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Post by Merge on Mar 1, 2024 19:47:45 GMT
And my parents were both killed by a middle aged white American with two prior drunk driving convictions who felt it was OK to operate his boat at over twice the legal limit. Oh and he had a Rush Limbaugh sticker on that boat, so he was one of yours. Where is your outrage over the laxity of drunk driving sentences for wealthy white men? I suppose you’re one of those who think we should start shooting anyone who might be an illegal immigrant on sight. Heck, authorize citizens to do it! Spanish speaking people walking down your street? They’re probably illegal! Do what the Feds won’t and shoot them. Because despite the ridiculous rhetoric you choose to believe, there is no realistic way to “close the border.” We have laws regarding asylum that predate Biden by a long way. Biden tried to tighten those laws and your people voted the bill down. So all your outrage rings very hollow. Not only are you using your parents' death to "win" a debate, that is already sickening enough, but you are also trying to connect me to your parents' death. You are deplorably demented. You are truly messed up. Really. Get some help. That is beyond sick. Oh Gia. I’m not the one who needs help. |
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Post by morecowbell on Mar 1, 2024 20:00:32 GMT
Not only are you using your parents' death to "win" a debate, that is already sickening enough, but you are also trying to connect me to your parents' death. You are deplorably demented. You are truly messed up. Really. Get some help. That is beyond sick. Oh Gia. I’m not the one who needs help. Yes, sadly, you really are. You continue to show how mentally unstable you are. Gia is someone you seem to think you have sufficiently smeared and you are applying it to me as nothing more than a smear tactic. My name is morecowbell. If you call me anything else, it is for no other reason than the simple point of smearing -because you have nothing substantive to counter with.And because you are under the very deluded impression, that means you won the argument. Every time you call me anything but morecowbell you continue to show that you NEED to smear. Which continues to show JUST HOW MUCH YOU ARE MENTALLY UNABLE TO HANDLE DISAGREEMENT. |
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jayfab
Drama Llama
procastinating
Posts: 5,597 
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Post by jayfab on Mar 1, 2024 20:24:40 GMT
Oh Gia. I’m not the one who needs help. Yes, sadly, you really are. You continue to show how mentally unstable you are. Gia is someone you seem to think you have sufficiently smeared and you are applying it to me as nothing more than a smear tactic. My name is morecowbell. If you call me anything else, it is for no other reason than the simple point of smearing -because you have nothing substantive to counter with.And because you are under the very deluded impression, that means you won the argument. Every time you call me anything but morecowbell you continue to show that you NEED to smear. Which continues to show JUST HOW MUCH YOU ARE MENTALLY UNABLE TO HANDLE DISAGREEMENT.You are sick. It sure sounds like you're not ok with crime by migrants but could give a shit about red blooded Americans who commit atrocious crimes. You make me want to vomit. Crime affects us all. We are all NOT OK with crime by ANY ONE! It's hit my family big time so I know of what I'm saying. My niece was raped and murdered by a white American but I don't hate all white Americans. Also. What's the matter with calling names? It's just a nickname. If your dear leader was fine with it you should be too, cow. I guess he is just too mentally unable to handle disagreement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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Post by Merge on Mar 1, 2024 20:27:05 GMT
Oh Gia. I’m not the one who needs help. Yes, sadly, you really are. You continue to show how mentally unstable you are. Gia is someone you seem to think you have sufficiently smeared and you are applying it to me as nothing more than a smear tactic. My name is morecowbell. If you call me anything else, it is for no other reason than the simple point of smearing -because you have nothing substantive to counter with.And because you are under the very deluded impression, that means you won the argument. Every time you call me anything but morecowbell you continue to show that you NEED to smear. Which continues to show JUST HOW MUCH YOU ARE MENTALLY UNABLE TO HANDLE DISAGREEMENT.Ok, Gia. You know, it’s really dishonest to pretend to be someone you’re not. You’re not fooling anyone. If you don’t know who Gia is, why would calling you that be a smear? Regardless, I’m not the one who pulled up a handful of violent crimes committed by immigrants (many fewer per capita than with the native born population, BTW) to try to dehumanize an entire group of people and support your “argument.” How is “using” my parents’ deaths any different than you “using” those deaths? It’s not. But very predictably, you don’t like being shown up and have now dissolved into a sad pile of capslock froth. Enjoy the rest of your day. |
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Post by onelasttime on Mar 1, 2024 20:29:08 GMT
Oh Gia. I’m not the one who needs help. Yes, sadly, you really are. You continue to show how mentally unstable you are. Gia is someone you seem to think you have sufficiently smeared and you are applying it to me as nothing more than a smear tactic. My name is morecowbell. If you call me anything else, it is for no other reason than the simple point of smearing -because you have nothing substantive to counter with.And because you are under the very deluded impression, that means you won the argument. Every time you call me anything but morecowbell you continue to show that you NEED to smear. Which continues to show JUST HOW MUCH YOU ARE MENTALLY UNABLE TO HANDLE DISAGREEMENT.After I stopped laughing at your ridiculousness I looked up the term “to project.“ And yup that describes you to a “t”. Your Republican/MAGA buddies do the exact same thing. To Project - “unconsciously taking unwanted emotions or traits you don't like about yourself and attributing them to someone else.” |
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Post by revirdsuba99 on Mar 1, 2024 20:59:41 GMT
Your mother sure was screwed up to name you THAT!! Explains a lot about you though... Sure cowbell!!
