Over the past couple of days, CNN and MSNBC have been freaking out over another Trump administration activity that was also done by Obama administration which the liberal media only just noticed because they're so so fixated on trying to find examples of President Donald Trump mistreating immigrants.
Even though both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations sometimes denied passports to residents of southern Texas who were suspected of having fraudulent birth certificates that conceal they were actually born in Mexico, a number of liberal anchors have shown shock over questionable reports that such activity might have increased substantially under Trump.
Some reports have also suggested that, due to a settlement, such activity mostly ended early in the Obama administration, even though outfits like CNN.com, NPR, USA Today, and the San Francisco Chronicle have previously reported during the Obama administration that immigration attorneys were still complaining about such actions by the government.
As news of a Washington Post report on the subject -- based largely on claims by immigration attorneys -- broke Wednesday afternoon, CNN host Wolf Blitzer declared that there was "shocking new reporting that hundreds -- possibly thousands of Americans who are of Hispanic descent have now been denied trying to renew their U.S. passports with the State Department telling them their birth certificates are fraudulent."
Correspondent Sara Murray soon theorized that Trump administration members "don't really care how many American citizens they actually hurt if they feel like they have an opportunity to weed a couple of people who may have gotten their birth certificate illegally."
Thursday morning, during CNN's Early Start, co-host Dave Briggs suggested a link to President Trump's history of promoting birther conspiracy theories against President Obama, although it was also noted that the State Department claimed that it has not changed its policy. CNN political reporter Tal Kopan soon claimed that such activity had "decreased during the Obama administration" but that there were reports of it now increasing.
Also on Thursday, correspondent Nick Valencia appeared on several shows and reported that The Washington Post was claiming that there had been a "surge" in such activity under Trump, although he also read a statement from the State Department arguing that there had been no change.
Even so, Valencia suggested that the questioning of birth certificates might be related to efforts by the Trump administration to push for "stricter voter ID laws," adding that "this would presumably impact many Latino voters" and a part of Texas that is "heavily Democratic."
On Thursday evening, Blitzer revisited the story and suggested that Hispanics generally have reason to worry about whether their birth certificates would be accepted as authentic. Speaking with Texas Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro, he posed: "They're now saying if you're Hispanic American, you live along the border, and you want to get your passport renewed, you're going to have trouble getting it renewed. What's your response because it's truly a shocking story?"
He soon reiterated that it is a "truly stunning and shocking story" and hyped that there was "more anxiety on the southern border" because of the issue.
On Friday morning, CNN's New Day began noticing the story, and Valencia made an appearance and read from a new State Department criticism of the media claims and denial that there has been a change in policy.
On Thursday, a number of MSNBC shows kept up this charade, with Velshi and Ruhle, MTP Daily, and All In with Chris Hayes having the biggest freakouts. Ali Velshi tried to tie the policy to Trump's history of birtherism, and Chuck Todd fretted that Trump was trying to target Hispanics.
Chris Hayes's All In was the first show to inform viewers of numbers released by the State Department -- also cited by Fox News -- showing the rate of denials of passports under the circumstances has been lower under Trump than under Obama, although he and immigration attorney Jennifer Correro fretted that State's numbers might be intentionally deceptive.
Correro notably also seemed to indicate that the only Texas residents affected by the issue are those whose birth certificates were linked to a particular list of midwives and doctors known to have a history of engaging in fraud, rather than all Hispanic residents.
Last month, MSNBC was pushing a debunked claim that the Trump administration might be kicking all non-citizens out of the military, even though the rejection of some recruits was a normal activity. And CNN recently highlighted the case of a child who died after ICE detention, even though similar deaths of detainees also happened during the Obama administration.
