Undocumented, Not Illegal: Beyond the Rhetoric of Immigration Coverage
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NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS mala MEDIA ACCURACY mala ON LATIN AMERICA www.nacla.org/mala Undocumented, Not Illegal: Beyond the Rhetoric of Immigration Coverage By Angelica Rubio N JUNE , PULITZER PRIZE WINNER JOSE ANTONIO VAR - the country. According to a 2008 report by the gas came out as an undocumented person. Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of hate I Many advocates were inspired by his story groups rose from 602 in 2000 to 888 in 2007—a because it put a face on the millions of undocu- 48% increase. In 2007, the SPLC added the mented immigrants living in the shadows of U.S. 250,000-member Federation for American Immi- society. Unfortunately, rather than participate in gration Reform (FAIR) to its “list of hate group” for the discussion, the mainstream media ignited a the organization’s baseless anti-immigrant “theories, firestorm. As Colorlines’s Mónica Novoa carefully coupled with a history of ties to white supremacist explained the following day, Vargas’s story drew groups.”3 FAIR is largely funded by wealthy racists, “enormous media attention and drove ‘undocu- such as John Tanton, who also helped to found the mented immigrant’ up to a top-trending term on Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), and Numbers Twitter. But it’s a shame that in the dissection USA, creating a veritable anti- immigrant empire in and retelling of his story, a fine point has been the mid-1990s. According to The New York Times lost on many of Vargas’ colleagues: He came out these groups were influential in the congressional specifically as an undocumented immigrant and defeat of the Dream Act in 2010, and the drafting not as ‘illegal.’ ”1 of Arizona’s notorious SB 1070 legislation.4 State The Vargas story is a telling example of the legislatures in Alabama and Georgia have followed media coverage of the immigration debate in the suite, passing legislation, which, like Arizona’s SB Angelica Rubio United States in recent years—inaccurate, in- 1070, essentially legalizes racial profiling against is a freelance 5 writer and blogger at complete, and insufficient. Vargas himself wrote suspected undocumented immigrants. RubioDispatch.com. several months later that after interviewing jour- Along with the growth of these anti-immigrant A longtime advocate nalists, politicians, policy experts, and media ana- groups, and the draconian laws they have helped for comprehensive lysts, there was an “undeniable” consensus that to pass, is a rise in the anti-immigrant rhetoric. The immigration reform, the media framing around illegal immigration message from FAIR, CIS, and Numbers USA is one she recently returned to her home state of was “stuck in a simplistic, us-versus-them, black- of intolerance, carrying a highly charged racial dis- New Mexico to orga- or-white, conflict-driven narrative, often featuring course, which provides ammunition to media con- nize rural communi- the same voices making familiar arguments.”2 glomerates that capitalize on the negative narrative ties in immigration Who are these voices? Where is the overheated of immigration, fueling an already fearful citizenry. advocacy and civic rhetoric coming from? Over the last decade, anti- In May 2008, Media Matters, a web-based, pro- engagement. immigrant groups have been on the rise across gressive research center, released Fear and Loathing 50 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 mala in Prime Time, a report that analyzed the part of the regular media vocabulary. Alfredo Carbajal, chief editor of the immigration rhetoric heard on cable The term dehumanizes undocument- Dallas Spanish-language daily, Al Día, news. The report focused on commen- ed immigrants, depicting them all as says that they use the term “undocu- tators who often discussed the issue of criminals. mented” and have done so since the illegal immigration on their programs, “Using the word [illegal] . crosses paper’s founding in 2003. However, such as CNN’s Lou Dobbs and Fox’s the line by criminalizing the person, he says that readers, even among the Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck. The re- not the action they are purported to Hispanic community, write in saying port found that these hosts provided an have committed,” said a September that “by not calling illegal immigra- extremely high amount of misinforma- 2010 press release from the National tion ‘illegal,’ you’re already taking a tion. For example, despite studies that Association of Hispanic Journalists, a side.” Janna Sundeyeva, editor of San show that immigrants are less likely to Washington-based organization with Francisco’s Russian-language newspa- commit crimes, O’Reilly and Beck par- 2,300 members. The NAHJ also de- per, Kstati, would agree. ticularly promoted the idea that “illegal nounced “the use of the degrading “The direct and honest word is ‘ille- aliens” were responsible for a crime terms ‘alien’ and ‘illegal alien’ to de- gal’ because it is actually illegal to cross wave sweeping the country. scribe undocumented immigrants be- the border of any country without prop- “Number one, the illegal aliens cause it casts them as adverse, strange er documents,” said Sundeyeva. How- shouldn’t be here. And number two, beings, inhuman outsiders who come ever, Korean media, Shore discovered, the culture from which they come is a to the U.S. with questionable motiva- often uses the term “overstayer” and the lot more violent than the USA,” O’Reilly tions.” Punjabi media frequently uses the term told viewers in January 2007. More recently, the Society of “living in hiding,” instead of the words “America’s border crisis. Rape, drugs, Professional Journalists, a century-old “undocumented” or “illegal.”7 kidnapping, even murder. It is begin- organization with a membership of In politics, however, the “I-word” ning to look a lot more like a border nearly 10,000, rallied against the term appears to have become the word of war,” said Beck on November 8, 2007. illegal, passing a resolution that “immi- choice, especially among Republicans. Dobbs pushed the popular recon- grants are undocumented, not illegal.” On October 18, Herman Cain, former quista myth, that immigrants are plan- They later presented the resolution to Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, ning to retake Aztlán—portions of its members at their national conven- and Texas governor Rick Perry par- the American Southwest, which the tion in September.6 ticipated in the CNN-televised United States took from Mexico in the The Applied Research Center and its Republican presidential debate in Las 1840s. Although these myths are false, daily news site, Colorlines.com, have Vegas. Aside from duking it out over they are portrayed as fact on prime- even launched the public education Romney’s alleged “illegal” lawn main- time television, and millions of view- campaign, Drop the I-Word. According tenance worker, Perry and Romney ers believe them. They make the term to the campaign, the I-word opens the used the term “illegal” 28 times within “illegal” scary and violent, and the de- door to racial profiling and violence, a 15-minute argument over immigra- bate for comprehensive immigration and prevents truthful, respectful debate tion. It was apparent that not one can- reform much less likely. on immigration. “No human being is il- didate on that stage was in touch with “I also know our country is on fire, legal,” says their website. the plight of the undocumented immi- and the fuel is illegal immigration,” These public declarations are impor- grant. Then again, neither was the au- Beck told viewers in January 2007. tant, despite the fact that mainstream dience. Cain’s idea of building an elec- “There are about 12 to 15 million il- media does not appear to be listening. trified fence between the U.S.-Mexico legals in this country, and that number But how about other, more indepen- border to prevent illegal immigration is growing by 500,000 every year. Re- dent media? In a September article for and Perry’s solution of utilizing preda- cent investigations showed that in Los New America Media, reporter Elena tor drones along the border provided Angeles 95 percent of all warrants for Shore interviewed editors from several more laughter and applause from homicide targeted illegal aliens. They “ethnic” media outlets, about the term the audience than when Congress- put a strain on our Social Security, our they use to describe an immigrant who man Ron Paul suggested that a man education, our health care and, yes, is in the United States illegally. “Before die because he couldn’t afford health national security.” publishing a story on immigration, ev- care in an earlier debate. But to be fair, This rhetoric—particularly the use ery editor faces [this] question,” wrote the GOP candidates are not solely to of the term “illegal”—has become Shore. Their conclusions are varied. blame for the use of the term “illegal.” 51 NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS mala CNN moderator Anderson Cooper migrants continue to settle, it appears communities.” If this was not enough used it during the debate, and Presi- that the illegal immigration rhetoric to provoke a response from these advo- dent Obama has used the term him- does little to affect the success or fail- cacy groups, Dobbs later broadcasted self, especially early in his presidency, ure of the Irish today. his radio show from Capitol Hill as to appease those on the right. Irish Central, the largest Irish-Amer- part of FAIR’s anti-immigrant “Hold ican media site in the United States, re- Their Feet to the Fire” lobbying con- S OF MARCH , 16 STATE LEGISLA - cently found that undocumented Irish, ference and rally.12 The Drop Dobbs tures had introduced legisla- unlike many of their Latino counter- campaign was so successful that in Ation mirroring Arizona’s SB parts, actually have little trouble adjust- 2009 CNN released him from his du- 1070, which essentially legalized ra- ing to their new lives in New York City.