I haven’t seen the clip of where Biden talked about this publicly, so I can’t quite tell whether it’s the campaign that is framing this as a move to win over Latinos in key states, or whether it’s the media that’s framing it that way. Seems crazy for Biden to present it this way, unless the horserace narrative is the only way to get the media to cover something?
It’s like when campaigns say “Person X is doing this thing (Y) in order to look strong.” WTF? You don’t look strong by saying that out loud – the point is to let the audience conclude that you look strong when you do that thing.
In any case, I think this will be a great move. It adds stability for over 750,000 families, and I’m sure it will be good for the economy.
Biden nears huge next move on immigration as he tries to win over Latinos in key states (CNN)
Looking to shore up Latino votes in Nevada and Arizona for his reelection campaign, President Joe Biden is on the verge of soon following up last week’s executive action aimed at curbing border crossings with another move focused on providing legal status for long-term undocumented immigrants who are married to American citizens.
Though final details have not been decided, officials are reviewing an existing legal authority known as “parole in place” that would shield select undocumented immigrants from deportation and allow them to work legally in the country as they seek citizenship. The orders have not yet been presented to Biden himself for review.
Polling reviewed by top aides in the White House and the president’s reelection headquarters are helping seal the deal.
For Biden in Arizona, “Everything is on the margins, right?” said Democratic Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly. “My sense is it should help.”
Estimates put the number of people who could be directly affected at 750,000 to 800,000, with a reverberating effect among spouses, children, extended family and friends — and predominantly Latinos. That’s millions of potential votes in just Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia. Those are all battleground states, all home to many Latinos and all looking likely to be decided in November by slivers of the electorate.
“We have lost the narrative on the border, and so we need to start winning it back,” said one person involved in the discussions of why Biden started with the executive action tightening asylum rules last week.
But “Latino voters in particular are extremely enthusiastic about seeing something done to help people they know. It is either a direct relative or friend, someone they work with,” that person argued. “It is such a powerful signal to these communities that you care about them, and you understand what’s happening there.”
This could amount to the federal government’s biggest relief program since the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. That program, which allowed undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children to live and work in the country, was announced mid-June of Obama’s own reelection year in 2012.
Several veterans of Obama’s reelection point to that moment as a key turning point for his bid for a second term. Biden, then the vice president, was engaged in many of those discussions.
Open thread.
schrodingers_cat
The only demograhic that the Democratic messaging doesn’t work on is white people. I don’t think the problem is the messaging.
OT:
Coalition Drama from India. Now that Modi and his cabinet has been sworn. There are 2 hurdles it must cross.
Floor test
Election of the Speaker of the House
One of the alliance partners of the BJP, TDP (Telugu Desam Party) wants the Speaker’s post. The opposition INDIA alliance says that they will back TDP’s candidate for Speaker. I have my samosas and popcorn ready. And gin with bhakt tears to wash it off.
TBone
Digby’s take:
https://digbysblog.net/2024/06/09/immigration-policy-in-an-election-year/
You have to get to the end to see
eldorado
My very vibe based opinion is that Biden has never cared about border issues as any sort of core value, and that his positions on it are entirely transactional. Before the debacle in the Gaza, this was easily his worst political instinct
Belafon
@eldorado: I live in Texas and I don’t really care about the border issues, especially in the “great replacement” idea. Don’t get me wrong, I think there are plenty of my fellow whites I would like to replace, but I didn’t really get worked up over the border other than Abbott making a mess of it.
Geminid
When it comes to immigration policy, I tend to follow what Rep. Ruben Gallego says. He’s a smart politician in a border state, and is himself the son of an immigrant. Gallego is also trying hard to win a Senate seat so he’s very focused the political as well as humanitarian aspects of the problem.
The border controbersy is probably the Republicans’ best line of attack this year. Sure, they’re demagoguing it, but Democrats cannot ignore the political problem.
WaterGirl
@eldorado: Really? I think Biden cares very deeply about Dreamers, for instance. That’s border related.
I think Biden cares very deeply about not ripping families apart. That’s border related.
What vibes do you get that make you think Biden doesn’t really care about border issues?
Even if this is transactional? I don’t think Biden is so dumb that he would announce “I am only doing this to get votes. Vote for me!”
schrodingers_cat
If people want sensible immigration reform they need to give Ds a trifecta.
Baud
I don’t know what his campaign is doing, but I very much doubt Biden framed it this way. Do we know how many of the beneficiaries are Latinos anyway?
schrodingers_cat
@WaterGirl: Trolldorado needs to be ignored.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: I would love to know what Beto thinks about this policy. He’s my go to go on immigration.
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat: I have never taken note of that person before.
