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DACA, immigration reform whatever


hayden_horn

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I can't decide if the incompetence is the one sliver of a chance we have to redeem our country or not. I vacillate. I've never been much a LOTR/Hobbit  fan but one of my children enjoys(ed) it. It is rather like the part where we are traveling through (what was the woodsy part called?) and "Look, there's a mass of spiders!" or "Look, a troll or an orc or whatever!" and as soon as that is dealt with, here comes more trouble. But even if one is trying to combat evil on a macro or micro level, getting on board to the motivations and ambitions to defeat them keeps getting in our way and the human collateral damage is piling up: children in cages, black boys killed on the streets, brown people told to go back home or denied entry, teen girls raped and ignored, and on and on and on. And you keep waiting for the part where we get to the dragon, or the wizard and we aren't there yet and it makes you want to put the book down except it is reality. There really is no bottom is there?

 

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WE. ARE. THE BAD GUYS.  Thought that was clear by now.

Hell, look at how we're treating Bahamians.   These are literally next-door neighbors.  We have close political and economic ties.  People have nowhere to go.  They're little fucking islands, and there is no infrastructure to support their survival in the near term.  And when some of them show up on a ferry, with only the clothes on their backs, we tell them "no visa, no passport?  Get fucked."

In whatever shitty play that's currently showing on the world stage, we're the fucking villain.

 

qOur1SK.jpg

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Is this posted anywhere?

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-ice-training-simulation-chicago-name-20190914-ieudks5nyfe7towhbytco7fgey-story.html

ICE plans to create ‘‘Chicago’ style replica’ in new training facility

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is building a training facility that will house simulations of structures that its agents are expected to encounter, including a “‘Chicago’ style replica,” according to documents on a federal website.

According to a notice posted to FBO.gov, a federal website that lists contracting opportunities, ICE has found a vendor to provide the simulations for the training facility. A document attached to the notice says the facility will be in Fort Benning, Georgia, and will contain five training models, one of which will be labeled “Chicago.”

According to the document, ICE is in the “process of expanding its Special Response Teams (SRT) stationed throughout the United States and Puerto Rico,” and requires “hyper-realistic training venues” to support that mission. The simulations are meant to “emulate structures the teams will encounter," the document stated, "including rural, residential suburban, residential urban and commercial buildings.”

“This allows the teams to experience combat conditions in a training environment that truly reflects real world conditions, but in a controlled, duplicatable, and dynamic setting,” the document reads.

Another training model will be an “‘Arizona’ style replica” and the three remaining models are described as“Fishbowl”-style, meaning they will be set up so that instructors can view the training from above, according to the document.

When asked about the simulations, Lindsay Williams, a public information officer with ICE’s Atlanta field office, declined to provide details, but pointed the Tribune to the notice posted to FBO.gov.

“Being that we are still in the early phases of this acquisition process, it is premature for us to provide any details on the project,” Williams said.

According to the document, ICE appears to have chosen as a vendor Strategic Operations, a San Diego-based company that says on its website it provides training services and products for the military and law enforcement agencies. The document listed a total cost for the training models to be $961,347.75.

A notation on the FBO website indicated a contract was awarded Monday, but Williams could not confirm if the contract had been finalized.

Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th, said he thinks Chicago and Arizona are named because “for many years, (the regions) have been the epicenter of some of the most dynamic grassroots organizing to confront deportations."

Over the summer when ICE raids were expected to occur, community organizations in Chicago staged large-scale rallies in protest. At the time, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said that Chicago police would not cooperate with ICE.

Chicago’s status as a sanctuary city has also generated tension with the Trump administration. In 2017, the city under then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel sued the Trump administration’s Justice Department for the department’s efforts to withhold funding from sanctuary cities. The city won the suit.

“They want to terrorize our communities in Chicago,” Ramirez-Rosa said. “They want to come in now and say, ‘Now we’re going to show you.’”

Rey Wences, an organizer with Organization Communities Against Deportations, said that training ICE agents with “hyper-realistic” simulations and naming the simulations after actual places is dangerous because it will “desensitize people and normalize violence.”

If the facility and simulation are built and named as planned, Wences said, “we’re going to have agents who will be able to go after people and be desensitized that they’re going after someone in a home.”


 

There is a PDF of the work order and $$ at the link.

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Strategic Operations has about 250 employees. The president is Stu Segall who is a movie maker. At first I thought this might be a boondoggle just to give the guy a million, but now I'm not so sure. Mr. Miller loves to shove guns in the faces of minorities.

