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You are here: Home / Open Threads / A Bipartisan Piece of Shit

A Bipartisan Piece of Shit

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The immigration bill that’s maybe going to pass the Senate sure sounds like it solves a lot of problems:

…[T]he deal doesn’t include redline proposals for conservatives like a pathway to citizenship (the focal point of the 2013 effort) or protecting the children of undocumented immigrants, or “dreamers” (as the deal Lankford worked on in 2018 would have).

On the one hand, we have Democrats who would like some reasonable immigration legislation that isn’t just more money for border enforcement.  On the other hand, probably 2/3 of the Republicans in the House and Senate would vote for a bill to set up machine guns at the border to mow down anyone trying to enter the country.  Split the difference on that, and you get a bill that sounds like it’s all enforcement.  Even though the DC Press Corpse issues double gold stars with rainbow glitter sprinkles for “bipartisanship,” Republicans will hate the bill anyway, and a lot of Democrats who have families and friends who are immigrants or potential immigrants will not be happy that we’re trumpeting this turd of a bill as some kind of “win”.

The one bright spot in this dark picture is, if this abomination passes the Senate and dies in the House, at least Democrats will get a decent talking point.  They’ll be able to say that they had a solution to the border “crisis,” but the Republicans would rather play politics and try to elect Trump.  That ain’t nothing, but it puts us in a place where we’re buying into this ridiculous notion that any immigration from the southern border is a “crisis”, when in fact we need immigrants from Mexico, Central and South America when our unemployment rate is effectively zero.

For all the talk about Republicans being the “adults in the room,” Democrats are constantly suppressing discussion of uncomfortable facts that Republicans are too childish to accept.  Apparently, if your mental age is prior to puberty, you can’t accept that this country needs immigrants from brown-skinned countries that speak a different language.  If you’re just out of diapers, mentally, you don’t understand that the proxy war against Russia is a boon and a bargain for us.  And if you wish newspapers would still carry the funny pages, mentally, you think that women who are raped should carry babies to term because preacher tells you that every Sunday.

These adult babies will be the death of us all.

Reader Interactions

118Comments

  3. 3.

    Lapassionara

    Well said! Some states have now voted to allow children to work in meat packing plants. These states need workers, they are just too bigoted to recognize where they can find a source of hard-working people to fill those jobs.

  4. 4.

    dmsilev

    Apparently, if your mental age is prior to puberty, you can’t accept that this country needs immigrants from brown-skinned countries that speak a different language.  If you’re just out of diapers, mentally, you don’t understand that the proxy war against Russia is a boon and a bargain for us.  And if you wish newspapers would still carry the funny pages, mentally, you think that women who are raped should carry babies to term because preacher tells you that every Sunday.

    I don’t think that’s right. Republicans understand those points, they “just” disagree with them. They want an oppressed underclass frightened of the prospects of deportation; easily-exploited cheap labor that won’t complain. They regard Russian kleptodictatorship as a role model to be emulated, so why should they oppose Russia? And, well, with women’s rights generally and abortion specifically, it’s pretty damn clear that they know the implications of what they want and are 100% for it.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    Also, too, I thought there was some discussion here about mixing up immigrants and asylum seekers. It’s all very confusing.

  8. 8.

    glc

    Giving the Republicans anything just makes them angry as they then have to find new demands. They have a point.

  9. 9.

    rikyrah

    I hate to be cold, but the immigration part isn’t the important part to me.

    The funding for Ukraine is the most important part to me.

  14. 14.

    Citizen_X

    Democrats are constantly suppressing discussion of uncomfortable facts that Republicans are too childish to accept.

    [CITATION REQUIRED]

  16. 16.

    $8 blue check mistermix

    @Baud: If you look at Murphy’s summary posted by Old School above in the comments, the Ukraine funding is for refugees, not munitions…

  20. 20.

