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Posted by throwaway81523 2 days ago

ICE Will Use AI to Surveil Social Media(jacobin.com)
318 points | 404 commentspage 3
temptemptemp111 2 days ago|
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kgasser88 2 days ago||
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kgasser88 2 days ago||
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nearlyepic 2 days ago||
"kgasser88", huh?
jkestner 2 days ago||
So?
kgasser88 2 days ago||
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lgleason 2 days ago||
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wvenable 2 days ago||
In some countries that might be true, but not in the US. Free speech protections apply to everyone within US borders, not just citizens. US courts have repeatedly interpreted the First Amendment to mean any person physically present in the United States, including foreign visitors, tourists, and undocumented immigrants, are protected.

I would have strongly argued in the past that the big advantage of US constitution is that nobody would need to be cautious about what political speech they post on social media and online.

ilikehurdles 2 days ago||
It has always been legal to deny visa/entry to people based on speech and affiliation. Pretty long list of evidence for that.

As for non-citizens lawfully present in the U.S., they have more First Amendment protections than those seeking entry, but still less than citizens.

All this can get visa holders deported:

1. Material support for terrorist organizations (even verbal/written advocacy.

2. Speech deemed to violate the terms of their specific visa category.

3. False statements to immigration officials.

4. (Most obviously) Criminal convictions stemming from speech acts (fraud, threats, etc.)

wvenable 2 days ago|||
I wouldn't argue that they have less First Amendment protections because, as previously described, everybody within the US has the same First Amendment protections. I think that phrasing is both misleading and dangerous.

You're just describing crimes and specific consequences of those crimes that would apply to people in certain circumstances (being a visa holder means you can be deported). Criticizing, for example, the President of United States or holding a particular political viewpoint is (currently) not a crime regardless of your citizenship, residency, or visa status.

As for the border, you can be denied entry for any reason at the whim of the border agent so none of this applies to that at all.

ilikehurdles 1 day ago||
No, these are not crimes for all. As a citizen I am free to associate with communist parties. There’s a Communist Party USA that was a top sponsor for the most recent no kings rally. As a noncitizen I may face consequences for such associations.
wvenable 1 day ago|||
It's not a crime if you are not a citizen either. If someone is denied a visa renewal, for example, just administrative -- that's not a criminal proceeding. At no point does anyone have less First Amendment protections under the law.
cibyr 2 days ago|||
What does the word "material" in "material support" mean if advocacy counts?
ilikehurdles 1 day ago||
Advocacy can count in certain situations if it’s with the purpose of facilitating the other kinds of “material” support (ie funding).
whatshisface 2 days ago|||
Rights aren't a citizens-or-guests thing, they're a human thing. Would (for example) homicide become right or wrong depending on an entry in a database somewhere? It's absurd to suggest that it's legal to pickpocket tourists.
ilikehurdles 2 days ago||
That’s wrong.

Not all rights are natural rights (or human rights).

Citizens have a right to vote. Guests typically do not.

Citizens in some countries have an exclusive right to own land in those countries.

Should a visitor to a country enjoy the right to explicitly espouse opposition to that country without any negative consequence?

I would say no, and I would say the constitutional court of the US will have no problem agreeing with me. Affiliation with a communist or totalitarian party has been legally held up as a disqualification from becoming a US citizen; this is despite US citizens having the right to associate with such parties.

Ergo, citizens and guests do not hold the same rights.

whatshisface 2 days ago|||
>Should a visitor to a country enjoy the right to explicitly espouse opposition to that country without any negative consequence?

What I imagine is the biggest, most obvious crack in this argument, is that "the country" includes people who support every side of most issues, especially the question of how many Palestinians Israel will be allowed to kill before they're made to stop it. Arresting tourists that espouse a particular view represents once force within the US dominating another within the US.

ilikehurdles 2 days ago||
It’s not a crack in the argument. I literally reference similar fact in the same comment, if you read to the end.

It’s evidence that yes, indeed, citizens and non-citizens do not share the same rights. There is a long history to back this up.

asacrowflies 2 days ago||||
The bill of rights and constitution and the courts interpretation of these is crystal clear and your argument borders on treason and a subversion and "Material support for terrorist organizations (even verbal/written advocacy. "

Which I hope to see prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law in coming years. MAGA need to be purged like the communists.

ilikehurdles 2 days ago||
This is tantamount to you calling for my execution and the death of other people you perceive to be your political opponents, and ironically it’s over my exercise of speech.

It is disgusting what has been allowed to fester on hackernews

donkeybeer 3 hours ago|||
I can't believe people this damned stupid exist on HN. How is it calling for your execution? Are you fucked in the head? He's just saying terrorists should be dealt with according to the laws of the USA. Why the fuck are you feeling "being executed"?

