Shades of Bias: Bringing Illegals "Out of the Shadows"
Miami bureau chief Damien Cave filed "Big-City Police Chiefs Urge Overhaul of Immigration Policy" for Thursday's edition. The police chiefs favor liberalizing policies that would "integrate immigrants into the legal system, possibly with driver's licenses," which is likely the reason the Times bothered to cover this story out of Miami. The text box read: "Bringing out immigrants 'living in the shadows," which is an echo of the first paragraph:
Seeking to inject their views into the revived debate over immigrationoverhaul, several big-city police chiefs urged Congress on Wednesday to draft a new policy that improves public safety by bringing illegal immigrants out of the shadows.
The chiefs - updatingrecommendationsmade in 2006 by the leaders of more than 50 urban police departments - called for an overhaul that would integrate immigrants into the legal system, possibly with driver's licenses, and separate the local police from immigration enforcement.
The Times loves to call up images of poor (illegal)immigrants cowering "in the shadows" - it's used that phrase several times in news stories, though the phrase doesn't seem to jive with the massive pro-amnesty street demonstrations held in the summer of 2007, filled with illegal immigrants well out from under the shadows.
