration Laws. Think of all the new jobs it would create.