Archive for the ‘Illegal Immigration’ Category

Today’s letters: Readers comment on President Biden, unemployment benefits and the economy – Ocala

Uncle Joes money

Just got a letter today from Uncle Joe, the president, telling me in six different I dids how he was taking care of me with his stash of cash up there in D.C. He also said he was helping to reopen schools here, but last I looked we have been open for almost a year. And he is on the path to vaccinate the nation. Really?

If all the promises were not clear enough, he wrote it in Spanish on the back. Everybody wishes they had a rich uncle; now we do, but the money was ours anyway. Thanks, Joe!

Jerry Rodeheaver, Ocala

I read with interest the May 23 article regarding unemployment benefits in relation to business owners struggling to bring employees back to work. The central issue from business owners seems to be the added $300 a week in unemployment benefits provided by the federal government due to the pandemic.

Florida unemployment benefits are $275 a week or $14,300 annually. Is there anyone out there who can provide housing, an automobile, gasoline, food, clothing and health insurance on $14,300 a year?

The federal government recognized this issue and added money to unemployment benefits so individuals and families would not have to go homeless, could buy food and survive until they were able to work again.

If we add the current federal allocation to unemployment with the existing Florida unemployment benefits, we arrive at a total of $575 a week or $29,300 annually. The issue of supply and demand with people able to work and seeking work are based on providing a wage sufficient to live. The Biden administration has it right, recommending increasing the minimum wage to a level where citizens can actually live and survive. The financial offset to our country is a lesser amount spent on social services and unemployment benefits.

The previous administration bashed immigrants and was intent on restricting immigration to our great country. Well, who do you think was primarily working on poverty wages and taking on low-paying jobs?

The poor and the oppressed generally do not have a voice to speak up for themselves. This is where Americans, living comfortably, need to speak up for them.

So, offering wages that potential employees can live on and survive will solve the problem of supply and demand in regard to worker shortages.

John Schaefer, Ocala

Don't worry, be happy.What a great country.Keep giving stimulus dollars so people can stay home rather than going to a job.Give free college for everyone.Give everyone free health care.Give everyone free education.

Give everyone free housing like illegal immigrants are getting in hotels across the country.Forgive everyone who has student loans.Give everyone a free cell phone and service.

No one earning under $400,000 will ever pay one cent of income taxes.Raise minimum wages to $20 an hour.

It is safe for children to go to school but the teachers unions say no, keep the schools closed and stay home to continue to get paid for nothing and now they want a pay raise.Keep expanding the number of government jobs and controls over the people.

The problem is as follows: If you give something away for free you will never, ever be able to satisfy the demand. When you run out of OPM (other people's money), what will you do?

We just passed another $28 trillion deficit warning that we taxpayers are going broke to pay for all the good stuff.Don't worry, be happy.

William Francis, Summerfield

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Today's letters: Readers comment on President Biden, unemployment benefits and the economy - Ocala

Scott Rasmussen: Why mocking Trumps policies will hurt the Democrats – Deseret News

Last week, I noted that both major political parties face significant challenges stemming from tensions between their traditional and populist wings.

In that column, I cited polling data noting that 31% of voters are looking for a candidate promoting Trump-like policies; 21% wanted a Sanders-like policy approach; 21% would like to see traditional Democratic policies; and 17% were in the traditional Republican camp.

The response from many on the political left was to mock the idea that former President Trump had any policies. This attitude, shared by many on the political left, may be the biggest long-term threat to the Democratic party. Its always a mistake to underestimate your opponents.

The reality is that the desire for Trump-like policies existed long before Donald Trump gave voice to them. The best example of this may be the issue of immigration. Seventy-two percent (72%) of voters believe that illegal immigration is bad for America. Polling this past weekend found that view is shared by 90% of Republicans, 66% of Independents, and 57% of Democrats.

Voters wanted somebody to do something about the problem and they found only one candidate who sounded serious about border security. It wasnt necessarily that voters wanted a wall built or a specific policy approach. But they wanted somebody to figure out a way to secure the border.

The issue isnt going away just because Donald Trump is out of office. In fact, it has already become a major problem for the Biden Administration. Just 34% of voters give President Biden good or excellent marks for handling the situation at the southern border.

Many in Washington dismiss the immigration issue as a minor irritant. The Biden Administration refuses to even call it a crisis. But for voters its something far more serious. This past weekend, my polling found that 60% believe the growing number of people that have been entering the United States illegally is an invasion of the United States. Earlier polling found that 58% believe the drug cartels have more control of the Southern border than the U.S. government.

