First, you have the impact of Title 42 to deal with, where summarily booting people straight back to Mexico was allowed due to covid. These people didn't walk back to South America. They kept trying, with every crossing they tried being counted. It's important therefore not to look at crossings as people, people are people. The same person could attempt 50 crossings for all we know. Second, about 8 million people left Venezuela 2022/3, the biggest ever migrant crisis in the history of the Americas and one of the largest in world history. Many sought sanctuary in America, with some periods of 50% of all asylum claims being from Venezuelans. Venezuela refused to accept repatriations, so there was nowhere to send them back to. Under Title 42, emergency covid rules they were allowed to be summarily removed at the border to Mexico, but all that did is result in the afore mentioned attempts to come over and over again. This changed in Oct '23, when Venezuela agreed to accept returns and Mexico agreed to allow immediate expulsion to Mexican ground and America started repatriations of any people deemed unwanted. Biden also added Venezuela to the list of countries like Cuba and Haiti, where if you are a national of the countries you are barred from seeking asylum in the US. This should result in a big drop in asylum cases..... If it wasn't for the massive amount of backlog of asylum cases, about 4 years and 2 million people long, which needs more funding to deal with, which the US House will not pass because the numbers are a great electioneering tool. Apprehensions at the border. The large inflows of migrants didn't only come about after title 42 ended.< For FY14, over 485,000 were apprehended at the border. For FY15, over 335,000 were apprehended at the border. For FY16, over 415,000 were apprehended at the border. For FY17, over 310,000 were apprehended at the border. For FY18, over 400,000 were apprehended at the border. For FY19, over 850,000 were apprehended at the border. For FY20, over 400,000 were apprehended at the border. Though, to be fair, COVID was going on at that time. For FY21, over 1.7 million have been apprehended at the border. For FY22, almost 2.4 million have been apprehended at the border. For FY23, over 2.4 million have been apprehended at the border. For FY24, it's projected that over 3 million will be apprehended at the border. Any increased problems at the border are a result of people fleeing other countries and poor policy put in place during covid (not a bad idea during covid, but bad policy when not in a pandemic). And the result of said policy expiring.
In 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau counted 331.4 million people living in the United States; more than three-quarters (77.9%) or 258.3 million were adults, 18 years or older — a 10.1% increase from 234.6 million in 2010. HUD released on December 15 the 2023 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR), Part 1, which provides estimates of homelessness in the U.S. The 2023 report estimates that approximately 653,100 people were experiencing homelessness on a single night in 2023 – a 12% increase (or about 70,650 more people) from 2022. I'm no mathematician but it appears that the % of homeless to the total adult population is about 1/4th of 1 percent. Although I believe that the number of unemployed in this country is unconscionable it is not really a significant factor in the overall unemployment rate.
This is right in line with all of the numbers I've seen. About 500k before covid. I would expect that it would have gone up in this amount of time. The reason it seems so bad is that they are being forced to live in our public spaces. If we got them in actual standing houses, apartments, or buildings the horrible reality of it would be invisible almost over night (and they'd all be in a much better situation). We, as voters, have funded more than enough to solve the problem here in Oregon. It is now up to us to hold our representatives feet to the fire so they get it done.
The jobs number particularly have to be taken in context. Yes, under Biden a lot of jobs have come back....after Governors told people they couldn't go to work or would be fired if they didn't get the vaccine. Now that those people are going back to work, they are being counted as 'added' jobs which they are not, they are in most cases, people returning to work. And under the same guise, Trump having 'lost' jobs due to Governors telling people they couldn't go to work seems a bit disingenuous. They both have warts, but I try to look at both in a bigger picture overall and where we stand as a whole. The border and drugs is a MASSIVE issue. It has been an issue under every President in decades, but it has exploded exponentially during this administration and it is not for the better.
context matters. But… you are a fascist supporting, racist supporting enemy of society!!! Just tossing some green around to offset some of the selective condemnations of others.
Yep. It's based on workforce 'participation'. Like many government statistics, it's skewed to present an number in the best possible light.
Assuming what you say about immigration and drugs is true, why did Republicans kill border bill that was almost entirely Republican bill? And what exactly will Trump do to solve problems? What did he do in four years?
Because it was saddled with a bunch of Ukraine funding that a majority of Americans do not want to pay for. I think we all know how these bills work. They are crammed with both sides garbage that the opposing sides can’t agree on. It’s a sham. It’s amazing to me people still get in finger pointing matches over it when its so obviously flawed.
Because Trump told them too. He needs the issue for the election, not that it was going away. But, he can't have Biden doing something about it during election year.
Got any actual facts to back up your assertion? Despite the right wind media's campaign to "prove" otherwise, Republicans/MAGAts are still a minority in this country. And while some on the left oppose funding to Ukraine, I think it is a very grand leap to say that the majority of Americans oppose it.
I can't imagine going through the last 8 years and saying "they both have their warts" in regards to the current presidential campaign, and then siding with Trump.
It wasn't a great bill for one, but I also believe there is some of Trump wanting to get this done during his term if he gets elected again. Biden had the full house and the presidency for the first 2 years of his term and it did nothing but get massively worse. As I said, it's been a problem for years, but it is getting exponentially worse. And the stuff about immigration and drugs is probably even worse than I have stated. The amount of fentanyl that comes into this country through the southern border is insane and that stuff is so powerful. There was a drug bust of just what was in the back of a vehicle. I asked a very well respected Dr what that would do. He told me how many doses that would be for what they use it medically for. Basically it would be all they would need till the end of time and then some. It is so potent and what it is doing to the youth and society is crumbling in nature.
