Steven T. Jones and Sarah Phelan are reporting (San Francisco Bay Guardian online, 6/19/09) on San Francisco Chronicle immigration reporter Jaxon Van Derbeken's acceptance of "an award and cash prize (he refuses to say how much) from the Center for Immigration Studies--which a Southern Poverty Law Center report in February 2009 criticized for its overtly racist roots and extreme anti-immigrant agenda":

Van Derbeken and Ken Conner, the Chron's assistant managing editor for news (whom the reporter consulted before accepting the award), told the Guardian that they see nothing wrong with accepting the award and they don't see it as validating the views of a group that has been desperately seeking mainstream credibility with which to push its anti-immigrant agenda.

Somewhat confusingly, Van Derbeken claims of his smiling acceptance at the public ceremony, "No one should mistake their decision to endorse my work for my endorsement of theirs." But the group's appreciation for his work does make sense, considering that the stories they specifically laud "have been roundly criticized by immigrant rights groups as inflaming anti-immigrant sentiments and allowing policies that punish the innocent and divide families."

While "Conner both cited the fact that past recipients of the award included the Washington Post and Dallas Morning News," the Bay Guardian writers note that

that's true, but over the last six years since immigration has become such a hot button issue, the awards have gone mostly to right-wing publications and scary nativists. Three of the last six awards have gone to writers for the Washington Times, a right-wing newspaper created by Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

And, in case you had any more doubts about what's going on here: "The ultra-conservative National Review and anti-immigrant television commentator Lou Dobbs also [are] among the recent recipients." See the cover feature of the current issue of FAIR's magazine Extra: "Media Patrol the Border" (6/09).

That's what USA Today seems to think--and it's a message that CNN anchor Lou Dobbs unsurprisingly latched on to as well.

The factoid was born at the right-wing Center for Immigration Studies, which released a report saying that 300,000 construction jobs created by the stimulus package would go to undocumented immigrants. That report found its way to USA Today on March 9 ("Illegal Immigrants Might Get Stimulus Jobs, Experts Say"). The paper made it seem like this conclusion was not at all controversial-- "experts on both sides of the issue" agree. But that seemed a stretch: The pro-immigrant source, Jorge-Mario Cabrera of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, "said it is impossible to predict with certainty" how many construction jobs would be done by undocumented workers.

And the Center's numbers are certainly subject to debate. The Immigration Policy Center, for example, argued that the group is making some questionable assumptions. For starters,  they rely on jobs projections from the Federal Highway Administration for highway projects--which may not be the best way to predict job creation in the construction industry overall.  And they estimate the undocumented share of the construction workforce from 2005--when the building industry was in much better shape than it is now, which would have attracted more undocumented laborers.

Of course, the underlying premise of the Center's report--that you ought to be able to stimulate the economy without benefiting unauthorized immigrants--is silly. If the stimulus works, any worker in the country, legally or otherwise, is going to find it easier to get a job.  Hoping that no undocumented worker gets a job as a result of the stimulus is hoping that that the stimulus doesn't create any jobs, period.