Running head A CASE STUDY OF THE TSA’S RESOURCE ALLOCATION1A.docx

Running head: A CASE STUDY OF THE TSA’S RESOURCE
ALLOCATION 1
A CASE STUDY OF THE TSA’S RESOURCE ALLOCATION
2
A Case Study of the TSA’s Resource Allocation
Rachel S. Pyeatt
HMLS 302 Fall 2012 OL1
Rebecca Himes
September 23, 2012
A Case Study of the TSA’s Resource Allocation
Beyond the immediate death and destruction resulting from the
9/11 attacks, the fact that America’s own technology and
equipment was instrumental in the execution thereof resonated

so profoundly with private citizens and policymakers alike that
drastic security measures were rapidly enacted on a national
scale. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was
one of the high-profile reactionary implementations to prevent
future attacks. Over a decade later, the efficiency and utility of
the TSA has been criticized by government officials, the press,
and even security experts. An evaluation of the TSA’s
established protocols in maintaining aviation security suggests
the possibility that streamlining the system could
simultaneously be more cost and time effective while achieving
the desired results of preventing and mitigating terrorist attacks.
The Transportation Security Administration
Although the TSA oversees security for an excess of “9 billion
passenger trips per year on the nation’s mass transit systems,
more than 161,000 miles of interstate and national highways and
their integrated bridges and tunnels, and nearly 800,000
shipments of hazardous materials” (Bullock, Haddow, and
Coppola, 2013, p. 250), it is associated by the American public
primarily with its role in airport security, particularly passenger
screenings. Approximately 50,000 Transportation Security
Officers (TSOs) are responsible for screening over two million
passengers on a daily basis at more than 700 security
checkpoints within 450 airports nationwide (Bullock et al.
2013). By the sheer nature of their duties, to establish and
maintain security across all modes of transportation within the
United States, the jurisdiction of the TSA is unparalleled by any
other law enforcement agencies. Due to the nature of the 9/11
attacks, the vast majority of the organization’s resources are
allocated toward aviation security. Approximately 68% of the
TSA’s $8.16 billion budget is utilized to conduct inspections of
both personnel and baggage intending to fly using Advanced
Imaging Technology (AIT), maintain a high TSO and Behavior
Detection Officer (BDO) presence within U.S. airports, monitor
no-fly and watch lists, and develop innovative counterterrorism
security measures (Homeland Security, 2012).
In addition to the commonly referenced inconveniences and

potential indignities the TSA’s enforcement of airport security
poses passengers, the organization has been the subject of
criticisms from renowned security expert Bruce Schneier as well
as Congress. Schneier (2012) maintained that the public
mistrusts the TSA and that their ineffective procedures achieve
very little in the way of security, while Congress was primarily
concerned that the TSA’s budget allocation was poorly executed
and necessitates drastic reform (112th Congress, 2012).
TSA’s Aviation Security
Prior to the 9/11 attacks, individual airports contracted their
own security firms in the private sector, provided they met or
exceeded standards established by the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA), at a cost of approximately $850 million
annually (Frishling, 2010). The security primarily consisted of
x-raying baggage, questioning passengers about baggage, and
requiring that all boarding passengers walk through metal
detectors.
The failure of airport security to prevent the plane hijackings
resulted in the federal government appropriating that
responsibility in an effort to restore confidence in public safety.
Initially established as an organization within the Department of
Transportation when President Bush signed the Aviation and
Transportation Security Act, the TSA was ultimately absorbed
after 2003 by the newly-instituted Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) as an individual internal agency (Bullock et al.
2013). The ensuing changes to airport security have
significantly altered the flying experiences for passengers; in
addition to x-rays and metal detectors, they can now expect full
body scans, pat-downs, baggage searches, and passenger
profiling among other potentially invasive protocols. Shoes and
belts must be removed prior to passing through security
checkpoints, and there are stringent restrictions on food,
liquids, and gels.
The TSA’s aviation budget commands over $5 billion per year
(Homeland Security, 2012), and as of 2004, cost America an
economic productivity loss of $10 billion annually resulting

from the nearly 20 minute waiting period required of passengers
prior passing through security (Schneir, 2012). The security
steps necessary to board aircrafts evolved continuously since
the TSA was instituted. In December 2001, passengers were
required to remove their shoes prior to passing through security
checkpoints, 2002 yielded a mass deployment of detection
equipment to U.S. airports, all lighters were banned from carry-
on baggage in 2005, all liquids in excess of 3oz. were banned in
2006, and additional cargo screening was implemented in 2010
(Rogers, 2012).
In accordance with a prioritized 9/11 Commission
recommendation, the TSA reported a 100% screening rate for all
passengers on U.S. flights in 2012 and asserted that the
additional use of AIT units, scanners, explosive screening units,
and x-rays will be instrumental in detecting future threats to
airport security, regardless of how well potentially dangerous
objects are concealed or whether they are metallic or
nonmetallic in nature (Homeland Security, 2012).
Equipment management itself, however, has been a primary
point of contention between TSA and its critics; the
Congressional Joint Majority Staff Report indicated that in
early 2012, approximately 5,700 pieces of security
paraphernalia valued at approximately $184 million were stored
at the Transportation Logistics Center (TLC) in warehouses,
which cost an additional $3.5 million annually in maintenance
alone (112th Congress).
The personnel charged monitoring active TSA equipment in
airports are ostensibly afterthoughts. Zamir Eldar, the Chief
Executive of a leading aviation securities provider worldwide,
emphasized that even the most technologically advanced
machines are only capable of following instructions, which in
itself is useless without a capable security staff to analyze and
process its results. Eldar elaborated that:
In the past as well as in the future, the real encounter, or one
might say, the crucial encounter, is between two individuals:
one who is determined and motivated to perpetrate an attack,

and one who has chosen security as his profession (2010, par. 7)
The less favorable duties asked of a TSO—specifically those
involving generously administered pat-downs and body
searches—have not been downgraded, nor is there any evidence
they have been reviewed for necessity as security equipment
advances further, since they were originally implemented. A
negative perception of the duties of TSOs adversely affects their
morale, their retention rate, and their ability to effectively do
their jobs (Eldar, 2010).
Results
Despite the fact that there has not been a successful terrorist
attack since 2001, the 112th Congress is unconvinced that the
aforementioned costs yield worthwhile results in proportion to
the burden on taxpayers. Indeed, “the Subcommittee Staff
believes TSA has failed to effectively implement its mandate
because the agency maintains a reactive approach to security;
does not adequately test new technologies and procedures; and
ultimately is too bogged down in managing its bloated federal
workforce” (Rogers, 2012, p. 3). All of the previously
mentioned heightened security measures implemented by the
TSA since 2001 have been direct results of attempted terrorist
attacks, both domestic and worldwide.
The accusation of TSA relying on reactionary practices rather
than taking initiative spans further than Congress, which by
nature is skeptical of bureaucracy given that Republicans
currently hold the majority of chairs. Indeed, condemning the
TSA’s airport security measures, Former TSA administrator Kip
Hawley noted the following:
The list of banned items has created an ‘Easter-egg hunt’
mentality at the TSA. Worse, banning certain items gives
terrorists a complete list of what not to use in their next attack.
Lighters are banned? The next attack will use an electric
trigger. (Lapidos, 2012, par. 5)
Even the utility of the TSA’s widespread implementation of
security screening devices has yet to be fully realized. Security
screeners at Los Angeles International Airport failed to detect

75% of commonly used components of explosive materials
carried through security by undercover agents, and screeners at
Chicago O’Hare International Airport missed 60% of the
materials carried through (Frank, 2011). By contrast, the
security screeners employed by the private sector rather than the
TSA at San Francisco International Airport failed to detect only
20% (Frank, 2011).
Lessons Learned
A reactive rather than proactive approach to counterterrorism is
not without consequences; not only does an attack almost have
to occur to result in a policy change, but a failure to streamline
security protocols, such as analyzing when new technologies
negate the need for certain practices, A list of prohibited
materials, for example, can serve as an aid for potential
terrorists who wish to successfully bypass airport security by
detailing what will arouse suspicion. As Hawley indicated, it
may behoove of the TSA to remove the list of banned
substances altogether to simplify catching potential terrorists
before they refine their methods.
If funding used on expensive machines of questionable
reliability were redirected toward improving intelligence, the
TSA would likely have greater chances of maintaining a
proactive approach to terrorist threats rather than simply
responding to what has already been unsuccessfully attempted.
Adequately training TSOs is critical, as without dedicated
personnel, innovative equipment and procedures are extremely
limited. Emphasis should be placed on funding training
programs that meet or exceed the bomb-detection results of the
private sector. Existing procedures should be annually reviewed
to ensure they are still relevant to security and have not been
rendered obsolete by improved technology.
Conclusion
The aftermath of 9/11 necessitated so many changes in security
organizations throughout the government that there is little
tolerance for wasted taxpayer dollars. In the midst of an
economic slump and ensuing budget cuts, every federal agency

is experiencing shortages of both personnel and resources.
While the TSA is undoubtedly no exception, it will continue to
receive additional attention simply because of the prominent
presence it has in any citizen’s life, should they wish to travel.
It is only when the TSA can perform duties without squandering
resources and without increasing fear among Americans that it
will prevent terrorists from achieving their desired end state.
References
112th Congress. (2012, May 09). Airport insecurity: Tsa’s
failure to cost-effectively procure, deploy and warehouse its
screening technologies. Retrieved from Committee on Oversight
& Government Reform website: http://oversight.house.gov/wp-
content/uploads/2012/05/5-9-2012-Joint-TSA-Staff-Report-
FINAL.pdf
Bullock, J., Haddow, G. & Coppola, D. (2013). Introduction to
homeland security(4th ed.). Waltham, MA: Elsevier.
Eldar, Z. (2010). The human factor in aviation security. Journal
of Airport Management, 5(1), 34-39. Retrieved from
http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfv
iewer?sid=c64214c8-ede7-454b-839a-
06b764313e3b%40sessionmgr10&vid=2&hid=116
Frank, T. (2011, March 31). Most fake bombs missed by
screeners. Retrieved from USA Today website:
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20071018/1a_lede1
8_dom.art.htm
Frischling, S. (2010, June 30). What is the true cost of u.s.
airport security? Retrieved from Flying With Fish website:
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/flyingwithfish/2010/06/30/what-
is-the-true-cost-of-u-s-airport-security/
Homeland Security. (2012). Budget-in-brief: Fiscal year 2012.
Retrieved from Homeland Security website:
http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/budget-bib-fy2012.pdf
Lapidos, J. (2012, September 11). Is this the pose of a free
man?. Retrieved from The Opinion Pages website:
http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/is-this-the-

