Continuing Amnesty Crusade, NYT Makes Trump's Blunt Immigration Talk a Front-Page Problem for GOP

By Clay Waters | August 19, 2015 | 10:39 PM EDT

No issue most exposes the liberal bias of the New York Times more than the matter of illegal immigrants (or as the paper prefers to call them, "undocumented immigrants"). The Times favors generous amnesty, and keeps pushing it both on its news pages and in opinion. A Wednesday Page One story by Trip Gabriel and Julia Preston tried to transform Donald Trump's blunt words on illegals into a problem for the entire Republican presidential field ("Trump Paints G.O.P in Corner On Immigration").

Preston's pro-amnesty Times reporting is full of immigrants emerging from "the shadows," a phrase that crops up constantly in her prose, while co-writer Gabriel made a hostile visit to Hazleton, Pa., in 2013 to paint the locals as reactionary and "insensitive" to Hispanics. So it's no surprise they try to turn the screws on the Republicans in their front-page story, right from the lead:

Republicans thought they had learned a lesson after 2012: Turning off Latino voters ensures defeat in the general election.

But as the disruptive presidential candidacy of Donald J. Trump continues to gain support, his hard line on immigration has driven rivals to match his biting anti-immigrant language and positions long considered extreme. It risks another general election cycle in which Hispanics view the party as unfriendly no matter who the nominee is, Republican strategists warned.

This week, several of Mr. Trump’s Republican rivals, including Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, echoed his call to end automatic citizenship for the American-born children of undocumented immigrants, repealing a constitutional right dating from the Civil War era.

And Mr. Trump’s plan for mass deportations -- “They have to go,” he said -- which is supported by a sizable minority of Republican voters nationwide, has encouraged rivals to similarly push the edges on immigration.

....

National Republican strategists warn that catering to the most hard-line voters on immigration in the nominating contest will hurt the party in the general election, as it did the 2012 nominee, Mitt Romney, who endorsed “self-deportation” for illegal immigrants and attracted historically low Latino support.

“If Republicans want to be competitive in the general election, they have to distance themselves from Trump on both illegal and legal immigration,” said Alfonso Aguilar, an official in George W. Bush’s administration and the executive director of the American Principles Project’s Latino Partnership, a conservative group. “His proposal on birthright citizenship is very insulting to Latinos, and every day, this is the top story on Spanish language media. Right now, if the other candidates don’t respond to Trump, Latinos will buy the argument that Republicans agree with him.”

....

At the same time, Mr. Trump’s hard-line positions, including seizing remittances sent by undocumented workers to Mexico and severely restricting legal immigration, are allowing some rivals to define themselves more clearly in opposition to him.

The Times repeated that opinionated description in the text box: "A hard-line chorus on immigration drowns out moderates."

For now, the major Republican candidates who are relative moderates on immigration -- Mr. Graham, Jeb Bush, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, Gov. John R. Kasich of Ohio and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida -- do not have the momentum or the news media attention enjoyed by Mr. Trump, who is not only denouncing illegal immigrants in nativist language but seeking severe limits on legal immigration. And his calls to deport illegal immigrants are resonating with many voters.

....

Perhaps the most difficult issue for the Republican Party is Mr. Trump’s call to deport not only all illegal immigrants, but also young people who came to this country as children and have received protections though executive actions by Mr. Obama.

Those would be "the Dreamers," whom the Times (and Preston in particular) have been gushing over for years.

No matter who emerges as the Republican nominee, experts in Hispanic voting say many will remember the harsh anti-immigrant tone of the primaries. That was a lesson top Republican strategists drew from 2012, writing in a self-critical “autopsy” that called on the party to enact comprehensive immigration reform in Congress -- or continue being swamped in general elections by the growing Latino vote.

Well before Mr. Trump came along, his current rivals were toughening their immigration stances. Mike Huckabee, who as governor of Arkansas supported a state Dream Act giving in-state college tuition for undocumented students, said in March in Iowa that he wanted to “stem the tide” of people from Mexico who have “heard there’s a bowl of food just across the border.”

Wednesday's edition also served up an op-ed by contributing opinion writer Hector Tobar, which can be pretty much summed up in the title: "Donald Trump, Folk Demon."