.
Count on the Trump Administration to find the most obnoxious person available to misidentify family reunification. Count on the NYTimes to pick the worst possible person to defend that misidentification, on the worst possible day…
"Hey, when should we run this Ross Douthat piece normalizing the most prominent white nationalist voice in the Trump administration?"
"Um … Holocaust Remembrance Day?"
"PERFECT." pic.twitter.com/BuhKRr0sQM
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) January 28, 2018
Stephen Millerâs lifelong search for someone to invite him to a party has ended https://t.co/1L594VaYnw
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) January 28, 2018
Saying Stephen Miller is necessary to an immigration deal is like saying David Duke is necessary to an agreement on civil rights https://t.co/5kLDWwwRKe
— David Leopold (@DavidLeopold) January 28, 2018
Informative rebuttal in the Washington Post:
For those looking to emigrate to the United States, connections are everything. If you have a family member who is a citizen or a green-card holder, you can â under certain circumstances â be given priority consideration for entry to the country…
What this means is that a citizen could sponsor a sibling for a green card and, if granted, that sibling could then sponsor his or her child. That child could then sponsor his or her eventual spouse, and so on. This is the system that President Trump has taken to describing as âchain migration,â a system that he and his administration present as a scourge that necessitates action by the government. (Proponents of the system prefer the term âfamily reunification.â) A proposal from the administration sent to Capitol Hill last week suggested that the green-card-holder limits on petitions apply to everyone, dramatically scaling back the number of people who could see facilitated entry to the United States.
Thereâs an irony to this policy shift, though. A number of prominent members of the Trump administration have ancestors who are only in the country because they came to join members of their families who would be excluded from sponsoring them under the new proposal…
Trump has benefited from what could be called âchain migrationâ on both sides of his family…
[Stephen] Miller is the great-grandson of a man named Sam Glosser, as reported by Jewish Journal. Glosser was one of a family of retailers in Johnstown, Pa., son of a man named Wolf Lieb Glotzer. The elder Glotzer came to the United States from Belarus in 1903. The documentation of his arrival in the United States includes the person who he joined here: his brother-in-law, Schmuel Levine.The book âLong Live Glosserâs,â about the retail stores that the family founded, indicates that Wolf Glotzerâs son Nathan soon joined him in the United States. It was Nathan who ended up in Johnstown and started the store.
In 1906, Sam Glosser arrived in the United States on the Ryndam, along with his mother and two siblings. They listed Wolf Glotzer as their point of contact. Glotzerâs arrival wouldnât have met Trumpâs standard for entry. But once here, he could have petitioned for Sam Glosser â under 21 and unmarried â to join him….
Ross Doubthat claims “my own family… [were] white Protestants for the most part on both sides with a few Irish newcomers mixed, rising and falling and migrating around in the way of most families that have been in this country a long time.” (He’s deeply concerned about his own kids’ “dwindling… attenuated” family tree, though!)
Douthat's argument is the equivalent of conservative politicians muttering as Hitler took power "well, of course, the rhetoric is a bit extreme, but you have to admit that Jews are a problem"
— Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) January 28, 2018
The main ideological project of @nytopinion since the election has been to make it respectable for white elites to talk about defending America as a majority-white country.
— Tom Scocca (@tomscocca) January 28, 2018
The political context, which Stephen Miller understands, is that the Republicans had almost exhausted the political power of white resentment.
— Tom Scocca (@tomscocca) January 28, 2018
It may, however, reduce the visible ugliness and the discomfort that people like Douthat and Lilla feel when the conflict is in the open.
— Tom Scocca (@tomscocca) January 28, 2018
Mnemosyne
I am a product of “chain migration.” My great-grandmother sailed from Italy to join her husband and brought two of her children with her, including my grandfather.
I guarantee you that Douthat is also a product of “chain migration” but is too dishonest to admit it.
Villago Delenda Est
Donald is the inevitable result of unchecked chain migration of draft dodgers, pimps, and low-skill illegal immigrant washerwomen.
Major Major Major Major
This NYT Modern Love article is pretty close to Peak Millennial: Are Bitcoins More Real Than Boyfriends?
Aleta
Where are demos being held tomorrow during SOTU? I think one will be at T Tower.
Mike in NC
Maybe Ross Douchehat and Steven Miller can get together and make a porno closetet gay video for wingnut white supremacists. I’ll pass on that. But it’ll be popular with that crowd of scumbags.
Brachiator
James Bennet is Editorial Page Editor at NYT. He loves stirring up controversy.
His brother is the senior senator from Colorado.
Calouste
I read earlier today that whatever fuckwit Donny dimwit put in charge of the CIA said that he expects Russian interference in this year’s elections. I expect that to mean that we are going to hear a lot about Russians interfering on behalf of Democrats, and that they are suddenly the bad guys again.
