Besides Trump has already solved the border crisis. Border crossings are down nearly 70% from their level a year ago. A few months from now, Trump can point to this decline as evidence of the success of his anti-immigrant policy.
In Australia the e-verify thing is everywhere. You even need one when you're staying at a hotel or renting. I'm surprised that it's not that common or even mandatory in most of America. I guess that's typical of Americans - all bark and no bite.
I would argue that by not requiring E-verify for such things Americans are living up to our essential nature, if not our political rhetoric. We are libertarians and though we acknowledge that we need rules for society to work, we always kind of resent those rules. We bite when it's an issue we actually care about.
Strongly disagree. I think it’s just a combination of laziness and greed. Most Americans have no idea how many employers don’t use e-verify and how easy it is for illegals to operate right out in the open with absolute impunity. As they’ve gained awareness, there’s been a major backlash.
If there's such a big backlash, why aren't Greg Abbot and Ron Desantis in hot water over their failure to act? Why is Trump allowed to just say e-verify isn't going to happen federally and and most people aren't even aware? Instead, these guys are lauded and re-elected for being so tough on immigration. If people sincerely care, why are they satisfied with these insanely limp solutions to the issue?
This shrewd essay reminds me, for all the complaining that America no longer assimilates its immigrants, keeping millions of people in an unauthorized status without summary deportation enables a pretty ruthless program of assimilation in all but name.
As I read Sam Huntington's 2004 book on immigration, his fears of a Quebecois scenario but with Mexicans in America rings the hollowest two decades forward. He admits this was not the first risk; we came near this problem with the German Midwestern presence before WW1 extinguished it. But how then to prevent Mexican sectional political activity if we permit millions of them to immigrate so swiftly and close to their home country? Huntington wasn't crazy to see a gamble at play.
The answer ended up being too crude and simple for Huntington to anticipate. We sustained a limbo for decades. Attempts to create grand bargains for legalization have largely fallen apart in Congress. The risk of deportation pushes towards getting your American kids an education in English, keeping your head down in political fights, and generally not provoking the Anglophone majority through any mass organizing the way Germans pushed for neutrality in WW1.
Even if a WASP like Huntington protests their kids may transform politics in a more populist direction (politicians like Sanders and Trump are not unfamiliar to Latin America), it is tricky to separate this from what a more Anglo population would lurch towards under a reserve currency equilibrium of easy debt anyways. Plenty of strange equilibriums abound. And America's immigration situation seems more stable than Australia, the UK, or Canada, where formalized law played a larger role in ramping the number up to an actually noticeable degree for middle class life.
Mexicans don't have a strong political ideology I am aware of from their home country, so any political conflict that doesn't involve Mexico probably isn't affected much by their presence. Interestingly, it's the Cubans who came here to escape communism who are more inoculated against it even than the average American. I think a lot of people assume that immigrants will want to make America like their home country (and therefore tolerant of dictators), but that doesn't seem to fit. Mexicans may be somewhat ambivalent towards political ideologies because they are mostly just getting away from poverty and corruption, but I would imagine that Venezuelans will mostly act like Cubans.
I would have generally assumed the opposite. Most immigrants appear to want America to NOT be like their home country, which is why they left that country and came to America. Large immigrant groups who came to America from socialist/communist countries tend lean right.
“If Americans did not have access to media, it is unlikely that many would think about illegal immigration much in their day-to-day lives. Most people will never get robbed by an illegal immigrant or lose their job to one. So illegal immigration is largely an abstract concern for all but a minority.”
Laughably false, as someone who travels extensively across the country. Do you live in the U.S.? Illegal immigration has had tremendous impact on every American in very material, observable ways. This was true 15 years ago and it’s become impossible to avoid during Biden’s presidency. Even people living in rural flyover country are seeing ethnic shantytowns pop up. Every time you go to an airport, mall, or sports game you feel it. This is to say nothing of the broader demographic shift which was driven by both legal and illegal immigration that can be seen everywhere from political outcomes to casting on television.
And actually a huge number of Americans have lost jobs to illegals. I get that the PMC just doesn’t believe that Americans used to clean and built sh*t and work in restaurants.. but despite not being especially old I’m old enough to remember going into fast food restaurants or a hotel and everyone working there was either white or black. California was a functional red state until illegals immigration turned it into a punchline.
