No issue most exposes the liberal bias of the New York Times more than the matter of illegal immigrants (or as the paper prefers to call them, "undocumented immigrants"). The Times favors generous amnesty, and keeps pushing it both on its news pages and in opinion. A Wednesday Page One story by Trip Gabriel and Julia Preston tried to transform Donald Trump's blunt words on illegals into a problem for the entire Republican presidential field ("Trump Paints G.O.P in Corner On Immigration").
Preston's pro-amnesty Times reporting is full of immigrants emerging from "the shadows," a phrase that crops up constantly in her prose, while co-writer Gabriel made a hostile visit to Hazleton, Pa., in 2013 to paint the locals as reactionary and "insensitive" to Hispanics. So it's no surprise they try to turn the screws on the Republicans in their front-page story, right from the lead:
Republicans thought they had learned a lesson after 2012: Turning off Latino voters ensures defeat in the general election.
But as the disruptive presidential candidacy of Donald J. Trump continues to gain support, his hard line on immigration has driven rivals to match his biting anti-immigrant language and positions long considered extreme. It risks another general election cycle in which Hispanics view the party as unfriendly no matter who the nominee is, Republican strategists warned.
This week, several of Mr. Trump’s Republican rivals, including Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, echoed his call to end automatic citizenship for the American-born children of undocumented immigrants, repealing a constitutional right dating from the Civil War era.
And Mr. Trump’s plan for mass deportations -- “They have to go,” he said -- which is supported by a sizable minority of Republican voters nationwide, has encouraged rivals to similarly push the edges on immigration.
