The Media Research Center has always done good work exposing media bias, but very little about immigration over the years.

They’ve issued a special report:Election In The Streets How The Broadcast Networks Promote Illegal Immigration [By Tim Graham, MRC Director of Media Analysis August 28, 2006 Full Report | PDF Version]

I discovered this on Reason Magazine’s Hit and Run blog, where Katherine Mangu-Ward deserves some credit for saying

I love illegal immigrants (and their protests) as much as the next guy, but this kind of coverage screws us all in the end. When each side has its own set of facts, it just means more tiresome dinner conversations where everyone accuses the other side of lying and no one ever changes their minds, squabbling even as illegal Mexican busboys clear away the plates after dessert.

My position, as I’ve said, is “while people are entitled to their opinions, they aren’t entitled to their own facts.”

Yesterday, an Afghan immigrant used his SUV as a weapon and ran down more than a dozen people in the San Francisco Bay area. The rampage started in Fremont, where 29-year-old Omeed Aziz Popal struck and killed a man walking in a bike lane.

He then drove 33 miles in busy mid-day traffic, crossing the Bay Bridge to reach San Francisco, where he proceeded to run down at least 14 pedestrians and a bike rider. He struck people in crosswalks and on the sidewalk, starting in the Tenderloin and ending up in Laurel Heights (map). In one case, he returned to chase down a good Samaritan who was trying to help a victim. At the Jewish Community Center on California, he hit two people on the sidewalk.

Predictably, the family goes for the insanity defense, saying Popal has been strange since he returned from his arranged marriage in Afghanistan, where his wife remains a month later. And yes, the local Afghan community is concerned about a “backlash”: they are “worried about what Popal’s
arrest might mean for other area Afghans.” If they expressed any concern for the many victims, some in critical condition, it wasn’t in the papers.

Daniel Pipes has coined a term, Sudden Jihad Syndrome, for Muslims living in the west who are thought reasonable yet suddenly start mass-murdering infidels. The occasion of the phrase was when another SUV-driving Muslim immigrant, Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, ran down nine people at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill last March.

After the horrific shootings in July at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle in which one woman was killed, I suggested that the interior culture clash of young Muslim immigrants can unhinge some, at which time they revert to the jihadist ideology of killing infidels learned in the mosque. Popal might well have been psychologically stressed, but if so, it was his religion and culture which defined how he acted out that anxiety.

But in the uber-lib media of the San Francisco Bay Area, the word “Muslim” is apparently hard for many reporters to spell, and “terrorist” even more so. At this time, no media source has even called Popal an immigrant, though one article admitted he was “born in Afghanistan.” In many others, the perp is “a Fremont man.”

There is a big problem with importing avowed enemies to America and calling it immigration diversity. One symptom is the growing incidence of culture- and religion-based murders of Americans by Muslims. But you won’t find that discussion in the MSM, only in Vdare.com and other purveyors of reason in the blogosphere.

This piece is a rare discussion from a Hispanic person (Rev. Nelson Quinones) who admits that maybe, just maybe, the mayhem exploding from immigrant enclaves is a major problem.

What led Latinos to Hazleton was not the gun violence Mayor Barletta attempted to keep at bay, but racial consciousness, which accused the mayor of targeting Latino immigrants. Yet, the Latino leadership agenda said little to nothing regarding Mayor Barletta’s concern: The shooting and killing of a 29-year-old man by an undocumented Latino immigrant, and the arrest of a 14-year-old Latino for firing a gun at a playground.

In 2005, Allentown set a record for homicides with 21 record murders. Close to half of the homicide victims had Latino surnames. In addition, several of those arrested had Latinos surnames. Recently, the Lehigh County Homicide Task Force arrested three suspects alleged to have been involved in a homicide last year. Two were identified with Latino surnames.

Jose Rosado, assistant principal of East Hills Middle School in Bethlehem, has publicly discussed his disappointment with the lack of Latino participation at a drug and crime forum held in Bethlehem. During that forum, a desecrated Puerto Rican flag was shown with gang graffiti symbols. Meanwhile in Bethlehem, homicide charges were filed against Latino parents of a 10-month-old infant who died from ingested heroin at home. In Reading, a Latino suspect was charged with first-degree murder in the killing of a police officer. [ Latinos can't ignore violent crime in immigration debate, Allentown [PA] Morning Call, August 28, 2006]

The truth is not pretty. The cultural propensity toward crime is clear. Mexico is #6 in the world in murders per capita in a tough field. Even the Washington Post wrote, For Many in Mexico, Bribes a Way of Life. Drug cartels continue to increase their control over whole regions of northern Mexico (See here scroll down.). Mexico is violent, lawless and corrupt. It’s the Third World.

Millions of Mexicans have broken the law to enter the US and get more money. Why should anyone be surprised that individual Mexicans commit violent crimes in communities to which they have no connection other than greed?

I got an email from the SPLC that said

[TX] Border Patrol Chief, Mayor want nothing to do with Minutemen
Laredo Morning Times / August 24, 2006
Neither the chief of Border Patrol in the Laredo sector nor Laredo’s mayor are happy that Jim Gilchrist’s Minutemen are coming to town.

I am not surprised that a senior law enforcement officer and a local politician are opposed to citizens defending themselves and their nation–but there’s a detail that wasn’t included in the the original email.

The Border Patrol guy is Acting Chief Patrol Agent Reynaldo Garza, his Deputy Chief is John Cristian Esquivel, the Mayor of Laredo is Raul Salinas. Is it surprising that they don’t want the Minutemen?

[TX] Border Patrol Chief, Mayor want nothing to do with Minutemen
Laredo Morning Times / August 24, 2006

The head of the Border Patrol said Wednesday he doesn’t want members of the Minuteman Project working near his agents when they come to the Laredo area next month. The civilian group, which reports illegal immigrants to immigration authorities, is expected to start patrolling the border in the Laredo area on Sept. 11 and continue through Nov. 7.

Acting Chief Patrol Agent Reynaldo Garza of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Laredo Sector said he can’t prevent the civilians from coming to Laredo, but said they won’t be allowed to interfere with official business.

John Cristian Esquivel, deputy chief, said the agency wants to know where the Minuteman members will be to avoid any problems.

“We’re not going to tell them what they can or can’t do. They are responsible for their own actions,” Esquivel said. “They can be on private property. It’s a matter of who will allow them to occupy their land.” [...]

Mayor Raul Salinas said that if any of the members of the Minuteman Project violate the law, they will be arrested just as any other citizen.

“The Border Patrol forces are professionals and they have maintained peace and safety,” Salinas said. “I think they (Minuteman members) are simply looking for publicity.”

Salinas said Jim Gilchrist, founder of the civilian group, is just looking for media attention to help sell his new book…

The Laredo Morning Times reports
[SPLCenter.org: Immigration Watch for August 29, 2006]