It's the morally right thing to emphasize how these policies are cruel, immoral and inhuman (as well as racist). If we don't stand against this, we are complicit by our silence.
I've mentioned it previously: my wife and I recently saw Judgement at Nuremberg for the first time and its message (one of them) of remaining silent when an atrocity is being committed is being complicit in the atrocity resonates so much right now. We must speak out.
Besides the fact that the Trump administration is cruel and commits crimes daily, immigration generally benefits consumers, employers, and high-skilled workers economically.
The last major overhaul of immigration law took place decades ago and there's been no will from Congress to revamp it since. Under Trump, the government is abandoning the law as it exists, allowing ICE to rewrite the rules as they go - rules that would constrain them from exercising as much maximum cruelty and dehumanization as possible.
There has been will to overhaul it, in fact, bills have been introduced, even as far back as Reagan, and he scuttled the whole thing by calling at amnesty. And so on to the present time where there was a bipartisan bill ready to be passed and Trump told Republicans not to vote for it, because he wanted to make it an election issue so the will is not lacking at least on the Democratic side or among some of the former Republicans who had a conscience. But they have all disappeared!
DEMs should announce that they will develop a bipartisan policy for undocumented immigrants already working in the country and those who are trying to come. In addition, DEMS could also propose, besides bipartisan, periodic reviews and amendments, because techonology of production and services keep changing.
All they have to do is re-introduce the bill that Trump scuttled before the election because he wanted immigration as a wedge issue. It was a bipartisan bill till he took his ax to it.
Why isn’t anyone talking about the three-time convicted felon who was set to be deported but has been released so he can be the star witness against Kilmar Abrego? This may be the one guy who falls under the regime’s deportation policies and yet he’s been released. And nobody is talking about it.
Yes why isn't the Democratic Party running ads NOW about that and the multitude of other outages going on? They only ask for money. For what?!!! Their tactics are a bust. That's why Democratic voters are frustrated.
Agreed! A lifelong, democratic!voter, I am, and I am not going to vote Democratic again, unless they present a real plan. Simply saying “not Trump“ is not going to be enough to get my vote. I am deleting without looking at them all pleas and demands for money. Don’t ask me for money if you don’t tell me what your plan is! Other than you want to be elected and get a nice cushy salary.
I don't agree with that. "Not Trump" is absolutely on message for me, but Democrats need to get the message out --like with some TV ads-- how destructive this president has been on every level. Biden had some plans and policies, like the Infrastructure Act, the Chips Act, Medicaid expansion, but they did not shout about it enough.
Not nearly enough. Trump & Co are not targeting violent criminals as promised. The majority of those detained for deportation have no criminal record. That Trump & Co would cut a plea deal to release a 3x convicted felon so they can deport a guy with no criminal record whose only offense is causing them embarrassment should be headline news.
I never said they were targeting violent criminals. Their indiscriminate round up of anyone with brown skin is obvious, and most of the people currently in custody have no criminal records at all - and that includes those being held in the Florida hellhole concentration camp.
After all these years, the lazy MSM still chases every distraction he throws out. But some outlets know to keep their eyes on the ball - places like Lawfare, ProPublica, etc.
Lawfare, Oregon Public Broadcasting, the NYT and other sites. It was brought up during a hearing with the judge in the trumped-up human smuggling case against Abrego.
When the evils of the Nazi regime were fully disclosed the world had a visceral reaction and found the courage and strength to face the evil. We saw the introduction of rules of behavior that condemned ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. Each of us need to look in the mirror and realize that we are letting the same evil creep into the US culture. Since when do we look to punish people because they happen to have lived in another culture and how can we look at the actions of this administration and not see they are building concentration camps and attacking a large group because they are different.
If in fact this process of incarcerating immigrants means that we there will be a labor shortage, does that mean that we can put those they put in cages to work as part of labor camps. When we lose sight of our sense of humanity will lose our soul as country.
Well said! I worked with people from all over the world in my previous career, it showed we are all human and all in this world together. We're really one big human family. Standing up for compassion, decency, kindness, and respect for everyone, wherever they are from and whatever their background, is essential. Otherwise we face the same abyss the Germans faced in the 1930s and 40s.