However, it is worth noting that Segall has links to the porn industry (Pussycat Cinema) and organized crime. When he moved over into mainstream stuff, this is a niche he developed. So, there is a little backstory there. Wonder if he knew Mr. Epstein?

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Ok, so this whole contract is fishy, not that anything in the WH isn't, but I did a little more digging around, and if any of the media would too, it has some oddities that would be wholly worth exploring if it didn't get them killed.

So, as I state above Stu Segall has links to the porn industry. Back in the day, he was partnered with Michael Zaffarono who was a capo in the Bonanno Crime family. They ran the Pussycat Theatres which showed adult films. Adult cinema is not my bag baby, but even I recognize the title, "Debbie Does Dallas." Yes, it was that Michael Zaffarono, the one that got sued by the DCC for brand confusion (or something like that, I'm not a lawyer- the case was Dall. Cowboys Cheerleaders, Inc v. Pussycat Cinema Ltd). Zaffarono died not too long after that when the FBI was trying to serve him a warrant related to their *MiPorn investigation at a NYC address. He fled and suffered a heart attack. The address was given to the Feds by AG Edwin Meese as the NYC office of Stu Segall & Associates.

So, Zaffarono is dead, and Stu wants to make his big break. Even though he was observed by the FBI during the MiPorn investigation as hanging with known mafia, he managed to avoid entanglement and after filming more porn was able to jump to something a little 'cleaner' and into the mainstream. During the 80's, Segall produced quite a few crime dramas, including Hunter. He also produced several shows that had some pretty nice looking ladies. (The actress, Tracy Scoggins from Texas was in a show he produced). Many of these ladies (like Tracy) were from the Elite Model Management Agency (owned by John Casablancas). Casablancas is a whole nother story, but Casablancas was well known (like Jeffrey Epstein) for being fond of very very young ladies (rather odd that DJ let Ivanka model for Elite). So, nothing quite like a porn producer/filmer being friends with not only the mob, but a purveyor of model talent that happens to prefer his clients on the young side.

Stu's lot in California was in San Diego (cheaper than LA) and happened to be near to a DEA office. The story goes that agents heard gunfire and went to investigate and discovered his movie lot and that began the 'military situation,' experiences and training that Segall started. By the early 2000s, things were humming along in the Middle East, and the training got a little too realistic when an actor shot an 18 year old  Marine private with an AK-47 at close range in the thigh. The weapon was filled with blanks, but at close range, the gases ripped a hole in the private's leg and the actor shot the private in the other leg when the young man tried to evade him. The injuries ended the young man's service.

 

When DHs and ICE state in their document that "only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services required are unique or highly specialized" they are using language that is not uncommon in purchase orders/contracts but in this instance, one has to question if Stu Segall's ship has finally begun to arrive.

 

As another person stated on a different thread, the gators have displaced the swamp. This fellow is a gator.

 

*MiPorn is short for Miami Pornography. It was an undercover sting operation and dealt with racketeering, distribution, piracy, and child pornography.

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Another item about this whole contract and the Stu Segall (Strategic Operations owner) connection that bothers me is this quote:

Quote

The "replication of battlefield conditions in the training environment" will be used to "minimize risk to our Special Agents, Deportation Officer, and SRT operators during high-risk search and arrest warrants, fugitive operations, undercover operations, hostage rescue, gang operations, etc," documents published by ICE state.

Portraying our urban areas as having battlefield conditions is just wrong in so many ways.

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2 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

Another item about this whole contract and the Stu Segall (Strategic Operations owner) connection that bothers me is this quote:

Portraying our urban areas as having battlefield conditions is just wrong in so many ways.

Did you not know?  It's a WAR OUT THERE.  WAR ON COPS!  That's why our brave heroes need these, especially in crime hotbeds like Bent Dingus, Alabama, and Toad Hop, Tennessee:

blog-policetank-500x280.png?itok=X3-sds4

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And when the training is described as realistic right down to dishes left abandoned on the table and childrens' toys scattered about, the truth of this Administration's plan to inure its officials against any sympathy or empathy is added to its list of sins. And that they are paying a porn producer to create the sets is just bombastic. This man's company probably had more minors trafficked through its studio lot back in the day than DJ's modeling agency.

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Kick back and let John Oliver school you on the realities of LEGAL immigration.



Reminds me of the clip from an earlier episode where the female Trump supporter comments that she didn’t want legal immigration either. I think I posted it in this thread somewhere.
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7 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

rarely click on this thread, was coming to post the ^^^ clip from lwt.  horrifying.

What’s horrifying is how little that dumb motherfucker in the White House knows about this topic, which was his one issue that he ran on. That’s like Sarah Palin with “tax cuts” written on her hand but around a million times more ridiculous. 