pose-of-a-free-man/
Rogers, M. (2012, September). Rebuilding tsa into a stronger,
leaner organization. Retrieved from Committee on Homeland
Security website:
http://homeland.house.gov/sites/homeland.house.gov/files/0920
12_TSA_Reform_Report.pdf
Schneier, B. (2012, March 29). Harms of post-9/11 airline
security. Retrieved from Schneier on Security website:
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/03/harms_of_post-
9.html
CONTAMINATED COMMUNITIES: THE METAPHOR
OF "IMMIGRANT AS POLLUTANT" IN MEOIA
REPRESENTATIONS OF IMMIGRATION
J. DAVID CISNEROS
Popular rhetoric about immigration often operates by
constructing metaphoric
representations of immigrants that concretize the social
"problem" and connote
particular solutions. Scholars have identified discursive
connections between the
rhetoric of immigration and representations of other human
problems such as
crime or war. This essay identifies another metaphor present in
popular media
coverage of immigration, particularly visual images of
immigrants. The metaphor
of "immigrant as pollutant" present in news media discourse on
immigration can
have serious consequences for societal treatment of immigrants

as well as the poli-
cies designed to respond to immigration.
A"nation of immigrants," the United States has never been able
to quell thefascination and fear with which it approaches
migration. Though the coun-
try collectively celebrates the brave souls who populated the
nation, America's
inhabitants remain suspicious of the hundreds of thousands of
individuals that
cross into the country on a yearly basis. Both legal and illegal
immigration have
been a concern to the government and the public since the birth
of the nation.'
Though the degree of popular obsession with immigration rises
and falls, there
is always an awareness that these strangers potentially bring
with them monu-
mental and threatening changes.
Concern over immigration is evidenced not only in public
discourse but also
in the large body of scholarship on the phenomenon of
immigration, includ-
ing an attempt to understand how immigration as "problem" is
constructed
in mass media.^ To make sense of this complex phenomenon,
scholars note,
individuals approach immigration through the perspective of
metaphor to
/. David Cisneros is a doctoral candidate in Speech
Communication at the University of Georgia,
Athens. The author wishes to thank Vanessa Beasley, Kevin
DeLuca, Martin Medhurst, and the

anonymous reviewers for their suggestions, encouragement, and
guidance.
© 2008 Michigan State University Board of Trustees. All rights
reserved.
Rhetoric & Public Affairs Vol. 11, No. 4, 2008, pp. 569-602
ISSN 1094-8392
570 RHETORIC & PUBLIC AFFAIRS
clarify the topic and to connect it with their personal
experiences.' Much of
our knowledge about how immigration is represented in media
and popular
discourse has centered on metaphors such as a crime wave or
war as guiding
tropes through which the "problem" of immigration is
represented. In this essay,
I identify another metaphor through which popular media
represent immigra-
tion. Moreover, I contribute to our understanding of
immigration rhetoric by
paying careful attention to how visual images construct
metaphoric representa-
tions of migrants. By comparing the visual and metaphoric
images of immigra-
tion in recent news coverage to images of pollution from
coverage of toxic waste
spills, particularly the crisis at Love Canal, I sketch a
heretofore underanalyzed
metaphor of "immigrant as pollutant" present in the immigration
debate. Not
only does this essay begin to illustrate another metaphor
through which immi-

gration is articulated, it also points to the need for more
analysis of the visual
rhetoric of immigration.
The essay first outlines the importance of metaphor as a
representational
strategy and the scholarly literature on the metaphoric
representations of immi-
gration. Using the discourse of the Love Canal toxic waste
controversy of the
1970s as a point of comparison, I turn to recent television news
discourse to
argue that immigrants are framed visually and metaphorically,
using similar rep-
resentational strategies, as dangerous and destructive pollutants.
Finally, I con-
sider the implications of these metaphoric constructions for the
social treatment
of immigrants and the social policies designed to respond to
immigration.
UNDERSTANDING METAPHOR
Rhetorical theory and cognitive science teach us that metaphors
are more than
linguistic ornamentation; they are "significant rhetorical tools
that affect politi-
cal behavior and cognition.""* Metaphors create conventional
understandings by
connecting phenomena with familiar cultural assumptions and
experiences.^
Not only are they essential cognitive tools, but metaphors
participate in creat-
ing fundamental understandings of texts and the rhetorical
contexts in which
they are situated.* Metaphors are cultural indices with which

"Americans build
their commonplace understandingfs]" and attitudes.'^ Scholars
have mapped
the historical metaphors used to talk about the immigration
"problem" as a
means to identify the underlying cultural assumptions of these
representations.
Mark Ellis and Richard Wright offer examples of metaphors that
encapsulate
different perspectives on the assimilation of immigrants into
American society
such as the "melting pot," the "quilt," the "kaleidoscope," or the
"salad bowl."
They describe how metaphors of immigration serve as
conceptual tools with
which scholars build research, society establishes group
relationships, and gov-
ernment creates public policy:
CONTAMINATED COMMUNITIES: THE METAPHOR OF
"IMMIGRANT AS POLLUTANT" 571
[Metaphors] represent competing views, some more distinct
than others, of
the consequences of immigration, interethnic contact, and
societal coherence.
In using metaphors . . . we run the risk of being confined to
particular ways of
interpreting immigration and demographic trends. As they
become entrenched
in theoretical discourse, they influence how we formulate our
hypotheses about
the impacts of immigration and ethnic group behavior—about
how different

immigrant groups fit into U.S. society.*
As repositories of cultural understandings, metaphors are some
of the princi-
pal tools with which dominant ideologies and prejudices are
represented and
reinforced. For example, as George Lakoff and Sam Ferguson
note, the framing
of immigration discourse in the terms of "illegal aliens,"
"horder security," and
"amnesty" "focuses entirely on the immigrants and the
administrative agencies
charged with overseeing immigration law." This framing is
"NOT neutral" but
"dehumanizes" immigrants and "pre-empts" a consideration of
"broader social
and economic concerns" (such as foreign economic policy and
international
human rights).^
The task, then, is to examine the ways in which conventional
understand-
ings of immigration are made concrete through metaphor.
Examining these
discursive representations can "unmask or demystify" dominant
assumptions
about immigrants, assumptions that can have potentially
deleterious effects on
social relations.'° Before discussing these contemporary
metaphoric represen-
tations or their ideological implications, however, I review the
extant literature
on metaphors of immigration.
METAPHORIC REPRESENTATIONS OF MIGRANTS

The study of metaphoric representations of immigration helps to
create a broad-
er understanding of the metaphors employed in public
discourse. Some schol-
ars have examined metaphoric clusters that surround particular
controversies
or proposals; others have focused on creating more broad-based
taxonomies.
California's Proposition 187, which restricted undocumented
immigrants
from accessing social services such as medical care and public
education, pro-
vides a central focus of the scholarship on metaphoric
discourse. Hugh Mehan,
for example, identifies metaphors of criminality and social
deviance central to
the Proposition 187 campaign." Kent Ono and John Sloop focus
on a different
group of metaphors in rhetoric surrounding Proposition 187.
The "civic" rhet-
oric emanating from government and mainstream media sources
reinforced
dominant assumptions about the danger of "illegal" immigration
by focusing
on nativist, racist, and xenophobic justifications for
immigration restriction.
The discourse of the Proposition 187 campaign accomplished
this character-
ization through metaphors o f "pollution,"infection,'
and'infestation.'"''^ These

clusters created images of biological invasion or contamination
that structured
discourse about immigration and fueled the Proposition 187
movement.'^
In addition to studying specific immigration controversies,
scholars have cre-
ated overarching taxonomies of metaphoric representations.
Though they differ
in their scope, most of these studies share similar metaphoric
clusters as Mehan
and Ono and Sloop. Dorothy Nelkin and Mark Michaels, for
example, identi-
fied in the public discourse about immigration a pervasive use
of biological and
eugenics metaphors that v êre used to portray immigrants as
dangers to the
"purity" of American society and culture.'* Examining public
policy research,
Ellis and Wright identified the metaphor of "balkanization,"
through threats of
societal fracture and ethnic strife, as another way that the
"dangers" posed by
immigrants are articulated.'^ Leo Chavez provided a more
systematic and in-
depth discussion of the representations of immigration by
cataloguing the dif-
ferent ways in which immigrants are portrayed in popular
media. He examined
magazine covers from major publications such as Time and
Newsweek, focusing
on cover images and titles, to identify the metaphor of
"immigrants as invaders"
as the driving articulation of immigration in popular
discourse.'*

Otto Santa Ana provides the most extensive taxonomy of
metaphors
employed in the coverage of immigration by examining a
variety of contro-
versies about immigrants, including Proposition 187,
Proposition 209 (which
banned preferential treatment by state and public entities), and
debates over
bilingual education. Unlike other studies, Santa Ana centers his
discussion on
how metaphors of the nation create organizing logics for
multiple, polysemous
representations of immigration or immigrants. He finds two
overarching met-
aphors in the bulk of these news stories: When the nation is
conceived as a
physical body, immigrants are presented either as an infectious
disease or as a
physical burden. When the nation is conceived as a house,
immigrants are rep-
resented as criminals, invaders, or dangerous and destructive
flood waters.'^
The table below outlines the various metaphors of immigrants
and immi-
gration identified in the existing literature.
Table 1
Immigrants
Disease, Infection
Criminal
Infestation

