The primary version of this blog is HERE. The Blogroll. My Home Page. Email John Ray here. Other blogs: "Tongue Tied" "Dissecting Leftism" "Australian Politics" "Education Watch International"
"Political Correctness Watch" "Greenie Watch" "Western Heart" (A summary blog)
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30 September, 2022
Even Bill Clinton says there's a 'limit' to how many migrants US can take
Former President Bill Clinton said the U.S. has a 'limit' to how many migrants it can take into the country and said there are are some who 'game' the system.
'There is a limit to how many migrants any society can take without severe disruption and assistance, and our system is based much more on an assumption that things would be more normal,' the former president said, referencing record border crossings.
Border agents have encountered more than 2.1 million border crossings this fiscal year, the highest number ever recorded in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) history. There were 203,000 crossings in August.
On a CNN podcast with host Fareed Zakaria, Clinton recalled immigration of his youth, when Mexican migrants would crossed back and forth at the border to work in agriculture, and it 'worked for people.'
'It's an old story, but now you've got the largest number of refugees since World War II because of Syria and now Ukraine and other problems,' he said.
He also noted the rise in migrants from Venezuela, while firing off shots at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for busing migrants to Washington, D.C., New York and Chicago.
'What's happening in Venezuela, more than 2 million refugees pouring into first Colombia then nearby countries, has created unprecedented new challenges and meanwhile provides opportunities for stunts like Gov. Abbott's — sending his refugees to some place that he thinks is advocating for a broad-minded policy that it doesn't have to live with,' he said.
Texas has bussed more than 10,000 migrants to blue cities, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey have followed suit.
The Democratic former president also took a shot at DeSantis' chartered plane that brought 50 migrants to Martha's Vineyard.
'DeSantis sending those people to Martha's Vineyard was amazing. That may come back to haunt him a little bit,' Clinton predicted.
Clinton, 76, has long been further to the right on immigration - and a number of other matters- than most Democrats of today. He said in his 1996 state of the union address:
'There are some areas that the federal government should not leave and should address and address strongly. One of these areas is the problem of illegal immigration. After years of neglect, this administration has taken a strong stand to stiffen the protection of our borders. We are increasing border controls by 50 percent. We are increasing inspections to prevent the hiring of illegal immigrants. And tonight, I announce I will sign an executive order to deny federal contracts to businesses that hire illegal immigrants.'
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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29 September, 2022
A federal court has stopped California dead in its tracks on a law intended to spring illegal immigrants from immigration detention
The United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on Monday ruled against a state law that would have prohibited privately run immigration detention facilities from operating within the state.
The law, Assembly Bill 32, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019, would have prohibited the use of any private detention facilities within the Golden State.
It would not only have applied to facilities contracted through the state, but to facilities contracted by the federal government, as well.
It would also have mandated the closure of all privately contracted immigration detention facilities by 2028, according to The Associated Press.
This proved objectionable to the federal government, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement contracts out several detention facilities to private companies in the state.
The federal government sued California jointly with The Geo Group, a contractor that runs immigration detention facilities on the part of ICE in the state.
ICE itself operates only one detention facility in California, the ruling noted. The law would have likely spurred the release of thousands of illegal aliens if it were ever enforced.
The 8-3 ruling against the state and for the federal government by the full appeals court comes after a three-judge panel ruling that overturned the state’s ban last year, according to ABC.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta authored the legislation ending privatized immigration detention when he was a state lawmaker.
The court’s ruling cited the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, declaring that the law would have usurped powers over federal government operations through a state government veto.
“AB 32 would override the federal government’s decision, pursuant to discretion conferred by Congress, to use private contractors to run its immigration detention facilities,” the court’s majority ruled.
Only a small percentage of aliens who enter the country illegally or overstay a visa end up in immigration detention.
ICE had 3.3 million illegals assigned to the “non-detained docket” as of August 2020, according to an agency detention report.
Of these aliens, ICE had the resources “to monitor approximately 5 percent of the total non-detained population, or approximately 100,000 undocumented individuals,” the report stated.
The Department of Homeland Security held around 32,000 aliens in immigration detention as recently as March, according to The Washington Times.
ICE’s 2023 budget requests funds for 25,000 immigration detention beds, a minuscule segment of the broader illegal alien population.
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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28 September, 2022
Ridicule Is Man’s Most Potent Weapon
I haven’t seen a convincing explanation of why the Left went so bat-guano crazy over the recent delivery of a handful of illegal aliens to Martha’s Vineyard. Yes, they don’t want people talking about the border in the run-up to the election, since they’re behind the eight ball on the issue. But that’s not it.
And, yes, the hypocrisy of sanctuary cities and “In This House We Believe” posturing has been exposed. That’s getting closer, but the buses to New York, Washington, and Chicago were doing that already; the Left was complaining about it, for sure, they didn’t go all Godwin’s Law until Martha’s Vineyard happened.
I think the reason for the freak-out was explained by Saul Alinsky half a century ago. The fifth of his “rules for radicals” is:
Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. There is no defense. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.
It was ridiculous enough that New York mayor Eric Adams described experiencing a tiny part of Biden’s border crisis as “horrific” and D.C. mayor Bowser declared a state of emergency and called on the Pentagon for help. Even today, the total number of people sent to those cities is less than two days’ worth of what is happening at the border.
But Operation Martha’s Vineyard was the real comedy payoff. The situation was like something out of a farce by Tom Wolfe or Christopher Buckley: a few dozen border-jumpers arrive at the retreat of the lefty rich and famous, where “no human is illegal” and there are enough empty mansions to house them a thousand-fold, and after being given some cereal they’re whisked away by soldiers.
This is hypocrisy dialed up to 11, a target for mockery so irresistible that even non-political people can appreciate it. And it sure did “infuriate the opposition” and cause them to “react to your advantage” with laughable cries of kidnapping and human trafficking.
As Jack Woltz screamed to Tom Hagan, “a man in my position can’t afford to be made to look ridiculous!”
Alinsky’s Rule six is “a good tactic is one your people enjoy” and boy have people on the right enjoyed this. But it’s also important to heed Rule seven: “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.” There’s still mileage to be gotten from this tactic; apparently DeSantis is planning on flying some to Georgetown, Delaware, near President Biden’s beach mansion in Rehoboth. (I’d just send a couple busloads straight down Rehoboth Avenue to the boardwalk, and tell them president’s house is a ways off to the left.) But at some point the novelty – and ridicule value – will wear off. Before then, we’ll need to come up with some new guerrilla political theater to force a reluctant media to cover the border mess.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/ridicule-is-mans-most-potent-weapon/
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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27 September, 2022
Martha’s Vineyard has been all over the news
The tony resort community so loves aiding and comforting the undocumented immigrants who were flown in from Florida that it hugged them—for all of 48 hours.
Oddly, the Left became unhinged when red-state governors— whose states the last two years were flooded with some 3 million people who entered the country illegally—finally decided to spread welcoming chores among affluent blue-state communities.
It was a natural fit.
Most, like Washington, D.C., and New York, were on record as sanctuary city jurisdictions. In the abstract, they endorse open borders and celebrate diversity—from the serenity of thousands of miles away.
The uproar at Martha’s Vineyard prompted the Democratic hierarchy to do some explaining. Why had it not earlier objected to the federal government night flights of tens of thousands of border-crossers to red-state communities that had opposed illegal immigration?
And why be angry with governors who were only emulating that policy by flying in a mere 50 newcomers —in the light of day—to a far wealthier and liberal-minded sanctuary resort?
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gave the nearly all-white, rich vacation spot an opportunity to match noble words with even nobler deeds. But in response, the 1% screamed that their small community could not possibly cope with a mere 50 new arrivals.
So far, wealthy progressive enclaves in Malibu, Aspen, and Napa have not stepped up to alleviate the “burden” put on their Martha’s Vineyard brethren.
They should ask how does a poor Yuma or El Paso sustain hundreds of thousands crossing illegally into their communities— once Joe Biden effectively rendered federal immigration law null and void?
The Martha’s Vineyard vacation mansion of the Obamas is currently vacant, as are most of his neighbors’ estates. Their sizable and expansive grounds could still serve as ideal centers for hundreds of immigrants to camp out.
Almost all arrivals would surely prefer the Obama estate, scenery, and view than crowding among the impoverished at the border.
Here where I live in southern Fresno County, California, often ground-zero for those arriving without documentation, receptive communities try hard to make space for immigrants.
On my avenue, small farmhouses are now rented to landlords who often manage to accommodate 20 or 30 immigrants on their small lots.
In fact, almost all farmhouses in my environs are surrounded by trailers, shacks, and sheds where hundreds of the undocumented live—to the total indifference of the state and utter neglect of California’s left-wing elite.
Instead, our apartheid living elite virtue signal that increased crime, gangs, drug smuggling, prostitution, and child trafficking do not accompany open borders.
From personal experience, I can attest that many have found otherwise.
But, to be fair, Martha’s Vineyard could serve as a permanent way station for border-crossers. That way it might offer a more disinterested long-term assessment of the impact of illegal immigration on U.S. social services and communities.
The Vineyard could also offer the nation a test case to ascertain whether the frantic panic of its privileged reveals their xenophobic racism and stereotyping—or if those are all too understandable reactions to the politically driven, reckless, and inhumane open-borders policies of the Biden administration.
This new idea of redirecting undocumented immigrants from swamped communities on the border to more supportive sanctuary well-off cities might also serve as an ethical model for us all on a variety of other issues.
For those who object to establishing grounds for the homeless far away from urban parks and downtowns, might they instead offer their own yards to help spread the burden among the entire community?
For those who mocked the efficacy of border walls, might they take a vow not to erect walls around their own estates?
For those who decry the inordinate carbon footprints of the consumer classes, might they pledge not to fly in private jets until catastrophic climate change abates?
For those who believe that natural gas is too carbonized a fuel to generate electricity or warm homes, can they pledge not to heat swimming pools or cool down their homes below 78 degrees?
For those who supported defunding the police and decriminalizing an array of previous misdemeanors and felonies, might they highlight the ensuing safety and security by not hiring private security guards?
For those who call for extensive gun control and decry the ubiquity of handguns, might they pledge not to hire armed security details?
