Contrasting Depictions of Media: dailycaller.com vs huffingtonpost.com

Contrasting Depictions of Media: dailycaller.com vs huffingtonpost.com

         Journalists and editors inevitably have their own opinions about the highly-politicized stories they write about, and while their opinions may bleed into their reports, modern media seems to mean only presenting one side of the story. One of the best examples of this is the caravan and Trump’s pertinent xenophobia.

Conservative outlets will use trigger words that appeal to libertarian schools of thought, as if democratic and progressive policies are only in place to steal away American Freedom^TM. The attached conflict also highlights this as the title of the Daily Caller article says “Report: California-Based Communist Group Encouraging Migrants to ‘Remove’ Trump.” For many of the Daily Caller’s readers, and article with the words “California”, “Communist”, and “Migrants”, the three horsemen of the progressive apocalypse, must be read in an effort to undercut the evil agenda of three populations that pose threats to the GOP. However, the article actually explains the situation through a few anecdotes that just say it’s not a great situation. I found this disappointing because I was expecting an article I could analyze, not just a strong title.

Progressive and democratic outlets often rely a little too heavily on pathos. The Huffington Post article below illustrates this well by focusing on why human rights are important, not why opening borders or upping quotas are legitimate plans. They quote Nicole Ramos from the nonprofit group Al Otro Lado as she says, “‘The people that are waiting outside are children, infants, a disabled woman who relies on her mother to take care of all her needs, trans women ― these are the most vulnerable asylum seekers. What the U.S. is doing is creating a humanitarian crisis that doesn’t need to be created.’” While she may be correct, she is advocating the undisputable, ignoring the question of “How?” entirely.

I chose relatively polar sources about the same topic and I was surprised to find that their evidence isn’t all that different. Both groups acknowledge that this is a human rights issue and has been mishandled by the USFG. They become different only when choosing a path foreword which makes sense as this is why the US can’t seem to find a solution. The Daily Caller concludes that the USFG is encouraging illegal immigration by not making applications easier and that the best way to let these people in is legally. The Huffington Post article argues that regardless of status, migrants need to be treated like people and that they should continue on, regardless of Trump’s hatred and rhetoric.

-------------------------------------------------articles below----------------------------------------------------

Article 1: dailycaller.com

Report: California-Based Communist Group Encouraging Migrants to ‘Remove’ Trump

By Luke Rosiak | Investigative Reporter|Nov. 29th, 2018

The caravan of migrants that traveled from Honduras to Mexico includes foreign nationals pledging to abolish the U.S. immigration authorities, openly discussing their intent to illegally enter the U.S., and reading communist literature about overthrowing President Donald Trump, according to an in-depth report by journalists on the ground in Tijuana for the Epoch Times.

It said a Los Angeles-based group called Al Otro Lado (“To the other side”) is guiding migrants and its litigation director, Erika Pinheiro, is on the scene telling the migrants how to make sure they don’t just get into the U.S., but get as many benefits from its government as possible.

But she advised that criminals and previous deportees in the group can still get a different status, called “withholding of removal status,” in which “you won’t be deported but it doesn’t have many benefits.”

The night many migrants rushed the border, they received a flier by a California-based Communist group known as BAMN — whose slogan is “Trump must go or be removed BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY” — saying “Open it up or we’ll shut it down! Everyone must be let in!” (RELATED: Migrant Who Complained of Quality of Free Food Apologizes)

“Let’s organize active solidarity and defense against any nationalist or government attack,” another flier from the Communist Party of Mexico in Baja California said.

It blamed America for conditions in Latin America and said it’s “not enough to just leave the country, but to also organize ourselves to fight in a revolutionary way to transform our place of residence.”

Leaders of the overwhelmingly male caravan were positioning children on the front:

A video posted on the Netnoticias.mx Facebook page on Nov. 25, shows a Mexican police officer pleading with migrants not to listen to caravan leaders—who were telling them to put the kids on the front line.