    TBone

    Digby weighs in.

    https://digbysblog.net/2024/02/05/get-ready-for-more-chaos/

    “Perhaps most galling is the fact that DHS claims that if enough migrants are not being detained, it’s because the congress has failed to provide the funding to do so. And now, even with Democrats and the White House capitulating to most of their demands, they are refusing to take yes for an answer.
    On Sunday night Senate negotiators released the details of their hard fought bipartisan border agreement which is harsher than we would have seen under any Democratic administration or congressional majority in the last 40 years.” It’s a good read if you have time.

  26. 26.

    Jackie

    Imagine Biden stumping on “I want to build that wall to keep the caravans out, but TRUMP AND MAGA WON’T LET ME!”

    It’s an upside down world 😵‍💫

  27. 27.

    Eolirin

    Jfc, the Ukraine funding amount is exactly the 60 billion Biden was calling for, there’s munitions funding in there.

    Can we not spread bullshit please?

  31. 31.

    Noskilz

    The pdf linked to above makes it sound less awful than it could be – but the coverage to date suggests it doesn’t matter what was in it as far as Johnson and his fellow trumpalos are concerned.

    I don’t like that the Dems seem to have gone along with the GOP’s border crisis framing, but I am hoping that there is something to Josh Marshall’s read of the situation

  32. 32.

    Fake Irishman

    @Old School:

    I’m sure Murphy is putting a decent spin on it, but there are actually some decent things in the not great immigration bill:

    help for Afghanistan refugees, more aslyum officers to process cases quicker (and that’s who you want determining claims, not judges). More work visas…

  35. 35.

    Baud

    @Fake Irishman:

    I haven’t looked into all the ins and outs, but I don’t see how we plausibly get a great immigration bill if we have to compromise with Republicans.

    It’s like trying to get a great abortion rights bill by trying to compromise with them. Thankfully, there’s no public sentiment for Dems to compromise on abortion, but immigration has always been something the right has successfully used as a weapon.

  36. 36.

    UncleEbeneezer

    The problem is and always has been the voters.  Americans love the idea of our country welcoming immigrants, in theory (it’s a nice way to pat ourselves on the back), but have always been quick to blame them for all problems and see them as a threat that will somehow take something away from the rest of us or change things in ways we don’t want them to be changed.

  37. 37.

    Ol_Froth

    The anti-immigration forces are using the exact same language as the anti-immigration forces in the first quarter of the 20th century used.  Only then, their targets were eastern and southern Europeans and Jews.

  38. 38.

    Eolirin

    @Fake Irishman: Yeah, there are a number of good things in there on the order of minor but still necessary improvements to the existing system. A more significant overhaul of that system to address some of the bigger problems with the existing process were never on the table and we had to give up a few things to get even this. That’s divided government for you.

    This isn’t a bad bill. It is a compromise, but not a terrible one. I think we get a whole lot more out of it than the Republicans do. Especially when you factor that this is primarily a Ukrainian aid bill with some border security stuff tacked on and not the other way around

    There’s no way in hell this gets through the house without a discharge petition though.

  40. 40.

    Anyway

    Most pukey part of the senate bill is all the money that goes to the most fascist-adjacent parts of the feds – ICE and DHS.

  42. 42.

    Geminid

    At least one Democrat doesn’t think this bill is a “bipartisan piece of shit.” From Rep. Ruben Gallego:

    My statement on the border and foreign aid package introduced in the Senate ⏬.

    “Arizona and its border communities have faced unprecedented challenges to manage the humanitarian and security crises on our southern border. Now Congress has a chance to act.

    I am proud that my priorities- including…funding for the Shelter and Services program- are included in the package.

    I firmly believe this compromise supports Arizonans and protects both our national security interests and those of our Israeli allies and our Taiwanese and Ukrainian partners.

    I will do all I can to work with my colleagues in both chambers to cut through the noise and do what is best for Arizona and the country.”

    It doesn’t sound like Gallego thinks that if this bill makes it through the Senate it will be dead on arrival in the House, either. And if Ruben Gallego’s not throwing in the towel, why should we?

