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Post by librarylady on Feb 27, 2024 16:36:07 GMT
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naby64
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,327
Member is Online
Jun 25, 2014 21:44:13 GMT
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Post by naby64 on Feb 27, 2024 16:44:23 GMT
Yep, Fox News has been telling viewers this for a few weeks. Also adding that most are males, traveling alone. So "they" can be manipulated by the Chinese gov't to do their bidding. That the families left behind are sort of collateral to keep the single guys in step.
I don't doubt we have some nefarious people getting over the border. That can happen no matter who is in charge. But have any of these people looked at China? Realized the oppression there? The need to leave?
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Post by Merge on Feb 27, 2024 16:51:16 GMT
Yep, Fox News has been telling viewers this for a few weeks. Also adding that most are males, traveling alone. So "they" can be manipulated by the Chinese gov't to do their bidding. That the families left behind are sort of collateral to keep the single guys in step. I don't doubt we have some nefarious people getting over the border. That can happen no matter who is in charge. But have any of these people looked at China? Realized the oppression there? The need to leave? I find all the rhetoric about "military aged men" pretty fear-mongery. Historically, young men are the first to immigrate from places with no jobs because they are more physically prepared for the rigors of travel and to do whatever job becomes available so they can send money back home. They don't have wives and children who will suffer in their absence. Many of us here are descendants of young men who likely came to the US for just that reason. Undoubtedly we do have nefarious people getting in regardless of which side is in charge. Fear-mongering about a normal feature of immigration is unnecessary, though. It's too bad the Republicans in the House wouldn't agree to the legislation that would have provided more money for immigration screening, processing, and hearings, so that those who wish us harm could be expelled from quickly. They'd rather not give Biden the win.
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Post by Lurkingpea on Feb 27, 2024 17:07:01 GMT
Yep, Fox News has been telling viewers this for a few weeks. Also adding that most are males, traveling alone. So "they" can be manipulated by the Chinese gov't to do their bidding. That the families left behind are sort of collateral to keep the single guys in step. I don't doubt we have some nefarious people getting over the border. That can happen no matter who is in charge. But have any of these people looked at China? Realized the oppression there? The need to leave? I find all the rhetoric about "military aged men" pretty fear-mongery. Historically, young men are the first to immigrate from places with no jobs because they are more physically prepared for the rigors of travel and to do whatever job becomes available so they can send money back home. They don't have wives and children who will suffer in their absence. Many of us here are descendants of young men who likely came to the US for just that reason. Undoubtedly we do have nefarious people getting in regardless of which side is in charge. Fear-mongering about a normal feature of immigration is unnecessary, though. It's too bad the Republicans in the House wouldn't agree to the legislation that would have provided more money for immigration screening, processing, and hearings, so that those who wish us harm could be expelled from quickly. They'd rather not give Biden the win. And it isn't like the only nefarious people are immigrants. Some pretty terrible people are born and bred Americans.
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iowgirl
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,295
Jun 25, 2014 22:52:46 GMT
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Post by iowgirl on Feb 27, 2024 17:38:45 GMT
I support legal immigration and I totally understand the depth of many peoples sorrow that need to come to a better life. They make our country better! But letting an uncontrolled amount into the country is not supportable. New York and other places are seeing this.
It is deplorable for some states to ship illegals to other states, but I can also see their plight. They are OUT of resources to deal with it. Why not spread the population to other states. I think it could be done better, but I see the reasoning for it.
Are Chinese and other groups coming in from Canada? Why would they not also cross there. I know official border crossings are guarded, but you can't tell me they watch it all and stop foreign nationals from crossing.
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Post by compeateropeator on Feb 27, 2024 18:07:48 GMT
It is not surprising to me that there are more people trying to escape (legally or illegally ) from places of extreme poverty, political unrest, persecution, etc. some Central and South American countries seem to be moving towards these living/social conditions, as are many other places.
- So I understand we cannot just let people in. - I also do not believe it is a new issue but has become a bigger issue as the world has changed, not necessarily that our border protocol has changed. - We have needed border reform and people have been talking about it, singing about it, writing about it for decades. The problem is it is getting so much worse for so many others outside the US. These people are truly trying to save their lives and/or that of their family. - I can’t say I wouldn’t try the same thing if I was in their situation. - IMO, It almost seems that the ones that have the opportunity to try and navigate the legal channels/process are then those that might not be the people that need the most help. So you have a big catch 22 and how do deal with it.