“Don’t let them fool you! Don’t let them lie to you! These leaders; the only thing they’re doing is risking that something bad happens to your families. Because they say ‘go to the front,'” the officer is heard saying in Spanish. “Do not trust the leaders. They are brainwashing you.”

María Luisa Cáceres, who said she joined the caravan with her 15-year-old special needs son, told the paper “we are forced to” join the protests even though she did not plan to. Caceres was sleeping in a tent that said “Abolich ICE” and declined an offer of asylum by Mexico.

But she blamed the large number of male migrants who stormed past police at the border for creating a confrontation that led to her being tear gassed.

“There are people who only think about themselves, they don’t think about the mothers with kids, they think about nothing,” she said.

Luis Conde (R), 46, from Guatemala, stands in the line for food outside the migrant camp at Benito Juarez sports complex in Tijuana, Mexico, on Nov. 26, 2018. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Guatemalan Luis Conde, 48, has been in Tijuana for about two weeks. He said he doesn’t intend to apply for asylum in the United States, because “they’re not going to give it to me.”

“If they don’t give papers, well to hell, I’m going to jump—there’s no doubt about that,” he said on Nov. 26. “If one is an opportunist, you have to grab the chances that come, and when they come and when you see that it’s not dangerous, bam, you’re there.”

Honduran Marco Gómez, 26, said he’d enter illegally as part of a large swarm of people because applying legally is “a waste of time. It’s a process that takes months and years — it’s a long time.”

Article 1: huffingtonpost.com

Migrant Caravan Arrives At U.S. Border, Despite Trump’s Threats

By Matt Ferner and Roque Planas|Apr. 30th, 2018

SAN DIEGO ― President Donald Trump whipped himself into a fury earlier this month after learning that a caravan of hundreds of Central Americans was traveling through Mexico, planning to seek asylum in the United States. Shortly after learning about it, he mobilized the National Guard. He railed against what he viewed as a “crisis” at the border, despite the fact that illegal entries have plummeted to their lowest level since 1971. The secretary of homeland security issued a statement likening the caravan’s organizers to “smugglers” and the attorney general threatened to prosecute them.

But hundreds of participants in the caravan made their way to the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday anyway. And despite Trump’s fulminations against them, it’s unclear whether his administration has any practical way to stop them from crossing in the coming days.

The caravan’s organizers, immigrant rights activists and legal observers marched toward International Friendship Park, which straddles the U.S.-Mexico border, as the caravan’s participants marched from Tijuana to San Diego on Sunday morning.

On the U.S. side of the border, a group of about 100 people chanted, “No borders! No wall! Sanctuary for all!” as they marched along the beach toward the port of entry. Roughly 200 of their counterparts in Mexico gathered in front of the metal fencing that divides the two countries, with more than a dozen people hoisting themselves atop the barrier.

“We have to push back against this administration,” demonstrator Laiken Jordahl, a borderlands campaigner for the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, told HuffPost. “Its culture of hate, bigotry and fear cannot be accepted. The administration doesn’t even talk to us, we had to come out and march.”

Another demonstrator, Roberto Saravia from Los Angeles, said: “This goes back further than the Trump administration. I find it ridiculous that any time there is an issue in the U.S., immigrants get scapegoated, they get mistreated, they get criminalized just for existing. This border is just a divide that shouldn’t be here and I want to see it gone ― it shouldn’t divide us.”

By Sunday afternoon, a group of about 150 of the caravan’s members had begun crossing into the U.S., along with legal advisers, organizers said.

But U.S. Customs and Border Protection warned it would limit the number of asylum-seekers making claims at the San Ysidro port of entry. “Depending upon port circumstances at the time of arrival, those individuals may need to wait in Mexico as CBP officers work to process those already within our facilities,” CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said in a statement.

The 150 migrants, many of whom were children, spent the night sleeping on the ground outside, waiting to present their claims to U.S. immigration officials. By Monday morning, they had yet to speak to immigration officials and remained on the Mexican side of the border, organizers said.