Opponents of border security try to blur the distinction between legal and illegal immigration. They talk as if opposition to illegal immigration is the same as opposition to all immigration. But thats not the way voters see it. Just 11% of voters believe legal immigration is bad for the country.

A solid majority of voters (61%) believe that legal immigration is good for the U.S. and illegal immigration is bad for the nation. Thats a view quite consistent with our national heritage. We are both a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws.

While immigration is perhaps the premier example of how Trump-like policies differ from other approaches, it is part of a larger theme. Voters want their leaders to stand up for our nation and its people. But too often elected politicians are often seen to be putting the concerns of other nations first.

For example, 66% of voters believe its likely that the coronavirus originated in a Wuhan, China laboratory. In fact, voters were suspicious from the very beginning. Even in the first month of the outbreak, more than one-out-of-four voters believed the Chinese had intentionally leaked the virus. Despite these voter concerns, the loudest voices in official Washington defended the Chinese and dismissed its critics. Social media platforms even blocked discussion of the view held by a majority of American voters.

The point is that there really are Trump-like policies. You dont have to agree with them to recognize that many have strong support among American voters. If Democrats dont recognize this reality and find appropriate ways to address the underlying concerns, they will soon turn control of the government over to the GOP.

Scott Rasmussen is an American political analyst and digital media entrepreneur. He is the author of The Sun is Still Rising: Politics Has Failed But America Will Not.

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Scott Rasmussen: Why mocking Trumps policies will hurt the Democrats - Deseret News

Action to stem the crisis at our southern border cannot wait – Hendersonville Standard

One of the biggest security, economic and humanitarian challenges to our nation is raging, but Vice President Kamala Harris continues to prevaricate as coyotes and cartels enrich themselves, transporting record numbers of illegal immigrants and record quantities of deadly illicit drugs. There is a chaotic crisis at our southern border, and now is not the time to shirk from leadership.

As a former businessman and diplomat, I dont run away from a problem that needs to be addressed. Thats why I recently traveled to Guatemala and Mexicomy first official trip abroad as a senator, and the first official Senate CODEL (congressional delegation) since the pandemic startedto hold a series of candid and constructive meetings. I met with Guatemalas President Alejandro Giammattei and Foreign Minister Pedro Brolo, Mexicos Economy Secretary Tatiana Clouthier and Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, as well as dozens of foreign business and community leaders. I expressed the urgency of the situation, listened to their perspectives and discussed how we can solve it.

I welcome the opportunity to brief the vice president ahead of her trip next month, where she will learn that illegal migration, drug trafficking and human trafficking pose deep and difficult challenges. But if the United States and our neighbors boldly seize the opportunity to stem the immediate crisis with an eye toward the future, we can advance security, prosperity and human dignity for all of our peoples.

Leaders in Mexico and Guatemala felt strongly that when American politicians advocate a moratorium on deportations, amnesty and $1,400 stimulus checks for illegal aliens, human smugglersoften connected with large criminal organizations such as transnational drug cartelsuse these promises as magnets to persuade vulnerable people to pay exorbitant prices to smuggle them into the U.S. After migrants hand over their life savings, human smugglers then exploit, traffick and dehumanize them in a dangerous predatory cycle stoked by both political rhetoric and flawed polices.

When you combine these drivers of migration with the Biden administrations effective abandonment of immigration enforcement, illegal migration is overwhelming our border and is manifesting itself in our neighborhoods across America, burdening our hospitals and schools.

Leaders in both Guatemala and Mexico underscored to me that this poses not only a national security crisis for our own nation, but for theirs as well. Guatemalan and Mexican leaders stressed that large-scale migrant flows give cover to those who pose national security threats to all of our nations borders.

Drug cartels also use the lack of immigration enforcement to smuggle increasingly potent and deadly fentanyl-laced narcotics from China into American communities. Those drugs wind up in the veins of American adults and children, who are dying in record numbers.

Crucially, this massive migration poses demographic, economic and social problems for all these sovereign nations, draining them of young, working adults, disrupting families and local communities, and deterring foreign investment, modern infrastructure and economic growth. All of this feeds the vicious cycle that engenders yet more mass migration.