And even if it wasn't terrorists its perfectly legal free speech to say "All muslims should be killed", "all maga to be killed". How on earth does it violate anyone's free speech? I can't even begin to understand how someone can be this stupid, this is actual mental illness level of stupidity.

asacrowflies 2 days ago|||
Rules for thee and not for me much?lol
ilikehurdles 1 day ago||
I think me presenting an argument that basically says that certain noncitizens to the United States face consequences when exercising certain kinds of speech that citizens do not face is substantially different from your rule that I should be executed for making that argument.
asacrowflies 1 day ago||
You literally used "communist" and other vague "terrorist" language to justify your bullshit as reasonable or sane. And I want that same energy turned back on MAGA . They are literally subverting our nation and more dangerous than any communist . Citizen vs non citizen is irrelevant to the constitution as you have been told repeatedly. If this is how the law is going to play out. Then I want it applied to ALL extremist and terrorists. Period.
ilikehurdles 1 day ago||
You need to get a grip on reality for your own sake.

I mentioned both terrorist and communist for evidence-based reasons. I am literally a naturalized citizen who had to affirm he was not affiliated with communist parties when applying for citizenship in this country. The rules were literally different for me then, than they are for me now as a citizen.

Other people “pointing out” other arguments is fine - we can disagree, one or both of us can be wrong, etc. Liberalism is built on individual rights.

But you want to label people as extreme in order to kill them. I don’t know what made your heart so corrupted by hate but I hope you find your way out

asacrowflies 1 day ago||
You keep saying kill... I only ever said " the fullest extent of the law" I find it very telling you know the depths and criminality of this treason .... And come to the proper conclusions on your own of what the law says happens LOL
chebureki 2 days ago|||
I would think the Bill of Rights applies equally to citizens or non-citizens. That includes the First Amendment. That includes the right to freedom of speech and expression of opposition to whatever he or she desires. The freedom of speech is part of the 'truths' that are self-evident. And almost every time, the Congress tried to restrict these rights, they were struck by the courts. This isn't about demolishing the state, as communists would want to do. This isn't about changing the constitutional order, as any totalitarian party would have to do. This is about a right of a person to express his or her opinion without repercussions.

"This case -- perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court -- squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us. The Court answers this Constitutional question unequivocally ‘yes, they do.’ ‘No law’ means ‘no law.’ The First Amendment does not draw President Trump’s invidious distinction and it is not to be found in our history or jurisprudence. … No one’s freedom of speech is unlimited, of course, but these limits are the same for both citizens and non-citizens alike.”

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.282...

ilikehurdles 2 days ago||
The bill of rights does not apply equally to both citizens and non-citizens. There’s a deep history of cases testing most of those amendments on this line, some landing one way, some landing another, and a few “it depends”.

And a district court judge’s rather inappropriate screed sets no legal precedent. It’s old man yells at clouds. It would be relevant to discuss founding documents or Supreme Court opinions.

chebureki 2 days ago||
I never claimed it set a precedent. But a federal judge in this case claimed "The First Amendment does not draw President Trump’s invidious distinction [between citizens and legal non-citizens] and it is not to be found in our history or jurisprudence."

In our history OR jurisprudence! You seem to claim otherwise, if I am not mistaken. So, it behooves you to provide evidence to the contrary. Specifically, what precedent-setting Supreme Court decision claims that the First Amendment does not apply to non-US citizens?

chebureki 2 days ago||
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
RickJWagner 2 days ago||
I’m a little surprised at the level of interest in ICE these days. They’ve been around for a while now, and have been used by past presidents in similar ways.

Barack Obama was called out by the ACLU for his use of ICE. He was called a monster.

If people condemn Trump and Obama both, then I respect their thinking. But if they applaud Obama and condemn Trump, I don’t believe they are showing integrity.

hypeatei 2 days ago||
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Peacefulz 2 days ago||
If we organized a content storm campaign we could make this effort moot. Time to start building a portfolio of dummy accounts to muddy the water. Remember... TAILS and fresh IP's for each account, ideally nodes you can get back on with ease. Use a public network if possible.

Bonus: You can also use these accounts to undermine the Online Safety Act at the same time!

wturner 2 days ago|
This is the same tool the right has used to destroy progressive democracy online. Dump tons of money into pro libertarian right wing bots and overwhelm the voices that call for money out of politics and universal heath care with screams of "libtard" and "woke".
cyberax 2 days ago||
> $5.7 million contract for AI-driven social media surveillance

Yeah, that would just about cover the cost of a pizza party in the AI world. You also can look at "Zignal Labs". The website looks like 100% snakeoil.