“They’re using the excuse of capacity to keep people from coming,” said Nicole Ramos, an attorney with the nonprofit group Al Otro Lado, who has provided legal services to the migrants traveling with the caravan. “The people that are waiting outside are children, infants, a disabled woman who relies on her mother to take care of all her needs, trans women ― these are the most vulnerable asylum seekers. What the U.S. is doing is creating a humanitarian crisis that doesn’t need to be created.”

The Trump administration is hoping that it won’t have to let the migrants into the U.S. at all. And his administration’s threats appear to be dissuading some. Between 150 and 200 Central American migrants plan to present asylum claims in the coming days, organizers said, while roughly another 150 have yet to decide whether to cross.

But for all the noise and slow-walking of the asylum seekers’ claims, it remains to be seen whether the White House’s actions do anything to push away those who do make asylum claims.

Trump’s ire at the caravan stems from larger concerns he’s expressed since he first started running for president three years ago. He wants the U.S. to stop releasing unauthorized immigrants caught at the border with notices to appear in immigration court instead of uniformly detaining or deporting them — a practice he and his supporters disparagingly call “catch and release.” Attorney General Jeff Sessions is one of his most enthusiastic partners in that project.

Unfortunately for them, ending the practice is not currently possible under U.S. law. When space in detention centers runs out, there’s simply no place to put people who can’t be quickly deported. Many immigrants from Mexico can be deported quickly. But many of the people crossing the border these days are Central American children and families, who aren’t as easy to deport — and generally can’t be detained for long. Unaccompanied children must be released to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, and the mothers cannot usually be locked up with their kids for longer than three weeks due to a federal court order. Migrants have a right to apply for asylum, whether or not they get detained in the process. And immigrants who get picked up within the interior of the country often qualify for bond hearings.

A group of several dozen immigrant rights activists and legal observers march toward the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego on April 29. They’re there to witness the arrival of a caravan of Central American migrants who plan to request asylum in defiance of repeated threats from Trump administration officials.

None of this matters to the Trump administration, whose actions and statements have likened the arrival of a few hundred Central Americans seeking asylum to a national security crisis. In an attempt to deter them, Trump mobilized the National Guard to help patrol the four Southwest border states, despite the fact that its presence will be purely ornamental — the National Guard can’t make immigration arrests, and the caravan’s members plan to travel through legal ports of entry.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen chipped in with a similarly aggressive but toothless statement last Wednesday, saying the department was “monitoring” the caravan’s movements. She encouraged asylum-seekers to stay in Mexico.

“Let me be clear,” Nielsen’s statement read. “We will enforce the immigration laws as set forth by Congress. If you enter our country illegally, you have broken the law and will be referred for prosecution. If you make a false immigration claim, you have broken the law and will be referred for prosecution. If you assist or coach an individual in making a false immigration claim, you have broken the law and will be referred for prosecution.”

Nielsen’s repeated statements targeting the caravan met with criticism from Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the ranking member of the House Committee on Homeland Security.

“It’s overkill,” Thompson told HuffPost. “You would have expected [Trump] to have been briefed by intelligence officials exactly who was headed this way. … We know who they are. We know where they are. And we even know why they’re coming. So to try to elevate this into some heightened sense of threat, it just didn’t measure up.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen testifies before a House panel on April 11.

Sessions had his own response to the caravan, issuing a statement Monday saying he’d “directed our U.S. Attorneys at the border to take whatever immediate action to ensure that we have sufficient prosecutors available.”

It’s unclear what practical consequences any of these threats will have. The people whom Nielsen accuses of “coaching” the caravan’s members are lawyers and immigrant rights advocates counseling migrants about the process for claiming asylum. And crossing through a legal port of entry to ask for asylum, as the caravan’s members plan to do, doesn’t expose them to prosecution, as Sessions contends.

“It’s typical anti-immigrant fear-mongering,” said Alex Mensing, a project coordinator for the caravan’s main organizing group, Pueblos Sin Fronteras. “The right-wing media and the administration have been trying really hard to make it look like there are no legitimate asylum-seekers, and that’s just not true. And it’s not for them to decide anyway.”