  47. 47.

    Fake Irishman

    @Baud:

    agreed. And immigration is an issue where we are weaker than abortion in public opinion. That doesn’t mean we throw refugees under the bus, but we need to be realistic about what we can accomplish, especially when the alternative is throwing Ukrainians under the bus, etc etc.

    or we can just win more elections…

  48. 48.

    Ohio Mom

    I just saw someplace that a good number of the people crossing our border are from China. They take an extremely circuitous route. I will have to google to remind myself of the details.

    Though I don’t think that fact that they are from a place that doesn’t speak Spanish will mollify any Republicans. Probably reinforces the Right’s belief that the border is too open and too inviting.

  50. 50.

    narya

    One thing I don’t hate about it: several provisions seem to address long wait times. Is it the best bill? Hell no. Is it possibly the best bill possible right now? Sounds like it. If it passes, that takes it off the table as a cudgel for now, and if it fails, it becomes a cudgel to be used against the Rs who wouldn’t pass it.

  51. 51.

    gene108

    @Old School:

    Assuming Murphy’s not bullshitting in his summary of the bill, it reads like a decent compromise at this point in time.*

    Also, two things can be true at once.

    The U.S. needs immigrants. Having tens to hundreds of thousands of people crossing the southern border each month can put a strain on the system.

    *Edit: Murphy’s summary of the bill is very different than the OP’s.

  52. 52.

    gwangung

    @Ohio Mom: No, that’ll rev up the anti-Asian rhetoric even more, after the COVID crap. (Yes, it’s Chinese specifically who’re transgressing, but all of us look alike to those assholes).

  53. 53.

    oldgold

    An English philosopher, who many wish to move like, presumably because he gathered no moss, once said:

    You can’t always get what you want,But if you try sometimes, well, you might find,You get what you need.

    Of course, this sophist was known to favor paintings things black and having sympathy for the devil.

  54. 54.

    schrodingers_cat

    I will wait for a summary from Greg Siskind about the immigration part. I have followed him since the mid aughts when W was trying to pass comprehensive immigration reform. He is an immigration lawyer who knows his stuff

    The same people who spend all their time bad mouthing Dems and threaten to withold their votes, complain the loudest when those same Dems don’t deliver their maximalist asks.

  55. 55.

    Jon W

    From the perspective of folks only interested in a one-time cash and weapons infusion for Ukraine, this may be a good bill. From my perspective as someone in the immigration & asylum space, it’s a disaster. It would basically eliminate the ability to claim asylum at the border (technically, you could do it, if the border isn’t closed that year, but subject to unrealistic procedural requirements and with no possibility of due process or judicial review). Myself, I don’t think that;s a good trade, and if Donald Trump blocks this bill, it’ll be the one good thing he’s done.

  56. 56.

    gene108

    @$8 blue check mistermix:

    If you look at Murphy’s summary posted by Old School above in the comments, the Ukraine funding is for refugees, not munitions…

    From the link Old School provided in post #10.

    National Security Supplemental Funding forFiscal Year2024
    The bill includes $118.28 billion in supplemental funding across eight agencies to address national security needs for fiscal year 2024. A ful summary is available through the Appropriations Committee.
    Some highlights include:
    • $60.6 billion to continue supporting Ukraine;
    • $14.1 billion in security assistance for Israel;
    • $4.83 billion to counter China and support regional partners ni the Indo-Pacific;
    • $10 billion for the State Department and USAID to provide lifesaving humanitarian assistance in Gaza and the West Bank, Ukraine, and other conflict zones across the globe;
    • $2.33 billion to continue support for Ukrainians displaced by Putin’s war of aggression and other refugees fleeing persecution;
    • $8.8 billion for DHS to implement new border policy changes, including $3.995 billion to hire new asylum officers and open additional facilities;
    • $350 million wil be provided to hire counsel for unaccompanied children;
    • $ 4 0 0 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to increase the safety of nonprofits and places of worship.
    OFFICE OF SENATOR CHRIS MURP

    $60.6 seems high just to process asylum claims from Ukraine.