Eolirin
@eldorado: This is one area where the Republican position is the majority position of the country as a whole. Even the Latino and Hispanic communities aren’t all that pro-asylum seeker
Which is to say, if Biden did have border issues as a core value, in the way most of of here would want that value to look like, it would probably hurt his re-election chances.
artem1s
Silly, haven’t you learned by now? If Dems are doing anything that will help those people, it’s ALWAYS a political move. It can’t possibly be a result of crafting legislation that will benefit everyone and not just rich White people. GOP has been screaming for years that the only reason AA voters support Dems is because we/they ‘bribe’ them with
legislationhandouts. They truly can’t understand why minorities won’t vote for shit like trickle down and voter suppression and other policies that are popular with the Tire and Anthrax party. Onlyjob creatorsRich White people are allowed to vote in their best interests. Anyone else voting for legislators that actually will help them is just looking for a free ride.Baud
@WaterGirl:
Media always spins Dem policy that way. Either a cynical play for votes or caving to special interest groups in the left. In fairness, unlike other spins, this one isn’t always false. But I think the net effect of the spin is to play down positive change.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Agree. And get rid of the filibuster. We’d have reform by know if Senate Republicans didn’t have an interest in keeping the issue alive.
rikyrah
𝓝𝓲𝓴𝓴𝓲 𝓑𝓪𝓻𝓷𝓮𝓼 (@NikkiBarnesFL) posted at 11:01 PM on Sun, Jun 09, 2024:
I’m voting for @JoeBiden in November because there are Black people I have spoken with who don’t want over policing in their community, who don’t want books that teach Black history BANNED from their children’s schools, who don’t want public education funds stripped from their children’s schools for voucher scams and they understand that when Biden cuts the check there needs to be state & local Democrats in place to distribute the funds appropriately.
You can organize or CRY and there’s too many of y’all crying on this app. You voting or playing politics in November?
(https://x.com/NikkiBarnesFL/status/1800015488786837546?t=a6eX6dB1w2BbNqdDzLzMEQ&s=03)
Baud
@rikyrah:
Pretty font.
Frankensteinbeck
I’m on the “Maybe Biden just thought it was the right thing to do, Karen.” bandwagon.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: I think Ruben Gallego knows the issue as well or better than Beto O’Rourke, and is probably more current and focused on the problem. At least, he talks about it a lot. O”Rouke seems to have stepped back from politics.
Miss Bianca
@Frankensteinbeck: Me, too. (maybe without the “Karen”, part, but as for the rest, yeah.)
NotMax
@Baud
How dare a political campaign seek out votes?
//
TBone
Open thread dept. of ‘Lest we Forget’
When snippets of the Declaration of Independence were tweeted by NPR in 2017, the RWNJs thought NPR was attacking Dotard because they’ve never read our Declaration. Similar to reaction to President Biden’s D Day speech.
Current video of their confusion at link includes:
https://digbysblog.net/2024/06/10/giving-away-the-game-2/
Baud
@Frankensteinbeck:
I also don’t get the emphasis our side always places on what’s in a politician’s heart. I’m not saying it’s irrelevant, but the most important thing is the action.
Didn’t we use to mock the idea “being right for the wrong reason”?
ETA: or was it “wrong for the right reason”?
Too much crazy to keep track of.
eldorado
@WaterGirl:
It’s pretty clear that Biden’s positions and willingness to use political capital on foreign policy (Afghanistan/Ukraine/Isreal) indicate he cares strongly about those issues
Border issues are places he looks to be willing to cut bad deals just for optics
Gwangung
@Baud: I think the majority of immigrants are not Latine. Certainly PLENTY of Asian people this pertains to.
lowtechcyclist
@Gwangung:
Whatever the majority of immigrants are, I’d expect the majority of undocumented immigrants are from south of the border, simply because it’s a lot easier to find a way to enter the country from Mexico without papers than from China or Vietnam.
I’m open to being shown the error of my ways, but I’d need a cite, certainly.
CaseyL
TCFG was also renting out rooms in his various properties to pregnant Russian women, so their kids could be born in the US (yes, even while he was decrying “anchor babies,” see my rant about the difference between “hypocrisy” and”power flex”).
I wonder if anyone kept count of how many oligarch anchor babies are in the US.
Baud
@CaseyL:
Oligarchs don’t have anchor babies. They gave anchor job creators.
Other MJS
From your lips to the FSM’s noodly ears.
Josie
It will be almost impossible to solve the border problems until we figure out how to undo the harm we have done to Central and South American countries over the years. Add climate change to that and it gets even more difficult. I will be interested to see if the new Mexican president will work with us to figure something out.
