Meh Pluribus Unum
Democracy Now!
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Comments by "Meh Pluribus Unum" (@pluribus_unum) on "Human Rights Stain, Public Health Farce: Title 42 Tied to 13K Murders, Rapes, Kidnappings in Mexico" video.
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@dexterramey8787 - It just isn't a factor, and the slow down wasn't because of Obama's comments.
"Some research has suggested that messages like these can affect how migrants think about making the journey, but no research has proved that it actually stops them from coming."
“It’s not that messaging has no effect,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, an immigrant advocacy and legal aid group, said. “It’s just that the role of messaging as something that could potentially stop people from choosing to come in the first place — there’s no evidence."¹
... and ...
"The evidence of a widespread and sustained decline in undocumented migration to the United States is irrefutable. In a more fact-based era, this would be recognized as a major national accomplishment. Moreover, the steady decline in the population since 2010 refutes the recurrent argument that consideration by Congress of an earned legalization program or the DREAM Act, or even the establishment of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program — all of which occurred during this time-frame — invariably leads to increased undocumented immigration. In addition, as previously documented by CMS, the United States has turned a significant corner in immigration enforcement. The remaining US undocumented population has extremely long tenure, strong equitable ties, and firm roots in the United States."²
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¹ The US is telling migrants “don’t come.” They might not be listening.: How much does Kamala Harris’s messaging about the border matter? by Nicole Narea, June 8th, 2021 - Vox
² The US Undocumented Population Fell Sharply During the Obama Era: Estimates for 2016 by Robert Warren, February 22nd, 2018 - Center for Migration Studies
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@NPC-bs3pm - @BAVidmar17 is right, in fact.
"The United States often exacerbated these conflicts, deploying the U.S. Marines in Latin America whenever political uprisings seemed to threaten U.S. business interests or national security."
"Conservative political elites often responded to these movements by inviting the military to take power, and the resulting conflict would eventually develop into civil wars in Guatemala (1960-1996), El Salvador (1980-1992) and Nicaragua (1979-1990). The United States played a central role in many of these conflicts, propping up military dictatorships and supporting them with logistical aid, money, training and weapons, even as many of them committed human rights atrocities. These conflicts generated huge surges in emigration from Central America, establishing the migration patterns that persist today."
"A final push factor—with a very important transnational history—is gang violence. MS-13 is now one of the largest gangs in the world, and has contributed to violent crime across the region. What many Americans don’t know is that MS-13 was founded in poor neighborhoods in Los Angeles in the 1980s, within communities of Central American refugees who had fled civil wars. Many of these gang members were subsequently imprisoned in the United States, and then deported to Central America through a program that began under President Bill Clinton."
"There’s a reason why the U.S. government has failed for so many years to “control” the border: none of these policies have addressed the real reasons for migration itself. In migration studies, these are known as “push” and “pull” factors, the causes that drive migrants from one country to another.
Today, the countries sending the most migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border–especially the Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador–are experiencing a combination of push factors that include poverty and inequality, political instability, and violence. And while the current situation may be unique, it is also deeply rooted in history."
- The Situation at the U.S.-Mexico Border Can't Be 'Solved' Without Acknowledging Its Origins by Julia G. Young - March 31st, 2021 - TIME Magazine (online)
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To wit:
1) "One problem, though: Peer-reviewed, largely overlooked research publi: shed in December [2021] shows that undocumented immigrants in Texas likely aren’t part of a crime wave. In fact, they’re much less likely to be arrested for serious crimes than are people born in the United States."
"Between 2012 and 2018, U.S.-born people were twice as likely as the undocumented to be arrested for violent crime in Texas and two-and-a-half times as likely to be arrested for drug crimes."
2) "It's too soon to declare victory over inflation, but from gas to chicken to big-screen TVs, there are, increasingly, signs that inflation's grip on American pocketbooks may be loosening."
"Gas prices are back to last year's levels, after spiking to a record high of just over $5 a gallon this summer. For perspective, a gallon of regular has fallen by almost 50 cents in just a month, making it about $10 cheaper to fill up an average SUV today than a month ago."
3) "The research shows that an increase in the absolute number of immigrants in a particular county from 2000–2010 results in corresponding economic gains—increased demand for locally produced goods and services, a corresponding inflow of U.S.-born individuals—that are reflected in the housing market."
