Wow: AP sob-story on Katrina Immigrants

What's surprising is not the sympathetic coverage, it's the complete lack of facts for such a story. But before you realize that, you have to read 19 paragraphs of how the immigrants (we're speaking primarily of illegal immigrants here, but the AP would have none of that) are getting screwed by the very city they're only trying to help:

New Orleans prohibits people from asking for work on the street but enforcement was relaxed because the city recognized "the important contributions of these laborers," said Lisa Ponce de Leon, the city's director of international relations.

Deportations have increased 156 percent since 2005, when 3,962 immigrants were deported, to 9,749 deportations in 2007, according to ICE.

Five immigrants interviewed by The Associated Press said ICE agents often patrol streets posing as contractors — and then deport day laborers who hop in their trucks.

Even so, some rooting of new arrivals has taken place. Civic organizations, small businesses and blue-collar union organizing indicate the Latino presence has firmed.

U.S. Census data indicates nearly 100,000 Hispanics moved to the Gulf Coast after Katrina, but the Census tends not to reach undocumented immigrants.

So if deportations have increased, usually it's indicative of an increase in illegal immigration, which the story confirms, despite the headline, immigrants "leaving New Orleans." That's right, despite the numbers of immigration, they are emigrating because:

The number of workers who have left is uncertain.

Way to establish your main point there Mr. Castillo. But that's ok, he's got interview data, 5 of them, one of whom they actually identified, who says:

"It's going from bad to worse"