1. #1

    Lightbulb Why such emphasis on Mexican immigrants yet none on higher number of Chinese/other?

    Scroll down to view actual news article, or visit it directly here:
    http://bold.global/cathy-areu/2017/0...onal-security/

    Sorry if somebody has already linked this article or started a discussion on this specific topic; I spent quite some time searching/browsing around on my other monitor as I typed this, and while there are plenty of threads about the wall I didn't find any discussing the main points of this article. Aaaanyways -- this is a great article that goes over why, in terms of being used as an immigration deterrent, the border wall is complete overkill (if not entirely unnecessary) relative to the actual level of Mexican immigrant influx and is nothing but a tremendous financial blunder (especially considering the fact that Mexico will *clearly* not be paying for it) -- it also explains how China is the number one country for new immigrants to the United States; on top of that, for the past few *years* there have been more Mexicans leaving the United States than entering. In addition, has nobody considered that even now a large portion of illegal border crossings at the Southern border utilize underground tunnels, some being quite deep and sophisticated? In terms of bang for your buck, the wall seems less like an effective deterrent (even moreso when you consider that a minority of overall illegal immigrants come from Mexico) and more like a monument to Trump's legacy; the man has been quoted as saying "maybe one day people will name it the 'Trump Wall' after me" and has also placed significant emphasis on how "pretty" he wants it to look, as if cost were a non-issue. Alas, I digress.

    Assuming that you don't just yell "fake news" and blow this off, is there a legitimate explanation for the emphasis on Mexican immigrants and yet no major movement towards dealing with those from China? What about the 50,000 or so from Ireland? In terms of genuine national security concerns, it's stated (and by more sources than just this one) that terrorists prefer the US' Northern border; if we're worried about national security and are doing this with a major selling point being that it's going to keep America safe/strong/whatever, wouldn't a wall be more effective to the North?

    There are, of course, heavy implications in the article that the decision to focus on Mexico is heavily racially biased. For the sake of discussion, let's simply ignore any claims of racism and focus on the facts (unless, of course, you genuinely believe racism played the most crucial role in making this decision) -- why is Mexico being treated as the end-all-be-all of immigration and security issues when there are more Mexicans leaving than entering and we've got other, dramatically higher, sources of illegal immigrants? Is it solely because we share a physical border with Mexico and so it's easier to enforce? If that's the case, is a wall really the best route considering the facts, and even still why isn't as much emphasis being placed on preventing illegals from entering from these other sources? Is this wall/this policy worth the political, economic, social, and other various types of disaster that could result from this? Is it worth severely alienating our third largest partner in trade over what seems to be nothing but fulfilling a (ridiculous) campaign promise just for the sake of sticking to said promise? I'm referencing a lot of this from the article, but I honestly feel as if this wall started out as something Trump never imagined would actually be implemented, and has now grown out of control. I've said it before and the article says it, but it's worth saying again; there are more Mexicans LEAVING than entering, simply because they want to. So why the emphasis on this with so little/none on the legitimate, larger immigration issues?

    This post is ending up longer than the article itself, so I'll just say one more thing; as much as I dislike Trump, I am in no way a fan of people who pick a side and from that point on agree with everything that's in their favor and consider everything else to be bullshit. There is no point in having a thread consisting of one side claiming bias/fake news and the other shouting back how ridiculous they sound. Seriously, if you disagree with what the article says or think it's blatantly incorrect, how so? Why? I'd really like to understand how supporters can read this and justify recent events/decisions or current policy in general. Do the people that support Trump simply not care, or do they just choose ignore the facts either directly or by crying wolf fake? I'd almost prefer them admitting they simply don't give a shit over trying to imply it's entirely inaccurate.

    Quote Originally Posted by The Article
    This week [[note: relative to the article's posting date, roughly two weeks ago]] President Donald Trump Tweeted:
    Quote Originally Posted by Trump's Twitter
    Big day planned on NATIONAL SECURITY tomorrow. Among many other things, we will build the wall!
    Jan 24, 2017
    Immediately, the media’s questions started rolling in. Who will pay for the wall? How does a 2,000-mile wall get built? What will additional border patrol agents do to our national debt?

