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The immigration thread: American Melting Pot or Get off my Lawn


Burgold

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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/opinion/sunday/obamas-death-sentence-for-young-refugees.html?smid=tw-share

Obama’s Death Sentence for Young Refugees

 

CRISTÓBAL, a 16-year-old Honduran refugee fleeing a drug gang that wants to kill him, has never heard of anyone named Barack Obama. Neither can he name the Mexican president, Enrique Peña Nieto.

 

But Cristóbal, along with many others, could end up being murdered because of these two presidents he is unaware of. Obama and Peña Nieto have cooperated for two years to intercept desperate Central American refugees in southern Mexico, long before they can reach the U.S. border. These refugees are then typically deported to their home countries — which can be a death sentence.

 

“If I’m sent back, they will kill me,” says Cristóbal, who is staying temporarily at a shelter for unaccompanied migrant kids in Mexico. He says he was forced to work for the gang as a cocaine courier beginning at age 14 — a gun was held to his head, and he was told he would be shot if he declined. He finally quit and fled after he witnessed gang members murder two of his friends. Now the gang is looking for him, he says, and it already sent a hit team to his home.

 

Yet he may well be sent back under a policy backed by Obama and Peña Nieto. I admire much about the Obama administration, including its fine words about refugees, but this policy is rank with deadly hypocrisy.

 

In effect, we have pressured and bribed Mexico to do our dirty work, detaining and deporting people fleeing gangs in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. This solved a political crisis that Obama faced with refugees in 2014, but it betrays some of the world’s most vulnerable people.

 

The American-Mexican collusion began in 2014 after a surge of Central Americans crossed into the U.S., including 50,000 unaccompanied children. Obama spoke with Peña Nieto “to develop concrete proposals” to address the flow. This turned out to be a plan to intercept Central Americans near Mexico’s southern border and send them home.

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https://twitter.com/DailyStarLeb/status/747845797287460864

Canada to end requirement that Mexicans need visas: Trudeau

 

Canada will scrap a requirement obliging Mexican visitors to obtain visas, Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday, a move designed to end a diplomatic dispute between the two nations.

 

Trudeau said the restrictions would be lifted on Dec. 1 this year. Canada's former Conservative government imposed the visa rules in 2009 to stop what they said were bogus asylum claims.

Edited by visionary
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  • 4 weeks later...

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/21/world/syria-refugees-connecticut-roth-amanpour/index.html

What Syrian refugees want Donald Trump to know

 

Syrian refugees just arriving in the United States will likely not be watching the Republican or Democratic conventions or the political ups and downs of the campaign.

 

They are too busy learning to speak English and beginning their new life in America. However, many, refugees are well aware of the positions that presidential candidate Donald Trump has taken on Muslims and immigration.

 

Trump has proposed a ban on Muslims. He is also employing what he terms 'extreme vetting' of those who want to come to the United States.

 

One of those recent refugees, whom we'll call Mazan, said, "With all respect to Donald Trump, what he's saying is wrong." He rejected Trump's sweeping comments, lumping all Muslims under an umbrella of terrorism.

 

Jumana, his wife, said with a smile, "I would vote for the woman, not him."

 

Not that she can vote; these refugees are years away from becoming citizens. There are many aspects of daily life the refugees can only do with massive support from residents of Connecticut.

 

I spent two days in the state with some of the refugees from the war in Syria. Their focus is on starting anew. Finding a job, learning a new language, enjoying some peace.

 

They beam when discussing their new home. Hashim's teen daughter said, "I like America so much and I really wish to thank America for opening its arms for us and embracing us."

There are many Muslims living side by side with other Americans already, her father said

 

"The American people should have no fear of us, no reason to be afraid." Mazan said he was interviewed 10 times while in Turkey, mostly by American immigration and security officials.

 

The United States says it would like to take as many as 100,000 refugees, many from Syria, in 2017. Canada has taken a lot more. Mazan said when he saw his name on a list and where he was going he was "so happy."

Edited by visionary
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  • 2 weeks later...

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/world/americas/un-united-nations-refugees-migrants.html?smid=tw-share

U.N. Deadlocked Over Draft Agreement on Refugees and Migrants

 

More people are forcibly displaced from their homes today than at any time since the end of the Second World War.

