The article linked above was being discussed on a mailing list, and seems to indicate that there's a white supremicist sympathizer in the UPN 13 newsroom. I wrote the following email to the news director. I have low hopes that something productive will happen there, so, I'm also forwarding it here.

I'm surprised it's UPN 13. This is a station that's usually pretty populist, when I've watched it.

An associate informed me about the American Patrol story, which is archived on your website at

http://www.upn13.com/themes/default/news/local/story.asp?content_id=920531

I found the reporting biased to favor the American Patrol. I'm not against putting them on the news, but there are a few details that someone didn't catch.

1. I don't think the AP has 25,000 members as reported. This kind of number needs to be fact checked, especially because all extremist groups are prone to inflate their membership numbers to appear larger than they are.

2. His belief of a "secret war" by Mexico goes unquestioned. At best, this sounds like a paranoid fantasy.

3. The assertion that gang problems are increasing is unsupported, as is the point about dumbing down the schools. Stories I've read indicate that the previous economic boom tended to improve both situations.

4. Salas is from CHIRLA, the full name is stated in the text, but is not presented as a proper noun, making her appear, in the web version, to be an unaffiliated individual. CHIRLA is a well known and respected advocacy group for immigrants.

Also I found the overall "gung ho" tone of the story problematic and offensive, but that's primarily because of my personal politics. I think that illegal immigration is the effect of immigration laws that favor the middle class, while generally excluding laborers. Also, the green card laws have conditions that virtually require people to be illegal for a period before obtaining a green card, in effect, acknowledging a legal gray area between "illegal" and "legal".

The American Patrol itself is also offensive, because they are associated with the national network of small white supremacist groups, and there's nothing to indicate that aren't a white supremacist group attempting to appeal to anti-immigrant sentiments that might not be grounded in the hatred of nonwhite people. I believe that this group might seek to appeal to people who are in favor of protective tariffs, and try to tease out any racist sentiments they may harbor against Mexicans and other nonwhites.