"Strident" vs. "Civil Rights"
There's some pretty obvious labeling bias and finger-pointing in California-based Jesse McKinley's "California Letter Investigated For Warning to Immigrants" on Wednesday.
"Federal and state authorities are trying to determine who sent a letter to some Latinos in Southern California that falsely suggested that it would be a crime for immigrants to vote in the coming election."
[...]
"The letter was printed on stationery labeled with the name of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, a strident anti-illegal-immigration group whose Web site features a video on how illegal immigrants bring disease to the United States.
"But Barbara Coe, the group's leader, told The Los Angeles Times, which first reported the letter on Tuesday, that her group had not sent or authorized it, and that she did not know a Sergio Ramirez. On Tuesday, Ms. Coe did not return repeated phone calls and e-mail seeking comment.
McKinley let's "Latino leaders" point fingers at "groups like" CCIR: "Some Latino leaders expressed doubts on Tuesday about Ms. Coe's denial and said they suspected the letter was part of a concerted, long-term effort on the part of groups like hers to intimidate voters.
"'They're taking as much action as they can to make the lives of Latinos as miserable as possible,' said Brent Wilkes, the national executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a civil rights group."
LULAC is in fact a Hispanic advocacy group, though "civil rights group" is certainly a moreflattering euphemism.
