By Andrew L. Jaffee

The BBC is painting the American public with a broad stroke, labeling groups trying to get a bit of control over the 10,000-a-day flood of immigrants into the U.S. as “Right-wing.” Yet British Broadcasting is very sensitive when describing American citizens who support the flood. The BBC goes even as far as to claim that “anti-immigrant” groups are working only the political side of the issue. But the Beeb doesn’t mention how many Democrats also want to gain control of our borders. From the BBC, and notice the labeling and non-labeling, depending on which side each group is on:

The issue has polarised politics and US society. Right-wing groups have protested against illegal immigrants, while millions of people marched in support of them last month.

The second sentence implies that only “Right-wing groups” are concerned about the flood of illegals — it explicitly labels them as “against” illegals, and intimates this is some type of racial movement. But many Democrats are calling for stringent measures against illegals (more on that later).

Then the Beeb presupposes that actions being taken by Texas’ governor is only politically, and Republican, driven:

The Texas governor announced his plans for streaming the border surveillance camera footage over the internet at a meeting of police officials on Thursday.

“A stronger border is what Americans want and it’s what our security demands and that is what Texas is going to deliver,” Mr Perry said.

The cameras will cost $5m (£2.7m) to install and will be trained on sections of the 1,000-mile (1,600km) border known to be favoured by illegal immigrants.

Web users who spot an apparently illegal crossing will be able to alert the authorities by telephoning a number free of charge.

Mr Perry, a Republican, is running for re-election in November.

This is not an oversight, or a misunderstanding of immigration in America; this is pure editorializing — leaving out import facts. Like the fact that polls in predominantly Democratic Massachusetts reveal that:

…Bay State lawmakers advanced a series of hard-edge proposals to crack down on illegal immigrants whose impact is being felt in communities statewide.

“Clearly, there is a public outcry over this,” said state Sen. Steven Baddour (D-Methuen). “The public is really paying attention to this issue, and so are the legislators.”

Yesterday’s action by the Democrat-dominated state Senate, which passed a measure to prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining public housing, stood in stark contrast to the compromise plan pushed forward by the Republican-dominated U.S. Senate.

It looks like the Republican-dominated Senate is poised to pass an immigration bill which most Americans oppose. From the AP:

Senate supporters of landmark immigration legislation looked ahead Wednesday to passage of a measure along lines set by President Bush, but they also signaled a willingness to seek common ground with conservatives whose House version would be far tougher on millions of men and women in the country illegally.

So not only is the BBC out of wack, but so are the President and the Senate:

A new opinion poll by Zogby International indicates Americans are hardly pleased with the Bush administration on the subject of illegal immigration.

The poll, cited on CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight” program yesterday, noted a huge majority – 81 percent – believes local and state police should help federal authorities enforce laws against illegal immigration. Only 14 percent disagreed.

Voters were also asked, “Do you support or oppose the Bush administration’s proposal to give millions of illegal aliens guest worker status and the opportunity to become citizens?” Only 35 percent gave their support, and 56 percent said no.

“A majority opposed illegal immigration,” pollster John Zogby told CNN. “In fact, when you combine those two terms, ‘illegal and immigration,’ it really conjures up a considerable amount of negatives. And, in fact, we find that it’s really across the board.”

According to the report, the greatest opponents of illegal immigration are Democrats, African-Americans, women and people with household income below $75,000, those with the most to lose in the job market.

When it came to the status of the nation’s borders, respondents were asked, “Do you agree or disagree that the federal government should deploy troops on the Mexican border as a temporary measure to control illegal immigration?” A clear majority – 53 percent – agree, while 40 percent disagree.

What a mess. Some in the main-stream media are overtly pro-immigrant. Our Republican President and Senate are out of touch with the pulse of the people they represent. Right now, I don’t see this going well. The Republicans could be putting the nail in the coffin of their long tenure of controlling the White House and Congress. And I’m even starting to think about voting Democratic in November in a kinda “throw the bums out” protest. But there’s a long time between now and November.

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Related: United States, Society, Immigration

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