ETA- I am in a Northern border state and we have certainly had an increase of people trying illegally cross the border, so it is not just a Southern Border issue.
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Post by katlady on Feb 27, 2024 18:18:00 GMT
Are Chinese and other groups coming in from Canada? Why would they not also cross there. I know official border crossings are guarded, but you can't tell me they watch it all and stop foreign nationals from crossing. Chinese nationals do not need a visa to enter some South American countries. I think Ecuador is one. That is why they are coming in through the southern border.
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Post by smasonnc on Feb 27, 2024 18:33:48 GMT
Wasn't someone tasked with straightening out problems on the southern border? It seems to have gotten infinitely worse. 🤔 I'm trying to imagine what happens to someone who sneaks into China. They don't play around.
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Post by katlady on Feb 27, 2024 19:07:08 GMT
'm trying to imagine what happens to someone who sneaks into China. They don't play around. Do we want to be like China?? I don't know what the answer is, but I don't want to see us resort to torturing and killing people who are just looking for a better life. I guess the answer is really that the government of the countries that these people are coming from need to improve the living conditions and corruptions in their own country. Maybe then all these people would not be looking to escape.
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Post by Merge on Feb 27, 2024 19:24:46 GMT
Wasn't someone tasked with straightening out problems on the southern border? It seems to have gotten infinitely worse. 🤔 I'm trying to imagine what happens to someone who sneaks into China. They don't play around. It's hard for any one country to "straighten out" the economic and political woes of the countries from which most of our immigrants come. We can't prevent them from showing up - unless you want to be North Korea and start shooting people at the border on sight? What we should have done is to pass the bipartisan border legislation that would have allocated more funding to speed up the apprehension, processing and oversight of the legal process of asylum hearings. But that would require the cooperation of both parties - it's not something the executive can do unilaterally.
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Post by papersilly on Feb 27, 2024 19:30:29 GMT
'm trying to imagine what happens to someone who sneaks into China. They don't play around. Do we want to be like China?? I don't know what the answer is, but I don't want to see us resort to torturing and killing people who are just looking for a better life.
I guess the answer is really that the government of the countries that these people are coming from need to improve the living conditions and corruptions in their own country. Maybe then all these people would not be looking to escape. you are so right. i at the base of it all, people just want a better life. who wants to crawl through jungles, rivers, and dangerous areas just because they want to go to Disneyland? who wants to borrow incredible amounts of money and burden their families with debt just to pay someone to help get them across? who wants to leave their families for an uncertain life UNLESS it was to find a better life for them and their families? immigration is a very complex issue and some people have a tendency to condense it down to the 30 second clips they see on TV. some don't look beyond the politicization of the issue. racism can be involved. there are many reason why this is a hot bed issue. like you said, if we don't want people streaming in, we have to help bolster their government's economy so they have incentive to stay in their country. the lack of jobs or dangerous conditions force people to seek a life elsewhere. this is why we have to understand why foreign aid must be given to other countries. if you don't want to fix it here, then help fix it there. better to help prevent it than to damage control it.
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Post by sideways on Feb 27, 2024 20:46:52 GMT
I support legal immigration and I totally understand the depth of many peoples sorrow that need to come to a better life. They make our country better! But letting an uncontrolled amount into the country is not supportable. New York and other places are seeing this. It is deplorable for some states to ship illegals to other states, but I can also see their plight. They are OUT of resources to deal with it. Why not spread the population to other states. I think it could be done better, but I see the reasoning for it. Are Chinese and other groups coming in from Canada? Why would they not also cross there. I know official border crossings are guarded, but you can't tell me they watch it all and stop foreign nationals from crossing. Please stop using that term. It’s dehumanizing.
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Post by ntsf on Feb 27, 2024 21:15:21 GMT
the us needs immigrants.. it needs those ambitious/determined people who come across our borders. it would be great if we had a system to allow people in for work, on permits, and allow them to move back and forth. who is going to pick crops, do back kitchen work, run dairies, work in crappy jobs like caregivers and meat packing plants, and landscaping.
we are in better economic shape due to immigrants than many other countries. immigrants are part of the success of the us-- and woe to us if we think all of them are criminals or whatever. legal immigration is almost impossible now for most who do not have resources. many many of us have parents, grandparents, and so on back who did not come here in any "legal process" way.. they got on boats and just came over.