Invader
Burden
Flood
Immigration
Genetic defect
Balkanization, Ethnic strife
"IMMIGRANT AS POLLUTANT" 5 7 3
Metaphoric constructions can be broadly categorized into those
metaphors
that represent immigrants as a class of people and those
metaphors that con-
ceptualize immigration as a phenomenon. Metaphors of
immigrants often por-
tray them as objects or threats to society, whether biological,
physical, or social.
On the other hand, metaphors of immigration concretize the
problem through
cognitive comparisons to other physical or social ills. Together
these studies on
the metaphoric representations of immigration provide an
important base of
knowledge in the study of immigration rhetoric.
Despite their contributions, however, these studies have two
important limi-

tations. First, many of these studies encounter a methodological
shortcoming.
Most research on the metaphoric representations of immigration
focus solely
on the text of stories in newspapers and magazines or
transcripts of political
speeches. Chavez's book examines magazine covers and their
corresponding
stories. Ono and Sloop do recognize how television news
images contribute to
public understandings of immigrants, yet neither work
sufficiently examines
the visual components of immigration rhetoric for the
cooperative role they
play in constructing metaphors of immigration. Attention to the
visual ele-
ments of immigration rhetoric is important because of the
centrality of images
in modern public discourse, particularly news discourse.'^ As
Robert Hariman
and John Louis Lucaites argue, "the widely disseminated visual
image provides
the public audience with a sense of shared experience that
anchors the neces-
sarily impersonal character of public discourse in the
motivational ground of
social life."'' Though their discussion centers on iconic
photography, Hariman
and Lucaites make clear that journalistic images, whether
photos or videos,
"can underwrite polity by providing resources for thought and
feeling that are
necessary for constituting people."-̂ " Visual images create
social visions, consti-
tute identities, create publics, and influence individual and
group interrelation-

ships. Images are not comprehensive by any means, as they are
situated within
textual and verbal contexts, yet the importance of analyzing the
visual com-
ponents of news messages is evident in the authenticity and
evidentiary status
often culturally attributed to news rhetoric. As Cori Dauber
notes.
Because these images are presented in a context of
"authenticity," they tend to be
read not as representation but as evidence. Although our guard
may be up when
we encounter visual images (even photographic images)
presented as advertise-
ment or fiction, we tend not to utilize such defenses while
watching or reading
the news. Their very design encourages the reader to forget that
images are con-
structed artifacts.... If imagery is powerful, it is all the more
powerful when pre-
sented as "objective." '̂
Therefore, since news media are a "cultural product" that
construct our "social
reality,"^^ analyses of metaphoric representations of immigrants
in news media
must examine how visual images either co-construct or
challenge domi-
nant discourses of immigration and the social relations that
imbricate these

discourses.^^
The second problem facing much of the work on immigration
and meta-
phor is a problem of scope. As Table 1 illustrates, these studies
focus mostly
on metaphors of invasion and war, or physical burden and
disease, repeating
these common metaphoric clusters. This scholarship looks at the
ways in which
immigration is compared metaphorically to human problems.
Important also
are the ways in which popular discourse places immigration in a
symbolic rela-
tionship with nature. As other scholars have argued, terms like
"nature," "envi-
ronment," or "wilderness" serve as important argumentative
topoi around which
portrayals of women or ethnic groups are constructed. *̂ These
representations
tend to serve dominant interests. Popular discourse makes subtle
arguments in
support of hierarchy and social stratification by deploying
"nature" symboli-
cally. Turning to recent discourse on immigration reveals how
conceptions of
"nature" and "the environment" serve as metaphors to build
representations of
immigration.
Contemporary discourse capitalizes on metaphors like invasion
or disease,
but it also appeals, both through images and language, to
environmental catas-
trophes such as pollution and waste in making arguments about
immigrants. To

illustrate this connection, I analyzed television news segments
from major news
networks CNN and Fox News from September to December of
2005.̂ ^ I limited
my search to television stories that featured a combination of
textual, aural, and
visual images of immigration or immigrants. Throughout these
four months,
as President Bush campaigned for a "comprehensive"
immigration policy and
Congress debated different proposals for immigration reform,
both networks
featured immigration in their news coverage.̂ ^ Concern over
immigration crys-
tallized in late 2005 on the heels of Bush's visits to Arizona and
Texas in late
November and tbe House of Representative's passage of border
security legisla-
tion in December. Analyzing this body of discourse provides a
perspective on
the ways in which immigration is framed and articulated in
popular rhetoric.
Examining recent media coverage of immigration necessitates a
point of
comparison and a discursive grounding around which metaphors
are con-
structed. As Kenneth Burke famously notes, "metaphor is a
device for seeing
something in terms o/something else."-̂ ' Since metaphors build
conceptual rela-
tionships among phenomena, comparing news media coverage
of immigration
with news media coverage of pollution provides a point of
comparison to ana-
lyze the metaphoric construction of immigration in relation to

pristine nature.
Specifically, I draw from coverage of the toxic waste crisis at
Love Canal, New
York, beginning in the late 1970s, to provide a resource for tbis
discussion of
metaphoric constructions of immigration. Thus, before outlining
tbe metapbor
of immigrant as pollutant, I review representations of toxic
pollution, specifi-
cally focusing on the crisis at Love Canal, to build topoi around
which to analyze
the discourse of immigration.
A POINT OF COMPARISON: LOVE CANAL AND
COVERAGE OF
TOXIC POLLUTION
The crisis at Love Canal in the late 1970s and early 1980s was a
monumental
event in the history of the environmental movement that led to
the develop-
ment of more stringent environmental regulations. During the
1950s, Hooker
Chemical disposed of their industrial waste by burying
thousands of drums of
toxic chemicals in the Love Canal in northern New York State.
After covering
the disposal site with dirt and clay. Hooker sold the land to the
Niagara Board

of Education, which built a new school on the site and around
which a town
developed. Decades later, in the late 1970s, after prolonged
heavy rain chemi-
cals began to seep out of the ground, poisoning water supplies
and leaking into
homes. After many complaints from residents, "federal and state
officials con-
firmed the presence of eighty-eight chemicals, some in
concentrations 250 to
5,000 times higher than acceptable safety levels."^*
Andrew Szasz's book Ecopopulism traces the responses to this
crisis, in media
and in the nascent environmental justice movement, through a
discussion of
the images and the discourse surrounding the incident. The
imagery of Love
Canal media coverage does not provide a definitive
representational analog to
immigration rhetoric, but it does provide a source from which to
draw ele-
ments of visual and discursive framing that can serve as points
of comparison
for contemporary immigration rhetoric. Szasz notes that the
reactions to con-
tamination at Love Canal were "made for television."^^ A host
of visual images
surrounded the stories of pollution, their dangerous effects, the
community's
reaction, and the resulting governmental response. Through an
analysis of the
newspaper stories, photographs, and television news that
surrounded the crisis,
Szasz notes that "all the right elements were there" for a
sensationalized message

of dread, disaster, and disorder: "industrial chemicals, cancer
and birth defects,
victimization of innocent citizens . . . sinister piles of drums,
discolored pools
of water, angry community meetings, [and] distraught
parents."^" Even several
years later, after the evacuation of many of the residents of
Love Canal and after
the beginning of a governmental response to the crisis, mass
media discourse
repeated the limited, highly stereotyped, emotionally charged
visual vocabulary
of television's "toxic waste" imagery: haphazard piles of
broken, leaking fifty-five-
gallon drums; cleanup crews encased in protective safety gear;
home after home,
boarded up, abandoned; plain folks, mostly women, distraught,
angry.''
As a point of comparison to the discourse of immigration,
attention to this
description of news coverage of toxic pollution yields three
categories of rep-
resentations: images of the pollutant, images of the pollutant's
impact on the
community, and images of the government's attempts to clean
up the problem.
The following table summarizes three metaphoric topoi drawn
from the news
discourse about pollution and toxic waste at Love Canal.

Table 2
The Pollutant
Stationary pollution
' Piles of leaky drums
Mobile pollution
' Seeping pools of
chemicals
The Pollutant's Effects
Disrupted community life
• Protesting citizens
• Abandoned town
Health Effects
' Cancer and other illnesses
• Birth defects
Governmental Response
Praise for individual agents
• Disposal of waste
Criticism of government response
• No support for cleanup
Images of the pollutant displayed both stationary and mobile
pollution.
Photographs and video of stationary pollution featured images
of leaky and
dented chemical drums, pools of toxic waste, and contaminated
soil and veg-
etation.^^ One particular example, an ABC World News Tonight
segment with
correspondent Rebecca Chase featured multiple images of
haphazard piles of

dented and damaged chemical drums.̂ -* Taken from close
range, these images
left some of the chemical barrels outside of the camera frame,
connoting a
sense that the problem's scope was uncertain and potentially
unmanageable.
The barrels lay in unorganized heaps, some on their sides while
others stood on
their ends. The sense of disarray in the footage was heightened
by the condition
of the drums, many of which were cracked or dented.
Meanwhile, this aban-
doned and dangerous waste, apparently on the verge of creating
further con-
tamination through leaks or spills, was often situated in open
fields, amongst
trees, grass, and bushes, or in the yards of suburban houses.
Contrasting close
shots of barrels of pollution or pools of waste with the scenes of
suburban life
such as parks or towns created a sense that the pollution at Love
Canal was
physically disrupting community life and threatening more
contamination.
Thus, images of the pollutant in coverage of toxic waste crises
like Love
Canal presented the dangers of stationary, accumulating
pollution. Yet Love
Canal coverage also portrayed the pollutants as mobile dangers.
Pools of dark
waste welled toward abandoned houses and streamed across
streets. Rivulets
of pollution seeped across lawns, contributing to the sense of a
dynamic threat
that was spreading throughout the town. Rebecca Chase's report

for ABC News
included these visual elements as well. Images of leaking
barrels and seep-
ing pools of waste showed the chemicals moving, often toward
the camera.
which created a sense that the contamination was about to
engulf the viewer.
Together, these images of the pollutant, sometimes presented as
stationary and
sometimes as mobile danger, made vivid the problems at Love
Canal, drawing
the attention of news media and the outrage of people across the
nation.^*
In addition to images of the pollutant, images of the pollutants'
effects formed
the second representational theme in coverage of toxic waste
crises. In the case
of Love Canal, both photographs and video "conveyed the total
disruption of
community, of settled, everyday life," showing a closed grade
school, abandoned
streets, and ominous warning signs.̂ ^ Pools of toxic sludge and
drums of waste
took over the public parks and lawns where children once
played. Families were
forced from their homes into the streets to try to escape the
spreading danger.
Furthermore, this displacement and disorder led to "angry"
"protest" and calls