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Post by Merge on Mar 1, 2024 21:37:49 GMT
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Post by aj2hall on Mar 1, 2024 22:18:05 GMT
Not surprisingly, Trump, Republicans and Fox are not being entirely truthful about migrants and crime www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/fact-checking-trumps-speech-crime-and-immigrantsFact-Checking Trump’s Speech on Crime and Immigrants The former president mischaracterized the data when speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Trump’s stories, however, don’t line up with reality, as my colleagues Lauren-Brooke Eisen and Ames Grawert explain in a recent article on our website.
The first problem with Trump’s narrative is the timeline. The spike in violent crime happened on Trump’s watch, not Biden’s. In 2020, the final year of the Trump presidency, murder rose by nearly 30 percent and assault by more than 10 percent. Crime surges are almost always multifactorial, and the Covid-19 pandemic and associated economic upheaval played a major role in the historic 2020 crime surge. One cause, though, most certainly was not the Biden presidency, which had not yet begun.
Since Biden took office, violent crime appears to be on a downward trend. As of 2022, violent crime rates had fallen by 4 percent and murder rates by roughly 7 percent since 2020, according to the FBI. Those numbers haven’t returned us to pre-Covid levels, unfortunately, but the trend lines certainly don’t suggest that Biden’s policies — or anyone’s policies since 2020 — caused a crime surge. The more likely explanation is that, following a decades-long decline in violent crime, the pandemic initiated a spike that is in the process of receding.
Trump’s other baseless crime-related claim at CPAC was that newly arrived migrants are responsible for violent crime. He predicted that the current wave of migration will be “far more deadly than anyone thought.” There is no evidence to support this narrative. New York City, for example, has absorbed more than 150,000 migrants since the spring of 2022. Violent crime did not increase during that time. Moreover, research conducted before the pandemic suggests that undocumented immigrants are not a major source of crime, contrary to Trump’s claim.
For decades, crime was the most potent wedge issue. Such inflammatory topics aimed to cause disagreement between white voters and voters of color. That was easier in years when violence soared and cities spiraled as a result. Gentlemanly George H.W. Bush won the presidency using scary advertisements about Willie Horton, a Black man who had raped a white woman while out on a weekend furlough from prison. Lee Atwater, Bush’s strategist, vowed to make Horton “Michael Dukakis’s running mate.” It helped propel Bush to the White House.
But over the past decade, there has been a heartening bipartisan movement to reform criminal justice laws. In 2016, candidates jostled to denounce “mass incarceration.” Trump signed the First Step Act — a sentencing and prison reform bill — and featured formerly incarcerated people sitting in the gallery during the State of the Union.
So Trump’s turn to xenophobic bombast, while not a surprise, is unsettling. With the economy strengthening, immigration will be a dominant issue. Here as in other countries, for reasons good and bad, millions of people are crossing borders. If some commit crimes, it will become fodder for campaign attacks. Social media and right-wing broadcasters will amplify each attack. The next Willie Horton will debut in the Daily Mail online. www.cnn.com/2024/02/29/politics/fact-check-trump-biden-border-speech/index.htmlWashington CNN — President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump delivered back-to-back Thursday speeches at different Texas locations near the border with Mexico.
Biden’s speech, largely delivered from a prepared text, was highly factual. Biden devoted much of the address to an accurate description of various provisions of the bipartisan border bill he supports but Trump’s opposition helped to kill in Congress.
Trump’s speech minutes prior, much of which appeared to be off the cuff, was filled with assertions about migrants that were unsubstantiated, misleading or plain false.
Some of his words were too conspiratorially vague to definitively fact-check. For example, Trump spoke of migrants as “entire columns of fighting-age men” and said “they look like warriors to me; something’s going on, and it’s bad” – winking at a baseless narrative about foreign adversaries using migration to surreptitiously assemble some sort of enemy force in the US. He said he thinks unnamed people are allowing migrants into the country because “they’re looking for votes,” faintly echoing his previous false claim about migrants being signed up to vote in the 2024 election – and declining to explain that non-citizens cannot vote in federal, state and almost all local elections (though some migrants might potentially receive citizenship years down the road).
Trump also spoke of the US being “overrun” by a “new form” of crime he called “Biden migrant crime.” He made that claim though early data suggests that in 2023 the US was at or around its lowest violent crime rate in more than 50 years amid a sharp decline in homicides; though there were cases of undocumented people committing crimes during his own presidency; and though, despite some recent cases in which undocumented people are accused of serious offenses, research has found no connection between immigration and crime - and sometimes that immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than people born in the US.
Here’s a fact check of two of Trump’s other claims.
An evidence-free story about foreign countries and ‘insane asylums’
Trump repeated - and broadened – his familiar story about how migrants are supposedly arriving in the US after having been deliberately freed by foreign leaders from prisons and mental health facilities.
After claiming that “they’re coming from jails and they’re coming from prisons and they’re coming from mental institutions and they’re coming from insane asylums,” Trump added, “You know, I know many of the leaders of these other countries that are doing it.” He said moments later, “You look at the jails now – you look at the jails throughout the region but more importantly throughout the world, they’re emptying out, because they’re dumping them into the United States.”
