Immigration

[Vrede too]

Obama scraps registry for some immigrant men, mostly Muslims

[Vrede too]

Companies must refuse to build Trump’s Muslim registry (petition)

[Vrede too]

Mexico Won't Pay For Racist 'Fucken' Wall, Former Mexican President Tweets

[Boatrocker]

Mexico Won't Pay For Racist 'Fucken' Wall, Former Mexican President Tweets

For someone who tweets continuously, the trumphole is not very good at it. Apparently, Fox outclasses him almost as completely as Baldwin.

[Vrede too]

Obama Administration Ends Policy To Let Cubans Enter U.S. Without Visa

Despite steering an excruciatingly moderate course for most of his presidency, Obama was savaged for being "ultra-liberal" from the get-go. I wish that he had been as bold for the first 7 years as he has been the last year. He still would have been raked over the coals, but he would have been seen as more of a leader and less "weak".

[Vrede too]

Just in case you're tempted to blame Trump for official racism and xenophobia, here's an email from an old friend doing solidarity work on the AZ-Mexico border:

Dear friends,

The billionaire real estate developer that just moved into government-subsidized housing in Washington, D.C. said during the campaign that Mexico was sending rapists and criminals to the U.S. I’ve met with many people here in Nogales that have just been deported from the U.S. They’ve told me, often with tears in their eyes, that they made the risky journey to the U.S. in search of work so that they could provide for their families back home in Mexico or Central America.

Donald Trump’s racism and lies are very offensive and troubling, but racism and an inability to tell the truth have a long bipartisan history in the White House and congress. He plans to continue, and expand, the border enforcement policies that were developed by his predecessors.

The spouse of the candidate that received three million votes more than Trump built the initial Nogales Wall in 1994 – the same year that the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was implemented. Bill Clinton worked very hard during his first year in office to push NAFTA through congress.

NAFTA enabled U.S. corporations to more easily establish assembly plants in Mexico where the minimum wage is now just $4 per day. It also enabled U.S. agribusiness to sell subsidized corn at prices so low that Mexican farmers could not compete. Two million farmers lost their lands in Mexico during the first 10 years of NAFTA.

Landless farmers and impoverished workers crossed into the U.S. in order to provide for their families and the Clinton administration responded by creating the first national strategy for the Border Patrol: “Prevention through Deterrence.” The goal was to “Raise the risk…to the point that many will consider it futile to attempt illegal entry… Illegal traffic will be deterred, or forced over more hostile terrain, less suited for crossing.” The bodies of more than 7,000 people have been recovered along the southern border since that policy was implemented.

The president that Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state replaced the initial Nogales Wall with a taller and stronger wall in 2011 – at a cost of $4.1 million per mile. During that same time, the Obama administration spent $187 million to modernize the Mariposa port-of-entry to make it easier for hundreds of diesel trucks to cross daily with products made in the assembly plants of Nogales.

“Free trade” agreements like NAFTA enable capital to easily cross borders in the search for higher profit but do not allow workers to cross those same borders in order to provide for their families. There are nearly 100 assembly plants in Nogales that employ 37,000 workers. It appears that the primary purpose of the Nogales Wall is to keep workers on the cheaper side of the wall and continuing to assemble products for U.S. corporations.

The Obama administration also invested in the technology used by Israel to enforce borders on the Palestinian people. Elbit Systems was paid $23 million to construct seven surveillance towers along the Nogales section of the border. Those towers give the Border Patrol complete radar control of the border and feature long-range cameras and night observation systems to detect people that are attempting to cross into the U.S. to escape from poverty and violence.

“Because we live in an age where terrorists are challenging our borders, we can not allow people to pour into the U.S. undetected, undocumented and unchecked,” said the previous president during his first campaign in 2008. He went on to forcibly remove 2.7 million people of color from the country during his eight years in office.

Donald Trump wants to surpass that record set by Barack Obama. This makes it even more necessary now to confront racism and lies, and to act in solidarity with the people that are suffering from U.S. economic and immigration policies.

In love and solidarity,

[rstrong]

There's more than a bit of pure unadulterated bullshit in that story.