for government action.^^ In one particularly powerful image of
the pollutants'
effects on Love Canal, a photograph taken and circulated by the
Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) featured a middle-aged, dark-haired
Love Canal
woman and two children protesting the government's inaction.^'
The woman,
seemingly from the working class by her simple hair style and
attire, stood hold-
ing a sign above her head while wearing another sign draped
over her shoulders.
The sign she held above her head featured a white skull and
crossbones framed
by the words "Love Canal," and the larger sign on her body read
"We've got bet-
ter things to do than sit around and be CONTAMINATED!!" In
the left corner
of the photograph, two children stood by the woman, staring
into the camera
with solemn expressions. Evoking echoes of the iconic
photograph of Migrant
Mother (by Dorothea Lange) in its content and visual framing,
this image cap-
tured the sense of community disruption and disarray brought
on by the pol-
lution at Love Canal. Media also illustrated the health dangers
of pollution by
featuring victims of cancer and birth defects. Collectively, these
images of the
pollutants' effects created a sense that Love Canal was a "public
health 'tragedy'"
that demanded intervention by the government.^*
Finally, representations of the government's response formed
the third topos

of Love Canal media coverage. Even these images reinforced
the dangers of the
pollutants and the severity of the situation. One particularly
powerful example
of representations of governmental response was a photograph
taken by Joel
Richardson for the Washington Post.^^ The image featured a
full view of three
officials from the EPA loading a drum of toxic waste into a
truck for disposal.
In the photograph, the three men struggle to move the heavy
barrel from a
lift into the back of the truck without spilling or damaging the
drum. Each
official holds the barrel with two hands while bending at the
waist and knees.
Their postures express a degree of care and trepidation that
connotes the dan-
gers of the act they are performing. In addition to the officials'
postures, their
clothing contributes to the sense of danger. As in much of the
other images of
Love Canal cleanup, each official wears a white hazmat
chemical suit, including
gloves and a gas mask, as protection from the toxic waste and
its fumes. The
visual elements of the image contribute to a sense of danger and
dread, while
the framing and position of the camera, which sits behind and
facing the truck
and the officials, contribute to a feeling that the viewer is being

relieved of the
dangerous substance. This particular photograph, featured in the
Washington
Post, illustrates the rhetorical techniques in representations of
the government's
response to Love Canal. As Szasz notes, media coverage hailed
the individual
efforts of "local, state, and federal officials" who helped
dispose of some waste,
but it decried the general lack of support from the federal
government that
purportedly doomed any effort at cleanup.'"'
These three themes from the coverage of Love Canal illuminate
the framing
of public dangers and disasters from toxic waste spills. The
verbal and visual
elements of news media discourse constructed images of the
pollutants, images
of the pollutants' effects, and images of the government's
response to the con-
tamination. In what follows, I use these three themes
summarized in Table 2
as a point of comparison for the metaphorical constructions in
rhetoric about
immigration. Moreover, the visual rhetoric of Love Canal
discourse, includ-
ing elements such as visual framing and the positioning of the
photographed
object, provide a visual vocabulary which I use to analyze the
rhetoric of immi-
gration as I examine how the metaphor of immigrant as
pollutant is created
through the visual and verbal elements of the news media.
IMMIGRANT AS POLLUTANT

Analyzing the ways immigration is constructed through the
images, texts, and
aural messages of news discourse illustrates another way in
which immigra-
tion is articulated through visual metaphor. I look to reports on
immigration
from Fox News and CNN from September to December of 2005
to argue tbat,
in addition to being conceived as a crime wave or invasion,
immigration is
ñ'amed metaphorically as a dangerous pollutant. This
metaphoric construc-
tion of immigrant as pollutant can be unpacked by considering
the images of
undocumented immigrants, the images of the dangers posed by
these immi-
grants, and the images of the government's response.
¡mages of the Undocumented Immigrant
Popular media coverage of public issues such as immigration
botb respond
to and help guide governmental agendas and popular opinions.
In the case of
pollution crises like Love Canal, news coverage conveyed the
danger of con-
tamination through piles of broken, leaky drums, and images of
the pollutants
themselves in dark, ominous pools of waste. One clear example

of this visual
framing was the footage of dented and damaged toxic waste
barrels from the
ABC news report. Representations of immigration on major
cable news net-
works like Fox News and CNN often portrayed undocumented
immigrants
through similar visual techniques, creating an impression that
immigrants
were collecting like piles of potentially dangerous waste or
were approaching
the viewer as mobile pollutants.
Images of large, unorganized groups of immigrants mirror tbe
images of
stationary pollution from the coverage of Love Canal in tbeir
visual framing
and content. These visual constructions create an impression of
immigrants as
both stationary and mobile pollution. In Fox News's prime time
debate show
Hannity & Colmes, for example, hosts Sean Hannity and Alan
Colmes inter-
viewed Chris Burgard and Jay T. Rockwell, directors of tbe
documentary The
Month of October, on tbeir experiences filming at tbe U.S.-
Mexico border. As
Hannity asks the two men questions about the "shocking new
footage... [tbat]
exposes problems on our borders in a way we've never seen
before," images
from tbe documentary flash on tbe screen.'" Here tbe
cooperation of tbe visual
and verbal content is key to tbe metapborical representations of
immigrants.
While Hannity warns of tbe impending dangers of immigration

tbreaten-
ing tbe nation, tbe camera illustrates bis concern by focusing on
a group of
Mexicans sitting under a tree, apparently resting from the
grueling trip across
the desert-border of Arizona. Taken from close range, the video
clip shows the
immigrants sitting together in tbe shade. While some
individuals at tbe edges
of the frame lay down, other immigrants in the middle of the
frame sit huddled
together, back to back, to keep from laying on the rocky soil.
Like the images
of Love Canal reported by Rebecca Chase, tbis immigration
footage sbows the
immigrants in a disorganized and huddled heap, in sbarp
contrast to the peace-
ful desert environment tbat tbey are pbysically disrupting.
Similarly, in an ear-
lier interview with Chris Simcox, codirector of tbe Arizona
Minuteman Project
(a citizen group working independently to patrol tbe Arizona
border), images
show Mexican immigrants, mostly men, huddled together.
Collectively tbe
large size of tbe group of immigrants and tbeir position in a
chaotic mass con-
note a threat to the ordered, peaceful, and pristine desert
wilderness."*^
A CNN report by Candy Crowley from November 29 concerns
President
Busb's immigration plan and tbe Republican Party's response.
Crowley makes
tbe metapboric framing of immigrant as pollutant more
concrete. She notes

the magnitude of the immigration problem, putting it at "ten to
eleven million
illegal immigrants living and working in the U.S.""*̂
Republican representative
Tom Tancredo, interviewed in the report, talks about tbe need
for increased
border security. Meanwbile, images of large groups of
Latinos/as—presumably
immigrants—mill around in a parking lot waiting for work. In
tbese images.
too, immigrants stand in disorganized groups on street corners
and sidewalks.
Some stand with their backs to the camera, while others face it;
nonetheless,
the immigrants literally take up physical space, presenting a
psychological dis-
ruption to the peace and serenity of community life. "We are at
a point in this
nation's history," Tancredo notes, "where we cannot afford to
keep our borders
porous in order to provide employers with cheap labor."'*'' The
video images of
huddled groups of immigrants function as evidence for
Tancredo's claim about
the problems of a "porous" border. This footage of large,
unorganized groups of
immigrants on street corners, parking lots, or borderlands
captures "a sense of
large-scale immigration."^^ The content of this visual rhetoric
conveys a sense
that the mere presence of immigrants creates a danger and a

threat, much like
the standing drums of toxic waste in the photos of Love Canal.
The visual framing of the images of immigrants also draws on
popular dis-
course of pollution such as the rhetoric surrounding Love Canal.
In the rhetoric
both of pollution and of immigration, there is no doubt about
the character-
istics of the threat, and the placement of the camera is one
important parallel
between these two visual rhetorics. Images of toxic waste
barrels at Love Canal
were taken from close range, showing the barrels were clearly
damaged and
thus posing the threat of leakage. Similarly, close-range images
of immigra-
tion clearly show ethnic and economic class markers that
reinforce popular
concerns about immigration.''^ In much of this footage, markers
of ethnic and
racial difference distinguish the migrants as different and
potentially unruly.
The Fox News report on Hannity & Colmes, for example,
focuses on an unor-
ganized group of border crossers. News discourse from CNN,
such as that from
Candy Crowley, reports the magnitude of the immigration
problem, featuring
images of unorganized groups of immigrants milling on street
corners and side-
walks. Like the barrels in images of Love Canal, the immigrants
are portrayed
as unorganized, idle, and aimless—connoting a sense of
accumulating danger.
Whether sitting under trees or collecting on street corners, these

images disrupt
a sense of order and safety by portraying immigrants as ticking
time bombs of
cultural and economic contamination situated throughout our
cities.
Using similar techniques as the news media coverage of
pollution, immi-
grants are portrayed visually in news media rhetoric as
stationary pollutants
contaminating communities and the environment. Yet, like the
seeping, oozing,
and pooled toxic waste of Love Canal, immigrants are also
portrayed as mobile
threats. Not only are these dangers accumulated on street
corners and intersec-
tions, immigrants are continually shown moving through the
desert and across
the border, conveying a sense of an approaching danger and a
growing prob-
lem. Crowley's CNN report of November 29, for example,
begins with video of
two Hispanic men easily scaling a fence that is nine or ten feet
tall, then cuts
to two different Hispanic men running across a street,
apparently fieeing.^'' In
both clips the camera is positioned on the American side of the
border, while
immigrants scale or duck fences to sneak toward the viewer.
Another CNN

report by Casey Wian shows a Hispanic man leaning on a
section of border
fence; the fence is of such poor quality, though, that the man
can look over the
barbed wire fence into the United States, as he sits with his
arms folded."** In
both Wian and Crowley's reports one hears about the need to
"crack down" on
illegal crossings into the country; both reports, as well as other
similar pieces,
provide images of immigrants moving across the porous border
followed by a
discussion of proposals for a large fence that will finally shut
out "illegals.'"*^
Fox News coverage of immigration features similar visual
representations of
immigrants as mobile threats. In the Hannity & Colmes
interview of November
14 with the makers of The Month of October, Jay T. Rockwell
notes that "it's ter-
rorists coming across" the border, highlighting the need to
"close the back door
on terrorism." Meanwhile, footage of a line of people walking
toward the cam-
era and then off frame dominates the screen.^" Shot at night
with a night-vision
lens, the video shows few details about the immigrants other
than a wide shot
of their path of movement across the frame and toward the
camera. Particular
features of the immigrants are indistinguishable in such adverse
lighting condi-
tions. Instead, the night vision lens gives the immigrant bodies
a strange neon
green luminosity; they blend together, and the footage creates