Facts First: There is no evidence for Trump’s claim that jails “throughout the world” are being emptied out so that prisoners can travel to the US as migrants, nor for his claim that foreign leaders are also emptying out mental health facilities for this purpose. Last year, Trump’s campaign was unable to provide any evidence for his narrower claim at the time that South American countries in particular were emptying their mental health facilities to somehow dump patients upon the US.
Representatives for two anti-immigration organizations told CNN at the time they had not heard of anything that would corroborate Trump’s story, as did three experts at organizations favorable toward immigration. CNN’s own search did not produce any evidence. The website FactCheck.org also found nothing.
In response to CNN’s 2023 inquiry, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung cited one source for Trump’s claim about prisons being emptied for migration purposes – a 2022 article from right-wing website Breitbart News about a supposed federal intelligence report warning Border Patrol agents that Venezuela had done this. But that vague and unverified claim about Venezuela’s actions has never been corroborated.
Even if Venezuela in particular had indeed freed prisoners to allow people to try to migrate to the US, that would be insufficient proof for Trump’s current claim that countries “throughout the world” are doing so. And a second article that Cheung cited at the time, about Mexico’s president having freed 2,685 prisoners, was not about migration at all; that article simply explained that the president had freed them “as part of an effort to free those who have not committed serious crimes or were being held unjustly.”
CNN reached out to Cheung again after Trump’s speech on Thursday and will update this item with any relevant comment.
Another inaccurate number about the border wall
Returning to one of his regular exaggerations, Trump claimed that “we built 571 miles of border wall” during his presidency.
Facts First: Trump’s “571 miles” claim is false, an even greater exaggeration than the inaccurate “561 miles” and “over 500 miles” claims he has made at other points of his campaign. An official report by US Customs and Border Protection, written two days after Trump left office and subsequently obtained by CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez, said the total number built under Trump was 458 miles – including both wall built where no barriers had existed before and wall built to replace previous barriers. Trump has sometimes put the figure, more correctly, at “nearly 500 miles.”
Fifty-two of the 458 miles built under Trump was “primary” wall that was built in parts of the border where no barriers previously existed. The rest was 33 miles of “secondary” wall that was built in spots where no barriers previously existed, plus 373 miles of primary and secondary wall that was built to replace previous barriers the federal government says had become “dilapidated and/or outdated.” |
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Post by aj2hall on Mar 1, 2024 22:29:59 GMT
Talk of "migrant crime" has spiked on Fox in the last month. Trump and Republicans have decided they want to campaign on the issue. Yes, there are crimes committed by migrants that are also horrific. The are also horrific crimes by US born citizens every day. The crime rates among migrants are not any higher than the rest of the population, in some cases they are actually lower, despite the fear mongering by conservative media, Trump and the Republicans. What has also become crystal clear in the last month is which party is trying to fix the border and which party wants the problems to campaign on. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/29/truth-about-illegal-immigration-crime/
“You’re not safe in Joe Biden’s America.”
— tagline of Trump campaign ad posted on social media
Cut through the 2024 election noise. Get The Campaign Moment newsletter.
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign moved quickly to tie the killing of a Georgia nursing student, allegedly by a Venezuelan migrant who entered the country illegally in 2022, to the surge of undocumented immigrants at the southern border under the Biden administration. His campaign posted a video that, with pounding music, combines news clips about the case with clips of Biden administration officials assuring people that the border was secure. It ends with the blunt message above.
Never mind that violent crime rates, especially for homicide in large cities, have fallen sharply during Biden’s presidency, after a surge during the pandemic. Trump, as he often did during his presidency, is using anecdotal evidence to make an emotional case against undocumented immigrants.
Trump is drawing on a long history of anti-immigrant rhetoric.
A 2020 study, published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, analyzed 200,000 congressional speeches and 5,000 presidential communications on immigration since 1880, when a wave of Chinese immigrants led to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 that barred Chinese laborers. When lawmakers spoke about immigration, their speeches were twice as likely as their speeches on other topics to mention words related to crime.
Moreover, the study found “stark differences” in how lawmakers discussed European and non-European groups, with “more implicitly dehumanizing metaphors” used to describe Chinese, Mexicans and other non-Europeans. “There is also a striking similarity in the use of explicit frames, with a greater emphasis on ‘crime,’ ‘labor,’ and ‘legality’ for the non-Europeans and less on ‘family,’ ‘contributions,’ ‘victims,’ and ‘culture,’” the study said.
Since the late 1970s, the study found a significant shift in the way Republicans talk about immigration; it is now as negative as it was in the 1920s, an era of strict immigration quotas. As for Trump, he was the first president whose immigration language was more negative than that of the average member of his own party.
But here’s the rub: There is little evidence that immigrants — or even undocumented immigrants — cause more crime. Still, there is enough ambiguity in the data — or so little hard data — that it’s difficult to point to conclusive findings that would change opinions.
“Many politicians, law enforcement personnel and ordinary citizens are nonetheless incensed because this person should not have been in the country and thus capable of committing a crime,” said Michael Light, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who has published several studies showing undocumented immigrants are not more crime-prone than native-born Americans. “This view that the person’s undocumented status is an aggravating factor is also likely a reason why these crimes generate such strong responses.”
How many undocumented immigrants are there?
This is uncertain now, though the number is a relatively small percentage of the U.S. population.
As of mid-2021, the Migration Policy Institute, a D.C. think tank that does research and analysis to improve immigration and integration policies, estimated from a U.S. census survey that there are 11.2 million undocumented immigrants. But that data has a two-year lag and does not capture the recent surge at the border.
