We’ve likely never had a more permissive environment to take a hard line against illegal immigration, but we shouldn’t assume the road will be easy from here on out.
I agree about the voluntary remigration, offer the ones who came the farthest free transport home. No benefits, housing cell phones and end birthright citizenship and family unification. Do our republican leaders have the spine to do this?
"Millions of Americans sympathize with illegal immigrants and their continued presence in the country, whether illegally or through some legalization program."
Should most undocumented immigrants in the U.S. be:
Offered legal status (56%) -- 76% Harris / 22% Trump
Deported to their origin country (40%) -- 11% Harris / 87% Trump
The actual voting breakdown is less important than the percentage of voters (in parenthesis above) who identified with each position. More than half the voters said they wanted most illegals to be legalized instead of deported, and 1/4 of these folks voted for Trump anyway. Note, this is not the "immigration is my most important issue" crowd -- this is everyone, which is key. 40% of the 2024 electorate wants everyone deported (ala Trump) but once CNN and NBC run footage of a pretty, Latino mom with a toddler being herded onto an airplane every night for a month, the "deport them all" number will drop to single digits. Opposition to illegal immigration is broad but shallow. Tom Hollman is the right person but needs to be very careful how he goes about it -- stick with people arrested, then those working illegally.
Great data point on the disconnect between the PMC and everyone else in America. Our elite doesn't know how to mow their own lawns or vacuum their own houses or grow a few tomatoes. And they're proud of it.
Regarding the small towns being inundated with illegals, I doubt it was intentional, but doubling the population of a red state town of 3500 just feels like, "let's punish those racist, MAGA deplorables." The pro-illegal Dem bureaucracy likely didn't even think about it. If they did, it was through the lens of, "importing cultural diversity will make those stupid hicks more likely to support immigration." Talk about disconnected from reality though.
I am pro-life -- I can not support the state executing Laken Riley's killer. Even Jose Ibarra deserves a change to repent before meeting God. And now he'll have a lifetime to do so. But if someone did to one of my girls what Jose did to Laken... let's just say I wouldn't be so philosophical. And my girls know it.
KaiserBauch said much the same about Europe. People may be broadly anti-mass immigration, but they're not willing to break the bank to get rid of all of them. The "send them all back" sentiment is basically limited to the 18-39 male cohort, who tend to overstate their own impact on politics.
I'm going to talk more about it in Part II, but I think leading with mass deportations is a non-starter. Mass deportations will do nothing without a secure border. Ironically, I think "build a wall" is far less toxic today than it was in 2016. I'm also sick and tired of hearing how Operation Wetback proves we can do mass deportation. We're not the same country we were back then and the push-back we'd get from the military proves it's not something you can lead with, anyway. The problem with the dissident right is that they're still very immature politically. They aren't thinking this stuff through.
Honestly, if you can make the illegals leave voluntarily, that's the best possible outcome. Then you don't have to spend a dime on them. Deal with the stragglers as you come across them. Better to deport millions over 10 years than to try to deport millions in one year, which isn't going to happen. I don't care if it's theoretically possible. We live in the real world.
As a post-Christian right-winger, I have no problems with the death penalty, aside from executing an innocent man. This is why death row inmates are allowed to stay execution for years on end. Honestly, death is really the only appropriate punishment for Jose Ibarra. Someone on X noted that even with life in prison, the taxpayer is still going to be taking care of this guy, so there's no point in this entire sordid affair that Americans aren't being looted and victimized here. Interestingly, he still gets to live the American Dream of sorts - live off the taxpayer.
3) Any non-Mexican national is summarily refused asylum.
4) Deport any illegal convicted of anything above a traffic violation.
5) Tax remittances to Mexico at 50%.
6) Enforce employment law using fines.
7) Charge flagrant hirers of illegals with the crime.
8) Deny federal LEO and ed funds to sanctuary states.
All save #5 could be done on day 1 by EO. #5 might even be possible as capital controls are a international border issue, an area over which the President's powers are pretty broad.
After you've done all of that...
126) Round up and mass deport everyone else.
Tom Hollman is a former ICE director. Hopefully he realizes how much low-hanging fruit there is here.
Mass deportations are a last resort. Hopefully, they're smart enough to realize it. The key to success is to always go after low-hanging fruit first and to do things that nobody would care that you did, even if the media made a fuss. I doubt anyone's going to gnash and wail over a wall. Also, I don't think troops on the border is controversial at all. Any controversy that arises would come from the military trying to disobey orders.
Ironically, Tom Homan was honored by President Barack Obama. Someone described him as a man for all administrations.
The only way to protect life is to remove evil by force, if necessary, up to, and including execution for the crime of taking someone's life.
