Since the Immigration and Customs Enforcement workplace raid last week, the liberal media have grown increasingly radical in how they cover immigration. In a nearly five-minute-long report on CBS Evening News on Wednesday, special contributor Maria Elena Salinas (you might remember her from her time on Univision) delivered an emotionally drive, one-sided report condemning the raids and presses a U.S. attorney on jailing those who employed illegal immigrants.
Salinas began my tugging on the emotions of viewers by first speaking with a young girl whose father was arrested in an ICE raid at one the food processing plants in Mississippi last week (click "expand'):
MARIA ELENA SALINAS: It seems like a normal morning routine in a household full of kids.
ANGELA SORAC: My dad not being here is, like, very difficult.
SALINAS: But it's far from normal.
SORAC: Now that his dad is gone, he's now frustrated, aggressive. He's very angry, and we don't know how to handle it.
SALINAS: She's thrust into an adult role, but Angela Sorac is just a vulnerable 13-year-old.
SORAC: I still want my dad. I really do. He-- he was... He wasn't perfect, but I really did love him. And I still do. But I miss him.
A couple of minutes later, she highlighted a combative interview she conducted with the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, Mike Hurst. In the interview she bitterly demanded to know why employers and managers weren’t taken into custody during the raids:
Why are the employees immediately detained and put in jail and separated from their families, when you have these employers and managers who are home free with their families while the others are being detained,” she decried.
Hurst accurately pointed out that it was the parents, who crossed in the country illegally, who put themselves and their children in that position.
“I understand. But you didn't answer the question,” Salinas continued to press. “I'm asking you specifically about the last operation here, and why is it that you have hundreds of people in jail, and you have these employers, or managers who hired them, and broke the law, home with their families?”
As a reporter that has covered a lot of immigration stories, she should know why the employers weren’t arrested. Not only was there an ongoing investigation, but ICE’s website shows that the penalty for hiring illegals was steep fines, not necessarily jail time.
Salinas’ reporting got wackier when she complained to floundering anchor Norah O’Donnell about how “a study from Syracuse University shows that only 11 employers who have hired undocumented workers have been prosecuted nationwide.” That statement was grossly misleading.
According to the study she was citing, those 11 prosecutions were only from “April 2018 - March 2019”. And according to data from the Corporation Prosecution Registry, there have been roughly 152 prosecutions over immigration matters dating back to the mid-2000s.
The Washington Post also discovered that “[t]here were at least 88 such cases against companies for immigration violations between 2009 and 2016 during the Obama administration…”
What also made Salinas’ whining even more ridiculous was her grievance with the numbers disparity between the number of illegals prosecuted and the numbers of employers prosecuted.
Just look at the case of the young girl CBS was covering in the report. At just one worksite, Koch Foods, ICE “agents arrived and detained 243 workers”. ICE raided seven food processing worksites in Mississippi that day and arrested 680 people. It’s like companies (particularly in food processing) hire large workforces that outnumber the people and entities that hire them … or something.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CBS Evening News
August 14, 2019
6:40:29 p.m. Eastern [4 minutes 57 seconds]NORAH O’DONNELL: Our new special contributor Maria Elena Salinas has been looking into the massive roundup of undocumented workers in Mississippi, and the devastating impact it has had on families. 680 food plant workers were arrested last week, but none of the people who employed them illegally were charged. Maria Elena shows you how one family is struggling to get by without a husband and father in tonight's "Eye on America."
[Cuts to video]
MARIA ELENA SALINAS: It seems like a normal morning routine in a household full of kids.
ANGELA SORAC: My dad not being here is, like, very difficult.
SALINAS: But it's far from normal.
SORAC: Now that his dad is gone, he's now frustrated, aggressive. He's very angry, and we don't know how to handle it.
SALINAS: She's thrust into an adult role, but Angela Sorac is just a vulnerable 13-year-old.
SORAC: I still want my dad. I really do. He-- he was... He wasn't perfect, but I really did love him. And I still do. But I miss him.
SALINAS: We met Angela and her mother Ingrid who has six kids, ages three to 17, under her care. She has three more from her sister-in-law, who was swept up in the raids. Her husband, who is undocumented, is the sole provider and the one who looks after their seven-year-old son who has autism.
INGRID SORAC: Every day I look at my kids crying. There's no-.
SALINAS: Of the 680 people detained, around three of them were released. Some for humanitarian reasons and others with court dates. But Ingrid's husband, Nery, was not one of them.
You know that there's a chance that your husband could be deported.
I. SORAC: Yeah.
SALINAS: What would do you if that happens?
I. SORAC: I don't know.
SALINAS: Nery’s arrest ended up being a case of collateral damage. He did not work at this plant, one of seven raided by ICE, but he was here in this parking lot dropping off his sister when agents arrived and detained 243 workers. Being at the wrong place at the wrong time has had a devastating effect on his family.
Did you understand before this your parents' immigration did you ever talk about that as a family?
A. SORAC: We did have conversations about it, like, if it ever comes to, like, police cars are close and there are, like, like, you know, if this happens, if this happens, just-- we just want you to know that we love you very much.
SALINAS: Koch Foods where Nery dropped off his sister for work say they comply with immigration laws, but can still not know if some of their workers are unauthorized.
We sat down with Mike Hurst, the U.S. Attorney for the southern district of Mississippi. He says his office has been investigating the employers who hired undocumented workers.
Why are the employees immediately detained and put in jail and separated from their families, when you have these employers and managers who are home free with their families like the others are being detained?
MIKE HURST: Right. What I would tell you is I hope the outcry and that the passion that is put towards this week and these family and these children separated from their families, I hope that's put towards every person that commits crime, and every person that puts their child in that situation.
SALINAS: I understand. But you didn't answer the question. I'm asking you specifically about the last operation here, and why is it that you have hundreds of people in jail, and you have these employers, or managers who hired them, and broke the law, home with their families?
HURST: Well, I'm not going to say right now what the status of the criminal investigation is.
SALINAS: Investigations aside, for this family, the absence of their father increases their pain and frustration with each passing day.
A. SORAC: It's not easy to lose family members because... You have a very special bond with them.
SALINAS: We can only imagine the pain that you're going through.
A. SORAC: It's different than imagining it and experiencing it, you know.
[Cuts back to live]
O’DONNELL: And Maria Elena joins us tonight. So what did you learn about where this investigation into the employers stands?
SALINAS: Well, the investigation is ongoing, as you heard from Mr. Hurst. It's ongoing. But what's perplexing is that this investigation has been going on for six months. Yet, he says they don't have enough evidence to prosecute these employers who hired undocumented workers and the undocumented workers are detained.
A study from Syracuse University shows that only 11 employers who have hired undocumented workers have been prosecuted nationwide. Yet, none of them have been in Mississippi. And, by the way, the family was contacted by ICE, and they will be able to meet with their father. They will be able to visit him in detention. That's about two hours away from their home.
O’DONNELL: Important reporting tonight Maria Elaine, Thank you so much.
SALINAS: Thank you, Norah.