an impression
of an ominous and oncoming stream of toxic green pollution. In
fact, these
immigrants pose an arguably greater threat to the country than
toxic waste
because they are not only mobile but also purposeful.^' A
special report from
November 8 on The O'Reilly Factor follows the same pattern,
showing immi-
grant men and some women walking through the desert in
groups and making
their way across the border into the United States. Here the
camera's focus is
on groups of Mexicans walking along the border fence, looking
for an opening
through which to cross. As the immigrants duck in and out of
holes in the bor-
der fence. Representative Duncan Hunter describes the "no
man's land" of the
border, an area through which immigrants stream across from
Mexico in thou-
sands or are smuggled across like dangerous and secret
substances. '^
These examples illustrate the ways in which immigration is
constructed as a
mobile, toxic threat. The directionality of the videos and their
visual composi-
tion contribute to their metaphoric meaning by drawing on
similarities with
pollution coverage. Immigrants are shown moving toward the
camera; their
movement is "directed towards the observer's eye," which
connotes that the
immigrants are "coming at" the viewer.̂ ^ This conveys a sense
that the immi-

grants are invading our space and posing an immediate threat.
The pollutant is
on the move and will soon reach and contaminate the viewer.
Like the pools of
toxic waste that creep toward the camera in images of Love
Canal, immigrants
are moving closer to the camera, presenting an ever-greater
threat. There is
also an intelligence in the immigrants that makes the threat of
contamination
even greater. They jump over or duck under fences that are
supposed to protect
boundaries. The accumulation of these representations of
seepage through the
"porous" border portrays immigrants as being like those pools
of toxic waste
in Love Canal. Sometimes the connection is more subtle,
created by impres-
sions of immigrants as stationary threats polluting peaceful
parks or sidewalks.
Other times the metaphor of pollution becomes more explicit, as
when images
taken at night create the impression that immigration is a stream
of contamina-
tion seeping through holes in the border. In many of these
examples, however,
immigrants are presented as "an undifferentiated mass quantity"
that must be
controlled to prevent contamination.^''
Besides the directionality of immigrants in this visual rhetoric,

the framing
of these images of immigrants also draws on elements of
pollution rhetoric.
Representations of both stationary and mobile immigrants are
framed so that
the immigrants trail off of the screen in one or both directions.
Whether close-
ups or long shots, many of these videos exclude part of the
group from the
frame. Like the barrels of pollution and the pools of waste in
Love Canal, the
immigrants spill out of the frame, thus connoting that "the flow
of immigrants
does not have a definitive end in sight."^^ The size and scope of
the station-
ary pollutants are unknown, and their lack of supervision or
purposive action
may connote danger to some viewers. As in the images of drums
of waste or
toxic pools of sludge, the viewer cannot determine the extent or
spread of the
pollutant. Similarly, images of moving migrants mirror visuals
of Love Canal
that show pollution welling toward the camera, so close that it
is moving out
of the frame. These images suggest the magnitude of
immigration and offer up
some uncertainty about how far the problem extends; the "flow"
of immigrants
appears to go on forever. Showing immigrants hopping fences,
walking through
the desert, or crossing over and under barriers provides fuel for
the metaphor
of the immigrant as mobile waste. Showing them moving in the
direction of
the camera heightens the threat by making it appear that they

are coming closer
to the viewer. These representations portray immigrants as a
hazard, as moving
bodies of dangerous material.
While immigrants are portrayed metaphorically as a dangerous
pollutant
that is seeping through the borders and collecting on street
corners, they are
also often represented as criminals or as invaders.^^ The
argument here is not
that these images have a singular or preferred meaning, but that
"immigrant
as pollutant" is another metaphor in the network of metaphoric
framings
underlying popular rhetoric about immigration. Images of
immigrants form
the first theme of this metaphor, but the framing of "immigrant
as pollut-
ant" is bolstered by portraying the immigrants as stationary or
mobile threats
that contaminate or pollute American communities. Thus, news
coverage also
constructs images of immigration's consequences, which form
the second
dimension of the metaphor.
The Dangers of Illegal Immigration
The media coverage of Love Canal portrayed the threat in clear

terms, illustrat-
ing the pollutant through images of scattered drums of
chemicals or pools of
hazardous waste. It also provided a clear picture of the danger
posed by these
chemicals to the community at large. First, focusing on social
damage, images
of Love Canal conveyed the "disruption" pollutants had on the
ordinary life of
the community.^^ Abandoned schools, empty street corners, and
angry pro-
testers conveyed a sense of chaos and disarray. Second, images
of the impact of
toxic waste in Love Canal portrayed the devastating health
effects these pollut-
ants had on ordinary people. Creating an emotional and personal
connection
with the victims magnified and concretized the problem and
intensified the
call for a governmental response.^* Dangers of immigration are
portrayed in
similar ways through representations of disrupted community
life and through
images of the physical and social ills brought on by
immigration.
According to network news coverage, immigration, like toxic
waste, poses
a threat to the peace and harmony of American communities.
One impor-
tant parallel to the visual rhetoric of pollution is the physical
identities of
immigration's victims. In Fox's show Hannity & Colmes, while
the hosts talk
to James Cilchrist and Chris Simcox, codirectors of the Arizona
Minuteman

Project, images of protesters standing in the desert holding
signs are shown
on the screen. One sign reads "STOP illegal invasion," while
another identi-
fies the "Californians for Secure Borders."^' An adolescent of
14 or 15 years is
carrying a sign and protesting the influx of illegal immigrants
into the coun-
try while standing next to an older woman, presumably his
mother. Images of
the protestors, many of them women and children, mirror the
pictures of Love
Canal residents' protests circulated in news media. In this
footage, as in images
from Love Canal, we see women and children driven from their
homes into the
streets to protest the dangers. Images of immigration's dangers
convey that the
problem has grown so great that ordinary people are driven into
the desert bor-
derlands to bring awareness to their plight.
Images of immigration's consequences often feature middle-
aged and elderly
men and women, who either protest or patrol the border with
binoculars and
two-way radios. The diverse makeup of these groups connotes
the extent of
the problem of immigration. During the report on the Arizona
minutemen on
Hannity & Colmes, organizer Chris Simcox praises the efforts
of these ordinary
"citizen patrols" who, "spread out along a 23-mile stretch of
desert," have "pro-
tected" Arizona from over "260 illegal immigrants" over the
course of several

weeks. Meanwhile the screen shows video of tbese volunteers
patrolling hills or
standing guard.̂ *' Minutemen stand next to cars or on top of
recreational vehi-
cles, looking tbrougb binoculars into tbe distant desert. In one
segment, sev-
eral men stand with their backs to the border, while in tbe
foreground a well-
dressed, middle-aged woman surveys the horizon for border
breacbes. Her
clotbes distinguish her from tbe other volunteers and seem to
mark a bigber
social and economic status; sbe wears black pants and a green
sweater, witb a
flower pattern scarf wrapped around ber neck. Likewise, other
images of min-
utemen in tbe Fox News report portray all kinds of people, from
"soccer moms"
to "old ladies," mobilized by the threat of immigration to use
"cell phones and
lawn cbairs" to keep tbe border intact.^'
According to Simcox, tbe volunteers in Arizona alone—people
wuling to belp
control a problem tbat the government fails to address—exceed
1,000 in number
and come from all over tbe country. Tbough their efforts are
supposedly success-
ful, botb volunteers and protestors point to the need for swift
and decisive action
by tbe government to stem tbe tide of "contamination." As

Simcox argues:
This area has been neglected, and the citizens here have had
enough. In fact,
they're coming out of their homes now, pleading with us not to
leave, because
for the first time in years, they've been able to sleep through the
night, and they
have peace and quiet.*^
Like the images of Love Canal, the coverage of tbese anti-
immigration efforts
points to tbe "total disruption of community, of settled,
everyday life."*' In place
of images of abandoned streets or scbool yards, coverage of
immigration features
individuals driven out into the desert to protest about tbe
problem of immi-
gration and to take matters into tbeir own bands. Tbe danger is
so great tbat
women, children, and the elderly have left tbeir homes and
joined the ranks of
tbose patrolling tbe border, protecting tbeir communities from
contamination.
Besides tbe identity of immigration's victims, anotber important
element
in the metapboric construction of "tbe dangers of immigration"
is tbe visual
framing of tbe images. Videos of protestors and amateur border
watcbers
are filmed in close proximity so that their age, sex, and
ethnicity are evident.
Mostly, tbese are middle-class wbites of varied ages, from
young adults to tbe
elderly. Videos of protestors and minutemen feature every age,

from middle-
aged motbers, young cbildren, and tbe elderly, gatbered togetber
to address the
growing "problem" of immigration. Tbus, the diversity of
volunteers' age and
gender implies that the effects of immigration bave reached so
far tbat tbose
groups of people traditionally relegated to tbe private spbere
(sucb as cbildren
and women) can justifiably come out into tbe public. On tbe
otber band, tbe
uniformity of tbeir etbnicity subtly speaks to the racial fears
underlying the
concerns over immigration. The camera often sits behind the
volunteers, creat-
ing identification with the minutemen as they patrol the border.
Meanwhile the
camera faces protestors, much like the photograph of a Love
Canal mother pro-
testing government inaction. Portraying the "victims" of
immigration in such
vivid proximity brings the viewer into the image and makes the
disruption and
distortion of ordinary life seem ever more palpable.^''
News media representations of immigration mirror the ways in
which media
coverage of Love Canal portrayed the dangers of toxic waste
pollution. Toxic
waste poisons communities and brings them to a standstill,

while immigra-
tion supposedly paralyzes communities across the United States
both economi-
cally and socially. The threats of immigration are represented
through ordinary
people forced from their homes, protesting and calling for more
governmental
attention; lives are brought to a halt and people are forced to
fight their own
battles to protect their communities from pollution.
Yet like the framing of pollution discourse, the dangers of
immigration are
also expressed in more menacing terms through concrete stories
and emotional
appeals. Szasz notes that later coverage of Love Canal focused
on "interviews
with distraught citizens" as their "emotional core."*^ Centering
coverage on
the stories of individuals helped to establish a connection with
the victims of
Love Canal and convey the human impact of the crisis.
Ultimately this per-
sonal connection was used to heighten the lack of governmental
cleanup of
the pollution. Here the discourse of immigration differs from
the rhetoric of
the Love Canal crisis. Inasmuch as it is difficult to trace the
particular, indi-
vidual impacts of illegal immigration, the coverage of
immigration in popular
media often focuses on the systemic, large-scale social ills that
illegal immigra-
tion supposedly brings.
The concrete dangers of immigration are usually traced to

