Immigration

[Vrede too]

This is both scary and depressing.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/pl ... e#comments

Not quite crickets from the GOP, but it could do better.
http://www.blueridgedebate.com/viewtopi ... &start=440
Still crickets from the White Supremacist House, though.

Opps. Already posted I see.
The responses have been, in my mind's eyes, obligatory murmurings.

To tell the truth, my first thought upon seeing the headline was foreign adoptions.
Guess that's OK, because the adoptive parents are bringing kids here to swell the Jesus army.

Yep, decent people would have already thrown Steve King out of the party. Instead, he's the vice chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law.

[rstrong]

CBC: Girl Guides of Canada cancelling trips to the U.S., citing travel concerns

This after several incidents where entire groups had to cancel trips rather than leaving individual girls behind because they were Muslim. (Or from one of the seven countries on the list, but even people born in Canada are being turned back because they're Muslim.)

[Vrede too]

2 million routinely shamed US Girl Scouts just became Trump fans.

[rstrong]

2 million routinely shamed US Girl Scouts just became Trump fans.

Sorry. We told the Boy Scouts to be on their best behavior when visiting the US.

[Vrede too]

Thanks. That, along with no longer being routinely shamed by Canada's Girl Guides, will help out our Boy Scouts a lot.

[Vrede too]

Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D) allegedly handcuffed at ICE office

... "President Trump and his people should keep their hands off of the Dreamers, period. Tweeting out that every DACA recipient is vulnerable to deportation is just another way this president is trying to create fear in immigrant communities, to make families and children think that their government could come after them at any time," Gutierrez said in a statement Friday in response to ICE's tweets. "It is disgusting behavior on the part of the Department of Homeland Security and the White House, and it needs to stop." ...

Hero.

Fwiw, born and raised in Chicago, Puerto Rican descent, not an immigrant family.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Guti ... rly_career

[rstrong]

The judge in Hawaii has granted a temporary restraining order blocking Trump's Muslim ban 2.0 executive* order. This after hearing arguments that the executive* order discriminates on the basis of nationality.

[Vrede too]

Hero.

Legal challenges to Trump's travel ban mount from US states (Washington, Hawaii, Oregon and New York)

And Minnesota and Massachusetts.

And Maryland.

New inning.

Judge: Revised Trump ban cannot be enforced on Syrian family

Strike 1.

Strike 2, though it may take more than 3 strikes for an "out".

Judge Derrick Kahala Watson - Nominated by Barack Obama, confirmed by a vote of 94 ayes to 0 nays on April 18, 2013.

[Vrede too]

And Maryland.

Trump travel ban: Second US judge block new executive order

... US District Judge Theodore Chuang, sitting in Maryland, also ruled it was meant to be a ban on Muslims, and therefore violated the First Amendment....

In his ruling, Judge Chuang wrote: "To avoid sowing seeds of division in our nation, upholding this fundamental constitutional principle at the core of our nation's identity plainly serves a significant public interest." ...

Strike 3.

[k9nanny]

Now it's Canadian specialized nurses!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/c ... -1.4028017

The nurses have been advised they need to apply for H1B visa status, which is for more specialized employment. But those applications can cost between $3,000 and $4,000 US depending on the applicant, according to Topoleski.

[rstrong]

‘Uh, no’: McConnell says Mexico won’t pay for Trump’s border wall

Trump should build the wall using Hillary's emails since no-one can get over them.

[Vrede too]

Now it's Canadian specialized nurses!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/c ... -1.4028017

The nurses have been advised they need to apply for H1B visa status, which is for more specialized employment. But those applications can cost between $3,000 and $4,000 US depending on the applicant, according to Topoleski.

I think it sucks that the US is doing anything that will discourage the filling of needed healthcare positions, especially nurse practitioners since they're so cost effective relative to MDs. However, the "between $3,000 and $4,000" is not as big a deal as it sounds.

Nurse Practitioner Salary Canada - C$88,306 (US$66,229.5)
Nurse Practitioner Salary US - US$101,738

Looks like CBP is feeling the heat, 1 day later:

Work visas restored to specialized Canadian nurses working in U.S.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirm nurses qualify for TN work visas

[rstrong]

There's more to it than salary. Canadian nurses have much more of their tuition and other schooling costs covered by the taxpayers. And so American nurses graduate with much higher debt than Canadians. This is reflected in higher starting salaries.