I'm betting your fears are justified. They have every intention of using incarcerated labor to make up for their idiot policies. As Heather Cox Richardson has pointed out, for most of the first part of the 20th century, millions of Mexicans moved back and forth across the border constantly. Our agribusinesses depended on their labor, and laws were fashioned to accommodate that movement. What's happening today is utterly counter-productive.
The feeling I am having is increasing that I have to realize that what these evil people are doing is a reflection on me. It’s a reflection on the United States of America. This is what our reputation is going to be in the future, what these people are doing now. Sending people in chains to far off countries where their fate is so dark it isn’t even discussed???Putting people in cages? Come on!!Reversing laws that we’ve had on the books for years and years? Come on! Ethnic cleansing in the good old USA. People are going to say that the dark streak was inevitably going to come out again, and the rest was BS.
Trump’s “chaotic, cruel, counterproductive onslaught” addresses none of the economic concerns of the American people. It does, however, feed the racism, xenophobia,homophobia, misogyny, and anti-semitism that lurks beneath the surface of American society.
Jen, I increasingly rely on your wonderfully clear-eyed and fierce, creative, non-polemical writing. It's gotten to the point where even brilliant people on the good side of things are getting lost in their competitive name-calling; falling over each other like puppies in a box, they compete to have the most clever nickname for Rump, or rationale for why things have gotten this bad.
But to me, all of it is in imminent danger of becoming blahblah. Thank you, fellow Contrarians. The fact is that we can all do SOMEthing. And we can always retreat to the doings here, for some consolation and hope.
Thank you and Norm for giving us more to do beyond wringing our hands.
It about time the Democrats ditch their addiction to the political consultant/donor class, whose latest genius move has been recommending spending $20M on learning how to talk to young men, while running a whisper campaign against Zohran Mamdani in New York.
If you want to see what issues are motiving ordinary citizens, look no further than the No Kings and anti-immigration raids protests. These are economic issues, too, but they're also about who we are as a people and what we stand for. This country runs on migrant labor whether MAGA republicans want to admit it or not. And those migrants aren't 'taking American jobs.' Just look how many farms, construction companies, nursing homes, and hotels/restaurants that are struggling to fill positions left vacant by immigration raids or the fear of them.
These out-of-control immigrant detentions are also hurting tourism. A Canadian citizen recently died in ICE custody, and more than 30 Canadian citizens are currently being held in ICE detention centers. And let's be honest here, when the administration won't allow congress to conduct its legal oversight of these facilities without 72 hours' notice, they're hiding something.
"LIKE" to Linda's post. And someone with a voice needs to do a DIN to correctly define, and to change what most people seem to think of "socialism," especially democratic socialism as well as capitalism. The names have changed meanings so many times, and been misapplied by imbecile totalitarian oligarchs and the irresponsible goons among us so many times, and "capitalism" has been misapplied in the U.S. as "predatory capitalism" no one seems to be able to dissect (a) what's actually going on in politics without raising ugly ideas around a misunderstood name or (b) what CAN go forward that can still pick up and keep the good threads of both term, of the Constitution, and the living ideas in our our founding documents.
Someone with some meat on their voice has to say what is good about both socialism and capitalism and how both have been sullied in grandly Orwellian propaganda by those who would double-speak both of these ideas to death, to their own and their cronies advantage. Linda is right--the first paragraph of her note about the democrats' ways of doing things is exactly right.
Yes--and buy ad space on Fox and other right wing stations, or where they are likely to reach at least some MAGA people, to at least raise questions for their listeners about the meanings they toss around in their heads. (I hesitate to say "reeducate" if "democratic socialist" means "socialist" without resorting to the gulag.)
It’s astonishing how Americans have changed their perception of immigrants. It gives me hope that at our core, Americans still value human rights. It’s an awakening of sorts.
As usual you are totally on point. And you’re being an optimist about 4 million people being deported. We are headed for 4 million people in slave labor camps.
Why don't the Democrats ever talk about the immigration bill that trump killed in 2024 that actually tried to solve problems with the immigration system? Push that as a humane alternative to this human rights disaster.
After Trump killed the bipartisan immigration reform bill, the Democratic leadership said they would talk about it every day until election day. That may have been the last time they talked about it.