Statistics from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Homeland Security Statistics indicate that since the start of February 2021, just after Biden took office, and the end of September 2023, about 3.1 million migrants came across the U.S.-Mexico border and have no confirmed departure from the United States. Another 357,000 people flew into the United States through the Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan parole program. Also, an uncertain number of Ukrainian and Afghan refugees have entered the United States.
Moreover, we estimate that at least 1.6 million “got-aways” — people who were spotted by Border Control but were not captured — entered the country through September. (This estimate, which tracks with leaked internal administration data, assumes the Biden administration maintained a 78 percent apprehension rate, as previous administrations did.)
That adds up to 5 million more people since Biden took office, but it would be wrong to simply add that figure to 11.2 million. There is an overlap of about five months in 2021 and some unauthorized immigrants would have died, left the United States or possibly obtained legal status.
The United States has a population of about 330 million, so one can assume the undocumented share would be between 3.5 and 4.5 percent.
Immigrants tend to be more law-abiding
There is strong evidence that all immigrants — in the United States legally or otherwise — are more law-abiding than native-born American citizens. Most immigrants are motivated to do well in their new country, especially if they bring skills that can enhance local economies, and so there is little incentive to break the law.
Graham Ousey, a criminologist at the College of William & Mary, and Charis Kubrin, a criminologist at the University of California at Irvine, surveyed more than two decades of research on immigration and crime for their 2023 book, “Immigration and Crime: Taking Stock.” The results varied depending on survey design and scope, but generally they found “that long-standing concerns about immigration as a major source of crime are unfounded.” In fact, communities with more immigration tend to have less crime, especially violent crimes like homicide. They also found that immigrants are less involved in crime as both offenders and victims compared to the native-born, including the children of immigrants.
Similarly, the January update of a 2023 survey using census data led by Ran Abramitzky, a Stanford University economist, found that as a group, male immigrants over the last 150 years have had lower incarceration rates than people who were born in the United States — and that incarceration rates of immigrants have dropped since 1960.
Immigrant men today are 60 percent less liked to be incarcerated — a decline that occurred among immigrants from all regions — even though recent immigrants have characteristics associated with being snared by the criminal justice system, such as being younger, more likely not to be White, have lower incomes and are less educated. The study, however, notes that the relative decline might reflect “deeper structural forces disproportionately affecting low educated US-born men” rather than improvement by immigrants.
Little evidence undocumented immigrants commit more crime
The evidence becomes murkier when you try to drill down to crime by undocumented immigrants. Federal prisons record whether an immigrant is a noncitizen, but they are only a small fraction of the overall prison population. (About 140 law enforcement agencies in half of the states cooperate in a controversial U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement program to identify undocumented immigrants in their facilities for possible transfer to federal custody.) Only one state, Texas, records and keeps the immigration statuses of those entering the criminal justice system (more on that below), making it difficult to make broad conclusions.
Ousey and Kubrin, in their book, say that while there have been only a few studies focused on crimes committed by undocumented immigrants, the findings are consistent with the idea that immigrants do not commit more crimes than nonimmigrants. “Results from this small but growing literature are beginning to converge on the conclusion that fears about undocumented immigrants driving crime rates up are, essentially, unfounded,” they write.
One exception was a 2008 study that found a link between undocumented immigrants and identity theft. “The states with the highest ID theft rates tend to be those that have the highest percentages of undocumented immigrants,” the study said. Most of the identity-theft cases linked to undocumented immigrants involved a simple motive — the need to steal a Social Security number to hold a job and open a bank account in the United States.
Available data indicates that a relatively small percentage of undocumented immigrants have committed crimes (excluding the fact that they are in the country without authorization). As of September, DHS says, there were 6.2 million people on the “non-detained docket,” which means they live in the United States while their immigration cases are pending or removal is deferred for other reasons. Of that number, nearly 620,000, or 10 percent, have a criminal conviction or pending criminal charges, according to data analyzed by the House Judiciary Committee. The nature of those crimes is not clear. (The FBI estimates that about 30 percent of the adult U.S. population has a criminal record, such as a felony arrest or conviction, though the figure also includes some misdemeanors.)
In 2015, the Migration Policy Institute estimated that a small percentage of undocumented immigrants had felony or serious misdemeanor convictions. About 3 percent had felony convictions and 4 percent had serious misdemeanor convictions. That’s lower than the overall population of the United States, where a 2017 study found that about 8 percent have felony convictions.
The dispute over Texas data
Both Alex Nowrasteh of the Cato Institute and a team led by Light have delved deep into unique data on inmate immigration status maintained by the Texas Department of Public Safety. People arrested in Texas have their fingerprints sent to DHS to determine immigration status. But some people in the country illegally have never been encountered by authorities and thus their fingerprints are not on file. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice conducts a further investigation to determine whether someone in prison is in the country legally. The result is an unusually rich insight into the immigration status of people arrested and incarcerated in the state.
Nowrasteh, starting in 2018, wrote a series of reports that showed the conviction rates for serious crimes in Texas were much lower for undocumented immigrants than native-born Americans. Light, in a 2020 report, concluded that, in Texas, there are significantly lower felony arrest rates among undocumented immigrants compared to legal immigrants.
