Blog
Politico's anti-E-Verify bias belied by its own polling
Politico's choice to describe E-Verify - but not a path to citizenship - as "controversial" reveals a subtle but clear bias that is contradicted by Politico's own polling.
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Media Fail: June 30th, 2018 provision goes unreported
If American voters had asked Congress to devise a plan to cause another border surge, they could not have asked for much more than what the "Common Sense Caucus" came up with. These newspapers did not report the unpopular details.
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Washington Post's Selective History of Chain Migration
The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act is well-known for increasing immigration and for ending the national origins quota system that had existed since the 1920s. News stories will often give the misimpression that ending Chain Migration would reverse all of the 1965 Act when actually it wouldn't reverse any of it (moving to a merit-based system, on the other hand would reverse the 1965 bill's priorities). In combination with the existing chain categories, the 1965 Act's changes resulted in the doubling of immigration over the next 25 years.
The Washington Post's reporting takes a page out of Lyndon Johnson's Blue Book: Highlight the popular elimination of national origins; keep the unpopular numbers in the dark.
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If Not 'Open Borders,' What Would You Call This?
A working group of "key Senate Republicans" have all but agreed to Democratic demands to exclude E-Verify from any DACA deal. Illegal immigration and illegal employment continue because Congress is not willing to stop them.
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Sympathy for Dreamers Does Not Translate into Support for Illegal Immigration
Under pressure from Dreamer groups, the House Minority Leader says the goal is to pass a legalization without any measures to control illegal immigration and the Senate Minority Leader says that the very measure he considers necessary to discourage illegal immigration must not be included in any deal.
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Cosmopolitanism, Communitarianism and Immigration
By quibbling over whether Jim Acosta or Stephen Miller has the nicer apartment, the media is once again missing an opportunity to facilitate a constructive conversation about immigration limits.
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Early Errors in RAISE Act Reporting
After years of ignoring the question of immigration levels, the news is suddenly full of stories about proposed changes to the numerical limits. Although (or, perhaps, because) there have been one or two examples of the media clearly not having thought through the basic questions surrounding green card policy, much of the reporting on the RAISE Act has been straightforward and down the middle.
But the early returns have produced some common errors and mischaracterizations that are worth watching out for and correcting/clarifying for your fellow readers when you find them.
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Why Does the Government Give Financial Incentives to Bypass Teen Job Applicants?
Should American businesses work harder to hire teenagers who want the job? By giving businesses an offer they can't refuse, the U.S. government's answer is "no."
A $100 million dollar industry facilitated by the State Department gives employers a significant discount on foreign hires.
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Changing Narrative: Democratic Party Wrestling with Need for Immigration Limits
After the 2016 election, the theory (widespread after 2012) that demographic destiny would force the GOP to embrace large-scale legalization and immigration expansion has fizzled. The Republican Party and President Trump continue to have internal debates about immigration policy, but they are no longer alone. Pundits and reporters from the center left and beyond are looking at the Democratic Party's "immigration problem" with renewed urgency.
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Greeley Tribune: 'We Like Our Cheap Food'
The food processing industry has a history of seeking out desperate workers who will accept lower wages and deplorable conditions. There are not enough foreign workers, they say, to take these jobs...at the wages they are offering.
If these businesses took the radical step of raising wages, the Greeley Tribune warns, our cheap food would be... less cheap.