  57. 57.

    Marcopolo

    While I agree this bill ain’t great, it’s also a presidential election year and, as others have mentioned, Ukrainians are dying for lack of ammunition even as I type this.  I don’t have a crystal ball 🔮 to look into to see what happens in November but I do know that the one actual issue Rs currently have to club Ds over the head with is immigration & the situation on the southern border.  The economy is great and we’re on the right side of Dobbs; this very imperfect bill allows us to say we are trying to solve the border issue—which, honestly, is not going to get better with increasing climate related migration going forward.  I’m a let’s welcome as many folks to the US as possible, figure out a way to settle them into our communities, our economy, our culture, but if Trump wins in Nov I guarantee things will be worse and not just in regards to the border. And, I have watched I don’t know how many other “immigration solution” efforts fail this century.  With the way the Senate is set up I don’t see how Ds ever get to the 60 or 66 votes necessary to do my dream legislation.  Hopefully, down the road additional work will be done that addresses the needs of dreamers but once again, if Rs hold the executive branch I think the idea of dreamers probably just goes away entirely.

  58. 58.

    rikyrah

    @Ohio Mom:

    I just saw someplace that a good number of the people crossing our border are from China. They take an extremely circuitous route.

     

    I find that wild.

     

    Then again, I thought the ‘invasion from Haiti’ in 2023 was crazy, cause Haiti is an island.

     

    CHINA???

  60. 60.

    schrodingers_cat

    @rikyrah: There are people from India too mostly from Modi’s home state of Gujarat. There was a story a year or so ago of a Gujarati  family that died crossing the Canadian border, of exposure. The husband and the wife and their child.

  61. 61.

    $8 blue check mistermix

    Sorry!  I scanned the Murphy PDF and missed the $60b Ukraine funding.   Thanks to everyone for pointing that out.

  62. 62.

    schrodingers_cat

    @rikyrah: The visa overstayers are A. OK as long as they are of the right hue. The real culprit of our current immigration mess is the law that was passed by the Republican Congress under Gingrich during Bill Clinton’s presidency.

  63. 63.

    Marcopolo

    @Ohio Mom: The Chinese economy is in the toilet right now.  Lot’s of folks are leaving atm. What I’ve read (and I’m no expert) is that if you are Chinese and have money you go to japan, if you are Chinese and have the skills/training you go to Singapore, and if you have neither you go to Thailand and hang out in the beach. And, yes, some desperate Chinese folks are, via a pretty circuitous route, trying to enter the US via the southern border.  But far and away most folks trying to get in are central & South Americans fleeing for economic/ political/social issues.

  65. 65.

    JML

    I will also note the Biden Administration and the Democratic majority has multiple times pulled together legislation that after the fact had the GOP going, “wait, we passed WHAT?” once the fine print was read. Because they’re better at this than the GOP, who hasn’t bothered to try and legislate in so long that they no longer have anyone around that can actually read this shit.

    but I still expect all legislation to shit-canned, because Grassley said the quiet part out loud again: we can’t pass anything that Biden might take credit for or that could harm Trump.

  66. 66.

    rikyrah

    @JML:

    but I still expect all legislation to shit-canned, because Grassley said the quiet part out loud again: we can’t pass anything that Biden might take credit for or that could harm Trump

     

    I hear you. But, having them say the quiet part out loud…the Dems need to grasp hold of that, and just call bullshyt, everytime they even utter the word border from now until November. Just clobber them over the head with it.

    And, this is where a DEM leaning SuperPac would be helpful.

  67. 67.

    TriassicSands

    Although it is not quite universally true, some time ago I concluded that any bill that is a compromise with Republicans is almost certainly a lousy bill. The vast majority of Republican positions on issues are simply terrible and compromising between that and something reasonable or even, highly desirable, generally leaves us with bad to worthless legislation.

