Facts are a funny thing. They are conveniently made up out of whole cloth if reality doesn’t support one’s point-of-view. And poor, gullible Heidi over at ‘Euphoric Reality’ has been taken in by yet another collection of myths and distortions.
Recently, Heidi posted a list of ‘facts’ about immigrants that’s been making the rounds by that most reliable of sources, the viral email.
The following 10 facts have been pulled from the LA Times. We’ve posted them all at one time or another at ER or in the Blogburst.1. L.A. County has 10 million people. 40% of all workers in L.A. County are working for cash and not paying taxes. This is because they are predominantly illegal immigrants, working without a green card.
2. Of the 10 million people in L.A. County, 5.1 million people speak English. 3.9 million speak only primarily Spanish. Of the 14 million people in California, 5.6 million primarily speak other than English.
3. 95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.
And on and on. Ten of these ‘facts’ are attributed to an article in the LA Times… but Heidi rather sneakily links not to the LA Times, but to World Net Daily. In fact, no such article has be found in the 2002 archives of the LA Times.
How many of those facts can be confirmed? Exactly one — the number of Spanish-language radio stations in Los Angeles. The good folks at Snopes.com have shown that the rest are either distortions or unconfirmed allegations — not the ‘facts’ Heidi would like her readers to believe. (Hat tip to David Neiwert for bringing the Snopes article to my attention.)
Illegal immigration is clearly a serious problem. It deserves a serious national debate, but folks like Heidi are determined to pander to the worst nativist passions. She ill serves her country when she does so.
6 comments
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May 4th, 2006 at 11:04 pm
Capt. Rational
I don’t see illegal immigration as a serious problem. I rather like illegal immigrants! What they cost the nation in unpaid taxes, they make up for by generating revenue for their employers, and I really don’t care if they’re getting public services for free considering how dirt poor they are. Helping poor people is never a bad thing.
As for security concerns… what, are we gonna build a fence around the entire country? Oh… shit. People actually think that’s plausible? Can we build a giant titanium dome over the nation while we’re at it? We sure as hell don’t want any Mexicans parachuting in!
And that list of facts, that’s just cute. Did she say “Of the 14 million people in California” in #2, or am I seeing things? If she did, and that’s a fact, that means about 20,000,000 people just died in California. I miss the days when facts were facts and not “facts”.
May 5th, 2006 at 1:33 am
J permo
you are such a gullible girl to get taken in like that by some stupid e-mail floating around the internet.
I know a Nigerian guy who wants to wire you 8 mil, BTW.
May 5th, 2006 at 12:20 pm
David Neiwert
The L.A. Times staff has conducted its own research on these “statistics” and has some interesting data in response. The key one: none of this was “reported” by the L.A. Times.
May 5th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
David Neiwert
Link:
http://opinion.latimes.com/immigration/2006/05/according_to_th.html
May 5th, 2006 at 12:43 pm
meatbrain
Many thanks indeed, David!
May 5th, 2006 at 5:45 pm
Capt. Rational
I guess this means we can expect full retraction from the liars who posted these “facts”, right? Hah!