Criminalizing immigrants is a policy choice, just like homelessness and for-profit health insurance. We do it to shift blame for some of our government's more poorly considered economic policies (de-unionization, NAFTA, bank deregulation, corporate centralization) onto some of the poorest victims of these policies.
We could solve every problem that we blame immigrants for simply by treating them as human beings with equal rights. Instead of leaving them to the tender mercies of red states, we could bus them to supportive communities in blue states and distribute first the burdens of hospitality, and later the blessings of integration, more fairly. This would also be a policy choice: a better one.
Here's what's NOT an option: Stopping people from migrating from places that are dangerous, unlivable, or underwater, again in part because of policy decisions made by our government. No matter how much money we waste, and no matter how many human lives we destroy, we will never stop people from moving.
Walking across an entirely imaginary and arbitrary line on a border, drawn on a map by who knows who for who knows what reasons, is not a criminal act. It just isn't.
Having racism, cruelty and inhumanity be the central point of your administration is frightening. Homan is a Nazi Commadant who Trump secured to carry out his mission. He plucked Homan out of retirement to lead his inhumane mission. My mother was in a Concentration Camp in Germany. I witnessed first hand what this does to a person. She lost all her family friends and community and never got over the guilt of being the only survivor.
Remember when “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" used to make many Americans step back and admire the courage of immigrants?
Duuuuuuuuuuuude you fucking arrested illegal immigrants in the country who came to pick up kids the last time! It caused a huge pile up of kids in US custody. What a fucking lying liar.
Immigration is complicated. I was reading about a woman who tried to cross. She had three US born kids and 2 kids born outside of the US. How do you handle that family? I know by doing away with birthright citizenship and keeping everyone in tent cities (don't call them camps) in the desert.
As of January 21st the united States as you have known it will cease to exist. It will be replaced by an oligarchy heading a quasi feudalism. i do hope that the people who preferred this to a woman POTUS are pleased.
I'm sure they are pleased now, mainly because they don't know what any of those words mean. Let's see what happens when their lives change unexpectedly.
Destiny became Manifest. Corporations became People. Money became Godly. Slavery became Wage Slavery. The only change is that the all-consuming greed of their vileness has appeared above ground, seeking ever more prey. Now their damage will be experienced instead of being excused, and everyone will know it for what it is. And then it can end.
Russia hasn't ended. It's gotten better at being awful. With an electorate that doesn't vote, oligarchs that don't pay their share of taxes, and people who swallow whole what the media feeds them, where does change come from?
A form of chafing, mostly. It comes from persistent chafing.
P.S. "Can end" is not "will end"; Russian Culture does not resemble Western Culture; It certainly will end, no guarantee about doing so in our lifetime; its policies are typically self-defeating. Hell, they're not even "policies", they'll force notions and opinions and suspicions to function in objective reality: wheels might come off real fast...
I imagine Homan will offer some variation on "I was only obeying orders" if at some future date he's charged with human rights abuses.(Unlikely to happen of course, but there's always a slim chance it does.)
It hasn't come up yet, but it will. President Sheinbaum has said Mexico will not accept US deportees who are not Mexican citizens. If the Mexican citizens being deported have US citizen dependents, it's gonna be tricky.
The tricky part will be proving the kid is a Mexican, especially if the parents say s/he is a USAnian.
In theory, only one needs to be Mexican. but there's bureaucratic processes involved, and that would mean the Mexican consular service will need to be involved... which could -- just to stick it to the US -- slow walk the process.
One weird thing about Mexico is our constitution is much more detailed than in the US and the citizenship article 8art 30) even specifies that if you are bon on a Mexican flagged ship, airplane, or oil platform, you are a citizen. i suppose somebody COULD be born on an oil platform but I don't think it ever happened.
Brazil is the same... they had a president born at sea to Italian parents.
All of this is meant to "deter" undocumented immigrants. Immigrants go anywhere that is not worse than where they live. There are jobs here which don't exist where the would be immigrant lives.
I have a proposal based on Mitt Romney's assertion that corporations are people. When ICE raids a corporate farm of a poultry processing facility, leave the workers alone and start making arrests in the boardroom and work down to the foreman. Detain the lot of them until it can be determined which workers are undocumented. If it turns out that none of the workers were undocumented then ICE can apologize for the inconvenience and send them a bill to cover the cost of their detention.
Criminalizing immigrants is a policy choice, just like homelessness and for-profit health insurance. We do it to shift blame for some of our government's more poorly considered economic policies (de-unionization, NAFTA, bank deregulation, corporate centralization) onto some of the poorest victims of these policies.
We could solve every problem that we blame immigrants for simply by treating them as human beings with equal rights. Instead of leaving them to the tender mercies of red states, we could bus them to supportive communities in blue states and distribute first the burdens of hospitality, and later the blessings of integration, more fairly. This would also be a policy choice: a better one.
Here's what's NOT an option: Stopping people from migrating from places that are dangerous, unlivable, or underwater, again in part because of policy decisions made by our government. No matter how much money we waste, and no matter how many human lives we destroy, we will never stop people from moving.
THIS, for Christ's sake!!!