Their findings came under attack from the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports stricter immigration limits and a merit-based immigration system. CIS says that because the investigation into an inmate’s immigration status is ongoing, the data is not static and the number of undocumented immigrants rises over time. “Given sufficient time for data collection, it appears that illegal immigrants have above average conviction rates for homicide and sexual assault, while they have lower rates for robbery and drugs,” CIS said in 2022.
Nowrasteh told The Fact Checker some of this critique was correct, but said that CIS erred as well because some of the data it analyzed was double-counted. Some inmates were identified by DHS but then also included in the list provided by the Texas investigators, he said.
Nowrasteh on Wednesday published a new report that relied on fresh data on homicide convictions that he said eliminated double-counting. It confirmed that undocumented immigrants had a lower homicide conviction rate (2.4 per 100,000 undocumented immigrants) than native-born Americans (2.8 per 100,000). Legal immigrants had the lowest homicide conviction rate — 1.1 per 100,000 legal immigrants.
Steve Camarota, CIS research director, said the organization is “confident in our results.” Loann Garcia, senior director of the Texas crime records division, said in an email that “the data can get confusing as we have many ways to pull data,” so the results will change depending on how a researcher’s request is framed.
The battle over the numbers indicates how, with limited data to assess, the results can remain subject to dispute and interpretation. |
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Post by aj2hall on Mar 1, 2024 22:38:41 GMT
And my parents were both killed by a middle aged white American with two prior drunk driving convictions who felt it was OK to operate his boat at over twice the legal limit. Oh and he had a Rush Limbaugh sticker on that boat, so he was one of yours. Where is your outrage over the laxity of drunk driving sentences for wealthy white men? I suppose you’re one of those who think we should start shooting anyone who might be an illegal immigrant on sight. Heck, authorize citizens to do it! Spanish speaking people walking down your street? They’re probably illegal! Do what the Feds won’t and shoot them. Because despite the ridiculous rhetoric you choose to believe, there is no realistic way to “close the border.” We have laws regarding asylum that predate Biden by a long way. Biden tried to tighten those laws and your people voted the bill down. So all your outrage rings very hollow. Not only are you using your parents' death to try to "win" a debate, that is already sickening enough, but you are also trying to connect me to your parents' death. You are deplorably demented. You are truly messed up. Really. Get some help. That is beyond sick. The fact that you chose to respond to this post and resort to insults and name calling is pretty telling. In this thread, all you have done is post sensational stories and insults. You, along with Republicans, can't argue about immigration with truth and facts. Republicans are blocking legislation and not willing to actually do anything about immigration. When you can't argue facts, because they are on the Democrats' side, your go-to strategy is to deflect and shift to name calling and insults. |
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Post by aj2hall on Mar 1, 2024 22:44:05 GMT
Republicans care more about preventing President Biden from getting a "win" than they do about solving problems and actually governing.
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Post by aj2hall on Mar 1, 2024 22:51:44 GMT
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Post by aj2hall on Mar 1, 2024 22:57:56 GMT
I can't believe she's actually on Fox, I guess it would be boring if they all agreed with each other. However, if she keeps talking like this, I don't think she's going to last very long. Credit to her for having the courage to push back against false Republican narratives..
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Post by aj2hall on Mar 1, 2024 23:01:20 GMT
This is more about the conflict in Gaza but it seems appropriate here, too
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Post by Merge on Mar 1, 2024 23:09:05 GMT
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Post by aj2hall on Mar 1, 2024 23:13:31 GMT
www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/03/01/remarks-by-president-biden-after-operation-briefing-brownsville-tx/Remarks by President Biden After Operation Briefing | Brownsville, TX HOME BRIEFING ROOM SPEECHES AND REMARKS 3:41 P.M. CST THE PRESIDENT: Again, thank you. And as my mother would say, please excuse my back. I apologize. (Laughter.)
Hello, folks. Good afternoon. Before we start, I’d like to say a few words about the devastating wildfires that are scorching the Texas Panhandle and northwest Oklahoma.
You know, yesterday, one of the biggest fire events in Texas history, with more than 1 million — more than 1 million acres of Texas land burned.
From the start, I directed my team to do everything possible to help protect the people and the communities threatened by these fires.
In response to specific requests from the — made from the state, we already have more than 500 federal personnel here working on fire su- — suppression. That includes the deployment of 100 federal firefighters — and more are on the way — as well as dozens of dir- — of additional fire engines, air tankers, small planes, helicopters to help fight the flames.
And FEMA has already guaranteed that Texas and Oklahoma will be reimbursed for the costs of keeping folks safe.
And we’re grateful for the brave first responders risking their lives to save others.
And we urge — we urge folks to listen to the warnings from the local officials. Listen to them.
I’ve flown over a lot of these wildfires since I’ve been President. As a matter of fact, I’ve — in a helicopter in the West to the Southwest, in the Northwest — flown over more landed burned to the ground — all the vegetation gone — than the entire state of Maryland in square footage.
The idea there’s no such thing as climate change — I love that, man. I love some of my neanderthal friends who still think there’s no climate change.
Well, my administration is going to keep building on the progress we’ve made fighting climate crisis. And we’re going to keep — help folks rebuild themselves in the wake of these disasters.
And we rebuild to the standards that are up — the up-to-date standards and building codes and the rest. Because a lot of — if you fly over these areas that are burned to the ground, you’ll see, in the midst of 20 homes that are just totally destroyed, one home sitting there because it had the right roof on it.
