Record-breaking border apprehensions have NPR concerned — about the “false and misleading” beliefs that Republicans supposedly hold on immigration. The network is promoting a poll in which it presented respondents with supposedly false claims about immigration and found that Fox News–watching Republicans disproportionately believed them.
The problem is that none of the three claims it highlights are clearly false. Two are at least defensible, and the third is true. The first: “Immigrants are more likely to commit crimes or be incarcerated than the U.S.-born population.” NPR has in mind here rates of imprisonment, but a survey respondent could focus on the first part of the statement and reason that illegal immigrants (about one quarter of the foreign-born population) are by definition in violation of the law. Answering “true” is defensible.
The second: “Most of the fentanyl entering the U.S. is smuggled in by unauthorized migrants crossing the border illegally.” NPR calls this false because most fentanyl is transported on trucks that receive clearance to cross the border. But a survey respondent may reason that no migrant is “authorized” to import illegal drugs, and smuggling may count as “crossing the border illegally” even if an oblivious border official gives the go-ahead. Again, answering “true” is defensible.
The third: “Immigrants are more likely to use public assistance benefits than the U.S.-born population.” Answering “true” here is more than just defensible — it’s the correct response. In a recent analysis, 49 percent of immigrant-headed households received at least one means-tested benefit, compared with 32 percent of native-headed households. NPR’s only justification for rating the statement false is that “many immigrants are barred from using most federal benefit programs,” but the network doesn’t seem to grasp that all immigrants, including illegal immigrants, are allowed to collect benefits on behalf of their citizen dependents. When low-earning immigrants turn to the taxpayer to provide food and medical care for their U.S.-born children, these immigrants are clearly using public assistance.
Even if one feels I am being too generous to the respondents who agreed with some of the allegedly false statements, the closed-mindedness of NPR’s presentation is undeniable. The border crisis does impact the rule of law, the supply of illegal drugs, and the public coffers. A responsible news organization would provide a balanced perspective on those impacts, not dismiss them all as Fox News lies.
Granted, people of all political stripes are prone to exaggerating problems that evoke strong emotions, and correcting those exaggerations can be useful. (For example, NPR should try to correct liberals’ vast overestimation of the number of unarmed black men killed by police and the proportion of Covid victims who were under 65.) But when a news organization cites plausibly true statements as evidence of “false” beliefs held by one side of a political issue, its bias becomes obvious.