What do you think is happening?
The OP was not terribly clear about what exactly he thought the federal government was or ought to be doing WRT which specific persons who were entering our country, but I think they raised an issue that was capable and worthy of discussion. I’m not one who feels an SDMB OP has to be set forth with the specificity of a legal pleading or mathematical proof.
I personally think it a suspect approach to criticize the OP by saying, "which group are you talking about." If one wished to express a meaningful opinion, one could say, “The OP is unclear as to group a, b, or c. But I can say that with respect to group a, the federal government should do xyz.” Simply criticizing the OP adds nothing of value other than suggesting your self-presumed superior discernment.
I’ve expressed my personal opinion that there is little meaningful difference between the various groups. They are (nearly?) all coming to the US to seek a better future than they had wherever they came from. Others likely disagree, and think it terribly significant whether or not someone utters the word “asylum” as they enter the US. I’ve also expressed my personal opinion that the current situation is fucked up, and that far more folk ought to be more readily allowed to live and work in the US than currently are.
Yeah, but Abbott is already changing tactics, at least for Illinois. He’s flying them into Rockford, chartering busses to take the immigrants to suburban train stations, and putting them on the train to Chicago.
We’re also having a lot of the municipalities creating new laws; most of them along the lines of “You can’t drop off busses of people without proper clothing and a plan for their future.”
Specifically. what is so horrific?
Forcing them to stay in Arizona is also horrific, if there is nowhere to house them and care for them…
If Arizona doesn’t have the ability to care for them, why not send them to another state?
It’s a national problem, and the burden of solving it should be spread equally among all the states.
So let’s go with what Abbott is doin. It still doesn’t address the issue
Why are the Feds letting his ship refugees across state lines. That is at least twice over the Federal jurisdiction line.
Why is the money not following the refugees and/or money being given to cities to help.
Even if we avoid are the Feds bussing migrants around or is it Red States question, the point remains these cities are overwhelmed with the refugee question and the Feds response is … (crickets chirping). Why are they not stepping up to do something?
No. If it is a national problem it is a Federal burden. That’s why we have a strong central government.
I wouldn’t want to presume. I’d like a cite from the OP for, well, anything they’re saying at all. Why is it someone else’s job to do that?
All I ask for is a cite that the OP’s repeated, fact-free statements that Feds are busing anyone around, exactly who is being bused around, or that cities are “overwhelmed with the refugee question”.
We can’t have a fact-based discussion with someone running around saying “oh my god these foreigners, there’s so many, they’re so expensive, who’s going to pay for it all.”
There are legal definitions for each of them and reams of federal code describing how different categories of immigrants are processed, and how these processes are funded. Your opinion is unrelated to reality.
Agree. This is an interesting thread and is helping me understand the situation better.
Okay, so I have a (very naive?) question: could the Feds declare an emergency, Would this remove legal responsibility from the governors, who would then lose the authority to order the refugees to board buses?
I honestly thought the Feds were moving the refugees around. If I’m wrong I can accept that but then if they are just letting migrants cross the border and making border states do all the work then I think my question is still valid. Specifically why aren’t the Feds doing anything.
And I still don’t think it absolves the Feds of their responsibility if it is Abbott/DeSantis or Hunter Biden personally driving the bus from Brownsville to San Francisco. They’re here now in this sanctuary city. Who’s going to pay for them? How do we stop more from coming in?
Is this in fact the case? What work do you believe the Feds are making border states perform?
No, it IS the states that are bussing/flying people around. Although I do believe that in at least some instances there have been suggestions that federal funds were used to pay for the busses/planes.
I am far from an expert, but I would like to think that there would be a law against simply shipping people around like that, with no expectation that the resources existed to take care of them better at the destination. (Of course some genius may think my opinion is unrelated to reality!). 
Smacks of “running the bums/criminals/unwanted out of town”, or “across the county line.”
Sucks for the border states to face this problem, but in our Republic, it ought not be a sufficient response to make it A DIFFERENT state’s problem. Especially since the “problem” being transferred consists of human beings.
The idea that you can just ship people off to be someone else’s problem is a nonstarter. All it does is make whoever does it seem calloused and cruel. It doesn’t put any pressure on the other side to change anything.