For those who feel that charter schools undermine the public schools as much as unionized faculty empower them, might they eschew private prep schools?
The Martha’s Vineyard experience marks a unique opportunity for modern bicoastal progressivism.
View it as a landmark teachable moment to prove to the nation that leftists’ loud theories and Utopian agendas merely reflect —rather than are at odds with—their own prior concrete and well-lived experiences.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/09/23/marthas-meltdown-model/
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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26 September, 2022
California Gov. Newsom signs bill allowing illegal immigrants to obtain a state ID
California residents can now acquire a state ID regardless of immigration status under a law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday.
“We’re a state of refuge – a majority-minority state, where 27 percent of us are immigrants,” Newsom said after signing the legislation. “That’s why I’m proud to announce the signing of today’s bills to further support our immigrant community, which makes our state stronger every single day.”
A law passed in 2013 allows California residents to obtain a driver’s license, but the bill that was signed Friday will allow non-driving residents to acquire a government-issued ID, even if they are not a legal immigrant.
The bill’s sponsors framed ID cards as “passports to economic and societal participation” that allow individuals to access banking services, obtain government benefits, and acquire health care.
About 22% of California’s nearly 11 million immigrants are in the United States illegally, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
One day after signing the bill, Newsom traveled to Texas, where he targeted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for bussing and flying migrants to blue cities, and despite California’s 2017 ban on official travel to the Lone Star State.
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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25 September, 2022
Angry Wives of Border Patrol Agents Have Had Enough of Biden's Policy, Take Matters Into Their Own Hands
If President Joe Biden won’t let the Border Patrol fix the border crisis, maybe it’s time that their wives step into the fray. Not as agents, mind you. No, Irene Armendariz-Jackson, Mayra Flores and Cassy Garcia have a different idea.
All three Hispanic women, all married to Border Patrol agents, are running as Republicans in border districts against Democrats who have, to varying extents, enabled the administration’s lax border policies.
As the Washington Examiner’s Anna Giaritelli put it, the three Texas candidates are “determined to give a voice to the 20,000 federal law enforcement agents who have apprehended illegal immigrants 3.6 million times since President Joe Biden took office.”
At least one of the Border Patrol wives has already gotten into Congress: Flores, who won a special election in Texas’s 34th Congressional District earlier this year. She will encounter a tougher challenge in November, however, when she faces Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez Jr., who’s running against her due to redistricting.
According to Ballotpedia, the newly drawn district would have gone heavily to Joe Biden in the 2020 election, with the president taking over 57 percent of the vote.
However, Flores managed to win the special election by tapping into Latino frustration with Democrats, including on illegal immigration. In the general election, she’s continued to hammer Democrats on border security.
“We have a border that is completely out of control,” Flores said, according to the Examiner.
“It’s not just a humanitarian crisis. It’s also a national security crisis. … Our Border Patrol are focused on women and children. They’re not able to focus on the terrorists coming in,” she said.
Garcia, meanwhile, beat out six other Republicans to get a shot at replacing Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, a fixture in Congress since 2005.
Cuellar — whose expansive district stretches from the border in Laredo to the city of San Antonio — has occasionally made token protests against unfettered illegal immigration. However, he’s been a vigorous opponent of any kind of border fence.
In 2017, he criticized then-President Donald Trump for threatening a government shutdown to “build his symbolic border wall” and said Trump “wants to punish the American people.”
“President Trump should be leading the nation, and encouraging investment in border security measures that actually work,” Cuellar said.
Yes, and that would have been a border wall. The fact it wasn’t built has made life considerably harder for agents like Garcia’s husband, who has served with the Border Patrol for 26 years.
“The support they’re not receiving from the administration — it’s unbelievable,” said Garcia, a former aid to GOP Sen. Ted Cruz.
The Republican candidate also mocked the administration’s attempts to deal with illegal immigration by assigning Vice President Kamala Harris the task of investigating the “root causes” of unlawful migration.
“I think she’s still trying to figure out the root causes, right? We know what the root causes are, right? They’re not enforcing laws,” Garcia said, according to the Examiner
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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23 September, 2022
Biden border official reveals under oath that the White House has removed a FRACTION of migrants compared to previous administrations, even Obama's
A top Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official admitted under oath that his agency removed seven times more migrants under President Obama in 2012 than it does under President Biden.
Executive Associate Director for Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Corey Price made the stunning admission during a Sept. 9 deposition as part of a lawsuit by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other agencies.
'Director, ICE currently is removing less aliens from the United States than it has in the last decade, right?' Florida Chief Deputy Attorney General John Guard asked.
'I do not have the last ten years' data available. But it is less than at least the last four years that I have here,' Price replied.
'In 2012, a decade ago, under President Obama, ICE removed almost eight times or, excuse me, almost seven times the number of aliens than the Biden administration did in either 2021 or 2022, right?' asked the attorney.
'That appears correct,' said Price.
From 2008 to 2016, ICE removed up to 400,000 aliens per year and never less than 230,000. In 2021 the agency removed only 55,598 aliens.
Price also testified that ICE was detaining far fewer migrants under Biden in 2021 than it did under Trump in 2019.
'In 2021, ICE detained approximately 40 percent of the aliens than it did in 2019, right? And it's 50,000 to 19,254,' said Guard.
'That appears correct,' Price responded.
That's despite the fact there were nearly double the migrant encounters at the southern border in fiscal year 2021 that there were in 2019 - 1,734,686 to 977,509.
The latest Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data shows so far 2,150,638 encounters for 2022, with one more month to go in the fiscal year.
A new CRC Research poll for the 85 Fund, a conservative group, found that a majority of Americans believe 'sanctuary cities' should have to help house unlawful migrants just as border towns do
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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22 September, 2022
EB-5 Roundup: Three Black Eyes in Two Weeks for Investor-Visa Program
In a recent two-week period, a single news source (Law360) carried articles about three different EB-5 court cases in three different states with these similarities:
All three cases involved Chinese investors;
All three involved charges that U.S. middlemen defrauded them of millions; and
All were in federal courts.
The one reported on August 30 was different from run-of-the-mill EB-5 scandals because it took place in Manhattan, the focus of much EB-5 investment in glitzy real estate but generally EB-5-scandal-free until now.
In that case, both the august New York Port Authority and the routinely spineless U.S. Department of Homeland Security stood by as an alleged $57 million was “squandered” by the developers of a bus terminal at the New York end of the George Washington Bridge in upper Manhattan (not to be confused with the older Port Authority bus terminal at 40th St.).
Six days later came news about an older EB-5 controversy involving developer Nicholas Mastroianni II (whose name was previously linked with those of Jared Kushner and Mickey Cohen) and the Harbourside development in Jupiter, Fla., which we have written about in the past. In this instance, the investors asked the court to enforce the terms of a settlement on the U.S. players in the dispute.
Another six days passed and we learned that the Tenth Circuit has revived a case involving expensive condominiums in Vail, Colo. In a case that I have not written about earlier, the investors were stuck with 19 “impossible to sell condos” in an earlier settlement of the case.
“My clients are down over 80% while the Colorado managers got rich,” said Douglas Litowitz, who has represented many EB-5 investors in other cases, according to the Law360 coverage.
I suspect that “impossible to sell” could be translated to read “impossible to sell at prices that would compensate us for our losses”.
All this in two weeks.
https://cis.org/North/EB5-Roundup-Three-Black-Eyes-Two-Weeks-InvestorVisa-Program
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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21 September, 2022
Multiple Illegal Immigrant Break Ins Cause Business Owner to Sell Family Restaurant in Texas
Vice President Kamala Harris’ insistence that our southern border is secure was news to Selena Buentello Price, a former Eagle Pass, Texas, business owner.
Price told Fox News she made the decision to sell the family barbecue restaurant she owned and operated after migrants broke into the establishment for the fifth time since February.
The Wagon Wheel had been established by her father 25 years ago, and Price worked with him for 19 years. Throughout that entire period, there had been just one break in.
Eagle Pass is located in the Del Rio sector of the border, an area where migrant encounters have nearly doubled over the past fiscal year. According to Customs and Border Patrol, as of Sept. 3, there had been 428,555 migrant encounters in this sector so far this fiscal year. This is a 98.7 percent increase over the 215,724 recorded at the same time last year.
Migrants have “completely overrun” Eagle Pass, Price said. “Not only has my business been broken into and ransacked — it’s just the insecurity now, you don’t feel safe at home anymore.”
Price shuttered the restaurant when the pandemic hit, which she said made the building a target for migrants searching for shelter and supplies.
“Two locations down from our original location, our smokehouse and our honky-tonk, we have this facility that assists in processing all these immigrants coming in,” Price explained. “Once they are processed — I literally see busloads on a daily basis — they’re just released, and they find sanctuary in anything that’s abandoned or not. What I had that I valued — that not only had sentimental value, but had actual monetary value — has depreciated thanks to the mess, the trash, the vandalism.”
She continued, “I’m so scared that they’re going to steal something that was a family heirloom of mine and depreciate the value even more by rummaging through my stuff and breaking that building. … So, I decided to finally sell my family business.”
Price also owns a 126-acre ranch in Eagle Pass. She recently sold her horses and cattle because migrants would often “cut her fences allowing her livestock to escape from their enclosures.”
“I was forced because I couldn’t maintain my fences quick enough. They were being damaged every other day.”
“I’ve got pictures of our game cams catching more immigrants than I did wildlife,” she said.
Before the Biden administration opened the border, Price would see “maybe five immigrants a month.” Now, there is “movement every single day.”
She and her daughter keep pistols by their bedsides now. “You’re worried because you think of the worst-case scenarios. And that takes your peace.”
“Our security as we know it is gone,” she said.
Compare Price’s experience with the meltdown of Martha’s Vineyard community leaders and residents following the arrival of just 50 migrants, an infinitesimal fraction of the thousands who cross our southern border every day.
The tiny island located off the south shore of Massachusetts lacked the resources to handle 50 migrants, officials explained, as if the small towns along the U.S./Mexico border do.
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who sent the migrants, has been vilified by Democrats and their communications team, the legacy media, over his “political stunt.” Stunningly, Democratic Texas Sheriff Javier Salazar announced on Monday he has opened up a criminal investigation into the incident claiming the migrants were “‘lured’ from the Migrant Resource Center under ‘false pretenses’ and flown to Florida, where they were ultimately left to fend for themselves in Martha’s Vineyard,” according to Fox.