To solve the crisis, we must first work with our neighboring nations to promote the rule of law, counter corruption and improve those nations border-control capabilities. For example, Guatemalan leaders noted that their country offers a chokepoint for northward migration from Central America and is seeking to strengthen its capability to counter illegal migration flows. The United States and Mexico should find ways to further assist Guatemala accomplishing this. President Giammattei advised me that technical assistance training and equipment would be far preferableand as a businessman, I appreciate the directness. Clearly, when aid funds are shipped to non-governmental organizations, motives and incentives may be misaligned with our goals and objectives.

Second, as our neighbors improve rule of law, counter corruption and improve border security, they will clear the path to attract significant foreign investment for modernizing infrastructure and creating quality jobs. The United States possesses many tools to facilitate investment and infrastructurenot only via our capital markets, but also via the International Development Finance Corporation and our relationships with the Inter-American Development Bank and other international institutions.

As companies seek to relocate their supply chains out of China, I want every job possible to be reshored to in the United States to help employ our workers. But when those companies cannot come to America, other workers in our hemisphere should benefit. This would enhance both the economies and the national security of the United States and our immediate southern neighbors. Our nations must do a better job of training and developing our respective workforces for the jobs that will be created by more foreign investment, reshoring and nearshoring.

Third, hard-fought policy changes put in place by the previous administration stemmed the flow of illegal immigrants, drugs and human trafficking on our southern border. We need to revisit those policy measures within the broader context of our economic relationships with Mexico, Guatemala and other Central American nations.

In Mexico and Guatemala, I saw the opportunity for a much brighter future for Americans, Mexicans, Guatemalans and all Central Americans. We can seize that opportunity by working together with a sense of urgency to put a permanent end to mass migration and our border crisis.

Bill Hagerty is a U.S. senator from Tennessee who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is the former U.S. ambassador to Japan.

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Action to stem the crisis at our southern border cannot wait - Hendersonville Standard

Migration surge on the US/Mexican border as seen by a war photographer – The Rio Times

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL With the change of administration at the White House last January, the new U.S. government under President Biden has been quick in changing the various policies implemented by ex-president Donald Trump.

One of the many issues the new administration has been rushing to change is the immigration legal ban the Trump government had imposed on many nationalities trying to enter the U.S., either legally, or illegally.

Under the Trump tenure, migrants coming from Central America and Mexico were not allowed to enter, and if caught by Border Patrol, were systematically sent back to Mexico, while other migrants were asked to wait in Mexico for their paperwork to be processed.

This rather radical change in immigration policy, coupled with the current presidents inability to formulate a comprehensive plan on this ,subject, has led many migrants to believe that this is the time to make a push into the U.S. and try for asylum.

This lack of strategy has led the Mexican government to rush in an attempt to address this new tide of population flow coming through its Southern border with Guatemala; as well as U.S. federal agencies like Border Patrol which has been overwhelmed by this sudden increase in numbers.

The issue is not only political but also ideological. For the current Democratic Party, which is now quite different from what it once was, even under the Obama years, keeping an open border is part of the notion that the old values which had defined a century-old nation-state are now obsolete and needs to be placed into the abyss of history forever.

On the conservative side, the notion of going through the legal process is still important as many immigrants still wait their turn in line to obtain a permanent visa, a work visa, or their green card to be allowed into the US legally.

In fact, it is considered an American value to wait in line like everyone else until it is your turn while trusting that the system works well enough. This legalist mentality is now being pushed aside ever further, hence creating a real sense of unfairness that will continue to slip away from our institutions and the way we see the U.S. as a nation-state.

Along the U.S./Mexican border, the more conservative U.S. media have been quick to react to the facts stated above, in fact, to show to the American people what is happening, while exposing the reality of ideological differences now firmly anchored within American society.

For instance, U.S. vice president, Kamala Harris was appointed over two months ago to the unenvious task of dealing with this current surge in border crossings. This poisoned gift by President Biden has forced her to disappear from the media and consequently from the public scene altogether, which is quite odd and considered by most Americans as unacceptable.

So, what is really happening on the border? Is there indeed a crisis as conservative media report? Yes and No. Yes, because there is a surge in the actual numbers of people crossing over to the U.S. since Biden came to power, a lot more than during the Trump years, who was quite successful in stopping this flow of people under the famous Title 42 law which allowed U.S. authorities to extradite illegal immigrants back to Mexico.

When President Biden took power in the White House, the removal of illegal migrants from the U.S. dropped dramatically. Although it is not entirely clear who gets to stay and who gets to be sent back across the Mexican border, it seems that from Border Patrol sources, lone men are usually sent back, while families, children, pregnant women, and unaccompanied children are processed and may remain in the U.S.