heightened crime,
economic burden, and the threat of terrorism. Many of the
stories during the
time period analyzed featured images of immigrants in crowded
jails being
detained and processed by police officers and border officials.̂ ^
Nevertheless,
in the context of metaphoric framings of immigrants as
stationary and mobile
pollution, metaphoric meanings of pollution and contamination
are activated.
Immigrants collect on street corners supposedly contaminating
our way of life
and our culture. According to reports by Fox News and CNN,
immigrants can
pollute society by taking jobs and contributing to crime and
delinquency.
In addition to images of crime and terrorism, there is also a
subtle envi-
ronmental dimension to these images of immigration. Eor
example, several
reports show video of trash and debris left in the desert by
moving groups of
immigrants. Whether a can of Fiesta cola or a pile of tattered
clothes, these
images convey a literal sense of pollution that accompanies the
metaphorical
pollution of culture and lifestyle these immigrants supposedly
bring. Often
news coverage shows these physical traces of pollution through

extremely close
shots, contributing to a sense that the contamination left in the
wake of immi-
gration is palpable. These images of immigration's
consequences add to the
general sense of disarray, disorder, and defilement conveyed by
discourses of
immigration's dangers. Not only are images of crime and
terrorism used to
connote the dangers of unchecked illegal immigration, they also
provide ave-
nues for media to call for particular governmental actions to
address these
problems. Images of the governmental response to immigration
form the third
dimension of the metaphor immigrant as pollutant.
Representations of the Governmental Response
Like the discourse of the toxic waste crisis at Love Canal,
visual rhetoric of
immigration portrays immigrants as dangerous pollutants who
pose devastat-
ing consequences for communities. And, like the toxic waste at
Love Canal,
immigration is a pollutant whose spread can be contained and
cleansed. The
call for "cleanup" of immigration forms the third
representational dimen-
sion of the metaphor of immigrant as pollutant. In the context of
Love Canal,
Szasz notes that the shocking images of life in Love Canal
"might have been
less frightening if . . . government regulators had been shown to
be compe-
tent to protect public health." Instead of receiving a picture of a

responsive and
concerned government, viewers "got just the opposite
impression."^^ Through
images such as the photograph of EPA officials loading a barrel
of toxic waste
into a truck for disposal, officials were often portrayed doing
their individual
part to help the citizens of Love Canal. In general, however, the
government's
response was "grossly inadequate" and "infinitesimal in
comparison to the size
of the problem."^^ Individual images of governmental officials
disposing of
waste only heightened the need for comprehensive action by the
government.
"Without a larger enforcement staff," one reporter noted, "few
expect that the
new law will quickly clean up the toxic waste problem."^'
Representations of immigration in popular discourse follow a
similar for-
mat in portraying the government's role in regulating and
controlling the pol-
lutant. News media praise the individual contributions of law
enforcement
officials while criticizing the overall governmental response.
For example, while
Hannity and Colmes celebrate the success of the Arizona
minutemen on their
program, organizer Chris Simcox explicitly addresses the
failure of the govern-
ment to do its job. "We've created a model that works," he
argues, "a model that
border control cannot implement because they don't have the
resources to do
this." The border patrol, though well intentioned, "just do not

have the person-
nel to watch [the border] continuously 24 hours a day like
we've... been doing
here for the last 18 days."^°
CONTAMINATEO COMMUNITIES! T H E M E T A P H O R
OF "IMMIGRANT AS P O L L U T A N T " 5 8 7
Other reports on immigration mirror Simcox's view of
government bor-
der officials; the verbal and visual messages construct a picture
of governmen-
tal negligence and inadequacy in the face of an ominous
problem. In another
episode of Hannity & Colmes airing on October 4, as images of
border agents
putting Mexicans in handcuffs and pushing them into large vans
are shown
on the screen, the caption "Border Patrol Agents Intercept
Illegal Immigrants"
takes up the bottom third of the screen. The camera sits behind
the border
official while he pushes the immigrant into the back of a truck
for deporta-
tion. Meanwhile, Hannity emphasizes that these immigrants
were arrested "less
than a quarter of a mile from the border."^' Throughout the
interview with
Luis Cabrera, a Mexican government official, clips show
immigrants with their
hands placed on U.S. government vans and their feet spread as
they are searched
by police. Other footage from this same show features
immigrants standing

in a straight line with their hands behind their heads in the
presence of bor-
der officials. "It's happening by the hundreds every night in this
area," Hannity
warns, "it's happening all along the border."^^ During Bill
O'Reilly's November
8 interview of Rep. Duncan Hunter, the camera focuses on a
Mexican man
in a police station being booked by a police officer. While the
officer finger-
prints and jails the immigrant, a caption informs the viewer that
approximately
480,000 illegal immigrants cross the border each year and that
three-quarters
of California's tuberculosis cases "occur among immigrants."
Rep. Hunter talks
about the need for more government assistance to prevent
illegal immigration.
"You need fences. You need roads. You need light, and you
need the people to
man them, the great people of the border patrol"; "we can do it,"
says Hunter,
but we need more help and attention from the government.^^ In
a CNN report
from November 28, video footage of INS officials making
arrests and patrol-
ling the border are shown on the screen, while reporter Casey
Wian demands
increased funds and support from the federal government to
combat immi-
gration.'''' Another report from November 29 identifies the need
to "control
the border and crack down inside the country" to prevent more
illegal entry.̂ ^
While the image content offers multiple interpretations of the
immigrant

threat, the visual framing of this footage contributes to the
dehumanization
of the immigrant. Immigrants are portrayed as pollutants that
the government
must clean up.
Like the government agents in the Love Canal coverage, INS
and bor-
der patrol officials are generally praised; their efforts to protect
the borders,
apprehend illegal immigrants, and send them back over the
border are lauded.
Most of the journalists' and advocates' criticisms fall squarely
on the govern-
ment for failing to fund and support these brave agents who are
trying to
protect the nation. The visual and verbal image-text creates an
argument for
more governmental accountability by showing pictures of
border violations
and apprehensions while making claims about the magnitude of
the problem
and the lack of enforcement. Whereas the content of this
discourse creates an
image of governmental incompetence and negligence, the
framing of the gov-
ernment agents, ordinary citizens, and immigrants in these
images also con-
tributes to the metaphor of immigrant as pollutant.
One important visual element of these images of the

governmental response
to immigration is the position of the camera in much of the
news media cover-
age. Shots of the officials' interactions with immigrants are
taken at close range
and from angles that associate the viewer with the government
agent. Most of
these images are taken at close range, highlighting the
differences between the
immigrants and the officers. The hierarchy between the two is
reified through
their positioning in the images. For example, immigrants are
restrained or inter-
rogated, which connotes their status as physical dangers,
deviants, and crimi-
nals. Like the photos of government officials dealing with
drums of waste, the
border patrol is usually moving immigrants into vans to ship
them back across
the border. Love Canal images of governmental officials
transporting drums of
waste show the EPA agents wearing chemical-proof suits and
gas masks as they
struggle to load the drum of toxic waste onto the truck and away
from Love
Canal. Similarly, the border officials in Fox News and CNN
reports wrestle the
illegal immigrants into the back of vans that will carry them
first into custody
and then across the border. Both sets of images portray the
immediate danger
posed by these "pollutants" through the agents' protective
uniforms. The EPA
agents in Love Canal coverage often wore protective suits that
shielded them
from the hazardous effects of the chemicals. Border patrol

officials also wear
protective gear in the visual rhetoric of immigration—in the
form of police
uniforms and weapons—that convey legal authority and a sense
of danger
inherent in their jobs.
One particular example is the Fox News interview with Chris
Simcox from
Hannity & Colmes titled "Sean Hannity Visits the Minutemen
Volunteers in
Arizona." Here video footage shows images of border officials
apprehending
immigrants. The border official's firearm and nightstick are
visible on his belt,
assuring the viewer that this job is very dangerous.^* Tbe
position of the camera
and the framing of the shots are important as well. Very few
images of immi-
grants being apprebended by border officials show the
immigrants' faces. In
the Fox News footage too, video of the arrest is taken entirely
from behind the
officers. The viewer sees the officer handcuff, search, and push
the immigrant
into the back of a van. Tbe immigrant remains faceless and
nameless; there are
no particularities shown for the individual being arrested other
than his ethnic
and legal status, thus transforming the immigrant into a
dangerous substance
being taken into custody.̂ ^ This framing puts the viewer on the
side of the
border patrol official, creating identification with government
agents. These
images convey no human connection to the immigrant just as

they convey no
connection to tbe drum of waste being shipped away; tbey are
botb objects to
be discarded. Since tbe camera sits behind the officer, tbe
immigrant/object is
being taken away from tbe viewer. Visually and
psychologically, tbe audience is
relieved of tbe burden of its presence by tbe border patrol agent.
Similar to scenes in wbicb viewers saw EPA officials struggling
carefully to
dispose of dangerous barrels of waste, news media rhetoric of
immigration
reminds the viewer tbat tbese immigrants carry disease and pose
tbreats to tbe
brave border officials wbo struggle to remove tbem. Immigrants
are carefully
but forcefully wrestled into the back of trucks or vans to be
sbipped away. Tbey
are portrayed as dangerous substances tbat must be dealt witb
quickly to assure
everyone's safety. Immigrants are lined up, organized, searcbed,
and removed.
Tbe officers wear protective gear, and tbe immigrants are
marked as racial otb-
ers. W^en tbe positioning of immigrant and border official in
tbese images is
coupled witb tbe aural and textual messages tbat convey a need
for funding to
complete tbese "cleanup" efforts, tbe image-text makes a

powerful appeal for
more government support of efforts to combat illegal
immigration.^^ Instead
of featuring successful government efforts, tbe stories focus on
limited attempts
tbat are "grossly inadequate" and fail to address tbe problem of
illegal immigra-
tion. "Witbout a larger enforcement staff," tbey argue, tbere can
be few expecta-
tions tbat tbe problem can be quickly addressed.''
The three topoi discussed above—images of immigrants, images
of tbe dan-
gers of immigration, and images of tbe government's response—
mirror tbe
visual rbetoric of Love Canal and otber pollution crises in tbeir
visual framing
and composition. Tbe framing of tbe images, tbeir content, and
tbeir textual
and aural messages cooperate to construct a metapboric framing
for immigra-
tion. Table 3 outlines tbe metapbor of immigrant as pollutant as
constructed
in tbis news coverage.
As witb tbe coverage of Love Canal, tbe representations of
immigrants
portray tbem as botb stationary pollutants gatbered on street
corners and as
mobile waste moving across the border. Tbe dangers of
immigration are visual-
ized tbrough images of disrupted community life, including
protesters and dis-
located families. Images of tbe social contamination brougbt by
immigration,
such as crime or poverty, further concretize tbe danger. Finally,

discourse about
tbe government's response praises individual efforts by valiant
government
agents to combat tbe spread of immigration wbile decrying tbe
overall govern-
mental response to the border crisis. News media discourse,
particularly visual
rbetoric, works to frame immigrants as dangerous pollutants
tbat tbreaten tbe
American community. Tbis metapboric representation is not
witbout conse-
quences for tbe ways immigration is understood and
approacbed. I now con-
sider tbe implications of tbe metapbor immigrant as pollutant.
Table 3
The Immigrant
Stationary pollutant
• Disorganized groups
• Immigrants resting
along the border
Mobile waste
' Immigrants crossing
the border