There is no question this is the monster who murdered Laken Riley and there is no confusion in my mind he should be executed by the State. No ifs, ands, buts, or maybes.
The Pope's basic premise is that, since no man knows the state of another's soul, no one may needlessly take the life of another and thereby risk condemning him to Hell. One of the keys is "needlessly" though. There are many places and time periods where execution of murderers is not needless, which is why Pope Benedict did not declare (as Francis tried to later) that the death penalty is always a moral evil. But for a modern, industrialized, established state, the death penalty is unnecessary. Such a state is both politically and financially capable of protecting its members from the condemned without taking his life. Execution is therefore cathartic but unnecessary. It's not justice but vengeance, and vengeance belongs to the Lord.
Jose Ibarra is made in the image of God and deserves every chance to turn back to the God who made him. I would ask you: would you be upset of Ibarra converted in prison, followed Christ for the next 40 years in his cell, and died of old age at peace with God? Would you be angry if you met Ibarra in Heaven? Why? For God to accept me requires He be willing to accept other repentant sinners like me, and if that includes Jose Ibarra, I will celebrate along with the angels that another lost sheep has been found.
Your perspective is hardly rare, so I'm not trying to pick on you. I get the same response from my (mostly evangelical) students, nearly all of whom deeply disagree with me on this. But that's OK, and I tell them that I'm weird. Philosophical consistency in political positions is far more important to me than it is to most people. That's what you get from a philosophy nerd.
Quite seriously, I could have written this article about my neighborhood in Houston on December 2, 1994.
On September 12, 2001, I said to a friend, "I think our immigration catastrophe is about to be solved."
As I read this article and as I am writing these remarks, I am watching America This Week, the always excellent Matt Taibbi/Walter Kirn livestream, which is on every Monday evening at 8:00 PM EST. ( I'm watching on YouTube. ) Taibbi and Kirn are discussing the Hunter Biden pardon, that it's emblematic of the grotesque level of corruption of the Biden family, and of our Elites, in general.
Kirn is in fine form tonight. He's a largely undiscovered treasure, because he's primarily a novelist by trade, not a political commenter. So far, he's used the word, "scum," about the Bidens at least twice.
I agree about the voluntary remigration, offer the ones who came the farthest free transport home. No benefits, housing cell phones and end birthright citizenship and family unification. Do our republican leaders have the spine to do this?
"Millions of Americans sympathize with illegal immigrants and their continued presence in the country, whether illegally or through some legalization program."
One of the post-election charts I showed my students: www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-elections/exit-polls
Should most undocumented immigrants in the U.S. be:
Offered legal status (56%) -- 76% Harris / 22% Trump
Deported to their origin country (40%) -- 11% Harris / 87% Trump
The actual voting breakdown is less important than the percentage of voters (in parenthesis above) who identified with each position. More than half the voters said they wanted most illegals to be legalized instead of deported, and 1/4 of these folks voted for Trump anyway. Note, this is not the "immigration is my most important issue" crowd -- this is everyone, which is key. 40% of the 2024 electorate wants everyone deported (ala Trump) but once CNN and NBC run footage of a pretty, Latino mom with a toddler being herded onto an airplane every night for a month, the "deport them all" number will drop to single digits. Opposition to illegal immigration is broad but shallow. Tom Hollman is the right person but needs to be very careful how he goes about it -- stick with people arrested, then those working illegally.
Great data point on the disconnect between the PMC and everyone else in America. Our elite doesn't know how to mow their own lawns or vacuum their own houses or grow a few tomatoes. And they're proud of it.
Regarding the small towns being inundated with illegals, I doubt it was intentional, but doubling the population of a red state town of 3500 just feels like, "let's punish those racist, MAGA deplorables." The pro-illegal Dem bureaucracy likely didn't even think about it. If they did, it was through the lens of, "importing cultural diversity will make those stupid hicks more likely to support immigration." Talk about disconnected from reality though.
I am pro-life -- I can not support the state executing Laken Riley's killer. Even Jose Ibarra deserves a change to repent before meeting God. And now he'll have a lifetime to do so. But if someone did to one of my girls what Jose did to Laken... let's just say I wouldn't be so philosophical. And my girls know it.
KaiserBauch said much the same about Europe. People may be broadly anti-mass immigration, but they're not willing to break the bank to get rid of all of them. The "send them all back" sentiment is basically limited to the 18-39 male cohort, who tend to overstate their own impact on politics.
I'm going to talk more about it in Part II, but I think leading with mass deportations is a non-starter. Mass deportations will do nothing without a secure border. Ironically, I think "build a wall" is far less toxic today than it was in 2016. I'm also sick and tired of hearing how Operation Wetback proves we can do mass deportation. We're not the same country we were back then and the push-back we'd get from the military proves it's not something you can lead with, anyway. The problem with the dissident right is that they're still very immature politically. They aren't thinking this stuff through.
