Democrats need to admit that they're wrong on immigration - Fareed Zakaria
The Democrats are confronting a crisis that could cripple their chances at the polls at the national, state and local level. Im talking about immigration. Its happening not only because Republicans are taking advantage of the problem but also because Democrats are unwilling to accept that their policy ideas on the issue are wrong and grossly inadequate to the challenge at hand.
(snip)
To understand how to think of this issue, lets go back to basics. After World War II, the United States developed pathways for people who faced extreme persecution because of their race, religion or beliefs to take refuge in America. But there are two realities that are critical to turning this idealistic impulse into a workable system. First, there are surely tens of millions of people around the world who could plausibly claim that they face persecution, and the United States cannot possibly take them all in. More important, the United States cannot be forced to give priority to people who break the law and enter the country illegally and then claim asylum status to legitimize their entry as opposed to those who follow the rules, apply from their home countries and wait their turn. But that is what is happening every day at the southern border.
Second, these asylum cases must be special and distinct from the cases of people from all over the world who are trying to immigrate to the United States because they are fleeing poverty, disease or violence. People who fall into this category face a complex and elaborate process that entails several mechanisms for obtaining various kinds of visas and work permits, some of which can eventually translate into a green card and eventually citizenship. But instead of going through that arduous, lengthy process, many seem to have decided that it would be simpler to pay cartels to help them cross the border illegally, present themselves as asylum seekers, and slip into the country while their cases are being adjudicated. In a 17-month period between March 2021 and August 2022, the federal government released more than 1 million migrants into the United States and lost track of over 177,000 of them who had failed to give an address or had provided an invalid one.
(snip)
There is only one solution to this crisis, as Nolan Rappaport, a longtime congressional expert on the issue, has suggested: The president must use the power he has in existing law to suspend entirely the admission of asylum seekers while the system digests the millions of immigration cases already pending. The British government has passed a law to this effect. Other Western countries will undoubtedly follow. The world has changed. There are more than 40 million refugees and asylum seekers globally. We need new laws, standards, courts and systems so that asylum can be granted through some orderly, rational process rather than just leaving it up to officials in countries that are overwhelmed by illegal entrants at their borders.
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House of Roberts
(5,175 posts)if immigration from India to the US were to be increased.
Generally he's pretty objective unless the topic includes his native country, then he's biased in favor of India.
RoeVWade
(200 posts)When one guy creates the effect that you're choking off something permanently, such as a big wall, what happens when the next guy returns and tries to reestablish a norm? Immigrants panic. It's like opening the doors on Black Sunday for crazy shoppers.
There's a significant overreaction.
That's my theory anyway.
stuck in the middle
(821 posts)
we have to go back centuries, not decades.
At least here in America.
2live is 2fly
(336 posts)these days is the blame game. Without the blame game there's no character assassination. Just ask the Clintons about the past 30-years & now they're doing the same to the Bidens? If tfg wants to see the head of a crime family he just need look in a mirror. They pull simular shit creating a budget crisis just to give them an excuse to cut spending, followed by cut, cut & more cut.
BlueIn_W_Pa
(842 posts)it turns to a talking point and corporations love the cheap labor
padfun
(1,786 posts)Especially if we ship the maga traitors out.
Besides, immigrants work more and harder than magats.
niyad
(113,325 posts)question everything
(47,485 posts)than just cursing the messenger even though it may provide a momentary relief.
Just my opinion
dalton99a
(81,513 posts)How much original content is in his essay?
V850i
(37 posts)I am not sure if Fareed's answers are the right ones but this will be a big issue in the 2024 election. San Diego cannot handle 2400 people a day being dropped off in the middle of town. Democratic mayors across the country are having problems with the large numbers of immigrants hitting their cities/towns each week. Someone said to the effect that if liberals don't salve the immigration problem, the American people will elect a Fascist who will. I know a number of ... middle of the road... not too interested in politics, they are all the same ... people who voted Democrat in 2020 and now say they will likely vote Republican in 2024 and immigration and inflation are the main reasons. We really cannot afford to loose those votes.
wnylib
(21,481 posts)is a problem around the world.
Why not have the problem brought before an international summit of nations to which the migrants are fleeing? Figure out what can be done with the countries that they are fleeing from to stop their people from becoming refugees.
Some of the causes are destabilization in the countries that refugees are fleeing from due to past international treatment. The US contributed to destabilized Latin American nations with our policies of supporting dictatorships on behalf of American businesses there. Other causes are past wars, unbalanced trade, and colonization.
International efforts to help stabilize the countries that people are fleeing and to improve their lives in their home countries could stem the flow of refugees to Europe and the US.
In addition to helping to stabilize those countries, an international summit could establish some humane ground rules for handling asylum seekers or turning them away when they arrive.
BlueIn_W_Pa
(842 posts)[link:
|justaprogressive
(2,190 posts)Horseshit!
We have 100's of millions here, and there is still a LOT of space!
qwlauren35
(6,148 posts)He came up with 3 billion impoverished people. There is no way that immigration solves the problem of world poverty.