What a stupid thing to focus on. I hate that the southern border is even a topic people bring up. It's a completely made up problem.
B-but scawwy foreigners!
75% of this country thinks the border is in crisis. I fucking hate it.
If we had a political party with the courage to say "It's not a crisis, quit falling for bullshit" that number would go down
Not by much, I'd wager. Democrats don't tend to sway their opinions much when the party takes a different line than the majority Dem opinion, and Republicans are too racist to change their views on the border.
It would be nice to have a voice of sanity in the fucking country, though.
A majority of Democratic voters in the 40s and 50s thought segregation was a state issue the federal government should stay out of because they didn't want the controversy, but some Democratic leaders saw it differently, and thank goodness they did because without them pushing the issue along with civil rights activists we never would have gotten (among other things) a voting rights act.
It wouldn't just be nice to have a voice of sanity, it's the only way this issue is getting any better imo
I think the border is in crisis. Our shitty policies make it incredibly and unnecessarily difficult for people to enter the country seeking asylum or a legal means of getting citizenship. I would say the camps of people stuck on the other side of the border, prey to criminals who would rape, steal, and murder (not to mention the asylum-seekers vulnerable to those they are seeking asylum from) are the biggest part of that crisis.
So I'm not sure if I'd be considered part of that 75%, because my solution is to make the system more efficient in letting people in and started with paths to citizenship. Then there wouldn't be masses of people at the border.
Yeah, but when most people say "Border crisis", they don't mean "Holy shit refugees are in inhumane conditions, we need to help them", they mean "I'm scared that there are too many brown people coming into MY good, white, Christian country!"
Every 2 years like fucking clockwork there's a "border crisis" to waste time and energy on, which promptly disappears from public consciousness and media the day after the election. It's tiring
Its an election year so theres magically another immigrant surge that needs to be fixed.
If we had open borders, I bet 99% of Americans wouldn't even notice a change in their day-to-day life. Old peoples' obsession with the border is tiring as fuck. I just don't understand any they care so much about something that doesn't affect them, other than to simply be racist.
According to the DHS,
Affirmative asylum case filings with USCIS nearly quadrupled from 63,074 applications in 2021 to 238,841 in 2022, the highest number on record.
The total number of defensive asylum applications filed with EOIR nearly tripled from 88,162 in 2021 to 253,524 in 2022, the highest on record.
I don't have the numbers for all of 2023 in front of me but they're higher than the ones for 2022. (And keep in mind that not everyone crossing the border files an asylum application.)
Hundreds of thousands more people than normal are entering across the border, and existing systems for accommodating them are overwhelmed. Maybe the best solution is not closing the border, but thinking that there is no problem is inconsistent with reality.
Yeah it sounds like we need to better fund our asylum program.
Crazy idea, but we all came to this country as immigrants, and wiped out most of the population that was already here. Seems a little ironic to me that we're now concerned about who can and can't live here.
I live in New York City, where as of the beginning of December 2023,
According to the city's Department of Social Services, more than 157,600 asylum seekers arrived in New York City since last spring [2022] in need of shelter and more 67,000 remain in the city's care, with hundreds more arriving every day.
That's about 2% of the population of the city. The ones still in shelters have more than doubled the city's homeless population. If we stopped being concerned about these people then they would be outside without food and shelter, and it gets quite cold around here. However, being concerned about them is projected to cost the city more than ten billion dollars over the next three years, which is a lot of money even for a city this big.
Something needs to be done at the federal level. Right now the federal government is letting a lot of people in and then doing very little to take care of them once they're in the country, and that's not working.
I agree, we should be helping people that come into this country seeking refuge from war, and shitty economic conditions in their own countries, not demonizing them.
We aren't doing that,, we are instead using them as political pawns for browny points with each political parties respective base. Instead of seeing them as people.
Why do Democrats keep trying to appease Fascists?
Because this will undercut the only politically popular Republican position, which Republicans are currently wielding as a cudgel against the Biden Administration. In the process, Republicans are treating the people crossing the border worse and worse, increasing human suffering. If Biden can take control of the narrative of the border, there is a real possibility he can start to make things better and decrease human suffering.
If Biden can take control of the narrative of the border, there is a real possibility he can start to make things better and decrease human suffering.
There's a possibility he can, but no possibility he will.
"Just a few hundreds more people in concentration camps and thousands more deported, and we can finally stop the Republicans from imprisoning and deporting immigrants and refugees!"
Democrats having a normal one about human rights, eh?
Edit: This may be a good place to remind everyone that the people we're de facto targeting with these policies are people with indigenous roots. This can and should be interpreted through the lens of colonialism and our ongoing genocide against Native groups.