Peale
I wish they wouldnât use these words
Instead, they should explain what those circumstances are. One of the reasons the right has gotten so far is that voters, who are overwhelmingly natural born citizens, donât know two wits about immigration policies we currently have. Almost every article needs to take time to explain what the law is.
ThresherK
So, “If you want to immigrate like Republicans have, vote for Democrats”.
Not sure about my German and Irish forebears, but I’ll figure they immigrated like this too. I’ve read enough biographies to recognize it for getting strivers over here.
Brachiator
@Peale:
This is kinda besides the point. Trump keeps it simple. He IS policy. And his policy is to keep out Muslims because they are terrorists, and to keep out people who are nonwhite because they are “undesirable” precisely because they are not white.
In the Los Angeles, two pro Trump talk radio hosts on the biggest English language station were on the anti-immigrant train early, and have long skirted the boundaries of racism and nativism. And yes, these guys are also the children of immigrants.
Bonnie
I am three-fourths American Indian; and, as far as I am concerned trump and his family can feel free to go back where they come from. You can put Stephen Miller on the same boat. I wish my ancestors had had more stringent immigration laws. Off-topic: Since trump is so obsessive about ratings, let’s all not watch the SOTU; so, that he can have the lowest rated SOTU ever. The content will be all over the internet. In an earlier blog entry, I mentioned I do not plan to watch because I have a bunch of British mysteries to watch. But, decided to mention the idea of not watching the jerk in the White House.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Bonnie: If the weather cooperates, I’m going hiking and shooting a sunset timelapse. Trump should be done by the time I do that and feed and walk the girls.
Anne Laurie
@Calouste: Oh, you had the same thought I did!
“When the GOP wins, it’s the will of God and the American people. When Democrats win, somebody must’ve cheated.”
(Thug in question is Mike Pompeo, who always looks to me like the assistant legbreaker who gets killed first during the big shoot-out scene.)
Starfish
@Brachiator: Michael Bennet won a tight reelection. Not sure he will be so lucky next time.
Soprano2
@Peale: I listened to a show on radio program “1A” about immigration yesterday. I commented on their website twice that they need to tell us the facts on how family reunification works, because the right is telling everyone that immigrants’ second cousins are flooding our country. They never talked about it! How can they have a conversation about immigration reform if they never explain what is happening now?
NorthLeft12
Here is my main takeaway from the Douthat piece;
For him to baldly state this as a given fact basically tells me all I need to know about where Mr. Douthat stands on immigration, diversity, and what kind of society he [now openly] yearns for.
NorthLeft12
@Peale:
Agreed. Up here in Canada, I continually hear complaints about all the free “stuff” that immigrants get. Almost all Canadians have no clue what these “free” services cost immigrants. To navigate the citizenship process can cost thousands of dollars for these people that is paid straight to the government. My daughter in the UK had to take out a loan to pay [around three thousand pounds] for her long term work visa.
schrodingers_cat
Please don’t use the VDARE syntax. It is family reunification.
bemused senior
Infuriating. My grandfather came from “Austria” (Montenegro) to avoid getting drafted. He brought his mother and sisters because taking care of family is what decent people do. I started following a woman on Twitter who is a geneologist. She has been publishing the family history of several despicable Republicans, and they all sound pretty much like this. Only their live descendants have amnesia.
Citizen_X
What he has done there, I have seen.
(Heâs paraphrasing the â14 wordsâ beloved of Nazi scum.)
Miss Bianca
@Starfish: oh, yeah?
J R in WV
@Soprano2:
They don’t want to have a conversation. They want you to shut the fuck up and do what you’re told: Vote for Trump, vote for Russian-Republicans, and shut the fuck up. Don’t call, don’t email, don’t FAX or send a letter. Help them crush equal rights, stop brown people from entering the country.
Don’t wonder where you will find a doctor to help you in your illness, while we run MDs out who are brown.
Don’t wonder who will care for your elderly family members at the Care Facility while we run Immigrants, people capable of that work, BROWN people out of the country!
Don’t worry about who will help you stay clean and healthy when you’re too old and frail to stay in your home, while we Russian-Republicans run Brown people who work in care facilities out of the country! And don’t forget, vote Russian-Republican if you want to keep your health care and have a good job~!!!
Raoul
I have been very, very frustrated/pissed off that major media have been using the ‘chain migration’ frame. That isn’t a neutral term!
That cartoon should be pasted on the front door of every newspaper and TV station in the country. Sure that’d be ‘defacing private property’ but these bastards need to stop with the GOP word choice.
Daddio7
@NorthLeft12: Yay Canada, millions here never spent a dime getting legal, they just stole $150,000 educations for each of their children from all us legal residents than want amnesty for themselves and their children because they are good at hide and seek. How a couple who are working under the table for less than minimum wage can pay that much in taxes is beyond my math skills.