ABSTRACT
This chapter examines public discourse and media representations of immigration, especially from Mexico and Latin America, and Latinas/os in the United States, and what author have called the "Latino Threat" narrative. Public discourse on immigration has increasingly become less affirmative, or positive, and more alarmist. Stories that spoke positively about immigration were common in the 1970s, but steadily decreased in the 1980s and 1990s. This pattern exists in newspapers such as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. Although historically immigrants may have been desired for their labor, new waves of immigrants to the United States have often been viewed with suspicion and outright hostility. Media representations of Latinas/os and Latin American immigrants fluctuate between affirming their place in US society and viewing them as a threat to society. However, news media representations of Latina/o immigrants and their children have been less affirmative and more inflammatory since the 1970s.