I have no doubt that ICE would love to have some AI-based software to detect illegal immigrants, but I doubt it's more effective than just regular datamining.

jdiff 2 days ago|
It doesn't need to be effective, it needs to be a computerized excuse to go after more people. Whenever computers are used to target people, the output is always given far too much weight. Recently we had guns drawn on a child because a computer vision algorithm classified his doritos as a gun with a low confidence score, with explicit advice to only investigate further and not assume correctness. But that child still had multiple guns trained on them.

Take that, apply it to here, and it's clear that effectiveness would actually be counterproductive.

FridayoLeary 2 days ago|
So far 2 million illegal immigrants have left the US. Mass surveillance and enforcement technology is dismal to think about, though NSA and google have been doing it for years. I'm watching from my perspective in the UK where there is growing fury over the gross incompetence, negligence and mishandling of a mass immigration crisis which is so stupid it beggars belief. The various law enforcement agencies in the us don't cooperate that closely, so there's less scope for this to be abused against american citizens unlike in the UK.
danparsonson 2 days ago||
A perceived mass immigration crisis, which has little to do with reality and much more to do with gas bags stoking fear and spreading nonsense.

Here's reality: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-system-...

themafia 2 days ago|||
Are the lives of immigrants better? Are we importing citizens or slaves? Why are we not interested in improving conditions in their home country? Shouldn't we focus on that first?
danparsonson 1 day ago||
Your rhetorical questions don't constitute an argument so forgive me if I misrepresent you but what I think you're saying is:

1. Conditions in the UK might not be good enough, so we should prevent people from immigrating, for their own good, and 2. Fixing problems that create refugees is more important and therefore another reason we should prevent people from immigrating.

To which I say

1. That's a reason we should clean our own house, so we create a safe environment for people looking to come to the UK, and 2. That's a non sequitur at best, and honestly callous; you should try fleeing from war and persecution, and then see how you would feel about returning home to wait for a few more years while 'things get sorted out back home'.

Again, correct me if I have misrepresented your implied argument.

FridayoLeary 2 days ago||||
Thanks for that. Here's a more up to date link https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-system-....

I reject that. There is a steadily worsening crisis, even the current labour government have acknowledged that pledging to take lots of action against it, both now and during the election campaign. Specifically small boat crossings, of which more then 43,000 have already arrived this year. There is not a single politician in this country who doesn't admit that there is a serious problem.

jonway 2 days ago||
Don’t you have a coast guard?

This is a skill issue.

fart-fart-FART 2 days ago|||
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shadowgovt 2 days ago|||
Yes, it is.

Anyone concerned about that outcome probably shouldn't have allowed their ruler to declare herself Empress of India, creating a nation with a 10-to-1 ratio of "people living on a subcontinent" vs. "people living on an island." Along with many, many other decisions made by the UK in the past 400-odd-years.

Point is, it's a bit late to complain about the "average Brit" not looking like a Viking took a Celtic bride anymore, yeah? Not after putting so much effort into being an empire that spot-welded as many different people under its flag as it possibly could for awhile?

fart-fart-FART 2 days ago||
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shadowgovt 2 days ago||
Personally, I do not care. I'm not in the business of telling other countries how to run their affairs, generally.

I am, however, in the business of calling out hypocrisy when a new age of isolationists ignore their own history, because that historically ends poorly.

shpxbssanmvfphz 2 days ago|||
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throw3467 2 days ago||||
>there's nothing you can do about it

That is false.

fart-fart-FART 2 days ago|||
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shadowgovt 2 days ago|||
Probably the case-study of how it caused America to collapse into a civil war in the next year or so, since the only way the Executive can continue its policy is by overtly ignoring rule of law and Americans appear to be growing weary of that from their Executive.

That'll likely ice the ambitions of the ultra-nationalists in other countries historically close to America for a generation, much like Germany trying its eugenics experiment iced the previously-quite-vocal eugenicists in the US for about a generation.

fart-fart-FART 2 days ago||
you are assuming the Executive would lose that civil war.
amanaplanacanal 2 days ago|||
During The last American civil war, the North was the economic poeerhouse, and the slave states were relatively poor. This no doubt impacted the outcome.

Today the blue states are the economic powerhouse, and the red states are relatively poor. Should it come to it, I would expect the wealthy states to win.

