MORE INFO ON IMMIGRATION:
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Brendan Buck, aide to former House Speakers Boehner and Ryan: The McCarthy Commitment to America Plan is intended to unite Republicans on messaging on the explosive immigration issue, differentiate themselves from Democrats, but keep the language imprecise enough that they would not be beholden to specific policy expectations if they come into power. Jasmine Aguilera, Time.
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The United States is a nation of immigrants, and we recognize the contributions made by Americans who came to this country from all over the world to make a new home. Steny Hoyer, House Majority Leader.
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Democrats also wanted to change from Trump Administration focus on:
· Maintaining a phony Covid-19 emergency order to slow down processing
· Reducing legal immigration which reduces the agricultural, etc. workforce
· Banning travel and refugee settlement from predominantly Muslim and African countries
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The Wall:
· Completes only 1/3 of our 1800+ mile border
· Is pricey at $25M-$46M per mile, >$20B to complete and $8 billion per year to maintain
· Is ineffective (does not prevent immigrants entering)
· Is poorly constructed (summer monsoons blew floodgates off their hinges)
· Fragments animal habitats (cuts off migration routes)
· Divides three indigenous nations.
· Violates land management and environmental laws
· Is a sieve -- tunnelable, drillable, climbable, go-aroundable, fly-over-able, inoperative against the 40+% now undocumented in the US who entered with temporary visas and overstayed
· Is inefficient -- the border patrol must station officers at gaps for security
· Was illegally financed, misusing congressionally authorized funds, with the Defense Dept. shifting $10B of the $15B cost to fund the Trump wall. Biden's cancellation means $2B will be returned for 66 military construction projects.
· And, in sum, is a politized exaggerated band-aid unlikely to come close to ending new undocumented entry, whereas a major fix would be addressing the multiple complexities of a comprehensive immigration reform.
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Republicans falsely equate immigrants with bringing higher crime, draining welfare programs, and smuggling fentanyl and other drugs. If immigration is forever wielded as a political cudgel, and not as a policy component of economic growth, everyone will suffer. Washington Post Editorial Board.
Not coincidentally, a NPR/Ipsos poll, 8/18, finds that more than half of Americans say there’s an “invasion” at the southern border. And that large numbers of Americans hold a variety of misconceptions about immigrants — greatly exaggerating their role in smuggling illegal drugs into the U.S., and how likely they are to use public benefits, for example — as false and misleading claims about immigration gain traction.
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