The cowering republicans

I’d say the odds are very good and I’d say the odds are equally good that Democrats wouldn’t support it. Serve and volley.

 

House GOP fails to impeach Mayorkas over border handling - Live Updates - POLITICO

House Republicans’ high-stakes gamble to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas just barely failed on Tuesday, an embarrassing political setback for an already embattled majority.

The articles of impeachment against the Homeland Security secretary failed in an 214-216 vote, after four Republicans sided with Democrats to oppose recommending Mayorkas be booted from office. But Republican lawmakers quickly predicted they will bring it back up once Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who is undergoing treatment for blood cancer, returns.

“We’ll bring it back. The guy deserves to be impeached," said Homeland Security Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.), who has led the effort against Mayorkas.

The count was initially tied after Reps. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) voted with Democrats against impeaching Mayorkas. Republicans, including Green, spent spent several minutes huddled with Gallagher on the floor, in an apparent effort to change his vote. One person close to the conversation, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said members argued to Gallagher that he would be inviting strong blowback from the base.

 

If the lobbyists wrote a bill that actually shut down the border, it would get zero dem or pub traction.

 

The bill that’s supposed to solve the problem caused by this administration at the border allocates a whopping 20 Billion from a 118 Billion dollar spend. 60 Billion of those funds are earmarked for Ukraine. Maybe call it the Ukraine Bill and not a border solution?

 

I understand asylum claims from china or North Korea, but Should we even accept asylum claims from citizens of countries that 33 million American citizens spend a lot of money to take vacations every year ? As well as thousand of Americans, including celebrities, have 2nd homes…


Travel: US tourism to Mexico 2022 | Statista

What Celebs Live in Cabo? | Come to Cabo Villa Rentals

 

This whole push on the bill is purely political and total nonsense. I categorically reject the notion that you get to purposely blow up the border for 3 years, all while gaslighting and saying the border mess is a manufactured crisis. Then only when it’s politically expedient and an election year, you claim to want to fix the ‘manufactured crisis’ and attempt to manipulate the message that only if i agree with your proposal to fix otherwise I’m against border security……just transparent nonsensical folly. Start with putting the ‘remain in Cabo’ policy back in place. If even remotely serious you could do it today. Otherwise yawn at the feigned outrage.

 

That's one way to look at it.

Another is that you have Republicans who think this is the biggest issue facing our country and Democrats who think has been an issue forever and isn't an immediate crisis. Republicans Senators draft legislation to try and fix and Democrats relent by mostly agreeing to the Republican's terms. Then the Republicans scrap the legislation because they want to make this an escalation issue instead. The "feigned outrage" by Democrats is pointing out the hypocrisy of Republicans who allege that this is a such a significant issue but also purposefully do not want to fix it.

 

From a country like Mexico they’d likely have to show the state dept they were under threat from a cartel or something. The asylum claim is about the individual person, not the country.


But thats the catch-22 of asylum seekers from places like Venezuela or Cuba - basically any communist or totalitarian state. Just about everyone from those countries could technically have a valid claim of asylum because of the oppressive regime. But obviously even from those countries far less than that are “granted”. So who knows how they sort all that out, given that the lack of resources I’m guessing it’s sadly somewhat arbitrary (with some high risk people getting sent packing while others in less imminent danger get in if they have the right connections $$$).

 

This admin didn't cause the abject poverty and gang violence that is driving these people to leave for the US. That began long ago and only got worse when Trump cut the aid and security assistance that was trying to address those problems. Keep ranting and just ignore the facts, it is the MAGA way

 

Now I’m MAGA because I don’t blanket agree with your diatribe? You want the US to support the world’s abject poverty? How much tax do you pay or better yet what causes do you financially support that impact these problems the US is supposed to solve?

Thanks for the laugh.

 

sorry, you trumpet a MAGA tune so I made an assumption I shouldn't have. I want the US to be proactive instead of reactive. We spend trillions on military to be the worlds policeman, we can spend a fraction of that to help make sure our neighbors house isn't on fire so they don't all want to come live with us. Not supporting poverty, supporting programs that allow them to rise out of poverty. A hand up, not a hand out

if you genuinely want to discuss what caused the current border problem, here are the seeds of it. they take time to bear fruit but the bumber crop that Trump planted is now being harvested

Trump funding cuts hurt 80% of USAID Central America programs: Report | Devex

Over 80% of U.S. Agency for International Development programs in the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala experienced adverse effects due to the suspension of aid to the region in March 2019 under former President Donald Trump, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report released publicly Monday.
............................
“One implementing partner told us that its project, which sought to empower communities to design and lead communal development activities, experienced security risks for its staff and its sub-partners’ staff rising out of community frustration with the project having to delay, modify, or cancel activities,” the GAO report found.

