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Immigrants: The Perfect Scapegoat

Posted April 7, 2009 by Patrick Young, Esq.

Media Matters for America points out today that apart from ACORN, the conservative media’s favorite culprit for every woe is the undocumented immigrant. According to the report:
“In coverage of major news stories, conservative media figures have repeatedly fallen back on two of their favorite bogeymen—the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and undocumented immigrants—frequently blaming national crises on one or both groups or accusing them of receiving undeserved benefits from the government. At best, these scapegoats are tenuously connected to the issues those figures are discussing; at worst, they are entirely unrelated. In some instances, the media linked their scapegoats to major news stories using misleading claims, and in others, they advanced outright falsehoods. Whatever the case may be, conservatives in the media consistently weave ACORN and undocumented immigrants into their coverage or commentary, instead of addressing the substantive policy issues or developing a cogent critique.”
The conservative noise machine has sought to blame the current financial crisis on lending by banks at the behest of the Democratic Party to undocumented immigrants. According to Media Matters:
“Conservative media figures have also claimed or suggested that excessive lending to undocumented immigrants is responsible for the financial crisis, citing no credible evidence to support that claim. In several instances, media figures have baselessly claimed that according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), 5 million mortgages taken out by undocumented immigrants are in default, or close to it. In fact, according to an October 9, 2008, Phoenix Business Journal article, HUD “says there is no basis to news reports that more than 5 million bad mortgages are held by illegal immigrants. A HUD spokesman said ... his agency has no data showing the number of illegal immigrants holding foreclosed or bad mortgages.”
Nevertheless, conservative media figures continued to baselessly attribute the financial crisis in part to excessive lending to illegal immigrants, including:
San Diego radio host Roger Hedgcock and radio host Joe Madison, during the October 9, 2008, edition of Lou Dobbs Tonight
Phoenix radio station KFYI, in an article on its website
The Drudge Report in an October 9, 2008, link to the KFYI article
Syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin in a September 24, 2008, column
Limbaugh, during the October 10, 2008, broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show
Radio host Lee Rodgers, during the October, 10, 2008, broadcast of KSFO’s The Lee Rodgers Show
Radio host Jim Quinn, during the October 10, 2008, broadcast of Clear Channel’s The War Room with Quinn & Rose”
Now think about it. If there are 12 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., that likelty makes about 6 million undocumented families. The odds that 80% of undocumented immigrants took out five million mortgages, all of which went into default is simply silly, if you understand even the most rudimentary math. Add to that the fact that experience teaches that the overwhelming majority of undocumented immigrants, nearly all in my experience, are renters and not owners, and you can see just how nutty anyone would have to be to believe this crap. So if someone tells you that undocumented immigrants are behind the banking collapse, you can be sure they never took basic arithmetic in middle school.
Of course, if immigrants just destroyed the banking system, they might be forgiven. But, according to conservatives, they also launched an all-out assault on democracy itself:
“The media devoted great attention to charges of voter registration fraud throughout the coverage of the 2008 presidential primary and general election campaigns, repeatedly using those opportunities to smear… undocumented immigrants.
[C]onservative media figures advanced the myth that undocumented immigrants are attempting or are likely to attempt, en masse, to vote illegally. Among them were Fund—who did so in his November 2, 2007, Wall Street Journal column and during the November 3, 2007, edition of Fox News’ The Journal Editorial Report—and Dobbs—in numerous 2007 appearances on Lou Dobbs Tonight and CNN’s Lou Dobbs This Week, as well as during the November 14, 2007, edition of CNN’s The Situation Room. This myth gained traction in reports about former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s (D) plan to allow undocumented immigrants to apply for a driver’s license, which many in the media claimed would open the door to voter fraud by, they claimed, helping enable immigrants who are not here legally to register to vote.”
The undocumented then used their new-found political clout to pour stimulus money into their pockets, according to Dobbs & Co:
“Similarly, the media falsely asserted or uncritically reported the false Republican claim that the legislation would provide tax credits to undocumented immigrants. The falsehood originated in a January 29 Associated Press article that cited a single anonymous Republican official, subsequently spreading to the Drudge Report and many other conservative media outlets—despite the fact that a revised version of AP’s article made clear that the bill limited eligibility for the Making Work Pay tax credit to individuals with Social Security numbers, thereby excluding undocumented immigrants. Indeed, the House version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act under discussion at that time specifically precluded from eligibility for the Making Work Pay tax credit “any individual unless the requirements of [the Earned Income Tax Credit] are met.” Requirements to qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit include “a social security number issued to an individual by the Social Security Administration.” The final version of the act as signed by Obama precluded from eligibility “any individual who does not include on the return of tax for the taxable year ... such individual’s social security account number.”
Examples of media outlets falsely asserting or uncritically reporting claims that the bill provides tax credits to undocumented immigrants include:
The AP, in a January 29 article
The Drudge Report, in a January 29 headline linking to the AP article
Cameron, during the January 29 edition of Special Report
Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham, during the January 29 edition of Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor
Dobbs, during the January 29 broadcast of his radio show
Limbaugh, during the January 29 broadcast of his radio show
Hannity, during the January 29 broadcast of his radio show
The Washington Times, in a February 2 editorial “
I understand that illegal immigrants wrote Rush Limbaugh’s CPAC speech two months ago and that they were behind the selection of Micael Steele as RNC Chairman as well.
Their powers are great and their cunning unfathomable.