At her presidential debate against Donald Trump, Kamala Harris acquiesced to the far-right narrative that immigration is a bad thing.
  • Wilzax@lemmy.world
    223·
    6 days ago

    Uncontrolled immigration IS a bad thing, because properly documenting the people who enter our country is vital for providing public services in a manner that reflects the population makeup.

    Nearly everyone agrees that undocumented border crossings should be reduced, they disagree on how to do this.

    That said, a failure to counter incoherent nonsense does not an acceptance make. Strive to post less sensationalist headlines

    • oxjox@lemmy.mlEnglish
      3·
      6 days ago

      I don’t know if people so much disagree about it as much as some people just don’t want any (brown) immigrants at all. Mostly, this is because of the propaganda and hate mongering spewed by right wing media and political leaders causing people to be fearful of immigrants taking their jobs, raping them, and [sighs] eating their pets.

      The issue is that this country is so racist and xenophobic that it’s entirely ignoring real solutions. Immigration reform requires greater investment in border patrol and courts as well as helping other countries reduce the problems causing people to seek asylum. It’s not just the southern border that needs help. I know people from European countries and Canada emigrating to the US who have waited staggeringly long times to become US citizens. The whole system needs help.

      We could be doing good. We could be embracing the most American thing ever and welcoming and helping people to be their best selves. We need to overcome our stereotypical beliefs and get to know each other as human beings without borders dividing us.

    • unmagical@lemmy.ml
      32·
      6 days ago

      properly documenting the people who enter our country is vital for providing public services …

      Not really. We can track that the same way we track non-immigrants: census, job reports, bank accounts, change of address forms, buying private data hoards.

      Frankly I’d be in favor of just letting people in and letting them legally work. Our current system allows people in but then they are just expected to lie around waiting for permission to stay. Meanwhile they aren’t contributing to the broader economy. Let them work while they’re here and more of them will get off the streets, there will be more money going towards taxes, and there will be a broadening pool of people that can actually afford to buy things.

      • Wilzax@lemmy.world
        31·
        6 days ago

        I personally agree with you on nearly all points, but it’s not what’s being argued by both major parties so I opted to leave it out of my original comment. I would argue that even if those changes couldn’t be made because politics, that at least documenting everyone who enters would have the effect of more accurate data than census and job reports can provide, because one is a 10-year process and the other is excluding non-working immigrants and those who do work exclusively under the table

  • trevor@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    31·
    6 days ago

    The Democrats laundered the reich-wing narrative that immigration is bad and that there’s a “border crisis” when they put forward the far-right border bill that Trump thankfully tanked (for his own selfish reasons, but still good that it didn’t pass).

    Now, months later, after the anti-immigrant narrative has been laundered and normalized, we get to hear about how immigrants are “eating your pets” and how Venezuelan gangs “are taking over apartment complexes”.

    The ratchet effect is real. We need to stop demonizing people that were born on the other side of a border and Democrats need to grow a fucking spine and push back on these racist lies instead of enabling them.

    • ClassStruggle@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      6 days ago

      They won’t push back on the racist lies because of that ratchet effect. And as they keep transitioning further and further to the right, those lies will become bigger and bigger.