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iowgirl
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,295
Jun 25, 2014 22:52:46 GMT
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Post by iowgirl on Feb 27, 2024 21:59:31 GMT
the us needs immigrants.. it needs those ambitious/determined people who come across our borders. it would be great if we had a system to allow people in for work, on permits, and allow them to move back and forth. who is going to pick crops, do back kitchen work, run dairies, work in crappy jobs like caregivers and meat packing plants, and landscaping. Read about Leonard Chapman Jr. He was a retired Marine General who became commissioner of the INS in the early 70's. He set about locking up the southern border, which had been more fluid up to that time. Many seasonal workers were coming across to pick crops, etc. They were here for the seasons of work, and then returned to their families. Once the border became more of an issue to cross and they could not return and come back easily, or were blocked from seeing their families. So they began to cross and not return and also bring families with them. In my area, rural Iowa, there are many seasonal workers who work on farms around us. They usually come in the spring and stay until harvest is done in the fall, then return to their families. The farmers here have to provide them with housing and maybe transportation. Quite a few farms here employ them. Also some seasonal business such as tiling (drainage tiling). It is almost impossible to hire a farm hand anymore, so most are turning to migrant type employees who have work visa's to stay a certain amount of months, and then they hope like heck they come back to them in the spring. I am not sure what they are paid, but we are willing to pay $20 to $25 an hour for help (more sometimes) and it's pretty hard to find anyone local that either shows up or we even want on the farm, that isn't going to turn around and steal us blind. We have a high school boy that helps us when he is free and we pay him about $20/hour and he is fantastic, but soon off to college. We find around here no one wants to work. I don't know how they are surviving!
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Post by morecowbell on Feb 27, 2024 22:21:50 GMT
I support legal immigration and I totally understand the depth of many peoples sorrow that need to come to a better life. They make our country better! But letting an uncontrolled amount into the country is not supportable. New York and other places are seeing this. It is deplorable for some states to ship illegals to other states, but I can also see their plight. They are OUT of resources to deal with it. Why not spread the population to other states. I think it could be done better, but I see the reasoning for it. Are Chinese and other groups coming in from Canada? Why would they not also cross there. I know official border crossings are guarded, but you can't tell me they watch it all and stop foreign nationals from crossing. It's not deplorable when officials, Left and Right, were begging biden to do something because it was so unsustainable for one state to handle. Biden kept claiming "there wasn't a crisis" and otherwise ignoring their pleas for help. It's all they had left to do was to make the rest of the country aware of the CRISIS. Democrat Jessica Tarlov said it best: "It ended up being good on Governor Abbott to start bussing immigrants all over the country. When he started with Martha's Vineyard, him and DeSantis, I thought, oh, this is just a political stunt, it's ridiculous. And now that you have J. B. Pritzker, mayor adams, and Kathy Hochul, the mayor of Baltimore and DC saying we can not sustain this influx. Everybody feels like they live in Eagle Pass now."
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Gem Girl
Pearl Clutcher
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Posts: 2,684
Jun 29, 2014 19:29:52 GMT
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Post by Gem Girl on Feb 27, 2024 22:33:38 GMT
And it isn't like the only nefarious people are immigrants. Some pretty terrible people are born and bred Americans. And at least one of them is running for President.
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Post by morecowbell on Feb 27, 2024 23:12:34 GMT
I find all the rhetoric about "military aged men" pretty fear-mongery. Historically, young men are the first to immigrate from places with no jobs because they are more physically prepared for the rigors of travel and to do whatever job becomes available so they can send money back home. They don't have wives and children who will suffer in their absence. Many of us here are descendants of young men who likely came to the US for just that reason. Undoubtedly we do have nefarious people getting in regardless of which side is in charge. Fear-mongering about a normal feature of immigration is unnecessary, though. It's too bad the Republicans in the House wouldn't agree to the legislation that would have provided more money for immigration screening, processing, and hearings, so that those who wish us harm could be expelled from quickly. They'd rather not give Biden the win. And it isn't like the only nefarious people are immigrants. Some pretty terrible people are born and bred Americans. Surprised to see so many people agree with such an alarmingly ignorant statement. One of the main missions of the president is to keep Americans safe. Not take the attitude of "Oh well, we have our own nefarious people, so who cares if we let more in."