He said, “Here we have 48 people that are already on hard times. They are here legally in our country at that point. I believe that they were preyed upon. Somebody came from out of state, preyed upon these people, lured them with promises of a better life, which is absolutely what they were looking for.”
Pretty rich, isn’t it?
The reality is it was a brilliant move that has drawn attention to the Democrats’ big lie — that our border is secure.
Americans are waking up to the facts that people living in border towns have known for a long time. The Biden administration has stopped enforcing U.S. immigration laws. Our borders are indeed open, and Democratic officials have been lying to us for 20 months.
Border state governors need to keep up the pressure and continue sending migrants to sanctuary cities until this administration begins to enforce U.S. immigration laws.
Their blatant dereliction of duty is ruining lives and, if left unchecked, will ultimately destroy the country
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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20 September, 2022
How the gospel of open borders took over the Democratic Party
Like so many Leftist policies, it's founded in hatred of America as it is
By the end of his first term two years from now, President Biden may have released 3 or 4 million (maybe even 5 million) illegal immigrants into the United States. Some of them will apply for asylum, some of those will actually show up for hearings, and some of those will win their cases — but the large majority won’t do any of these things. Under Biden, these millions will just be allowed to stay illegally.
Why? What is the administration thinking?
Many commentators imagine the administration’s weak-borders policies are about importing voters for the Democrats. It’s true that, even if Republican plans for progress among Hispanics bear fruit, most Hispanic voters are still likely to lean Democrat.
But they need to be citizens to vote. And there just aren’t very many non-citizens — let alone illegal immigrants — voting.
Nor are Biden’s illegal immigrants likely to get legalized any time soon. The administration’s comprehensive immigration reform bill last year would have given green cards to those who’d arrived as little as three weeks before Inauguration Day, but it was dead on arrival. That could change if the Democrats increase their majorities in both houses of Congress this November, but that seems unlikely. Instead, Biden’s new batch of illegal immigrants will join the previous people living, if not in the shadows (you’re not in the shadows if you’re giving TV interviews and testifying before Congress), then at least in a kind of limbo.
Illegal immigrants also are counted in the Census for purposes of deciding how many congressmen — and how much federal money — each state gets. But that’s a pretty indirect and long-term issue, and doesn’t necessarily cut in the Democrats’ favor, since many of them settle in red states.
No, I think there’s another explanation.
The reason Biden’s immigration people, and the Democrats in Congress, are unwilling to enforce immigration law is because they think it’s wrong. They simply don’t believe that the American people have the right to keep anyone out. They see immigration limits of any kind as just another version of Jim Crow, a way of discriminating against foreigners who are just seeking a better life. And anyway, America is an illegitimate settler-colonial regime founded by phallocratic slaveholders and Indian-killers, so who are we to tell other people they can’t move here if they want?
The Department of Homeland Security has spelled this out in one of the memos explaining its anti-enforcement policies, which it justifies as a means of “advancing equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity” and “advancing equity for all, including people of color and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality.”
Immigration enforcement is immoral, don’t you see?
This perspective has long been gospel among the fever-swamps of Blue-Anon. But over the past couple of decades it has become a litmus test for Democratic officeholders and activists, an immutable value of the Left, which has to take precedence over any other interest or constituency.
The litmus test of open borders has led the ACLU to turn away from the cause of free speech, the Sierra Club from environmental protection, Big Labor from protecting the American worker, and the black political establishment from promoting the interests of their ostensible constituents.
It would almost be better if the administration and its supporters were purely cynical political actors, deliberately importing voters. The real explanation is deeper, more disturbing, and less amenable to a political solution.
https://nypost.com/2022/09/19/how-the-gospel-of-open-borders-took-over-the-democratic-party/
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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19 September, 2022
NYC Mayor says migrants could be housed on cruise ships
New York City shelters are so overwhelmed by the migrant crisis that Mayor Eric Adams is considering using cruise ships as temporary housing.
“We examined everything from the legality of using any type of cruise ship for temporary housing,” Hizzoner during an interview on WCBS Sunday.
“We’re looking at everything to see, how do we deal with this?”
Adams made the suggestion just hours before The Post reported that a record number of 9 buses carrying migrants traveled into the city.
Each bus typically carries between 40 and 50 migrants.
The influx is crippling the New York shelter system. Full-time facilities are being pushed to the brink and affecting the quality of life of the neighborhood and the city has opened 23 emergency shelters, but there are still not enough beds.
Cruise ships could help alleviate the stress, according to Adams, and were once an alternative the Bloomberg administration considered during its own migration surge.
Adams did not disclose any further details regarding the potential floating shelters but slammed federal policy of barring migrants from working in the US before obtaining work permits.
“We’re saying, ‘You could come here, but you are not allowed to work.’ That is unbelievable,” Adams said, noting the shortages in various sectors, including food, healthcare and transit.
“We need to look and see what we are facing shortages, how do we go about allowing people to take care of themselves? If not, we, the government, must take care of them. That just makes no sense.”
On Friday, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand suggested relocating newly arrived migrants to upstate cities that are experiencing unemployment issues, a move that could also score the municipalities serious federal funding.
https://nypost.com/2022/09/19/nyc-mayor-adams-says-migrants-could-be-housed-on-cruise-ships/
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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18 September, 2022
Texas Will Keep Busing Illegal Immigrants Out of State Until Biden Administration ‘Wakes Up’
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Saturday that the Lone Star state will keep transporting illegal immigrants to other locations both as a wake-up call to Washington and as a way of “fighting back” against the Biden administration’s lax border policies.
“They’ve been dumping people in America for a long time, a long time,” Patrick told Fox News in an interview that aired Sept. 17.
“And now Texas is saying, we’re fighting back. We’re going to send them to your neighborhood and we’re going to keep those buses coming until finally this administration wakes up,” he added.
Patrick said that Texas is now spending around $4 billion a year on border security, while normally the state spends around $400 million.
“This is a financial burden on us. But more importantly, it’s an invasion of our state,” he said.
Patrick’s remarks come as Texas has continued to bus illegal immigrants to locations out of state and as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent several migrant planes to the wealthy enclave of Martha’s Vineyard.
“Obviously there’s going to be buses like Texas is doing” and “there may be some more flights” containing illegal aliens, DeSantis told a news conference in Florida on Sept. 16.
DeSantis’s actions sparked backlash from Democrats, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) calling the decision to fly illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard “repulsive and cruel.”
Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said on Sept. 15 that two buses filled with illegal immigrants were dropped off in Washington near Vice President Kamala Harris’s home.
Abbott said in a statement that the buses were sent in response to recent claims made by Harris—who was appointed last year by President Joe Biden to oversee U.S. border security—that the southern border is secure.
“VP Harris claims our border is ‘secure’ [and] denies the crisis,” Abbott wrote on Sept. 15. “We’re sending migrants to her backyard to call on the Biden Administration to do its job [and] secure the border.”
Video footage taken from the scene showed throngs of men, women, and children carrying items including pillows, blankets, and clothing outside the gates of Harris’s official residence.
Another bus carrying illegal immigrants arrived outside Harris’s home in Washington on Sept. 17, while another wave of buses also arrived in New York City.
Texas Gov. Abbott said last week that the state had bused over 7,900 illegal immigrants to the U.S. capital since April, and over 2,200 to New York City since early August
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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17 September, 2022
'Sanctuary' Cities React to a Few Busloads of Migrants With Extreme Hysterics
The border crisis isn’t just going north, it’s showing up at the vice’s president’s doorstep.
On Sunday, Vice President Kamala Harris insisted that the southern border was “secure” in an interview on “Meet the Press.”
“The border is secure, but we also have a broken immigration system, in particular, over the last four years before we came in, and it needs to be fixed,” Harris told host Chuck Todd on the show. This echoed the administration’s message since President Joe Biden entered office.
On Thursday, two buses of migrants were dropped off in front of Harris’ house near the U.S. National Observatory in Washington, D.C. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, sent the buses, which picked up the migrants in Eagle Pass, Texas.
At the same time, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, announced that he sent two planes of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard—a wealthy, liberal enclave in Massachusetts.
Immediately, Democrats and members of the media denounced these moves as political stunts, mean and immoral acts perpetrated by cruel Republicans. In one CNN segment with documentarian Ken Burns, a panel compared flying migrants to Martha’s Vineyard to the Holocaust.
Apparently, getting a one-way ticket to Martha’s Vineyard is comparable to a one-way ticket to Auschwitz or something.
Nazi comparisons are hardly a new tactic for the Left. Still, it’s important to note that culpability in this problem does not lie with a handful of Republican governors who’ve managed to offload a sliver of their border problems on blue cities. It’s on Biden and his administration, which have utterly eviscerated border enforcement, dropping the issue on border states like Texas and Arizona with little support and no solution.
Isn’t letting, at this point, millions of people into Texas, Arizona, and other states while calling the border “secure” already a political stunt? If that’s going to be the de facto policy of this administration, it seems reasonable to let sanctuary cities bear some of the cost.
These so-called sanctuary cities have reacted to a few busloads of asylum-seekers with extreme hysterics. Shouldn’t they be happy that asylum-seekers are showing up in their neighborhoods? After all, so many New York and Washington, D.C., neighborhoods put up signs saying that “all are welcome, no exceptions” and “refugees welcome.”
This is how Martha’s Vineyard officially responded to the asylum-seekers being dropped off there:
So 50 people show up and it’s a crisis.
Of course, left-wing activists and the media are trying to spin this into a story about how the local community is banding together to welcome people in some great act of compassion unlike those cruel Republicans in Texas and Arizona.
It’s 50 people who’ve been there for a day. It’s one of the wealthiest parts of the country. What heroes.
How long until even these rote attempts to appear welcoming start to disintegrate? It’s easy to help a handful of people for a few days, but how about when this problem continues for years and the numbers are in the thousands per day and not just a few dozen?
Meanwhile, at the southern border, far poorer towns have been coping with hundreds and sometimes thousands of illegal immigrants and asylum-seekers showing up day after day for more than a year with their resources truly stretched to the limit.
