RETURN TO SENDER/ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

[Maggot]

What a kick in the head it must be to actually enforce our American laws. Is everyone illiterate? I have a hard time rationalizing someone being here 20 years and not reading any laws about the legality of being here illegally. Immigration reform is needed and Trump is not willing to kick the can down the road like his predecessors have. Look at all the slack he is getting. Good for him though, as many politicians squirm thinking about their re-elections they and quite a few Americans are furious he wants to finally nail this mess down. He will get it done as he has throughout his first year, even with all the ransom requests from political junkies.

[SIXFOOTERsez]

I say good on him too. There is a Lot of work needed on "immigration Reform" both legal and illegal.
I say run the illegals back and build the wall. No one gave me anything for free and I am a citizen and a veteran. The notion that the children of illegals are entitled to anything is ridiculous so fuck DACA too
GO TRUMP, MAGA!

[BigMark]

Word my brother.

[Blindgreed1]

I say good on him too. There is a Lot of work needed on "immigration Reform" both legal and illegal.
I say run the illegals back and build the wall.

That wall is never going to happen. There's too much reservation land involved and besides that most of the illegals down here arrive via the vast array of tunnels, and a wall isn't going to deter them. Just reform the immigration laws.

[HairOfTheDog]

That wall is never going to happen. There's too much reservation land involved and besides that most of the illegals down here arrive via the vast array of tunnels, and a wall isn't going to deter them. Just reform the immigration laws.

Yeah, that's the far more logical and effective solution to me too. That, plus diligent enforcement of the reformed immigration laws.

Just the clear message that they're not welcome and illegal entry will be cracked down upon has drastically reduced illegal border crossings since Trump took office. It didn't take a $20billion wall.

But, the largest portion of the undocumented immigrant population didn't enter the U.S. illegally in the first place anyway. No illogical wall will address that issue.

Most undocumented immigrants came here by air or sea on visas and then stayed without renewing their documentation. The vast majority of visa-holders leave or renew before their docs expire (98%+), but the other 1 to 2% accounts for nearly 750,000 undocumented immigrants per year. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201...migration/

If the government really wants them gone (and in many cases I don't think that's the case because most contribute more than they take from the economy), the Feds need to push state governments to proactively pursue them through appropriate channels and either help them renew their legal status or deport them.

Anyway, I really don't give a shit if a great big wall is built, aside from the wasteful expense to tax payers for something that would be largely symbolic only (though it could be a job-creator). However, a literal Wall stretching fully across our nation's borders is a simple and ineffective solution to a complex issue; an emotion-based solution that only appeals to a certain mindset.

[Maggot]

Dammit, I was hoping to start a chain of ice water stations along that wall charging for ice water and shade.

[BigMark]

HOTD is throwing you some shade right now for free.

[Duchess]

ICE has "lost" 1424 immigrant kids after removing them from their parents. They have no idea where they are.

In other news near Laredo, Texas, a young girl was shot in the head and killed by border agents. Apparently the whole thing was captured live on Facebook. She was an immigrant from Guatemala.

[HairOfTheDog]

Inhumane, on both counts.

I didn't like it when the Obama administration separated children from parents and disagree with the Trump administration expanding the practice and doing it more frequently.

It doesn't help curb illegal immigration and punishes children the most.

It's pitiful that partisan politics has kept our lame Congress from making any progress on immigration reform for more than 8 years.

It's especially disappointing now that the President's party has majority control of all branches of government. There is a lot of infighting within the Republican party regarding immigration and the current President is so anti-immigrant. So, the Congress does nothing........and the abuses continue and worsen.

[HairOfTheDog]

Snip:
The Office of Refugee Resettlement reported at the end of 2017 that of the 7,000-plus children placed with sponsored individuals, the agency did not know where 1,475 of them were.

Republican Sen. Rob Portman said, “It’s just a system that has so many gaps, so many opportunities for these children to fall between the cracks, that we just don’t know what’s going on — how much trafficking or abuse or simply immigration law violations are occurring.”

A documentary from the PBS program "Frontline" said that the federal government has actually released some of the minors to human traffickers. Imagine that.

And now we want to dramatically ramp up the number of children who are removed from their parents?

When pressed about safety concerns Homeland Security Department Secretary Kristjen Nielsen said, "I just want to say, I couldn't agree with your concerns more, period. We owe more to these children to protect them. So I'm saying I agree, we've taken steps and we will continue to strengthen what our partners do to protect these children."

https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/...631627002/

[Duchess]

It's indecent and a moral outrage. I am never going to be okay with this.