We have needed comprehensive immigration reform and a functional guest worker program since the 80s... Now with the tRump regime willing to grab brown people and imprison them for being brown, I doubt real reform is possible. First of all tRump would veto it. Second, he and his goons like abusing brown people. Third, business , like Congress, is cowed by the mob-boss-in-chief. And fourth rRump is not interested in fixing anything at all. Ever the Agent of Chaos, he seemingly wants whatever is worst for the US.
Immigration reform happens post 🍊. Weathering and Ridding us of 🍊IT and the bobble head cabinet, weakens the ChristoFacist / Techno Billionaire handlers.
Thank you! I was very disappointed during the 2024 campaign that the Democrats refused to stand up loudly and proudly for the humanity and dignity of immigrants. I flipped over briefly to watch the Republican Convention because I thought I should know what they were saying. The crowd was holding signs that said Mass Deportation Now. As someone who has been accompanying immigrants for many years, I felt physically ill. In September, the American Immigration Council published a report looking at the details of what a mass deportation program would be like in practice. It was not pretty, both from a human rights viewpoint and economically. My thought was that once people saw mass deportation in practice, they would hate it, as they hated the Family Separation cruelty in 2018. I was right, but that doesn't help any of the immigrants who have been and will be detained or sent to torture prisons.
I agree about all this. But I do have trouble with one thing. All these millions of people have come here illegally. They did break the law to come here, and sometimes repeatedly in order to bring family members as well. We need to defend them about being deported, but the truth is that the immigration situation has to be rectified. If you don’t agree that it needs to be rectified I’d like to hear what you have to say. Other than that everybody has rights.
Have you noticed that everyone in the construction industry and the landscape gardening industry is now from another country? It’s the same for childcare and elder care. Same for, just about anyone I call who is a plumber or doing any kind of similar work. This is not because our own citizens do not like that work. That’s a total bullshit argument. The reason native born people don’t get those jobs is because they don’t pay enough anymore due to the very available pool of much cheaper people to do that labor. I used to do that kind of work myself. I found in doing bids for landscape work, it got to the point where I could not use native born people because I would not get the contract, due to it, being too high, compared to the other contracts. Plus, they were great and willing workers and great people to have around, happy to have the work.
I don’t know the answer to that question precisely, but it is a noticeable trend, and one that is vast across our economy. I don’t see anyone talking about that. And the very vastness of it does trouble me.
If you would like to see our future, I encourage you to watch Ken Burn’s “ The US and the Holocaust”. The parallels and especially the way he ends the series should make everyone sit up and take notice. If you know someone who doesn’t believe the current administration’s policies are as inhumane and on the same path Hitler took, this series may open their eyes.
Karen, thank you for making me aware of this Burns documentary. I'm a huge fan of Mr. Burns and will definitely find and watch it. Yes, we seem to be on a fast track parallel course with the rise of the Nazis in post-Weimar Germany. We have an authoritarian cultish leader who lies at the drop of a hat; sends in troops to LA as a photo-op against the wishes of the governor and mayor; feeds the Constitution into a shredder and replaces is with Project 2025; defies court orders; commits other countless illegal acts moment by moment; attacks universities, lawyers and the media in an attempt to force them to bend the knee; demonizes immigrants with cruelty and relish (so much for only going after the criminals, huh?). I mean, how else will ICE keep up with Herr Stephen Miller (aka Heinrich Himmler) and his edict to arrest 3,000 people a month? This cretin has a pathological hatred of brown people in the exact same way that Hitler, Himmler and others hated Jews. Now Herr Miller has his final solution: build inhumane concentration camps all over the country. The depth to which we have sunk is unfathomable.
I especially consider your use of our English language a real treasure .
Please look closely at the pic you have in this article . I see a little Hispanic girl dressed in pink with a US flag in one hand and her blankie in the other …,
Does our current regime really think she is a threat ¿
I cry tears of tragedy and fear for all my brothers and sisters who are brown as me .
I met with my family physician Monday and she's from the Philippines. I love her. Somehow we started talking about immigration and she spent many years and a lot of money to legally become an American citizen. I understand this, but it saddened me that she believes that all immigrants should follow this path. Frightened me that she believes that immigrants are committing crimes in the US. When I mentioned that the crimes being committed today in large part are American citizens, she said she doesn't watch the news so she doesn't know about that fact. Seems propaganda is working without MSM. Blows me away. I'm from Miami Florida and grew up with many people from Cuba coming to America. I didn't like it at first, but I learned that they were fleeing for their lives, and that they contributed much to Miami. I even married a Cuban man! How is this ever going to be remidied?
