On illegal immigration, media downplay enforcement for human-interest fluff

If you get the feeling the media aren’t being straight with you, that’s because they aren’t. Nowhere is this clearer than in their coverage of illegal immigration, where pertinent details are routinely obscured or buried in favor of naked appeals to emotion.

Consider the opener to a recent New York Times report, titled “TSA Tipped Off ICE Agents Before Arrests at San Francisco Airport.”

“The woman and her nine-year-old daughter were walking through Terminal 3 at San Francisco International Airport on Sunday night, heading to their gate to fly to Miami to visit a relative, when a stranger in plainclothes approached,” the paper reported. “Minutes later, Angelina Lopez-Jimenez was on her knees, crying, as two immigration agents were handcuffing her in front of her daughter, according to video footage that went viral this week.”

It’s not until 14 paragraphs in, exactly halfway through the article, that the Times reports the woman has had a final order of removal against her since 2019. Read a little further, and you’ll learn that the order was issued after she skipped her immigration hearing.

What is this information doing so far down the page? Shouldn’t the “why” of the woman’s arrest appear much earlier, nearer to the who, what, where, and when?

This style of coverage, where crucial information appears far below human-interest-heavy headlines and ledes, is hardly unique to this one Times report. When it comes to covering illegal immigration in the U.S., hiding the ball is practically standard operating procedure. The practice has become so widespread that it’s hard to believe it’s accidental.

At NBC News, we learn about Emerson Colindres, a deported 19-year-old whom the network calls a “teen.” We learn that he is a soccer phenom whose classmates call him “one of the greatest players [they’ve] met on the field.” We learn that he “dreamed of continuing his sports career and hoped to attend a university.” We learn he was a “law-abiding high school student”; that he “did amazing academically”; and that his “coach, teachers, classmates and teammates — all called for the release of a beloved teenager who they said was unfairly ripped away from their tight-knit community.”

We even hear from a middle school teacher who calls his deportation “devastating.”

It is not until the 27th paragraph of a 46-paragraph story that NBC reveals this key detail: “The family’s hopes for a future in the U.S. took a hit after an immigration judge denied their asylum application and in 2023 they were given a final order of removal.”

This seems more relevant to Colindres’s deportation than his report card or soccer skills.

Also at NBC, we read about a “73-year-old Bay Area woman” whose recent deportation was “devastating” (that word again!) for her community. We learn she was arrested even after she “complied with immigration officials for more than a decade.” We learn her arrest “sparked protests from those in her community.” We find out that around 200 people gathered near her neighborhood to “call for her release, carrying signs that read ‘Hands off our grandma’ and ‘She’s no criminal.’” 

It’s not until later that we discover the “Bay Area woman,” an Indian national, entered the U.S. without documentation around 1992, claimed asylum, and lost her case. Later still, readers learn that a federal judge issued a final removal order against her in 2005 and that her last appeal was denied in 2013.

At CNN, we learn about Humberto Martinez, the deported patriarch of “a proud military family” — a family that, as the network puts it, has been torn apart by Trump’s immigration policies and war with Iran. It’s not until the ninth paragraph that we learn he “was issued a final order of removal in 2013 and was removed to Mexico for a fifth time after being taken into ICE custody.”

This style of reporting is a choice. There’s nothing wrong with human-interest fluff — people love that stuff, and that’s why morning shows still exist. But favoring emotional fluff over legal context in stories about law enforcement specifically is more than just poor editorial judgment — it’s intentional misdirection.

What’s worse is that it’s going to get much worse before it gets better.

If you thought the growing credibility gap between audiences and the news media would force some sort of recalibration or introspection by our esteemed press, then brother, you’ve got another think coming.

On March 25, after covering the murder of Loyola University Chicago student Sheridan Gorman, the university’s student newspaper issued a groveling apology for referring to the accused killer as an “illegal immigrant.” “That language does not align with Associated Press style, nor does it align with the values of this newspaper,” reads the abject, submissive mea culpa. “No human’s existence is illegal, and we quickly changed our wording to reflect that. We acknowledge the harm such language can cause.”

They say the kids are our future. If there’s any truth to that aphorism, and if this miserable student rag is any indicator, the future of media is unimaginably bleak.

T. Becket Adams is a journalist and media critic in Washington.

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