U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered only six immigrants at ports of entry on the U.S-Mexico border in the first half of fiscal year 2018 whose names were on a federal government list of known or suspected terrorists, according to CBP data provided to Congress in May 2018 and obtained by NBC News.So, fifteen times as many possible terrorists attempted to cross our northern land border (with Canada) than tried to cross our southern land border (with Mexico).
...
On the northern border, CBP stopped 91 people listed in the database, including 41 who were not American citizens or residents.
So why are Trump and the Right so focused on securing the southern border while ignoring a greater threat to the north?
Two obvious answers come to mind: Trump and his supporters are uninformed (and resistant to being informed) and/or racism.
Oh, and speaking of racism:
The four major networks have not had a consistent policy when it comes to airing presidential addresses on immigration. They aired President George W. Bush’s prime-time address on immigration in 2006, but did not air one by President Barack Obama in 2014.
26 comments:
Thank you for this post Comrade. Whenever I'm challenged as to why I don't want The Wall (trademark pending) I can come here to refresh my data so that the facts I present are not stale.
My opinion - for what it is worth - is that there are no borders when looking at the planet from space. As humanity moves in response to challenges created by rising seas and increased temperatures which make existence untenable it behooves humans to look at the big picture instead of focusing on polishing that last grain of sand, especially since that grain may be under water.
Every faith talks about loving one another. Every faith talks somewhere about the benefits of sharing. Granted, they each want to only love and share with their own tribe. Perhaps humans will learn that we are not just individual tribes but one big tribe of humanity.
An Old Lady Can Dream.
I wish you hadn't posted this piece about Canada, Comrade Misfit. If anybody in the Trump camp reads it, they'll be demanding a wall between the U.S. and Canada next year.
And after that, maybe they'll decide to wall us off from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It'll raise havoc with America's beach resorts, but at that point we'll not only be protected from anyone coming into the country, but also we'll be able to keep anybody from leaving. Just like East Berlin in the old days.
MEAGA! (Make East Germany great again.)
Yours crankily,
The New York Crank
One thing I'll give Fergus in this wall tantrum he's throwing: almost no-one in the media is talking about his upcoming indictments for campaign finance violations.
-Doug in Oakland
The southern border is the world's largest dog whistle. Duh.
And what does folks on the terror watch list have to do with illegal immigrants?
You are comparing apples to chalk.
How many people entering over the Canadian border come and stay and work under the table and pay no taxes and take government handouts from the taxpayers? Add to crime? Fail to obey our laws? Ignore our customs?
Seriously. I don't know how many compared to the southern border....but I would wager it is a great deal less.
Both Trump and his Duty Liar (Sarah Huckabee-Sanders) have been bleating that because 4,000 terrorists were stopped from trying to get into the country, we need a wall. Of course, the 4,000 figure includes those stopped at overseas airports, but when has Trump ever lt the facts get in the way?
That's their talking point. Not mine.
What does illegal immigrants have to do with a border wall? Net illegal immigration at the Mexico border is zero and the number of illegal immigrants in the United States continues to decline.
And yes, Agent Orange of the FSB has regularly ranted that we need his wall because of terriers, who are going to latch onto our ankles with their wicked jaws and make our lives misery. Wait, no, he says terrorists. Well, the Canadian border seems to have more of thems, so why are we talking about a wall at the Mexico border?!
Most undocumented workers I know pay payroll taxes which fund social insurance they'll never be able to collect.
Net gain, not net drain.
Which could be easily fixed if the Republicans would allow immigration reform to pass, but that would kill illegal immigration as their best campaign issue, so they won't.
-Doug in Oakland
Best line in the coverage so far...”Game of Thrones? Yes, but Trump has brown walkers, white walkers aren’t scary enough”
B, undocumented aliens may not pay income taxes, until they get an ITIN, which is designed for non-citizens, illegal or legal, to use for that purpose. If they drive a car, they pay the gas tax like the rest of us, whenever they fill up. If they shop where there’s a sales tax, they pay that. If they have a landlord, they pay rent, part of which goes to the local property tax.
So please don’t pull the “they don’t pay taxes”, as some folks are smarter than that.
We get it. You hate Trump. The only way a wall would be acceptable is if a hormonal old cat lady or a vinegar drinking shrew like Pelosi or Clinton did it. You have the facts to support it, courtesy of your friends in the pozzed mass media. What a clown.
