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Meanwhile, the governor is a Greyhound travel agent:

WASHINGTON, July 12 (Reuters) - Mexico on Tuesday pledged to spend $1.5 billion to beef up its northern border as its leader met with U.S. President Joe Biden, who faces attacks from Republicans over his handling of immigration on the United States' southern flank.

Casting immigration as a "hemispheric challenge", Biden met Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and top Mexican officials in the White House to address U.S. concerns over migration and Mexico's desire for more worker visas.

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I think one aspect of the border that has fueled GOP opposition that gets overlooked is the war on terror. There are, or at least used to be, many Republicans who legitimately worried about terrorists crossing easily. Now that we are over twenty years out from 9/11 and pretty much done with troops on the ground war on terror, many of those people have been brainwashed and pushed to the far right by hyperpartisanship, but there is a chance for many others. And of course there were always those who just used terrorists crossing as additional justification for their position on illegal immigration, whether it was due to good old fashioned racism or economic anxiety for laboring classes or whatever.

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Interesting podcast (*Gladwell Warning*) about how our border philosophy shifted post-Vietnam.  General Chapman’s Last Stand

It suggests that part of the problem is us working on it as a problem- Because we tried to "shut down" the border (military mindset), it became more valuable to cross it... and those who did would stay (and try to bring family with them) as opposed to a circular migration pattern that was seasonal/labor based.

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  • 8 months later...

Wonder why virtually nobody knows about this? And Republicans are still unhappy:

The Biden administration is opening “processing centers” in Central and South American countries that will let migrants apply to come to the U.S. legally as part of an effort to drive down illegal migration across the U.S.-Mexico border, three senior administration officials told reporters Thursday.

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6 minutes ago, Satchel said:

Wonder why virtually nobody knows about this? And Republicans are still unhappy:

The Biden administration is opening “processing centers” in Central and South American countries that will let migrants apply to come to the U.S. legally as part of an effort to drive down illegal migration across the U.S.-Mexico border, three senior administration officials told reporters Thursday.

I’m still perplexed how the dumbasses of Texas can elect republicans to run everything for 30 years and still scream about how everything about government is broken.  Actually I’m not.  I’m just wishing they would get on with gods grand plan.  

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Interesting podcast (*Gladwell Warning*) about how our border philosophy shifted post-Vietnam.  General Chapman’s Last Stand
It suggests that part of the problem is us working on it as a problem- Because we tried to "shut down" the border (military mindset), it became more valuable to cross it... and those who did would stay (and try to bring family with them) as opposed to a circular migration pattern that was seasonal/labor based.

Duh.
Anyone with any actual experience with our border has been saying that for years. We used to have a border that allowed for relatively easy crossing of migrant labor. People would come, work, then go home. Now, once you’re here, you better stay. And if you have to stay, you probably want to bring your family as well.
Another example of a “let’s get tough to look tough!” approach biting us in the ass. And the solution proposed? GET TOUGHER!!!!!
Dumbasses.
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circular / seasonal labor cards are the way to go

They worked for fucking decades. For fuck’s sake, my old man’s first job was in the early 50s shuttling braceros among farms in S. Texas. Then…we needed to find an “other” to demonize. Civil Rights Act made it really hard to pick on black people. But hey, the brown ones are also FOREIGNERS! Let’s blame them for literally every problem, real or imagined! Let’s wage war on them! CLOSE THE BORDER! BUILD THE WALL! The dumbest, most counterproductive shit ever, all because our right wing can only motivate its base by hate.
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I wonder if you could, and it would be smart to, tie the seasonal labor passes to specific jobs that employers put in for, as a way to track numbers, ensure proper wages, and minimize illegal employment (especially at low wages)?  So you match applicants to jobs and when there are no more jobs, you stop the flow of workers. Then it works like a full occupancy business, one out one in. 
 

??

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8 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

I wonder if you could, and it would be smart to, tie the seasonal labor passes to specific jobs that employers put in for, as a way to track numbers, ensure proper wages, and minimize illegal employment (especially at low wages)?  So you match applicants to jobs and when there are no more jobs, you stop the flow of workers. Then it works like a full occupancy business, one out one in. 
 

??

See, you’re trying to add logic here. Stop that. It has no place in the immigration discussion on the right. 

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2 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

I wonder if you could, and it would be smart to, tie the seasonal labor passes to specific jobs that employers put in for, as a way to track numbers, ensure proper wages, and minimize illegal employment (especially at low wages)?  So you match applicants to jobs and when there are no more jobs, you stop the flow of workers. Then it works like a full occupancy business, one out one in. 
 

??

needs to be much better implemented than the current tying-jobs-to-cards system is, which is very abusive. 

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Why not just feed hungry migrants with the money it cost you to charter a private plane to transport them?

