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It's true that government has been willing to be lax in terms of border security because they want to exploit illegal immigrants as basically slave labor. Perso

It's true that government has been willing to be lax in terms of border security because they want to exploit illegal immigrants as basically slave labor. Personally I think having a large underclass of easily exploitable poor people who don't have the rights and protections the rest of us enjoy is abhorrent and morally unjustifiable. It has led to this situation where token gestures are made, largely to appease the Americans living in/near border towns and suffering under the weight of the negative consequences. I don't know how long they'll be able to pay lip service to the problem though. There will be literal billions of climate refugees coming in the near future and they won't be economic migrants looking for higher wages. They will be genuinely desperate and for them getting past the border of another country will be a matter of survival. With a well secured border and carefully regulated immigration the US should be able to take a lot of those refugees in without being overwhelmed by them. If we're not prepared for it in advance, what we'll be left with will be far from the status quo the shortsighted have been trying so hard to preserve.

xethos 2y ago
Parent listed several benefits (to the rich or unethical) of illegal immigrants, and why the powers that be want to keep it that way. You agreed that it's a precarious and generally bad situation for the immigrants to be in, and objected on moral grounds, ... but then jump straight to the negative affects that local citizens are supposedly suffering from, without actually listing any that are unique to those border towns. Undercutting workers would be nationwide, as would any adverse affects on the healthcare system. Being in the states illegally means you avoid going back and forth across the border - so being in a border town doesn't strike me as relevant to a discussion about illegal immigrants. So I'm earnestly asking, which issues affect border towns more than any other place in America, considering most illegal immigrants are overstaying visas instead of trying to sneak through the US-Mexico border?
- autoexec 2y ago
  Any large unexpected influx of people causes havoc on a city. It strains hospitals, social services, schools, etc. It's becoming a problem in places far from the border, but border towns at commonly used crossings get hit first, harder, and repeatedly. People overstaying their visa don't swarm into towns in massive numbers in short windows of time. There is no shortage of news stories about the issues. Examples: https://www.tpr.org/border-immigration/2023-05-01/texas-border-cities-declare-states-of-emergency-ahead-of-public-health-order-ending-next-week https://www.tpr.org/border-immigration/2023-05-01/texas-bord... https://www.texastribune.org/2019/07/03/texas-cities-confront-spillover-border-migration-crisis/ https://www.texastribune.org/2019/07/03/texas-cities-confron... https://www.valleycentral.com/news/local-news/small-south-texas-towns-overwhelmed-by-immigration-influx/ https://www.valleycentral.com/news/local-news/small-south-te... https://doctorsoftheworld.org/blog/humanitarian-crisis-the-migrant-struggle-in-the-heart-of-el-paso-texas/ https://doctorsoftheworld.org/blog/humanitarian-crisis-the-m... https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/21/texas-migrants-border-eagle-pass/ https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/21/texas-migrants-borde... https://www.npr.org/2024/02/19/1232383832/schools-face-big-challenges-accommodating-the-migrants-who-ve-crossed-the-border https://www.npr.org/2024/02/19/1232383832/schools-face-big-c... https://nypost.com/2023/09/20/eagle-pass-texas-declares-state-of-emergency-over-migrants/ https://nypost.com/2023/09/20/eagle-pass-texas-declares-stat... https://www.npr.org/2023/04/02/1167645456/border-towns-are-facing-record-levels-of-migration https://www.npr.org/2023/04/02/1167645456/border-towns-are-f...
kmeisthax 2y ago
How does border security or limits on immigration prepare the US for taking in large numbers of climate refugees? The US's strengths when it comes to immigration is specifically that we're relatively easy to get into for a rich country, because we have a generous family reunification visa program, and thus have large support communities for basically every immigrant population you can think of. In other words, the US is already way more prepared for climate refugees than, say, the EU is. Though, to be fair, the US is also going to have a lot of internal climate refugees, too.
- autoexec 2y ago
  > How does border security or limits on immigration prepare the US for taking in large numbers of climate refugees? By making sure that when those refugees show up cities aren't already overwhelmed by migrants also by helping the government keep track of how many people are here and how many are entering so they can make informed decisions about how many refugees we can accommodate.

xethos 2y ago

Parent listed several benefits (to the rich or unethical) of illegal immigrants, and why the powers that be want to keep it that way. You agreed that it's a precarious and generally bad situation for the immigrants to be in, and objected on moral grounds, ... but then jump straight to the negative affects that local citizens are supposedly suffering from, without actually listing any that are unique to those border towns. Undercutting workers would be nationwide, as would any adverse affects on the healthcare system. Being in the states illegally means you avoid going back and forth across the border - so being in a border town doesn't strike me as relevant to a discussion about illegal immigrants. So I'm earnestly asking, which issues affect border towns more than any other place in America, considering most illegal immigrants are overstaying visas instead of trying to sneak through the US-Mexico border?

autoexec 2y ago
Any large unexpected influx of people causes havoc on a city. It strains hospitals, social services, schools, etc. It's becoming a problem in places far from the border, but border towns at commonly used crossings get hit first, harder, and repeatedly. People overstaying their visa don't swarm into towns in massive numbers in short windows of time. There is no shortage of news stories about the issues. Examples: https://www.tpr.org/border-immigration/2023-05-01/texas-border-cities-declare-states-of-emergency-ahead-of-public-health-order-ending-next-week https://www.tpr.org/border-immigration/2023-05-01/texas-bord... https://www.texastribune.org/2019/07/03/texas-cities-confront-spillover-border-migration-crisis/ https://www.texastribune.org/2019/07/03/texas-cities-confron... https://www.valleycentral.com/news/local-news/small-south-texas-towns-overwhelmed-by-immigration-influx/ https://www.valleycentral.com/news/local-news/small-south-te... https://doctorsoftheworld.org/blog/humanitarian-crisis-the-migrant-struggle-in-the-heart-of-el-paso-texas/ https://doctorsoftheworld.org/blog/humanitarian-crisis-the-m... https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/21/texas-migrants-border-eagle-pass/ https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/21/texas-migrants-borde... https://www.npr.org/2024/02/19/1232383832/schools-face-big-challenges-accommodating-the-migrants-who-ve-crossed-the-border https://www.npr.org/2024/02/19/1232383832/schools-face-big-c... https://nypost.com/2023/09/20/eagle-pass-texas-declares-state-of-emergency-over-migrants/ https://nypost.com/2023/09/20/eagle-pass-texas-declares-stat... https://www.npr.org/2023/04/02/1167645456/border-towns-are-facing-record-levels-of-migration https://www.npr.org/2023/04/02/1167645456/border-towns-are-f...

kmeisthax 2y ago

How does border security or limits on immigration prepare the US for taking in large numbers of climate refugees? The US's strengths when it comes to immigration is specifically that we're relatively easy to get into for a rich country, because we have a generous family reunification visa program, and thus have large support communities for basically every immigrant population you can think of. In other words, the US is already way more prepared for climate refugees than, say, the EU is. Though, to be fair, the US is also going to have a lot of internal climate refugees, too.

autoexec 2y ago
> How does border security or limits on immigration prepare the US for taking in large numbers of climate refugees? By making sure that when those refugees show up cities aren't already overwhelmed by migrants also by helping the government keep track of how many people are here and how many are entering so they can make informed decisions about how many refugees we can accommodate.