I think illegal immigration is a real problem, but you make a good point here.
Comment on CNBC Shock Poll: 73% of Americans Now Support Militarizing the Border
boywar3@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Now let’s talk about the abject fear mongering of places like Fox and Breitbart about illegal immigrants over time and see if we can figure out why the number may appear to be increasing.
Of course, Republicans also won’t admit that the entire system needs migrant labor to keep costs low. Without an exploitable underclass, the entire agricultural industry falls apart because Americans don’t want to pick vegetables for pennies. Let’s watch food prices if the promise of mass deportations comes to pass and see how many people are “very supportive” of that knock-on effect.
realcaseyrollins@thelemmy.club 3 days ago
superkret@feddit.org 3 days ago
No one is going to go through the decade-long legal immigration process to work on a farm for federal minimum wage with no health insurance.
WhatYouNeed@lemmy.world 2 days ago
“No one is going to go through the decade-long legal immigration process to work on a farm for federal minimum wage with no health insurance.”
No one but the desperate. Its almost like allowing slave labor…
realcaseyrollins@thelemmy.club 3 days ago
It’d be higher pay than what they’re already getting.
But I have no problem with those workers no matter what their jobs are (I think it’d be a lil racist if I were to say that the only jobs these people are good for is picking crops). My issue is with the violent ones. I’d like to see a pathway to citizenship for otherwise law abiding illegals and deportations for the rest.
boywar3@lemmy.world 2 days ago
From what I gather, illegal immigrants are statistically no more likely to be violent than any other people, possibly even less so out of the fear of being caught and deported. Comments like these help reinforce the point about fear mongering over illegal immigrants in the right wing media, no?
the_toast_is_gone@lemmy.world 3 days ago
The problem is that the agricultural industry basically has a slave caste as its backbone. There will be no lasting solution as long as that’s true. Dismantling that system was good for America back in the 1800s, and it would be good if it happened again today.
boywar3@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Don’t get me wrong - I agree that it being built on an exploitable underclass is bad, but I highly doubt concerns over that is the driving factor behind the calls for mass deportations by the majority of people.
Furthermore, all mass deportation will do is burn a mountain of money on kicking out people who pay things like sales tax while also driving out their labor. Would it not make more sense to simply offer a path to citizenship to the people who clearly wish to work and give them the legal protections they should have AND get them paying taxes and integrating into society as full US citizens?
There’s no reason to harm innocent people if your only concern is about “fixing the problem of a slave caste,” especially when what I have said is essentially what we did the last time we got rid of one (Jim Crow, share cropping, etc. notwithstanding).
the_toast_is_gone@lemmy.world 2 days ago
It isn’t, but it’s one of the systemic issues that makes illegal immigration as prevalent as it is. If the law against employing illegal immigrants was strictly enforced, there would be little incentive to continue using them. Then there would be less incentive to illegally immigrate (no job opportunities so no money getting sent back to family, for example).
To your point, a larger problem to the average person is the resources that are spent on them, and on asylum seekers whose treatment was changed significantly under Biden. There’s now a six-year wait time before an asylum case can be heard in court, and as long as they applied for it before they entered the country, they’re allowed to stay that whole time. Major cities have been swamped with migrants as a result of not just this policy, but also the governor of Texas bussing them to sanctuary cities. They’ve been given priority treatment in these places instead of homeless citizens who need help just as much as them - schools have been closed and students shifted to online learning to house migrants, for example. Migrants are given financial aid in the form of food stamps or even prepaid debit cards. On top of that, their children are placed in American schools and given healthcare. I strongly doubt that the government is making more money on sales tax from migrants than it is spending on their welfare. This isn’t an indictment of the migrants themselves needing help, it’s just a criticism of where our elected officials place their priorities.
I support reforming the legal immigration process. I have numerous friends from foreign countries who have a great interest in moving here, but because of things like the H1b lottery system, it’s next to impossible even if you’re highly qualified. Still, that’s no excuse for opening the doors to people who sidestep that whole affair and get more assistance from the government than legal immigrants do.
The American people are being harmed by the massive influx of migrants. The longer this goes on, the worse it will get. Should a country put the needs of its own citizens before other countries’, or the other way around?
boywar3@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I agree. Perhaps punishing the companies that exploit migrants labor harshly would be an effective option, though I highly doubt the incoming (or really, current) administration will do such a thing. Mass deportations “treat” the symptoms, but not the cause.
I support reforming the legal immigration process. I have numerous friends from foreign countries who have a great interest in moving here, but because of things like the H1b lottery system, it’s next to impossible even if you’re highly qualified. Still, that’s no excuse for opening the doors to people who sidestep that whole affair and get more assistance from the government than legal immigrants do.
I am a bit dubious of several of your claims, but I do think that the process needs to be reformed, though I suspect in a different way. What’s the fastest way to get rid of illegal immigrants? Making them citizens. Dramatically stepping up the process in making people citizens with investment into it would cost quite a bit of money, but would have much better outcomes than a mass deportation plan.
Getting a massive influx of people all at once would certainly cause disruptions (though, again, at least as many as mass deportations), but getting tons of new taxpayers who buy into the whole system makes a lot more sense to me than using them as cheap labor. Furthermore, a system that distributes immigrants around the country more evenly would alleviate much of the issues with overcrowding and whatnot, while also limiting the issues of creating a “ghetto” of sorts (taking lessons from the past, “Little Italy” came about as a way for immigrants to protect themselves from the vast majority of people who were hostile to them. So dispersing people and making them feel welcome would eliminate much of that problem).
I can sort of agree that Americans are being harmed, insofar as government services are being strained, but the fix there is to strengthen said systems so they operate efficiently. Look at Indiana’s BMV and how efficient it is because of Mitch Daniels for proof of what a well-funded government agency can do.