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/04/us/migrants-california-church-texas.html#:~:text=Sixteen migrants from Venezuela and,Texas migrant center under false

Sixteen migrants from Venezuela and Colombia were abruptly flown on a private chartered jet to California and dropped off outside a Catholic church building in Sacramento on Friday, state officials said, prompting an investigation into whether they were transported from outside a Texas migrant center under false pretenses.

While it remained unclear on Sunday who had approached the group of migrants outside El Paso and orchestrated their flight from New Mexico to California, the episode mirrored an aggressive tactic used by hard-line Republican governors to protest President Biden’s immigration policies by dispatching dozens of migrants to Democratic-led states and cities with little warning or explanation. Many of the migrants told a nonprofit organization they had no idea they were going to California.

On Sunday, a spokeswoman for California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, said the migrants were carrying documents that mentioned the Florida Division of Emergency Management and the state’s “voluntary transportation program.” The documents also named Vertol Systems Company Inc. as the contractor for the Florida program and the one carrying out the transport.

That was the same company used for transport in the fall when Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida directed two planeloads of South American migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard, a Democratic-leaning Massachusetts island.

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5 hours ago, Satchel said:

Why not just feed hungry migrants with the money it cost you to charter a private plane to transport them?

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/04/us/migrants-california-church-texas.html#:~:text=Sixteen migrants from Venezuela and,Texas migrant center under false

Sixteen migrants from Venezuela and Colombia were abruptly flown on a private chartered jet to California and dropped off outside a Catholic church building in Sacramento on Friday, state officials said, prompting an investigation into whether they were transported from outside a Texas migrant center under false pretenses.

While it remained unclear on Sunday who had approached the group of migrants outside El Paso and orchestrated their flight from New Mexico to California, the episode mirrored an aggressive tactic used by hard-line Republican governors to protest President Biden’s immigration policies by dispatching dozens of migrants to Democratic-led states and cities with little warning or explanation. Many of the migrants told a nonprofit organization they had no idea they were going to California.

On Sunday, a spokeswoman for California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, said the migrants were carrying documents that mentioned the Florida Division of Emergency Management and the state’s “voluntary transportation program.” The documents also named Vertol Systems Company Inc. as the contractor for the Florida program and the one carrying out the transport.

That was the same company used for transport in the fall when Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida directed two planeloads of South American migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard, a Democratic-leaning Massachusetts island.

Because the Rs don’t care if they die or not.  They are political fodder, not human beings. 

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15 hours ago, Hornius Emeritus said:

I am down here on the border literally less than a mile from the Rio Grande. Been here for a week. Things seem pretty quiet.

Live footage of HE and friend:

shrek-shrek1.gif

10 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

Because the Rs don’t care if they die or not.  They are political fodder, not human beings. 

Bingo.

In GQP world, there's only one person who matters: yourself.  All other humans are literally expendable in the pursuit of whatever you want.  Money, power, whatever -- do whatever you want to other people, they don't matter.  Only you matter.  The United States of Me, that's their dreamworld -- sure, it's a hellscape for everyone else, but that just makes them happier -- the pain and suffering is how you know it's working!

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I find it interesting that the topic most discussed in the news the last couple weeks is essentially non existent on this board. Everyone who hates Trump should be addressing it because this was one of the top issues in 2016 and it’s worse today. The immigration issue seems to be reaching a tipping point nationwide. It may be too late but Biden needs to address it for PR purposes. 
 

And before people complain I’m a left leaning person. But you have places like NYC saying they can’t take anyone else. And the clips above are persuasive. Better address it. 

Edited by Boss Hogg
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Biden administration waives 26 federal laws to allow border wall construction in South Texas

https://apnews.com/article/border-wall-biden-immigration-texas-rio-grande-147d7ab497e6991e9ea929242f21ceb2

Greg Abbott wants to build "border barriers"  between Texas and Mexico ---- New Mexico, that is.
 
 
Can the barriers and buoys be redeployed to the northern (Texas) border?
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God fucking dammit. I swear to Christ Biden does some dumb shit regarding the environment. Wtf joe?  Didn’t you learn from the alaska drilling fiasco?

Quote

Concern is shared with environmental advocates who say structures will run through public lands, habitats of endangered plants and species like the Ocelot, a spotted wild cat.

“A plan to build a wall through will bulldoze an impermeable barrier straight through the heart of that habitat. It will stop wildlife migrations dead in their tracks. It will destroy a huge amount of wildlife refuge land. And it’s a horrific step backwards for the borderlands,” Laiken Jordahl, a southwest conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, said Wednesday afternoon.

 

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Oh and from that same AP article

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“After years of denying that a border wall and other physical barriers are effective, the DHS announcement represents a sea change in the administration’s thinking: A secure wall is an effective tool for maintaining control of our borders,” Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said in a statement. “Having made that concession, the administration needs to immediately begin construction of wall across the border to prevent the illegal traffic from simply moving to other areas of the border.”

 

Wiki

Quote

Daniel Alan Stein (born 1955) is an American attorney, anti-immigration advocate, and the president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies as a hate group.

