Illegal Headline Failure
It’d be nice to think it’s just an innocent editorial oversight when the uptown paper runs a banner headline that reads Judge orders immigrants removed from church, when the more accurate and honest header would be Judge orders illegal immigrants removed from country.
The subterfuge, however, doesn’t end with just a headline that makes it sound like a group of legal immigrants were ripped from their church pews in mid-worship. It’s not until the end of the article – buried in the third to last paragraph – that the qualifier “illegal” is attached to the immigrants in question. And even then, the context is less than enlightening:
The Obama administration has said it would focus deportation efforts on more dangerous illegal immigrants. Those deemed to be a low priority because they pose no threat to public safety could be released. Other factors could include illegal immigrants who were brought here as children, or who have long family ties to the country.
So are we now to assume that the immigrants highlighted in the article are not illegal, because they are not among the “more dangerous illegal immigrants” facing deportation efforts, or because they have been in the country illegally for a long time.
This is the trajectory the debate is headed, though, moving in mainstream media lexicon from illegal aliens, to illegal immigrants, to undocumented workers, to undocumented citizens, to immigrants – i.e. legal immigrants who are, I guess, in the country illegally.
Make of that what you will.
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