April 18, 2013
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After U.S. senators filed their long-awaited immigration bill
yesterday morning, some conservative news sites falsely claimed the
bipartisan legislation provides free cell phones to immigrant workers.
The Shark Tank’s Javier
Manjarres first reported that “immigrants who are allowed to enter the
United States under a work visa, will be ‘granted’ a taxpayer funded
celluar phone.” Manjarres dubbed the mythical handout the “‘Hola, Como
Estas?!’ MarcoPhone,” birthing the second right-wing, “free cell phone”
meme since 2012. The first instance occurred during election season,
when conservatives claimed Obama created cell phone grants for welfare
recipients, when in fact, George W. Bush oversaw the program’s launch.
You may remember
this horribly racist ad, created by the Tea Party Victory fund.
This time around,
Breitbart News
quickly picked up on the MarcoPhone meme, evoking the racially coded
language of “goodies” and “handouts.” Michelle Malkin endorsed the Shark
Tank’s racist headline on Twitter:
In reality, the provision in question provides phones to ranchers and
residents along the border so they can report suspicious border
activity to the Department of Homeland Security. It’s all part of the
GOP’s border securitization focus for immigration reform.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fl.), the de facto conservative messenger for
the “Gang of Eight,” directly addressed the attacks in a statement.
Relaying the Republican border security line, he said, “Giving people
living and working on the Mexican border the ability to communicate
directly with law enforcement is important to securing our border.”
This swift reaction from the Right underscores the centrist approach
taken on immigration reform. As the Associated Press’s Erica Werner
wrote,
“The Senate's new bipartisan immigration bill drew criticism from the
right and from the left Tuesday – convincing members of the bipartisan
"Gang of Eight" that wrote it that they're on the right track.”
Progressives say the bill leaves too many obstacles to citizenship and
that requiring certain border security “triggers” will only further
delay the process.
Steven Hsieh is an editorial assistant at AlterNet and writer based in Brooklyn. Follow him on Twitter
@stevenjhsieh.
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