Saturday, December 12, 2015

David Frum: America's Immigration Challenge

"However one assesses that chain and its consequences, it seems clear that the large majority of legal immigrants choose to come—or, more exactly, are chosen by their relatives—for their own reasons. They are not selected by the United States to advance some national interest. Illegal immigrants are of course entirely self-selected, as are asylum seekers. Even the refugee process, reportedly the most tightly screened, operates to a considerable extent outside national control...."
Donald Trump’s noisy complaints that immigration is out of control are literally true. Nobody is making conscious decisions about who is wanted and who is not, about how much immigration to accept and what kind to prioritize—not even for the portion of U.S. migration conducted according to law, much less for the larger portion that is not.
Nor is there much understanding of what has happened after it has happened. A simple question like, “How many immigrants are in prison?” turns out to be extraordinarily hard to answer. Poor information invites excessive fears, which are then answered with false assurances and angry accusations.
Nervous about Syrian refugees in the wake of the Paris massacre? How dare you! Would you turn away Jews fleeing Hitler? Oh, you think that analogy is hyperbolic? Tell it to the mayor of New York City.
This frequent invocation of the refugee trauma of the 1930s shuts down all discussion of anything that has happened since....
Meantime "More Than 10,000 Unaccompanied Minors Apprehended on U.S. Border in Last Two Months"
While the world has been focused on Europe's migrant crisis, apprehensions of unaccompanied minors along America's own border have exploded...

12 comments:

AllenS said...

Wait! They are accompanied by their own dolls? WTF? Do they all have one?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The dolls are probably been handed out for the cameras.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

at taxpayers expense... very likely.

G Joubert said...

Nobody is making conscious decisions about who is wanted and who is not,...

That doesn't appear to be all that true. Somebody wants this the way it is. Political correctness in action is the standard.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I saw this tweet from Trump...

In Britain, more Muslims join ISIS than join the British army.

I thought, Oh oh, hes going to get it now.

It turns out he didn't say it. He's quoting an article from the National Review.

Link

bagoh20 said...

I believe most of the bad decisions that our government makes would never be made by a majority of Americans today. They are forced upon us by people who are, as a rule, dumber, more dishonest and more corrupt than the average American. When the nation was founded, our leaders as a group were probably better than average, so a republican form of government probably made more sense than it does today. Decisions like immigration, or going to war should probably be decided by direct democracy now, just to take some stupid out of the decision making process.

Shouting Thomas said...

Watch carefully over the next few weeks while every candidate and politician of both parties adopts Trump's criticism of the immigration system and prescription for changing it... while pretending to still denounce Trump for suggesting it.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I saw a tweet saying Jeb is changing his tune somewhat, but I didn't save the link.

AllenS said...

He might change his tune, Lem, but his mind and policies if elected will never change.

ricpic said...

Oh, but you say, what about Syrian Christians?...they are NOT admitted. Christian is a terrorist category in the liberal religion.

G Joubert said...

He might change his tune, Lem, but his mind and policies if elected will never change

He's a Bush. That's enough said all by itself. But add to that he appears to be the worst of the lot. And we know the Bush's can tell lies while campaigning to try to sucker the base, as in: "Read my lips. No new taxes."

Trooper York said...

That doll is stuffed with cocaine. Just sayn'