Seriously, he really does believe

1) that lottery nonsense as he spelled it out (that wasn’t the only time he’s referenced it),

2) that “the country is full,”

3) decries chain migration when he hasn’t the foggiest clue what the fuck it is, how it works, or that his wife did it for her parents

4) that we have zero obligation to refugees even from countries whose straits are largely our doing, a la Honduras 

5) that illegal immigration is a national emergency and that, to combat it, we must build a gigantic wall along the southern border even though the overwhelming preponderance of illegal immigration is done in ways that a wall could not stop

It’s like the moral depravity of his policy proposals is trying to compete with the stupidity of same. That’s quite a remarkable competition that takes place inside of that empty head

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1 hour ago, hpslugga said:

What’s horrifying is how little that dumb motherfucker in the White House knows about this topic, which was his one issue that he ran on. That’s like Sarah Palin with “tax cuts” written on her hand but around a million times more ridiculous. 

Seriously, he really does believe

1) that lottery nonsense as he spelled it out (that wasn’t the only time he’s referenced it),

2) that “the country is full,”

3) decries chain migration when he hasn’t the foggiest clue what the fuck it is, how it works, or that his wife did it for her parents

4) that we have zero obligation to refugees even from countries whose straits are largely our doing, a la Honduras 

5) that illegal immigration is a national emergency and that, to combat it, we must build a gigantic wall along the southern border even though the overwhelming preponderance of illegal immigration is done in ways that a wall could not stop

It’s like the moral depravity of his policy proposals is trying to compete with the stupidity of same. That’s quite a remarkable competition that takes place inside of that empty head

all of the above, of course.  but what struck me, after hearing the constant gop talking point that "sure, immigration is fine, but we want legal immigration", is how fucking difficult 'legal' immigration is right now, and they're still trying to make it almost impossible.

zero chance trump understands any of this.

this should all be brought to light during the debate that mark sanford has with the cardboard cutout trump.

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3 minutes ago, henrygandorf said:

all of the above, of course.  but what struck me, after hearing the constant gop talking point that "sure, immigration is fine, but we want legal immigration", is how fucking difficult 'legal' immigration is right now, and they're still trying to make it almost impossible.

zero chance trump understands any of this.

this should all be brought to light during the debate that mark sanford has with the cardboard cutout trump.

What you have to understand, with perfect clarity, is that the bolded text is what we call A FUCKING LIE.  The foundational belief is xenophobic white nationalism, and any immigration -- ALL immigration -- is anathema to those believers.  They don't want any more dirty furriners here, illegal or legal.  Period.  

They SAY those bolded words.  But they actively support, lobby for, and implement policies that render them a lie.  I don't give a fuck if you SAY "I don't want to set you on fire" as you're fucking spraying me with lighter fluid and tossing lit matches at me.  The GOP is the party of xenophobic white nationalism.  Their actions prove it.  Disregard their gaslighting lies.

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34 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

What you have to understand, with perfect clarity, is that the bolded text is what we call A FUCKING LIE.  The foundational belief is xenophobic white nationalism, and any immigration -- ALL immigration -- is anathema to those believers.  They don't want any more dirty furriners here, illegal or legal.  Period.  

They SAY those bolded words.  But they actively support, lobby for, and implement policies that render them a lie.  I don't give a fuck if you SAY "I don't want to set you on fire" as you're fucking spraying me with lighter fluid and tossing lit matches at me.  The GOP is the party of xenophobic white nationalism.  Their actions prove it.  Disregard their gaslighting lies.

obviously. but like i said, what struck me is how difficult it even is, even if the intent was there (which i agree, it is not). 

it’s like telling your kid, you can have all the cookies and cupcakes you want, i want you to be happy. then locking him in a jail cell full of spinach and lima beans. 

the citizens who spout this have no idea about the process, and still likely know more than fearless leader. 

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3 minutes ago, elfenix said:

you won't be laughing when ISIS invades akron

No, but when those vehicles roll into your neighborhood in Houston and several hundred ICE agents surround the perimeter (this is what happened during the Mississippi raid) and they begin their roundup, how many people will stand and watch? There was blowback in Chicago by the public which is exactly why this militaristic training (outlined above in the posts and articles) is being touted as "necessary" and why one of the training modules is named Chicago. When the weapons come out and the agents are swarming, will citizens stand and watch, aid in providing sanctuary, cower in fear, or be carted off to jail like the citizens who have been providing water and care to border crossers in dire straits? They have until at least the 2020 election to get Miller's Army of Atrocities rolling and as far as I can tell, they aren't stopping. While we get distracted with one thing or another, Miller & Co are pulling strings to get what they want, while organized crime gets paid to provide it.