    The only solution to that is to elect more and more Democrats who realize that “centrist” legislation rarely solves problems or even significantly addresses them. An example of centrist legislation is the ACA. It was based on a Republican model and repeatedly modified in a vain attempt to attract Republican votes. How good is the ACA? It didn’t solve the problem of people without health insurance — we still have millions without it —  and it doesn’t prevent personal bankruptcy due to medical bills. Yes, it is better than nothing and has helped millions of people. So, it was worth doing. But imagine how much worse it would be if it were modified enough to attract even a few Republican votes. The answer is simple — it would be virtually worthless. ‘

    As always, the problem is Republicans and the electorate. What is perhaps the most enraging of all though is when so-called “centrist” Democrats (Manchin and Sinema have been the two most visible Democratic failures, but they are not alone.)  cause legislation or Senate action to fail or not exist.

    Another example of centrist legislation would be “Medicare-for-All” if the current traditional Medicare were the model. It would help, but it wouldn’t end medical bankruptcies because it is an 80-20 program and 20% of a huge bill is still a huge bill.  Senator Sanders, AOC, et al. never intended that to be the final blueprint. They support an expanded Medicare program that would, if well-designed, probably solve the two most obvious problems, though new problems would pop up. For example, if everyone in the U.S. had good coverage, there probably wouldn’t be enough doctors. Delays in getting appointments would grow and most of the people who were well-served before “MedicarePlus-for-All” would be seething and looking for someone to blame — the Democrats.

    Given our electorate, the real problem, and the GOP, the result of that electorate, we are nowhere near creating a worthwhile universal health care system. This applies to (almost) all the difficulties we now face.

  69. 69.

    marcopolo

    @schrodingers_cat: You are partly right.  But I’d also point out that there is just a hell of a lot more migration of bodies now, across the globe (see Europe for example), than ever before due to political, social, economic, and climate upheaval.  And then you have folks like Putin who are fomenting all of that, pouring fuel on the fire, in hopes that cross border migration will destabilize democratic nations

  70. 70.

    Jon W

    @Marcopolo, remember the Clinton crime bill? welfare “reform”? God help me, the unspeakably bad immigration “reform” of 1996? Adopting Republican priorities and passing a bill that does grave permanent damage to the asylum system just so that we can say “we’re doing something about the border” is not a good deal for us. I get that we’re not getting a *good* bill any time soon, but we can still not pass a bad one.

  71. 71.

    TriassicSands

    @Alison Rose: ​
      If I had his money, I’d be doing whatever I could to arrange weapons transfers my own damn self.

    Yes and no. If someone gave you the money or you won the lottery, then “Yes.”
    But if you had to earn the money in this economic system, you’d be a lot more like Bezos than who you are now.

    Bezos, Musk, et al. didn’t earn their money by being caring, generous people. MacKensie Scott may stand out from most other billionaires because she got the money through a divorce settlement (the lottery, basically), not through building Amazon and mistreating workers. (Note: I don’t know if she had anything to do with the building of the Bezos fortune. She did put up with him; that’s not nothing.)

    Your mission, Alison Rose, is to seduce a multi-billionaire, marry him (or her), and get a huge settlement in the divorce (a week after the wedding, with no pre-nup).

  74. 74.

    Eolirin

     

    @Jon W: There are safeguards in the language that prevent a President from shutting the border down permanently from Murphy’s summary.

    And current judicial review is… well it’s not exactly working out the way you’d want it to and is leading to long term incarceration in terrible conditionsnor fast tracked deportation. This improves access to lawyers, who can currently be denied to all applicants including children, and does other things to improve processing.

    Is this how you’d ideally solve these problems? No. Does it lead to an actual regression versus the current status quo though? I think that’s much less clear. Some things get better some things get worse. The most concerning aspect of this is that it allows for more consolidation of power into the executive branch instead of congress actually doing it’s job in setting rules, but that’s mostly a problem of we lose the white house and if we lose the white house we have bigger problems than the border.