"Importantly, the research finds that immigrants revitalize less desirable neighborhoods in costly metropolitan areas, opening up new alternatives for middle- and working-class Americans to buy homes, and immigration supports the housing market without exacerbating the nation’s worst affordability problems, because immigrants themselves tend not to settle in the most expensive places. Immigrants are also drawn to Sun Belt cities like Houston where housing has been consistently affordable."
4) "[Closing hospitals] cited high poverty and uninsured rates in rural communities, high rates of Medicare and Medicaid coverage, and declining populations. In each community, poverty rates were higher than state and national averages and median incomes were lower, and the population was shrinking."
"In all three case studies, respondents reported that, prior to the hospital closure, community residents with private insurance or other resources typically travelled to bigger, newer hospital systems outside the community, weakening the hospital’s payer mix and also reinforcing local perceptions – often based on anecdotal accounts from friends and family members — that the local hospital was of low or poor quality."
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@arlandolittle7625 - Read up on the issue. In just one example, we made MS-13 in the U.S. and exported it back.
"A final push factor—with a very important transnational history—is gang violence. MS-13 is now one of the largest gangs in the world, and has contributed to violent crime across the region. What many Americans don’t know is that MS-13 was founded in poor neighborhoods in Los Angeles in the 1980s, within communities of Central American refugees who had fled civil wars."
"Today, the countries sending the most migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border–especially the Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador–are experiencing a combination of push factors that include poverty and inequality, political instability, and violence. And while the current situation may be unique, it is also deeply rooted in history."
"Conservative political elites often responded to these movements by inviting the military to take power, and the resulting conflict would eventually develop into civil wars in Guatemala (1960-1996), El Salvador (1980-1992) and Nicaragua (1979-1990). The United States played a central role in many of these conflicts, propping up military dictatorships and supporting them with logistical aid, money, training and weapons, even as many of them committed human rights atrocities. These conflicts generated huge surges in emigration from Central America, establishing the migration patterns that persist today."
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@skypie1 - No, you just haven't read the facts about the problems, nor the actual comments by the U.S. President and Vice President regarding the problems you ostensibly care so much about.
"The strategy groups the root causes of migration into five pillars, offering several approaches for each:"
1 - "Addressing economic insecurity and inequality;"
2 - "Combating corruption, strengthening democratic governance, and advancing the rule of law;"
3 - Promoting respect for human rights, labor rights, and a free press;"
4 - "Countering and preventing violence, extortion, and other crimes perpetrated by criminal gangs, trafficking networks, and other organized criminal organizations;"
5 - "Combating sexual, gender-based, and domestic violence."
"Taken together, the five pillars can be seen as the administration’s effort to address the structural fragility that is so often at the root of why people leave the Northern Triangle."
"The newly released U.S Strategy for Addressing the Root Causes of Migration in Central America (heretofore referred to as the “root causes strategy” or simply “the strategy”) is the Biden-Harris administration’s blueprint for addressing irregular migration from the region. With an introduction from Vice President Kamala Harris (who was asked to lead the administration’s efforts in the region in March 2021), the strategy focuses on the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. The strategy “lays out a framework to use the policy, resources, and diplomacy of the United States, and to leverage the expertise and resources of a broad group of public and private stakeholders, to build hope for citizens in the region that the life they desire can be found at home.” It aims to build a broad coalition that will include Congress, the governments in the region, the private and public sector, and civil society organizations, with the aim of creating tailored and coordinated solutions to both short-term and long-term causes of migration."
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@@nicolasl2868 - I understand now. Thanks for elaborating.
I agree, and I don't want to be a "moral beacon", in no small part due to all the history behind that phrase.
And, not to say it's enough by any means, but we did just do the most by any country ever on climate change, despite Republican servitude to unfettered fossil fuel greed.
I feel we shouldn't shy away from leading by example where and when we can because -- for example -- we are still heavily laden with all our national and international crimes against humanity, and must continue like Sisyphus rolling the "rock of reconstruction".
I hold out all the hope -- but admittedly little confidence -- that this recent white nationalist surge becomes a final homicidal and grotesque reflection of ourselves that will get my demographic, white Americans, to start a massive truth and reconciliation process for the genocide of the civilizations we "discovered", five centuries of slavery and the consequences that demand real reparations.
I'm glad that 18-25 year old white voters, for the first time in over 10 years, turned out to vote for country over complexion; as coming into the 2022 midterms, a majority from all age groups of white voters had chosen Trump over Clinton in 2016, and then Trump over Biden in even larger numbers in 2020.
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