Comment by embedding-shape

7 days ago

> it's because you come in from a perspective of not wanting the underlying problem solved

Where is this assumption coming from? Of course I don't want people to break the laws of the country or immigrate illegally, I never argued for that either.

What I don't understand, if Obama managed to throw out more illegals than Trump did for the same duration of time, yet with a lot less chaos and bloodshed, and you truly want less illegal immigrants, should you favor a more peaceful and efficient process? Instead of a more violent and less efficient process?

There is a huge difference between turning people away at the border and tallying a "deportation", and removing people from the interior of the US.

The flow of illegal aliens crossing the border has largely been eliminated. [1]

> should you favor a more peaceful and efficient process? Instead of a more violent and less efficient process?

I want a process that actually works. There has been no serious headway made in the number of illegal aliens for decades until now. [2]

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8wd8938e8o

[2] https://abcnews.go.com/US/us-1st-time-50-years-experienced-n...

  • Your sources don’t say what you’re claiming.

    The BBC piece is about recorded apprehensions/encounters being very low (still “<9,000/month”), not that the “flow” is “largely eliminated.” Encounters aren’t the same thing as total unlawful entries, and “very low” isn’t “eliminated.” https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8wd8938e8o

    The ABC/Brookings story is about net migration turning negative in 2025, mostly due to fewer entries. Net migration is not a measure of the unauthorized population, and the article even notes removals in 2025 are only modestly higher than 2024. https://abcnews.go.com/US/us-1st-time-50-years-experienced-n...

    Also, the claim “no headway for decades until now” is inconsistent with standard estimates: Pew shows a decline from 2007 to 2019 in the unauthorized population. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/07/22/what-we-k...

    • Your pedantry is unnecessary.

      "Largely eliminated". I didn't say "completely eliminated". <9,000 per month can be considered "largely eliminated" when the previous flow was often many hundreds of thousands per month. You can see it plainly on the graph.

      Yes of course encounters are not total entries. Do you have a better way of estimating?

      The net migration is due to several factors. The result of "largely eliminating" the flow of illegal aliens, along with dutiful removal of those in the interior, has made a big dent. There are other factors, including legal immigration, obviously.

      There were 12 million (estimated) illegal aliens here in 2007. There are MORE now. No headway has been made.

      3 replies →

  • I saw you were briefly downvoted but you're correct. The number and % of illegal immigrants in the us has shot up in an unprecedented way during the prior administration, meaning whatever techniques could be argued to have worked earlier (although to your point, did they work?) may not be adequate to current scope of problem.