Furthermore, local authorities in Texas have been called upon by the State to help curb the flow and assist the Border Patrol which is now overwhelmed. Hence, local Police forces, as well as Highway patrol and some National Guard Units have been deployed to help border work. This is a clear sign that there is an increase in illegal border crossings throughout the U.S. Southern border.

That being said, however, looking at this current crisis on a grand scale, and therefore in the long term, the crisis should be short-lived, as the migration issue has now been present for decades. This not-very-new phenomenon has never been rectified by either the U.S. or the various Mexican and Central American governments. In fact, Mexico has turned a blind eye on the illegal crossing of tens of millions of its poor citizens into the U.S. This rather sulfurous policy has been implemented by successive Mexican governments on purpose.

Indeed, Mexico was all too happy to have a significant portion of its poor citizens leave its national border, thereby alleviating the economic burden on its treasury, as these individuals while working in the U.S. were sending billions of dollars back to their families in the country through Western Union. This was indeed a win-win situation for Mexico. On the other side of the border, the U.S. was also all too happy to have cheap labor in its fields, kitchens, and other types of jobs U.S. citizens did not want.

However, this odd arrangement is now about to end, and I do believe that we are seeing the end of this great Latin migration into the U.S. Why? Well, for one simple reason. Birth rates in Central America, as well as Mexico, are collapsing rapidly, hence placing a real strain on these countrys labor force requirements. In 1950 there were 6.7 children per woman in the country, currently, the rate stands at 2.07, which is just under the 2.1 needed to sustain population growth, and the collapsing trends are increasing.

In Honduras, it dropped from 7.4 to 2.4 during that same period. These trends are occurring all over North and South America. Demography dictates the future of each nation, empires, kingdoms that once existed, and a population decline is always a clear sign that things will change.

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Migration surge on the US/Mexican border as seen by a war photographer - The Rio Times

White House: No plans for Harris to visit border despite disturbing illegal immigrant video – New York Post

The White House on Monday reiterated that immigration czar Vice President Kamala Harris has no plans to visit the border as new video shows a group of about 50 illegal immigrants overwhelming Border Patrol agents in Texas on Sunday, in the latest example of the ongoing crisis on the southern crossing.

Despite the alarming footage, White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Monday said Harris, who was appointed by President Biden to oversee the border in March, still has made no arrangements to surveil the situation in person and talk to local officials there.

I expect she will make a trip to the Northern Triangle at some point soon. So that would be where she would travel given her purview, Psaki said when asked during her daily briefing if the veep would go to the area.

The video, taken by a drone by Fox News, shows one agent in a pickup truck trying to capture more than a dozen migrants running along a dirt road as another agent pursued more members of the group as they leaped over a stream near La Joya, Texas.

Two of the migrants fleeing along the road appeared to be handcuffed together, indicating they had escaped custody.

Eventually, the agents were able to capture about 20 of them a group made up of mostly adult males, the report said.

Another group of migrants about 53 people from Romania, Venezuela, Guatemala and Honduras surrendered to Border Patrol agents instead of trying to flee, the report said.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott warned during an interview on Fox News Sunday Morning Futures that the surge of migrants coming across the southern border is causing a dramatic increase in the amount of drugs being brought into the US.

The Texas Department of Public Safety patrols the border every single day. And they have seen an 800 percent increase in the amount of fentanyl coming across the border. They seized this year enough fentanyl to kill every man, woman and child in the entire state of New York, Abbott said Sunday.

He said that while Texas is cracking down on the illegal drug trade, Americans need to wake up to the crisis.

The border issue is not on the Rio Grande Valley. It goes all the way up to New York or to Minnesota or Chicago, places across the country. And what the border crisis is doing that Biden has opened up, it is enriching the cartels, who profit off of moving fentanyl and other drugs into the United States, Abbott said.

Migrants from the Northern Triangle countries Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador have interpreted President Bidens reversal of the majority of the Trump administrations immigration policies as a sign of encouragement to travel to the US.

It has led to the Biden White House being overwhelmed by the surge of migrants especially unaccompanied children making their way to the US.

Mexican President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador has blamed the new president for the crisis, arguing that the expectations he set left migrants with the perception that they would be let into the US.

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White House: No plans for Harris to visit border despite disturbing illegal immigrant video - New York Post