U.S. Media's Immigrant Detainees Health Care Investigations 'Another Big Lie' By U.S. Media, Rep. Tancredo Writes

The CBS "60 Minutes" and Washington Post series on health care for immigrant detainees seeking asylum or awaiting deportation is "another big lie in the mainstream media's campaign to paint immigration enforcement as draconian and inhumane,"

Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) writes in a Washington Times opinion piece. Although the "intrepid reporters managed to find a handful of cases out of hundreds of thousands where medical care was substandard," a "few anecdotes are not enough to indict the detention system that is run by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency," Tancredo writes.

Tancredo writes, "Federal data show that the detention facilities for immigrants have a better record with regard to deaths and medical care than other similar facilities."

However, such facts "were downplayed" because they "do not support the theme of immigrant abuse and neglect," according to Tancredo. "In most places, this is called pushing a political agenda; at CBS, it is New Journalism," he writes.

Although it is "not hard to understand their motivations and their political agenda," it is "discouraging to see the mainstream news media providing propaganda fodder," Tancredo concludes (Tancredo, Washington Times, 5/30).