Sure Lurkalot
@Geminid:
Democrats can say that in the last 10 odd years, there were bipartisan solutions advanced by the Senate that may have addressed Americans’ concerns about immigration but they were thwarted twice in the House by Republicans, John Boehner and Donald Trump. There’s legislation that the House could take up right now.
Josie
@Geminid:
Beto is still very involved politically, even though he is not running for office. He is working on registering voters and getting them to the polls.
Since he lives on the border, as I did most of my life, I would suspect that he has some very interesting ideas on the subject, but that is not where his attention is right now.
Belafon
@lowtechcyclist: From what I remember reading, the majority of those who are here “illegally” are those who have overstayed their visas, and they all flew in.
O. Felix Culpa
@Baud:
Agreed. Media spin devaluing Dem/Biden initiatives should be our default interpretation. See, for example, Peter Baker’s spin in the NYT framing Biden’s excellent D-Day speech as a Reagan wannabe effort.
Riverboat Grambler
You approve of the policy of adopting Trump’s policy on asylum seekers? Of course you do! After years and years of offering zero counter-framing to Republican wailing about the border, this is the kind of poll-tested racism that Democrats can really get behind.
Why fight against Republican policy when you can just adopt it for yourself? So savvy! So pragmatic.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: Rep. Veronica Escobar, O’Rourke’s successor, is another politician to watch on immigration. She’s represented El Paso for over 5 years now, and her district is impacted by border crossings. Escobar’s husband is an immigration judge, so she probably hears plenty about that component of the situation.
Veronica Escobar’s Wikipedia biography is an good read. It tells how she, O’Rourke, and two other El Pasoans banded together around 2007 with the intention of wresting control of El Paso politics from the local Democratic machine.
They succeeded, and while O’Rourke won the Congressional seat from the Democratic incumbent, Escobar was elected El Paso County Judge. That is a powerful position in Texas’s political system. Allies Steve Gomez and Susie Byrd won local office as well. The four became known locally as “The Progressives.”
O. Felix Culpa
@WaterGirl:
Umm, Beto is a white guy? I’ve met Beto and think he’s great, but he wouldn’t be my go-to for inside takes on Hispanic/Latino issues.
ETA: I second Geminid’s recommendation of Rep. Veronica Escobar in #35.
Belafon
@O. Felix Culpa: Is immigration just a Latino issue?
Roberto el oso
@Josie: I was going to comment along exactly these lines but you’ve said it much better.
Thanks!
O. Felix Culpa
@Belafon:
When it comes to asylum and our southern border, yes it is. As s_cat reminds us, our entire immigration system needs drastic overhaul, and that of course affects much more than Latino/Hispanic individuals. But when the immigration topic comes up in political conversation, the focus–rightly or wrongly–is on the southern border.
Kirk
@lowtechcyclist:
Majority yes, sourcing a Pew Survey report from last year.
different-church-lady
Nobody ever tries to fix problems. Everybody just does things out of self-interest. I can haz media editorship now?
TBone
Having seen the caste system at work up close and personal during my year in Galveston, I harken to this female voice as a guiding light.
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/2023/11/21/470503/lina-hidalgo-other-texas-county-judges-ask-u-s-president-to-block-states-new-immigration-law/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lina_Hidalgo
O. Felix Culpa
@different-church-lady:
FWIW, I would hire you. :-)
Gin & Tonic
@Belafon:
Over the years I have known a pretty large number of people who flew in on a tourist visa then never left. None of them were Hispanic/Latino.
Melancholy Jaques
@eldorado:
My very non-vibe based opinion is that Biden does not tilt at windmills. If he believed he could get anything done on immigration or the border, we would know it because he’d be working on it and talking about it.
Biden’s core values are compassion, empathy, and decency. How about we give him a second term and a majority in both houses of the congress and see what he might be able to do?
rikyrah
Jasmine Crockett’s Anger Translator (@Needle_of_Arya) posted at 0:24 PM on Sun, Jun 09, 2024:
Project 2025 is what’s conceived when the North won the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement happened, and the white supremacist right is still salty for having gone 0 for 2
(https://x.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1799855072173551740?t=zFfZSTF-pKVqP4HVX5-uhg&s=03)
VFX Lurker
To echo what others mentioned upthread, this seems like another problem Biden’s trying to fix because there’s a chance to fix it.
-+-
My excellent dental hygienist of ~19 years immigrated to this country from Venezuela. In the past, we’d discuss her son’s academic progress, or her many wonderful and fun family trips.
For the last few visits, she keeps bringing up how “millions” of people cross the border illegally and “bring diseases.” I have no idea where she gets her news or ideas.