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jayfab
Drama Llama
procastinating
Posts: 5,597
Jun 26, 2014 21:55:15 GMT
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Post by jayfab on Feb 27, 2024 23:31:18 GMT
And it isn't like the only nefarious people are immigrants. Some pretty terrible people are born and bred Americans. Surprised to see so many people agree with such an alarmingly ignorant statement. One of the main missions of the president is to keep Americans safe. Not take the attitude of "Oh well, we have our own nefarious people, so who cares if we let more in." The president only protects us from "others" but not despicable Americans? I guess the protection is just from those people from shithole countries? That's quite a racist way to think of it.
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Post by Merge on Feb 27, 2024 23:38:56 GMT
I support legal immigration and I totally understand the depth of many peoples sorrow that need to come to a better life. They make our country better! But letting an uncontrolled amount into the country is not supportable. New York and other places are seeing this. It is deplorable for some states to ship illegals to other states, but I can also see their plight. They are OUT of resources to deal with it. Why not spread the population to other states. I think it could be done better, but I see the reasoning for it. Are Chinese and other groups coming in from Canada? Why would they not also cross there. I know official border crossings are guarded, but you can't tell me they watch it all and stop foreign nationals from crossing. It's not deplorable when officials, Left and Right, were begging biden to do something because it was so unsustainable for one state to handle. Biden kept claiming "there wasn't a crisis" and otherwise ignoring their pleas for help. It's all they had left to do was to make the rest of the country aware of the CRISIS. Democrat Jessica Tarlov said it best: "It ended up being good on Governor Abbott to start bussing immigrants all over the country. When he started with Martha's Vineyard, him and DeSantis, I thought, oh, this is just a political stunt, it's ridiculous. And now that you have J. B. Pritzker, mayor adams, and Kathy Hochul, the mayor of Baltimore and DC saying we can not sustain this influx. Everybody feels like they live in Eagle Pass now." Oh it’s still a political stunt. If it wasn’t, he’d coordinate with the receiving mayors/governors instead of dropping people on a street corner in freezing temps in the middle of the night. If it wasn’t, he wouldn’t have his AG working to shut down one the charities that is a major part of the infrastructure for handling migrants in El Paso - a move designed to put more immigrants on the street to punish the blue voters there. Greg Abbott was happy to welcome migrants in for cheap labor until it became politically expedient to make this big show. Ask yourself why the governors of New Mexico, Arizona, and California don’t feel the need to handle it as Abbott has.
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Post by Merge on Feb 27, 2024 23:40:59 GMT
And it isn't like the only nefarious people are immigrants. Some pretty terrible people are born and bred Americans. Surprised to see so many people agree with such an alarmingly ignorant statement. One of the main missions of the president is to keep Americans safe. Not take the attitude of "Oh well, we have our own nefarious people, so who cares if we let more in." I live in a sanctuary city five hours from the border. We have lots of undocumented immigrants here. They’re among my students every year. Generally speaking, I feel much safer with them than I do in deep red Texas where every bubba has a gun and an itchy trigger finger.
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Post by aj2hall on Feb 28, 2024 2:19:57 GMT
I recognize that immigration is a really complex issue and a lot has already been mentioned. I just wanted to add that the reason for some migration from Central America and other places is climate change. Some of the poorest countries in the world are suffering the most from climate change. I think it's important for wealthier countries to acknowledge and take responsibility for our role in climate change and consequently, a contributing factor in global migration. www.migrationpolicy.org/article/climate-migration-101-explainerOver time, a bigger issue may be migration prompted by slow, gradual climate change impacts. Hotter temperatures can threaten agricultural livelihoods, sea-level rise can make floods more severe, and desertification can foster conflict over water access, all of which can lead to migration. www.pbs.org/newshour/world/climate-change-is-already-fueling-global-migration-the-world-isnt-ready-to-meet-peoples-needs-experts-sayWhile worsening weather conditions are exacerbating poverty, crime and political instability, and fueling tensions over dwindling resources from Africa to Latin America, often climate change is overlooked as a contributing factor to people fleeing their homelands. According to the UNHCR, 90% of refugees under its mandate are from countries “on the front lines of the climate emergency.”
In El Salvador, for example, scores each year leave villages because of crop failure from drought or flooding, and end up in cities where they become victims of gang violence and ultimately flee their countries because of those attacks.
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Post by aj2hall on Feb 28, 2024 3:06:22 GMT
I do think something needs to happen at the federal level. The way that Abbott in Texas is handling immigration and this bill in Arizona is not going to end well.
