In advance of oral arguments before the United States Supreme Court, Univision’s open advocacy of DACA serves to remind us all that the network is little more than an immigration lobby with a broadcast license.
Watch below as UNews’s anchor Andrea Linares tees up her interview of a DACA advocate:
And in November, the Supreme Court is slated to hear oral arguments on another much anticipated case, and that is whether the Trump Administration can end the DACA program, an Obama-era initiative that protects nearly 700,000 young undocumented immigrants from deportation. In an effort to compel the judges on the high court to protect this program, the pro immigrants rights group United We Dream submitted a series of videos, depicting the lives of 27 DACA recipients. This is the first time in the Supreme Court's history that an amicus brief has been filed in video form.
The subsequent interview with a United We Dream activist went on for several minutes. The entire affair was predictably one-sided, and heavy on emotional appeals. Even more predictably, UNews (Univision’s Engligh-language newscast which airs on Fusion) failed to bring anyone on who could articulate a case for repealing DACA, much less a case for the program to be upheld on its merits. The argument that executive orders can be done by executive order should not be concealed from Fusion’s tens of viewers, nor from Univision’s broader audience.
But the network’s advocacy extends beyond the studio. Consistent with their custom, Univision has filed an amicus brief in the case before the Supreme Court. Per the corporate press release (click "expand"):
This week, Univision joined an amicus brief in the upcoming Supreme Court case which will decide the future of the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals (DACA) program. As the leading Hispanic media company in the U.S., we’ve always advocated for our audience and this court filing is no different. In 2017, we opposed efforts to eliminate the DACA program by the Administration. DACA was a promise made to a generation of new leaders and contributors. Univision stands with them in urging our country to keep that promise.
Fighting for those in our country under DACA is the right thing to do for many reasons. Often, many of these people who live and work among or with us day in and day out, know little to nothing of the country they were born in. Some speak only English and most are afraid to go back to an unfamiliar place. However, DACA recipients have contributed in meaningful ways to our country and helped improve it and raise the bar.
DACA recipients are class valedictorians. They are working professionals. They are innovators. They drive our business community, political space and cultural milieu. They revere our nation and want to continue contributing to it each and every day they can. Univision is proud to stand up for DACA recipients because our country was founded by people just like these young men and women who believed that your work, education and innovation, not your national origin, is what make you uniquely American.
Univision makes crystal clear who their audience is --- the parents that brought DACA kids into the country and potential future unauthorized immigrants, and if preserving its audience means lobbying SCOTUS so they restrict the White House’s ability to undo an executive order of a previous administration via executive order, then so be it.
Univision isn’t new to the advocacy game. In 2016, we chronicled how the network got behind Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy in order to seek two kinds of regulatory relief: the first being approval of an increased foreign stake in the network (which the Obama FCC approved in the dead of night and in the middle of the Trump transition), and second, comprehensive immigration reform which will ensure a steady stream of viewers. Take senior anchor Jorge Ramos at his word:
I think the future of Spanish-language media is assured for decades, simply, for a very simple reason: In spite of the fact that the majority of the growth within the Hispanic community is coming from people being born here, we still have one to two million immigrants, legally and illegally coming in every single year. Most of them speak Spanish. So, therefore, we have a market that is growing and growing.
Ultimately, businesses are going to do what is in the best interests of their self-preservation. In the case of Univision, it means advocating against America’s right to enforce her borders and propping up like-minded liberal politicians. It is no stretch, therefore, to say that Univision is an immigration lobby with a broadcast license and a newsroom.