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2 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

obviously. but like i said, what struck me is how difficult it even is, even if the intent was there (which i agree, it is not). 

it’s like telling your kid, you can have all the cookies and cupcakes you want, i want you to be happy. then locking him in a jail cell full of spinach and lima beans. 

the citizens who spout this have no idea about the process, and still likely know more than fearless leader. 

They have no idea because all they know is what soundbytes from either of the two teams physically triggers their silly assed little tribal instincts. 

If they had any actual idea, the only conclusion you draw from observing the realities regarding legal immigration is “wow, I’m surprised that illegal immigration isn’t even more prevalent than it already is.”

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2 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

obviously. but like i said, what struck me is how difficult it even is, even if the intent was there (which i agree, it is not). 

it’s like telling your kid, you can have all the cookies and cupcakes you want, i want you to be happy. then locking him in a jail cell full of spinach and lima beans. 

the citizens who spout this have no idea about the process, and still likely know more than fearless leader. 

They have no idea because all they know is what soundbytes from either of the two teams physically trigger their silly assed little tribal instincts. 

If they had any actual idea, the only conclusion you draw from observing the realities regarding legal immigration is “wow, I’m surprised that illegal immigration isn’t even more prevalent than it already is.”

But they don’t say that. Instead, they march happily along as their naked emperor strips away legal routes to immigration, bark loudly about intensifying “defenses” against illegal immigration, and absolutely cannot for the life of them see how ridiculously contradictory and unrealistic the ultimate aim of those two policies, in conjunction with each other, truly are. There’s a lot wrong with that lot, but one of their worst shortcomings is the sheer inability to complete syllogisms.

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1 hour ago, elfenix said:

Destroying history to own the libs

 

 

 

 

https://wapo.st/2Ib2E2G

 

 

 

 

 

*Yes I know it's prehistoric don't @ me

I've pretty much accepted that we are going to have some lasting, and irreparable, environmental damage from this admin.  If that's what it takes to wake up this country, then so be it.  If he's re-elected, it's time for some monkey wrenching.

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With the daily events rushing at people fast and furious, it is easy for items like this to get lost in the fray. Traveling over a thousand miles with her mother and will in all likelihood be told that there is no room at the inn for children such as her who have to be able to, let me see if I can get this straight Mr. Cuccinelli, "stand on their own two feet and who will not become a public charge." This is a pic taken of Claudia with her mother, Yadira, after bathing in the Rio Grande while awaiting their asylum hearing in the US. They live in one of the camps in Matamoros, Mexico. (Pic and info from Reuters)

EGUGQ2EXoAA67mJ.jpg

7:29 PM - 7 Oct 2019

One hundred and fourteen years ago.

1982_290.jpg

Ellis Island, Italian Immigrants

 
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One of the other news items I forgot to mention yesterday was that Presidential candidate Julian Castro visited Matamoros to see the results of the President's Migrant Protection Protocols. This is the policy (which took effect July 15) wherein migrants wait in Mexico while their cases are heard.

An article from Texas Monthly has more details here:https://www.texasmonthly.com/news/julian-castro-visit-to-migrant-camp-in-mexico/

There are, at minimum, 1500 people (the exact number is unknown) waiting in makeshift tent cities, etc along the banks of the Rio Grande. Bathing, defecating, dying. Often they are victims of crime, potable water is scarce, and they are frequently sick.

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From immigrants seeking asylum who await in camps, turn to a different type of wait: a US citizen awaiting possible deportation to Mexico. You probably heard the story of the high schooler from the Dallas area who was detained earlier this year? He still faces a hearing and his legal rep is concerned that the US is building a case to deport him even though he has a birth certificate. More on the story from the DMN here: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/immigration/2019/10/15/francisco-galicia-us-citizen-facing-deportation-issued-2020-immigration-court-date/

Quote

 

His attorney now fears that the U.S. government may actually be trying to build a case to question his citizenship based on the fact that his mother solicited a birth certificate for him in Mexico almost three years after he was born in Dallas, an action Galicia had no control over as an almost three-year-old.

***

t’s understandable that the U.S. government would question Galicia’s case because of this second birth certificate, said Gerard Magliocca, a constitutional law expert and law professor at Indiana University who has written about the Fourteenth Amendment -- the amendment that grants birthright citizenship to those born on U.S. soil.

But by all intensive purposes, Magliocca said, because Galicia’s birth in the U.S. was registered close to three years before his mother obtained the Mexican birth certificate, Galicia “constitutionally speaking” is a U.S. citizen.