• Approaching groups
The Dangers of Immigration
Disrupted community life
• Protesting citizens
• Individuals "forced"
from their homes
• Citizen border enforcement
Social effects
' Crime
• Poverty
• Pollution/Litter
Governmental Response
Praise for individual agents
• Capture of immigrants
• Deportations
Criticism of government efforts
• No funding for Border Patrol
• Refusal to build a fence

IMMIGRATION, IDEOLOGY, AND THE POLITICS OF
METAPHOR
Representations of illegal immigration in popular media, from
television
shows to news photographs, provide a complex view of the
immigrant "prob-
lem." Scholars have identified a variety of metaphors that serve
as conceptual
tools by which we understand immigration and its eftect on our
society. Some
of these metaphors are the immigrant as invader, as criminal,
and as disease,
yet the preceding analysis of recent news media discourse about
immigration
illustrates another metaphor by which media articulate this
controversy: immi-
grant as pollutant.
Constructions of immigration as a danger have a complex
history. Lisa
Flores, for example, describes the narratives of fear deployed
about immigrants
in the 1930s. She argues that these narratives of danger
portrayed immigrants
through common themes:
Large populations of people with little knowledge of or interest
in America
arrived. These groups, unlike earlier western European
immigrants, were likely
to be the dregs of society. Illiterate, diseased, or morally
suspect, these southern
and eastern Europeans threatened to pollute and dilute the
homogenous stock
of America.̂ "

Similar images and narratives inform the rhetoric of
immigration through-
out history.*' Strikingly, "the ease with which these
constructions appear,"
states Flores, "suggests that they have become deeply embedded
within the cul-
tural commonsense."*^ As Mercedes Lynn de Uriarte notes,
television news has
become a modern medium through which ethnic minorities,
including immi-
grants, are discursively constructed as dangers and threats.^'
The preceding analysis of contemporary news media discourse
illustrates
that these same dominant logics continue to permeate rhetoric
about immigra-
* What, then, are the consequences of these constructions, and
how does
the metaphor of immigrant as pollutant differ from other
metaphoric under-
standings of immigration? Constructing immigration as a social
danger pro-
vides an opportunity to define the other and solidify the self. As
Mary Douglas
outlines, discourses of danger construct difference as a means
of constituting
shared national and cultural identity.^^ Metaphoric
representations are a cru-
cial component of this identity construction. Examining this

prevalent meta-
phoric representation of immigrant as pollutant, then, provides
an opportu-
nity to critique dominant logics by exploring the ideological
implications of
contemporary immigration rhetoric.^^
The metaphor of immigrant as pollutant articulated in popular
discourse
is significant for the ways in which it constructs immigrants,
through racial
and xenophobic stereotypes, as objects, aberrations, and
dangers. This dis-
course propagates overly simplistic understandings of
immigration that sug-
gest equally simplistic solutions. Metaphors serve as
terminological filters on
reality. Our observations and actions "are but implications of
the particular ter-
minology in terms of which observations are made."^^ The ways
in which news
media images and textual fragments construct immigration as a
danger is prob-
lematic, for they inform society's relationship to immigrants and
they influence
the direction of public policy on immigration.
Analysis of the metaphor of immigrant as pollutant uncovers
how popu-
lar discourse of immigration contributes to understandings of
immigrants as
individuals and notions of immigration as a social phenomenon.
The discur-
sive construction of the other as a threat, in the words of David
Campbell,
"naturalize[s] the self (as normal, healthy, civilized, or

something equally
positive) by estranging the other (as pathological, sick,
barbaric, or some-
thing equally negative)."^^ Images of immigrants as dangerous
and destruc-
tive pollutants dehumanize immigrants by constructing them as
threaten-
ing substances, denying them agency and reinforcing common
stereotypes.
Immigrants' primary identity is marked by their racial
difference and ille-
gal migrant status. Their brown bodies are portrayed as dirty
and dangerous
because of their ethnicity.^^ Their legal status as outsiders is
marked by their
sneaking and seeping through borders as well as their
apprehension by law
enforcement officials.^"
Even as this metaphoric articulation divides immigrants from
mainstream
America, "immigration as pollution" also serves a unifying
function, bring-
ing together disparate groups of Americans under the banner of
protecting
the sanctity and integrity of the nation. People of all ages and
economic back-
grounds are on the front lines protesting and working together
to stop the
influx of illegal immigration. The metaphor of pollution
normalizes American
identity, an identity based on racial and cultural "purity." The
construction

of self and other through the metaphor of immigrant as pollutant
makes this
normalized American identity visible while painting immigrants
as contami-
nants. Alan Nadel notes that "the container and the contained"
are "each in
themselves fiuid and not discrete entities."" As such their
identities must be
redrawn and reaffirmed through narratives and discourses of
contamination
and cleanup. The metaphor of immigrant as pollutant present in
media dis-
course pushes immigrants to the periphery—threats to be feared
and problems
to be dealt with—to draw a border between differing identities.
These images
of contamination license popular stereotypes and "institutional
discrimina-
tion."'^ As Donald Macedo writes, the result is often that
both documented and undocumented immigrants materially
experience the
loss of their dignity, the denial of their humanity, and, in many
cases, outright
violence Language such as "border rats," "wetbacks," "aliens,"
"illegals," "wel-
fare queens," and "non-White hordes," used by the popular press
not only dehu-
manizes other cultural beings, but also serves to justify the
violence perpetrated
against subordinated groups.'̂
The identities of self and other constructed by the metaphoric
representations

of immigrants as pollutants encourage social relationships that,
as Macedo
notes, materially affect immigrants and non-immigrants alike.
Every selection is also a ''reflection" and "deflection" of reality;
thus meta-
phors of immigration close off other possibilities for
understanding immigra-
tion.^'' The "metaphorical plot" becomes so standard that other
explanations
or alternatives begin to seem "unrealistic or ridiculous."^^
Popular media por-
tray immigrants as threats that must be isolated and removed
rather than as
subjects with concrete human stories. Likewise, immigration is
portrayed as
an encroaching danger that precludes consideration of
immigration as a natu-
ral effect of a shrinking global society. Considerations of the
reasons underly-
ing migration or the potentially positive contributions of
immigrants are often
ignored in the face of the metaphoric language of danger and
threat. Instead,
news media discourses often portray immigrants as toxic
substances polluting
the country. Migration is depicted as a kinetic seepage of
another area's social
problem into America. These narratives of contamination and
pollution cre-
ate a moral order. Mary Douglas explains this organizing
function of pollution
metaphors:
ideas about separating, purifying, demarcating and punishing
transgressions

have as their main function to impose system on an inherently
untidy experience.
It is only by exaggerating the difference between within and
without, above and
below, male and female, with and against, that a semblance of
order is created.'*
These metaphoric understandings of the immigration "problem"
create con-
ceptual and societal hierarchies that lend themselves to
particular solutions. The
best option to deal with the mobile threat presented in news
media discourse is
to corral and quarantine the pollutants. The process of rounding
up and deport-
ing immigrants seems the "natural" solution, just as cleaning up
and disposing
of the toxic waste of Love Canal seemed the only logical
option. Metaphors of
pollution and contamination are also evident in popular
narratives concerning
the need to secure the border with a fence. In this case, the
metaphoric under-
standing of immigrants as dangerous waste is not only evident
in recent news
media discourse but influences government initiatives and
legislative debate
on immigration reform, as well. For example, the Secure Fence
Act of 2006,
which called for the building of a 700-mile border fence along
areas of the U.S.-

Mexico border, arguably draws on an understanding of
immigrants as invad-
ers or pollutants that must be restrained behind a barrier. Plans
for extended
fences as well as stricter border patrols and more stringent
deportation efforts
continue to constitute debate about immigration reform.'^ As a
terminological
filter, the metaphor of immigrant as pollutant in popular news
discourse reifies
popular stereotypes of immigrants and strengthens institutional
responses that
deal with immigrants as threats to be contained and eliminated.
Of course the metaphor of immigrant as pollutant is not the only
meta-
phor at work in this media coverage. Immigrants are also
portrayed as invaders,
criminals, diseases, infestations, physical burdens, and
destructive flood waters.
Immigration as a phenomenon is presented through the
metaphors of genetic
defect or societal balkanization. Yet the environmental
metaphor of pollution
plays an important role in the rhetoric of immigration. Pristine
nature, with
the threat posed to it by toxic chemicals, is deployed
discursively as a repos-
itory for metaphoric understandings of immigrants. These
metaphors work
together, "weav[ing] a congruent web of marginalization and
aspersion."^^
Representations of immigration implicitly make a connection to
images of
pollution, waste, and contamination that form part of popular
consciousness

and historical memory. Comparing news images of pollution
from toxic waste
crises such as Love Canal to recent news media images of
immigration uncov-
ers another metaphor by which immigration and its effects are
articulated to
mass audiences. The ways in which these images position the
viewer in relation
to the immigrants, and the contexts into which the immigrants
are placed, can
create a connection that helps explain and interpret the message
for its view-
ers. Furthermore, these images operate rhetorically alongside
verbal and tex-
tual calls for the "cleaning" of immigrants and the sealing of the
border from
further contamination. Exposing these forms of representation
and their ideo-
logical assumptions can be an important step in weakening their
conceptual
bold and constructing more open metaphors for understanding
tbe people
wbo cross tbe border every day.
NOTES
1. Roger Daniels, Coming to America: A History of
Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life,
2nd ed. (New York: Perennial, 2002). Some scholars have
objected to the use of the term
"immigrant" to refer to migrants coming into the tJnited States.