Honestly, if you can make the illegals leave voluntarily, that's the best possible outcome. Then you don't have to spend a dime on them. Deal with the stragglers as you come across them. Better to deport millions over 10 years than to try to deport millions in one year, which isn't going to happen. I don't care if it's theoretically possible. We live in the real world.
As a post-Christian right-winger, I have no problems with the death penalty, aside from executing an innocent man. This is why death row inmates are allowed to stay execution for years on end. Honestly, death is really the only appropriate punishment for Jose Ibarra. Someone on X noted that even with life in prison, the taxpayer is still going to be taking care of this guy, so there's no point in this entire sordid affair that Americans aren't being looted and victimized here. Interestingly, he still gets to live the American Dream of sorts - live off the taxpayer.
There's no justice.
Agreed on tactics:
1) Close the border.
2) So-called asylum seekers must wait in Mexico.
3) Any non-Mexican national is summarily refused asylum.
4) Deport any illegal convicted of anything above a traffic violation.
5) Tax remittances to Mexico at 50%.
6) Enforce employment law using fines.
7) Charge flagrant hirers of illegals with the crime.
8) Deny federal LEO and ed funds to sanctuary states.
All save #5 could be done on day 1 by EO. #5 might even be possible as capital controls are a international border issue, an area over which the President's powers are pretty broad.
After you've done all of that...
126) Round up and mass deport everyone else.
Tom Hollman is a former ICE director. Hopefully he realizes how much low-hanging fruit there is here.
Mass deportations are a last resort. Hopefully, they're smart enough to realize it. The key to success is to always go after low-hanging fruit first and to do things that nobody would care that you did, even if the media made a fuss. I doubt anyone's going to gnash and wail over a wall. Also, I don't think troops on the border is controversial at all. Any controversy that arises would come from the military trying to disobey orders.
Ironically, Tom Homan was honored by President Barack Obama. Someone described him as a man for all administrations.
I, too, am staunchly Pro-Life.
The only way to protect life is to remove evil by force, if necessary, up to, and including execution for the crime of taking someone's life.
There is no question this is the monster who murdered Laken Riley and there is no confusion in my mind he should be executed by the State. No ifs, ands, buts, or maybes.
The trial is complete. His eternal reward awaits.
Human law is a reflection of natural and divine law.
Human justice is a pale shadow of divine justice.
I respect that there are many pro-life (on abortion) people who are pro-death when it comes to murderers. However, I would point you to none other than the very conservative Pope Benedict: https://catholicmoraltheology.com/pope-benedict-xvis-most-recent-statement-on-the-death-penalty/
The Pope's basic premise is that, since no man knows the state of another's soul, no one may needlessly take the life of another and thereby risk condemning him to Hell. One of the keys is "needlessly" though. There are many places and time periods where execution of murderers is not needless, which is why Pope Benedict did not declare (as Francis tried to later) that the death penalty is always a moral evil. But for a modern, industrialized, established state, the death penalty is unnecessary. Such a state is both politically and financially capable of protecting its members from the condemned without taking his life. Execution is therefore cathartic but unnecessary. It's not justice but vengeance, and vengeance belongs to the Lord.
Jose Ibarra is made in the image of God and deserves every chance to turn back to the God who made him. I would ask you: would you be upset of Ibarra converted in prison, followed Christ for the next 40 years in his cell, and died of old age at peace with God? Would you be angry if you met Ibarra in Heaven? Why? For God to accept me requires He be willing to accept other repentant sinners like me, and if that includes Jose Ibarra, I will celebrate along with the angels that another lost sheep has been found.
Your perspective is hardly rare, so I'm not trying to pick on you. I get the same response from my (mostly evangelical) students, nearly all of whom deeply disagree with me on this. But that's OK, and I tell them that I'm weird. Philosophical consistency in political positions is far more important to me than it is to most people. That's what you get from a philosophy nerd.
Quite seriously, I could have written this article about my neighborhood in Houston on December 2, 1994.
On September 12, 2001, I said to a friend, "I think our immigration catastrophe is about to be solved."
As I read this article and as I am writing these remarks, I am watching America This Week, the always excellent Matt Taibbi/Walter Kirn livestream, which is on every Monday evening at 8:00 PM EST. ( I'm watching on YouTube. ) Taibbi and Kirn are discussing the Hunter Biden pardon, that it's emblematic of the grotesque level of corruption of the Biden family, and of our Elites, in general.
Kirn is in fine form tonight. He's a largely undiscovered treasure, because he's primarily a novelist by trade, not a political commenter. So far, he's used the word, "scum," about the Bidens at least twice.