Breitbart News: murder by DACA ‘dreamer’
“DACA ‘dreamer’ wanted for alleged murder,” the article’s title boasts, as it blatantly makes known its opinion that the perpetrator’s status as DACA age eligible is relevant to the news piece covering a first-degree crime. The Obama-implemented program offers protection against deportation for immigrants brought illegally into the United States as young children, and however supportive and positive this service has been for the recipients known as ‘dreamers,’ many political conservatives oppose the program and want to see it terminated. Since he took office in 2016, Donald Trump has made promises to rescind the official immigration actions and deport all illegal immigrants — DACA registered or not — before building his notorious wall along the U.S. Mexico border.
The Breitbart article introduces the accused killer, Judas Deluna, as an official DACA U.S. citizen, but explains that government officials may have overlooked his criminal history when determining his eligibility. Although it would be logical to think that dreamer status shouldn’t be relevant in this man’s incrimination, the article proceeds to explain that Deluna comes from a family of criminals, directly referencing their link to the DACA program to make the inexplicit claim that ‘dreamers’ are, in general, associated with criminal activity. “Activists have often attempted to paint the picture of DACA recipients being upstanding, law-abiding residents” of the U.S., but many cases of human smuggling and gang membership have been reported in association with such citizens, the article argues. The Breitbart article introduces an Arizona study that tracked different status immigrants and found that “dreamer” citizens are two times more likely to commit crimes than the average young American. This report counters advocates for pro-amnesty of dreamer citizens who say that such people are vital to the U.S. industry and civic life, and instead says that amnesty will cause more crimes such as rapes and murders. This remark steers readers to believe that DACA recipients are a danger to American society and reinforces and further prompts the major opposition to the program’s continuation.
Although the report is based on statistics from within Arizona alone, it concludes by projecting its figures to a nation-wide scale for 2016, suggesting that undocumented immigrants would, in theory, be responsible for “1,000 more murders, 5,200 rapes, 8,900 robberies, 25,300 aggravated assaults, and 26,900 burglaries.” All DACA age eligible immigrants are more likely than most other portions of the American population to commit and be convicted of crimes, according to the report, and thus, their presence as official American citizens is a threat and should be reconsidered. The Breitbart article comes to its conclusion directly after the presentation of the Arizona study assertions against pro-amnesty and its predicted expectations for DACA age eligible citizens, leaving the reader with strong feelings of doubt about the continuation of Obama’s protection program for undocumented immigrants.
The article’s reception on the Breitbart Facebook page was vast and heated, with sixteen hundred shares, over 2.5 thousand reactions, and discussions and debate trailing down the page. Rather than comment directly on Deluna’s actions, hatred towards the immigrant protection program and undocumented immigrants in general, was the theme of user commentary. Being a conservative news network, it’s no surprise that Breitbart’s followers share the popular conservative party opinions on the topic of immigration. The article blatantly points out a connection between this instance of horrific crime and the perpetrator’s status as a DACA dreamer citizen, making a blanket assumption about undocumented immigrants. The connection extends beyond a simple identifier for this man, and implies that the program has a chronic flaw that is detrimental to the nation’s wellbeing. While a report on crime should specifically address the crime at hand, Breitbart’s account of the situation was tailored to rile up viewer responses in favour of Trump’s proposition to rescind the official DACA protection program.
Most DACA age eligible citizens identify strictly as Americans, having grown up in the U.S., yet Trump and many conservative supporters are relentlessly fighting to suggest that these citizens have no right to be residents within the States. The reaction of Breitbart’s conservative, Trump-supporting audience was to criticize and debate the current immigration protection program even though the news piece’s alleged purpose was to warn of a potentially dangerous young man accused of murder. Famously known as an alt-right news coverage site, Breitbart has been criticized under the suggestion that its existence could pose the potential to be a direct platform for Trump. Knowing its reader demographic, Breitbart may have tailored the news piece on Judas Deluna to include animosity toward the controversial topic of immigration, encouraging outraged debate about the need to abrogate the program.