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Post by Merge on Feb 28, 2024 17:24:07 GMT
I do think something needs to happen at the federal level. The way that Abbott in Texas is handling immigration and this bill in Arizona is not going to end well. In sure you recall that Abbott said the only reason Texas wasn’t shooting migrants was because the Biden admin would prosecute them for murder. 🙄 Looks like the Arizona repubs want to get in on some of that sweet election grandstanding, though. Gotta make the bloodthirsty base happy.They have to know their Democratic governor will never sign it into law, and even if she did, it’s unconstitutional and will be struck down.
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Post by aj2hall on Feb 28, 2024 18:30:27 GMT
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/02/13/immigration-economy-jobs-cbo-report/The surge in immigration is a $7 trillion gift to the economy Catherine Rampell February 13, 2024 As the economy has improved and consumers have begun recognizing that improvement, Republicans have pivoted to attacking President Biden on a different policy weakness: immigration. After all, virtually everyone — Democrats included — seems to agree the issue is a serious problem.
But what if that premise is wrong? Voters and political strategists have treated our country’s ability to draw immigrants from around the world as a curse; it could be a blessing, if only we could get out of our own way.
Consider a few numbers: Last week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released updated 10-year economic and budget forecasts. The numbers look significantly better than they did a year earlier, and immigration is a key reason.
The CBO has now factored in a previously unexpected surge in immigration that began in 2022, which the agency assumes will persist for several years. These immigrants are more likely to work than their native-born counterparts, largely because immigrants skew younger. This infusion of working-age immigrants will more than offset the expected retirement of the aging, native-born population.
This will in turn lead to better economic growth. As CBO Director Phill Swagel wrote in a note accompanying the forecasts: As a result of these immigration-driven revisions to the size of the labor force, “we estimate that, from 2023 to 2034, GDP will be greater by about $7 trillion and revenues will be greater by about $1 trillion than they would have been otherwise.”
None of this is to diminish the near-term stresses on the U.S. economy that come from poorly managed flows of immigration. These challenges clearly exist, both at the southwest border and in cities such as New York and Chicago, where busloads of asylum seekers are ending up (by choice or otherwise). Absent more resources to manage these inflows and expedite processing either to authorize migrants to work in the United States or to return them to their home countries, this strain will continue.
Instead, GOP lawmakers scaremonger about the foreign-born, characterizing immigration as an invasion. As Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) dog-whistled last week, “Import the 3rd world. Become the 3rd world.” Alas, the faction working to turn the United States into a developing country is not immigrants but Collins’s own party. It’s Republicans, after all, who have supported the degradation of the rule of law; the return of a would-be dictator; the gutting of public education and health-care systems; the rollback of clean-water standards and other environmental rules; and the relaxation of child labor laws (in lieu of letting immigrants fill open jobs, of course).
America has historically drawn hard-working immigrants from around the world precisely because its people and economy have more often been shielded from such “Third World”-like instability, which Republican politicians now invite in. Ronald Reagan, the erstwhile leader of the conservative movement, often spoke poignantly of this phenomenon. In one of his last speeches as president, he described the riches that draw immigrants to our shores and how immigrants in turn redouble those riches:
Thanks to each wave of new arrivals to this land of opportunity, we’re a nation forever young, forever bursting with energy and new ideas, and always on the cutting edge, always leading the world to the next frontier. This quality is vital to our future as a nation. If we ever closed the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost. — www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/remarks-presentation-ceremony-presidential-medal-freedom-5
Reagan’s words reflected the poetry of immigration. Since then, the prose — as we’ve seen in the economic numbers, among other metrics — has been pretty compelling, too.
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Post by hopemax on Feb 28, 2024 18:49:56 GMT
This is an article that showed up in my news feed today. This is the nursery we shop at. www.cpr.org/2024/02/28/arvada-echters-garden-center-and-nursery-hires-new-immigrants/Given the labor shortages that is affecting everything, the US really needs to open the doors back up. Find a way to match people to open jobs and move them quickly from the border to their new area in an efficient manner, paid for by the business class who desperately needs workers. But too many people have their sacred cows to protect, feel the need to be punitive, and aren't comfortable with the aggressive changes that would need to happen. It bothers me that the woman in this story is a nurse, but the way we'll take her is to work at a garden center. My Dad's favorite dental hygienist is a trained dentist and an immigrant. But it was far, far easier and affordable for him to go through a hygienist program than get certification to be a dentist here.
