[Marxism] CSM: Tide of illegal immigrants now being reversed

[Daniel Denvir]

Hi Mike,

While I appreciate your concern with rigor, I really don't see the
merit in your critique. It was a blog post to be read by about 20
people focused on a few aspects of the report and the surrounding
coverage, not a peer reviewed article.

And I did in fact review the criticisms of CIS' methodology and
conclusions, if you take another look at the last few paragraphs. And
I also implied an explanation of my title in my review of their
methodology.

best,
Dan

On Fri, Aug 1, 2008 at 6:43 PM, Mike Friedman <mikedf at amnh.org> wrote:
> While I agree that this report is questionable, in the name of rigor I
> question how you responded to it. Most of your commentary was spent
> discrediting the source of the poll and the media that carried it. All
> well and good, but we need *substantive* refutation of the analysis
> presented, not a one-paragraph blow-off. Your blog piece doesn't even
> explain the title you give it, which is an important point. This approach
> is counterproductive in that it is exactly what the other side does... and
> when they do it, we see it as an insult to our intelligence.
>
> --------------------
> from my blog at http://glocalcircus.blogspot.com/
>
> Media Misses Distinction Between Correlation and Causation...
>
> The New York Times reported on a new study by the Center for
> Immigration Studies saying that 1.3 million "illegal" immigrants have
> left the United States in the past year. The group attributes the drop
> to tough new enforcement measures.
>
> Unfortunately, readers don't find out that the group is a "policy
> advocacy group that favors reduced immigration and opposes legislation
> to give legal status to illegal immigrants" until the 7th paragraph.
> CIS is in fact a far right, anti-immigrant group that opposes almost
> all immigration, legal or otherwise.
>
> CIS director Mark Krikorian once said that "immigrant communities ...
> serve as the sea, as Mao might have put it, within which the
> terrorists swim as fish" and that "immigration is incompatible with
> modern society." According to the Progressive Research Associates, CIS
> was "founded in 1985 as a think tank to support the more activist work
> of the anti-immigrant Federation for American Immigration Reform
> (FAIR)." Through their academic and non-fanatical style they, in
> contrast to FAIR, have successfully insinuated themselves into the
> think tank world.
>
> Independent analysts and immigrant rights activists, surprise
> surprise,  attribute the drop in undocumented immigration to the
> contracting economy. Other analysts have also questioned CIS'
> methodology and say that the 1.3 million number is way too high. CIS
> measured the "likely illegal population" which it defines as
> less-educated, foreign-born Hispanics age 18 to 40. CIS seems so
> enthralled with cowboy theatrics that changing "push and pull" factors
> like, you know, the global economy, don't get much credit.
>
> And The Times appears to be too concerned about potential charges of
> "liberal bias" to accurately report who these groups are. The Times
> and many newspapers have a troubled history with citing industry
> sources--or worse, publishing their op eds--and not revealing them as
> such. (If anyone can find an article on that, send it my way. I can't
> remember where I was reading about that...)
>
> And of course, representatives of La Migra were quick to endorse CIS'
> fuzzy math: "It reinforces what we always thought, that comprehensive
> enforcement is a critical part of the reduction," said Kelly A.
> Nantel, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
>
>
> On Fri, Aug 1, 2008 at 5:17 PM, Mike Friedman <mikedf at amnh.org> wrote:
>> Tide of illegal immigrants now being reversed
>> Border crackdown and tough economic times in the US are seen as reasons.
>> By Gail Russell Chaddock
>> Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
>>
>> from the July 31, 2008 edition
>>
>> Washington - Some 1.3 million illegal immigrants have left the United
>> States since Congress failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform in
>> the summer of 2007. If the trend continues, according to a new study, the
>> nation's illegal population will drop by half in the next five years.
>>
>
>
>
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-- 
Freelance Journalist / Periodista Independiente
E-mail: daniel.denvir at gmail.com
09-529-0827
Quito, Ecuador
http://glocalcircus.blogspot.com/

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