And, anyway, since I took office, FEMA has provided Texas alone over $13 billion — $13 billion in three years in disaster relief after fires and winter storms across the state.
And when disasters strike, there’s no red state or blue state where I come from. There are just communities and families looking for help.
So, we’re standing with everyone — everyone affected by these wildfires. And we’re going to continue to help you respond and recover.
Now, turning to the purpose of my visit.
I want to thank Congressman Gonzalez. Where — there you are, pal. I thanked him — (applause) — I thanked him for the passport into his district, but he’s been a great partner.
Also want to thank Mayor C- — Mayor — Mayor Cowen for his partnership.
And I want to thank County Judge Trevino — I — for over 30 — and over the 30 local officials who have joined us here today. No one — no one works harder for a safe, secure border than all of you.
And Secretary Mayorkas has joined us today. And he is joined by seven mayors in cities and towns across South Texas. Four county judges here from across the state. I told the county judge that I used to be a county official. It’s the hardest job in American politics. You know why? They think you can do everything, and you don’t have the budget. So, any rate. (Laughter.)
But — and the two leaders from the Texas legislature — State House Leader Trey is here — Trey Martinez Fischer — and the State Senate Leader Carol Alvadaro [Alvarado].
And — hey, look, and all the other local officials that are here today, I want to say thanks.
Folks, it’s real simple. It’s time to act. It’s long past time to act.
I just received a briefing from the Border Patrol at the border as well as immigration and enforcement and asylum officers. And they’re all doing incredible work under really tough conditions — really tough conditions. They each told me what they re- — what — what you already know and we already know: They desperately need more resources. I’ll say it again: They desperately need more resources. They need more agents, more officers, more judges, more equipment in order to secure our border.
Folks, it’s time for us to move on this. We can’t wait any longer.
Folks, on my first day as President, I introduced a bill I sent to Congress: a comprehensive plan to fix the broken immigration system and to secure the border. But no action was taken.
Then months ago, my team began a serious negotiation on a bipartisan group of senators — Democrat — leading conservative Republicans and Dem- — progressive Democrats — and it resulted in a compromise bill. It’s the toughest set of border security reforms we’ve ever seen in this country.
It’s pretty basic. With this deal, we could hire 1,500 additional border security agents — 1,500 additional off- — and officers and between ports of entry.
For the past four years, staffing has been roughly that — flat — just flat. Agents working overtime, spending long hours patrolling the border, making major sacrifices. And I know it takes a big toll on them and their families.
That’s why, in December, I signed a bill finally getting Border Patrol agents — what I’ve been pushed by and reminded by the congressman — overtime pay they deserve. They’re finally getting overtime pay. I — I mean, it’s ridiculous it took this long. It was long past time, and I was proud to do it. But we need to do more.
It’s time to step up. It’s time to step up and provide them with significantly more personnel and capability.
We also need more immigration judges to help handle the backlog. There are 2 million cases — a backlog of 2 million cases. This bipartisan deal would provide funding for a hundred more immigration judges immediately.
It would also establish new, efficient, and fair process for the government to consider asylum claims for those arriving at our border.
Today, the process to get a decision on an asylum claim takes five to seven years. Now, you all know it down here, but the people around the country don’t understand it. That’s far too long. They come in. You say — you say, “I have a credible fear,” and — and we’ve changed that standard to make it hard- — we want to change to make it harder. And what happens? You say, “Well, okay. You can come in the country, but come back in five to seven years, maybe as many as eight years, and you could get a hearing from — before a judge to determine whether you can stay.”
This will encourage more people — this encourages more people to come to the country. If they get by the first, they got another five, seven, eight years before they have to do anything because they know they cannot handle the caseloads quickly and they’ll be able to stay in this country in the meantime.
With new policies in this bill and the addition of 4,300 additional asylum officers, we’ll be able to reduce that process to less than six months. That would have a serious deterrent effect on those coming north.
When — when the criminal gangs say, “We’ll get you north, but it’s 8,000 bucks,” you say, “Now, wait, let me get this straight: I’m going to go north. It’s going to cost me six, eight” — probably closer to eight, I guess — “thousand dollars, equivalent, and I’m going to get there, and in six months, they may be able to get rid of me.” And I don’t know, man. Six months, seven years — two different things.
A person who’s thinking about entering the United States understands the case is to be decided in a few weeks or months instead of five to seven years, they’re less likely to come in the first place. They’re not going to pay the cartels thousands of dollars to make that journey knowing that it’ll be turned around quickly.
Look, and we also need more cutting-edge inspection machines to detect and stop fentanyl from entering the United States of America.
A year ago, I stood at a border in El Paso and I watched these machines at work. They were able to detect everything from fentanyl to weapons to people being smuggled in cargo containers. This — this compromise bill would provide an additional $4- — $3- — $424 million for 100 more of these machines and could save lives in the process.
This compromise legislation would also give me as president or any — the next president emergency authority to temporarily shut down the border between ports of entry when the numbers of immigrants and migrants — excuse me — overwhelm the border, starting — straining the Border Patrol’s ability to process them.
At the same time, at our legal ports of entry, like here in Brownsville, we’re making investments in infrastructure. My Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is going to provide nearly 4 billion new dollars to boost security, to ease waiting times at land ports of entry like Brownsville.
And I want to thank you again, Congressman Gonzalez, for helping me get that through and get that passed and — as the law. That you get the money for the — for example, that’s how you got the money for the Gateway Bridge from that fund.