Any sort of pressure on the Feds would need to be something that the pro-immigrant people can rally behind. Something that makes it seem like the Feds are the bad guys. Because ultimately what forces a politician is the perception of their voters.
I get the need for a cite for some of it. Some feels like asking for a cite when I say it’s raining and I’m standing here soaking wet without an umbrella. Asking for specific information is ok but you seem to be asking for a cite that anything is happening. Maybe because I’m in the NYC news area but I’m watching daily reports about new immigrants being shipped in and New Yorkers who are currently in housing programs being shifted around with little notice. The mayor is constantly calling for help and something to be done.
The distinction between asylum seekers and refugees is a difference in legal definition. The news stories call them migrants and asylum seekers. Does that make it better?
Do they have that “authority” now? My impression is that a lot of these people are being tricked into getting on the busses. “Get on this bus, and you’ll be taken to a nice farm upstate a place with housing and support”, but then they’re just being dropped off in the middle of some other city.
That probably happens sometimes.
But it’s also easy to think that someone in Brownsville, Texas would be happy to get a free plane flight or bus ticket to Chicago or New York.
The Feds are not making the border states perform anything. They are just letting the people into the state then doing nothing. That’s the issue. An asylum seeker gets processed at a border crossing and released after they are given a hearing date. Then what? They are released into Texas or Arizona or wherever they came in. Often it’s only non-profits that are helping and they are overwhelmed. I don’t agree with what an asshole like Abbott is doing but he’s right that it should be a national issue not a state issue.
There definitely seem to be instances, including FL:
Also …
'Member when Ron paid millions to fly a few dozen asylum seekers – in the US legally – from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard? Martha’s Vineyard is:
*Horribly expensive (median home price ~$1.3 million)
*Extremely seasonal
*Not a thriving job market, particularly for low-wage workers (who cannot afford housing there)
*Not a place with substantial infrastructure, community, or resources to help recent immigrants
So, they were transferred to a military base with the resources and experience to properly accommodate these migrants.
If DeSantis had sent these people (asylum seekers, legally in the US) to Aspen, Colorado or Beverly Hills, California, that would ALSO have been a political stunt.
Or he’s just extremely bad at solving problems.
Like Trump.
And his Florida illegal immigration problem is SO BAD … that he had to borrow immigrants from Texas to pull it off?
Yeah. That makes perfect sense.
:rolleyes:
Political stunts tend to overwhelm legitimate issues and stifle important dialogue. Unfortunately, it isn’t the current batch of Republican voters who think that way.
Cite? 
I have never denied that legal distinctions exist. But here’s another opinion of mine which you may feel is unrelated to reality.However, I thought it was possible for persons to express their personal opinions as to whether or not laws were well reasoned, meaningful, or “right.”
I guess for you, whenever ANY law is passed, THAT becomes your opinion, without consulting your personal values. Curious.
I don’t need a cite for the fact that there is a situation on the border, but OP has jumped from one wrong supposition to another about what exactly is happening, and then asking why the federal government isn’t paying for those things.
If specific solutions are being demanded then we’re entitled to know specifically what problem we’re trying to solve.
And since this thread is posing very specific questions about the legal responsibilities of different governments, then it’s very important to have clarity on the terms, isn’t it?
It may seem like I’m being purposefully dense here, but that’s not the case at all.
I volunteered in refugee resettlement for years. Immigrating to the US as a refugee is incredibly hard, the US is notoriously stingy admitting them, but the Feds ultimately do pay for refugees. So when I see a thread titled “Why don’t the Feds pay for the refugees”, I want to know, who are you talking about, what do you think isn’t getting paid for?
At this point I do gather that “refugee” is being used as a stand-in for “the immigrant problem”, and that neither the OP nor anybody else will be bothered to acknowledge or correct the distinction. That’s fine.
But the fact remains that there’s a lot going on with the border situation, and people are making very loose assumptions, and phrasing it very sloppily, and then asking very pointed questions about who should solve those problems and why. That’s why I ask for a cite, so we can make sure we’re talking about the same problem before we talk about solutions.