Folks, I made a mistake.
As you may know — because, sadly, there is video evidence — I was too casual in inviting foreigners to come to the United States,
And who wouldn’t want to come here, really?
During a 2019 debate, I told those seeking asylum to “surge” our border. Yes, I said it.
And they did.
My bad.
Yes, me.
Want me to connect the dots? Many of them were wearing T-shirts asking me, using my name, to let them in.
And I did. Another goof up.
Also, out of a humanitarian concern for those seeking to escape oppression, I said, “you should come.”
And they did.
Based on those same heartfelt but foolish feelings, as soon as I was elected, I started reversing all of my predecessor’s executive orders that were effectively controlling our southern border. And that created chaos.
No malarkey. I’m not joking. I did that, and that surge exploded, even as I, my willing tool Alejandro Mayorkas, and most of the liberal media denied it was happening.
Boy, were we all wrong.
I later learned that according to Gallup, the respected polling operation, 160 million people would come here if they could. Jiminy Cricket. I was so clueless.
What if 160 million showed up? As a nation of 332 million, we would be totally swamped. If just 10% showed up, we’d be doomed.
Proof?
Look what’s happening in New York City. Mayor Eric Adams says it is budgeting $12 billion for migrant services for the next year. He says migrants will bankrupt the nation’s largest city.
He is demanding that City Council redraft laws that make the city responsible for any “newcomer,” as we are now trying to call them.
It is a mess. I wasn’t thinking it through. I didn’t see the consequences.
Now I’m trying to convince you that it’s the Republicans’ fault, but that’s not flying.
In addition to the video of me inviting them to come here, there’s that idiot move where me and every other Democratic candidate for president — except Tim Ryan — said we would provide free medical coverage for every illegal, something we don’t do for American citizens!
So, yeah, I got a lot to apologize for. It’s almost like I was possessed, and doing things that just defied common sense.
I’ve gotta tell you, folks, I didn’t do it for any political advantage — to “create” more Democrats over time, because Democrats have already lost the majority of white men and without abortion, we might lose white women, too. The truth is, in presidential elections, we have already lost the white vote.
So, well, maybe politics had a little to do with it. A smidgen, heh, heh.
But I am here to tell you that you can teach an old dog new tricks, and in this analogy, I am the old dog. Although the other guy ain’t what you would call a spring chicken, either.
Here’s the deal: I kind of lost track of the idea that my first responsibility is to the American people, and to enforce immigration laws already on the books.
I apologize. I am sorry. I was wrong. I will now do whatever I can to wean Republicans away from Trump’s wishes and tell them if they send the border bill to me, I will sign it.
Heck, you can even name it the Republican Border Safety Act, and I will sign it.
That’s to pay the piper and apologize for the many mistakes I have made on securing our border.
Are you being silly, Stu?
Stu, As I’ve said on these pages before, I love immigration. Legal immigration. So, let’s have a high wall with a wide gate. I’d be OK with Legal immigration 10X what we legally allow today, but it has to be legal. Biden doesn’t seem to understand that part.
Agree!
We have laws in this country; let’s enforce them…
If on day 1 of Biden’s presidency when Biden tee shirts were swarming across the border, people with a brain, thought ‘who manufactured and distributed those shirts’ , we’d be living in a better country.
10 times would be too much. We take in about 1 million legal now. We could not handle 10 million per year.
Probably at least 3x. To some degree, illegal immigration, is self-regulating. That is, supply and demand. We have a labor shortage right now, drawing immigration. During the 2008 crash, we had a net outflow of illegals, because: no jobs. That is why libertarians, for whom the market solves all things, tend to be pro-immigration, if not full on open-borders. Immigration fuels economic growth by providing more consumers and productive workers and can ease inflation caused or contributed to by labor shortages .
I even came across a scholarly economics paper (tl;dr) that claimed that illegal immigration is what tamped down the post-COVID inflation, and prevented us from falling into a recession (as many predicted) from the high interest rates imposed by the Fed. Maybe not, but it’s plausible. (This was from a libertarian economist. The left doesn’t do economic reasoning–other than blaming capitalism for all things–they do justice/human rights/bleeding heart reasoning. I do both, and try to balance the two, which is why everybody hates me).