“The only exception would be if [Galicia] has somehow renounced his citizenship. And I’m not sure a parent can in fact renounce a minor child’s citizenship,” Magliocca said.

 

Depending upon how this shakes out, the election in 2020 will either lay this issue to rest or bring it to the forefront. Stephen Miller will not stop until every last person of Mexican/Central American ancestry is deported.

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1 hour ago, Bama Chick said:

Off topic but did an actual writer of an actual article in the actual Dallas Morning News use “for all intensive purposes”??

I weep.

I'm not sure if he did; in the article, it looked like he was quoting the attorney but left off the quotation marks.

As an aside, perhaps one of the Surly attorneys would know if this type of case is the long game plan for the nationalist/racist element wherein they are going to chip away at the issue of birthright citizenship much the way abortion has been changed since 1973?  With the judicial appointments during this Administration, it could keep cropping up.

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This......is EXACTLY how much sense our current approach to immigration makes: https://www.npr.org/2019/10/15/770321744/british-family-detained-by-ice-after-unlawfully-entering-u-s-from-canada?utm_term=nprnews&utm_campaign=npr&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&fbclid=IwAR3UFLPj66Qzfr69TCAOo5VRxDm6m2KVJjjt1N944_8P6obLG4UVpUQEOuA

Quote

A British couple and their 3-month-old son are being detained in a federal immigration facility in Pennsylvania after they say they accidentally strayed across the U.S.-Canada border.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents arrested the family for unlawfully entering the country while on vacation in British Columbia. The family said that while driving, they swerved down an unmarked road to avoid an animal.

.....

The Connors family was taken into federal immigration custody in Washington state on Oct. 3 and slept on what they describe as "a dirty floor" in a border patrol station. Connors said the family was asked about family members in the United States they could be released to, but instead of being freed they were transferred to the Berks Family Residential Center, outside Reading, on Oct. 5.

There, they say treatment worsened. Connors said that the Berks County-run facility was not equipped to care for such a young child and that normal caretaking items — such as a container of formula and teething powder — have been confiscated. At one point, her baby had no clothes while staff washed the clothes he arrived with.

"This facility is frigid," said Connors. "The staff here first told us they cannot turn on the heat in the building until the end of next month," even though temperatures are in the 50s at night.

.......

In addition to the couple and their son, the Connorses' extended family, which includes two other young children, were also taken into custody.

As British citizens, the family was entitled to visit the U.S. without a visa.

"They could just come to the United States with a passport," said attorney Bridget Cambria, who worked on the civil rights complaint that has been filed on behalf of the family with the Department of Homeland Security. "The reason it sounds silly is because it is silly."

Instead, Eileen and her husband, David, 30, are locked into an immigration process with few safeguards. People in federal immigration custody are not entitled to legal counsel and even the wrongful arrest of U.S. citizens can take weeks to sort out, as they struggle to prove their identities while in detention.

Other foreign tourists have also found themselves in dire straights. Last June, a French citizen visiting her mother in British Columbia was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol after jogging on the beach near the border of Vancouver and Blaine, Wash. She was held in federal immigration detention for two weeks.

Our immigration policy is effectively "Imagine the stupidest, most dickhead thing you can do -- then do that."  I've never seen this country so stupid, and so fucking THRILLED TO BE STUPID.  

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27 minutes ago, Bama Chick said:

Now watch Trumpkins point to this case as a defense of “SEE!!!! IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT BROWN PEOPLE!!! WE’RE DICKHOLES REGARDLESS OF SKIN COLOR!!!!”

(They look like a couple who met on “Love Island”.)

8ff65923fc37cd5a5e02d7a92f1da9ee.jpg

I mean, if being cheesy skanks is a detainable offense.....we may have to reconsider this.

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FYI, the owners of Antonelli's doing work.

 

#DoGoodEatGood
We push ourselves daily to live this mission and think of all the different ways we can apply it. This past weekend, John and I organized a border service trip with Servant Church. We walked across the Brownsville-Matamoros bridge physically carrying supplies to refugees and migrants and culminated the weekend with preparing and serving a hot meal to 900+ folks in need. Thanks to all who dropped off donations to be delivered. I can assure you they went from our hands to theirs.
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  • 3 weeks later...

Wow @Mapache I watched the whole thing, you were right. Very good presentation.

Here is a tidbit I ran across, I don't know a lot about the computer side of things, but this company's concerns seem legit and it makes you wonder what happened to the people? People aren't files but files represent people. Below is the tweet, followed by the link to the article. The article explains their concerns in detail.

https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/580/

 

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