Comment by idle_zealot

9 days ago

1) You don't deport them, you don't ignore them, you document them. Then you let them live their lives. They're people, not a mold outgrowth that needs culling.

2) Check those stats a bit more closely. The vast majority of "deportations" were people turned away at the border.

Would you support deporting people who are criminals? Or have no intention of ever working and just want to live off various welfare programs? Trying to find some common ground here.

  • Nope. Access to food, water, shelter, and freedom of movement are fundamental human rights. I'm not a proponent of executing useless eaters. If you commit a crime with a prison sentence then you serve that sentence where you committed the crime.

    • Thanks for taking the time to clarify your position.

      So if China or some other country decided to send 10 million people here for whatever reason, you think our official policy should be to welcome then in and provide them food, shelter, etc...?

      What about 100 million people?

      Should they also be given citizenship and right to vote in addition to food/shelter?

      5 replies →

> 1) You don't deport them, you don't ignore them, you document them. Then you let them live their lives. They're people, not a mold outgrowth that needs culling.

I don't think that's a policy that would get majoritarian support in the US. The only people who can and should get deported are those who are not already not authorized to be here. If you don't deport them, it's functionally equivalent to an open-borders policy. Do you want more MAGA? Because open-borders is how you get more MAGA.

What you're proposing is also roughly analogous to a policy of not evicting squatters. If someone breaks into your house and decides to start living in one of your bedrooms, are you going to want them out or give them a key? The squatter is a person too, not a mold outgrowth that needs culling.

  • > Because open-borders is how you get more MAGA.

    Pretending that immigrants are the underlying cause of every societal failure is how you get MAGA. Enabling that big lie bolsters it.

    And I don't think I can enumerate the ways in which an occupied house are different from a country and unsuitable for the metaphor you're trying.

    • > Pretending that immigrants are the underlying cause of every societal failure is how you get MAGA. Enabling that big lie bolsters it.

      What are you going to do, win elections by lecturing everyone about how they're wrong and they need to think just like you? People thought the Biden administration's immigration policy was too lax, and that was a major contributing cause to the second Trump term.

      Deporting people who are in the country illegally is a no brainer. If you don't want that, get the law changed. Until then, it's not wrong to deport them.

      Now, that doesn't mean deportation should be the only or even the main method of immigration enforcement (personally, I like the idea of putting more burden on employers).

      > And I don't think I can enumerate the ways in which an occupied house are different from a country and unsuitable for the metaphor you're trying.

      Oh of course, it's always too different if you want it to be. That way, you can continue to feel righteous.

      3 replies →

  • There is broad support for Dreamers. It's not as simple as deport everyone here illegally and the public seems to understand that.

    • > There is broad support for Dreamers. It's not as simple as deport everyone here illegally and the public seems to understand that.

      What the GGP was advocating was much broader than that. What's sympathetic about the Dreamers is the non-consensual nature of their position (their parents took them here) and many of them have little to no connection to the country they'd be deported to.

      That logic doesn't apply to, say, the 3.5 million illegal immigrants that arrived between 2021 and 2023 (https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2025/08/21/u-...), but those are people the GGP would "document not deport."

Cute.

1. Entering a country without proper documentation is a crime. Therefore all "undocumented immigration" is by definition criminal.

2. Removing criminals is paramount to a safe society and a justice system that is respected.

3. "Documenting them and letting them live" undermines legal immigrants who likely worked very hard to integrate culturally, establish themselves, and do the proper LEGAL paperwork. These legal immigrants have stringent reporting requirements, need to be careful about even minor crimes (excessive speeding tickets even!) etc. How is your proposal remotely fair to them?

I don't understand why this is a controversial opinion at all. I have yet to meet a legal immigrant that isn't okay with booting anyone that isn't legal out. A country without border control is NOT a country.

  • > "Documenting them and letting them live" undermines legal immigrants who likely worked very hard to integrate culturally, establish themselves, and do the proper LEGAL paperwork.

    It's a shame those people had to work so hard to be treated like their neighbors. That's not a reason to deny others that treatment though.

    > I have yet to meet a legal immigrant that isn't okay with booting anyone that isn't legal out.

    Yeah they tend to skew pretty reactionary. That tends to sort itself out after a generation or two.

    > A country without border control is NOT a country.

    I didn't say we shouldn't have border security. In what universe is a goon squad going door to door checking for undesirables "border control"?