The editors of the Wall Street Journal who have long supported increased immigration lament:
All of this is depressing enough for its human and other costs, but also for those who believe the U.S. needs more legal immigration. Even pro-immigration Republicans aren’t going to support more legal visas until the border is all but closed. A deal to legalize the Dreamers brought here illegally as children looks to be more distant than ever.
The only way to stop the migrant deluge now is to radically change the incentives to come. Send the message that if you are caught arriving illegally at the border, you will be deported and put on a banned list for legal entry. No exceptions. Once the flow subsides, it might then be possible to rebuild enough public trust for a bipartisan immigration compromise.
The tragedy is that Joe Biden has done more to undermine public support for immigration than Trump adviser Stephen Miller ever imagined he could.
I have include the graph at the top of this page for context. As you can see, since Joe Biden became president the percentage of people who think we should have more immigration or about the same amount of immigration has declined while the percentage of those who think it needs to decrease has risen. In fairness the trend began before he became president; he just hasn’t helped.
My own view is that the number of immigrants should remain about the same but the mix of immigrants should be different than at present. That can’t be accomplished without controlling the number crossing our southern border.
I have a neighbor who just retired from a lengthy job working for the federal government processing asylum requests. She’s depressed about the situation. I may try to solicit a guest post from her.
Maybe it’s me; but the graph shows increased support for higher immigration compared to anytime except the last 3 years.
I tend to look at trends and the trend has pretty clearly been reversed. Also note it’s precisely what I said: the trend has pretty clearly reversed during the Biden presidency.
Looks like the DEA will have to take the burden of sorting out the immigrants.
The president has demurred due to his deep compassion and short attention span.
Meanwhile, cartel distributors and enforcers flood the country mixed in with the vast swarms of deluded and desperate squatters.
While they demand their rights the cartels take theirs.
How long can our courts and police hold out against the inevitable bribes and believable threats from international organized crime?
In the name of compassion we’ve given away our children’s futures.
As gloomy as Grey’s comments are, they are based on reality. Allowing an unvetted, unlimited number of people in the country, coming from all ends of the earth, putting increased burdens on all our institutions, jobs, housing, ability to manage crime – we are welcoming a Mad Max world in our future, brought to us by Joe Biden and friends.
More interesting to me are the trends over the last couple of decades.
What are the real reasons and causes that have created the movement of people from their home lands, climate change? Violence and corruption? Hunger? None of you seem to address this part of the issue? Is this purely partisan politics? Is this just an easy political stunt to turn votes in favor of one party or another? We have a labor shortage, big time, and one that is not improving and most likely will be an even larger issue sooner rather than later!!
There is no way to change the mix of immigrants, unless the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 is repealed. Fat chance.
The important point about large-scale immigration (currently 2 million to 3 million per year) is that immigrants bring their culture and politics and hatreds with them. That means various Second and Third World cultures, religions, and politics. There is hardly any immigration from the EU or UK.
The new immigrants do not care a bit about the history of black/white relations; many of them actually despise blacks. The Mexican immigrants ethnically cleansed LA of blacks, and did it violently. Nor do they care about what happened to the Jews in Nazi Germany; some of them actually approve of the Holocaust, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, for example.
They come to us as Muslims or Hindus or animists, believers in Marx and the various theories of Western colonialism and exploitation. In Silicon Valley, we nowadays have a Hindu caste problem: Brahmins over Dravidians.
Our cultural, political and economic future is some mixture of Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria, Egypt… The era of the northern Europeans in the US is over.
You should read Dave’s commentary on the subject, Larry. He correctly points out that we are allowing in a poor composition of immigrants.
And then there is the issue of shared values, culture etc. Diversity is not an unalloyed good just because people say the words.
“What are the real reasons and causes that have created the movement of people from their home lands, climate change? Violence and corruption? Hunger?
You recite this as if you believe white Americans are the only people on earth with agency.
Do you believe that?
“You recite this as if you believe white Americans are the only people on earth with agency.
Do you believe that?”
Wow!! Grey, No!