More legal immigration also tends to reduce illegal immigration, first by filling labor vacancies, and second for the same reason that ending prohibition squeezed out bootleggers. Why not just get a liquor license? It’s far less dangerous.
But even so, I disagree that we can let the market do all the work by committing to open borders. There is a time lag between the time the labor market fills up and folks intent on coming here know that. Plus, unregulated markets have a tendency to go through boom-bust cycles, which when severe can give you things like the Great Depression–which is why we have been regulating markets ever since.
So I think we should regulate immigration the way the Fed regulates interest rates. Annual immigration visas should be set based on economic analysis and projections of our labor needs, and like interest rates, adjusted as things change. When we’ve got a labor shortage, allow more people in, and if we are looking at a recession and increased unemployment, shut it down. As with monetary and fiscal policy, when correctly used, it could contribute to keeping the economy on an even keel.
To my lefty friends, I’d say there is room in those numbers for the compassionate accommodation of refugees, and to my right wing friends, I’d say that legal immigration gives us far better tools to weed out criminals, drug-dealers and assorted low-lives.
Immigration MUST be regulated, and we can admit more than we do.
There is a problem with your self-regulation plan: When they claim asylum, the rules change. They can remain untio they get a hearing, no matter how many years it takes. By then, they are “settled” and face little chance of deportation, so they have beaten the system because about 90% do not qualify for asylum. They know this and come anyway.
I’m not going to deep dive here, but when municipalities e.g. New York, volunteer to provide food and shelter and medicine and education for the kids, it skews the equation.
Then there’s the math: Bureau of Labor stats says there are 4.7 million jobs unfilled. An estimated 7 million have come in under Biden. Even IF (a big IF) these people were qualified for EVERY job, that still leaves 2.7 million of people with no job to fill.
Stu, you missed my point. I did say that immigration has to be regulated–but based on the labor market. I said, “we should regulate immigration the way the Fed regulates interest rates. Annual immigration visas should be set based on economic analysis and projections of our labor needs, and like interest rates, adjusted as things change.”
Estimates about what jobs they qualified for would be part of the assessment of how much immigration to allow.
There may be only 4.7 million jobs unfilled. But you miss that the number does not include the jobs that HAVE been already filled by illegal aliens, like the ones who were hired by Trump’s golf courses or building contractors.
Pew Research estimated that illegals already filled some 7.6 million jobs, before Biden took office. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/06/10/a-majority-of-americans-say-immigrants-mostly-fill-jobs-u-s-citizens-do-not-want/
I suspect most of the new 7 million that came in under Biden are working as well. That’s why they come here. Even if its less than half, that could be, say, another 2-3 million jobs we’d have to fill in their absence, making the labor shortage even more acute.
My proposal recognizes that the only way to fill those jobs without illegals, is legal immigration. Filling new jobs, as they open up, (by way of market expansion or deportation) with legal immigrants instead of illegal ones, would tend to squeeze illegals out of the market. If they knew there was no hope of a job, they wouldn’t come, just as crossings plummeted during the crash.
No, Tom, I didn’t miss it. You are dealing with a federal bureaucracy. It is not nimble enough to change with economic conditions that might change weekly or monthly.
I agree with expanding legal immigration, and doing what Canada does, streamlining applicants with skills we need — tech, for example.
Most of those coming here from our hemisphere seem to have agricultural skills. How much stoop labor do we need?
And suddenly there is a flood coming from China, who “seem” to be business class. They’d be welcome IF they came here legally.
Biden should resign and never be heard from again. The damage he has caused this country on immigration alone will continue to damage the country for years to come. Stu when are you going to say I made a mistake I will not vote for Biden but will vote for someone else.
You really don’t understand politics or the border situation at all, do you. Trump torpedoed the toughest immigration bill perhaps in history, and you sit here and blame Biden for this. How about you do a little research and learn some shit?
Once again you prove how dumb you are. Biden can close the borders as quickly as he opened them.
The only really effective means of returning border-crossers was Title 42 (which the Biden administration continued to enforce over progressive objections): 2.28 million border-crossers returned.
Title 42 authority expired because it was based on the COVID emergency. With that off the table, a president just doesn’t have the legal authority to do it any more.
