It is no surprise to anyone who can read or hear, there is a pronounced bias on the part of the national media on behalf of the Left. That is also true on the local level as well. Exhibit Number One is the Knoxville News Sentinel. The News Sentinel attempted to keep up with the “woke” politics that drives the Left and is of course opposed to the United States enforcing its immigration laws. One isn’t likely to read in the pages of the Knoxville News Sentinel the words “illegal aliens” yet people who enter this country illegally are exactly that.
A few days ago, Angela Dennis, who “covers issues at the intersection of race and equity through both historical and contemporary lenses,” and Tyler Whetstone penned a story about Maira Oviedo-Granados. Naturally, the story was written from Ms. Oviedo-Granados’ point of view and was highly sympathetic. The story detailed her having telephoned the Knox County Sheriff’s Office “seeking rescue from her violent and armed boyfriend” and ended up being arrested as an illegal alien. You see, Ms. Oviedo-Granados came to this country illegally and yet was surprised she was arrested by an agency that is sworn to uphold the laws of the State of Tennessee, as well as those and the Constitution of the United States of America. Of course that is a positively appalling notion to the Left and the Knoxville News Sentinel.
Ms. Oviedo-Granados has filed a lawsuit against the sheriff’s department; in reality, the suit is against the people who pay for the operation of the Knox County Sheriff’s Office: the residents and taxpayers of Knox County. The complaint at the core of the story and Ms. Oviedo-Granados’s lawsuit is the sheriff’s enforcement of the United States’ own immigration laws. The Sentinel reporters referred to Sheriff Tom Spangler’s enforcement of this country’s immigration laws as “controversial.” Controversial with whom exactly? Well, illegal aliens and the Left most assuredly. In fact, the News Sentinel pushes the narrative the Knox County Sheriff’s Office enforcing the law is in itself “unlawful.”
The News Sentinel has published “guest columns” in its opinion section such as that penned by Sarah Margaret Hutchison, “a steering committee member of Allies of Knoxville’s Immigrant Neighbors.” Ms. Hutchison does point out in her opinion piece the sheriff’s office enforcing 287(g) is through enabling legislation passed by Congress in 1996; Ms. Hutchison described it as a bill “that weaponizes our local law enforcement agencies against our immigrant neighbors.” The use of the language, both by the News Sentinel staff writers and the guest columnist is designed to ignore the fact these people do not believe there is any such thing as illegal entry into this country. “Immigrant neighbors” implies the folks down the street who immigrated here legally when they are referring to people who snuck into this country illegally and remained here against the laws of the country.
According to the News Sentinel, Maira Oviedos-Granados came here from Honduras “seeking asylum from gender-based violence.” The great majority of asylum claims fall apart once investigated, although apparently the United States is the only country on the face of the earth where one is safe from “gender-based violence.”
Of course refusal to deport illegal aliens has become Democrat/Socialist dogma now. Joe Biden pledged not to deport any illegal aliens during his first 100 days in office – – – as did every other candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. The Biden administration immediately set out to dismantle the successful enforcement/deterrence policies put into place by the Trump administration. Nobody can be surprised that illegals began hurrying to our southern borders in the tens of thousands knowing they would not be deported.
The southern border has become a crossing point not only for illegals but also drugs like fentanyl consumed by and killing Americans. Our southern border has also been the focal point of the stunning hypocrisy of the Left and the Democrat/Socialists who want to enforce vaccine mandates upon Americans and their children, as well as mandatory masking policies; yet hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens pour across the border, approximately 30% of whom (or more) are carrying the coronavirus or some variant of the disease. Those same ill illegals are being bused and flown in the cover of night into the interior of the country like a bacillus. The illegals are not held to the same standard as taxpaying Americans. As the Biden administration sought to declare travel confined to that deemed “essential,” evidently the travel across our borders by illegal aliens was also essential.
FOX News White House reporter Peter Doocy asked Biden administration press spokesperson Jen Psaki, “So if somebody walks into the country, right across the river, does somebody ask them to see their vaccination card?”
Psaki’s answer was unintentionally revealing. “As individuals come across the border and – – – they are both assessed for whether they have any symptoms. If they have symptoms, they are – – – the intention is for them to be quarantined; that is our process. They’re not intending to stay here for a lengthy period of time. I don’t think it’s the same thing.”
That would certainly indicate the vast majority of the illegals pouring across our borders are not fleeing some kind of persecution nor seeking asylum. Obviously, a grant of asylum is not a temporary thing. Merely applying for asylum does not entitle one to anything and those found illegible can be removed from this country. Of course the liberal media and the Biden administration try to blur that distinction and to hear them tell it, every single person coming across our borders are asylum-seekers.
Maira Oviedo-Granados has been here since 2014 and the story in the Knoxville News Sentinel did not indicate she had been granted asylum. She has at least three children here and her lawsuit claims her civil rights were violated. Ms. Oviedo-Granados is seeking $2.5 million of your tax dollars and “punitive damages.” Certainly, she likely wants her day in court, something that seems to be missing as far as her hearing for asylum is concerned.
Liberal bias is imbedded even in our local media.