Folks, the bipartisan border security deal is a win for the American people, and it’s a win for the people of Texas. And it’s fair for those who legitimately have a right to come here to begin with. It’s a win for the people of Brownsville.
And I believe that’s why the Border Patrol union endorsed it. I believe that’s why the national Chamber of Commerce — the national Chamber of Commerce endorsed it — not known as a Democratic organization, with a capital “D.”
Look, and that’s why the Wall Street Journal endorsed it as well. This is a truly bipartisan initiative. That’s why the bipartisan South Texas Alliance of Cities endorsed it.
Folks, I didn’t get — I didn’t get everything I wanted in that compromise bipartisan bill, but neither did anybody else. Compromise is part of the process. That’s how democracy works. That’s how it’s supposed to work. Compromise is a very positive step on a critical issue for the country — all those issues for the country.
And folks here in Brownsville and all along the border know that. We need to have their backs — your backs.
I want the people to understand clearly what happened here. This bill was in the United States Senate. It was on its way to being passed. Then, it was derailed by rank-and-file polit- — rank partisan politics.
The U.S. Senate needs to reconsider this bill. And those senators who opposed it need to set politics aside and pass it on the merits, not on whether it’s going to benefit one party or benefit the other party. It’s about whether it benefits the American people. That’s what the American people deserve.
And the Speaker of the House needs to put this bill on the floor, because if he put it on the floor unrestricted, it would pass. The majority of Democrats and Republicans in both houses support this legislation — until someone came along and said, “Don’t do that; it’ll benefit the incumbent.” That’s a hell of a way to do business in America for such a serious problem.
We need to act. It’s time for the Speaker and some of my Republican friends in Congress who are blocking this bill to show a little spine. Pass the Bipartisan Bor- — Bipartisan — remember, Bipart- — conservative leaders supported this — Border Security bill.
Let’s remember who we work for, for God’s sake. We work for the American people.
Let me end with this. I understand my predecessor is in Eagle Pass today. So, here’s what I would say to Mr. Trump: Instead of playing politics with the issue, instead of telling members of Congress to block this legislation, join me — or I’ll join you — in telling the Congress to pass this Bipartisan Border Security bill. We can do it together.
You know and I know it’s the toughest, most efficient, most effective border security bill this country has ever seen. So, instead of playing politics with the issue, why don’t we just get together and get it done?
And let’s remember who the heck we work for. We work for the American people, not the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. We work for the American people.
And let’s remember who we are. We’re the United States of America. No, I mean this. Think about this. There’s nothing — nothing beyond our capacity — nothing — when we work together. And of all things we should be working together on, it’s this. And we have the formula to get it done.
God bless you all. And may God protect our Border Patrol. And God protect our troops.
Now I’d like to turn this over to Secretary Mayorkas. Thank you. (Applause.)
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Just T
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,837
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Post by Just T on Mar 1, 2024 23:14:13 GMT
And my parents were both killed by a middle aged white American with two prior drunk driving convictions who felt it was OK to operate his boat at over twice the legal limit. Oh and he had a Rush Limbaugh sticker on that boat, so he was one of yours. Where is your outrage over the laxity of drunk driving sentences for wealthy white men? I suppose you’re one of those who think we should start shooting anyone who might be an illegal immigrant on sight. Heck, authorize citizens to do it! Spanish speaking people walking down your street? They’re probably illegal! Do what the Feds won’t and shoot them. Because despite the ridiculous rhetoric you choose to believe, there is no realistic way to “close the border.” We have laws regarding asylum that predate Biden by a long way. Biden tried to tighten those laws and your people voted the bill down. So all your outrage rings very hollow. Not only are you using your parents' death to try to "win" a debate, that is already sickening enough, but you are also trying to connect me to your parents' death. You are deplorably demented. You are truly messed up. Really. Get some help. That is beyond sick. Wow. For someone who constantly accuses people of "smearing" her, what the hell was that?? JFC. You are the deplorable one here, not @merge. |
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Post by aj2hall on Mar 1, 2024 23:16:56 GMT
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Post by aj2hall on Mar 1, 2024 23:18:23 GMT
Republicans are going to own the border problem in November unless something changes. Biden challenging Trump really clearly shows how the ball is in the Republicans' corner and they are the ones obstructing and blocking legislation.