Many Canadian doctors and nurses graduate, their tuitions subsidized, and then immediately hire on with American companies at the higher wages. American recruiters are also constantly phoning around Canadian hospitals and walk-in clinics. Canadian taxpayers are effectively subsidizing American healthcare.

Personally I'd like to see a requirement that graduating doctors and nurses either remain in Canada for X years, or be on the hook for the subsidized part of their tuition.

[Vrede too]

True, there's also the healthcare and social safety net that Canadian NPs can still take advantage of just by going home, or sometimes by not even doing that. But, those are reasons for Canada to change its policy, not for the US to shoot itself in the foot.

Otoh, if the US government and Big Healthcare really cared about American jobs they would do more to support nurse training here instead of importing Canadian NPs and Filipino or Irish RNs. Not that I'm xenophobic about it - competition has never once kept me from getting a job - I'm just describing the reality.

[k9nanny]

I was more surprised that some of these nurses weren't allowed to cross into the USA.

Didn't know that their tuition is subsidized. Perhaps they should be required to work in Canada for an agreed upon period. My niece received a fellowship that covered her four years in college, and she had to repay North Carolina by teaching in state for (I think) four years.

[rstrong]

Didn't know that their tuition is subsidized.

It's not just nurses and doctors. It's university in general.

Which is why we welcome a lot of foreign students. They (or their governments) are paying full price. And now Trump is causing a lot more foreign students to choose Canada over the US.

So...

Trump scares foreign students into schooling in Canada. Which subsidizes the Canadian university system, which turn out more medical students. Who then hop the border to work in the richer American system. Giving Americans more healthcare workers and better healthcare. There's your TrumpCare.

[Vrede too]

Not counting those nasty Canadians . . .

Ten Myths About Immigration

1. Most immigrants are here illegally....
2. It's easy to enter the country legally. My ancestors did; why can’t immigrants today? ...
3. Today's immigrants don't want to learn English....
4. Immigrants take good jobs from U.S. citizens....
5. “The worst” people from other countries are coming to the United States and bringing crime and violence.
... Statistics show that immigrants are less likely to commit serious crimes or be behind bars than native-born people are, and high rates of immigration are associated with lower rates of violent crime and property crime....
(rstrong has written at length how they are in many ways the best)
6. Undocumented immigrants don’t pay taxes and burden the national economy....
7. The United States is being overrun by immigrants like never before....
8. We can stop undocumented immigrants coming to the United States by building a wall along the border with Mexico....
9. Banning immigrants and refugees from majority-Muslim countries will protect the United States from terrorists.
... between 1975 and 2015, no fatalities have been committed in the United States by foreign-born extremists from the countries covered by the executive order. According to Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration expert at the Cato Institute, “[Between 1975 and 2015], the annual chance of being murdered by somebody other than a foreign-born terrorist was 252.9 times greater than the chance of dying in a terrorist attack committed by a foreign-born terrorist.”
10. Refugees are not screened before entering the United States....

[Vrede too]

‘No one is safe’: Ex-North Carolina police chief rips customs agents for detaining him because of his name

[Vrede too]

Latest Trump Tweet:

Today on #NationalAgDay, we honor our great American farmers & ranchers. Their hard work & dedication are ingrained… https://t.co/IpGRhly2zj

Guess who is doing much (most?) of the hard work.

[k9nanny]

Latest Trump Tweet:

Today on #NationalAgDay, we honor our great American farmers & ranchers. Their hard work & dedication are ingrained… https://t.co/IpGRhly2zj

Guess who is doing much (most?) of the hard work.

Most, definitely most.
It's indeed a joke to proclaim National Ag Day without honoring the stringers and stakers, the pickers and packers.
And then there's the tailgate market growers, tending their crops after work, to bring us healthy, local food.

The Agriculture Council of America claims to be all about education. In the real world, I doubt many of our legislators give a crap about anything but the contributions they've received, and about the commodities producers who provide the product to be exported.

Holy crap! I'm becoming way too cynical.