Media Still Struggling to Explain Legalization-First Foundation of Immigration Bill
In at least one critical aspect, the Gang of Eight's immigration bill passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee the same way it went in: there is no enforcement required before 11 million illegal aliens start to receive their legal status and work permits.
Nothing changed during the markup. The legalization begins as soon as Secretary Napolitano submits two plans for border security and fencing. The plan for fencing does not have to include additional fences. The plans don't have to be carried out. They don't even have to be approved by Congress.
The question of whether to put amnesty before enforcement or enforcement before amnesty is central to the debate. Yet, some reporters still struggle to explain this fundamental aspect of the bill.
From the New York Times: "The current bill sets up a sequence of new border measures that must be in place before illegal immigrants can gain legal status and eventually citizenship."
From Politico: "The Senate legislation requires a series of security benchmarks before undocumented immigrants can transition into a provisional status and, a decade later, obtain a green card."
From the Wall Street Journal: "The current immigration bill, introduced by a group of senators known as the "Gang of Eight," would provide a pathway to citizenship to about 11 million people illegally in the U.S. and create new work-visa programs. It also would require beefed-up border security and employment verification before steps to legalize undocumented immigrants could kick in."
Those statements from three influential media outlets couldn't be more wrong or misleading. The submission of two plans does not equate to "a sequence of new border measures" or "a series of security benchmarks."
Even if it did, why not write "DHS must submit two plans to secure the border and assess border fencing before illegal immigrants can gain legal status and eventually citizenship?" That would be more accurate and specific.
I'll give the reporters the benefit of doubt and assume that they were opaquely referring to the so-called immigration enforcement "triggers" that the bill requires between the legalization + work permits phase and the green card + citizenship phase. Even if that were the case, their statements are still inaccurate and misleading.
The bill ensures that DREAMers, their relatives, and illegal agriculture workers would all get their green cards in five years whether there is any enforcement or not. As for the remaining amnestied aliens (remember, they get legal status and work permits at the beginning of the process), Sen. Schumer announced "We are not using border security as a block to a path to citizenship" as far back as his January press conference. In late April, he told Univision's Jorge Ramos that the bill requires "more people on the border, more drones on the border, and more enforcement on the border. But the 90 percent [apprehension rate] which was listed in one of the newspapers is a goal. It's not the trigger."
Nobody summed up the enforcement "triggers" better than amnesty advocate and bill supporter Frank Sharry of America's Voice, who boasted, "The triggers are based on developing plans and spending money, not on reaching that effectiveness, which is really quite clever."
Any way you slice it, the Times, The Wall Street Journal and Politico got it wrong. Badly wrong. We can't know if they honestly don't understand the bill or if they are deliberately obscuring the facts, but their mistake clearly serves the interests of the bill's supporters. Poll after poll finds little enthusiasm for a bill that puts legalization before enforcement - even among people who are open to amnesty. No poll has found majority support for the legalization-first process the Gang of Eight has laid out.
The Gang of Eight instinctively understands how unpopular their approach to illegal immigration is. They have downplayed the legalization-first-enforcement-later-we-promise-this-time-honest! process from the beginning. Reporting like this plays right into the Gang of Eight's hands.
Readers of the Times and Politico were not served well by the stories above. But there is good reporting to be read.
From USA Today: "There are no measurements of border security that must be reached before the nation's unauthorized immigrants could apply to become legal residents."
That wasn't so hard, was it?
http://cnsnews.com/blog/rosemary-jenks/media-still-struggling-explain-legalization-first-foundation-immigration-bill