Many immigrants from all over the world came to America via "proper" channels and worked to become naturalized citizens. Most of them do not support people who want to become citizens without going through the "proper" channels. It may sound heartless but it is quite understandable. A lighthearted example of this is why all of us dislike people who cut in line.
I agree and endorse the content of this article. However, as a Texas Democrat, I have some practical input as to how to go about this. Consider our adversary. Republicans and Fox News have defined Democrats for everyday, average people. Democrats ceded that field long ago and politically disengaged citizens have deeply internalized the fallacy that Democrats aren't supporting immigration because of the reasons Rubin posits. No.
Instead, normal people deeply believe that we Democrats are committed to injecting cartels, criminals and anti-social foreigners into their lives. They firmly believe these hordes will be deliberately encouraged to come and take their stuff. See how this one weird trick does a lot of work for Republicans?
When we undertake to 'defend immigrants', the everyday voter who has been fatally misinformed hears us defending criminality. Not just criminals, but criminality as a political policy. So, it is not enough to put together a beautiful law review article. We need tough, smart trial lawyers who know what a jury's biases are and know how to put a case together in their language and with a narrative they can get behind. Case in point.
I am sixty-five in three weeks. My neighbor is right behind me. We were discussing Medicare. I said I was not pleased that Republicans intended to cut my Medicare and Social Security benefits. My neighbor immediately and in a very rote (trained via Fox no doubt) manner pivoted to a rant about immigrants unjustifiably taking those benefits. I shook my head to disagree and that really made her dig in. Note, I did not say a word. I simply looked at her and shook my head.
So, I listened to her urban legend sounding anecdotes and realized there was no way to defend immigrants with her. Instead, I went to logic. OK, assuming this to be true, how does cutting OUR benefits solve that problem? Why not go after criminals? Arrest law-breakers. Give them a trial, let a jury find them guilty, I mean throw the book at them! (Please note, I did not concede the point that all immigrants are criminals.) Show me, I said, how cutting our benefits does anything to punish crime?
She literally did a double-take. She fully expected me to defend criminals and criminality because she has been trained to conflate the two and believes immigrant=criminal. So, the wheels were turning in her mind. Then, I pointed out the Lankford bill did address crime by immigrants. I stated the truth. Republicans got pretty much every single thing they wanted in that bill and Biden promised to sign it. But no. Trump nixed that so he could scare people about immigrants. He chose not to solve the problem.
Being the sweet and good person she is, my neighbor listened and heard me. I have no illusions that she won't default right back to where she was, because she will. She is trapped in a RW disinformation echo chamber. The only way to get anywhere on issues like these is to realize we are dealing with people whose world view has been distorted. They will not break free willingly. Constant, respectful confrontation with concrete examples within a compelling narrative is necessary. Trial lawyers and good teachers know exactly how to do this.
However, I successfully undermined Trump and his lies in that moment. She conceded she does not like Trump. I guarantee she is worried about her benefits being cut. That is how we win. We must recognize how Democrats have been defined in the public's mind and undermine those fallacies. We must reveal Trump as the cause of all misery. And we cannot play into the tropes. Theory is necessary. But it is far from sufficient to win this battle. We must build up our credibility and tear down Trump and the Republican party's credibility.
It is indeed a stunt. Made for Trash-Fox-TV infotainment. It's not even a policy, just performative cruelty for the ding-dongs who get off on that stuff.
Surely, fighting against something as transparently ridiculous as this shouldn't be that tough.
And this issue should be addressed before all others since it involves human rights abuse!
It's the morally right thing to emphasize how these policies are cruel, immoral and inhuman (as well as racist). If we don't stand against this, we are complicit by our silence.
I've mentioned it previously: my wife and I recently saw Judgement at Nuremberg for the first time and its message (one of them) of remaining silent when an atrocity is being committed is being complicit in the atrocity resonates so much right now. We must speak out.
"We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." Eli Wiesel
"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. G_D will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act." Dietrick Bonhoeffer
Yes, we MUST!