    But there’s one question I would like someone to answer for me: why are we building a wall in the first place? For our national security? Against Mexicans? Yeah, right.

    Immigrants from Mexico are not our problem. Mexico, contrary to popular belief, is not our main source of unauthorized immigrants. According to the last Census Bureau, in 2013, China became the No. 1 country for new immigrants to the United States. Did you know we have 50,000 illegal immigrants from Ireland? And, in 2000, potential terrorists were caught along the Canadian/U.S. border, not the Mexican border.

    You see, our new president is blaming the wrong country for illegal immigration. And now he’s going to build a wall based on some bad intel.

    Someone needs to tell Donald Trump that Mexico is a friendly neighbor, our third largest trade partner, and not a threat to our national security. And, to top things off, there are actually more Mexican immigrants leaving the United States than entering it. Yes, it’s true. According to the Pew Research Center, the number of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico peaked in 2007. Since then, we have had a decline in Mexican migration for a variety of reasons. The main reason is this: Mexicans are leaving because they want to. It’s their own decision.

    Here are the raw numbers: from 2009 to 2014, more than 140,000 Mexicans immigrants returned to Mexico, making the net migration of immigrants from Mexico to the U.S. a net zero. And, border apprehension is at an all time low as well, at around 1970 levels.

    So, why is President Trump demanding a wall along the Mexican border when most of our immigrants are coming from countries other than Mexico and the terrorists prefer the Canadian border? According to the cable news pundits, “He’s fulfilling his campaign promise.” That’s it. No other reason?

    We are going to alter the landscape between two countries because Trump is reaching out to his base, those who voted for him? He’s going to build a 2,000-mile wall along one of the world’s most peaceful borders for no other reason than Trump’s other followers want it. It’s that simple.

    During an inaugural event, a reporter asked Actor Scott Baio, of Happy Days fame, what he wanted Trump to do first. Without hesitating, Chachi (as we Happy Days fans know him) said: “Building the wall.”

    Again, I have to ask: why? Why do so many Americans, like Baio, want a wall separating two friendly neighbors? I’d hate to think that it’s racism for and prejudice against Mexicans and Latinos. But, as history has shown us, this is the only answer. We are a melting pot of a nation, but every new immigrant group has had its share of abuse from the “natives.” We used to criticize the Italians and the Irish, calling them sneaky and dirty. Now, we don’t mind 50,000 undocumented Irish, and we save those negative adjectives for the Latino immigrants.

    Instead of a wall with Mexico, perhaps we need to build a wall in the country providing us with the majority of undocumented immigrants: China. It will be, as Trump would say, “Huge!” It will run for miles. It would keep people separated from one another. We could call it a “Great Wall” for China. Oh, wait, they already have one of those. So, if China already has a wall, why are there so many Chinese undocumented immigrants able to leave and come here?

    Perhaps the bottom line is this: building a wall never works. It’s costly and unnecessary. And it does nothing for our “national security.” Now I just wish someone would explain this to the President. And Scott Baio.

  2. #2
    The Unstoppable Force PC2's Avatar
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    There are over 10 million illegals. That is not good regardless of other Mexico or Chinese issues.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by PrimaryColor View Post
    There are over 10 million illegals. That is not good regardless of other Mexico or Chinese issues.
    This thread isn't about saying it is or isn't good, it's about putting your effort/money where you're going to get the most results. If you're going to spend X billion dollars fighting illegal immigration, why use it fighting the smaller source that's also a peaceful, neighboring trade partner? I bet it'd cost a lot less than the wall, significantly so, to put a tremendous dent in the (larger) number of illegal immigrants from China and wouldn't take years of construction to do so.
    Last edited by Extremity; 2017-02-11 at 06:14 PM. Reason: Grammatical errors.

  4. #4
    Titan I Push Buttons's Avatar
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    Because about 60% of illegal immigrants in the US are from Mexico...?

    There are not more illegal immigrants from China... There are only about one million total illegal immigrants from all of Asia combined... While there are nearly seven million from Mexico.

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