Baltimore Sun reporter Arin Gencer gave readers of the December 5 paper a slanted treatment of a move by a Taneytown, Md., city councilman who wants to clarify that his city is not a so-called "sanctuary city" where illegal immigrants can count on local officials actively failing to report immigration violations to the proper federal authorities.
Gencer pitted resolution proponent Paul Chamberlain Jr. against Taneytown's Mayor Jim McCarron, who dismissed the resolution as "mean-spirited" and "a slap in the face to anybody that has ancestors who were immigrants, or is currently an immigrant."
The Sun reporter failed to allow Chamberlain to rebut that allegation, although he quickly moved on to a pundit who dismissed resolutions like Chamberlain's as political posturing, and later to an official from the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), which Gencer simply tagged a "Latino civil rights and advocacy organization."
Of course La Raza has taken stands that many argue help further illegal immigration, such as opposing tougher federal standards for driver's licenses:
NCLR believes that a state-issued driver’s license should be reliable proof of an individual’s identity and proof of authorization to drive a motor vehicle; it should not be tied to an individual’s immigration status.
Also of note in Gencer's story was what was NOT there. Gencer failed to give readers the political affiliations of Councilman Chamberlain and Mayor McCarron, as well as to note that McCarron opposed passage of the city's "English-only" law.
Chamberlain is a Republican, McCarron a politically connected Democrat. The mayor serves as a director of the Carroll County Democratic Club and an appointee to Democratic Governor O'Malley's Commission on Economic Growth, Resource Protection and Planning, according to his official city government bio.
Here's more on McCarron's opposition to the November 2006 passage of Taneytown's English-only resolution. McCarron, then a councilman, attacked the provision as "divisive":
Councilman James L. McCarron denounced the measure as unnecessary and divisive, saying in his more than 22 years on the council, no one has come forward with a comment or complaint who didn't speak English.
"I have no problem making English the official language of the state of Maryland or even America, but to make it the official language of Taneytown is simply a non-issue," McCarron said. "It's not a unity resolution. It's a disunity one."