I will not be silent. I refuse to be made complicit to the immoral acts and intentions of the Trimp Gang and their accomplices.
Besides the fact that the Trump administration is cruel and commits crimes daily, immigration generally benefits consumers, employers, and high-skilled workers economically.
Consumers benefit from lower prices due to increased competition and lower labor costs. Employers benefit from a larger pool of labor, potentially reducing labor costs and filling labor shortages. Republican think tank: https://www.bushcenter.org/catalyst/north-american-century/benefits-of-immigration-outweigh-costs
The last major overhaul of immigration law took place decades ago and there's been no will from Congress to revamp it since. Under Trump, the government is abandoning the law as it exists, allowing ICE to rewrite the rules as they go - rules that would constrain them from exercising as much maximum cruelty and dehumanization as possible.
There has been will to overhaul it, in fact, bills have been introduced, even as far back as Reagan, and he scuttled the whole thing by calling at amnesty. And so on to the present time where there was a bipartisan bill ready to be passed and Trump told Republicans not to vote for it, because he wanted to make it an election issue so the will is not lacking at least on the Democratic side or among some of the former Republicans who had a conscience. But they have all disappeared!
DEMs should announce that they will develop a bipartisan policy for undocumented immigrants already working in the country and those who are trying to come. In addition, DEMS could also propose, besides bipartisan, periodic reviews and amendments, because techonology of production and services keep changing.
All they have to do is re-introduce the bill that Trump scuttled before the election because he wanted immigration as a wedge issue. It was a bipartisan bill till he took his ax to it.
Why isn’t anyone talking about the three-time convicted felon who was set to be deported but has been released so he can be the star witness against Kilmar Abrego? This may be the one guy who falls under the regime’s deportation policies and yet he’s been released. And nobody is talking about it.
Yes why isn't the Democratic Party running ads NOW about that and the multitude of other outages going on? They only ask for money. For what?!!! Their tactics are a bust. That's why Democratic voters are frustrated.
Agreed! A lifelong, democratic!voter, I am, and I am not going to vote Democratic again, unless they present a real plan. Simply saying “not Trump“ is not going to be enough to get my vote. I am deleting without looking at them all pleas and demands for money. Don’t ask me for money if you don’t tell me what your plan is! Other than you want to be elected and get a nice cushy salary.
I don't agree with that. "Not Trump" is absolutely on message for me, but Democrats need to get the message out --like with some TV ads-- how destructive this president has been on every level. Biden had some plans and policies, like the Infrastructure Act, the Chips Act, Medicaid expansion, but they did not shout about it enough.
If nobody is talking about it, how did you learn about him? It has been in the news, and people are talking about it.
Not nearly enough. Trump & Co are not targeting violent criminals as promised. The majority of those detained for deportation have no criminal record. That Trump & Co would cut a plea deal to release a 3x convicted felon so they can deport a guy with no criminal record whose only offense is causing them embarrassment should be headline news.
I never said they were targeting violent criminals. Their indiscriminate round up of anyone with brown skin is obvious, and most of the people currently in custody have no criminal records at all - and that includes those being held in the Florida hellhole concentration camp.
After all these years, the lazy MSM still chases every distraction he throws out. But some outlets know to keep their eyes on the ball - places like Lawfare, ProPublica, etc.
Preaching to the choir. As I often do as well!
I read it once, Jane in NC. Where are you reading it or hearing it? Or posting about it?
Lawfare, Oregon Public Broadcasting, the NYT and other sites. It was brought up during a hearing with the judge in the trumped-up human smuggling case against Abrego.
When the evils of the Nazi regime were fully disclosed the world had a visceral reaction and found the courage and strength to face the evil. We saw the introduction of rules of behavior that condemned ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. Each of us need to look in the mirror and realize that we are letting the same evil creep into the US culture. Since when do we look to punish people because they happen to have lived in another culture and how can we look at the actions of this administration and not see they are building concentration camps and attacking a large group because they are different.
If in fact this process of incarcerating immigrants means that we there will be a labor shortage, does that mean that we can put those they put in cages to work as part of labor camps. When we lose sight of our sense of humanity will lose our soul as country.
Well said! I worked with people from all over the world in my previous career, it showed we are all human and all in this world together. We're really one big human family. Standing up for compassion, decency, kindness, and respect for everyone, wherever they are from and whatever their background, is essential. Otherwise we face the same abyss the Germans faced in the 1930s and 40s.