As Trump said (pre-COVID/Title 42 and post-Remain in Mexico and family-separation) back in 2019: “This [border] crisis is only worsening…We do not have the resources needed to hold them, and legal loopholes and… court rulings prevent authorities from promptly returning them…Immigration courts are overwhelmed…” If all he needed was executive authority, why did he go begging to Congress in 2019? Why didn’t he just fix it instead of bellyaching?
So, is he lying now, or was he lying then? (Or is Biden supposed introduce another pandemic to get more border security? Is that Trump’s plan?) Plus, the GOP conference was all in on conditioning aid for Ukraine and Israel on increasing border security.
Then, just when the GOP was going to pop the champagne and declare victory, Trump comes in and literally says, “Don’t give the democrats a win” and they fall in line. Why did they even bother fighting for the bill if it wouldn’t have helped security? Are they morons? But Trump’s 2019 position and the GOP’s 2022 position get shoved down the memory hole at a moment’s notice. Talk about Orwellian.
In response to our Inquirer editor’s boundless wisdom in their article today about “saving democracy,” that vacuous statement, by voting for Biden, we all need to recall Obama’s warning to the nation about his own VP, ” Never underestimate Biden’s ability to screw up everything.” Evidence of Obama’s truth abounds.
It is astounding how many policies are supported by shortsighted politicians when the results are so clear that the policy will backfire very badly. Open borders, defund the police, DEI, tax the rich, promise tanks, munitions and planes to allies and then delay delivery for six months, so many aspects of the Civil Rights Act that backfired very badly and surprising, as clearly explained by Thomas Sowell, Jason Riley, and so many others. Teddy Kennedy’s calamitous change of our immigration policy to upside down the percentages of which nations we preferred immigrants to come from to strengthen the USA.
Recent Immigration policy, or lack of any policy discipline, is clearly backfiring everywhere and much is directly attributed to the “boundless wisdom,” of Teddy, too.
With millions flooding in illegally, sleeper terrorists, too, the State Department is still managing their Green Card Visa Lottery program that lets 50,000 more individuals a year to win a Green Card just by entering a lottery. 50,000 becomes about 200,000 each year with spouses and children. A winner I met said his incentive was the million dollars he was told that someone from State would hand him when he arrived.
With 40% of our own citizens, 132 million not paying income taxes, in other words, not achieving their own potential, isn’t that where we need to remedy things like the failing public schools for which we are taxed a fortune to operate, work ethic, pride in ones abilities, using ones skills before inviting millions more to immigrate to the US?
What is the number we really want for our total population? 330,000,000 now.
It was 140,000,000 in 1948 when some of us were born. With more than double the numbers now, lovely farms, wide open meadows, open rivers edges, coastlines and glorious woodlands and even many floodplains from my younger years are gone, covered with houses, schools, roads, shops, malls, etc.
Wouldn’t we like that ruination of our natural lands to stop and be saved?
What is anyone’s ideal population number for the US?
Could it be less than 330,000,000?
Set our population goal first, and then a smarter strategy for immigration should follow.
The USA is mostly empty. Philadelphia has three times the population of Wyoming. The “right” population number is the one that can fulfill the needs of its citizens and expand the economy. If population is stagnant, that won’t happen.
Yes, but, that point of view is like the one arguing for just a few more lanes on the highways to reduce traffic jams; in a few years, we have seen over and over, those new lanes will be jammed, too.
Question remains: how many people is enough, having witnessed wholesale ruination of much of the open space all around us just in our lives?
My vote is to encourage a policy and an immigration plan for many fewer than the 330,000,000 we have today.
So you are for REDUCING the U.S. population?
Would that not cut demand for all products, and create unemployment, and bankrupt us as we become a nation of old people, such as what Japan is facing? Our current birthrate is 1.6. Replacement rate requires 2.1.
Perhaps Mike Johnson should allow a vote on immigration reform, then? Since it would obviously pass in both the House and Senate. Wanna explain to me why that isn’t happening? Oh, wait, I know: Trump doesn’t like it.