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Post by aj2hall on Mar 1, 2024 23:19:22 GMT
On the vastly different approaches to the border - Republicans vs Democrats
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Post by morecowbell on Mar 1, 2024 23:56:11 GMT
Yes, sadly, you really are. You continue to show how mentally unstable you are. Gia is someone you seem to think you have sufficiently smeared and you are applying it to me as nothing more than a smear tactic. My name is morecowbell. If you call me anything else, it is for no other reason than the simple point of smearing -because you have nothing substantive to counter with.And because you are under the very deluded impression, that means you won the argument. Every time you call me anything but morecowbell you continue to show that you NEED to smear. Which continues to show JUST HOW MUCH YOU ARE MENTALLY UNABLE TO HANDLE DISAGREEMENT.Ok, Gia. You know, it’s really dishonest to pretend to be someone you’re not. You’re not fooling anyone. If you don’t know who Gia is, why would calling you that be a smear? Regardless, I’m not the one who pulled up a handful of violent crimes committed by immigrants (many fewer per capita than with the native born population, BTW) to try to dehumanize an entire group of people and support your “argument.” How is “using” my parents’ deaths any different than you “using” those deaths? It’s not. But very predictably, you don’t like being shown up and have now dissolved into a sad pile of capslock froth. Enjoy the rest of your day. I never said that I don't know who Gia is, that's something you've created in your own head. Again. |
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Post by Merge on Mar 2, 2024 0:12:56 GMT
Ok, Gia. You know, it’s really dishonest to pretend to be someone you’re not. You’re not fooling anyone. If you don’t know who Gia is, why would calling you that be a smear? Regardless, I’m not the one who pulled up a handful of violent crimes committed by immigrants (many fewer per capita than with the native born population, BTW) to try to dehumanize an entire group of people and support your “argument.” How is “using” my parents’ deaths any different than you “using” those deaths? It’s not. But very predictably, you don’t like being shown up and have now dissolved into a sad pile of capslock froth. Enjoy the rest of your day. I never said that I don't know who Gia is, that's something you've created in your own head. Again. Super believable that you sat here silent watching the Gia drama, despite the fact that you agree with her, consume the same media sources, and have the same argument style and soapbox issues, and just happened to create your account around the time she deleted hers. Sure. |
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Post by morecowbell on Mar 2, 2024 0:17:55 GMT
Yes, sadly, you really are. You continue to show how mentally unstable you are. Gia is someone you seem to think you have sufficiently smeared and you are applying it to me as nothing more than a smear tactic. My name is morecowbell. If you call me anything else, it is for no other reason than the simple point of smearing -because you have nothing substantive to counter with.And because you are under the very deluded impression, that means you won the argument. Every time you call me anything but morecowbell you continue to show that you NEED to smear. Which continues to show JUST HOW MUCH YOU ARE MENTALLY UNABLE TO HANDLE DISAGREEMENT.Ok, Gia. You know, it’s really dishonest to pretend to be someone you’re not. You’re not fooling anyone. If you don’t know who Gia is, why would calling you that be a smear? Regardless, I’m not the one who pulled up a handful of violent crimes committed by immigrants (many fewer per capita than with the native born population, BTW) to try to dehumanize an entire group of people and support your “argument.” How is “using” my parents’ deaths any different than you “using” those deaths? It’s not. But very predictably, you don’t like being shown up and have now dissolved into a sad pile of capslock froth. Enjoy the rest of your day. Because they're YOUR PARENTS.Because their death has nothing to do with "Chinese crossing at the border" or "Unlawful Migration". Because you tried to tie their death to ME. Because my examples were on the topic of illegal migration. Because I didn't attempt to make you responsible is some convoluted way, like you did with me and your parents' death. Not only are you using your parents' death to "win" a debate, that is already sickening, but you are also trying to connect me to your parents' death. You are deplorably demented. You are truly messed up. Really. Get some help. That is beyond sick. |
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Post by morecowbell on Mar 2, 2024 0:21:28 GMT
I never said that I don't know who Gia is, that's something you've created in your own head. Again. Super believable that you sat here silent watching the Gia drama, despite the fact that you agree with her, consume the same media sources, and have the same argument style and soapbox issues, and just happened to create your account around the time she deleted hers. Sure. Really? Tell us, when did Gia delete hers? You must know or you wouldn't have made that claim. Because we know you wouldn't make shit up. Oh, wait🤔 And tell us again, when did I create my account and again? who I was before morecowbell? |
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Post by aj2hall on Mar 2, 2024 0:26:05 GMT
If I could vote for him, I would. I really like his perspective on immigration.
"remind this country that we did not become the world's greatest superpower, leading economically, politically, democratically without immigrants. Immigrants have made this country great"
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Post by morecowbell on Mar 2, 2024 0:45:04 GMT
Not only are you using your parents' death to try to "win" a debate, that is already sickening enough, but you are also trying to connect me to your parents' death. You are deplorably demented. You are truly messed up. Really. Get some help. That is beyond sick. The fact that you chose to respond to this post and resort to insults and name calling is pretty telling. In this thread, all you have done is post sensational stories and insults. You, along with Republicans, can't argue about immigration with truth and facts. Republicans are blocking legislation and not willing to actually do anything about immigration. When you can't argue facts, because they are on the Democrats' side, your go-to strategy is to deflect and shift to name calling and insults. The fact that you chose to respond to THIS post is pretty telling, when you ignore ALL of the insults and name calling coming from your buddies. It makes your entire post nothing but meaningless garbage. Nothing but irrational drivel. |
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dawnnikol
Prolific Pea
'A life without books is a life not lived.' Jay Kristoff
Posts: 8,492
Sept 21, 2015 18:39:25 GMT
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Post by dawnnikol on Mar 2, 2024 1:11:34 GMT
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Post by revirdsuba99 on Mar 2, 2024 1:25:06 GMT
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Post by Lurkingpea on Mar 2, 2024 1:56:29 GMT
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Post by Lurkingpea on Mar 2, 2024 2:00:59 GMT
I never said that I don't know who Gia is, that's something you've created in your own head. Again. Super believable that you sat here silent watching the Gia drama, despite the fact that you agree with her, consume the same media sources, and have the same argument style and soapbox issues, and just happened to create your account around the time she deleted hers. Sure. I think it is Lauren. Gia gave up a lot easier. Lauren was even more vile. More dogged. Equally as reprehensible in her views. And I think Gia could stay away from here. Lauren never could stay away. |
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