Besides Trump has already solved the border crisis. Border crossings are down nearly 70% from their level a year ago. A few months from now, Trump can point to this decline as evidence of the success of his anti-immigrant policy.
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-land-border-encounters
In Australia the e-verify thing is everywhere. You even need one when you're staying at a hotel or renting. I'm surprised that it's not that common or even mandatory in most of America. I guess that's typical of Americans - all bark and no bite.
I would argue that by not requiring E-verify for such things Americans are living up to our essential nature, if not our political rhetoric. We are libertarians and though we acknowledge that we need rules for society to work, we always kind of resent those rules. We bite when it's an issue we actually care about.
Strongly disagree. I think it’s just a combination of laziness and greed. Most Americans have no idea how many employers don’t use e-verify and how easy it is for illegals to operate right out in the open with absolute impunity. As they’ve gained awareness, there’s been a major backlash.
If there's such a big backlash, why aren't Greg Abbot and Ron Desantis in hot water over their failure to act? Why is Trump allowed to just say e-verify isn't going to happen federally and and most people aren't even aware? Instead, these guys are lauded and re-elected for being so tough on immigration. If people sincerely care, why are they satisfied with these insanely limp solutions to the issue?
This shrewd essay reminds me, for all the complaining that America no longer assimilates its immigrants, keeping millions of people in an unauthorized status without summary deportation enables a pretty ruthless program of assimilation in all but name.
As I read Sam Huntington's 2004 book on immigration, his fears of a Quebecois scenario but with Mexicans in America rings the hollowest two decades forward. He admits this was not the first risk; we came near this problem with the German Midwestern presence before WW1 extinguished it. But how then to prevent Mexican sectional political activity if we permit millions of them to immigrate so swiftly and close to their home country? Huntington wasn't crazy to see a gamble at play.
The answer ended up being too crude and simple for Huntington to anticipate. We sustained a limbo for decades. Attempts to create grand bargains for legalization have largely fallen apart in Congress. The risk of deportation pushes towards getting your American kids an education in English, keeping your head down in political fights, and generally not provoking the Anglophone majority through any mass organizing the way Germans pushed for neutrality in WW1.
Even if a WASP like Huntington protests their kids may transform politics in a more populist direction (politicians like Sanders and Trump are not unfamiliar to Latin America), it is tricky to separate this from what a more Anglo population would lurch towards under a reserve currency equilibrium of easy debt anyways. Plenty of strange equilibriums abound. And America's immigration situation seems more stable than Australia, the UK, or Canada, where formalized law played a larger role in ramping the number up to an actually noticeable degree for middle class life.
Mexicans don't have a strong political ideology I am aware of from their home country, so any political conflict that doesn't involve Mexico probably isn't affected much by their presence. Interestingly, it's the Cubans who came here to escape communism who are more inoculated against it even than the average American. I think a lot of people assume that immigrants will want to make America like their home country (and therefore tolerant of dictators), but that doesn't seem to fit. Mexicans may be somewhat ambivalent towards political ideologies because they are mostly just getting away from poverty and corruption, but I would imagine that Venezuelans will mostly act like Cubans.
I would have generally assumed the opposite. Most immigrants appear to want America to NOT be like their home country, which is why they left that country and came to America. Large immigrant groups who came to America from socialist/communist countries tend lean right.
“If Americans did not have access to media, it is unlikely that many would think about illegal immigration much in their day-to-day lives. Most people will never get robbed by an illegal immigrant or lose their job to one. So illegal immigration is largely an abstract concern for all but a minority.”
Laughably false, as someone who travels extensively across the country. Do you live in the U.S.? Illegal immigration has had tremendous impact on every American in very material, observable ways. This was true 15 years ago and it’s become impossible to avoid during Biden’s presidency. Even people living in rural flyover country are seeing ethnic shantytowns pop up. Every time you go to an airport, mall, or sports game you feel it. This is to say nothing of the broader demographic shift which was driven by both legal and illegal immigration that can be seen everywhere from political outcomes to casting on television.
And actually a huge number of Americans have lost jobs to illegals. I get that the PMC just doesn’t believe that Americans used to clean and built sh*t and work in restaurants.. but despite not being especially old I’m old enough to remember going into fast food restaurants or a hotel and everyone working there was either white or black. California was a functional red state until illegals immigration turned it into a punchline.
I had no idea that this was the case. It's breathtakingly cynical!