Tag: immigration

Trump’s immigration speech was about bigotry, not economics. 

Josh Barro at Business Insider explains.

Reasonable people can argue for restricting immigration on economic grounds. But that’s not Trump’s primary argument. His primary argument is that brown skinned people — specifically Mexicans and Muslims — are violent and dangerous. In reality, immigrants commit violent crime at a lower rate than native born Americans.

Moreover, Trump’s comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel show that Trump’s bigotry isn’t limited to illegal immigrants.

Trump’s opposition to immigration isn’t about economics. It’s about ethnic purity. It’s about making America white again.

Trump’s supporters are more affluent but come from struggling white enclaves

Trump voters are themselves well off, but their friends, family, and neighbors are struggling. And because they’re older, Trump supporters are likely to have seen their adult children falling behind, according to a Gallup analysis, reported by Max Ehrenfreund and Jeff Guo at The Washington Post.

Also, Trump supporters are most skeptical about immigration but “least likely to actually encounter an immigrant in their neighborhood.” They’re “more likely to be found in white enclaves — racially isolated zip codes where the amount of diversity is lower than in surrounding areas.”

Donald Trump now says even legal immigrants are a security threat

Jenna Johnson, The Washington Post:

At a rally in Portland, Maine, on Thursday afternoon, Trump provided a lengthy explanation of why he thinks the United States needs to be skeptical of immigrants from many countries, even if they follow the legal process.

He has a point. If there had been better immigration controls 100 years ago when Trump’s grandparents came to the US, we wouldn’t be stuck with the Orange Man-Baby now.

Melania Trump had work visa when she modeled in the 90s, former agency says

Melania Trump’s former modeling agent says she obtained a work visa before she modeled professionally in the United States in the mid-1990s. Those comments came in response to questions about Mrs. Trump’s own remarks that appeared inconsistent with U.S. immigration rules….

In interviews earlier this year with MSNBC and for a profile in Harper’s Bazaar, Mrs. Trump’s comments appeared to be inconsistent with holding a work visa.

“I never thought to stay here without papers. I had a visa. I traveled every few months back to the country to Slovenia to stamp the visa,” she said during the MSNBC interview.

U.S. immigration law did not require such trips that Mrs. Trump describes for work-visa holders at the time. People who hold visitor visas would be required to leave the country on or before the end date of their authorized stay. U.S. law does not allow someone to use a visitor visa to regularly live and work in the country.

Mrs. Trump published a statement on Twitter on Thursday, disputing that she violated immigration laws. “I have at all times been in full compliance with the immigration laws of this country. Period. Any allegation to the contrary is simply untrue,” she wrote.

Seems likely that she was here and working legally. Maybe back in the 90s she overcomplied with requirements because she misunderstood them. Or maybe now she is misremembering events of 20 years ago.

(The Associated Press/CBS News)

Reading this makes me proud to be American. No, seriously 

The Day I Got My Green Card

Aatish Taseer, a gay South Asian British Muslim immigrant, writes a love letter to the USA, where his now the proud possessor of a green card.

“I was overcome by what must be one of the most unfashionable emotions of our time: boundless, unqualified love for America.”

Hell of an article.  Reread it every Independence Day.

(Is Taseer Muslim? Not sure. Doesn’t matter — having a confusing heritage that requires a PowerPoint presentation to explain is the American Way! Ethnic purity is for the Old World — hybrid vigor ftw!)

[The Wall Street Journal]

 

 

Immigrant healthcare

California wants to let undocumented workers buy health insurance through state exchanges under the Affordable Care Act. [Patrick McGreevy – LA Times]

The plan will accrue no additional costs to the state – undocumented workers would use their own money, advocates say.

This won’t be controversial. Nope.