The following a..rticle appeared on the Breitbart website and was linked to me in a comment on my Facebook page. The original FB post decried the pending (now announced) elimination of DACA, a program which was instituted by President Obama to provide temporary relief from the threat of deportation to undocumented young adults (ages 15 - 33 years old) who were brought to the United States as young children and have resided continuously in our country, grown up as Americans in every sense. I told my friend I found the article flawed in many ways and she invited me to detail those flaws. Here goes -
14 Things the MSM Won't Tell You About DACA
"Whenever a Republican wants to move forward — you know, pass some legislation or even enforce the law as already written, they always, always, ALWAYS have to run through a mainstream media propaganda gauntlet dedicated to the status quo, loyal only to the Democrat cause and by extension opposed to anything resembling progress."
Breitbart doesn't indicate whether a piece on their site is editorial or factual reporting. Apparently they assume the reader will accept EVERYTHING they publish as fact. This first paragraph immediately reveals itself to be opinion. Dr. Peter Lynch or Dennis Lobo, both well regarded and beloved teachers in the Social Studies department of the high school I attended, would have returned this to me with red marks all over were it to have been submitted as a news article. Exaggerations, absolutes and lack of anything factual in this paragraph. It's purpose is 100% to establish a slant.
Obamacare is an objective disaster [while there are problems with the ACA, recent data released by the federal government indicates the program is not in a death spiral, that every county in the country DOES have an insurer offering coverage and the number of uninsured Americans continues to decline]
; nonetheless, the media fights tooth and nail to save it [as do many American citizens who've attended town hall events held by GOP lawmakers]
. Our tax code is a backwards, prosperity-stifling haven for corporatist special interests; nonetheless, the media will do everything in its power to ensure not a single word is altered [not sure how this plays into Democrats' plans. Typically Democrat call for higher taxes on "corporatist special interests" and the wealthy. But by including this after telling the reader all the problems in America which Republicans are trying to solve are caused by Democrats, a number of readers are apt to internalize this fiction as fact while Republicans actively work to further reduce the tax burden on the wealthy]
.
Then there is illegal immigration [we're getting closer to subject which the headline of the article led you to believe the article was about, but we're not there yet]
, which, like abortion [in case the author missed any flash issue the reader might react emotionally to]
, the MSM [the use of coded phrases promotes an us versus them scenario. Remember when your kids knew what lol, stfu, and smh meant but you didn't?]
treats as its own personal sacrament. Flooding America, primarily Red States, with illegal Democrats [an oxymoron. Undocumented aren't allowed to vote. How can they be Democrats? Also, notice the writer structures the sentence so it is the media being credited with bringing illegals into the country]
who also serve the interests of a Big Business Complex desperate to keep wages low and unions non-existent, there is nothing our corrupt media will not do to keep that illegal flood flooding. [the use of the adjective "corrupt" without providing any factual basis for this characterization also makes it clear this is an op-ed piece, not reporting]
And so, as President Trump prepares to keep one of his biggest promises and end President Barry’s [use of a derogatory nickname for the previous President reinforces the idea that the black man wasn't REALLY qualified to be President, both do to his race and his birth status - did Breitbart EVER retract any birther articles?]
un-constitutional [more opinion as the program wasn't litigated]
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) amnesty program, all we are seeing from our establishment media is the usual-usual propaganda: flat-out lies [none articulated]
, half truths, the ignoring of vital pieces of information and points of view, and most of all, emotional blackmail.
Man alive, the .emotional blackmail.
If your only understanding of this complicated issue comes from the MSM [which of course none of the usual readers of Breitbart would admit to, as they've mostly decided not to even bother reading or listening to ANY MSM. But the writer is going to inform the reader of how those who DO listen or read MSM - more us/them strategy]
, of course you are outraged over the fact that Trump is about order an army of jackbooted ICE agents to kick in daycare center doors, snatch up all the “brown children,” and then hurl the angelic toddlers (with actual rings of gold hovering over their heads) into cattle cars headed south. [Really? That's what the Breitbart reader thinks those opposed to the reversal of DACA believe is going to happen? Well, they DID fall for the bullsh*t about Jade Helm a couple summers ago and believe it was only due to their vigilance that the government's secret plan was revealed and thwarted, so I can imagine they might think liberals believe in another fantasy]
Hopefully the list below will offer some clarity and context. The first point, I think, is the most important.
- This Is Only the Fault of the Parents
My wife was born in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and came to America as a small child. But she was brought here by her parents legally and remained here legally until she obtained her citizenship, something she prizes above most everything else. This is how immigration is supposed to work. If you ask my wife about DACA, she blames the parents of these children who, unlike her own parents, broke the law and put their children in this situation.
If your parents don’t pay the rent, is it the landlord’s fault when you are evicted, or is it the fault of your parents?
If your parents sneak you into Disneyland without paying, is it Disney’s fault when you are booted out, or is it the fault of your parents?
If your parents sneak you into a country illegally, is it the country’s fault when you get deported, or is it the fault of your parents?