Walking across an entirely imaginary and arbitrary line on a border, drawn on a map by who knows who for who knows what reasons, is not a criminal act. It just isn't.
Having racism, cruelty and inhumanity be the central point of your administration is frightening. Homan is a Nazi Commadant who Trump secured to carry out his mission. He plucked Homan out of retirement to lead his inhumane mission. My mother was in a Concentration Camp in Germany. I witnessed first hand what this does to a person. She lost all her family friends and community and never got over the guilt of being the only survivor.
"Who will rid me of this meddlesome pissant?"
~ Henry II
Remember when “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" used to make many Americans step back and admire the courage of immigrants?
MAGA thinks THEY are the ones this applies to now.
Whiney little paranoid children.
Duuuuuuuuuuuude you fucking arrested illegal immigrants in the country who came to pick up kids the last time! It caused a huge pile up of kids in US custody. What a fucking lying liar.
Immigration is complicated. I was reading about a woman who tried to cross. She had three US born kids and 2 kids born outside of the US. How do you handle that family? I know by doing away with birthright citizenship and keeping everyone in tent cities (don't call them camps) in the desert.
"... which would be unconstitutional, but only until the Supreme Court negates all previous decisions on the matter."
> who knew SCOTUS could just override the Constitution so readily?
Whoever nominated Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Coney-Barrett.
Expect a dramatic upswing in the number of Homan remains found inside and around the camps..
"It was the best of lines, it was the worst of lines..."
~You Little Dickens
“We can’t lose the faith of the American people.”
> this is a faith-based administration
And CNN will find a way to Sanewash this insanity.
"Obama did it first" is how it was done last time.
"¿Cuánto nos cobrarán por el agua? ¿Agua Trump?"
As of January 21st the united States as you have known it will cease to exist. It will be replaced by an oligarchy heading a quasi feudalism. i do hope that the people who preferred this to a woman POTUS are pleased.
Well, you know eggs are just so expensive.
I'm sure they are pleased now, mainly because they don't know what any of those words mean. Let's see what happens when their lives change unexpectedly.
Destiny became Manifest. Corporations became People. Money became Godly. Slavery became Wage Slavery. The only change is that the all-consuming greed of their vileness has appeared above ground, seeking ever more prey. Now their damage will be experienced instead of being excused, and everyone will know it for what it is. And then it can end.
Sadly, I don't share your optimism about "end."
Russia hasn't ended. It's gotten better at being awful. With an electorate that doesn't vote, oligarchs that don't pay their share of taxes, and people who swallow whole what the media feeds them, where does change come from?
Oh, no. The same language that I used to describe Russia also describes the US.
I’m hoping for rising seas, collapsing food chain, and earthquakes. Rebecca Solnit writes that heaven can be found in hell. It’s happened before.
I'm also going to read about when life itself almost died. There's a book with approximately that title somewhere.
A form of chafing, mostly. It comes from persistent chafing.
P.S. "Can end" is not "will end"; Russian Culture does not resemble Western Culture; It certainly will end, no guarantee about doing so in our lifetime; its policies are typically self-defeating. Hell, they're not even "policies", they'll force notions and opinions and suspicions to function in objective reality: wheels might come off real fast...
We are in for four fucking years (at least) of nothing but domestic abusers' excuses.
"Look what you made me do!"
Please cite the Bible Verse -- I'd love to use this during Hourly Family Prayer Hour here among the Napkins.
Bless you! 😇
Upfist for "Hourly Family Prayer Hour"
I imagine Homan will offer some variation on "I was only obeying orders" if at some future date he's charged with human rights abuses.(Unlikely to happen of course, but there's always a slim chance it does.)
It hasn't come up yet, but it will. President Sheinbaum has said Mexico will not accept US deportees who are not Mexican citizens. If the Mexican citizens being deported have US citizen dependents, it's gonna be tricky.
I don't know Mexico's laws, but don't most countries make you a citizen if both your parents are citizens, regardless of where you were born?
The tricky part will be proving the kid is a Mexican, especially if the parents say s/he is a USAnian.
In theory, only one needs to be Mexican. but there's bureaucratic processes involved, and that would mean the Mexican consular service will need to be involved... which could -- just to stick it to the US -- slow walk the process.
One weird thing about Mexico is our constitution is much more detailed than in the US and the citizenship article 8art 30) even specifies that if you are bon on a Mexican flagged ship, airplane, or oil platform, you are a citizen. i suppose somebody COULD be born on an oil platform but I don't think it ever happened.
Brazil is the same... they had a president born at sea to Italian parents.
Trump will declare war on Mexico
All of this is meant to "deter" undocumented immigrants. Immigrants go anywhere that is not worse than where they live. There are jobs here which don't exist where the would be immigrant lives.
I have a proposal based on Mitt Romney's assertion that corporations are people. When ICE raids a corporate farm of a poultry processing facility, leave the workers alone and start making arrests in the boardroom and work down to the foreman. Detain the lot of them until it can be determined which workers are undocumented. If it turns out that none of the workers were undocumented then ICE can apologize for the inconvenience and send them a bill to cover the cost of their detention.