If the corn industry was hurt so badly, then why has Mexican corn production increased by 50% since NAFTA was signed? Why did they start exporting large amounts of corn after NAFTA despite no exports in the couple decades before?

What happened was mechanization, and it was coming anyway.

American and Canadian farms employ only a small fraction of the people they used to, despite growing FAR MORE food. Thanks to tractors, balers, swathers, water pumps, trucks, milking machines and all the rest. But we got all that over a century. Mexico was getting it all at once. Switching from labor-intensive subsistence farming to mechanized commercial farming all at once. Same number of farms, more production, less workers. "Two million farmers" did NOT lose their lands. Two million farm WORKERS lost their jobs. It was happening regardless of NAFTA. Trade agreements to allow increased exports and manufacturing jobs was a (partial) solution, not the problem.

Blaming Hillary and Obama for the Nogales Wall is also pure bullshit. It was mandated by the Secure Fence Act of 2006, signed into law by Bush II.

NAFTA did nothing to stop workers from crossing the border. That was Republicans, who found illegal immigration to be a wonderful way to get votes through fearmongering and grandstanding. Again, regardless of NAFTA.

[Vrede too]

... What happened was mechanization, and it was coming anyway.

Vastly hastened by NAFTA, including its forcing of GMO corn upon Mexico.

... "Two million farmers" did NOT lose their lands. Two million farm WORKERS lost their jobs....

In most cases it was the same thing, and just as devastating either way.

Blaming Hillary and Obama for the Nogales Wall is also pure bullshit. It was mandated by the Secure Fence Act of 2006, signed into law by Bush II.

They presided over some of the implementation, as your link states, along with jailing and deporting more migrants than anyone before them.

NAFTA did nothing to stop workers from crossing the border.

:?: He doesn't say that it did.

That was Republicans,

And some Dems.

who found illegal immigration to be a wonderful way to get votes through fearmongering and grandstanding.

Agreed, but he does cite Dems doing the same thing, which is his point. No one on his email list or this forum needs to be told that Republicans are bad for migrants and Mexico.

Again, regardless of NAFTA.

His point is that it increased economic migration, not sure what you're seeing.

[rstrong]

... What happened was mechanization, and it was coming anyway.

Vastly hastened by NAFTA, including its forcing of GMO corn upon Mexico.

How so? Correlation does not imply causation.

... "Two million farmers" did NOT lose their lands. Two million farm WORKERS lost their jobs....

In most cases it was the same thing, and just as devastating either way.

Well, sure. But it still wasn't NAFTA's fault. Without NAFTA it would have happened anyway.

NAFTA's role was to soften the blow, opening up foreign markets to Mexican corn and bringing in some manufacturing jobs to replace the lost farming jobs. (But the US opening up free-trade with China at the same time didn't help.)

Blaming Hillary and Obama for the Nogales Wall is also pure bullshit. It was mandated by the Secure Fence Act of 2006, signed into law by Bush II.

They presided over some of the implementation, as your link states, along with jailing and deporting more migrants than anyone before them.

You honestly thing that wouldn't have happened if McCain had won? It was already law. A President only has so much power.

And again, NAFTA had nothing to do with this.

Again, regardless of NAFTA.

His point is that it increased economic migration, not sure what you're seeing.

That point is based on the sudden loss of farming jobs. But the loss was because of mechanization.

Rewrite history without NAFTA, and the loss would have happened regardless. The increased economic migration would have happened regardless. If not actually being worse.

[Vrede too]

A President and the Dems have a lot of power when it comes to ongoing funding for exiting law. Hence your link's discussion of how it could have been even worse.

Your entire argument is speculation as to what would have happened with different law and different pols. We do know what did happen with the law and pols we had and a lot of it has been awful. Both have served corporate interests over human ones, which is the point of "free trade" as we know it.

[rstrong]

Your entire argument is speculation as to what would have happened with different law and different pols.

That's not speculation. The push for a locked down border has overwhelmingly come from the Republican side. Like with other new laws, the President could use executive actions to tweak the implementation of the Secure Fence Act when it was enacted. But that was the previous President's option, in 2006.