  76. 76.

    Captain C

    @TBone: With Bezos’ money (rounded up to $200 billion; per google it’s just under 194 today), and using the 4% rule of spending one’s capital, he could fund up to $7.5 billion/year of artillery shells, other necessary equipment, and even refugee aid for Ukraine and still have roughly half a billion per year to spend on himself.

  78. 78.

    marcopolo

    @schrodingers_cat: I’m just saying that BOTH contribute to the challenge of managing immigration/the southern border.  And looking ahead the external factors will only get worse.  Hell, I imagine there will be more and more internal migration in the US due to climate stuff (and maybe crazy maga political state level things) every year.  I probably need to take a break from reading dystopian climate fiction.

  79. 79.

    Kay

    Apparently the bill also gets rid of any US funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. That was 121 million. I wonder if the new aid to civilians in Gaza and the West Bank even equals what they took away. There’s no way to tell because they lumped it all together as assistance to civilians in war time. I guess they’re still not comfortable mentioning Palestinians – must not acknowlege who, exactly, is dying.

  80. 80.

    Jay

    @TriassicSands:

    Your mission, Alison Rose, if you choose to accept it is to seduce a multi-billionaire, marry him (or her), and get a huge settlement in the divorce (a week after the wedding, with no pre-nup).

  81. 81.

    TBone

    @Fake Irishman: the chaos is the point.  Mara Gay just reinforced Digby’s point on with Ali Velshi.  They. Do. Not. Care. about this bill or anything else.  All they want is chaos. The only cares they have are holding on to power and kowtowing to the Orange Anus.  That’s it.  No is all we’ll ever hear.

  83. 83.

    Librarian

    Like others here, I really don’t give a fuck about the immigration bill, the only thing I care about right now is Ukraine funding.

  85. 85.

    TBone

    I sometimes think of immigration like osmosis.  It’s silly to try and prevent it.

    Osmosis, the spontaneous passage or diffusion of water or other solvents through  a semipermeable membrane (one that blocks the passage of dissolved substances—i.e., solutes). The process, important in biology, was first thoroughly studied in 1877 by a German plant physiologist, Wilhelm Pfeffer.

    It ends with an equality of solutes on each side.

  86. 86.

    Elizabelle

    @Jon W:  We have way too many desperate economic migrants trying to claim asylum, for which they do not qualify.  I wish we could be honest about that.

    I also wish we could do something about the economic and political conditions in their home countries.  No doubt that climate change is going to accelerate migration, which we already cannot handle, in these numbers, now.

  90. 90.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Citizen_X: Democrats are constantly suppressing discussion of uncomfortable facts that Republicans are too childish to accept.

    I agree with the OP, but I don’t blame Democrats for this. They can’t get too far  out ahead of the media on this.

    Two years ago, Joe Biden made a speech about fascism’s capture of the Republican base (paraphrasing). My reaction, “and it only took 40 years for the politics to change enough that you could admit it.”

  91. 91.

    TriassicSands

    @schrodingers_cat: ​
     
    Yes, but as Scott has shown, and others including Bill Gates (doing good while trying to buy back his reputation), it is possible to donate huge sums of money. Of course, trying to generate billions of dollars of cash would create some problems that million dollar donations don’t.

    On the other hand, I am curious as to why you would respond to my comment as though it were something that had any chance of ever happening or was even minimally plausible? It’s not as though Alison Rose is going to seduce a multi-billionaire anytime soon. At least, I don’t think so. She’ll have to have the final word on that.

    The real point of my comment was that people who are likely to do what Alison Rose said she like to do if…are not the kind of people who are likely to make billions of dollars in our economy.

  92. 92.