For 8 years you told us to suck it up while your black baboon of a president goaded us and mocked us. Now it's your turn! That wall is going up, and yes, Trump is YOUR president. Deal with it - may I suggest suicide?
Glen Filthie, great Poe.
Глен Филти, великий По.
"Black baboon"? Pretty fucking racist. But I've come to expect that of a lot of Trumpanzees.
Comrade, just try wading in his playpool, yikes.
Poe's law definitely. I can't decide whether GF is a spoof of a racist righty or actually is one.
You assume they get an ITIN. Lots and lots don't.
There is a dairy here that lays by the day. In cash.
Lots more like that.
Still missing the point, B. I said until, not that most of them have an ITIN. As I noted, they still pay gas taxes and other sales taxes when they spend their cash. Therefore your general statement that illegals don’t pay taxes is factually wrong.
No Federal Income Tax. No Social Security. None of their "Taxes" pay for what they take out of the system. Net drain. Sales tax goes to the state wherein they reside. Gas tax pays for roads, in most states.
Your argument is growing weaker.
B -- At least 50% of undocumented immigrants do file Federal tax returns and pay income and Social Security and Medicare taxes. Even though they're not eligible for Social Security and Medicare because (duh) they're not citizens.
For that matter, they're not eligible for any other Federal benefit. They pay taxes and get nothing back in return.
Your talking point is null and void. Where'd you get it, Faux News?
Do note that there *is* a net fiscal drain, as mentioned by my link above. But it is primarily schooling for their children that is the drain, not anything at the Federal level. Schools are paid for by local property and sales taxes -- which undocumented immigrants do pay, but because they are largely poor, they don't pay enough to offset the cost of schooling their children. On the Federal level, illegal immigrants are a net fiscal plus.
B, you need to get outside your bubble. Eschewing Fox News might lead to conclusions based on facts, not lies and damned insinuations.
DA and BT: Do y'all really believe that illegals don't get Federal assistance?
You folks need to open you eyes. Get past the DNC talking points. Maybe interact with some of those about whom you speak. You might learn something.
You can't be as misinformed as you appear here. Y'all seem a lot smarter than that.
B, I posted a link to the best known information (not conjecture, not hand-waving, data) that we have available, some of which supports immigration, some of which doesn't. You can stamp your feet and whine that you know better, but the data is the data. That paper is footnoted with a huge number of references in case you want to check the numbers yourself. Whining isn't an argument, whether done by a 5 year old or a 50 year old.
I believe the facts, B. Not some idiot you heard somewhere on Fox.
Thing is? This wasn’t a new policy Trump was proposing. It’s already the law. Bill Clinton signed such a bill over 20 years earlier in 1996: The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, or “IIRIRA.” Congress legislated that not only would undocumented immigrants not receive welfare, but legal immigrants wouldn’t get benefits such as food stamps, Medicaid or money for child assistance until they’ve lived here at least five years and even seven years after their arrival.
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5a144263e4b010527d6780b0
Here’s what undocumented immigrants may be eligible for:
Emergency medical care, including ER visits and Emergency Medicaid
Schooling
Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC)
Let’s hope that overwhelming majority of us can embrace the humanity of these immigrants and assume that — like anyone else who shows up at an ER — the should receive emergency care. Follow-up care? Not so much. Also, Emergency Medicaid accounts for less than 1 percent of the Medicaid budget.
That means that undocumented immigrants receive may receive some (very few) benefits while living in the United States. It’s quite another thing, however, to suggest they’re stealing any benefits from American citizens.
So it’s in the law, B. Quit listening to RW nuts on the radio and TeeVee. THEY ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS
B said something that struck me - that undocumented workers are paid under the table. This may be fact for some but not the majority.
Defined terms - under the table - monies exchanged for service provided. No paper trail.
Most undocumented workers fake the Social Security number because the HR departments won't let them work without one. This means fake ID's, the works and we know it happens because Individual One's golf club just got busted for providing said ID's for their undocumented workers.
This means (to me) undocumented workers are not being paid under the table, especially if they work day labor (must have papers before going out to a jobsite). Perhaps B has a different definition of Under the Table than me. Do you B?
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