We hopefully will never find out, though.

pseudalopex 2 days ago||
The urban centers in red states are blue. The rural areas in blue states are red. A civil war would not follow state lines.
projectazorian 2 days ago||
These are the same rural areas rapidly turning against the administration due to its trade policy destroying global demand for their products, its foreign policy funding their international competitors, and its environmental policies lowering their land value by discouraging wind power development.

Certain rural areas like northern Idaho may be dominated by people moving there for ideological reasons, but this is not the norm.

pseudalopex 2 days ago||
What made you think people rapidly turned against the Trump administration? His approval ratings declined slowly since January. They are higher than they were most of 2017.[1]

[1] https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/closer-look-president-trumps-app...

projectazorian 1 day ago||
Approval ratings don’t mean much for a lame duck president.

Look at the 2026 Senate polls in places like Iowa. Given Trump’s margin of victory in 2024 the Republicans should be crushing it, but they are struggling.

pseudalopex 1 day ago|||
> Approval ratings don’t mean much for a lame duck president.

A term limited president can care less about approval ratings. This does not mean their approval ratings cannot be compared to their approval ratings.

> Look at the 2026 Senate polls in places like Iowa. Given Trump’s margin of victory in 2024 the Republicans should be crushing it, but they are struggling.

I do not accept Senate polls measure Trump support better than Trump approval polls. And 2026 Senate projections show Republicans losing 1 or 2 seats. Iowa is not 1 of them. Iowa polls did show the unpopular incumbent senator and a hypothetical Democratic opponent had similar support. But the unpopular incumbent senator announced she would retire. And hypothetical opponents poll better than real opponents many times.

shadowgovt 1 day ago|||
Is there any reason to be concerned he won't be a lame-duck President?

He's making real noise about seeking a third term, regardless of the legality of it.

shadowgovt 2 days ago||||
I'm actually not. I am assuming other countries would watch that war break out and consider how excited they are about doing that on their own soil. That kind of civil war wrecks the economy of a developed nation, and power brokers in most developed nations are a lot more interested in protecting their wealth than exclusive nationalist ideals.

Practically, I strongly suspect a US that fell to civil war in this current climate would result in the country fragmenting, not entirely unlike the premise of the old "Cyberpunk 2020" fictional setting. DC would, for example, find it remarkably challenging to hold a California that blatantly broke off from it, especially if the federal military resources of that California defected. Especially if it caught allies in neighboring states upon that occurrence.

The end result would be no real "winners;" it'd be the implosion of the United States of America as a national unit into something more approximating some agglomeration of the pieces outlined in https://www.twincities.com/2013/11/16/which-of-this-writers-....

But even if the end result were (not unlike the last American civil war) a reunification with new laws... The US lost about 2 solid years of its GDP to war. That's not good for business and would encourage those with resources to lose to expend them stifling their own domestic "purity" nationalists.

unethical_ban 2 days ago|||
Proponents of free society should hope the regime loses.
shpxbssanmvfphz 2 days ago|||
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neither_color 2 days ago|||
Different populists have different ideal numbers for how many people they want to purge. Some want 10 million, some want 20-50 million going decades back and reversing whatever laws allowed the "wrong kind" of even legal immigrants to come here in the first place.

I think more governments around the world are catching on to the idea that your majority population can excuse a large amount of economic mismanagement and bad geopolitical strategy if you blame foreigners who arrived after your decline started.

If a satisfactory amount of foreigners are removed, the technology will still be there and the defense contractors will still need contracts. If there are no viable foreign adversaries at that point, then another domestic target will be needed.

bakies 2 days ago|||
Is mass immigration really a crisis? Like people are upset here in the US too but I don't even know why. There's a lot of immigrants in my state but they're not upsetting me.
kelnos 2 days ago|||
> Is mass immigration really a crisis?

Not even a little bit. No one is taking jobs away from citizens or legal immigrants (locals don't want those jobs, either at all, or at the wages offered), rampant "migrant crime" is a myth created and perpetuated by the right (immigrants commit crime at lower rates than citizens), and to top it off, the American economy depends on many of these migrant workers in order to function (often in exploitative ways; explicitly allowing and supporting this type of migration would make things safer for everyone).

It's othering and racism, plain and simple.

I'm not saying we should just open the floodgates and let anyone and everyone in, and I'm not saying we shouldn't deport non-citizens who commit violent crime, but the "crisis" is entirely manufactured.

jonway 2 days ago|||
>the "crisis" is entirely manufactured.

It sure is, the US government has been underfunding the judicial body responsible for adjudicating asylum claims for years and years. As a result there are indeed people here in status limbo.

Wether or not they should be granted some kind of residency is kind of irrelevant, politicians are happy for this to be a problem they can use.

Even now, they aren’t increasing the rate of process, they’re just blowing the cash on mass surveillance.