Texas border towns like Uvalde, McAllen, Eagle Pass, and so many others have been truly overwhelmed for years. During President Donald Trump’s tenure, the flow of illegal immigration slowed, but under Biden it has ramped up to historic levels.
This sea of humanity came in large part because the Biden administration has systematically made enforcement of U.S. immigration laws difficult to impossible. Arrests are still being made at the border in the millions, but lawbreakers aren’t being prosecuted, asylum cases are left open indefinitely, and the federal government is giving every sign that the law won’t be enforced.
Don’t take my word for it. Here’s what an asylum-seeker said in front of Harris’ house on Thursday: “Everybody believes that the border is open … we see it on the news that everybody comes in illegally, so we do the same.”
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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16 September, 2022
El Paso looks like a ‘third-world country’ after Texas border city is overrun by migrants
Regional Border Patrol Chief Gloria Chavez posted snapshots Monday night on Instagram that showed hordes of migrants dumped under an El Paso bridge over the weekend because the city has no more room to even process them.
“We’ve never seen anything like this,” said outraged US Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), whose district covers part of the city, as El Paso began grappling with its highest daily influx ever last month.
“It’s a scene that you would see in a third-world country, not in the streets of El Paso.”
Gonzalez warned, “Everything that I’ve been told and every indication tells me that we haven’t seen the worst yet. “I was having regular conversations with the White House a few months ago, and now, we really aren’t having any conversations. “Just when you think [things] can’t get any worse, they get worse. “
In a stunning revelation posted with the photos, Chavez wrote, “Since September 1st, El Paso Sector has averaged 1300 encounters per day.”
Most of the migrants flooding El Paso’s border are from Venezuela, and their numbers are averaging daily all-time highs, Border Patrol said. It wasn’t immediately clear what the city’s previous daily highs were.
The migrants, who cross into the US illegally and then claim they need asylum, are usually processed in a massive intake center that can handle 3,400 people.
But given the burgeoning figures, people are now being processed in a makeshift set-up under the local highway overpass.
The migrants are then either ditched on local streets, since there are no more government-funded hotel or shelter rooms available, or helped along to their final destination — which is usually New York City, El Paso officials told The Post on Tuesday.
“We ask the migrants where they wish to go. Nearly all of the migrants say New York City,” said El Paso spokeswoman Laura Cruz-Acosta. “To date, we have chartered 25 buses. All have been to New York City.”
The number of migrants bussed off since late August has totaled at least 1,135, the city said
https://nypost.com/2022/09/13/el-paso-texas-overrun-with-migrants/
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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15 September, 2022
Busing migrants from the border is a blessing, not a punishment
OVER THE past five months, hundreds of chartered buses from Texas and Arizona have transported thousands of undocumented migrants to Washington, D.C., New York, and Chicago.
Republican governors in the border states have dispatched the buses as a ploy to subject Northern Democrats to the chaos and costs associated with the nation's immigration crisis. With unlawful border crossings hitting an all-time high, Governors Greg Abbott of Texas and Doug Ducey of Arizona claim they are being "overwhelmed by hordes of illegal immigrants" and insist the busing operation is their response to "President Biden's inaction at our southern border."
From officials in the destination cities, meanwhile, there has been a torrent of condemnation. New York Mayor Eric Adams blasted the governors as "cowards" for sending away people "who are looking for help." Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot denounced Abbott as "racist and xenophobic." US Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, called the policy "cruel and inhumane."
All of it has added up to the spectacle of politicians at their worst: While lawmakers in Congress refuse to address the cause of the chaos at the border — the lack of more options to immigrate legally — state and city officials are busy trying to score points at the expense of hapless asylum seekers.
Or so I thought until I read Jasmine Aguilera's account in Time magazine, which reported on the busing of migrants from the perspective of the migrants themselves.
Far from regarding their state-organized travel as "cruel and inhumane," Aguilera found, those she talked to considered it a stroke of good fortune. She interviewed 15 migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, and Honduras before they boarded one of the buses in Del Rio, Texas, and after they arrived in Washington two days later. They told her "they were thrilled for the option of free transportation, and were surprised to learn that Abbott's intentions were less about accommodating them than inconveniencing his political opponents."
If Texas and Arizona counted on the buses heading north to "sway the federal government to toughen immigration policy, they so far have been unsuccessful," Aguilera wrote. "But in the process, they've provided a service to thousands of migrants seeking homes in the United States."
She found the same reaction when she spoke with another group of migrants on a bus out of Yuma, Ariz. Among them was a family of five from Peru, who left their homeland in July after the mother, Jennifer, was threatened by violent gang members. They headed to America hoping to connect with relatives in Boston. After their frightening ordeal in Peru, Jennifer told Time, "a safe, free bus that would take her family closer [to] Boston was a 'blessing.'"
Other journalists have come to similar conclusions. The Washington Post noted that "those who board the buses appear to do so willingly, with no sign of anyone ... being forced or tricked," and reported that "for many of those who have accepted the rides ... the buses have turned into a welcomed pipeline." The Dallas Morning News quoted one thankful migrant who took the bus to Washington. "I consider it true humanitarian aid," Víctor Rodríguez told a reporter. "[I]t allows migrants who have no money, like me, to arrive or get closer to our destination.... My life starts now."
The best solution to the illegal immigration crisis is to make legal immigration much easier. But in the interim, the Texas and Arizona governors' stunt, however cynically intended, turns out to be an excellent idea. Government agencies, working with humanitarian organizations, ought to be encouraged to help migrants move onward from the overstressed border towns. It's in everyone's interest to make it easy for newcomers to disperse to communities nationwide — whether to connect with relatives or friends already in the country or to move to cities where the labor market is tight and jobs are plentiful.
More than two centuries of experience have shown that where immigrants put down roots, America thrives. As Rupert Murdoch once said, Silicon Valley is misnamed — "it's not the silicon" that made it such an economic dynamo, "it's the immigrants."
Foreigners are far more likely than US natives to start businesses and create jobs, to stabilize declining populations, and revitalize stagnant neighborhoods. The foreign-born come to this country pursuing an American dream. It is in America's national interest to help them get underway.
Abbott and Ducey may have thought they were pulling a fast one. But they outsmarted themselves. Enabling migrants to reach new destinations as quickly as possible is the best thing we can do for them and for us. Keep the buses rolling and the new Americans coming.
https://jeffjacoby.com/26451/busing-migrants-from-the-border-is-a-blessing-not
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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14 September, 2022
Nearly 250,000 migrants have flooded Yuma, Arizona in the past year - where tourism has declined, and locals are complaining of being SHOT AT by coyotes
It's known as the 'sunniest city on Earth', the winter lettuce capital of the USA, and the inspiration for 2007 western film 3:10 to Yuma – but in the last year, the small Arizona town of Yuma has become as famous for migrants as it is for movies.
Over the past 12 months, almost 250,000 people have flooded into the city of 100,000 – lured by gaps in the border fence and a Border Patrol sector stretched to the limit.
What has followed, as a result, is a $20million bill for medical services for migrants at the hospital since January, locals claiming they are being shot at by cartel traffickers, 48 dead bodies discovered in the last six months, a drop in tourism, and a homeless shelter so overwhelmed, it was forced to lock its doors at one point.
Yuma has also become the origin for many of the migrant buses headed to Washington DC, New York, and Chicago – prompting howls of outrage from DC Mayor Muriel Bowser who declared a state of emergency after receiving 4,000 migrants, and Mayor Eric Adams who claimed homeless shelters in New York have been inundated.
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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13 September, 2022
The number of migrants drowning in the Rio Grande amid President Biden’s border crisis has gotten so out of control that one Texas town needs a refrigerated truck to store all the bodies
“Two weeks ago, we had four people that drowned in one day. Now, the next day we had another drowning. The very next day we had another drowning,” Eagle Pass Fire Chief Manuel Mello III told Fox News for a report Monday.
“So, there’s so many bodies being recovered that the morticians are asking for assistance, and we’ve actually loaned them a refrigerated truck to store all of those bodies.”
Mello also said the city’s four ambulances “get overwhelmed every single day.”
“I have never seen so many drownings like we’re seeing right now,” he said. “When I started we used to do maybe 12 a year. Now we’re doing one a day, 30 a month.”
Nearly 750 migrants died while trying to cross from Mexico into the US during fiscal 2022, which began Oct. 1 and ends Sept. 30, Department of Homeland Security officials told CNN earlier this month.
During the first 10 months of fiscal 2022, US immigration officials stopped more than 1.9 million people along the southern border and the annual total is expected to exceed 2 million for the first time ever.
The death toll includes nine migrants who drowned in the rain-swollen Rio Grande earlier this month, prompting the Customs and Border Patrol to plead with immigrants to avoid attempting to cross the river.
Mello said fording the Rio Grande is treacherous because the river is “very funny.”
“Sometimes, you — you’ll be walking in an area where the water will never go above your knee. But all of a sudden, you’ll have a drop of about 10, 12 feet,” he said.
“If you’re carrying a baby, you’re gonna go down 10, 12 feet with that baby.”
https://nypost.com/2022/09/12/texas-town-using-refrigerated-truck-to-store-drowned-migrants/
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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12 September, 2022
Australia: $1bn “golden ticket” visa scheme to be axed over concerns its gives criminals a pathway to citizenship
The $1bn-a-year “golden ticket” visa scheme will be axed following concern it has given criminals a pathway to Australian citizenship without proper checks and growing evidence the program has a profoundly negative impact on the economy.
The move follows revelations by The Australian that while more than 7000 Chinese citizens have been granted the $5m Significant Investor Visas, not a single applicant in the past 10 years has been rejected under the character test designed to help exclude criminals or those with suspiciously obtained wealth.
The scheme is expected to be killed off within the next year as the government pivots sharply to give priority to skilled worker visas, a move that will cause serious ructions in the multibillion-dollar business investment visa industry, where financial advisers, migration agents, banks and specialist investment firms have reaped huge rewards for a decade.
The government signalled a move away from business investment visas at the Job Summit, with the number of visas in the program halved for this year, in part because the enormous backlog of applications was thwarting attempts to process visas for desperately needed skilled workers.
