The arrest of Perla Morales-Luna on March 3 in San Diego is an absolute nonscandal.
Yes, at first glance the video looks a little concerning. It shows a mother being separated from her screaming family as Customs and Border Patrol officers struggle to put her in the back of a vehicle.
But only at first glance. Because if you watch again you’ll see that the CBP officers use proportionate force and good efficiency in getting Morales-Luna off the street and into custody. That’s the best way to ensure no one is harmed and the situation isn’t escalated unnecessarily. Moreover, the CBP wasn’t simply detaining Morales-Luna because she was just a random illegal immigrant.
As the CBP notes:
Perla Morales-Luna was identified as an organizer for a transnational criminal smuggling organization operating in East County, San Diego. She was arrested as a result of a targeted operation on March 3, 2018, in National City for being in the country illegally.
— CBP San Diego (@CBPSanDiego) March 9, 2018
Here’s a primer: Transnational criminal smuggling organizations are conduits for the movement of narcotics, illicit goods, criminals, and illegal immigration. When you hear the term “coyote,” this is what it’s referring to.
And while Morales-Luna is innocent until proven guilty, the fact that she is accused of criminal culpability in this regard should lead the media to judge her arrest with a little less reflexive emotion.
Unfortunately, that’s not happening. Time magazine’s headline decries a “mother being torn from daughters.” In capitals, Bustle says that the “Video Of Perla Morales-Luna Being Dragged From Her Kids By Border Patrol Is Hard To Watch.” The Daily Mail draws its readers’ attention to a “heartbreaking video.” BuzzFeed paints the picture of a kidnapping, stating that “moments later the van takes off and a man approaches the girls asking if they’re alone and if there’s any family they can call.”
The Los Angeles Times interviews a “human rights” activist who describes the detention as “a grotesque way of detaining and enforcing immigration law. It is very quickly accelerating to a very tyrannical form of detention and arrest, snatching people up off the street.”
Best of all was the San Francisco Chronicle’s headline which simply blared “video shows California border patrol agents taking a mother away from her children.”
Just like the Nazis and the KGB, right?
Give me a break. This reflexive hyperbole from the media is the liberal version of Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton describing the FBI as “a KGB-type operation.” It’s idiotic and incongruent with the facts. Moreover, at least Judicial Watch is an advocacy organization. In contrast, each of the reporting pieces listed above presents itself as offering an honest provision of facts.
I’m not a fan of the phrase, but this is a great example of “fake news.”
