New York Times immigration correspondent Vivian Yee responded defensively to Trump tweeting about the death of NFL player Edwin Jackson by an alleged drunk-driving illegal immigrant, in “Politics At Play In a Death On I-70.” The online headline to the Wednesday story: “How an N.F.L. Player’s Death Turned Into a Political Exhibit.”
Of course, The Times regularly uses tragedy to push dubiously connected political issues, like “climate change” in the aftermath of a deadly hurricane:
The driver was drunk, the police said, his blood alcohol content nearly three times the legal limit. One of his victims was an N.F.L. linebacker who was just reaching his prime.
But on Tuesday, two days after the crash, it was the driver’s immigration status that moved President Trump to post his first tweet of the morning.
Yee quickly cited sketchy and incomplete data studies as fact:
Decades of research have shown that immigrants are less prone to commit crimes and to be incarcerated than people born in the United States. But more and more lately, Mr. Trump has been using individual criminal cases to advance an argument that illegal immigration, as well as many forms of legal immigration, is dangerous to Americans and must be curbed.
She described the tragedy of Edwin Jackson, an Indianapolis Colts player riding in an Uber:
The car had stopped along the side of Interstate 70 in Indianapolis so Mr. Monroe could get out to help Mr. Jackson, who was sick, when Manuel Orrego-Savala’s Ford truck drove onto the emergency shoulder and plowed into them, the Indiana State Police said. He struck both men, heaving one of their bodies into the highway’s center lane.
....
The Trump administration regularly highlights crimes committed by immigrants, especially those who came here in ways Mr. Trump has vowed to curtail. Last week, Mr. Trump used the biggest stage available -- the State of the Union address -- to warn of the dangers of MS-13, a gang associated with young Central American migrants, drawing criticism that he had, once again, made immigrants out to be little more than criminals.
Yee again confidently forwarded pro-immigrant crime-rate studies, even though hard statistics are notoriously hard to come by regarding crimes committed by illegal immigrants.
Several studies, conducted over many years, have concluded that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the United States, and much less likely to be in prison than those born in the United States.
It's rather hypocritical for the paper to chide Trump for politicizing a tragedy when that concept makes up so much of their coverage of gun control, climate change, and health care.
Mr. Jackson’s roommate, Chad Bouchez, who said he had been out with Mr. Jackson the night he died, told CBS News that he did not believe Mr. Jackson would have wanted his death politicized.
“I don’t think Edwin would have judged anyone on where they were from or anything else,” he said.