Experts have flagged concerns over a class of Australian visa that has operated for 10 years with zero rejections.… More than 7,000 Chinese citizens have been approved for the Significant Investor Visa scheme, which requires a minimum investment of $5 million. The so-called 'golden ticket' visa confers an More
On Sunday, Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said the significant investor visa scheme was “a really big problem” in the immigration system.
“I think most Australians would be pretty offended by the idea that we’ve got a visa category here where effectively you can buy your way into the country,” Ms O’Neil told Sky News.
“I don’t see a lot of great benefits to the country currently … some really important journalism has pointed out that there are some potential security issues here in this visa.”
Figures obtained by The Australian show 2370 super-rich Chinese nationals have been granted primary visas, along with more than 5000 family members, under the Significant Investor Visa scheme, which requires a minimum investment in Australia of $5m and confers an automatic right of permanent residence.
None of those who applied has failed the “character test” since the scheme was introduced in 2012, and just 23 were refused for failing to provide accurate information.
Investors can gain citizenship even if they spend only 40 days a year in Australia and unlike other visa holders, they are not required to learn or speak English. There is also no upper age limit.
Australian Treasury calculations suggest a business investment visa holder will cost Australian taxpayers $120,000 more in public services than they pay in taxes over their lifetimes.
“The lifetime impact on the Australian budget is negative because these are people who generally are coming in at quite a late stage of their life, often at the end of their business career, and are coming to Australia basically to settle down and retire,” Ms O’Neil said.
“It is a visa program that I think isn’t adding value to the country and it’s something we will be looking at in the context of the review of the immigration program I have just announced. At the moment, I can’t see a lot of reasons to maintain it as part of our program.”
As governments around the world shut down passports-for-sale schemes in a bid to stop organised crime syndicates and corrupt regime officials hiding their loot, police and security agencies fear Australia has become the go-to destination for those with big enough wallets.
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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11 September, 2022
66 Aliens on Terrorist Watchlist Nabbed at the Southwest Border
The latest CBP statistics reveal that Border Patrol agents at the Southwest border have apprehended 66 illegal entrants on the terrorist watchlist in the first 10 months of FY 2022 — more than doubling the total of such apprehensions in the last five fiscal years. That comes as the Office of Inspector General (OIG) at DHS — that department’s watchdog — found that Afghan nationals who “pose a risk to national security and the safety of local communities” may have been released into the United States during our evacuation efforts from that country. Welcome to Joe Biden’s new pre-September 11th world.
Terrorist Watchlist Apprehensions Soar. Among the enforcement statistics CBP publishes monthly are what it terms “Terrorist Screening Dataset Encounters”.
Those statistics reveal that between October 2021 and August 2022, Border Patrol agents at the Southwest border apprehended 66 aliens whose identities appear in the “Terrorist Screening Dataset (TSDS)” — aka: the “watchlist” — described as “the U.S. government’s database that contains sensitive information on terrorist identities”.
Either dryly or innocently (or both), CBP asserts that “Encounters of watchlisted individuals at our borders are very uncommon, underscoring the critical work CBP Agents and Officers carry out every day on the frontlines.” While it’s a relief that agents are not nabbing known or suspected terrorists on an hourly basis, that sort of misses the point.
Nineteen foreign nationals (none of whom, to be fair, crossed the border illegally), carried out the four individual but coordinated terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, a singular event that claimed thousands of lives, resulted in billions of dollars in damages and losses, and changed the country and Americans’ lives forever.
That “underscores” the danger that even a few misguided foreign nationals bent on destruction pose to the United States and its institutions. Regrettably, CBP’s statistics suggest that there are more than a few who are trying to follow those 19 hijackers.
To put those 66 watchlist apprehensions into context, Border Patrol agents at the U.S.-Mexico line have stopped more than twice as many known or suspected terrorists in just the 10 months ended August 31 than they did in the prior five fiscal years combined (26 total TSDS apprehensions).
That’s not the worst part, however, because while Border Patrol agents have been dealing with those individuals, the number of known or suspected terrorists who have been stopped by their colleagues at the Southwest border ports of entry has dropped significantly.
Through the end of August, CBP officers at those ports have encountered 60 individuals on the TSDS in FY 2022. That may or may not include U.S. citizens (who can also be stopped at the ports), but notably it puts those officers on pace to encounter 72 people with TSDS “hits” this fiscal year, well below their watchlist total for FY 2021 (103), FY 2019 (280), FY 2018 (155), or FY 2017 (116).
That would equal the number of known or suspected terrorists stopped at our Mexican border ports in FY 2021 (again, 72), but it’s important to remember those ports weren’t screening many travelers from late March 2021 on, due to Covid-19 pandemic-related travel restrictions.
If Border Patrol is apprehending a record number of suspected terrorists, isn’t that good? No, actually — it’s a bad omen. Historically, alien terrorists have entered legally through the ports (generally through subterfuge and fraud) because experience has shown it’s the easiest way to avoid detection at entry.
Illegal entry across the border, on the other hand, carries a much higher risk of detection because agents are going to thoroughly question, search, and vet every alien who avoids the ports on the way in. Well, everyone they catch at least.
The problem is that Border Patrol agents are currently so swamped transporting, processing, and caring for aliens who are turning themselves in (in the reasonable expectation of release into this country), that they are increasingly incapable of catching aliens seeking to evade detection and capture. A half-million such “got-aways” have successfully entered this fiscal year alone.
And, logically, every alien on the watchlist is seeking to evade detection and capture.
As a former INS terrorist prosecutor, acting head of the agency’s National Security Law Division, and staff director of the House national security subcommittee, I have some professional experience in terrorist travel patterns. If I were a terrorist or terrorist organizer, illicit travel across the depleted border would be the path I would follow into the country.
You don’t have to believe me, however.
Biden’s original Border Patrol chief, Rodney Scott, made similar points in a letter that he sent to Senate leadership on September 11, 2021. Rhetorically, Scott asked if “[l]ow level, unsophisticated and uneducated smugglers are illegally crossing the border and increasingly evading apprehension daily”, why wouldn’t “well-resourced terrorist networks, criminal organizations, and hostile nations” not be “doing the same”? Why not, indeed.
https://cis.org/Arthur/66-Aliens-Terrorist-Watchlist-Nabbed-Southwest-Border
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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9 September, 2022
Western Hemisphere Comprises Larger Share of New Immigrants
Half of newcomers (2020 to 2022) are now from the Americas compared to one-third a decade ago
Analysis of data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) collected in the first half of 2022 shows that the number and share of new immigrants (legal and illegal together) from the Western Hemisphere, excluding Canada, has increased significantly. Not only is immigration up from Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America, but immigration from the rest of the world has declined. As a result, 2022 is the first time since 2006 that the CPS shows more than half of new legal and illegal immigrants, also referred to as the foreign-born, came from these regions. Newly arrived immigrants in the CPS include the survey year and the two prior years, so the new numbers include the fall-off in all immigration due to Covid-19, particularly in 2020, as well as the surge of illegal immigration that began in 2021. As more data is released from the Census Bureau, a clearer picture will emerge, but it seems that a significant shift has occurred in the composition of new immigrants.
Among the findings:
In 2022, 52 percent of all new immigrants (legal and illegal together) were from the Western Hemisphere, excluding Canada, compared to 33 percent of new arrivals in 2014. New arrivals are those who came in 2020, 2021 or the first part of 2022.
The increase in the share from the Western Hemisphere was partly due to a numerical increase in newcomers from that region relative to the recent past, particularly from countries other than Mexico, but was also caused by a decline in newcomers from the rest of the world.
The number and share of new immigrants from East Asia has declined significantly. In 2022, only 12 percent of newcomers came from the region, compared to 25 percent in 2014.
The number and share of new immigrants from the Indian subcontinent also fell, declining from 16 percent of newcomers in 2018 to only 11 percent in 2022.
The increasing share of immigrants from the Western Hemisphere almost certainly reflects, in part, the surge of illegal immigration since the start of 2021, but also that new legal immigration has returned to pre-Covid levels somewhat more quickly from the Western Hemisphere than it has for the rest of the world.
Immigrants from the Western Hemisphere tend to be less educated than those from other sending regions. As a result, the increase in new immigration from this part of the world means that the education level of new immigrants overall has fallen somewhat, after steadily increasing for a number of years.
In 2022, 18 percent of all new immigrants (ages 18 to 64) had not completed high school, compared to 12 percent of new arrivals in 2018. The share of new immigrants with at least a bachelor’s degree fell from 50 percent in 2018 to 44 percent in 2022.
We do not have an estimate of new illegal immigrants based on the arrival data in the CPS at this time. But it is almost certain that more than half of all immigrants who have arrived since 2020 are illegal immigrants. This includes those encountered at the border and released, those who made it past the border patrol, and visa overstayers.
Introduction
This analysis uses the Current Population Survey (CPS), which is collected each month by the Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), primarily to measure labor market conditions. The monthly CPS, which is sometimes called the “household survey”, includes some 60,000 households. Beginning in 1994, the survey began to ask questions on citizenship, country of birth, and year of entry into the United States on a regular basis. It is the most up-to-date survey data available designed to be representative of the U.S. population that identifies immigrants. Immigrants in Census Bureau data, whom the government typically refers to as the foreign-born, include all persons who were not U.S. citizens at birth — naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents, temporary visitors, and illegal immigrants.
To obtain more statistically robust estimates of newcomers, we average the monthly Current Population Survey for the first six months of 2022. The data shows that immigrants from the Western Hemisphere except Canada — Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America — accounted for more than half of newly arrived legal and illegal immigrants. Throughout this report we use the terms “Western Hemisphere”, “Latin America”, and “the Americas” interchangeably.
Later this month, the Census Bureau will begin to release data from the 2021 American Community Survey (ACS). While a much larger survey than the CPS, the ACS data will only reflect conditions through July 2021, so it will not reflect most of the surge of illegal immigration that took place at the southern border beginning in 2021. In contrast, the CPS does reflect conditions through the first part of 2022. However, the government codes responses in the public-use CPS to the year of entry question into multi-year cohorts. In even-numbered years, like 2022, recent arrivals are those who came in the two years prior to survey, plus the year the data was collected.1 This means that in the 2022 data, new arrivals came in 2020, 2021, and the first part of 2022. In the CPS from 2020, new arrivals came in 2018 to 2020; in 2018, newcomers arrived in 2016 to 2018, and so on.