Agree, Fred
I'm betting your fears are justified. They have every intention of using incarcerated labor to make up for their idiot policies. As Heather Cox Richardson has pointed out, for most of the first part of the 20th century, millions of Mexicans moved back and forth across the border constantly. Our agribusinesses depended on their labor, and laws were fashioned to accommodate that movement. What's happening today is utterly counter-productive.
The feeling I am having is increasing that I have to realize that what these evil people are doing is a reflection on me. It’s a reflection on the United States of America. This is what our reputation is going to be in the future, what these people are doing now. Sending people in chains to far off countries where their fate is so dark it isn’t even discussed???Putting people in cages? Come on!!Reversing laws that we’ve had on the books for years and years? Come on! Ethnic cleansing in the good old USA. People are going to say that the dark streak was inevitably going to come out again, and the rest was BS.
Trump’s “chaotic, cruel, counterproductive onslaught” addresses none of the economic concerns of the American people. It does, however, feed the racism, xenophobia,homophobia, misogyny, and anti-semitism that lurks beneath the surface of American society.
Jen, I increasingly rely on your wonderfully clear-eyed and fierce, creative, non-polemical writing. It's gotten to the point where even brilliant people on the good side of things are getting lost in their competitive name-calling; falling over each other like puppies in a box, they compete to have the most clever nickname for Rump, or rationale for why things have gotten this bad.
But to me, all of it is in imminent danger of becoming blahblah. Thank you, fellow Contrarians. The fact is that we can all do SOMEthing. And we can always retreat to the doings here, for some consolation and hope.
Thank you and Norm for giving us more to do beyond wringing our hands.
It about time the Democrats ditch their addiction to the political consultant/donor class, whose latest genius move has been recommending spending $20M on learning how to talk to young men, while running a whisper campaign against Zohran Mamdani in New York.
If you want to see what issues are motiving ordinary citizens, look no further than the No Kings and anti-immigration raids protests. These are economic issues, too, but they're also about who we are as a people and what we stand for. This country runs on migrant labor whether MAGA republicans want to admit it or not. And those migrants aren't 'taking American jobs.' Just look how many farms, construction companies, nursing homes, and hotels/restaurants that are struggling to fill positions left vacant by immigration raids or the fear of them.
These out-of-control immigrant detentions are also hurting tourism. A Canadian citizen recently died in ICE custody, and more than 30 Canadian citizens are currently being held in ICE detention centers. And let's be honest here, when the administration won't allow congress to conduct its legal oversight of these facilities without 72 hours' notice, they're hiding something.
"LIKE" to Linda's post. And someone with a voice needs to do a DIN to correctly define, and to change what most people seem to think of "socialism," especially democratic socialism as well as capitalism. The names have changed meanings so many times, and been misapplied by imbecile totalitarian oligarchs and the irresponsible goons among us so many times, and "capitalism" has been misapplied in the U.S. as "predatory capitalism" no one seems to be able to dissect (a) what's actually going on in politics without raising ugly ideas around a misunderstood name or (b) what CAN go forward that can still pick up and keep the good threads of both term, of the Constitution, and the living ideas in our our founding documents.
Someone with some meat on their voice has to say what is good about both socialism and capitalism and how both have been sullied in grandly Orwellian propaganda by those who would double-speak both of these ideas to death, to their own and their cronies advantage. Linda is right--the first paragraph of her note about the democrats' ways of doing things is exactly right.
Personally, I think Prof. Justin Wolfers would be a good person to tackle this message.
Yes--and buy ad space on Fox and other right wing stations, or where they are likely to reach at least some MAGA people, to at least raise questions for their listeners about the meanings they toss around in their heads. (I hesitate to say "reeducate" if "democratic socialist" means "socialist" without resorting to the gulag.)
It’s astonishing how Americans have changed their perception of immigrants. It gives me hope that at our core, Americans still value human rights. It’s an awakening of sorts.
Kudos, Linda
As usual you are totally on point. And you’re being an optimist about 4 million people being deported. We are headed for 4 million people in slave labor camps.
Why don't the Democrats ever talk about the immigration bill that trump killed in 2024 that actually tried to solve problems with the immigration system? Push that as a humane alternative to this human rights disaster.