20after4 2 days ago||
And mass incarceration.
tsimionescu 2 days ago||||
I think the job analysis is overly simplistic. The reality is that worker migration from poorer countries to richer ones is a huge low wage problem. Instead of allowing low-skilled labor to pay better in order to attract workers who expect better conditions, you keep the wages fixed and import workers for whom even the bad life you're offering is better than their current life.

Of course, this doesn't mean that allowing 0 immigration in is the right solution, or preventing immigrants from working. And I should also point out that, generally, US leaders have the least amount of problem with this aspect of immigration - even now, Trump has instructed ICE not to go for deporting agricultural and tourism workers in any mass numbers.

mixmastamyk 2 days ago||||
Employed privilege. Lots of folks would like to work in construction but haven’t been able to for a while. I know several that retired early in poverty.

I would appreciate a job in construction or at a restaurant for example. Teenagers would benefit from such jobs as well. Not available.

Your absolute assertions are myopic at best.

dashundchen 2 days ago|||
Who or what is stopping you from getting a job at a restaurant?

Doesn't seem to be a problem with any motivated person I know.

mixmastamyk 2 days ago||
Last one gave me a hint, too many applicants. Most don’t bother.
FireBeyond 2 days ago|||
And yet multiple studies have shown that when jobs are offered to Americans that involve labor (farm, construction, food industry), at those wages, then there are generally few to near zero applicants.

There are other reasonings (prevailing wage, location, etc.), but likewise, your "absolute assertion" that undocumented workers have been taking job opportunities from you is also not entirely ... absolute.

tsimionescu 2 days ago||
The key point is "at those wages". The overall assumption in the economy is that it's good and proper for low-skilled jobs to be very low paying, despite otherwise being very unattractive. As long as people are unwilling to pay the proper cost for hard labor, they'll keep hitting this problem of local people not willing to do the work for a pittance. Then, when they circumvent the local workers, they'll be surprised that local workers are discontent.
FireBeyond 2 days ago||
I do agree with that. The same as with the trope about McDonalds, etc. being "starter jobs" for teenagers, etc., and that's why it's okay for them to not pay a liveable wage, etc., which has no origin in fact (re the minimum wage law) and only in Republican ideology.
modo_mario 2 days ago|||
> No one is taking jobs away from citizens or legal immigrants (locals don't want those jobs, either at all, or at the wages offered)

Sorry but i absolutely despise this argument as someone who did the job that "locals don't want" and knew others that did. It's cheap and very right wing classism by the privileged. Essentially only the last bit is true and the last bit is true because there is a cheap alternative that doesn't involve much unionization either.

Mind you I'm in western europe and the other arguments don't hold up either here but that first one is universally shit.

reactordev 2 days ago||||
The older you are, the more likely you’ll see more people and say “get off my lawn” when really, you were busy hanging plates when the rest of the world was having babies…

That’s really what happened. The population doubled in 15 years and people moved (people always move). It’s just more people now. So naturally you’ll see more immigrants.

Refreeze5224 2 days ago||||
Absolutely not. They are an essential part of modern American life, and anyone against it either doesn't understand that, or does it for racist reasons.
travisgriggs 2 days ago||
I observe the following. ICE has not caused a huge step change in people leaving the country. If you look at the stats since Reagan (https://infographicsite.com/infographic/deportations-under-u...), it wanders up and down and is (imo) complicated.

What has changed is the “messaging” around the topic. This is very common with the Trump administration. When all is said and done, when exceptions are made/bought, and the courts and others get involved, it ends up not being much of a needle move. BUT, what is different every time is the messaging. And I have come to believe, that is what the actual goal is to some degree. The real goal is to send a message to people who are immigrants OR (and this is important) look like immigrants. It’s a message of “remember your place” and “be grateful you get to be here”. It’s the same type of tactics that gets sent to Asian communities, black communities, women, etc.

I am white. I am a male. I am 55. I oscillate between despondently sad and disgusted.

add-sub-mul-div 2 days ago||||
Roughly half the population responds to unfamiliar people and ideas with curiosity, and the other half with fear. The latter half are easily manipulated into nurturing the fear. Everything rolls up to this.
UberFly 2 days ago||
What's your definition of "unfamiliar"? I just want people vetted before they're allowed into my house to live along-side my family? Is that unreasonable?
outside1234 2 days ago||||
Not only is it not a crisis but many nations NEED immigration because their natality rates are so low. Including the UK.
modo_mario 2 days ago||
Why would they need them because of that? Must every nations population perpetually go up? Do you know how insane that sounds?

