The Rights Working Group, an American human rights interest group, has targeted Homeland Security USA, a new ABC “reality” show which premiered on January 6, for its egregious depiction of immigration in the U.S. Specifically, the Rights Working Group asserts that the show is full of propaganda for official behavior that tramples human rights.
Rights Working Group’s Communications Director, Priya Doshi, distributed a template letter for expressing disappointment and disgust to ABC affiliates who broadcast the show:
Dear ABC Affiliate,
I am writing to express my concern over ABC’s new “reality” show called “Homeland Security USA.” Please consider what the show does not cover. The show’s Executive Producer said the show was “not investigative journalism” but what he doesn’t say is that the show is pure propaganda to promote a better image for a government agency whose practices routinely violate the human rights of people in this country.
“Homeland Security USA” has not, and based on what I’ve seen, will not air scenes from immigration raids where (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) ICE agents descend with helicopters and guns drawn and throw unresisting people to the ground. The program won’t show how those detained don’t get a phone call to their families or access to a lawyer before they are thrown in detention. It won’t take viewers inside overcrowded detention centers used to lock up immigrant detainees where access to basic medical care is often denied even to those with chronic and serious conditions. This reality series won’t show viewers the asylum seekers, pregnant women, mentally and physically disabled people, and families with small children who are among the hundreds and thousands currently in ICE detention facilities. And ICE agents aren’t likely to deliver on air apologies when they arrest and detain legal immigrants and even citizens because they fit a certain ethnic or religious profile.
Please express my deep objections over the reality that is missing from this so-called “reality” program to the ABC network.
Regards,
Learn more about the group’s campaign to hold the Department of Homeland Security accountable by visiting the Rights Working Group website and signing a petition or helping educate others about the human rights violations of the DHS, which, according to RWG, include:
-Warrantless and aggressive raids on homes and workplaces, often without granting detainees the right to a phone call or counsel.
-Detainees being held in inhumane and overcrowded conditions, often without charges, and for months and even years.
-The backlogging of naturalizations due to FBI security name checks linked only to race, religion, or natural origin.
(image from Rights Working Group)
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Tags: ABC, boycott, Civil Rights, DHS, Homeland Security, immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Law, Morality, naturalization, Priya Doshi, reality show, Rights Working Group, television, TV, United States
2 out of 3 Americans are living in a constitution-free zone. It is a 100-mile wide strip that wraps around the “external boundary” of the United States that now constitutes our border and gives law enforcement the right to illegal search and seizures within this area.
http://www.aclu.org/privacy/spying/areyoulivingin...
We're dealing with that in WA state. The "true patriots" argue that if it gets one illegal or drunk, it's worth it. I couldn't disagree with them more.
It is interesting how we tout democracy and a country protected by constitutional rights, but we allow those rights to be suspended at the whim of a few dictatorial minions of the executive branch. I have a bad feeling that this trend will not ever be fully reversed, even with this new administration.
More Police State propaganda. They will glorify the DHS for a while, then next season they will probably get into DHS vs the American population & how it's all good & needed. More brainwashing. How dare these hethans protest about not having jobs & not being able to buy food. Gun'em down.
These men and women protect our country. They are our domestic soldiers. Fuck you for this.
Protect us from who? I more concerned with who is going to protect us from them??? O h and stay classy
If all your rights are taken away, then what are they protecting? you fucking blind fucker!
ya if u ever worked in an airport like me a see the idiots with nothing to do as usual tipical government workers totally lazy
This is a great story! Thanks for letting us know what we can do!
Fuck yourself first, asshole
you speak da trut mon! homeland security can lick the dirt from my boots.why do we pay taxes to a nation that doesn't give a shit about our well being. soon enough we'll have no more privacy, and i'm supposed to be grateful and patriotic.
The fact that they're "domestic soldiers" really is the heart of the problem, isn't it? What makes (or I should say, made) America different was that we didn't rely on standing armies to enforce our laws.
I think that's definitely one of the big issues, that the federal army shouldn't be used as a domestic army. The other issue is the double standards the U.S. has established and enforced with that army, and the wholesale abandonment of human and civil rights.
Dr. No [and other bloviators and brainwashed monkeys]:
You're a toolbag and you need to get your meds adjusted, please get off the internet now and seek therapy.
Look everyone! It's one of the millennials that George Bush and the super christies created! Quick see this post now before national geographic gets here and ruins everything!
Shut the fuck up, the war on terror doesn't exist you poor bastard, you should listen to people [who probably have been trying to help you...] as opposed to being quixotic and prone to regurgitating the neo right's programming.
good night, and for the love of pete, GOOD luck.
Dr. No [and other bloviators and brainwashed monkeys]:
My apologies Dr. No that was meant for the"node" calling itself "Yes".
Again, to YES and all bloviators and monkeys, serfs of the neo right: see my message above.
i totally agree ive worked around plenty of areas they do they r a joke it just goverment propaganda
LOL, Homeland Security is a JOKE. Biggest Waste of Tax dollars in History!
http://www.web-privacy.pro.tc
It sounds like this is complaining about DHS and their policies and not the show. I can't sign a letter that attacks a person or a tv show for what it is NOT! I've watched it twice now and it's about catching drugs and people with fake documents. Yes this country needs a better immigration policy and that will probably lead to less trouble from ICE but for now, it's it better to see the good that is being done? We should all be focused on keeping the good (which this show sees to focus on) and getting rid of the bad. Customs has been at the borders checking cars for years. I just don't see what's wrong in highlighting that. Maybe we should be writing letters to news programs like Dateline and 60 Minutes to dig up dirt.
Molly, thanks for your comment. I think the main issue the letter has with the show is that by avoiding showing the negative aspect of our modern state of immigration, the producers are essentially placing the DHS in a falsely positive light.
Of course, in reality, they're just doing whatever makes money.
[...] of propaganda? A civil rights group called the Rights Working Group believes the latter, and has organized a protest and boycott directed against the show. They charge that the program glosses over some very [...]
[...] show, or an elaborate piece of propaganda? Some civil rights groups believe the latter, and one has organized a protest and boycott directed against the show. They charge that the program glosses over some very [...]