Media Reaction to Immigration News Report (2010), Reaction Paper Example

Abstract

This work examines a media news report relating to illegal immigration in the United States and examines the report for bias as well as otherwise critically analyzing the report and the issue at focus or that of immigration laws in the United States.

 Objective

This work in writing will address the historical framework of immigration and the political context of this issue. As well, this work will answer as to what message the media article reviewed in this work attempt to portray and address whether the media coverage was biased or unbiased and whether the issue was sensationalized or portrayed objectively. This work will additionally answer as to how might the media coverage affect the public perception of the issue and whether it encourages or discourages prejudice, discrimination and stereotyping. Also examined will be how this issue affects the U.S. economy and labor force.

CBS News Report

It was reported by CBS news in a report entitled “Illegal Immigration Declining, Reports Shows” that the number of undocumented immigrants living in the United States has declined significantly for the first time in two decades, according to a report from the Pew Hispanic Center.” (Condon, 2010) Condon goes on to state that the population of undocumented immigrants fell by 8 percent to 11.1 million in March 2009, compared with a peak of 12 million in March 2007.” (Condon, 2010) The reduction of illegal immigrants entering into the United States is the reason for this drop.

Historical Immigration Data and Recent Immigration Laws

The United States is a country comprised by immigrants, as the first immigrants to the United States were the Pilgrims who left England and traveled across the seas to come to the ‘new land’. The most recent immigration law is reported to be that of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IRAAIRA) enacted in 1996 and is stated to be the result of the process of deliberation in the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform recommendations that the Congress, and then, U.S. President Clinton, established for the purpose of examining the legal and illegal issues surrounding illegal immigration in the U.S.  It is reported that the provision of the IIRAIRA were focused on the adoption of: “stronger penalties against illegal immigration, streamlining the deportation (removal) process by curtailing the never-ending legal appeal process that was used by immigration lawyers to keep their clients in the United States until they found a sympathetic judge who would grand suspension of deportation (cancellation of removal)” (Condon, 2010)

Other toughening provisions adopted in the same year aimed at curbing the ability of terrorists to use the immigration process to enter and operate in the United States and to restrict the use of public welfare benefits by new immigrants contrary to the intent of the immigration law.” (Condon, 2010)

Major Provisions of the IIRAIRA

Stated as major provisions of the IIRAIRA are those as follows:  (1) provided authorization for an additional 5,000 Border Patrol agents by 2001 which included several hundred additional investigators to examine employer sanctions violations, as well as document fraud and visa overstays; (2) Banned the legal admission of illegal aliens who were removed for five to twenty years based on the violation and barred permanently the admission of deported felons; (3) a 14 mile long fence was authorized for San Diego, California; (4) funds to expand the IDENT program were authorized for fingerprinting of all illegal and criminal aliens nationwide; (5) expanded the definition of aggravated felony which facilitate the deportation of criminal aliens; (6) Stopped the release of criminal aliens from custody prior to deportation;  (7) The removal of aliens classified as ‘inadmissible’ was streamlined through limitations being placed on reviews of the judiciary; (8) Aliens falsely claiming U.S. citizenship were classified as ‘excludable’ or ‘deportable’;  as well as placing:

(9) Requirements on state to “phase in, over six years, drivers’ licenses and state issued I.D. documents that are tamperproof and counterfeit-resistant; (10) Increased criminal penalties for document fraud and smuggling. Added alien smuggling and document fraud to RICO (anti-racketeering) offences and granted the INS the authority to use wiretaps for such investigations; (11) Required that sponsors of immigrants have income at least 25 percent above the poverty level and made affidavits of support by the sponsors legally binding; and (12) Tightened the Attorney General’s authority over special admissions by requiring “urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit” as grounds for admittance, and allowed for such admissions only on a case-by-case basis.” (Federation for American Immigration Reform, 2010)

Political Issues

The political issues surrounding the subject of immigration are complex and are greatly affected by the issue of terrorism, as there is a fear that terrorists will use the border immigration process to enter into the United States for the purpose of committing a terrorist act. It is reported by CBS News that the reasons behind the drop in the numbers of immigrants in the United States was not examined and that the report that CBS news based its report upon, or that of the Pew Research report also had not stated why there was a sudden drop in the immigrants presently in the United States. It was reported on July 7^th 2010 that the controversial immigration law in Arizona “is being challenged by the Federal government in an attempt to keep other states from passing similar laws.” (Ray, 2010) There is also a lawsuit ongoing in the State of Georgia, which challenges the rights of locals authorities to enforce federal immigration law as well as having stated the intent to have the case litigated as a class action lawsuit. (Americans for Legal Immigration, 2010)

Reason Immigration Such a Heated Issue

Immigration laws and regulations in the United States are so heated because of the economic impact of illegal immigration. NPR News reports that approximately five percent of the total U.S. labor force is illegal immigrants, which totals nearly 12 million. It is related that construction workers represent 20% of this number while agricultural workers account for 4%. (Kahn, 2006)

Media and Immigration

Much of the media news coverage of the immigration issue has been greatly sensationalize d and has managed to drive the issue to a fevered pitch and emphasize what was already a sensitive issue due to the economic impacts of immigration and particularly those to the U.S. labor force. The CBS News report however did not sensationalize the report and the report was portrayed objectively and in an unbiased manner. Media coverage has been shown to have various affects upon the viewing and listening audience and erroneous facts have often been reported as truth, which serves to mislead the public and to effectively incite political and social discontent.

The CBS report did however speculate as to the reason for the drop in immigrants presently living in the U.S. and stated a suggestion that this was perhaps due to mass deportation of illegal immigrants however; this suggestion was not supported by any presentation of facts or data by CBS News.

Summary and Conclusion

It is important to understand that today’s media is comprised by only a couple of very large corporations that have merged the previously largest media corporations to form what is a type of monopoly ownership. The temptation for media control is stated in the form of grave warning in the writings of the Forefathers of the United States. While those warnings comprise what must necessarily be a separate study it is certain that media effects many societal responses that do indeed serve to color the political, economic and socio-cultural environment in the United States. It is extremely important to listen critically to news and media in all forms because of the potential for corruption of the truth, sensationalism of the events in the daily lives of American citizens because the other side to the immigration story is told by those who desperately want and need to hire laborers now that the number of illegal immigrants in the United States has been reduced since there are no U.S. workers who want to work for such low wages as do illegal immigrant workers.

References

History of U.S. Immigration Laws: Historical Immigrant Admission Data: 1821 to 2006. Immigration Facts. (2010) Federation for American Immigration Reform. FAIR. Retrieved from: http://www.fairus.org/site/PageNavigator/facts/research_us_laws/

Ray, Whitney (2010) Immigration Reform Issues. CBS New. Report. Retrieved from: http://www.wjhg.com/home/headlines/97969904.html

GA: Lawsuit Challenges Local Immigration Enforcement (2010) Americans for Legal Immigration. Retrieved from: http://www.alipac.us/

Kahn, Carrie (2006) Report: 5 Percent of Labor Force Are Illegal Immigrants. NPR News 7 Mar 2006. Retrieved from: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5250150