The Quote Below: More Misinformation from the Media
“A pregnant woman in California said she had to drive herself to hospital [sic] to give birth because immigration authorities had taken her husband on the way there. . . . The couple had stopped at a petrol station when surveillance footage showed two vehicles with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents question the couple about identity documents. . . .
“The video showed agents asked Mr. Arrona to step out of the vehicle, searched the van for weapons, and then handcuffed Mr. Arrona before taking him away and leaving a bereft Ms. Venegas alone in the gas station.
“Ms. Venegas told the local CBS News station: “My husband needs to be here. He had to wait for his son for so long, and someone just took him away.”
“Mr. Arrona is originally from Mexico and has been in the U.S. for 12 years without legal authorization, Ms. Venegas confirmed. She noted he has never been in trouble with the police before and is the sole provider for the family.” – Immigration Agents Arrest Man While He Is Driving His Pregnant Wife to Hospital – The Husband Is in the U.S. Illegally But Had Simply Forgotten His Identification at Home – The Independent, Mythill Sampathkumar, 8/18/18 [Link]
Fact Check of Quote: This article puts ICE in the worst possible light. The Independent is a British newspaper, but its reporting is quite similar to a number of U.S. media outlets.
The basic narrative is that its cruel and insensitive agents separated a man from his pregnant wife because he left his ID at home, thus forcing the wife to drive herself to the hospital to deliver her baby—with the suggestion that this was a real hardship, one perhaps risking a premature delivery. The article concedes that the man was an illegal alien who had been in the U.S. for 12 years, but quotes the wife as saying that “he had never been in trouble with police”—which makes his handcuffing seem excessive.
The account leaves out one key bit of information. ICE arrested the man in question because he was a fugitive wanted for murder in Mexico. ICE apprehended him specifically on the request of the Mexican government. The addition of this detail puts the incident in an entirely different light.
Why did The Independent and the other outlets leave it out? One explanation is that they are sloppy in their research and reporting. But would they all be sloppy in exactly the same way? Probably not. A more likely explanation is simple bias in favor of illegal immigration.
The Independent also misleads in a smaller way by implying in the lead sentence that it was a real imposition for the pregnant wife to have to drive herself to the hospital. After getting that impression, one could easily miss the brief phrase several paragraphs down that she was going for a “scheduled cesarean section.” Given that fact and the fact that the hospital was only two miles away, she was hardly in any danger of a premature delivery.
The corporate media in the U.S. and other Western countries typically slant news against sensible immigration policies and many other sensible ideas. Then they wonder why more and more people distrust them.