The Media Is Manufacturing A Bipartisan Anti-Immigrant Consensus

According to the New York Times, the immigration situation has put President Joe Biden at odds with local Democratic leaders who want a tougher border policy. But the evidence of local Democrats morphing into Trumpists on the border is scant to nonexistent.

by Ari Paul, FAIR

The so-called migrant crisis—the increase in refugees at the US southern border (FAIR.org, 6/2/23)—has been seized on by Republicans as a line of attack against Biden as he runs for reelection (Gallup, 12/22/23; USA Today, 1/4/24), as well as a way to cause chaos in Democratic strongholds. This latter motive is exemplified by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s program of shipping unsuspecting asylum-seekers to Democratic cities. (Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis similarly exploited migrants by tricking them into going to Massachusetts’ Martha’s Vineyard—FAIR.org, 8/31/23.)

In a front-page, above-the-fold piece headlined “Biden Faces Pressure on Immigration, and Not Just From Republicans,” Times reporters Michael Shear and Miriam Jordan led by saying that Democratic mayors and governors were applying “growing pressure” on Biden “to curb record numbers of migrants crossing into the United States.”

Texans brought prayer candles, bottles of water, and religious icons to a makeshift memorial at the site where 46 migrants were declared dead Monday

The article concluded by saying that the administration’s willingness to speed up the deportation process “would be a huge departure from the positions taken by most Democrats” in the beginning of Biden’s term, but that these Democratic mayors and governors made it clear that the “dynamics have changed.”

The Times admitted that, “for the most part,” these Democrats “are not calling for the kind of severe border restrictions that Republicans are demanding.” Yet that is not how the Times framed this situation at the bookends of the article. In essence, the Times began and ended the article by saying that their reporting showed that Biden is under pressure from both Republicans and Democrats to take more anti-immigrant attitudes, both at the border and toward undocumented immigrants generally.

One problem: That isn’t what the Times sources say in the rest of the article.