New MALDEF Project “Truth in Immigration” to Clarify the Record on Immigration

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), the nation’s leading Latino civil rights organization, unveiled a new project, “Truth in Immigration,” to rebut legal and factual inaccuracies about immigrants and Latinos in the United States. The project’s website will provide regular updates on communications about immigrants and Latinos in the media, political campaigns, and in the public messaging of anti-immigrant organizations. Truth in Immigration will examine and refute cases where the media has made false claims on immigration, including Lou Dobbs’s false claim on immigration and leprosy and Glen Beck’s false statement that undocumented immigrants have no legal rights. Anti-immigrant and anti-Latino messages have lead to increased bigotry and violence against Latinos and have been disseminated and promoted in the public sphere with very little fact checking. The FBI reports that in 2006, Hispanics comprised 62.8% of victims of crimes motivated by a bias toward the victims’ ethnicity or national origin, up 35% since 2003. During that same time frame, more than 300 anti-immigration groups formed, with half labeled as “nativist extremist.” These facts demonstrate that the impact of inaccurate and inflammatory statements in the media may have a life-threatening impact on the lives of hardworking people.

KJ