U.S. Citizens Were 89% of Convicted Fentanyl Traffickers in 2022 Fentanyl smuggling is ultimately funded by U.S. consumers who pay for illicit opioids: nearly 99 percent of whom are U.S. citizens. In 2022, U.S. citizens were 89 percent of convicted fentanyl drug traffickers—12 times greater than convictions of illegal immigrants for the same offense. In 2023, 93 percent of fentanyl seizures occurred at legal crossing points or interior vehicle checkpoints, not on illegal migration routes, so U.S. citizens (who are subject to less scrutiny) when crossing legally are the best smugglers. The location of smuggling makes sense because hard drugs at ports of entry are at least 96 percent less likely to be stopped than people crossing illegally between them. At most, just 0.009 percent of the people arrested by Border Patrol for crossing illegally possessed any fentanyl whatsoever. Each individual busted for fentanyl by Border Patrol possessed, on average, half as much fentanyl as each person busted at ports of entry in 2023 (10 versus 20 pounds). The government exacerbated the problem by banning most legal cross‐border traffic in 2020 and 2021, accelerating a switch to fentanyl (the easiest‐to‐conceal drug). During the travel restrictions, fentanyl seizures at ports quadrupled from fiscal year 2019 to 2021. Fentanyl went from a third of combined heroin and fentanyl seizures to over 90 percent. Annual deaths from fentanyl nearly doubled from 2019 to 2021 after the government banned most travel (and asylum). U.S. Citizens Are Fentanyl Traffickers Fentanyl is primarily trafficked by U.S. citizens. The U.S. Sentencing Commission publishes data on all federal convictions, which includes demographic information on individuals convicted of fentanyl trafficking. Figure 1 shows the citizenship status of fentanyl traffickers for 2018 to 2022. Every year, U.S. citizens receive the most convictions by far. In 2022, U.S. citizens accounted for 89 percent of fentanyl trafficking convictions compared to just 8.9 percent for illegal immigrants. https://www.cato.org/blog/us-citizens-were-89-convicted-fentanyl-traffickers-2022
Maybe Trump shouldn't have ignored COVID as a threat... That probably had a more direct impact than anything else any other president has done in most of our lifetimes.
My uncle (really smart and capable guy) actually told me that once Trump gets in there he'll fix everything. I was like, "Um, no thanks." He was shocked at my response and said sarcastically "Oh, because things were so bad when he was in office, right?" I just... Couldn't... I was so shocked. And I don't visit with him often so I just said it was a miserable 4 years that we're still paying for today, and that my minority wife and family feels much safer today than they did then under Trump. And moved on. Thing is, he was a truck driver and listened to talk radio. MAGA has that group locked in.
couple of things...I think you hold a false equivlency when comparing political parties and if you research a bit, you'll see that the GOP has done nothing for the country besides scrap civil rights, women's rights, and the seperation of church an state in favor of authoritarian, secular govt by either monarch or dictator. I've lived on the border of Mexico in the early 70s and two of my ex brother in laws worked for the border patrol....Trump's "Mexico will pay for the wall did nothing for border security and if you are taking the political views of ex pats living in Mexico as the temperature of Mexican sentiment...I think you're making a big mistake. We have a DEA, Border patrol ane Coast Guard who now thanks to Trump's politicizing of the issue is stopping cross the aisle legislation from clearing the docket of immigrant petitions and funding our existing branches of border protection. People were overdosing from drugs coming in from Vietnam, Mexico, South America and Canada when i was young and it was funded and organized by organized crime...not a political party. Mexico has ignored these refugee caravans by buying off their own cops...if you choose to spend your expendable income in Mexico...you are supporting their corrupt government in fact. I have no trust in the GOP to uphold democracy, equal rights and religious freedoms or protect our natutal alliances throughout the globe....we're not built to be an isolationist nation nor a segregated nation. Trump is a compulsive liar, cheat and beyond that....not capable of governing....he blew our national debt out of the water and embarrased our nation. You will vote for your choice, I only hope it's not the worst president ever to hold office who's a convicted sexual predator and tax evader. Trump talks a lot of bullshit but Joe gets infrastructure bills and civil rights legislation done. He did a miraculous job cleaning up from the global pandemic. I don't care if you believe in getting vaxxed or not. We've been in much better shape since the insurrectionists have been held accountable....I believe we'll heal as a nation as soon as the MAGA movement is removed from the halls of government and the leaders are jailed or exiled. No president should coddle the worst dictators on the planet and Trump does just that. Fuck Trump...vote for democracy and equal rights. I only take the time to post this because I think you're a good dude Larry and maybe you've been misled a bit by expats or general locals who see us as ugly 'Americans. I've been an expat seeing America from afar and it does look different but I've learned never to judge a culture by it's expats. I wish we had better choices but the one we face in the next election is a no brainer. The GOP is sowing seeds of distrust in our justice system now that they've stacked the Supreme Court. This is how political coups happen...sow distrust in the press and the justice department and then stir up anger amongst the mob.
