Who on Earth would want to send thousands of desperate people to our Southern border just in time for every midterm facing a Democratic president? Who would be that crass and cynical?
As usual, Americans tend to look at effects rather than causes. The longstanding influence of American corporations to virtually control parts of Central American and the Caribbean, with actual U.S. military occupation occurring in some cases, is not publicly discussed. Yet such conditions certainly helped to keep the people impoverished. Also not noted is the CIA overthrow of Guatemala’s legitimate government in 1954, nor are Reagan and Bush’s support for paramilitary forces in El Salvador and Nicaragua mentioned. Also ignored is how NAFTA helped destroy Mexican farmers, or that climate change is drying out much of the Northern Triangle. Republicans can shout about people fleeing north, but any human being is going to leave a situation where their family can’t be fed or could be shot. The fact that the U.S. is partially responsible for these conditions seems to have escaped them entirely.
Great report. Thank you. I had always observed this 'open border' propaganda but had not recognized it was itself a whistle used to trigger surges.
I will point out that the immigration courts are under DOJ and not the Department of Justice. This means these courts are subject to the Executive branch. The Trump administration intentionally underfunded the courts (while boosting the funding of ICE and BP and, naturally, the wall). They reduced hiring for the courts, and increased case loads by 3x. They also defined new policies where the applicant had no legal counsel and could pressure judges to ram cases through with a deny, deny, deny kangaroo court. Effectively, they turned the immigration courts into enforcement of an anti-immigration administration.
The Biden administration has been working to fix the system (and repeal the prior administration policies). Of course, Texas and other fascist led states want the system to remain broken and are working to block all reforms with legal challenges.
Thanks Thom for delivering this antacid, releasing the nausea brought by the recent TV evening news of the thousands of people wanting a better economic life. The Repuke-Icans again lie, lie, lie to feed their awful need for greed. HELL gleefully awaits the greedy.
I am a little ashamed to admit that I had never seen or heard of this obvious manipulation of the immigration situation for political gain - I mean, that the Republicans are actually causing the border crisis and the destruction of lives by broadcasting an open borders policy to discredit Democrats. It's exactly as described here, but I guess the Republican flood of inhumanity is so great and so pervasive that my little mind can't fully contain all the ways they have developed to turn lies and cruelty into an art form.
Oh, they're good! Abbott didn't miss a beat. Martha asked him what he could do, and he ended with talking about arrests. Music to his base's ears.
This Report rings true on the strategy. What I would quibble about is going to piss some people off. I think it's time to stop generalizing about the story behind each person trying to enter the United States. Things have changed.
One point is communication; phones, the internet, and cheap international calling have changed what information is available in even very remote places. The world watches our political processes. I'd say "desperate" people would watch them even closer as they plan and have to pay for their get-a-way.
Another point is that it's obvious which party in this country tries to follow the law and talks about compassion in executing the immigration policy. Biden did not have to say a thing.
Here's the brutal truth in 2022: until we learn to articulate exactly what you described and use it in a debate, the Republicans will beat us over the head with the border.
It's almost 2023, we need these workers, and if they want to talk border, that's where we should steer the conversation to fight back. Then we need to make them discuss how employers are exploiting them, while they also are BREAKING THE LAW.
Maybe Abbott thinks after the arrests he can MAKE them work for Texas. That's a whole other level of wrong in the 21st Century.
Our country is steadily filling up with legal and illegal immigrants and their families; our schools are clogged with ESOL children whose support is mandated by the federal government with a 150% educational funding stream. These children need qualified teachers, preferably teachers with additional endorsements, such as Reading Specialists and LA Endorsements, as well as multiple Social Services skills. The country has a massive teacher shortage of general classroom teachers, a remarkably large and long-term low literacy level with children from low poverty homes, single parent homes and inner city neighborhoods https://www.weareteachers.com/teacher-shortage-statistics/.
All our children with learning deficits need the same level of literacy support that we are funding for our ESOL children at 150%; that is equity and effective long-term education.
The tragic part of our immigration system is that the Democratic Party has not been willing to make pass funding for E-Verify and insure that it is a verifiable, secure system guaranteeing that 100% of all workers in the US are in the country legally https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/418. The focus instead has been to stale-mate the total immigration system with the asylum issues-continuing the tradition of assuming that America at 340 million can continue to have space, work and schools for all the people globally fleeing dictators, economic misery and other social issues - all at a time where our own families and children are doing less and less well, and our urban areas are becoming more and more crowded.