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Post by morecowbell on Feb 29, 2024 19:57:51 GMT
Surprised to see so many people agree with such an alarmingly ignorant statement. One of the main missions of the president is to keep Americans safe. Not take the attitude of "Oh well, we have our own nefarious people, so who cares if we let more in." The president only protects us from "others" but not despicable Americans? I guess the protection is just from those people from shithole countries? That's quite a racist way to think of it. YOU ask me a question. YOU answer it for me. Then YOU call me a racist, BASED on YOUR answer. Since YOU answered the question, based on your standard, that makes YOU the RACIST.
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Post by aj2hall on Feb 29, 2024 23:08:58 GMT
for someone who supposedly can't tie his own shoes, Biden cleverly issued a challenge to Trump today www.nytimes.com/live/2024/02/29/us/biden-trump-border-visitPresident Biden issued a political dare to his biggest rival, former President Donald J. Trump, as the men took dueling trips to the southern border in Texas on Thursday in an effort to leverage a dominant issue of the 2024 presidential campaign.
In remarks delivered some 300 miles away, Mr. Trump highlighted crimes committed by migrants in an attempt to portray Mr. Biden as a president plunging the nation into crime and disorder.
Mr. Biden, by contrast, focused on compromise, but he also baited his rival, using a bipartisan bill that fell apart in the Senate at Mr. Trump’s urging.
“Instead of telling members of Congress to block this legislation, join me,” Mr. Biden said of the bill that had been a breakthrough after years of paralysis on one of the nation’s most intractable issues.
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Post by sunshine on Feb 29, 2024 23:11:47 GMT
What kind of ice cream did he get today?
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Post by aj2hall on Feb 29, 2024 23:18:22 GMT
In comparison, Trump, Republicans and Fox have focused on "migrant crime". Apparently, it has become Trump's new political slogan www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/29/trump-border-biden-migrant-crime/The birth of Fox News’s ‘migrant crime’ obsession
Fox News host Jesse Watters opened his show on Wednesday night by telling his audience that there is “a migrant crime spree that is killing Americans” and that “the president’s an accessory to murder.” Over on-screen text proclaiming “MIGRANT CRIME SPREE HITS AMERICA,” he listed a handful of incidents in which immigrants allegedly committed crimes.
Watters excoriated President Biden for focusing on guns in an address about crime, instead of other things, including “Black fathers.” To focus on military-style weapons, Watters said, ignored that “the issue with Black-on-Black crime is handguns.” But most of his opprobrium was centered on that other group of alleged criminals.
“Now,” he warned, “we’re dealing with migrant crime.”
A month ago, this idea of “migrant crime” was not part of the Fox News patter. In late January, host John Roberts introduced a story about Chicago by asserting that, while dealing with strains because of the arrival of immigrants to the city, there was also another problem: “migrant crime.” But that was an isolated mention. It wasn’t yet a focus of his employer’s coverage.
It has since become one. Over the past month, Fox News hosts, guests and video clips have mentioned “migrant crime” nearly 90 times, more than half of those in the past 10 days. The reason has a little bit to do with a police official in New York City. It has a lot to do with Donald Trump.
At the start of February, the phrase “migrant crime” was picking up a bit in Fox News usage. Host Laura Ingraham, long one of the most fervently right-wing voices on immigration in conservative media, invoked the term more than once, including offering the suggestion that there was a “migrant crime wave” in New York. Fox Business host Larry Kudlow — a veteran of the Trump administration — picked it up as well.
Then, on Feb. 5, New York Mayor Eric Adams hosted a news conference centered on public safety. Adams has for months been at odds with the Biden administration over the increase in immigrants in the city, pressing the federal government for more resources to address the issue. At the news conference, he and his team specifically argued that immigrants were affecting crime in the city.
“In recent months, a wave of migrant crime has washed over our city,” New York Police Commissioner Edward Caban said at the news conference. He was speaking in the wake of an incident in which immigrants had scuffled with police in Times Square, an incident that was in heavy rotation on Fox News and that was later shown not to have unfolded the way police first suggested.
“By no means do the individuals committing these crimes represent the vast number of people coming to New York to build a better life,” Caban continued. But when Fox picked up his remarks in its coverage the following day, that part was snipped out. Instead, they jumped ahead to another part of his comments, where he intoned that these were “essentially ghost criminals: no criminal history, no photos, no cellphone, no social media.”