 

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4 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

I just wrote the White House regarding this latest revelation.  I'm sure some intern gets those messages, but whatever.  I had to say something.  This is fucking ridiculous.

Need to see more details about this part of the news article. Could be clickbait, could be environmental malpractice until you see more details: https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/05/politics/biden-administration-border-wall/index.html

Quote

Among the laws the Biden administration is bypassing to build the wall are several of the same statutes the administration has in the past moved to protect, including: the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act.

 

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This may be a bullshit excuse, but they're saying since the money was already appropriated by Congress, they had no choice but to spend it on construction.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-claims-choice-build-trumps-border-wall/story?id=103757017

Quote

 

President Joe Biden on Thursday said his administration had no choice but to build about 20 miles more southern border wall -- after he's long dismissed Donald Trump's wall as a waste of money that doesn't work to stop illegal immigration.

"Money was appropriated for the border wall," Biden told reporters, referring to congressional action during the Trump administration. "I tried to get them to reappropriate -- to redirect the money. They didn't, they wouldn't. And in the meantime, there's nothing under the law other than they have to use the money for what is appropriated. I can't stop that."

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre could not point to instances when Biden attempted to change the funding designation. The White House also could not immediately explain why the project was moving forward now.

The Biden administration is waiving 26 federal laws to make way for unfinished border wall construction in South Texas, according to documents formally published in the federal register Thursday.

The waivers include ones for the Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act and Endangered Species Act allow for border barrier construction in select areas of Starr County, Texas.

In explaining the rationale for the move, made amid a migrant surge, GOP outrage and Democratic criticism, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, "there is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers," even as Biden repeated to ABC Senior White House Correspondent Selina Wang Thursday his argument that a wall isn't effective.

“We had no choice,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday during a press conference in Mexico. “It was mandated by law. We requested that Congress rescind the direction. It did not do so. We, of course, must follow the law. Our policy remains as it was since day one. We are opposed to the construction of the wall.”

Biden pledged during his 2020 presidential campaign against then-President Trump that his administration would not build "another foot of wall." But the Department of Homeland Security is required to use the funds appropriated in 2019 on border barrier construction, a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said in a statement Thursday.

Construction plans from Customs and Border Protection describe an 18-foot portable barrier, different from the 30-foot bollard design used during much of the Trump administration. Trump's design at times required blowing up land to lay the foundation for his wall, as ABC News reported in 2020.

"CBP remains committed to protecting the nation's cultural and natural resources and will implement sound environmental practices as part of the project covered by this waiver," the spokesperson said.

Border officials have said barriers, and the infrastructure that comes with them, can help focus patrols and allow agents to apprehend migrants more efficiently. However, migrants have been known to evade barrier sections, crossing in more dangerous and remote areas.

Further, barriers constructed above the official borderline do not prevent migrants from turning themselves into authorities and initiating an asylum claim. Once a non-citizen crosses the official international boundary – which exists in the middle of the river along much of the Rio Grande Valley region – they are legally allowed to fight deportation proceedings.

The construction authorized under the waivers will span a total of 17 miles in Starr County, Texas, where wall building was left incomplete, and wouldn't be continuous.

"This is not a new barrier announcement," Homeland Security spokesperson Luis Miranda said in a statement. "The specific construction in the [Rio Grande Valley] was announced in June, and as made clear then, DHS continues to prioritize deploying technology and other system elements."

The announcement stirred the ire of environmental advocates who fought the Trump administration's construction efforts for years.

"It's disheartening to see President Biden stoop to this level, casting aside our nation's bedrock environmental laws to build ineffective wildlife-killing border walls," said Laiken Jordahl, Southwest conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. "Starr County is home to some of the most spectacular and biologically important habitat left in Texas and now bulldozers are preparing to rip right through it. This is a horrific step backwards for the borderlands."

Legacy landowners and local leaders in the region told ABC News they have not been consulted or informed of plans for barrier construction. Many are committed to "fighting" any new construction.

"What the hell! We can't catch a break down here," one Starr County landowner told ABC News. "This feels like what we had to go through 3 years ago. We haven't been told anything and it's frustrating."

The Biden administration announced last year it would work to close gaps in the barriers and fix incomplete construction zones. The work also involved cleaning up abandoned construction sites and finishing gates that agents used on patrols.

 

 

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53 minutes ago, bolverk said:

This may be a bullshit excuse, but they're saying since the money was already appropriated by Congress, they had no choice but to spend it on construction.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-claims-choice-build-trumps-border-wall/story?id=103757017

 

Yeah, I heard this earlier too.  "Use it or lose it".  Um, FUCKING LOSE IT THEN.  Fuck this.

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21 minutes ago, Patricio Swayze said:

Biden being a politician in my opinion.

I don't get it. Feels like a big misstep. Democrats are going to hate it and not buy his reasoning and I can't imagine it gets any Republican votes.

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