The nation’s leading Spanish-language news network continues to inject its opposition to President Donald Trump into every possible angle. The most recent instance of institutional bias is reflected in a report on a recent study by the American Heart Association.
Watch below as correspondent Maria Rosa Lucchini attempts to blame the Trump Administration for increased blood pressure among women fearing deportation:
MARIA ROSA LUCCHINI, CORRESPONDENT, UNIVISION: The study was focused on 572 women over a period of four years. And it revealed that 48% of these women feel extremely worried about deportations. 24% feel moderately worried and 28%, not so much. These women live in fear of being deported or of their relatives being detained by ICE agents.
CARLOS GUEVARA, UNIDOS US: The country requires immigration reforms that are effective, just, and that ultimately work for the entire country.
LUCCHINI: According to the study, depression and anxiety among immigrant women has also been linked to immigration policies established by this administration.
DR. LIGIA PERALTA: That stress and depression are linked to a cascade of inflammatory changes and these inflammatory changes can raise blood pressure and are also, at the same time, a long-term impact.
LUCCHINI: For its part, the Trump Administration continues to defend its position against illegal immigration, especially the construction of the border wall which, officials say, is going full speed ahead. From Washington, Maria Rosa Lucchini, Univision.
Except...that the study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, doesn't actually mention the Trump Administration by name. Furthermore the report mentions, only briefly, that the study was conducted over an extended period of time, and omits any mention whatsoever of the fact that the study found that deportation worry remained consistent:
This final assessment was performed in the aftermath of the 2016 Presidential election, a period marked by increased deportation worry among immigrants and their family members. In a descriptive comparison, we found that the overall prevalence of deportation worry remained stable between the 2012–2014 and 2016–2018 study waves; over half of those who reported on worry at both visits reported the same level of worry at these visits. The overall stability in deportation worry may reflect the fact that there were very high rates of deportation when deportation worry was first assessed (2012–2014), and deportation worry among US Latinos was also high during this time period. However, the remaining respondents reported change in deportation worry, including patterns of both increasing and decreasing worry. This underlying change in deportation worry could have driven converging trends in BP outcomes by the final study wave.
In other words, although there may have been increased “worry among immigrants” after 2016 -and notice the conflation of legal with illegal here- the actual level of concern was consistent over a time period that included the previous administration. Instead of reporting that, Univision chose to distort the study’s findings and make it about Trump. In fact, it was about Obama too.
Univision’s flagrant misinterpretation of the facts laid out by this study further reinforces the notion that the network is little more than a liberal PAC with a broadcast license.
In other words: fake news. Again.
Click “Expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned report, as aired on Univision on Friday, November 29th, 2019:
PAMELA SILVA CONDE: A study by the American Heart Association suggests that fear of deportation could cause problems with high blood pressure, especially among Mexican-born women. As Maria Rosa Lucchini explans from Washington, D.C., anxiety and depression are silent enemies for these women.
MARIA ROSA LUCCHINI: Another enemy of Latina women’s health rises, and it is that deportations are not only separating families but also increasing the risk of heart disease, which is what a study by the American Heart Association has found.
DR. LIGIA PERALTA: THis study was done on women and they evaluated Mexican-born women and that live in the agricultural area in the Salinas Valley in California. And this phenomenon is quite common for people like myself that see women and young women, above all with high blood pressure.
LUCCHINI: And, precisely, it is high blood pressure that has been linked to fear of (immigration raids), according to the study. The study was focused on 572 women over a period of four years. And it revealed that 48% of these women feel extremely worried about deportations. 24% feel moderately worried and 28%, not so much. These women live in fear of being deported or of their relatives being detained by ICE agents.
CARLOS GUEVARA, UNIDOS US: The country requires immigration reforms that are effective, just, and that ultimately work for the entire country.
LUCCHINI: According to the study, depression and anxiety among immigrant women has also been linked to immigration policies established by this administration.
PERALTA: That stress and depression are linked to a cascade of inflammatory changes and these inflammatory changes can raise blood pressure and are also, at the same time, a long-term impact.
LUCCHINI: For its part, the Trump Administration continues to defend its position against illegal immigration, especially the construction of the border wall which, officials say, is going full speed ahead. From Washington, Maria Rosa Lucchini, Univision.