Findings
An Increasing Share from the Western Hemisphere. Figure 1 reports the share of recent immigrants from different regions of the world using the CPS.2 It shows that, in 2022, 52 percent of all new immigrants (legal and illegal together) were from the Western Hemisphere, excluding Canada, compared to 33 percent of new arrivals in 2014. After declining from the early 2000s, the increase in the share of new immigration from Latin America represents a significant rebound. The big increase is in the share of newcomers from non-Mexican Western Hemisphere countries. However, Mexico, which declined significantly as a share of newcomers after 2006, has also increased to some extent in the newest data, from 9 percent of new arrivals in 2018 to 17 percent in 2022. Their share of new immigrants in 2022 is the highest percentage from Mexico since 2010, though the current share is still well below the level in the early 2000s. Prior research as well as border encounter figures all show that immigrants from Latin America make up most, but by no means all, of the illegal immigrant population.3 The increasing share of new arrivals from the region reflects, at least in part, the surge of illegal immigration on the southern border. Also, as we discuss below, legal immigration from Latin America seems to have returned more quickly to pre-Covid levels in 2021 and 2022 than legal immigration from the rest of the world and this, too, helps explain the results in Figure 1.
It should be noted that Figure 1 is only the population shares for new legal and illegal immigrants; it does not reflect the total stock of legal and illegal immigrants in the United States. The population shares by region in the overall population of immigrants living in the country shift much more slowly compared to fluctuations in new arrivals because new arrivals are only a modest share of the total immigrant population.
https://cis.org/Report/Western-Hemisphere-Comprises-Larger-Share-New-Immigrants
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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8 September, 2022
The H-1B Program Is Much Less Popular than DHS Figured
The Department of Homeland Security has just figured out that the H-1B program is much less popular with would-be H-1B workers and employers than it expected last year.
We learn this from a close examination of H-1B statistics that appeared — not from a U.S. source, but in the Times of India. The newspaper presents the evidence for this, but does not make the point.
Last year the agency pulled just 87,600 names from the H-1B lottery, a 3 percent margin over the 85,000 ceiling on these annual admissions. That suggested that the agency felt that in 97 percent of the cases the employers and the workers would jump at the chance of an H-1 B job.
That did not happen and DHS felt it needed to run a second lottery to meet the 85,000 ceiling; it did so and provided 27,717 more slots.
That was still not enough, however, so DHS went into a totally unprecedented third lottery, this time for 16,752 more slots. So, in the end, DHS had to offer 47,069 slots more than the 85,000 annual limit.
What was happening was never discussed publicly. The additional lotteries were an indication that many employers did not want the slots given to them and/or workers could not be found to fill the slots offered in the first and second rounds of the lottery.
In other words, lots of employers said they did not want the workers awarded, and lots of would-be H-1B workers turned down a chance to work in the program.
That was last year. This year, DHS, which learned a lesson, pulled 127,600 names for the 85,000 slots, or a margin of about 50 percent. So far, apparently, it has not felt it necessary to run a second or a third lottery. This suggests that the industry’s “need” for the program is greatly over-stated, as is the workers’ interest in the program. Most H-1B visas go to young Hindu males from the south of India, as we have reported in the past, not to Indian workers generally; women, Muslims, and people over 35 are rarely chosen by the hiring authorities, who in turn, are usually other Indians.
The way one group of Indians exploit other Indians was noted in a comment that appeared in the Times of India beside the article cited. The verbatim text follows:
Only if you are getting over at least 120K/annum as remuneration move to USA on H-1B visa. Otherwise it is not worth it. A lot of Indian origin employers are selling fake US dreams to Indian employees by paying them basic minimum which is 60K which is just not sufficient to save anything. These evil people want you to slog like anything and will pay you less than any native employees [i.e., U.S. citizens]. Beware of these evil people selling US dream to naive Indians.
That kind of advice helps explain why DHS felt it had to choose 127,600 names to fill the 85,000 slots.
https://cis.org/North/H1B-Program-Much-Less-Popular-DHS-Figured
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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7 September, 2022
Children of Immigrants – How Are They Doing?
Summary
This analysis measures the socio-economic status (SES) of U.S.-born adult (ages 25 to 29) children of immigrants (second-generation Americans). We focus on this age group because by this age individuals have traditionally become independent of their parents, but are still young enough that their immigrant parents are relatively recent arrivals. We find that the SES of these younger second-generation adults nearly equals that of third-generation-plus Americans (those with U.S.-born parents) in most but not all measures of SES. However, this overall picture obscures the situation for second-generation Hispanics — who comprise more than half of all children born to immigrants in recent decades, and who have much lower SES than second-generation Americans generally. In fact, even third-generation Hispanics have a SES that is a good deal lower than for third-generation Americans overall. Though they lag behind third-generation Americans, second-generation Hispanics are still much better off than were their immigrant parents. It also bears mentioning that second-generation Americans 25 to 29 examined in this analysis are not the children of today’s immigrants. On average, we estimate that the parents of even these relatively younger adults arrived four decades ago. The children born to immigrants who arrived in the last 30 years are too young to measure their SES separately from their parents.
Introduction
We do not know how children born to immigrants today will fare once they reach adulthood, as they are still too young to measure their socio-economic status (SES) as independent adults.1 Economic and social conditions in the United States are constantly changing and the dramatic growth in the immigrant population over the past several decades means that immigrants are arriving into a very different country than immigrants in prior periods of American history, to say nothing of the how the immigrants themselves may have changed.2
Although we cannot know how the children of today’s immigrants will do in the future, we can still look at how children born to immigrants in the past have fared. This may provide some insight into how well the children born to immigrants today may do as adults. This report focuses on the youngest group of the second generation possible, those who, for the most part, are old enough to be independent of their parents — 25 to 29-year-olds — but young enough that their parents are still relatively recent arrivals. We use the terms “immigrant” and “foreign-born” interchangeability in this analysis to mean all those who were not U.S. citizens at birth, including naturalized citizens, legal permanent residents, and illegal immigrants, all of whom are captured in Census Bureau data. We define the second generation as anyone with a foreign-born mother or father and the third generation as anyone with two U.S.-born parents.
When thinking about the economic assimilation of the children of immigrants, it is also important to remember that a significant share of immigrants arrive in America well educated or specifically came to America in order to earn a bachelor’s or graduate degree. Tables 1 and 2 report the education level and average income from all sources for immigrants and the native-born in 1990 and 2019. The tables show enormous differences between sending countries and regions in education and income. The offspring of well-educated immigrants do reasonability well, but it may not be entirely accurate to describe prosperous parents having relatively prosperous children as successful assimilation. Rather, it may simply reflect the advantages that well-educated, higher-income parents commonly transfer to their children in all countries — regardless of parental nativity.
Methods and Data
Measures of Social Economic Status. Figures 1 through 6 summarize many of our results on the socio-economic status of 25- to 29-year-olds by generation. (Table 3 reports more detailed information, including breakdowns by gender.) All of the numbers in the figures and table are based on our analysis of the Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey (ASEC CPS) collected in March 2021 by the U.S. Census Bureau.3 The survey is one of the only large government surveys that asks respondents about their citizenship and parents’ place of birth, making it possible to identify the foreign-born (immigrants), the second generation, and all those in the third generation and beyond. For simplicity, throughout the remainder of this Backgrounder we use the term “third generation” to mean all those with two U.S.-born parents, which includes the third generation, but also the fourth generation and beyond.
Target Population of Second-Generation Americans. We examine individuals 25 to 29 because by this age people are unambiguously adults, and typically have completed a bachelor’s degree, if they went to college. They also are typically in the labor market (working or looking for work) and traditionally are independent of their parents. We also focus on this age cohort because they are young enough that their immigrant parents are still relatively recent arrivals. Looking at the children of more recent immigrants should be more relevant to the current debate over immigration. If we examined second-generation, U.S.-born Americans in older age groups, then their parents would have arrived correspondingly even further back in time.
Parental Year of Entry. Even though these second-generation Americans 25 to 29 are relatively young, their parents are still not that recently arrived. We estimate that, in 2021 a little less than a third of the parents of our target population of second-generation Americans arrived in 1979 or earlier, about half arrived in the 1980s, and about one-fifth arrived 1990-1996. The estimated mean year of arrival in the United States for these immigrant parents is 1983.4 Even though the second-generation Americans we focus on here are only in the latter half of their 20s, their parents still arrived about four decades ago on average.
SES of Immigrant Parents. In the early 1990s, 45 percent of the immigrant parents of our target population of second-generation adults 25 to 29 had not completed high school and 19 percent had at least a bachelor’s degree. The parents of third-generation Americans 25 to 29 were much more educated at that time, with only 14 percent not having completed high school and 23 percent having at least a bachelor’s degree. The immigrant parents of U.S.-born, second-generation Hispanics tend to be much less educated than immigrant parents overall or third-generation parents — 64 percent of Hispanic immigrant parents had not completed high school and only 6 percent had at least a bachelor’s degree back then. The share of immigrant parents with low incomes — in or near poverty — was also much higher than that of U.S.-born parents. Of the parents of our target second-generation population, 63 percent were in or near poverty (less than 200 percent of the poverty threshold) in 1997 when their children were young. The figure is 77 percent for the immigrant Hispanic parents of the second generation. In contrast, 43 percent of the parents of third-generation Americans 25 to 29 in 2021 were in or near poverty back in 1997.5
The above statistics are only for one point in time. The National Academy of Sciences’ extensive 2017 study of immigration to the United States found that each new wave of immigrants since the 1960s has tended to start out poorer and not speak English well at least through the 1990s. Moreover, the progress they make in the United States over time, while substantial, still leaves them less able to speak English well and poorer than prior waves of immigrants relative to the U.S.-born.6 If a larger share of immigrants struggle with English and earn lower wages at arrival and over time than earlier waves, then this may have important implications for the assimilation of their U.S.-born children. Given the slowing progress of immigrants, it may be premature to assume that the children of more recent immigrants will do as well as immigrants who arrived in generations past.
