Immigrant Alliance Seeks Apology

A state-wide coalition representing more than 80 advocacy groups is demanding an apology from Denver’s Channel 7 for running a televised news spot about undocumented immigrants and driver’s licenses.

The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC) sent a letter to the station yesterday, saying the program had “unfairly labeled undocumented immigrants as criminals mocking the system and provided absolutely no context of the complex labor and economic realities of immigration.”

The CIRC is also requesting that the station run a follow up report, which would represent “alternative viewpoints” on the airwaves. In response to another complaint letter, Channel 7 “investigator” Tom Burke responded by saying that since the story has aired “a number of potential solutions have been raised including allowing illegal immigrants to obtain licenses/insurance.”

Burke also points to a section in the story where 7News called many immigrants “hard working”

But with a title like “Are Illegal Immigrants Mocking Legal System?” it’s not hard to see why some community members are upset.

More information can be found at CO Media Matters.

Erin Rosa was born in Spain and raised in Colorado Springs. She is a freelance writer currently living in Denver. Rosa's work has been featured in a variety of news outlets including the Huffington Post, Democracy Now!, and the Rocky Mountain Chronicle, an alternative-weekly in Northern Colorado where she worked as a columnist covering the state legislature. Rosa has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for her reporting on lobbying and woman's health issues. She was also tapped with a rare honorable mention award by the Newspaper Guild-CWA's David S. Barr Award in 2008--only the second such honor conferred in its nine-year history--for her investigative series covering the federal government's Supermax prison in the state. Rosa covers the labor community, corrections, immigration and government transparency matters. She can be reached at erosa@www.coloradoindependent.com.

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