The miserable word game used by both parties, and Mr. Hartman, is unnecessarily inflammatory. We need to focus on a funded, secure, easy to use, and policed Nationally adopted E-Verify to make sure that the false job magnet stops luring three million people to the US every year https://www.politico.com/news/agenda/2019/10/29/e-verify-immigration-060347. Employers need to be penalized, economically and with jail sentences, if they break this system, and workers who falsify their records need to know they will be deported and remain ineligible for a return to America.
In the meantime, we need bi-party support at 150% to continue taking care of all our children who have literacy deficits, regardless of contributing factors. The remainder of the huge immigration package needs to be addressed systematically separately, and we need a fair and thoughtful national discussion whether we can maintain our current, or past, quality of life, with a population mass moving towards 400 million solely on the basis of immigration, before 2050.
Mr. Hartman's citation:
Democrats, on the other hand, only want people coming into the country legally and have tried to deal with the issue responsibly. That’s why they don’t shout so loud it can be heard in Venezuela that the US border is “open.” Most, in fact, refuse to even use the phrase, because it’s a naked political lie.
Every two years, this misanthropic Republican crew provokes a crisis on America’s southern border because it plays into their narrative that Democrats are encouraging more Brown people — “soon-to-be Democrat voters” they call them on rightwing hate radio — to come to the USA to “replace” good upstanding white people.
Lest you think this biennial Republican rhetoric isn’t a cynical political ploy but is, instead, a good-faith effort to identify and fix a problem, look at the vote recently on legislation that would update our immigration system and fund a more effective border patrol. Only five Republicans could bring themselves to say “yes” to doing something about this situation.
Everyone of these shameless #GOP-critters needs to complete a stint down at #Gitmo AFTER `Jack Smith` kicks their corrupt thieving `arses` out of our Capitol politics.
Do you think they are doing this with the deliberate purpose of encouraging an increase in immigration? If that is the case, I would suggest that Frank Luntz is at the forefront of the strategy.
As usual, Americans tend to look at effects rather than causes. The longstanding influence of American corporations to virtually control parts of Central American and the Caribbean, with actual U.S. military occupation occurring in some cases, is not publicly discussed. Yet such conditions certainly helped to keep the people impoverished. Also not noted is the CIA overthrow of Guatemala’s legitimate government in 1954, nor are Reagan and Bush’s support for paramilitary forces in El Salvador and Nicaragua mentioned. Also ignored is how NAFTA helped destroy Mexican farmers, or that climate change is drying out much of the Northern Triangle. Republicans can shout about people fleeing north, but any human being is going to leave a situation where their family can’t be fed or could be shot. The fact that the U.S. is partially responsible for these conditions seems to have escaped them entirely.
Great report. Thank you. I had always observed this 'open border' propaganda but had not recognized it was itself a whistle used to trigger surges.
I will point out that the immigration courts are under DOJ and not the Department of Justice. This means these courts are subject to the Executive branch. The Trump administration intentionally underfunded the courts (while boosting the funding of ICE and BP and, naturally, the wall). They reduced hiring for the courts, and increased case loads by 3x. They also defined new policies where the applicant had no legal counsel and could pressure judges to ram cases through with a deny, deny, deny kangaroo court. Effectively, they turned the immigration courts into enforcement of an anti-immigration administration.
The Biden administration has been working to fix the system (and repeal the prior administration policies). Of course, Texas and other fascist led states want the system to remain broken and are working to block all reforms with legal challenges.
Thanks Thom for delivering this antacid, releasing the nausea brought by the recent TV evening news of the thousands of people wanting a better economic life. The Repuke-Icans again lie, lie, lie to feed their awful need for greed. HELL gleefully awaits the greedy.
Thank you and Martha Radditz for pointing this out! I’m so sick of the dirty lies and manipulation by the GOP.
And it’s always the most harmful against the most vulnerable with them.
Of course, Fox Propaganda viewers will never hear the truth, but they wouldn’t believe it even if they did.
I sincerely hope other serious journalists will pick up on this and start airing it far and wide.
I am a little ashamed to admit that I had never seen or heard of this obvious manipulation of the immigration situation for political gain - I mean, that the Republicans are actually causing the border crisis and the destruction of lives by broadcasting an open borders policy to discredit Democrats. It's exactly as described here, but I guess the Republican flood of inhumanity is so great and so pervasive that my little mind can't fully contain all the ways they have developed to turn lies and cruelty into an art form.
Thank you for this update. I will be pounding this home everywhere I can. This is one big republican campaign issue and needs to be exposed.
Oh, they're good! Abbott didn't miss a beat. Martha asked him what he could do, and he ended with talking about arrests. Music to his base's ears.
This Report rings true on the strategy. What I would quibble about is going to piss some people off. I think it's time to stop generalizing about the story behind each person trying to enter the United States. Things have changed.
