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A great man once said feeble minds discuss people, mediocre minds discuss events, and great men discuss feeble and mediocre minds. As befits my station (see: flair), I will endeavor to do the first two.
Yesterday, Ron Desantis proudly shipped 50 illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard. See Breitbart and Fox News’ takes as well. The individuals were supposedly offered a plane ticket to Massachusetts, without being told they were being sent to a small, isolated island unprepared to receive them as part of a political stunt. Amusingly, not sharing a border with Mexico, Desantis actually had to source his illegal immigrants from Texas. I suppose rustling up 50 of the 772,000 homegrown illegal Florida Mans was too difficult, or may have upset some core constituency, who knows. The only shelter in Martha’s Vineyard has room for 10 and is obviously not equipped in the way that Boston, New York or DC would be and the plane ticket to those places would have been much cheaper.
Also of note: see the Fox News article for the Florida legislature’s $12 million
‘immigrant relocation program’Own The Libs/Desantis for President fun.I can stomach a border wall and even see the necessity, despite disagreeing with what it represents. I can sympathize with people living near the border and dealing with crime and drug cartels. But manipulating impoverished people seeking a better future and treating them as nothing more than chattel to score political points and ‘own the libs’ absolutely turns my stomach. Which, judging by the Breitbart comments and replies I expect here, laughing at my pearl clutching is absolutely the point. You want me to be mad, you want me get up on my soapbox and bleat some self-righteous Soyjak lines about muh poor illegals so you can get mad right back and it feels good.
So I guess I won’t do that, although I never know what to say instead. I’m sorry that you hate Obama and Clinton (see: Breitbart article) so much that the thought of them having to deal with poor third worlders is amusing. I’m sorry that you’re so angry about illegal immigration and the libs that we’ve come here. Please, let’s all try to treat our countrymen better and do what we can to dial down the hate.
It is apparently illegal for states to secure their borders, as this fall only under federal jurisdiction. From here:
It is very easy for the federal government to decide to let people illegally cross the border, since Washington DC is thousands of miles away from the Texas border. Why should Texas have to absorb all those people illegally coming into the country?
It doesn't. Many pass through Texas and many remain, but the vast majority wind up elsewhere (and many enter elsewhere, notably California).
Are there any reliable studies on this? Given the costs involved in just getting across the border my priors tell me that "the vast majority" probably don't have the resources to make it very far past the border into other areas of the country. There may be people smuggling networks in place but how many have the resources to make use of them? Coyotes aren't getting people across the border out of the goodness of their heart.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/03/11/us-metro-areas-unauthorized-immigrants/
The idea that Texas is stuck with all the illegal immigrants while liberal states cheer from their sheltered enclaves is a political talking point, not reality.
It's not that expensive to move around the country once you're in (especially if all you've got is the clothes on your back) and many people crossing the border in the south have friends/family elsewhere in the country who both serve as an attractor and will help them out. Moreover, people physically walking across the border is a minority of illegal immigration to the United States. A majority* are arriving legally and overstaying visas. You can fly to NYC or Chicago, get a tourist visa, and never leave.
*at least as of a couple of years; I don't have a breakdown from this year, but I have no reason to think it's radically changed in two years.
Why was providing actual data on the thing everyone else in this thread was simply assuming downvoted?
Because the data he provided is literally accurate but fails to prove the relevant point. "Many areas have illegal immigrants", even liberal ones, does not logically imply that many liberal enclaves don't. (And especially, when the liberal enclaves are rich enough that people there have choices). This entire discussion started with Martha's Vineyard, which is a liberal enclave without a high immigrant population, in an area shown by that very data as having a high immigrant population.
I'm sure that there are poor inner cities that are both liberal and have a high illegal immigrant population, and are driving much of that data, but that isn't really in dispute.
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I basically agree with this sentiment and would try and reframe the discussion in terms of luxury beliefs: namely people living thousands of miles from land borders can easily harbor fantasies about human nature while ignoring (and experiencing) few of the very real negative externalities associated uncontrolled illegal immigration. If a relatively small number of buses (or even flights) are required to make the most politically powerful parts of this country more fully aware of the kinds of the problems they are rather thoughtlessly creating for others.
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