After Trump killed the bipartisan immigration reform bill, the Democratic leadership said they would talk about it every day until election day. That may have been the last time they talked about it.
We have needed comprehensive immigration reform and a functional guest worker program since the 80s... Now with the tRump regime willing to grab brown people and imprison them for being brown, I doubt real reform is possible. First of all tRump would veto it. Second, he and his goons like abusing brown people. Third, business , like Congress, is cowed by the mob-boss-in-chief. And fourth rRump is not interested in fixing anything at all. Ever the Agent of Chaos, he seemingly wants whatever is worst for the US.
Immigration reform happens post 🍊. Weathering and Ridding us of 🍊IT and the bobble head cabinet, weakens the ChristoFacist / Techno Billionaire handlers.
If we survive the Orange One. That imbecile has the Nuclear Launch Codes.
Thank you! I was very disappointed during the 2024 campaign that the Democrats refused to stand up loudly and proudly for the humanity and dignity of immigrants. I flipped over briefly to watch the Republican Convention because I thought I should know what they were saying. The crowd was holding signs that said Mass Deportation Now. As someone who has been accompanying immigrants for many years, I felt physically ill. In September, the American Immigration Council published a report looking at the details of what a mass deportation program would be like in practice. It was not pretty, both from a human rights viewpoint and economically. My thought was that once people saw mass deportation in practice, they would hate it, as they hated the Family Separation cruelty in 2018. I was right, but that doesn't help any of the immigrants who have been and will be detained or sent to torture prisons.
I heard Democrats standing strongly with immigrants. Not sure what you mean....
I agree about all this. But I do have trouble with one thing. All these millions of people have come here illegally. They did break the law to come here, and sometimes repeatedly in order to bring family members as well. We need to defend them about being deported, but the truth is that the immigration situation has to be rectified. If you don’t agree that it needs to be rectified I’d like to hear what you have to say. Other than that everybody has rights.
Have you noticed that everyone in the construction industry and the landscape gardening industry is now from another country? It’s the same for childcare and elder care. Same for, just about anyone I call who is a plumber or doing any kind of similar work. This is not because our own citizens do not like that work. That’s a total bullshit argument. The reason native born people don’t get those jobs is because they don’t pay enough anymore due to the very available pool of much cheaper people to do that labor. I used to do that kind of work myself. I found in doing bids for landscape work, it got to the point where I could not use native born people because I would not get the contract, due to it, being too high, compared to the other contracts. Plus, they were great and willing workers and great people to have around, happy to have the work.
I don’t know the answer to that question precisely, but it is a noticeable trend, and one that is vast across our economy. I don’t see anyone talking about that. And the very vastness of it does trouble me.
If you would like to see our future, I encourage you to watch Ken Burn’s “ The US and the Holocaust”. The parallels and especially the way he ends the series should make everyone sit up and take notice. If you know someone who doesn’t believe the current administration’s policies are as inhumane and on the same path Hitler took, this series may open their eyes.
Karen, thank you for making me aware of this Burns documentary. I'm a huge fan of Mr. Burns and will definitely find and watch it. Yes, we seem to be on a fast track parallel course with the rise of the Nazis in post-Weimar Germany. We have an authoritarian cultish leader who lies at the drop of a hat; sends in troops to LA as a photo-op against the wishes of the governor and mayor; feeds the Constitution into a shredder and replaces is with Project 2025; defies court orders; commits other countless illegal acts moment by moment; attacks universities, lawyers and the media in an attempt to force them to bend the knee; demonizes immigrants with cruelty and relish (so much for only going after the criminals, huh?). I mean, how else will ICE keep up with Herr Stephen Miller (aka Heinrich Himmler) and his edict to arrest 3,000 people a month? This cretin has a pathological hatred of brown people in the exact same way that Hitler, Himmler and others hated Jews. Now Herr Miller has his final solution: build inhumane concentration camps all over the country. The depth to which we have sunk is unfathomable.
Good Morning
Ms Rubin …,
I’ve been following you for a few years .
I especially consider your use of our English language a real treasure .
Please look closely at the pic you have in this article . I see a little Hispanic girl dressed in pink with a US flag in one hand and her blankie in the other …,
Does our current regime really think she is a threat ¿
I cry tears of tragedy and fear for all my brothers and sisters who are brown as me .
