Bloomberg's Carlson Once Again Spins Against Arizona on Illegal Immigration

Published: 8/3/2010 3:07 PM ET

On the July 30th edition of Bloomberg's "Political Capital," former Time magazine reporter Margaret Carlson made every rationalization for the federal government to continue to not enforce federal immigration law.

First, Carlson asserted that Americans are only upset with illegal immigration because, "there is an economic downturn and during that period you find somebody to blame, they are blaming immigrants." Carlson seems to disregard history and the fact that former President George W. Bush was faced with this same problem in 2006, before the recession.

Second, Carlson alludes to unsubstantiated statistical evidence citing that, "Crime has dropped," "Illegal immigration has dropped dramatically" and that "Phoenix is one of the four safest cities in America." Several searches of Internet databases showed no reference to a study naming Phoenix as the fourth safest city. However, a 2010 report done by Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) concluded that, "Arizona's violent crime rate ranks 13th highest in the U.S. and Phoenix has the second highest kidnapping rate in the world behind Mexico City."

Lastly she alleged, "There is no headless victim somewhere in the desert." Carlson's memory may be vague, but the family of rancher Robert Krentz can recall an innocent life being taken in the desert. While the victim may not be headless, he was a victim nonetheless. The continued failure of the federal government to enforce immigration laws forced the state of Arizona to take matters into its own hands.

A transcript for the July 30, 2010, segment is available here:

AL HUNT: The Arizona immigration law is temporarily enjoined, is that a victory for the Obama administration?

KATE O'BEIRNE: Yeah, the injunction against part of the law, is certainly a legal victory for the Obama administration. This judge bought their implicit argument, which was: we have no intention of enforcing federal immigration laws, so Arizona can't either. She did not find it conflicts with federal law, because it doesn't. It conflicts with the admistration's enforcement policy, which is no enforcement. Politically, I don't think it is a victory for the Obama administration. It is tailor-made to grow the ranks of the Tea Party. A lot of Americans have the quaint notion that government derives its power from the consent of the governed. The backdrop on unpopular bailouts, of a health-care bill and huge spending out of control, the public feels they have no control over this and now Arizona residents cannot enforce laws.

HUNT: Do you agree, Margaret?

MARGARET CARLSON: Well, in the short term, It has energized the anti- immigration movement in Arizona and other states, however it does give time for the cooler heads to prevail. Listen the association of police chiefs, most of the sheriff's other than the one in Phoenix, realize that crime has dropped. There is no headless victim somewhere in the desert. Phoenix is one of the four safest cities in America. Illegal immigration has dropped dramatically. What has happened is there is an economic downturn and during that period you find somebody to blame. They are blaming immigrants.

-Rachel Burnett is News Analysis intern for the Media Research Center. You can follow her on Twitter here.