12 Comments
User's avatar
тна Return to thread
TomD's avatar

I agree, except to note that MAGA is correct when they say there's a difference between immigrants who are legit and those who are not. That's why this issue is a real minefield: insistence on the rule of law is all we've got about now. I notice that none of the people in the article except maybe the pastor were for out-and-out defying deportation.

Expand full comment
Ashka A's avatar

It is also an unsaid truism that the country relies on the labor of undocumented workers both in the form of tax dollars that they contribute for which they do not reap a direct benefit and the very cheap labor that keeps our prices low for things such as our produce. That being said, we do need a better and more efficient process to manage immigration and perhaps create more documented immigration. |||| however, I do not think these MAGA people are interested in the nuances of immigration and the benefits of that immigration. They seem to want to get rid of anyone with melanin. I fear they will want to remove temporary protected statuses of many immigrants, deport DACA recipients, and next go after green card holders. Trump has floated the idea of denaturalizing citizens as well. Though I am not sure if thatтАЩs possible.

Expand full comment
Laura Haule's avatar

This is all true - better faster processing of documents, a more just immigration system. I am thinking about our bigger cities. Who is going to work in restaurants, be teacher and doctors, work in construction, landscape, maintenance, manufacturing, airports, driving cabs, everything. I don't understand why they don't look around themselves and see who is doing this work.

Expand full comment
TomD's avatar

Who knows...maybe some of the rest of us malcontent will be banished to Greenland....

Expand full comment
J. R. Barry's avatar

"Bulwarkia" will be the new detainment center area of newly-acquired Greenland! We'll ALL get to meet there, maybe face-to-face.

Expand full comment
TomD's avatar

Remind me. Is it a loaf of bread in a file ot a file in a loaf of bread?

Expand full comment
Lewis Grotelueschen's avatar

There is rule-of-law and then there is rule-of-law-how-it-is-actually-practiced. I live in rural Nebraska where on rural roads automobile traffic is measured in tens of autos per day. Many intersections have stop signs, but these signs are routinely ignored. (At those intersections where visibility is good.) No attempt is made at all to enforce and everyone understands this.

Similarly with "illegal" immigration. Our politicians have tried, and succeeded, having it both ways. They talk tough about rule of law, but they also look the other way so that the demand for immigrant labor can be met. So immigrants have been able to build lives in this country because we never really meant to enforce the laws. To make a dramatic turn now and decimate the lives built under the regime of rule-of-law-as-actually-practiced is a horrible, horrible cruelty.

Expand full comment
David Court's avatar

As usual with the Old Convicted Felon and his MAGAites, the cruelty is the point, just like the scare tactics to try to make some of the "targets" quit and go on their own. That would be chalked up as a non-contest win by the Millers and Homans.

Expand full comment
John Joss's avatar

It's a global effect, Tom. The Southern Hemisphere is trying to move north, by boat, over land, swimming . . . any which way they can. Intrinsic to the problem, as I've mentioned earlier, is that Congress has neglected the immigration issue for three decades, despite every attempt to address it seriously (Obama tried, but his initiative was tossed out by the Senate after it was passed in the House).

Expand full comment
J AZ's avatar

John - 3 decades is too modest, my friend. Simpson-Mazzoli's coming up on 40 years ago. I recall at the time it was a BIG deal but there was recognition it was hardly a fix for everything awry in US immigration system. As every study says, "further research is needed..." Same with the few various tweaks of law in whatever part of my lifetime that I've been paying attention - "further legislation is warranted." Just another topic we've been willing to ignore. Trump's gonna shake that up but not likely we can eke much good from that.

Expand full comment
TomD's avatar

The treatment of the Jews and others before and during WW 2 led to international agreements regarding refugees and asylum, but now it's half the world seeking refuge in the other half.

Expand full comment
Laura Haule's avatar

And of course the US helped create the violent societies these people are fleeing.

Expand full comment