Every argument that starts like this ends up defending a pyramid scheme.

bakies 2 days ago|||
I think it's a capitalism thing to need more people
outside1234 1 day ago|||
Pension plans depend on populations being stable and not living longer and longer. Most of Europe have a rate below 2.0 (replacement rate) and people are living longer and longer.

So either you increase the retirement age significantly or you have to expand the base.

modo_mario 10 hours ago||
In which case you have to do that indefinitely and it's a pyramid scheme. Also most non eu migration doesn't end up being a net positive for those govs within the first generation (or even second depending). Far from actually and these migrants are not immune to aging then they end up requiring pensions too.

And all of this to serve dying generations when those younger than me starting out get ever increasingly shafted.

Here in Belgium pension plans existed that did not work like that. Then the socialist raided these funds and the future generations were going to pay for those pensions. My family's criticism was that they could only do that once and they were right.

I don't tie this issue to socialists tho. 2 decades ago the liberals(european, right wing) did the same to the railways who had a separate pension fund and more recently yet another party suggested doing the same for a 3rd pillar of selfemployed people.

nine_zeros 2 days ago||||
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throwawa14223 2 days ago||||
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hereme888 2 days ago||||
It was. Not since Trump took office. It's still a crisis in Europe though.
bakies 2 days ago||
I'm more asking why immigration is a "crisis"?
hereme888 2 days ago||
Uncontrolled influx of millions - mostly with poor finances and very different cultural backgrounds and values - strain a nation's resources, infrastructure, and social cohesion. It exacerbates housing shortages, burdens public services like healthcare, and contributes to economic friction amid existing downturns. It also poses risks to national identity and security, as we are now experiences in many countries who allowed this to happen, as opposed to countries that enforced legal immigration. It complicates integration and social stability. It's unfair to legal immigrants. This is why sovereign states implement rigorous and dynamic immigration controls and capacity limits based on the nation's ability at the time. There has to be sustainable absorption. Countries are not homeless shelters or free handouts; they are the result of blood and tears of the patriots who fought and died to create, defend, and build that nation. Every nation has its values, and it's not the right choice for everyone. China is definitely not a country for me, nor are the CCP's values acceptable to American culture. In short, vet whoever comes into your house, and don't let people sneak in through the backdoor.
bakies 21 hours ago||
> different cultural backgrounds and values; social cohesion; national identity; integration and social stability; nation has its values; not the right choice for everyone; American culture

I like my cultured friends. USA is a melting pot, not a white-man-country. This is all xenophobia.

> poor finances

sounds right for asylum seekers

> nation's resources, infrastructure, housing shortages, burdens public services like healthcare, and contributes to economic friction[??] amid existing downturns,

sounds like policy problems; and these are the priorities of the people i vote for too, none of this has to do with immigrants.

> Countries are not homeless shelters or free handouts

no, this is exactly what i expect my country (government) to handle

> Uncontrolled influx of millions

this is pretty tightly controlled, you can find the data from the census and see that the population is not at all fluctuating and very linear. Should be trivial to plan ahead about how many people are in the country. https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/usa/uni...

> This is why sovereign states implement rigorous and dynamic immigration controls and capacity limits based on the nation's ability at the time. There has to be sustainable absorption. vet whoever comes into your house

this is true, and I dont believe its not happening. i was asking what is happening that's a crisis. Trump's policies are _mass deportation_. They are extreme. Legal immigrants, are having visas revoked without reason, and even green card holders are being arrested without cause. Violations of the 4th amendment. Immigrants are arrested at court houses, where the vetting takes place, you know, by _judges_.

> they are the result of blood and tears of the patriots who fought and died to create, defend, and build that nation.

like my immigrant grandpop, achieved the american dream

hereme888 18 hours ago|||
> .... you're xenophobic.

No, I'm a legal, darker-skinned immigrant with lots of culture. Btw, I respect and admire the white race more than any other, even my own.

> mass migration is tightly controlled

Because of Trump. I remember months when Biden wouldn't bat an eye at 7-8 million who entered illegally in a single month.

> poor asylum seekers...

I'm an actual asylum seeker because the Venezuelan government contracted kidnappers to try to take out my family (I'm not getting into details). My family has integrity, works hard, was a good match for the country, and we were accepted. The US was NOT responsible for taking us in. I am thankful, not entitled.

> immigrant grandpa.

Good, and I'm sure he wouldn't have agreed to let strangers into the country without vetting.

bakies 15 hours ago|||
> admire the white race more than any other, even my own.

oh thanks for clarifying which type of scum you are

hereme888 9 hours ago||
> oh thanks for clarifying which type of scum you are

The type that is cultured, educated, honors parents, and builds a traditional family unit, rooted in truth, logic, nature, God, and common sense. The type that admires the renaissance and western civilization. The type that has no problems being thankful for great civilizations, like Israel, Rome, Greece, and the amazing USA.

