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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 12, 2022

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I don't take your pearl clutching as legitimate worry. It's weaponized concern; no human is illegal, but also it's not generally your communities suffering the constant tide of human detritus.

If you want me, or people like me, to take this concern seriously, you need to put your money where your mouth is for a few generations. Spend the next thirty years getting shipped hundreds of thousands and tens of millions of these people, and then, at the end of it, still argue that you care and no human is illegal and strive to help them.

If you think this is unreasonable, then we're at an impasse, because we've already been lied to on the immigrant problem for decades. We've been betrayed by amnesty, by lax border security, by sanctuary cities and their advocates. The left mashed defect on this issue, and we're not going to hit cooperate until you give us a few wins.

but also it's not generally your communities suffering the constant tide of human detritus.

Liberal metropolitan areas are home to the vast majority of illegal immigrants in the US. This has been one of the recurring critiques of conservative nativism over the past decade - that they're complaining about immigrants in places they don't live. The idea that sheltered coastal liberals are forcing southern conservatives to foot the bill for their xenophilia ignores the reality of how illegal immigrants are actually distributed around the country.

Segregated cities that used to contain the exact red tribe folks that fled due to unregulated minority violence.

Heavily segregated cities where the detritus slip unseen into the cracks of already endemic homeless and drug issues hardly strikes me as the same as a flood of toxic illegals in huge numbers fundamentally altering the makeup of your border towns and enclaves.

No, in the Vineyard, there's no cracks to hide in. There's no gate to close or blocks to avoid. They're actually there, not just nearby. Just like it is for reds.

This is just special pleading. They don't seem to have any difficulty slipping through the cracks in Texas. In fact, it seems to me one of the core complaints is that it is too easy for them to slip through the cracks in Texas.

Texas is not perfect. Texas also isn't supporting the invasion, so I'm perfectly willing to cut them some slack. Being imperfect isn't a dealbreaker for me.

You've made this general claim about 3 or 4 times now, but haven't provided any sources. I'd be genuinely interested in a breakdown, especially if it distinguished asylum claimants and unaccompanied minors.

You have my blessing to go seek those breakdowns out. I wish you luck in your journey toward knowledge, and look forward to hearing what you learn about racial segregation in cities, homeless rates in cities, homeless demographics in cities, and problems arising from those things, especially concerning drugs.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/03/11/us-metro-areas-unauthorized-immigrants/

So far I have seen zero evidence for the contrary claim; it simply seems to be taken as a given.

As an open borders advocate, I have no interest in providing charity for immigrants. When I eat at a restaurant that's owned and staffed by immigrants, I'm putting my money where my mouth is. When I buy produce that's picked by migrant workers, I'm putting my money where my mouth is.

What I see as needing to end is not letting immigrants in, it's incentivizing the wrong kind of immigrants to come here by making charity and or free social services available to them. Mass immigration was great for America in the 19th and early 20th centuries because it operated under the model I prefer. I say we go back to it.

"Get rid of the illegals" is already a difficult enough problem given the split in American politics; "Keep the illegals, but make sure they get no public help so we can have a ton of sob stories of kids going hungry and not having medical attention" is so far beyond even expulsion that I almost think you're being sadistic for satire's sake.

I do not believe my solution is sadistic, just as I do not believe it was sadistic when the US allowed mass immigration in the 19th century without offering immigrants the kind of public support they're now offered.

Stop offering charity and the sort of immigrants who would only ever have been a drain on the system will, in the words of Mitt Romney, self-deport. Really though, I don't think that many immigrants fit this profile. I believe the vast majority are perfectly willing and perfectly capable of finding jobs and supporting themselves and their families without private charity or public assistance.

What will also naturally come to an end under my preferred system is the mass arrival of unaccompanied minors, which is almost exclusively due to the fact that current US law allows unaccompanied minors to cross the border without fearing deportation while it subjects intact families to deportation. End this bizarre perverse incentive and that entire category of sob story goes away.

Are you referring to legal immigrants or illegal immigrants? I notice that a lot of American rhetoric simply uses 'immigrants', and since the topic of discussion is specifically illegal immigration in this case, it would helpful to be specific about what you're arguing.

I'm referring to both categories. I do not want charitable incentives to exist for legal immigration or for unauthorized immigration. The market and not politicians should decide what quantity and what quality of immigrant this country can support.

An open border advocate believes there should be no restrictions placed on entering the country. As such, there would not be any illegal immigration.

In a hypothetical Caplanian utopia with one billion Americans, sure. But as it stands now, illegal immigrants are a category of person. Muddying the waters by referring to Chinese international students, Indian H1Bs and Central American border-jumpers as 'immigrants' is very misleading.

It's akin to referring to both squatters and law-abiding tenants who pay their rent on time as 'residents', and then talking about being 'pro-resident' or 'anti-resident' when the 'anti-resident' side are really just against squatters and the 'pro-resident' side thinks charging rent is immoral.