{"id":17802,"date":"2018-10-29T16:16:43","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T20:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=17802"},"modified":"2018-12-28T09:37:51","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T14:37:51","slug":"caravan-coverage-veers-into-a-ditch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2018\/10\/29\/caravan-coverage-veers-into-a-ditch\/","title":{"rendered":"Caravan Coverage Veers Into a Ditch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Comedian Bill Maher says the media are \u201cdoing Donald Trump\u2019s bidding\u201d<\/a> on coverage of the Central American caravans wending their way north through Mexico.<\/p>\n

If Leftist activists are upset, their anger is misdirected.<\/p>\n

Since Congress has failed to provide the Executive Branch the authority to detain families as a unit until a determination can be made about their claims to enter the United States, the administration has been forced to revert to catch-and-release policies. The inevitable result is that parents with children have been crossing in record numbers<\/a>. In September, 16,658 family members were arrested<\/a> along the Mexican border, up 80 percent from July and more than any other month on record.<\/p>\n

With catch-and-release<\/a> policies back in place, more caravans are ramping up. Central American migrants<\/a> say they are making the journey because they know they can make it out of detention easily with children in tow.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they feel there will be separation, they don\u2019t come,\u201d President Trump said this month.<\/p>\n

Inverting the president\u2019s logic, mainstream media outlets reporting on the renewed migrant surge concluded that zero tolerance policies at the border \u201cdon\u2019t work.\u201d<\/a> This is nonsense, since zero tolerance was never given the time to work.<\/p>\n

Now that zero-tolerance been zeroed out, human smugglers are back to hustling business.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore, they would say it wasn\u2019t a good time to go,\u201d relates Dora Alonzo Quijivix<\/a>, a community leader in Guatemala\u2019s western highlands. \u201cNow they offer to make your dreams come true.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a>, Esquire<\/a> and other media outlets repeatedly discount and deride Trump\u2019s legitimate concerns about the Central American caravans<\/a> as mere campaign rhetoric. While soft-pedaling the obviously orchestrated aspects<\/a> of the sojourn, journalists ridicule the president and marginalize the executive\u2019s constitutional duty to secure America\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n

When discussing the administration\u2019s options, the media reduce them to an extreme binary (and false) choice: mobilizing U.S. troops<\/a> or admitting the migrants on \u201chumanitarian\u201d grounds. In fact, there are several solutions in between.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t a military problem. It\u2019s a law-enforcement problem, and one that ordinary civilian law enforcement can solve if provided with the right tools,\u201d notes Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies. Read his list of policy options and legal reforms here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Clearly, serious immigration issues demand serious reporting. If we can agree with Maher on anything it is that media coverage of the caravan has been remarkably unserious.