I know you love the quote from Obama, but you don’t have it quite right. It’s only been reported from an anonymous source (so snopes rates it “unproven”). I think it is believable as reported, but not as you use it–in addition to the fact that you’ve got the wording wrong. It originally comes from a 2020 story about the Iowa primary in Politico https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/17/biden-plays-the-obama-card-100520
Here’s the context (sorry for the profanity, Stu, but it’s a quote):
“One Democrat who is neutral in the 2020 race and spoke to Obama about Biden’s gaffe-prone nature recalled the former president saying: ‘Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up.'”
So, it was said in the context of Biden’s “gaffe-prone nature” which is news to nobody. He called him “Joe” not “Biden.” And he said “things” not “everything.” Subtle matters, perhaps, but easy to read the statement without the broad spin of utter incompetence you want to place on it. An ability to “Screw things up” doesn’t have quite the meaning of an ability to “Screw everything up.”
An analogous case might be if you were notorious for frequently missing easy putts and on the golf course. While you are in the lead, folks who know you speculate about whether you will win given your weakness, with perhaps your boss making the comment attributed to Obama. It would hardly be fair for someone to report that comment as speaking about your job performance, or that the comment referred to “everything.”
Trump, of course, is notorious for cheating at golf. https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/sports/2023/02/03/trump-and-golf-fancy-resorts-a-list-partners-cheating-at-highest-level/69857594007/ One observer said, “This guy cheats like a Mafia accountant.” Still, I don’t think that statement would have been admissible evidence in his NY financial fraud trial.
Will “ My Predecessor “ soon become “My Successor “? Just sayin….
I guess that’s a big “Oh Well” let’s move on and fix it 🙂
If the American people are dumb enough to elect Biden again look at the mess he will inherit from himself.
Yeah, right Stu. Right after that oranged-skinned POC admits to all of his lies and treasonous activities.
What lies and treasonous activities?
😁
The House Trumpicans shot down a bipartisan immigration bill that would’ve given the Repubs 90% of what they wanted. But increasingly demented Trump (who thinks of himself first & America last) didn’t want Biden to have a win. Trump💩 would rather have chaos on the border to improve his chances. Don’t forget that trumpo🤡 hoped the economy would crash so he could blame Biden.
BTW, U.S. economy best in the world!!! And Trumpicans🤡 are against aiding Ukraine. Trumpscum love murderer Putin.
Biden can shut down the immigration problem as quickly as he opened it up.
It is my understanding that this post by Daniel is 100% factual. An utter truism.
Actually, it’s a punchline.
Actually, you’re wrong. 100% wrong. The best you can do is try to rationalize, but bottom line, you’re still wrong. No punchline.
Stu, as I read your posts, I see an effort to make everyone think more expansively about political issues. I support this effort as it is our only hope for our Nation to heal itself. I thought this piece achieved your intended purpose. However, reading the comments, I ask myself “What were you thinking?”. My take away, Stu keep at it, not every blog can break some of the mind sets. Now, hoping some of the commenters might go back to read the comments, and not just to lambaste another’s comment I make the following plead. Read Stu’s words with desire to contemplate his message even if it is at odds with your own opinion. That way we all can grow!
Your comment is VERY much appreciated and you know what I am trying to do — encourage debate on the basis of facts.
You presented the facts perfectly. The problem is no one in their right mind can defend Biden border policies
His policy of getting the border security into law is defensible. The GOP and Trump won’t take yes for answer.
Stop pretending that sinking the legislation was for any other reason than having the border to run on. Trump said “don’t give the democrats a win on this.” How would it be a win if it did nothing? How would it help Biden, who said he would shut down the border when it passed, if he did not? The only objective reason for killing to the bill was to keep the border open and preserve the issue for the election.
Why don’t you just be honest and admit that its fine with you if the country suffers another year of a broken border, because it might help Trump to win the election? Obviously you think it is well worth the suffering to boost Trump’s chances in the election.
Don’t worry, you wouldn’t be the first to wish hardship on his own country to obtain political ends.
Lenin and the communists thought “worse is better” because it served their political ends. Hamas attacked Israel to provoke a harsh response because they believed it would help their political goals.
So you can rest easy that you have lots of company besides Trump that shares your outlook, though I think you should look for better people to emulate.
Biden opened the border on purpose. We shouldn’t even be debating this issue what don’t you get. I said nobody in their right mind would debate the issue and you proved me right.
