You Know My Name

Back when it still existed, the Immigration and Naturalization Service led newspapers to believe that otherwise law-abiding illegal aliens whose names appeared in the morning paper wouldn't be tracked down, prosecuted and/or deported. This has changed, I learned at a Friday confab between journalists and the immigration wing of the Department of Homeland Security. Asking for guidance on naming policies, in the wake of Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo's much-publicized effort to kick an honors student and his illegal-immigrant family out of the country after reading about them in the Denver Post, one reporter was told the following, by Dennis Murphy, public affairs director for the Border and Transportation Security Directorate:

If somebody robbed a bank, and hadn't been caught yet, and you write a story about the bank robbers, [who say] "hey, I robbed the first Wells Fargo Bank," you know? And he broke the law! You know, just because you reported on it does that mean that, oh, we shouldn't arrest him for robbing a bank? I mean … you're reporting on someone's admitting they've violated the law.

So, by publishing immigrant-sympathetic articles like this one from today, the L.A. Times and other news outlets that use real names will actually be placing their subjects in the very danger they already fear. Murphy, when asked whether the DHS will be tracking down information on immigrants who use public services, declined to comment.