Univision continues to show us that it will go to such lengths to preserve the porous border so central to its business model and continued survival, that it no longer even bothers to put quote marks around claims that current immigration policy proposals are racist. Now they just repeat such defamatory statements as fact.
Here's anchor Enrique Acevedo making just such a defamatory statement, as aired on Univision's late night newscast, Edición Nocturna, on Wednesday, February 7, 2018:
ENRIQUE ACEVEDO, UNIVISION ANCHOR: The measures to limit legal immigration to the United States proposed by the Trump Administration have the purpose of preserving the nation's current demographic composition and limiting the growth of the so-called minorities, mainly, the Hispanic population. Pablo Gato will tell us (about) those details.
Washington correspondent Pablo Gato cites the findings from this analysis from the Washington Post as the basis for the report. But the analysis' very first sentence blows up the very premise of Gato's report:
President Trump's proposal to cut legal immigration rates would delay the date that white Americans become a minority of the population by as few as one or as many as five additional years, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.
And two paragraphs later:
The Census Bureau projects that minority groups will outnumber non-Hispanic whites in the United States in 2044. The Post's analysis projects that, were Trump's plan to be carried out, the date would be between 2045 and 2049, depending on how parts of it are implemented.
There are a lot of caveats here that Univision never mentions. "IF Trump's plan is carried out"..."DEPENDING on how it is implemented". Univision, through Acevedo and Gato alike, is stoking fear and racial resentment based on speculative language - which is absolutely dangerous and completely reckless.
Additionally, there is no mention of the fact that the demographic trends are not neccesarily subject to changes in immigration policy. For all the fearmongering about the Hispanic population, it is no secret that Hispanic population growth in the United States is no longer primarily driven by immigration, but by U.S. births. The real problem is that these kids don't grow up to be Univision viewers.
Watching the full report makes it crystal clear that Univision had little use for the Post piece except to cite it as the basis of claims that Trump immigration policy is intended to "Make America White Again." Gato's soundbites were provided by an immigration attorney and a Democratic strategist, and showed no opposing perspective. In fact, the only quotes from the administration came via snippets of White House aide Stephen Miller's August 2017 confrontation with CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta.
It is no exaggeration to say that this unserious report is little more than race-baiting garbage from a network that continues to depend on a broken immigration system, and that seems to be willing to do anything to impede meaningful reform.
Below is a segment of the above-referenced report, added for context:
PABLO GATO, CORRESPONDENT, UNIVISION: Xavier Racine says that if you look at the Trump Administration's immigration policy, you arrive at one conclusion:
XAVIER RACINE, IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY: Well, that this is the agenda - to throw all the Latinos out of this country, and to increase the amount of white people, mmm-hmm... so that they can continue being the majority of the people here, of the population.
GATO: A Washington Post study indicates that measures proposed by Trump would delay the end of whites being the majority in this country by up to five years. The reason is that he would be limiting the arrival of immigrants from such places as Africa and Latin America.