Blaming America or Trump or anyone other than the parents for any of this, is a ruse, a con, a rhetorical trick. [DACA has nothing to do with assigning blame, nor is it an attempt to excuse the parents' behaviors or misdeeds. Most DACA supporters lay the responsibility for the situation at the feet of the parents but also would ask the question "if your father robbed a bank, would we send the child to prison?"]
2. DACA Recipients Are Illegal Aliens
This simple fact has been so downplayed and memory-holed, it just needed to be spoken out loud. [nd speeders are illegal drivers, as are those who text or do email while driving in most states. Civil violations, not criminal offenses]
3. DACA Is a Massive Amnesty Program
Although the DREAMers are in the country illegally, DACA allows some 800,000 to stay in the country legally without any kind of penalty. Qualified DREAMers are not only given a two-year deferment from deportation, they are eligible for a work permit, which means they can legally take a job in America. [Ok. I'll give them this one. It's EXACTLY what it is. Although I'd argue that to say they've lived in the shadows without penalty of any kind is pretty naïve]
4. DACA Recipients Are Not the Children
DACA is eligible only to those aged 15-32.
A very large percentage of DACA recipients are adults, not children or even minors. [Well, duh! Does this even require any comment?]
5. DACA Recipients Take Jobs Americans WILL Do
The idea that illegal aliens take jobs Americans won’t do is, of course, a lie. Plenty of Americans, most especially young Americans, would love the opportunity to work on a construction site or some other manual labor job [How many of these young Americans can pass a drug test? Why aren't they signing up for apprentice programs? How many parents are encouraging their kids or their schools to teach trades?]
. Moreover, if the wages were better, plenty of American would be willing to work in the fields [this is a true statement but are you prepared to pay the higher prices such wages would result in? Most readers would be opposed to an increase in minimum wage, so the idea that higher wages would result is ludicrous]
. An untold number of young Americans who live in farm communities already do [if this were true, why are the rural areas of our country witnessing population loss due to the exodus of the younger generation?]
. But when you flood the country with illegal and/or foreign workers this — by design — suppresses wages to a point where only those willing to be exploited are willing to do this work for almost no money.
Nevertheless, even this lie does not apply to DREAMers, many of whom have a high school diploma or a GED, and a work permit. These are not field workers, these are hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens competing for the same jobs against the 4 million young Americans who enter the workforce every year. [Until I entered 5th grade, I was usually picked in the first two or three for teams during gym class or recess. But the pool went from 15 boys to 50 boys and I wasn't a top athlete any longer. But the presence of those better athletes lifted my game and made me a BETTER athlete, even though I wasn't a top two or three any longer. America is about competition, about doing your best and living with the results. To claim that an additional 2 or 3% in the pool is doing irreparable harm to young Americans is both disingenuous and disparaging to your young Americans (participation trophy, everyone? Sounds politically correct to me...]
6. Some DACA Recipients are Criminals
Over 5 years, between 2013 and 2017, a total of 2,139 DACA recipients lost their amnesty benefits “due to criminality or gang affiliated concerns.”
The DACA screening process is in reality a joke, a rubber stamp. [another Duh comment. Are the young Americans devoid of any criminals? BTW, this means 0.2% (two tenths of a percent) of DACA recipients have received traffic tickets or been convicted of a crime (from shoplifting to heinous murder) - no distinction is made of the type of crimes committed. In the meantime,
1 out of 10 Americans have a criminal record. Still afraid of the immigrant?)
7. DACA Is Not a Law, It Is the Violation of Law [see my earlier comments about this not being an adjudicated fact]
President Obama’s DACA program is not a law or even a policy. Rather, it is a brazen violation of the immigration law as written and passed by the American people’s representatives in congress.
People in the country illegally are supposed to be deported and repatriated into their own country. That is the law here in America. That is the law in every country in the world, including Mexico.
8. Most DACA Recipients are Not Overachievers
It seems as though every time we see a DACA recipient in the media, he or she is the next Albert Einstein, someone on the verge of curing cancer and poverty.
The reality is actually quite different:
“The [DACA] eligibility bar was set very low, explicitly allowing people with multiple misdemeanor and certain felony convictions to be approved. Only a handful of the applicants were ever interviewed, and only rarely was the information on the application ever verified,” said Jessica M. Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies….
“[T]his statistic undercuts the image of DACA that has been spread by the pro-illegal alien groups and the news media, that the DACA recipients are mostly college kids. This is not true. We don’t know much about the population, but one of the few credible studies that has been done, by a scholar at Harvard University, found that at most are more than 22 years old, and only about 20 percent graduated from or attended a four-year college. A significant share never went beyond high school. This is not really all that surprising, since over 72 percent come from a family at or below poverty level and accessing some public assistance.”
While there are some true-life scholars in the DACA program, these are not a representative sample:
For example, one-third of the people in the study sample who are older than age 25 hold four-year college bachelors’ degrees or better. In contrast, an August 2013 report by the pro-amnesty Migration Policy Institute showed that only 7.5 percent of the 800,000 DACA-qualified illegals who were 18 or older had four-year college degrees or better. An August 2017 study by the MPI showed only 5 percent of 832,000 DACA illegals who were older than 18 had four-year college qualifications. [What percent of 18 year old Anglos have four year degrees? Isn't that when most kids start college?]