The New York Times subsequently noted that there has not been an uptick in crime in the city in recent months. In fact, both violent and property crimes are mostly down in 2024 relative to the same point in 2023. But Fox News has never placed the burden of verification on its claims about crime. There are high-profile examples of alleged crimes committed by immigrants in the country illegally, so Fox News hosts were happy to elevate Caban’s assertion. Trump quickly picked up on the idea. Speaking at a National Rifle Association conference earlier this month, he used the term explicitly.
“We call it migrant crime,” he said. “It’s unbelievable what’s going on. And now for the first time, you’re seeing migrant crime. These are tough people.”
Never mind that Trump’s 2015 presidential campaign launch was centered on the idea that immigrants entering the United States were criminals. Trump had picked up on a new political slogan.
It really caught on after he appeared in a one-on-one conversation with Ingraham.
“It’s a new category,” he told Ingraham, who had used the term more than two weeks before. “I don’t know if you’ve heard this, but I came up with this one: migrant crime. There’s ‘crime,’ there’s ‘violent crime,’ there’s ‘migrant crime.’” “We have a new category of crime,” he continued. “It’s called migrant crime and it’s going to be worse than any other form of crime.”
The day after that interview aired, Fox News used “migrant crime” more than 20 times on-air, including in clips of Trump’s comments. (MSNBC aired it more than a dozen times, in a far more critical context.)
Since then, Fox News has mentioned “migrant crime” on-air every single day. And that’s just in spoken conversation. During a White House event on Wednesday, Fox News superimposed on-screen criticism: “BIDEN IGNORES MIGRANT CRIME DURING REMARKS.”
The political and cultural utility here is obvious. No one wants to appear to be on the side of people committing horrible crimes. Pushing back on exaggerated, baseless claims of rampant illegality opens you up to facile rejoinders about being uninterested in or soft on crime. That makes it easy to allege a crime wave without evidence. Like this one. Beyond high-profile examples of alleged criminality, there’s no evidence that crime is being pushed significantly higher thanks to immigrants — nor, more specifically, is there evidence (as Trump claims) that criminals are intentionally being sent to the United States.
But what’s Jesse Watters going to do? Offer his audience a nuanced assessment of criminality and immigration? Deploy rhetoric that isn’t specifically aimed at tearing down Biden and the left? Probably not.
“Migrant crime is taking over America,” Trump said in a video posted to social media. He suggested that Biden had allowed an “invasion of our country,” allowing people “into American communities to prey on our people.” He alleged that a “Biden migrant” had committed a murder in Georgia after “Crooked Joe” ordered the immigrant to be released.
Needless to say, the president has no role in individual immigration decisions. But no matter. Look for Trump’s allies to pick up this line of rhetoric imminently.
And what’s Trump going to do? Not use the idea in campaign videos?www.nytimes.com/live/2024/02/29/us/biden-trump-border-visit“Now the United States is being overrun by the Biden migrant crime. It’s a new form of vicious violation to our country.”
— Former President Donald J. Trump
This lacks evidence.
There are certainly examples of immigrants in the country illegally committing crimes — including violent attacks — but the available data doesn’t support the notion of an immigrant-linked crime wave.
Mr. Trump invoked the recent killing of Laken Riley, 22-year-old nursing student in Georgia. An immigrant who was in the country illegally from Venezuela, who had been previously arrested, was charged with her murder.
Still, analyses conducted in recent years do not show that immigrants, even those here illegally, are statistically tied to increases in crimes.
One recently updated analysis by Alex Nowrasteh, the vice president for economic and social policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, found that the homicide conviction rate for illegal immigrants in Texas in 2015 was slightly lower than the rate among U.S. citizens.
The research found a homicide conviction rate of 2.4 per 100,000 illegal immigrants — versus a rate of 2.8 per 100,000 for U.S.-born citizens. (Immigrants in the country legally had the lowest conviction rate, with 1.1 per 100,000.)
In New York City, news coverage has highlighted crimes committed by immigrants in the country illegally, including a 15-year-old boy who shot a tourist. But the overall crime rate in the city has stayed flat despite the arrival of more than 170,000 migrants since April 2022, a recent Times analysis found, and some major categories of crimes have decreased.
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Post by revirdsuba99 on Mar 1, 2024 3:51:35 GMT
Just thought of something..
TFG had no problem with that Chinese woman who wandered into MAL with electronics in hand!!
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