    Mike in Pasadena

    Thank godess for immigrants willing to work in slaughterhouses (requires a strong stomach, strong arms, knife skills & strong hands) and picking fruits and vegetables (requires herculian stamina, a strong back, and willingness to work in the heat) and immigrants working on roofing, demolition, and all construction trades (requiring all of the above and more). Jorge and Gregorio work for a plumbing company I use. During yhe pandemic, they completely re-piped my house by crawling underneath in awful conditions replacing the crap job two WHITE guys did years ago. Greg and Jorge just replaced a toilet and resituated a water heater onto a platform to get it out of water seeping from a subterranean creek whenever it rains. Last Friday right before high winds and an atmospheric river hit us, a Latino crew trimmed three dangerously overgrown trees. Plumbers and tree trimmers were all ESL speakers. Every single one is kind, hardworking, trying to learn English, and honest, not the imaginary rapists and killers of trump’s speeches. I much prefer them as neighbors over any MAGA types. Just had to get that off my chest.

  93. 93.

    Jon W

    @Eolirin: That this legislation only allows a President to shut down the border temporarily rather than permanently isn’t much comfort to me.  Judicial review has been a crucial safeguard for people seeking asylum (which is why my clinic represents people seeking that review), and noncitizens are routinely freed on parole pending review (that’s one of the things Republicans are mad about). I’ve only keyword-searched the bill, not read all 370 pages, but Sen. Murphy notwithstanding it does *not* guarantee a right to counsel. I wish it did. Every reference in the bill to right to counsel is accompanied by an “(at no expense to the Federal Government)” notation, meaning that noncitizens have *no* right to government-funded counsel, only to lawyers they manage to hire or otherwise secure themselves. The bill doesn’t even require the government to supply lawyers for unaccompanied children, although it allows it to do so. So no, this bill makes basically nothing better when it comes to asylum and the border, and most things much worse.

    @Elizabelle: When your family came to this country, could they have satisfied the current legal standards for asylum? Do you think they should have been sent back?

  94. 94.

    TriassicSands

    @Alison Rose:

    Oh, c’mon, Alison Rose, what about the Internet? You could be the first to have an online marriage. I don’t know about consummating the marriage, is that still necessary?

    Alison Rose, seduces, marries, divorces, and becomes a multi-billionaire, all on Zoom. It’s 2024, what could be more normal? (OK, pretty much everything, but there is a lot of weird stuff going on these days.)

    Considering I can’t leave my home nor be in the presence of other humans for more than a couple of minutes, I’m not sure how successful that venture will be.

    I was not aware of that, but then I didn’t really think it was a possibility anyway. I will say this: If you are not happy with that situation, I sincerely hope something could be done to change it.

    I’ll say no more.

  96. 96.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    It isn’t just the Americas and Asia, here are a lot of migrants from Africa who are also paying smuggler ‘guides’ to help them get into the US. We have long had infrastructure to deal with migrants and asylum seekers. That system IS overwhelmed right now. There is a lot of world wide upheaval right now and plenty of people are running to places they think are ‘safe’. In the process, that makes the residents of those ‘safe’ places mad and they become less safe for those migrants. This is true for the US, Europe, and even smaller countries like Chile and Costa Rica.

    In the US, for instance, we currently have a shortage of affordable housing. Rents have really increased. Homelessness has gone up pretty dramatically. Having 10K people crossing the border daily is not helping.

    While I’m generally pretty pro-immigrant, there are limits to how many poor, desperate people we can absorb at once. There have to be limits. I think that limit should be higher than most people in the US do. MAGAs think that limit should be zero. There are actually a lot of normie Republicans who are fine with a number that isn’t zero but isn’t as high as what I’d prefer. A compromise really is needed here and I’m fine with the bill. It isn’t ideal, but it is necessary.

  100. 100.

    Mike in Pasadena

    @Mike in Pasadena: And I want to add, immigration would not be a “problem at the border” if there weren’t jobs needing applicants for job openings, workers. Corruption in ICE agent, taking bribes instead of forcing employers to employ only people with papers, would go a long way to ending the “crisis at the border,” but would cause an unholy lack of available laborers needed all across the US. Who do Republicans think is responsible for filling grocery stores with food?