Recognizing the xenopho-
bic assumptions that often underlie the use of the term, I will
use it in this essay because the
discourse I analyze conceives of immigrants from the
perspective of the landed U.S. citizen.
See Daniels, Coming to America, 3-4.
2. The scholarship on popular discourse about immigration is
extensive and diverse. It features
studies of representations surrounding particular controversies
and larger surveys of immi-
gration discourse. For example, see Anne Demo, "Sovereignty
Discourse and Contemporary
Immigration Politics," Quarterly Journal of Speech 91 (2005):
291-311; Hugh Mehan, "The
Discourse of the Illegal Immigration Debate: A Case Study in
the Politics of Representation,"
Discourse & Society 8 (1997): 249-70; Kent A. Ono and John
M. Sloop, Shifting Borders:
Rhetoric, Immigration, and California's Proposition 187
(Philadelphia: Temple University
Press, 2002).
3. Otto Santa Ana, Brown Tide Rising: Metaphors of Latinos in
Contemporary American Public
Discourse (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002).
4. Francis A. Beer and Christ'l De Landtsheer, eds..
Metaphorical World Politics (East Lansing:
Michigan State University Press, 2004), 6.
5. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By
(Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2003). For more discussion of the cognitive function of
metaphor, see also Rosamund
Moon and Murray Knowles, Introducing Metaphor (New York:

Routledge, 2006), 3-5; Robert
L. Ivie, "Metaphor and the Rhetorical Invention of Cold War
'Idealists,'" Communication
Monographs 54 (1987): 166-68. Scholars have used the
framework of metaphor to ground
theoretical and critical studies of discourse. For some examples,
see William A. Ausmus,
"Pragmatic Uses of Metaphor: Models and Metaphor in the
Nuclear Winter Scenario,"
Communication Monographs 65 (1998): 67-82; John E. Fritch
and Karla K. Leeper, "Poetic
Logic: The Metaphoric Form as a Foundation for a Theory of
Tropological Argument,"
Argumentation and Advocacy 29 (1993): 186-94; Michael C.
Leff, "Topical Invention and
Metaphoric Interaction," Southern States Communication
Journal 48 (1983): 214-29; Michael
Osborn, "Archetypal Metaphor in Rhetoric: The Light-Dark
Family," Quarterly Journal of
Speech 53 (1967): 115-26.
6. Josef Stern, Metaphor in Context (Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press, 2000).
7. Santa Ana, Brown Tide Rising, 8-9.
8. Mark Ellis and Richard Wright, "The Balkanization Metaphor
in the Analysis of U.S.
Immigration" Annals of the Association of American
Geographers SS (1998): 688.
9. George Lakoff and Sam Ferguson, "The Framing of
Immigration," The Rockridge Institute,
http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/research/rockridge/immigratio
n (accessed October 28,2006).
See also Ono and Sloop, Shifting Borders, ch. 5.

10. Raymie E. McKerrow, "Gritical Rhetoric: Theory and
Praxis," Communication Monographs
56 (1989): 91.
11. Mehan, "Discourse," 251.
12. Ono and Sloop, Shifting Borders, 28. Ono and Sloop's book
provides a thorough discussion
of the many discursive strategies by which conventional logics
of immigration, which dis-
empower immigrants, are entrenched through media and public
debate. Moreover, Ono and
Sloop uncover more subversive vernacular discourses that, by
virtue of their incommensura-
bility with dominant logics, challenge dominant assumptions
about immigrants in popular
discourse. The relevance of Ono and Sloop's work to tbe current
study lies in its catalogue of
metapboric representations of immigrants in the coverage of
Proposition 187.
13. Ono and Sloop, Shifting Borders, 156.
14. Dorothy Nelkin and Mark Michaels, "Biological Categories
and Border Controls: The
Revival of Eugenics in Anti-Immigration Rhetoric,"
International Journal of Sociology and
Social Policy 18, no. 5/6 (1998): 35.
15. Ellis and Wright, "Balkanization," 688.

16. Leo R. Chavez, Covering Immigration: Popular Images and
the Politics of the Nation (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2001).
17. Santa Ana, Brown Tide Rising. See also Otto Santa Ana,
Juan Moran, and Cynthia Sanchez,
"Awash under a Brown Tide: Immigration Metaphors in
California Public and Print Media
Discourse," Az(tó« 23 (1998): 137-76.
18. Scholarship on visual rbetoric has increasingly become a
mainstay of rhetorical criticism as
more and more critics turn to analyzing images and other
"visual artifacts" for their persua-
sive and constitutive elements. Yet as Cara Finnegan and Jiyeon
Kang note, "it is no longer
useful to simply 'add images and stir.'" Scholars need to move
beyond justifying the study of
images to begin theorizing "how images and vision operate" and
how visual modes of rhet-
oric interact with other rhetorical elements like the verbal or
aural. Cara A. Finnegan and
Jiyeon Kang, "'Sighting' tbe Public: Iconoclasm and Public
Sphere Theory," Quarterly Journal
of Speech 90 (2004): 379. For further discussion of the
importance of the study of visual
rhetoric as well as examples of visual rhetorical criticism, see
Kevin Michael DeLuca, Image
Politics: The New Rhetoric of Environmental Activism (New
York: Guilford Press, 1999); Kevin
M. DeLuca and Anne Teresa Demo, "Imagining Nature:
Watkins, Yosemite, and the Birth of
Environmentalism," Critical Studies in Media Communication
17 (2000): 241-26; Cara A.
Finnegan, "Tbe Naturalistic Enthymeme and Visual Argument:

Photographic Representation
in the 'Skull Controversy,'" Argumentation and Advocacy 37
(2001): 133-49; Sonja Foss, "A
Rhetorical Schema for the Evaluation of Visual Imagery,"
Communication Studies 45 (1994):
213-24; Christine Harold and Kevin Michael DeLuca, "Behold
the Corpse: Violent Images
and the Case of Emmett Till," Rhetoric & Public Affairs 8
(2005): 263-86. In tbis paper I fol-
low Finnegan and Kang's call and examine how visual rhetoric
creates images of immigrants
that influence contemporary immigration debates.
19. Robert Hariman and John Louis Lucaites,"Performing Civic
Identity: The Iconic Photograph
of the Flag Raising on Iwo Jima," Quarterly Journal of Speech
88 (2002): 365.
20. Hariman and Lucaites, "Performing Civic Identity," 366.
21. Cori E. Dauber, "The Shots Seen 'Round the World: The
Impact of the Images of Mogadishu
on American Military Operations," Rhetoric & Public Affairs A
(2001): 654. For furtber dis-
cussion of the myth of objectivity and naturalism tied to
photographs and visual images, see
Roland Bartbes, "Rbetoric of tbe Image," in Image, Music, Text,
trans. Stephen Heath (New
York: Hill and Wang, 1977), 32-51; Finnegan, "Tbe Naturalistic
Enthymeme and Visual
Argument."
22. Margaret Morse, "News as Performance: The Image as
Event," in The Television Studies
Reader, ed. Robert C. Allen and Annette Hill (New York:
Routledge, 2004), 222. For further

discussion of the ideological elements of news media discourse,
see Shawn J. Parry-Giles,
"Mediating Hillary Rodham Clinton: Television News Practices
and Image-Making in the
Postmodern Age," Critical Studies in Media Communication 17
(2000): 205-26; Mimi White,
"Ideological Analysis and Television," in Channels of
Discourse, Reassembled, ed. Robert C.
Allen (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992),
161-202.
23. My approach to address this visual deficiency is not to
examine the visual images of news
media discourse in isolation. The focus on the visual alone is
also deficient because it fails
to recognize the relationship among the visual, the textual, and
the aural parts of the mes-
sage, an approach that is necessary to understand the
construction of contemporary media
discourse. Cara Finnegan notes in her discussion of the "image-
text" the need to look at how
the visual "taps into, shapes, and contests" the verbal and aural
messages of the text to illus-
trate how these relationships negotiate meaning. Cara A.
Finnegan, "Recognizing Lincoln:
Image Vernaculars in Nineteenth-Century Visual Culture,"
R/ietoricc^PuWicAjJ^flirs 8 (2005):
35. See also Cara A. Finnegan, "Social Engineering, Visual
Politics, and the New Deal: FSA
Photography in Survey Graphic" Rhetoric & Public Affairs 3
(2000): 333-62. For an example

of this comprehensive approach toward metaphoric
representations, see Martin J. Medhurst,
"The Rhetorical Structure of Oliver Stone's JFK" Critical
Studies in Mass Communication 10
(1993): 128-43.
24. Concepts like "nature" and "wilderness" are often used in
popular arguments to frame
minorities or women in certain symbolic relationships with
dominant culture. Conceptions
of women as closer to nature or more emotional and empathetic
in contrast to rational
and self-willed men serve to underpin patriarchal gender roles.
See, for example. Sherry B.
Ortner, "Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture?" in Woman,
Culture, and Society, ed.
Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere (Stanford,
CA: Stanford University Press,
1974), 67-87. Similarly, ethnic and cultural minorities like
Native Americans have faced rac-
ism and subjugation through a supposed closeness to a virgin
and pliable nature. William
Cronon, "The Trouble with Wilderness, or, Cetting Back to the
Wrong Nature," in The Great
New Wilderness Debate, eds. J. Baird Callicott and Michael P.
Nelson (Athens: LJniversity of
Georgia Press, 1998), 471-99. These are just a few examples of
the myriad ways in which
terms like "nature" are deployed to make racist, sexist, or
xenophobic arguments, pointing to
the need for examining the ways in which "nature," and its
attendant concepts, is deployed
rhetorically.
25. My focus was on television segments aired on Fox News and
CNN that were later available

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