In other words, everything you hate.

NoMoreNicksLeft 2 days ago|||
>There's a lot of immigrants in my state but they're not upsetting me.

You might not think that, but have you ever complained about housing prices? That food at the grocery store costs more than it did a few years ago? The price of consumer goods in general?

Well, you're not buying those things. You're bidding on them. And the more people there are, here, the higher those prices will be bid upwards.

insane_dreamer 2 days ago|||
That's not how food prices works.

High housing prices is a complex mix of underbuilding due to zoning laws, companies buying up housing stock to rent, and (a few years ago) very low interest rates. One thing that is _not_ a factor is immigrants, because they are at the bottom of the social pile and usually can't get mortgages to buy houses.

NoMoreNicksLeft 2 days ago||
>That's not how food prices works.

It very much is how all goods work, unfortunately. Food (except grain) doesn't travel or store well. If 100 million people left North America tomorrow, North America wouldn't start shipping the food for 100 million people to them whereever they went. Pretending otherwise might help you maintain faith in whatever religion you have that demands it be true, I suppose, but it's economically illiterate to claim otherwise.

>High housing prices is a complex mix of underbuilding

Or it's a simple answer of over-immigrating.

>because they are at the bottom of the social pile and usually can't get mortgages to buy houses.

Are they sleeping in ditches? No. They live somewhere. Because they live in those places, those places aren't available for non-immigrants to live in. It's really simple. They rent apartments, do they not? When demand outstrips supply, prices rise. When demand for apartments rise, even the price of houses goes up, because these things can substitute for one another to some degree.

mindslight 2 days ago||||
> That food at the grocery store costs more than it did a few years ago?

> the more people there are, here, the higher those prices will be bid upwards

Who do you think is picking most of that food? And if the wages for those jobs went up to an American living wage, what do you think would happen to the price of food even with a bit lower demand?

I know it's all too easy and comforting to throw out knee-jerk comments cheerleading for government power, but at least try applying some basic analysis to what you write.

NoMoreNicksLeft 2 days ago||
>Who do you think is picking most of that food?

Your mistake is in believing that even if I answered this question with the answer you consider correct, that this would change my position.

>And if the wages for those jobs went up to an American living wage, what do you think would happen to the price of food even with a bit lower demand?

"I like to exploit immigrants and underpay them, because my out-of-season fruit will be too high for my smoothy frappucinos!" Silly things leftists say, haha.

>I know it's all too easy and comforting to throw out knee-jerk comments cheerleading for government power,

I'm not especially a big fan of government power. But I live in a country being held hostage by lunatic ideologues who think non-citizens should have the absolute right to live here, but only because they hope to stack the vote against their political opponents. So there's not really that many options left. Things will have to get far worse before they can get any better.

mindslight 1 day ago||
> that this would change my position

I'm not asking you to change your position, but rather to be honest about the effects of it.

> "I like to exploit immigrants and underpay them, because my out-of-season fruit will be too high for my smoothy frappucinos!"

I did not say anything of the sort, rather I acknowledged the current reality. One can also say "I want farm workers to be system legible, primarily Americans, and paid a living wage, even though it will make grocery prices go up". That's a consistent position. We can have honest discussions about those things. I don't think anybody actually likes the status quo.

> Silly things leftists say, haha

I know fascists have defined everything short of gushing praise for Dear Leader as the rAdIcAl lEfT, but I'm actually a libertarian.

> I live in a country being held hostage by lunatic ideologues who think non-citizens should have the absolute right to live here

Please explain how it's being "held hostage" when the party in power is enacting the exact opposite.

> So there's not really that many options left. Things will have to get far worse before they can get any better.

Sorry no, there are plenty of other options to institute the immigration policy you want here - which wouldn't require adding to the surveillance pantopticon, further empowering a domestic military, or trampling the Constitution and our natural rights.

So what we've actually got is a second issue of how those things are being carried out, supposedly in the name of doing something about immigration. But given how wholly anti-liberty and anti-American those actions are, and how there are already policy floaters on relaxing the hardline stance for "critical" industries reliant on cheap illegal labor, it begs the question of whether the immigration topic is even the main thrust here - or whether it's simply a pretext for autocratic authoritarian power for power's sake.