Edit 2: Oh boy I cannot believe I have to say this, but these people with indigenous roots are not limited to Mexico and Central America. Does anyone know anything about history here?? My God, I'd assume if one is going to comment that one would at least have the slightest idea what they're talking about.
Edit 3: And to the people who think it's some kinda "gotcha" to point out that I'm disengaging from people who are shit-deep in the anti-immigrant hysteria, you got me. Nearly half my family are immigrants, some of whom have been detained and/or deported by our racist border policy, and I live surrounded by batshit conservatives. So yes, this is a sensitive and personal issue to me. If I wanted to talk to people like that, I'd go to the gas station or bar. Lemmy is my opportunity to talk to people who at the bare minimum agree on certain fundamental ideals, an opportunity I don't have much in real life. I will block and report you for name calling or other uncivilized attacks on my character.
Because the both answer to the same corporate overlords
The fun thing is that this bill would give any president that power.
…. Oh.
But maybe that’s what they want. A president that can shut the border for political points would decimate industry. These tend to be industries that employ a lot of salt of the earth people, and the owners give a lot of money to Republicans. Republicans use this as a wedge issue and have spent years whipping their base into a frenzy. Giving them the authority to hurt themselves.
A stupid Republican president would shut down the border and harm industry. A smart Republican president would not fall into that trap, but be paralyzed until a new talking point arises.
The base would support populist moves like shutting the border. Donors wouldn’t. Farmers with rotting crops would not.
Shrewd.
It's shrewd for a totally different reason. Trump told them not to pass this bill, Johnson says it's DOA in the Republican House. So now Trump and the Republican House are arguing against closing the border.
If any Republican says Biden is for open borders he can just say "I had a bipartisan deal for closing the border and Trump and the Republicans killed it."
The election year eternal immigrant caravan strikes again. I get the move politically, but it’s unfortunate the GOP is so much better at messaging and controlling public focus than the Dems. They have no answer but to play the game on Republican terms.
I don't understand how the immigrant caravan magically disappears the Wednesday after election day. It's like they start making their way to the border the January of an election year and then poof they are gone after the polls close.
Their greatest magic trick is that it will disappear for the entirety of a Republican administration. It's Schrodinger's caravan. It only exists if there is an election coming up, or a Democrat is in office.
That’s because the GOP take the easy road of appealing to people’s fear where as dems in theory try to appeal to logic and sensibility, it’s a fight they can never win.
Big part of it is because Republican rhetoric is so much more shocking and sensationalist by design. It attracts attention instantly. Dems do the boring, bread-and-butter politics that we need to run the country. Doesn't attract as much attention.
Playing the game on Republican terms is why they seem so much better at messaging than us. "Our opponents are right that this is a problem, but our solution is better" is not convincing. "Our opponents are lying about this, like they do with everything else. The situation is under control and we're going to keep it that way by [insert legislation du jour]" is.
I fucking hate the politics surrounding the border in this country.
If you've never seen it, watch an old musical called 'The Music Man.' A con man finds a small town and convinces the locals that their town is on the road to ruin because someone opened up a pool hall. The GOP can find any issue and blow it up. Heck, Obama's suit was a matter of national controversy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_tan_suit_controversy
And Democratic party members who pretend Republicans' bullshit is real and try to meet them in the middle with draconian legislation and dumbass statements like this just make the problem worse
"The minute your son leaves the house, does he rebuckle his knickerbockers below the knee? It must be because of the Trans Menace!!"
I could see it in a modern take. With a capital T even!
Fucking hell, here's to hoping Congressional Republicans are too self defeating to pass this fucking trash, the fact that Democratic negotiators thought this was a good idea - like, right after the fucking Trump administration, thought "yeah, let's give the executive branch more power to be assholes to immigrants" - is just mind boggling
Then again, it feels pretty similar to Obama trying to work with Republicans to gut social security a few years after 2008, so maybe I should stop being surprised by these things
"We won't negotiate with terrorists and fascists."
Immediately negotiates with terrorists and fascists
You mention Obama. I remember in 2008 being so enthused that I volunteered for his campaign and poured my heart out, only to get ... what we got. I don't see this pattern ever changing. We really need to find a way out of this two-party system. I'm not sure what that way is, but we so desperately need it.
Gee, I can't imagine who else could abuse that newfound power for some other arbitrarily heinous reasons.
Do I agree? I don't think so. But I must admit this is a smart move politically. It calls their bluff.
Jfc can we get someone up for election who's not a raging fascist?
Fuck this country, and fuck everyone who supports this. Every. One. No matter how much you screech "iLlEgAl" at our prospective immigrants and refugees from the comfort of your home. Fuck you personally if you're someone who does that and who thinks this is a good move by our president.
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