And again, Mexican corn production increased by 50% after NAFTA was signed and suddenly they started exporting. NAFTA obviously didn't hurt corn farms. We KNOW that mechanization was the culprit (taking away farm jobs), just like it was in the US and Canada over a longer period of time.

Or how about I just mirror your claim, and say that "Your article's entire argument is speculation as to what would have happened with different law and different pols."

[Vrede too]

Your entire argument is speculation as to what would have happened with different law and different pols.

That's not speculation. The push for a locked down border has overwhelmingly come from the Republican side.

No one has said otherwise. Here are the bits you removed from my post when you quoted me:

And some Dems.

Agreed, but he does cite Dems doing the same thing, which is his point. No one on his email list or this forum needs to be told that Republicans are bad for migrants and Mexico.

Like with other new laws, the President could use executive actions to tweak the implementation of the Secure Fence Act when it was enacted.

And budget resistance and administrative prioritizing.Your entire argument is an apologia for the Dems and claim that they've been impotent throughout.

But that was the previous President's option, in 2006.

No one has denied that. Once again, my friend's clear intent is too add Obama and the Dems to the discussion. Any thought that he does or would ever excuse the GOP is just your partisan defensiveness.

And again, Mexican corn production increased by 50% after NAFTA was signed and suddenly they started exporting.

Not everyone agrees that your trickle down corn economics is a good thing.

NAFTA obviously didn't hurt corporate corn farms. We KNOW that mechanization was the culprit (taking away farm jobs), just like it was in the US and Canada over a longer period of time.

We know how rapidly it came about and that the speed and inability to resist or mitigate the impacts were NAFTA created. I have sympathy for your belief that all people must bend over for Big Borg AG because "resistance is futile", but I'm not quite that cynical and immobilized with resignation yet.

Or how about I just mirror your claim, and say that "Your article's entire argument is speculation as to what would have happened with different law and different pols."

That wouldn't make any sense since my buddy, who happens to have decades more experience than you on the topic, merely talked about what did happen.

[Vrede too]

Trump orders building of Mexico border wall, targets U.S. 'sanctuary' cities

Sanctuary cities don't do anything to "shield illegal immigrants", they merely refuse to enforce FEDERAL law. As always, the right's bigotry outweighs its con distaste for Big Brother government.

[Vrede too]

DO NOT STOP REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT

To be delivered to President Donald Trump

President Donald Trump should not halt refugee resettlement, lower the overall number of refugees we resettle, or stop resettlement based on religion or country of origin.

[Vrede too]

“I am heartbroken that today President Trump is closing the door on children, mothers and fathers fleeing violence and war. I am heartbroken that America is turning its back on a proud history of welcoming refugees and immigrants — the people who helped build your country, ready to work hard in exchange for a fair chance at a new life. I am heartbroken that Syrian refugee children, who have suffered through six years of war by no fault of their own, are singled out for discrimination. I am heartbroken for girls like my friend Zaynab, who fled wars in three countries — Somalia, Yemen and Egypt — before she was even 17. Two years ago she received a visa to come to the United States. She learned English, graduated high school and is now in college studying to be a human rights lawyer. In this time of uncertainty and unrest around the world, I ask President Trump not to turn his back on the world’s most defenseless children and families.”
-- Malala Yousafzai, the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

[JTA]

A friend of mine's boyfriend got fucked by his executive order. Her man is Iranian. Dude's an atheist. Listens to metal. Makes lots of $$$ in the corporate world. His bro was about to be cleared to come over (not sure of the details, I guess lots of paperwork).

WRONG!
- Donald Trump.

[Vrede too]

ACLU and Other Groups Challenge Trump Immigration Ban After Refugees Detained at Airports Following Executive Order

Would the world have ended if he delayed the effective date by a few days so that people weren't caught in transit?

[Vrede too]

Trump says his immigration ban is ‘working out very nicely’

ACLU wins legal challenge against immigration ban: ‘Hope Trump enjoys losing’

Even if one supports what Trump wants to do, he sure sucks at doing it.

[O Really]

I'll be upping my contribution to ACLU. They're going to need all the help they can get.

[Vrede too]

Calls to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. are offensive and unconstitutional.
— Governor Mike Pence (@GovPenceIN) December 8, 2015