# Mass Detention in LA-What's the deal with coverage?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mass-detention-in-la-whats-the-deal-with-coverage/144142
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [December 21, 2002, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mass-detention-in-la-whats-the-deal-with-coverage/144142 "2002-12-21T00:24:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@False\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/False_God)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2002, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mass-detention-in-la-whats-the-deal-with-coverage/144142/1 "2002-12-21T00:24:52Z")
As some of you may know, I’m in a job that requires me to read about five newspapers a day to stay conversant with current events. While I was checking the BBC News site the other day, I came upon this:
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2589317.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2589317.stm)
I of course was curious (well, appalled, mainly) about this story, so I checked the NY Times and Washington Post online editions.
The Times had a small article buried in the Nation section about the protest, then the Post had this today:
[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14820-2002Dec19.html](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14820-2002Dec19.html)
So why hasn’t this story popped bigger? Fallout from Lott’s decision? The Iraq declaration?
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### Author:  [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2002, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mass-detention-in-la-whats-the-deal-with-coverage/144142/2 "2002-12-21T01:48:19Z")
It’s gotten pretty good coverage on National Public Radio.
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### Author:  [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2002, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mass-detention-in-la-whats-the-deal-with-coverage/144142/3 "2002-12-21T01:54:34Z")
NPR has indeed been covering it.
But my understanding is that those being arrested are those who have committed some immigration offense like overstaying a visa or some such. Given that fact it’s going to be hard to work up a lot of public outrage over the incident. It’s a non-starter as a story.
Whether the larger issue of a new registration program for specific groups of foreign nationals is a worthy story is one only the public can decide. Frequently the stories that get traction surprise even the newsies (trust me on this one).
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### Author:  [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2002, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mass-detention-in-la-whats-the-deal-with-coverage/144142/4 "2002-12-21T04:55:37Z")
There was indeed a much bigger deal in non-U.S. new sources.
I was surprised that there was so little coverage in North America, but as **Jonathan** pointed out a lot of it has to do with bureacratic paper work (Visas that were not properly renewed etc.) It’s usually ugly paperwork.
I hope people keep an eye on it though. Just in case…
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### Author:  [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2002, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mass-detention-in-la-whats-the-deal-with-coverage/144142/5 "2002-12-21T14:46:26Z")
Take a look at some of the stuff in the current GD thread (sorry, I can’t link, my browser is misbehaving) titled something like "Why should I not be disgusted with my government?). If some kind soul could link for me, I’d be very grateful.
In many cases, these are very minor violations, such as failure to notify the INS of moving within 10 days, a requirements that’s been on the books since WWII, but hasn’t been enforced in several decades. The immigration law firm I work for had 2 clients arrested and put in deportation proceedings this week for failure to register, althoughthey were OUT OF THE FRIGGIN’ COUNTRY during the registration period and had no other violations!
Frankly, right now INS has literally millions of unadjudicated applications on file at any given moment, and many, many thousands of unrecorded address changes sittiing in mailrooms around the country, because they lack the manpower to process/enter them. I haven’t seen any stats (and the feds sure aren’t releasiing any right now) on how many people have been registered and/or detained, let alone the reasons why they were detained, but I’d wager a good chunk of those detained are out of status because the INS filings that would put them in status (a marriage-based green card application, for example) take way too long (2+ years in some cases) to be processed.
This is insane. I’m terrified to speculate why coverage has been so minimal.
Eva Luna, Immigration Paralegal
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### Author:  [@Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Violet)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2002, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mass-detention-in-la-whats-the-deal-with-coverage/144142/6 "2002-12-21T19:17:08Z")
Check the Los Angeles Times.
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### Author:  [@Blackeyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackeyes)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2002, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mass-detention-in-la-whats-the-deal-with-coverage/144142/7 "2002-12-21T22:55:23Z")
It was Homepage news on Yahoo! I thought about making a thread on it, but decided against it.