Truth in Immigration is a project created by MALDEF to rebut legal and factual inaccuracies about immigrants and Latinos.
Anti-immigrant and anti-Latino stereotypes currently abound in the public arena. Political pundits, candidates for elected office, media networks, anti-immigrant organizations, and hate groups consistently disseminate negative myths about immigrants that poison the atmosphere for immigrants and all Americans. Dehumanizing anti-immigrant stereotypes generate increased bigotry and violence that threatens the safety and well-being of everyone in the United States. Moreover, this hateful dialogue threatens to drown out reasonable and thoughtful perspectives on immigration reform and other key policy issues.
Although lies and falsehoods about immigrants are as old as immigration itself, today’s technological advances in media communications have magnified their effects. In order to more effectively combat anti-immigrant myths, Truth in Immigration was created to fight this misinformation in the mediums where they spread the most, including cable television and the Internet.
The website, www.truthinimmigration.org, serves as a watchdog for communications about immigrants and researches, collects, and rebuts legal and factual inaccuracies about immigrants that are disseminated and promoted in the media, the public messaging of anti-immigration organizations, and political campaigns. Recent endeavors have included a written rebuttal to a misleading report by the restrictionist Center for Immigration Studies and a video rebuttal to an inaccurate CBS News report. Truth in Immigration will continue to closely monitor the national immigration debate and work to keep it rational and factually accurate.