“In the end, the implementing partner had to stop activities in 20 communities due to threats to staff, such as threatening phone calls and messages warning the partner not to return to the community, and threats of violence passed from community members through local government officials.”

The report offers the fullest picture yet of the harm done by ping-ponging funding levels under an administration that routinely politicized foreign assistance. Trump suspended aid to the Northern Triangle out of frustration that governments of the three countries were not stopping people from migrating to the U.S. southern border.



U.S. cuts millions in aid to Central America, fulfilling Trump's vow - CBS News

Fulfilling President Trump's vow, the U.S. government officially announced on Monday it would cut millions of dollars in foreign aid to Central America, warning governments in the region that assistance will only resume when they do more to prevent their citizens from migrating.

The move, which the president ordered in late March, disrupts a long-standing pillar of American foreign policy supported by most Democrats and Republicans in Congress. Lawmakers had been urging the administration to reverse course, fearing the end of American assistance will only exasperate the rampant poverty, deep-rooted political instability and widespread insecurity in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, collectively known as the "Northern Triangle."

A State Department official said $432 million in aid allocated in fiscal year 2017 will continue, while $185 million would be withheld until the U.S. determines that Central American governments have taken sufficient steps to reduce migration. The approximately $370 million allocated for fiscal year 2018, meanwhile, will be suspended entirely. The official said the administration will work with Congress to reprogram these funds to other "foreign policy priorities."

Future aid under fiscal years 2019 and 2020 will also be conditional, the official added. Funds allocated in fiscal years 2017 and 2018 to help governments in the Northern Triangle bolster security and crack down on transnational gangs will continue.

 

Mexico is a very large country, and Cabo is about 900 miles from the border as the crow flies, and 1,000 by automobile. Mexico is also an automatous country that gets to make their own policies and decisions. Have we asked them if they would like to be our immigrant waiting room while we take our sweet time processing asylum claims? Because if we did, the answer would be no thanks.

That's because remain in Mexico creates a situation rife for humanitarian abuses. Mexican border towns do not have the infrastructure nor the capacity to take in tens of thousands of refugees and have them wait at the border until we decide what to do with them. And like any situation where pressure builds up on one side, eventually, things break. How many asylum seekers would it take waiting on the Mexico side before they decided enough was enough, and they all decided to rush the border at once?

Also, Mexicans are no longer the majority of border crossers. I think they are just a plurality now, as more come from C. and S. American countries, plus Asia and Africa. Not too many Cabo residents are coming these days. Business in Mexico is doing quite well, for the most part.

 

Very few Mexicans are requesting asylum in the US and presumably you either know it and are trolling or are just extremely ignorant. I suspect it's the former. The overwhelming majority of migrants requesting asylum are from other countries primarily from Central and South America with Venezuela being the largest and are only passing through Mexico.

 

Yeah, I think this is right. That said, is it unfair to expect Mexico to do more to help with the problem?

 

I tend to agree. A big step by Mexico would be increasing security on its own Southern border with Guatemala preventing migrants from entering Mexico in the first place.

 

Mexico could close or tightly regulate their southern border and avoid being the waiting room. They could also change their policy and requires visas to fly into the country. They are not innocent in this or the fentanyl crisis, lots of things they can do to help.

 

Wall Street Journal

“Do Republicans want to better secure the U.S. border, or do they want tokeep what has become an open sore festering for another year as an election issue? ……we’ll soon learn what the GOP really wants.

By any honest reckoning, this is the most restrictive migrant legislation in decades. Previous immigration talks have involved trading security measures for legalizing moreimmigration. There is little of the latter in this bill—nothing for nearly all of the Dreamers who were brought here illegally as children, no general pathway to citizenship or green cards for most illegal immigrants already in the U.S.”


https://www.wsj.com/articles/senate...migration-biden-border-patrol-asylum-bc2f9543

 

Mexico received 125k asylum requests in 2023. And if a wall our our efforts doesn't keep people out of our S border, and a wall didn't help Israel, what makes anyone think Mexico can be any more effective patrolling their S. border? Agreed Mexico could do a better job controlling the cartels and drugs flowing out of the country. But for the most part, Mexico is doing their part by having a thriving economy. This helps us by slowing the flow of Mexicans coming, and allowing Mexico to take in a significant number of asylum seekers who can find work in Mexico instead of coming here.

 

Fair points. On your last point, how many asylum seekers has Mexico been taking? I honestly have no idea, and maybe I'm not giving Mexico enough credit.

 

Mexico's southern border is appx 1/4 of their northern border and much less hospitable to crossings outside of concentrated locations. that woul dmake it much easier to patrol than the US border