One point is communication; phones, the internet, and cheap international calling have changed what information is available in even very remote places. The world watches our political processes. I'd say "desperate" people would watch them even closer as they plan and have to pay for their get-a-way.
Another point is that it's obvious which party in this country tries to follow the law and talks about compassion in executing the immigration policy. Biden did not have to say a thing.
Here's the brutal truth in 2022: until we learn to articulate exactly what you described and use it in a debate, the Republicans will beat us over the head with the border.
It's almost 2023, we need these workers, and if they want to talk border, that's where we should steer the conversation to fight back. Then we need to make them discuss how employers are exploiting them, while they also are BREAKING THE LAW.
Maybe Abbott thinks after the arrests he can MAKE them work for Texas. That's a whole other level of wrong in the 21st Century.
Thanks, Thom! Another insight I can’t remember hearing anywhere else, and gods bless Martha Raddatz! -- best luck to US, b.rad
Why isn’t this in main stream media?
Our country is steadily filling up with legal and illegal immigrants and their families; our schools are clogged with ESOL children whose support is mandated by the federal government with a 150% educational funding stream. These children need qualified teachers, preferably teachers with additional endorsements, such as Reading Specialists and LA Endorsements, as well as multiple Social Services skills. The country has a massive teacher shortage of general classroom teachers, a remarkably large and long-term low literacy level with children from low poverty homes, single parent homes and inner city neighborhoods https://www.weareteachers.com/teacher-shortage-statistics/.
And yet, data indicates that almost three (3) million workers https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/migrant-border-crossings-fiscal-year-2022-topped-276-million-breaking-rcna53517, children and families crossed into the US during 2022. This is a cohort larger than many of our largest urban areas, and they quickly disperse across all states, and enter all our school districts, work force and social services https://cis.org/CIS/Looking-Forward-US-Immigration-Predictions-2022.
All our children with learning deficits need the same level of literacy support that we are funding for our ESOL children at 150%; that is equity and effective long-term education.
The tragic part of our immigration system is that the Democratic Party has not been willing to make pass funding for E-Verify and insure that it is a verifiable, secure system guaranteeing that 100% of all workers in the US are in the country legally https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/418. The focus instead has been to stale-mate the total immigration system with the asylum issues-continuing the tradition of assuming that America at 340 million can continue to have space, work and schools for all the people globally fleeing dictators, economic misery and other social issues - all at a time where our own families and children are doing less and less well, and our urban areas are becoming more and more crowded.
The miserable word game used by both parties, and Mr. Hartman, is unnecessarily inflammatory. We need to focus on a funded, secure, easy to use, and policed Nationally adopted E-Verify to make sure that the false job magnet stops luring three million people to the US every year https://www.politico.com/news/agenda/2019/10/29/e-verify-immigration-060347. Employers need to be penalized, economically and with jail sentences, if they break this system, and workers who falsify their records need to know they will be deported and remain ineligible for a return to America.
In the meantime, we need bi-party support at 150% to continue taking care of all our children who have literacy deficits, regardless of contributing factors. The remainder of the huge immigration package needs to be addressed systematically separately, and we need a fair and thoughtful national discussion whether we can maintain our current, or past, quality of life, with a population mass moving towards 400 million solely on the basis of immigration, before 2050.
Mr. Hartman's citation:
Democrats, on the other hand, only want people coming into the country legally and have tried to deal with the issue responsibly. That’s why they don’t shout so loud it can be heard in Venezuela that the US border is “open.” Most, in fact, refuse to even use the phrase, because it’s a naked political lie.
Every two years, this misanthropic Republican crew provokes a crisis on America’s southern border because it plays into their narrative that Democrats are encouraging more Brown people — “soon-to-be Democrat voters” they call them on rightwing hate radio — to come to the USA to “replace” good upstanding white people.
Lest you think this biennial Republican rhetoric isn’t a cynical political ploy but is, instead, a good-faith effort to identify and fix a problem, look at the vote recently on legislation that would update our immigration system and fund a more effective border patrol. Only five Republicans could bring themselves to say “yes” to doing something about this situation.
Everyone of these shameless #GOP-critters needs to complete a stint down at #Gitmo AFTER `Jack Smith` kicks their corrupt thieving `arses` out of our Capitol politics.
Do you think they are doing this with the deliberate purpose of encouraging an increase in immigration? If that is the case, I would suggest that Frank Luntz is at the forefront of the strategy.
Wonder why CIA is not overthrowing the governments of Nicaragua, Honduruas etc. that are causing these horrific conditions. Hmmm.