I’m in your corner !!!!
I met with my family physician Monday and she's from the Philippines. I love her. Somehow we started talking about immigration and she spent many years and a lot of money to legally become an American citizen. I understand this, but it saddened me that she believes that all immigrants should follow this path. Frightened me that she believes that immigrants are committing crimes in the US. When I mentioned that the crimes being committed today in large part are American citizens, she said she doesn't watch the news so she doesn't know about that fact. Seems propaganda is working without MSM. Blows me away. I'm from Miami Florida and grew up with many people from Cuba coming to America. I didn't like it at first, but I learned that they were fleeing for their lives, and that they contributed much to Miami. I even married a Cuban man! How is this ever going to be remidied?
Many immigrants from all over the world came to America via "proper" channels and worked to become naturalized citizens. Most of them do not support people who want to become citizens without going through the "proper" channels. It may sound heartless but it is quite understandable. A lighthearted example of this is why all of us dislike people who cut in line.
I agree and endorse the content of this article. However, as a Texas Democrat, I have some practical input as to how to go about this. Consider our adversary. Republicans and Fox News have defined Democrats for everyday, average people. Democrats ceded that field long ago and politically disengaged citizens have deeply internalized the fallacy that Democrats aren't supporting immigration because of the reasons Rubin posits. No.
Instead, normal people deeply believe that we Democrats are committed to injecting cartels, criminals and anti-social foreigners into their lives. They firmly believe these hordes will be deliberately encouraged to come and take their stuff. See how this one weird trick does a lot of work for Republicans?
When we undertake to 'defend immigrants', the everyday voter who has been fatally misinformed hears us defending criminality. Not just criminals, but criminality as a political policy. So, it is not enough to put together a beautiful law review article. We need tough, smart trial lawyers who know what a jury's biases are and know how to put a case together in their language and with a narrative they can get behind. Case in point.
I am sixty-five in three weeks. My neighbor is right behind me. We were discussing Medicare. I said I was not pleased that Republicans intended to cut my Medicare and Social Security benefits. My neighbor immediately and in a very rote (trained via Fox no doubt) manner pivoted to a rant about immigrants unjustifiably taking those benefits. I shook my head to disagree and that really made her dig in. Note, I did not say a word. I simply looked at her and shook my head.
So, I listened to her urban legend sounding anecdotes and realized there was no way to defend immigrants with her. Instead, I went to logic. OK, assuming this to be true, how does cutting OUR benefits solve that problem? Why not go after criminals? Arrest law-breakers. Give them a trial, let a jury find them guilty, I mean throw the book at them! (Please note, I did not concede the point that all immigrants are criminals.) Show me, I said, how cutting our benefits does anything to punish crime?
She literally did a double-take. She fully expected me to defend criminals and criminality because she has been trained to conflate the two and believes immigrant=criminal. So, the wheels were turning in her mind. Then, I pointed out the Lankford bill did address crime by immigrants. I stated the truth. Republicans got pretty much every single thing they wanted in that bill and Biden promised to sign it. But no. Trump nixed that so he could scare people about immigrants. He chose not to solve the problem.
Being the sweet and good person she is, my neighbor listened and heard me. I have no illusions that she won't default right back to where she was, because she will. She is trapped in a RW disinformation echo chamber. The only way to get anywhere on issues like these is to realize we are dealing with people whose world view has been distorted. They will not break free willingly. Constant, respectful confrontation with concrete examples within a compelling narrative is necessary. Trial lawyers and good teachers know exactly how to do this.
However, I successfully undermined Trump and his lies in that moment. She conceded she does not like Trump. I guarantee she is worried about her benefits being cut. That is how we win. We must recognize how Democrats have been defined in the public's mind and undermine those fallacies. We must reveal Trump as the cause of all misery. And we cannot play into the tropes. Theory is necessary. But it is far from sufficient to win this battle. We must build up our credibility and tear down Trump and the Republican party's credibility.
It is indeed a stunt. Made for Trash-Fox-TV infotainment. It's not even a policy, just performative cruelty for the ding-dongs who get off on that stuff.
Surely, fighting against something as transparently ridiculous as this shouldn't be that tough.