Also, the 7.5 percent graduation rate reported by the new study is roughly one-quarter the 33 percent of native-born Americans with four-year degrees.
9. DACA Is Wildly Unfair to Americans, Most Especially Young Americans Just Starting Out
You followed the rules. Your parents obeyed the law. You are one of the 4 million Americans ready to enter the workforce every year, eager to begin your own life, to pursue the American dream, but you have to compete against hundreds of thousands of line-jumpers for the same entry-level job. [This is pretty much a regurgitation of the earlier made claim above in point 5. Basically what the author would have you believe is that your kid can't get a job after graduation because of the approximately 44,000 DREAMer kids took his/her job. Basically, they're complaining about the combined graduating classes of the University of Central Florida - Orlando, Florida International University, and Texas A& M being responsible for their ills)
Moreover, this flood of labor depresses your wages. [Actually, it's poor career/vocational choices holding down young people's wages. There have NEVER been as many job openings in America and there are MANY well paying jobs going unfilled due to lack of qualified applicants or inability to pass a drug test]
10. DACA Was Already Litigated and Debated in 2016
The American people have already had the DACA debate. Hillary Clinton promised to expand DACA. Trump promised to end DACA.
Trump won. [by the razor thin margin of about 44,000 votes is a few counties in PA, MI & WI which provided the electoral college victory, but he lost the popular vote by about 3 million. But he definitely won and so we need to make sure that responsibility for the actions of the government under his tenure are attributed to him and his party]
11. DACA Encourages More Illegal Immigrants
Although DACA does not officially grant amnesty to the children of illegal immigrants who have arrived after 2007, the message is still clear: America does not have the will to enforce its own immigration laws. Of course that message works as a magnet for illegals. If you recall…
Obama declared his DACA amnesty in 2012. Central Americans saw the announcement, read the details — and roughly 400,000 people headed north during the next four years.
Moreover, making that trek is dangerous, especially from South America. People die of exposure and are exploited, sometimes sexually, by the Coyotes they hire to lead them here. [there are always people willing to exploit fear and anxiousness by getting them to believe their lies - witness who won the last Presidential election]
Illegal immigration is a lose-lose for everyone but Democrats who desire the votes [an ignorant statement since undocumented aren't eligible to vote but read my comment to the previous paragraph ]
and business owners who do not want to pay a legal resident a fair market wage.
12. In Most States, DACA Recipients are Eligible for Welfare Benefits
- AZCentral:
Once DACA applicants are approved and receive a temporary employment authorization card, they can apply for a Social Security Number. Under this number, they can report wages and pay taxes.
DACA beneficiaries cannot receive federal benefits such as welfare and food stamps. [Doesn't this sentence counter the headline of this section? Seems like more us/them divisive rhetoric] Some states allow for state-funded benefits, but Arizona specifically prohibits it.
13. Unless It Is Stopped, DACA Will Never Stop Growing
Every year, more and more illegal aliens become eligible for DACA’s illegal and unconstitutional amnesty program.
Obama’s deputies low-balled his election-campaign giveaway by initially predicting it would only reach about 560,000 younger illegals who were supposedly brought into the United States by their parents before they turned 16.
But the amnesty has already provided almost 900,000 work-permits and Social Security cards to illegals who say they are aged 36 or less. More than 92 percent of the applicants got their DACA approvals, with a rejection rate of only 7 percent. The amnesty is expected to rise above 1.9 million people as additional younger illegals become adults and try to enroll in Obama’s giveaway. [no dispute that the number will continue to grow. It might be worth pointing out that the program was introduced following the failure of the GOP led Congress to pass the comprehensive, bi-partisan plan and that is was ALWAYS a temporary, stop-gap measure until Congress resolved the issue]
14. DACA Ignores Some Criminal Behavior
Center for Immigration Studies:
DACA applies to individuals up to age 31 (as of June 2012, so 35 now) — hardly children; consequently, many Dreamers have long-since terminated their studies and most have committed multiple felonies in order to get jobs — Social Security fraud, forgery, perjury on I-9 forms, falsification of green cards and drivers’ licenses, identity theft, etc. Dreamers continue to commit these job-related crimes right up to the day their DACA status is approved and they obtain work permits and their own genuine Social Security numbers.
In addition, many illegal aliens qualifying for DACA status have previously been arrested and convicted of multiple misdemeanors and some have previously been or continue to be associated with violent gangs, as evidenced by a report in the Seattle Times that states that over 1,500 Dreamers have had their DACA status revoked since 2012 due to their involvement with criminal gangs. [this seems like a rehash of statement 6. Again, 0.2% of DACA recipients have had their status revoked due to criminal behavior. 30% of native born Americans have legal troubles in their past (link in statement 6]
I guess that about sums it up. 14 statements (not facts, as we've articulated) from Breitbart, a couple of which overlap, none of which would be given a passing grade as a news article in a high school social studies class.