 

But the plight of these people is so politically contentious that after days of intense negotiations over a draft international agreement, the nations of the world have come up with virtually no concrete commitments to make their journeys any better or safer.

 

Western European countries, along with Russia, resisted what many had hoped would be a pledge to resettle one-tenth of all the people fleeing war and persecution. And the United States balked at language that would have committed all countries to not detaining undocumented children who arrive at their borders.

 

At issue is a 22-page draft “outcome document” that the 193 countries of the United Nations are trying to agree on before the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in September. It is not legally binding. Still, the negotiations are so difficult that a draft text that had been expected to be adopted on Monday, after being postponed at least once before, was postponed again.

 

“This has been a very difficult topic — very, very difficult and timely,” Dina Kawar, Jordan’s ambassador to the United Nations and one of two diplomats leading the negotiations, said on Monday.

 

The draft agreement comes at a time when refugees and migrants have become a divisive element in European and American politics. In the presidential campaign in the United States, Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee, has proposed barring Muslims from entering the country.

 

Refugees and migrants will be the biggest issue at the gathering of world leaders at the United Nations next month. President Obama plans to lead a meeting at the General Assembly in an effort to nudge countries to take in more refugees and contribute to countries that have taken them in for years.

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We can all sleep better at night knowing the UN is hard at work on a non-binding immigration "outcome document" that, as reported in that article, Amnesty International describes like so:

 

 

Amnesty International said in a statement over the weekend that “with some states trying to dilute the agreement to suit their own political agendas, we may end up with tentative half-measures that merely reinforce the status quo or even weaken existing protection.”

 

I wonder what this great and important work by the UN cost to produce.

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  • 3 months later...

Sanctuary cities seem to be in the news now.

Denying federal funds is a time honored tradition in other areas.....will Trump use it to enforce federal law?

Will Dems scream how unfair it is after using the same tactic?

 

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1 minute ago, twa said:

Sanctuary cities seem to be in the news now.

Denying federal funds is a time honored tradition in other areas.....will Trump use it to enforce federal law?

Will Dems scream how unfair it is after using the same tactic?

He can try. We'll see how successful it is or if it even passes Congress. Choking off your major economic hubs and pissing them off is a great way to tank the economy.

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8 minutes ago, No Excuses said:

He can try. We'll see how successful it is or if it even passes Congress. Choking off your major economic hubs and pissing them off is a great way to tank the economy.

 

But I thought they were where the rich people are....don't we like getting money from the rich?

You use the Dem model and target just certain funding....you know,like a firm grip on the nuts.

Ain't federal power grand?

 

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30 minutes ago, twa said:

 

But I thought they were where the rich people are....don't we like getting money from the rich?

You use the Dem model and target just certain funding....you know,like a firm grip on the nuts.

Ain't federal power grand?

 

 

I'm all for it. Economic power and private sector influence is pretty grand too. 

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  • 1 month later...

 

Quote

 

Gov. Abbott demands Travis County reverse new "sanctuary" policy

Gov. Greg Abbott is formally demanding that Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez reverse her new policy on cooperation with federal immigration authorities or lose state dollars, further escalating a showdown over "sanctuary cities" that have been in the crosshairs of Republican officials.  

https://www.texastribune.org/2017/01/23/abbott-demands-hernandez-reverse-new-sanctuary-pol/

 

 

Quote


An IGS-UC Berkeley poll shows that 74 percent of Californians want sanctuary cities ended; 65 percent of Hispanics, 70 percent of independents, 73 percent of Democrats and 82 percent of Republicans. Recognizing strong public concern, California’s law enforcement organizations should speak out against being restricted from cooperating with federal authorities, and demand compliance to make our communities safer.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/commentary/sd-utbg-sanctuary-cities-opposition-20170120-story.html

 

 

74% is like a majority right? :)

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12 minutes ago, twa said:

 

74% is like a majority right? :)

 

Have to confess to being really surprised by that number.  But I'm not seeing anything off the bat that says it's a fake, either.  (Granted, when I search for the poll, the first two hits are for Breitbart.  But there's other hits from more believable sources, too.)  

 

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