He could close the border today
With what statutory authority could he close it? With what manpower? With what detention facilities.? All you can do is repeat yourself.
Can you give me the link where you read that all Biden needs to do to close the border are steps 1, 2, 3? What are they? Oh, he could invoke such and such executive power, and order such and such. This information just doesn’t exist because it is a lie. Prove me wrong, Surely someone wrote out the oh-so-simple task of how Biden could close the border.
If it was so easy, how come Trump didn’t shut down the border on day one with executive action in 2016?
In 2019 he was whining that the border was getting worse, and I quote:
“This [border] crisis is only worsening…We do not have the resources needed to hold them, and legal loopholes and… court rulings prevent authorities from promptly returning them…Immigration courts are overwhelmed…”
https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trump-calls-congress-secure-borders-protect-american-people/
Yeah, Biden did open the border on purpose. Now Trump kept it open on purpose. Do you want revenge and punishment, or a closed border?
And, since now Trump has kept it open on purpose, what revenge and punishment is due him?
We need to close the borders until we figure out
the way to straighten out the illegal alien problem. We then need to roundup the illegals, that are criminals and the drug dealers that infested our country with fentanyl. We need to immediately ship them back to where they came from. After that’s done, lets take a look at the people that entered our country illegally, and decide what to do with them. If they committed a crime while they were here, ship them back to the country they came from. Then make a a decision on the other illegals. I think this would be a good start.
The illegals sneaking over the border aren’t smuggling fentanyl in their backpacks. According to the DEA & ICE the vast majority of fentanyl is smuggled in vehicles through the Southern border mainly at ports of entry and maritime ports, much of it by Americans.
Listen to an Conservative Republican describe what happened with the immigration bill.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2024/02/07/james-lankford-border-bill-destroy-you-vpx.cnn
I’ll bet that host was Hannity. Lankford should have named him.
I think Biden’s support of the border security bill said, between the lines, exactly what you think Biden should say, and, I suspect that is your point. What else could his support of the bill mean?
Taking the column literally, instead of seriously, we all know that such abject mea culpa’s aren’t going to happen.
Instead, I’m thinking of how Obama handled being confronted with his previous opposition to gay marriage. He said he had “evolved” on the issue. For the debates, assuming both candidates’ teams think their guy is up to it, Biden will have a similar answer, maybe beefed up with “unforeseen developments” of one sort or another.
He can use the laws already on the books. He he can use the might of our country economically or militarily against Mexico. He has put our national security at risk allowing millions of unvetted illegals into the country . How stupid are you?
Then why didn’t Trump do it the day he took office. Why did he say, after 2 years in office, that things were continuing to get worse at the border? Why did he say he needed 52,000 detention beds (the border security bill funded 50,000. As it stands we have less than 40,000) Why did he say he needed to hire 75 more immigration judges to cut backlog? The border security bill funded 100 new judges. Why did he say we needed more agents? The bill funds more agents. Why did he say that loopholes and judges were preventing his policies? The border bill closed loopholes and changed the law the judges could invoke.
If all Trump had to do was use laws already on the books to fix the border, he was the dumbest, most incompetent president we ever had. The whole reason the GOP negotiators thought they had done a good job and “won” was because they got what Trump and the GOP had been saying for years was needed to secure the border and didn’t get. (He could have gotten that plus a big piece of wall by trading it for the very popular DACA program. But border security just wasn’t worth trading for). So, if you are right about Biden, then Trump is a damn sight worse.
Trump had the border under control and would have secured it even more if he was elected. But Jack asses like you elected Biden to screw up the country and the world . Anyone who thinks the Biden administration has been successful needs their head examined.
And anyone who thinks the Trump administration was successful ought to be committed. Too bad the state closed Byberry Hospital.That’s where deluded fools like you belong.
The Trump administration was very successful. Stu has listed many of his success many times. And anyone who pays attention and is fair knows that. You show your ignorance every time you post something.
Successful, except at getting re-elected. Then claiming stolen election nonsense. If he hadn’t done that he probably gets back in easily, but his ego and insanity wouldn’t alllow that.
Insanity would be re-electing Biden.
Ok, so you don’t care that he lost the election, knows it and tried to overturn it because you like what he says. As I thought.