I do not know who this ratchet game is supposed to even appeal to anymore. If there’s an “undecided” voter left they’re in a coma. If you want corporate cash, you sure as hell don’t want to turn off the wage slave spigot.
I can only assume the Democratic leadership is equally split between being people in complete denial that think everyone’s still a bunch of neoliberals and neocons fighting to be first at the 80’s style cocaine buffet, and the people who are terrified by the reality of the cost of losing this election.
Either way, this “immigration crisis” is fake. A functional America would not be bothered in the slightest by it, but a functioning America by my definition would also acknowledge it has been largely caused by our own actions, and that is not an “immigration” issue but a refugee issue.
There absolutely is a border crisis, just not the type that the right is claiming there is. For the most part, it roots back to a sudden wild spike upwards in the number of people coming into the country, which causes two big problems:
- There’s a huge backlog of asylum / deportation cases which means people stay in custody in racist and oppressive overcrowded prisons
- We’re rate limiting the people coming into the country (see point #1), which means a lot of asylum seekers who are trying to do it legally wind up waiting for months (maybe years now, IDK) on the other side of the Mexican border, basically just living in a big, dangerous, squalid, crime-ridden open-air field with no facilities for life, and no job, no medical care for anyone no matter how young or old, it’s fuckin dangerous
Then, add to that that the whole agency in charge of the border police is for the most part made of racist people, and then add overcrowding and shortage of resources, and it’s fuckin bad for the people who are winding their way slowly through the system.
Biden is unable to fix the problems, although (aside from the racist police) they do have legislative solutions, because the Republicans block anything he does, even when he tried promising to do some cruel or racist things as a compromise in order to get them to also agree to some badly needed things (mostly, increasing ICE funding so they can at least house the people they have in better conditions, and increasing the number of judges to process cases so people don’t wait for a year before their case is heard).
And, any time he tries to do anything about it, e.g. reducing the rate of people allowed to come across the border or increasing funding for ICE, everyone on the left as far as I can tell thinks he’s just being cruel on purpose for no reason and gets really mad at him.
It’s not just the logistical bottleneck at the border, either. Sanctuary cities are at or over capacity from their state funding. Without congressional legislation to support migrants federally, there’s only so much that we can provide at a state level.
NY has been leaving migrants homeless for over a month now. Imagine what asylum seekers went through to get to America, only to be left to find shelter in NY subways and streets.
And, any time he tries to do anything about it, e.g. reducing the rate of people allowed to come across the border or increasing funding for ICE, everyone on the left as far as I can tell thinks he’s just being cruel on purpose for no reason and gets really mad at him.
I’m on the left, and don’t think he lacks a reason for being cruel on purpose.
He’s being cruel on purpose, either in a misguided attempt to get Republican voters to like him, or as part of a demonstration that Republican politicians aren’t interested in solutions, even their own.
But he’s not a Republican; the deliberate cruelty isn’t the point. It’s a means to an end.
The problem is, since he’s not a Republican, Republicans won’t vote for him. And everyone already knows that Republicans aren’t interested in solutions, so no demonstration was needed. So he’s being cruel on purpose for shitty reasons.
I’ll ask you, then, the same thing I have asked a few other people who have made this same assertion: what should Biden do, then? If presumably we can agree that it’s bad people waiting in ICE custody for over a year for their cases to be heard, then what solution to it should he pursue, that you wouldn’t then criticize as cruelty?
I’ll ask you, then, the same thing I have asked a few other people who have made this same assertion: what should Biden do, then?
Nothing. If the only action he can take is deliberate cruelty, he should take no action. It won’t solve immigration, but endlessly trying in vain to appease fascists isn’t going to solve anything either.
That’s awesome – an actual answer. I can work with this. Follow-up question: Why is “nothing” the right answer to this and this? Why would you describe hiring more judges as deliberate cruelty?
I do actually agree on some of the actual cruelty things he tried to offer the Republicans, as a compromise, but that’s a very small minority of the things this administration has tried to do about the border, and when they did it didn’t happen anyway. The majority of what they’re doing as far as I know has been things like hiring more judges (i.e. obviously the right thing to do) or limiting the number of people coming in the country (which was an attempt to deal with problem #2 which also worsened problem #1, but it’s hard to see it as some villainous act, to me, given that problem #1 exists).
Why would you describe hiring more judges as deliberate cruelty?
I wouldn’t. I would describe this:
And, any time he tries to do anything about it, e.g. reducing the rate of people allowed to come across the border or increasing funding for ICE
As cruelty, which is what I initially responded to.
Since you have decided to be dishonest about my position, I’m not going to continue this conversation. I should have known, given every other conversation we’ve ever had.
Interesting. So, if you want to clarify that “the only action he can take is deliberate cruelty” doesn’t apply to hiring more judges, and that you think hiring more judges isn’t deliberately cruel, then cool – obviously, I agree with you about that.
If you want to seize on that one sentence to pretend I’m engaged in bad faith and flee the conversation at this stage – and not engage with anything else I said or asked you – I won’t stop you. I think actually it’s probably a good idea tactically for you to do so. Cheers.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Mr. Biden has taken two major actions on immigration this month, expanding legal protections for undocumented spouses of American citizens while also sealing the border to most people seeking asylum in the United States.
The strategy, described by one former White House official as a “border-in vs. border-out” approach, is a reflection of the political complexity of immigration, a top concern for voters of both parties in the 2024 presidential campaign.
Matt A. Barreto, a Biden campaign pollster focusing on Latino politics, said Americans draw a distinction between “long term, undocumented immigrants” and “new arrivals.”
While polls show some of Mr. Trump’s proposals, including mass deportations, resonate with voters, Mr. Biden’s campaign believes that Republicans are painting every immigrant under too broad of a brush.
But earlier this month, as Mr. Biden stood in front of signs saying “securing our border,” he articulated a “simple truth” as he announced major new restrictions on asylum.
Angelo Fernández Hernandéz, a spokesman for the White House, said the Biden administration “has repeatedly taken action, within its authorities, to secure the border, expand lawful pathways, and make our immigration system more fair and more just.”
The original article contains 957 words, the summary contains 191 words. Saved 80%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