> I'm not especially a big fan of government power

Sorry, but yes you are. You're shunning the entire idea of limited constitutional government and inalienable constitutional/natural rights, seemingly because you like these particular results of crass authoritarianism. That's statism 101.

bakies 2 days ago|||
I've come to blame nimby for housing and Trump for food.
mjbale116 2 days ago|||
> have left the US

They did not "leave" the US, they were deported without due process.

> though NSA and google have been doing it for years

That does not make it less dismal

> less scope for this to be abused against american citizens unlike in the UK

There are agencies in the US that do as they please without needing to cooperate with anyone. Not sure how you arrived in that conclusion.

epistasis 2 days ago|||
> So far 2 million illegal immigrants have left the US.

Why would anyone believe this? It's such a strange thing to say, and one would have to be an absolute fool to believe it.

jdiff 2 days ago||
The people I work with believe the government, the current administration is funding immigrants. Providing them with handlers who are paid to assist them, open up credit cards in their own names on behalf of non-citizens who otherwise couldn't.

Multiple of them believe this. One mentioned it, after she left I turned to my other coworker to say "that was some crazy stuff she was saying" only to be met with, "Hey, it's happening. A lot of federal money goes missing and this is exactly where it's going."

It's a complete disconnect from reality that's malleable to any form desired.

FireBeyond 2 days ago||
When ICE raided Tyson Chicken (a few years ago), multiple workers provided documentation from Tyson telling them how to stay under the radar and how to fill out paperwork if they were undocumented. There's definitely a very large effort in undocumented labor... and little interest in rocking the boat of those employers.
jdiff 2 days ago||
Yes. The USA runs on undocumented work in many ways. This is a far, far, far (etc) cry from government-funded citizens escorting around and signing up for lines of credit and otherwise paying the way for undocumented workers.
FireBeyond 2 days ago|||
> So far 2 million illegal immigrants have left the US.

According to the current administration, who have a ... not exactly sterling ... reputation for accuracy and honesty in reporting.

wsatb 2 days ago|||
> So far 2 million illegal immigrants have left the US.

The Trump administration loves gaudy numbers like this. Common sense tells you that's a lot of movement in too short of time. Until they release evidence of these numbers, please do not spread this misinformation.

epistasis 2 days ago|||
Indeed, it's a complete lie and fabrication, and those who repeat it are bearing false witness. Take the report it came from, click on any "supporting" link, such as:

> A recent study from the United Nations reported that President Trump’s immigration policies led to a 97% reduction in illegal aliens heading northbound to the U.S. from Central America.

And you find that the document they link does not support their assertion, and in face the "97%" refers to:

> The migrants who returned during the period were primarily Venezuelan nationals, accounting for 97% of the documented southward flow, with most heading to neighboring Colombia.

It's comically bad deception, only people who continuously traffic in lies all day long would even publish something like this.

actionfromafar 2 days ago||||
He also got "20 trillion dollars".
sky2224 2 days ago|||
Is it really that much movement though?

Like, say we assume it's true: There are 340 million people in the US. That's less than 1% of the current population leaving. I really doubt anybody would notice much of a difference.

sigwinch 2 days ago||
Averaging 40,000 per state, that’s 50 large universities worth of opened-up housing.
sky2224 2 days ago||
Fair point. Guess my poor number sense is really showing haha.
sigwinch 2 days ago||
Don’t be so hard on yourself, truly. What if every US state lost the equivalent of one Burlington, VT? How much would you expect traffic, housing, lines at the grocery store, to change? It’s not easy, even though 2M people is over the total number of men drafted into Vietnam.
dyauspitr 2 days ago||
[flagged]
themafia 2 days ago|||
> full of salt of the earth Tennessee farmers.

Is there something wrong with them?

dyauspitr 2 days ago||
Not really, but an entire society full of them is unappealing to me
themafia 2 days ago|||
An entire society made up of identical people in any category is generally unappealing.
nebula8804 2 days ago|||
The media makes it seem like they are the majority but in reality there are like three...
50208 2 days ago||||
The United States is a nation of immigrants ... hopefully someday soon we'll remember that it is acutally our biggest strength, not a weakness.
UberFly 2 days ago||
A nation of legal or illegal immigrants? Should any us have a say in which we prefer?
dhdhdhsb 2 days ago||||
[flagged]
jdiff 2 days ago||
Only among consumers of conservative media, and they're not a majority of the US population.
dhdhdhsb 2 days ago||
[flagged]
jdiff 2 days ago||
Ad hominem does not strengthen your argument.

It's more affluent than most other states. Most red states take more federal money than they give back. Maybe you should actually look at numbers rather than relying on memes and narratives.

dhdhdhsb 2 days ago||
[dead]
throwawa14223 2 days ago|||
TBH that sounds amazing.