[Maggot]

I wish the wall would just get built so none of this crap would happen. It may be a deterrent for the adults to stay away and I hope MS-13 didn't get a hold of them to sell. If a persons kids were getting taken away why don't they just go back? (That question should get some crap)

[Duchess]

Some of the stories are so sad. Most of these people are escaping violence, all they want is a better life, one for themselves and for their children. They want for their kids what they didn't have, an education and opportunities and a chance to live peacefully. One man came seeking medical care for his 3 month old, they took his baby and deported him. Ugh. It's just awful :(

[SIXFOOTERsez]

Some of the stories are so sad. Most of these people are escaping violence, all they want is a better life, one for themselves and for their children. They want for their kids what they didn't have, an education and opportunities and a chance to live peacefully. One man came seeking medical care for his 3 month old, they took his baby and deported him. Ugh. It's just awful :(

Some are as you say, a lot of others are not and damn near all of them come here for a free ride

[Duchess]

Some are as you say, a lot of others are not and damn near all of them come here for a free ride

Hey Six! Nice to see you! How's everything?

[Duchess]

I wish the wall would just get built so none of this crap would happen. It may be a deterrent for the adults to stay away and I hope MS-13 didn't get a hold of them to sell. If a persons kids were getting taken away why don't they just go back? (That question should get some crap)

There is nothing illegal about seeking asylum and yet their children are being removed from them and not in a gentle, calm manner, the parents are crying and screaming, the kids are crying and screaming, everyone is fucking terrified and now the authorities don't even know where some of these kids are. It's sickening and rational people are outraged.

[Maggot]

I just read up on this and it applies to people that cross illegally into the country, if they cross and are caught and they have children they are separated and put into different staging area's before, they were rounded up put on buses and sent back and many would just come back and try again. It looks like the government wants to send a message to future illegal entry tryouts that it's not as easy as it once was. They are now required to wait in line and not cross at some point that is less guarded.
The policy has been in place for years just not enforced much until recently. It was still enforced though. It's not a policy invented by Trump although the media seems to believe it is.

[HairOfTheDog]

The policy has been in place for years just not enforced much until recently. It was still enforced though. It's not a policy invented by Trump although the media seems to believe it is.

From the reports I've read, the media has primarily been responding to Trump's lie that a 'horrible' Democrat law gave him no choice but to significantly expand the separation of children from parents.

Here's the truth:

-It's is not a law. It's a policy which allows discretion by those in charge.

-The discretionary policy was not initiated by a Democrat. It was initiated during the GW Bush administration (though it was used sparingly during the Obama administration when there was high risk of repeat familial illegally entry attempts).

-It was Trump's call to subject significantly more people to the inhumane practice. His own Chief of Staff publicly announced that the policy application was being expanded in order to deter illegal immigration.

-Until recently, families that illegally crossed together generally faced deportation proceedings in civil court. Trump, through AG Sessions, has changed the application of the policy to require that authorities send parents to jails run by the U.S. Marshals Services, take their children away, and send the children to the same detention centers as minors who came to the U.S. without their parents. Trump's change applies to children accompanied by parents who proactively turn themselves in to request asylum.

It's my opinion that Trump changed the policy application in order to rally his "Build That Wall!" base ahead of the midterms, following a recent spike in illegal border crossings and considering that his own party refuses to fund that wall.

I think that lying about it by falsely blaming it on the opposing party is most likely Trump's attempt to avoid alienating too many Independents and moderate Republicans.

[Love Child]

Snip:
The Office of Refugee Resettlement reported at the end of 2017 that of the 7,000-plus children placed with sponsored individuals, the agency did not know where 1,475 of them were.

Republican Sen. Rob Portman said, “It’s just a system that has so many gaps, so many opportunities for these children to fall between the cracks, that we just don’t know what’s going on — how much trafficking or abuse or simply immigration law violations are occurring.”

A documentary from the PBS program "Frontline" said that the federal government has actually released some of the minors to human traffickers. Imagine that.

And now we want to dramatically ramp up the number of children who are removed from their parents?

When pressed about safety concerns Homeland Security Department Secretary Kristjen Nielsen said, "I just want to say, I couldn't agree with your concerns more, period. We owe more to these children to protect them. So I'm saying I agree, we've taken steps and we will continue to strengthen what our partners do to protect these children."

https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/...631627002/

I was looking for the validity of these reports and then came across something written by someone saying that we should not focus on looking for these children because they will just end up getting deported.
The person also said that these are not children that were separated from their parents-it is children that came up on their own or with someone else-they also said that they usually get released to be with a relative or they stay in a shelter.
They don't neccesarily have to be tracked after this point.
Again-I am still looking into the validity of this person's post-because I would love for it to be true, rather than kids being released to traffickers. They also said a number of children were trafficked in 2014-but laws have now gotten stricter. (I only hope this is true) But I somehow don't think it is.

[Donovan]

Jeff Sessions also gleefully stated they planned to do 100% prosecution and enforcement, regardless of the situation or relative danger faced by the people fleeing their homes. We have become a repugnant nation, the antithesis everything we once proudly fought for and held as a shared value. Unfortunately, we have always had some who behaved badly toward immigrants who came after us. But at least back then most people had the decency to call those exploiters bad guys.