Make sure it’s a black baby.
The problem from a political haymaking standpoint is that you can’t really bang on the opposite point, though. “Drug seizures are down! More drugs are getting through! Maybe! We don’t really know!” The whole situation doesn’t lend itself to cogent analysis from a political strategy standpoint.
Oh but they do! Drug seizures are up and it proves that Biden’s open borders are harming real Texans like me. Drug seizures are down and it shows that Biden isn’t really interested in enforcing existing laws, thereby endangering real Texans like me.
Bear in mind that real Texans like me are white, like Davy Crockett and Sam Houston Just like real Americans.
The new WWJD:
Who Would Jesus Deport?
Now THAT’S an effective billboard.
About 90% of the illegal drugs smuggled into the U.S. comes through ports of entry. If this is your pet crisis you might want to focus more on customs than the border.
Got a link confirming the amount?
I think there is legitimate discussion and debate to be had around our immigration process to make it more efficient, more secure, and more humane, so that people wanting to come to this country do not have to risk their lives by drowning in rivers or being baked alive in box trucks. But using scare tactics and hyperbole like “open borders” and “crisis” and “they’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists…” and this stupid stunt of moving people around without coordination does not further progress toward building a system that is fair and scalable. It’s childish and petulant, and simply a punch-back at Biden’s cancellation of the idiotic border wall TFG favored.
If he comes back and seriously intends to be elected to national office, whether in Israel, Palestine or the United States, I guarantee the answer will be — someone.
If the choice is open borders or DeSantis, DeSantis wins.
$850 million is by my calculation about 1 / 300 of annual Texas state government revenue.
I don’t know what proportion of that revenue comes from undocumented immigrants, but it is more than 1 / 300.
Of course, undocumented immigrants also use state services having nothing to do with their immigration status.
People who are flown out through force or trickery, but actually want to stay in Texas, or Florida (probably because of having friends there), will come back. Then they will use state services, and contribute to state revenue. How it will all add up may be impossible to know.
I appreciate where you’re coming from, but it’s not worth bothering to engage with this argument at all. The $850 million estimate comes from Ken Paxton, the least trustworthy politician in Texas. There is a rational debate to be had about the costs that states incur due to undocumented immigrants, but not with liars like Paxton.
Well thank god this fictional choice will never be!
My post was in reply to someone who said, “So now the latest talking point I’m seeing is that the costs of bussing / flying migrants out of Texas is $14 million as opposed to keeping and housing them in Texas which would cost $850 million.”
That post seemed to suggest that the $14 million expense somehow saved the state $850 million.
Oh no, your logic is sound and I agree. And I know that that @Win_Place_Show wasn’t really trying to make this argument but rather citing what the MAGAs are saying.
My point was just that trying to have a constructive debate with the people who are actually making this argument is fighting the tar baby. These are dishonest people using made up facts to advance disingenuous positions. Trying to counteract them with logic and data is useless.
I agree, but maybe more literally than you do.
Suppose there was a collapse of conservative and centrist politics, leading to a complete triumph for compassion in our immigration policy.
Suspecting that an open border/unlimited work permit policy wouldn’t last long, hunderds of millions from around the world would borrow money from loan sharks, and fly to JFK, or walk to El Paso, or hop a freighter headed for the port of Miami. It might be that, if spread over several decades, we could benefit from that. But if it happenned in a year or two, it really would create an immigration crisis, leading to a big conservative resurgence.
So the only way to have a half-way compassionate immigration policy is to limit it with an half-way hard-hearted one.
Do I post advocacy for turning away desperate economic migrants seeking a better life for their family? No, and I don’t have to, because there are American voters pushing the other way.
Which amount?
Trump’s pissed because he didn’t think of it.
The $12 million amount that the meme says it cost to fly them from Texas/Florida to Martha’s Vineyard.
I’ve never gone looking for one, but that’s been the number getting thrown around since this started. I did find this, which suggests the $12m is his budget for the year, not that he spent it all on this specific stunt:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/16/politics/desantis-marthas-vineyard-migrants/index.html
The state budget DeSantis signed this year allocated $12 million to move “unauthorized aliens” but specified the intent was to transport people “from this state.”
and this, which I assume means this specific move costs closer to $615;
But trying to build a better immigration system is HARD! As is trying to figure out a way to reduce Americans’ apparently voracious appetite for drugs and effectively treating addicted people who don’t want to be on that treadmill anymore.
Doing stupid shit like this is so much easier and grabs headlines! Why change?