TBone
@VFX Lurker: on average, every “illegal” immigrant commits fewer crimes in America than Dotard.
divF
@schrodingers_cat: I agree. I pied him.
Anyone who smugly proclaims that he knows what Biden thinks about immigrants (or anything else) is an idiot.
O. Felix Culpa
@VFX Lurker:
Don’t know what she reads or listens to, but some Spanish-language media lean RW. Also, like Cuban emigres, some Venezualans are hard anti-socialist/anti-communist due to the LW governments they left. Republican propaganda capitalizes on that.
Cacti
Given his foreign policy positions past and present, I’d say that’s an exceedingly generous assessment.
Mr. Bemused Senior
The average prison inmate commits fewer crimes than Trump. /s
Melancholy Jaques
@Cacti:
One of my core values is generosity.
WaterGirl
@Baud: I think you’re right.
WaterGirl
@Melancholy Jaques: Well said!
WaterGirl
@Melancholy Jaques: LOLOLOL
lowtechcyclist
@Kirk:
Thanks for the cite! A pretty overwhelming majority, too – people from Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean represented 7.6M of the 10.5M unauthorized immigrants, according to the graphic there.
Ironcity
@TBone: On average everybody in the US commits fewer crimes than the Dottard. TCFG is a one-person walking crime wave that could keep a whole corps of police and prosecutors busy.
karen marie
@TBone: Anything that’s not explicitly in praise of the Dotard is automatically criticism.
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
I agree.
A border is a difficult concept to address in a country such as this one. Our economy is decent to good – most of the time, our labor laws are decent – and this is from a former employer of humans, we have a high standard of living, even if it is horrendously out of balance from top to bottom.
So how do we help out, those who come here for a better life? And remember that the vast majority of us, even if we were born here, are the decedents of immigrants. My mother’s father was an immigrant, I believe that my father’s great grandparents were as well. I was never able to determine if my mother’s mother was an immigrant or born here. Many, maybe most of us in this country have immigrants not all that far back in our family trees.
Now I was born in the first half of the last century so maybe many more of my age group have immigrants not all that far back in our bloodlines than people a few decades younger do, but still this is a nation of immigrants, not all that far back in many, possibly most bloodlines.
RevRick
This UConn basketball fan is a very happy camper. Dan Hurley turned down the Laker’s $70 million, six year contract. His stated desire is to pursue a third straight national championship. Three million people love him even more.
RevRick
@Ruckus: The whole, vile “border crisis “ lie the GOP is peddling is the same white supremacy that they pushed in the 1920s. We forget that in the first two decades of the 20th century some 15 million immigrants entered our country, mainly from Eastern and Southern Europe. And the population of the United States was only 75 million in 1900. The equivalent would be 66 million immigrants today.
This wave of immigration bred a huge nativist backlash and the KKK grew explosively.
Back then, “those people “ were Italians, Poles, Jews, and other Slavic peoples. (Insert ethnic slurs here). And like today, they were accused of bringing diseases, drugs, and crime into our country, and they were deemed to be of low intelligence and unassimilatable.
Personal note: Those people were 3/4 of my ancestors.
The irony is that the GOP has persuaded “those people “ of yore that there’s a new group of “those people” who really are dangerous.
Ruckus
@RevRick:
As I stated, I am an old and my grandparents generation born here do not go all that far back. I believe 2 generations at most, the one I do know is only one back. In elementary school a number of my fellow students were first generation and likely many were second generation at most. My partner for a couple of decades was first generation born here. A number of men I served with in the Navy, late 60s early 70s were first generation.
This is a rather young country as these things go, many countries have been around centuries longer. Sure there were humans here for a long time when the first boat arrived and we should NEVER forget that, them or their descendants but those numbers do not come close to those that arrived since.
lowtechcyclist
@RevRick:
Only one of my grandparents was born on these shores, and two of the other three came from eastern Europe (Poland and Ukraine in what was then the Tsar’s empire) as part of the wave of immigration in the decades before WWI. (My wife, the family genealogist, tracked down their Ellis Island records.)
What gets me is that Trump’s base of white evangelicals seems to be totally OK with his anti-immigrant stance. These people think the Bible is inerrant, and the Bible says God loves the alien who lives among you, and you are to do the same. And I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that it (Deut. 10:18-19 specifically) is hardly a one-off passage; it’s a recurring theme. I’m not sure whether they’ve come up with some bizarre justification, or if they’re just ignoring it and hoping nobody notices.
Ruckus
@Baud:
I would also imagine that media does this because of who owns the major media outlets (of all types of media) – people with money, people who want to keep their money, people to whom anyone the government has to or wants to help is taking money from them for that purpose, and at their tax rates/payments, which are likely a fair bit of money.