Findings
The Second Generation Compared to the Third. Figures 1 through 6 report the SES of second- and third-generation Americans 25 to 29. Table 3 reports more detailed information, including SES by gender. Turning first to Figure 1, it shows that, relative to the third generation of the same age, the second generation is as likely to be in poverty or in or near poverty as all third-generation Americans. However, relative to third-generation white Americans, the rates of poverty and near poverty for second-generation Americans are somewhat higher.7 In terms of being on Medicaid, Figure 1 shows that the second generation is more likely to use the program relative to the third generation — 19 percent vs. 16 percent.8 There is more difference with third-generation whites, 13 percent of whom are on Medicaid.
Figure 2 shows that the share of the second generation with at least a bachelor’s degree is basically identical to the third generation, though the rates for the second-generation do lag behind third-generation whites somewhat. The labor force participation of men — the share working or looking for work — is somewhat lower for the second generation than for the third, especially relative to third-generation whites, though the differences are not that large. Finally, Figure 3 shows that the second generation overall has lower mean income than the third generation and this is especially true when compared to third-generation whites. But again, the differences are not that large.
In sum, Figures 1 through 3 show that the second generation has similar SES with the third generation in terms of the share that have low income and have at least a bachelor’s degree. Their labor force participation, Medicaid use, and average income lag the third generation somewhat. But overall it is fair to say that the difference between third-generation Americans and second-generation Americans in their late 20s is not very large. This is particularly encouraging when we recall that the immigrant parents of the current group of second-generation Americans 25 to 29 years old were much less likely to have completed high school than the parents of third-generation Americans. They were also much more likely to have low incomes back in the early 1990s when second-generation Americans were very young.
Hispanic Share of Second-Generation Americans. Figures 4 through 6 report the SES of second- and third-generation Hispanics. Examining Hispanics is especially important because they comprise such a large share of immigrants. Of our target population of U.S.-born 25- to 29-year-olds with at least one immigrant parent, 58 percent are Hispanic. Hispanics make up such a large share of the second generation because their parents represent a large share of all immigrants and because Hispanics tend to have higher fertility than other immigrant groups. In addition to their population size, focusing on Hispanics is also important because, as already discussed, they tend to be less educated than other immigrants, both now and in the early 1990s. This raises the possibility that a significant share of their children may struggle in the United States.
Second-Generation Hispanics Have Lower SES. Figures 4 through 6 show that second- and third-generation Hispanics tend to lag third-generation Americans overall and non-Hispanic whites in most measures of SES. This is true for the share with low incomes (but not second-generation poverty), Medicaid dependency, completion of a bachelor’s degree, and mean income. In terms of labor force participation, second-generation Hispanic men have very similar rates of work as the third generation overall. One of the largest differences between second-generation Hispanics and third-generation Americans overall is income. Figure 6 shows that the average income of second-generation Hispanics is only 79 percent of third-generation Americans overall and just 72 percent that of third-generation whites.
Third-Generation Hispanics. Perhaps the most troubling finding in Figures 4 through 6 is the seeming lack of progress between the second and third generation for Hispanics and even indications that the third generation is worse off than the second. This is by no means an unexpected finding, as a number of other researchers have found the same thing.9 However, it should be kept in mind that the third-generation Hispanics in Figures 4 through 6 are not the offspring of the second-generation Hispanics shown in the figures. In fact, many third-generation Hispanics are not the descendants of immigrants at all and are instead either Puerto Ricans, who are all American citizens at birth, or are descendants of long-standing Mexican-American communities in the southwest. Second, even though the third-generation Hispanics shown in the figures are no better off and in some ways are worse off than the second generation, this actually does not mean there is no progress between the second and “true” third generation (those with immigrant grandparents).
As already indicated, the third generation in the figures includes the true third generation and older generations as well. There is research showing progress for Mexican-Americans, who are by far the largest Hispanic group in the United States, between the second and third generation. But, on the other hand, that does not mean the third generation reaches parity with other third-generation Americans.10 Moreover, the extent to which there is progress between the second and the true third generation does not change the fact that Figures 4 through 6 show that third-generation-plus Hispanic-Americans are still more likely to be poor, are less educated, have lower labor force participation, access Medicaid at higher rates, and have lower average incomes than third-generation-plus Americans generally.
Conclusion
We find that, overall, second-generation Americans 25 to 29, whose parents we estimate arrived about four decades ago, are as likely to have completed college or live in or near poverty as third-generation Americans. In terms of Medicaid use, labor force participation, and average income, the second generation still lags behind the third generation, but the differences are not very large. However, the more positive picture of the second generation overall obscures the significantly lower SES of second- and even third-generation Hispanics, who lag significantly behind third-generation Americans overall. That said, second-generation Hispanics, like second-generation Americans generally, are significantly better off than their immigrant parents on average.
Of course, it must always be remembered that even the younger adult second-generation Americans examined here are not the children of today’s immigrants. The children of immigrants who have entered in the last 30 years are too young for us to measure their SES independent of their parents. Economic opportunities in the United States are continually changing and the children of immigrants are growing up in a country with a dramatically larger immigrant population than was true in the recent past. It is simply unknown how changing conditions in this country will help or hinder the successful economic integration of immigrants entering today or their U.S.-born children once they reach adulthood.
https://cis.org/Report/Second-Generation-Glass-Half-Empty-or-Half-Full
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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6 September, 2022
New York City officials line up to SHAKE HANDS with migrants after being bused in from Texas: Families are handed blankets and escorted to Manhattan hotels
Busses of migrants sent to New York City from Texas were welcomed with handshakes and an official escort from members of Mayor Eric Adams' administration in Manhattan Sunday.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has ordered over a dozen buses of migrants to the Big Apple, Chicago, and Washington DC in an attempt to show them the nature of the crisis at the border.
So far, Texas has forked out nearly $13million to Wynne Transportation - the charter service that is taking migrants to the various cities. Around 44 migrants got off Sunday's bus, which was ordered to New York by El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser.
Each of the arriving migrants at the city's Port Authority were greeted with a handshake from a local leader, a blanket and were then escorted to a local hotel.
Manuel Castro, the Director of Adams' Office of Immigrant Affairs, said: 'As in previous days, our priority is to make sure that the asylum seekers are well. We have food water medical services inside the port authority.'
And late on Sunday night, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced that 50 migrants had also been dropped off in her city.
Castro revealed earlier this week that City Hall has been forced to strike emergency deals with the hotels because the shelter system is overloaded.
Five more buses arrived on Thursday from Texas, carrying migrants relocated by Texas Gov Greg Abbott.
The same number of buses arrived on Wednesday, which was a record number for migrants arriving at the Port Authority Bus Terminal.
Castro revealed that more than 6,000 migrants have needed help from the city since May, including at least 750 on the buses that Abbott began sending them to New York from Texas.
Two weeks ago City Hall stated that 11 hotels were being used to help ease the pressure, but that has now been upped to 14.
City Hall has also confirmed that they are no longer planning to house 600 families at the luxury The Row hotel near Times Square in NYC which is regularly packed with tourists.
New York City will rent 5,000 hotel rooms to accommodate migrants arriving on buses from Texas in addition to the 1,000 already announced by Mayor Eric Adams.
During a press conference yesterday, Castro also explained that both Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul appealed to officials in other states for help housing the migrants.
However, he did not identify any of the other cities or leaders who have been contacted to assist in the support scheme.
He said: ‘Unlike Gov. Abbott, our mayor and our governor are showing true leadership by actively coordinating with the White House and federal government and governors across the country and mayors across the country to see how we can work together to address the need to resettle asylum-seekers.’
Mayor Adams announced last week that hotels in District Two, where were 'opening daily and serving as shelters.'
He also said that any children who travel across the border would be integrated into the school system and will receive supplies and backpacks.
Andrea Catsimatidis, chair of the Manhattan Republican Party, said: 'NYC is looking for an extra 5,000 hotel rooms to house bused in migrants.
'So now we have illegal immigrants instead of tourists in our hotels. Imagine that impact on our economy, crime, and tax dollars.'
The NYC Hotel Association has said operators are ready to put up thousands of migrants to help the city's housing problems.
Vijay Dandapani, president of the group representing nearly 300 hotels, likened the migrant crisis to the homeless shelter situation of the pandemic.
He told DailyMail.com: 'Individual hotels who may or may not be our members could get involved in this, and in the past during the height of the pandemic, we were directly involved in moving people from homeless shelters to hotels.
'We are there ready again, with our stakeholders in the city to do the necessary thing if that is what asked of us.
'Everyone is doing this voluntarily it depends on how they view it. You are certainly not going to see the luxury five star hotels participant it but three or four starts as they did during the pandemic, may help as that market has not yet come back to pre-pandemic levels.
'We ourselves are ready and we have done it in the past and we'll do it again. It's a dynamic situation early next week.'
Abbott started moving migrants to DC in April to protest President Biden's ‘irresponsible open border policies’ before also bussing them into the Big Apple.
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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5 September, 2022
Border Patrol issues warning following 9 migrant deaths, asks migrants to 'please avoid crossing illegally'
The U.S. Border Patrol is warning migrants attempting to illegally enter the U.S. not to do so amid record-high temperatures and intense weather, which recently resulted in at least nine deaths.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Chief Patrol Agent Jason Owens of the Del Rio Sector released a "warning of extreme importance" to those wanting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border as passage through the Rio Grande has become "more dangerous."
The warning comes as migrants continue to cross the Del Rio Sector by the hundreds, he said.
"The currents of the Rio Grande have become more dangerous due to recent and continuing rainfall and more rain is forecasted for the coming week," Owens said. "Despite these adverse conditions, U.S. Border Patrol, Del Rio Sector continues to encounter more than 100+, 200+ attempting to cross the Rio Grande daily."
The recent weather patterns have caused at least nine deaths and the Border Patrol is asking migrants to refrain from crossing "in an effort to prevent further loss of life."
On Saturday, CBP said a ninth individual had died after a large group of migrants attempted to cross the Rio Grande earlier in the week. The announcement came after the bodies of eight migrants were found. Six were found by CBP agents while two were found by Mexican authorities.
Fifty-three migrants were apprehended by U.S. authorities, including 37 migrants who were rescued from the water by Border Patrol agents. Mexican authorities also arrested 39 people during the same incident.
In August, CBP said its agents discovered bodies of more than 200 migrants in the Del Rio sector this fiscal year.
