The New York Times's Julia Preston watched parades on May Day for evidence that the fight for amnesty for illegal immigrants was at last gathering public support in "Showing Grass-Roots Support for Immigration Overhaul." Preston hit the jackpot when a protester quoted her back the same line she and the Times have been using for years about illegal immigrants: "I think it is time that we come out of the shadows...."
Preston did her part by helping spin away the small size of rallies held by amnesty supporters; supposedly the turnout was lower because they wanted "more local supporters:"
Tens of thousands of immigrants, Latinos and other supporters of an overhaul of the immigration system turned out on Wednesday for marches, rallies and prayer vigils, hoping to show Congress that momentum is building for a path to citizenship for 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.
Instead of concentrating on large May Day demonstrations, organizers said they had chosen to hold smaller actions in more than 100 cities nationwide to draw more local supporters.
The organizers chose "to hold smaller actions"? That sounds a bit like Spinal Tap's manager saying that the band's "appeal was becoming more selective."
Preston made a glancing mention of the violence that followed a "peaceful march" in Seattle:
There were marches in Birmingham, Ala., and Milwaukee, and a rally on the steps of the state Capitol in Denver. In Bozeman, Mont., organizers gave salsa lessons to protesters before marching to the public library.
Hours after a peaceful march ended in Seattle, a burst of violence led to the arrests of 17 people, The Associated Press reported. Several dozen protesters, some covering their faces with bandannas, began pelting police officers with rocks and bottles. Officers responded with pepper spray and “flash-bang” grenades -- releasing smoke, a flashing light and a loud noise -- to disperse the crowd, The A.P. said.
For all the paper's hand-wringing over hypothetical violence at Tea Party rallies, it sure remains uninterested in actual violence at left-wing ones.
Preston found a quote from an illegal (er, someone with "a lack of legal status") that surely made her heart soar.
In Chicago, hundreds of protesters marched through downtown streets, some dressed in stars and stripes and others waving Mexican flags, holding signs that read “Stop Deportations” and “Legalization for All.” Some, like Luis Moreno, who is 29 and from Mexico, said it was their first time protesting, since they had been hesitant to come out in previous years because of a lack of legal status, but now believed that the political winds were in their favor.
“I think it is time that we come out of the shadows and support what we believe in,” Mr. Moreno said.
The paper liked the "shadows" bite so much it made it the text box. The Times loves nothing more than immigrants emerging from "the shadows," a phrase that crops up constantly in the sympathetic prose of pro-amnesty reporters like Preston. Here's Preston from December 1, 2012, one of many, many examples:
It has been a good year for young immigrants living in the country without legal papers, the ones who call themselves Dreamers. Their protests and pressure helped push President Obama to offer many of them reprieves from deportation. So far about 310,000 youths have emerged from the shadows to apply, with numbers rising rapidly.