  102. 102.

    Mike in Pasadena

    @TBone: Exactly. The last step of our repipe was removing and replacing a section of the drain to the sewer discovered as a small leak while i crawled  and slid around on my belly. It turns out it wasn’t small. Jorge and Gregorio exited pretty much covered in sewage.

  113. 113.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Ohio Mom: The right wing MSM is already conspiracy mongering that the Chinese asylum seekers (the vast majority economic migrants) is actually the evil CCP regime trying to insert a 5th column into America, as most are military age young males (which is not true, of course).

    They are just recycling talking points used against Middle Easterners & Hispanics. It’s like they think Invasion USA that starred Chuck Norris is a documentary.

  115. 115.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Marcopolo: The PRC economy has actually outgrew the US’ through the course of the pandemic & its aftermath in real terms, despite significant challenges. The US economic growth in nominal terms looks great mainly due to high inflation & USD appreciation.

    The deflation of the real estate market represents major headwinds. The attempted economic pivot from real estate & internet platform monopolies/oligopolies is a painful work in progress & success far from certain. The transition will create winners & losers, & so far the losers are the upper middle class & the rich who have seen their assets in real estate & the domestic stock market fall significantly in the dual bear market, & these are the people more visible to Western media & analysts & social media. The rural residents & urban blue collars have seen their wage growth outpace the urban white collars, reducing inequality & the Gini coefficient, but they do not consume as much & they do not feel secure in the current economy, either.

    The economic uncertainty & low confidence, as well as the relentlessly intense societal pressure to compete that children & adults alike face, are causing some people to leave for abroad to seek greener pastures. Some leave for developed countries to semi-retire, some become digital nomads in Thailand, some are lured by promises for fortune & become ensnared in online scam operations in Myanmar or Cambodia as de facto slaves, & some are lured by promises of good life to pay through the nose & take the long, tortuous & dangerous trek from Central America to the US’ southern borders. The latter two have become rackets where human smuggling networks “market” their products to potential marks in the PRC, as well as move the migrants through the by now well established routes for a hefty fee.

    If you recall, Chinese migrants used to come to American shores by jumping off ships. That flow faded as the PRC economy boomed in the 00s & 10s. That flow has now restarted & pivoted to the land border. However, the people leaving the PRC, whichever their station, is less than a rounding error relative to the overall population, then or now.

  116. 116.

    stacib

    I’ve been a Democrat forever – never even considered the Republican party.  All of my friends are also Democrats, and I don’t know a single person who is not up-in-arms angry about the migrant situation here in Chicago.  We, poor / working class folks, are the communities that are being asked to “give” of our resources – many of which have only been won after many years of begging and pleading.  The surrounding suburbs (who may be able to financially absorb some of the migrants) are a hard NO, so they’ve been sent to the areas that have the least political power.  I would be surprised if these people will ever be accepted into these same communities because folks are so mad.  I’ve heard more analogies to people entering a home uninvited than I care to count.  If this bill can do anything to show people that the Democrats understand the chaos that’s being created by all of the busloads being sent to Chicago, maybe we won’t lose so many of them in November.

  117. 117.

    Matt

    unlike our totalitarian opponents, our leadership can be replaced by the popular will of a citizenry awakened to the dangers it faces

    Oops sorry, the founders needed to pander to some slaveholding assclowns so actually we can’t

  118. 118.

    wjca

    @Ol_Froth: The anti-immigration forces are using the exact same language as the anti-immigration forces in the first quarter of the 20th century used.  Only then, their targets were eastern and southern Europeans and Jews.

    And at our nation’s founding the target was German immigrants.  Distinct lack of creativity on the anti-immigrant side.  They just keep recycling the same scary ideas (“they’ll never assimilate!” “they’ll totally destroy our culture!”).  That they haven’t been right yet matters not at all.

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