As a whole, U.S.-Mexico border crossings continue to overwhelm American immigration enforcement. CBP said it makes more than 200,000 encounters each month with more than 500,000 migrants slipping through immigration enforcement efforts this fiscal year.
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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3 September, 2022
Identity Fraud by Illegal Aliens Ignored by the Federal Government
Podcast
Summary
Federal authorities estimate that more than one million people in the United States, many of them illegal aliens, are using Social Security numbers belonging to someone else. However, government agencies choose to look the other way, allowing Americans, including young children, to be victimized by identity thieves.
This week, Ben Weingarten joins Parsing Immigration Policy to talk about a report on ID theft he co-authored for RealClearInvestigations.com, where he is deputy editor. Weingarten discusses with Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies and host of the podcast, various steps the federal government can take to address this widespread fraud.
The Earnings Suspense File is an accounting tally kept by the Social Security Administration of wages reported on W-2 forms, where the information does not match the SSA’s records. Weingarten said some of these mismatches are legitimate, such as in the case of a name change, but the tenfold increase in the total wages recorded in the file is in large part due to the explosion of the number of illegal aliens in the U.S., many of whom are working on the books with SSNs that are not their own.
Weingarten says, “Government agencies not only know that there is a substantial amount of identity fraud going on in the workplace, but they want to turn the other way on it. They believe they have an incentive to turn the other way on it.” Federal officials, including members of Congress, Weingarten says, argue that this identity theft is actually beneficial because illegal immigrants contribute to federal tax revenue. Meanwhile, they ignore the American citizens – typically Hispanics or children, or both – who are victims of this identity fraud by illegal aliens.
In his closing commentary, host Mark Krikorian calls attention to the increased number of illegal aliens dying at the border since President Biden entered the White House. The Biden administration’s lack of consistent enforcement, which Krikorian calls “open-ish borders”, has invited illegal immigration and enticed illegal entrants to take foolish, often deadly, risks.
https://cis.org/Parsing-Immigration-Policy/Identity-Fraud-Illegal-Aliens-Ignored-Federal-Government
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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2 September, 2022
More migrants coming through Mexico from far-flung countries
The number of migrants coming to the US from Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries has shifted to people making the journey from as far away as Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela in the last few years as the Biden administration struggles to handle the surge at the border, a new analysis finds.
Traditionally, the bulk of migrants setting out for the southern border came from Mexico and the countries that make up what’s known as the Northern Triangle — Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
But those numbers have shifted to Cuba, Colombia, Venezuela and Nicaragua in recent years — representing a dramatic increase of 11,000% since 2007, according to the analysis of Border Patrol statistics by CNN.
“US Border Patrol encounters still show more migrants from Mexico attempting to cross the Southwest border in July than from any other individual country. But so far this fiscal year, for the first time, encounters with migrants from outside Mexico and the Northern Triangle are outpacing encounters with migrants from either of those regions?,” the report said. ?
This is a major shift away from Mexican immigration.
According to the analysis, 732,661 migrants from outside Mexico and the Northern Triangle have arrived at the border in fiscal year 2022, which ?ends on Sept. 30, compared to 630,442 from Mexico and 683,894 from the Northern Triangle.
In 2020, the number of migrants from the “other” countries was only 43,715. ?
The nearly 178,000 Cubans who were stopped along the southern border between October and July already exceed the number who fled the communist island nation during the massive Mariel boatlift of that began in April 1980.
About 125,000 freedom-seeking Cubans crammed onto vessels bound for Florida before the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro ended the exodus six months later.
The analysis, which builds on an earlier examination by ?David Bier of the Cato Institute, said one of the problems the shift poses for enforcement efforts at the border is that migrants from outside Mexico and Central America are less likely to be removed under Title 42 health precautions.
Only 4% of migrants from those other countries encountered by border officials were expelled under Title 42, the study found.
US immigration policies have historically been created to deal with migrants from Mexico, but the shift in numbers makes it more difficult to deport people to other countries? under Title 42?, Doris Meissner, the director of immigration policy at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, told CNN.?
She said the strained relations between the US and these other countries complicates matters even more.?
https://nypost.com/2022/08/30/migrants-from-far-flung-countries-leading-us-border-surge/
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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1 September, 2022
Biden’s Move to Fortify DACA Program an Unlawful Quasi-Amnesty
As if the American people needed further evidence of the misplaced priorities of the Biden administration, there’s more.
While the economy continues to tank, inflation continues to rise, and national security and public safety are threatened by intentional erosion of any semblance of border security or rational immigration policy, the administration has taken yet another indefensible action.
In keeping with President Joe Biden’s previous order protecting the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the Department of Homeland Security published its final rule aimed at preserving and fortifying an unlawful immigration program creating a quasi-amnesty by executive fiat with no basis in statutory immigration law.
That recent action is the administration’s attempt to codify former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s original DACA memo of 2012 and, accordingly, almost entirely tracks with the original eligibility criteria.
As expected, it includes an unrelated provision extending eligibility to apply for work authorization for any illegal alien who is placed in any “deferred action” posture, which basically means that the administration refuses to enforce immigration law and remove the illegal alien from the country.
That represents administrative overreach at its worst as the executive branch continually finds new ways to give aliens who are in this country illegally work permits to compete for jobs with American workers in the midst of a recession.
This regulatory scheme is hardly akin to deferred action, as DACA suggests. This process is really an amnesty for the targeted population. Once basic eligibility requirements are satisfied, it’s very difficult to be denied, even for aliens with many types of criminal convictions.
Particularly alarming is that the definition of felony has been narrowed to only encompass the statutory definition of an “aggravated felony”—a term of art with a very specific, narrow meaning in the law. Thus, there are many other serious state and federal felony convictions that would not prevent access to the program and would keep dangerous aliens in our communities.
Under the overutilized umbrella of deferred action or prosecutorial discretion, the administration, through the Department of Homeland Security, has severely constrained immigration enforcement and ignored large portions of statutorily enacted immigration law.
Even as some of this misbehavior has been rebuked by federal courts, this latest rule-making demonstrates the willingness of Biden to push the envelope to implement his open-border policies despite the lack of a congressional mandate.
The administration’s claim that its actions are due to limited enforcement resources is simply a lie, intended to fool the public.
The DACA rule-making action is not surprising. The administration has grown impatient and realizes that congressional action—the appropriate path for a law or policy change of this nature—is not imminent. With congressional Democrats in the majority since 2019, the past 19 months with a Democrat in the White House, all of the pro-DACA talk has amounted to nothing.
While the left is loudly shouting that protections are needed and that efforts are being blocked, could it be that a national mandate for an amnesty for illegal aliens simply does not exist and that members of Congress are not getting the type of pressure from constituents (suffering in an ailing economy) that could have driven action and broken logjams over the past few years?
Whatever the reason, the fact is that Congress has never codified DACA protections into law. This latest rule-making is an unconstitutional attempt to seize congressional authority that makes a mockery of the rule of law. This is clear-cut legislating through the administrative state.
Rules are meant to explain an agency’s application of its enabling statutes. They aren’t meant to create new rights, programs, or benefits that have not been authorized or funded by Congress.
Rule-making, when not grounded in statute, is not only illegal, but dangerous. Rule-making that purports to grant quasi-legal immigration status and employment authorization benefits to hundreds of thousands of aliens who violated U.S. immigration laws is disastrous. It sends a clear message to the world that our laws do not matter, that our country is open to flagrant violations of law, and that illegal behavior by aliens does not have consequences.
If Congress and the courts allow this rule-making to stand, an emboldened administration will use the process to further erode the immigration system. If an executive memorandum can be the basis for rule-making, an even broader amnesty will not be far behind as a weakened Congress watches.
This latest irresponsible action is also ripe for rebuke and rejection through the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to invalidate administrative rule-makings. Congress must not cede its authority to the executive branch based on unilateral, unconstitutional actions by a president and an administration with no respect for the rule of law or the limits on its power.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/08/26/bidens-move-to-fortify-daca-program-an-unlawful-quasi-amnesty
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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Postings from Brisbane, Australia by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.) -- former member of the Australia-Soviet Friendship Society, former anarcho-capitalist and former member of the British Conservative party.
The "line" of this blog is that immigration should be SELECTIVE. That means that:
1). A national government should be in control of it. The U.S. and U.K. governments are not but the Australian government has shown that the government of a prosperous Western country can be. Up until its loss of office in 2007, the conservative Howard government had all but eliminated illegal immigration. The present Leftist government has however restarted the flow of illegals by repealing many of the Howard government regulations.
2). Selectivity should be based on "the content of a man's character, not on the color of his skin", as MLK said. To expand that a little: Immigrants should only be accepted if they as individuals seem likely to make a positive net contribution to the country. Many "refugees" would fail that test: Muslims and Africans particularly. Educational level should usually be a pretty fair proxy for the individual's likely value to the receiving country. There will, of course, be exceptions but it is nonetheless unlikely that a person who has not successfully completed High School will make a net positive contribution to a modern Western society.
3). Immigrants should be neither barred NOR ACCEPTED solely because they are of some particular ethnic origin. Blacks are vastly more likely to be criminal than are whites or Chinese, for instance, but some whites and some Chinese are criminal. It is the criminality that should matter, not the race.
4). The above ideas are not particularly blue-sky. They roughly describe the policies of the country where I live -- Australia. I am critical of Australian policy only insofar as the "refugee" category for admission is concerned. All governments have tended to admit as refugees many undesirables. It seems to me that more should be required of them before refugees are admitted -- for instance a higher level of education or a business background.
5). Perhaps the most amusing assertion in the immigration debate is that high-income countries like the USA and Britain NEED illegal immigrants to do low-paid menial work. "Who will pick our crops?" (etc.) is the cry. How odd it is then that Australians get all the normal services of a modern economy WITHOUT illegal immigrants! Yes: You usually CAN buy a lettuce in Australia for a dollar or thereabouts. And Australia IS a major exporter of primary products.
6). I am a libertarian conservative so I reject the "open door" policy favoured by many libertarians and many Leftists. Both those groups tend to have a love of simplistic generalizations that fail to deal with the complexity of the real world. It seems to me that if a person has the right to say whom he/she will have living with him/her in his/her own house, so a nation has the right to admit to living among them only those individuals whom they choose.
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