SF Weekly Challenges Guardian Op-Ed on "Border Crossers"

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2008/12/sf_weekly_challenges_guardian.php
Lauren Smiley
12/4/2008

My story took a critical yet sensitive look at a quirk in the asylum system: that transgender immigrant women locally and nationwide have succeeded in winning asylum despite the fact that many have prior prostitution arrests on their records, and that some continue to prostitute even after gaining legal status. As journalistic standards require, the story neither advocates asylum nor opposes it -- and certainly doesn't present it as "egregious," as Robert Haaland alleges in his op-ed. While the sexual nature of the crime (prostitution) and the marginalized group of people at hand (trans-Latina immigrants) makes for an easy allegation that this is a sensationalized story, the root issue is the people who have won protection from the U.S. government on humanitarian grounds, and who have broken and/or continue to break the law. Those are the facts, and I've reported them.