Biden exercised his parole authority
The Associated Press last March on the “eeek eeek eeek migrants” question:
In his Super Tuesday victory speech, former President Donald Trump elevated false information that had gone viral on social media, claiming the Biden administration secretly flew hundreds of thousands of migrants into the United States.
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Trump said during his speech, “Today it was announced that 325,000 people were flown in from parts unknown – migrants were flown in airplane, not going through borders … It was unbelievable. I said that must be a mistake. They flew 325,000 migrants. Flew them in over the borders and into our country.”
But migrants are not being flown into the U.S. randomly. Under a Biden policy in effect since January 2023, up to 30,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela can enter the country monthly if they apply online with a financial sponsor and arrive at a specified airport, paying their own way. Biden exercised his “parole” authority, which, under a 1952 law, allows him to admit people “only on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.”
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Biden has exercised parole authority far more than any of his predecessors, which Trump calls “an outrageous abuse” that he will end if returned to the White House. Biden has granted entry — by land or air — to at least 1 million people using parole, not just the 327,000 who flew from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua or Venezuela though December.
Angelo Fernández Hernández, a White House spokesperson, said Wednesday that reports of secretly flying people into the country were “categorically false” and that Cubans, Haitian, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans were “thoroughly screened.”
Which is more than Trump can say.
Musk’s claim that people are being brought in to sway the vote is also utterly absurd. Only full citizens can vote, and the migrants are not eligible. Not only that, but if they do achieve full citizenship, no one is telling them who to vote for. Try making the Republican agenda more appealing and get those votes, ffs. It only takes a small amount of effort to find out the facts of the matter, but Musk is omniscient and can apparently figure things out from the thin air of his Mega X genius brain.
This might help explain why Trump seems to believe that Cuba, Venezuela and the rest are emptying their prisons and sending all of their criminals to the U.S.. His own inherently criminal mind has latched onto the ‘parole’ aspect of the scheme and that’s all he’s focused on. They’re in the U.s. as parolees therefore they’ve just been released from prison.
@twiliter:
Except that: (1) any suggestion that the migrants might be required to go home at some point makes one (we’re told) a “wannabe Hitler”, and (2) just about every Democrat, including Kamala Harris, wants an “earned pathway to citizenship” (which is sensible, since if they’re in the country long term — and obviously they are — then they, and their children, should be citizens).
Except that anyone with a brain can readily work out who migrants and black Americans do, de facto, tend to vote for. (And I don’t accept that this calculation plays absolutely no role at all, no Sir, in any Democrat’s support for any such policy.)
So, no, Musk’s comments are not “utterly absurd”, they are merely thinking ahead (he does tend to do that, I mean, you’re not going to talk about colonising Mars unless you’re thinking long term).
PS: “… More than 40,000 people have registered to vote in federal elections in Arizona without providing proof of citizenship, …” (link). And any measures to require ID to vote are, of course, “racist”, though asking for ID for just about anything else is routine and fine.
There are reasons for that which I won’t get into here, but if you look at the extremes of each political party, you can noodle it out for yourself.
The US is also a representative republic, not just a democracy, and that means the votes reflect the populations of different localities, or at least that’s how it’s supposed to work, avoiding the possibility of a ruling class of one race or other, or other predominant features in a predetermined localized population (like the Vatican).
From the Maricopa county website (Phoenix area):
So if non-citizens were allowed to register, then they are in violation of Arizona law. How many of those were not legal? Is there proof?
This is why some of the more extreme R’s forward this stupid “great replacement” theory. They are worried that if white people are outnumbered, then their ultimate dream of a White Nationalist Monarchy won’t have a majority of whites to support the illusion of a democracy, or be forced to abandon democracy altogether in favor of some less than equitable alternative. I don’t think the majority of Americans who understand how the country was founded will tolerate that one bit.
So you think Musk’s comments aren’t utterly absurd and then offer this?
Thanks for making my point for me. One of his most absurd ideas, to be sure. That’s not thinking long term, it’s a completely unrealistic sci-fi fantasy that will never, ever happen. He’s an idiot.
Long-term thinking and long-term action are not unheard of and shouldn’t be discounted out of hand. That’s partly how we ended up where we are—in multiple areas.
The problem is that it’s often very difficult to prove that something is being done as part of a long-term strategy. So difficult, in fact, that attempts to do often look exactly like going off the deep end into crazy tin-foil hat territory.
Well Coel, it wasn’t the “suggestion that the migrants might be required to go home at some point” that led Ophelia to describe Trump as a wannabe Hitler, it was the rounding up, mass deportation aspect, combined with his constant, recurrent dehumanization, scapegoating, and demonization of immigrants in general. There are many ways one could talk about issues surrounding immigration. That Trump chooses to do so using inflammatory, xenophobic terminology designed to spread fear and hatred is telling. He sounds more like a would-be dictator than a candidate for a democratically elected office.
Trump telegraphs his dictator-envy so frequently that it’s become boring. He’s made it quite clear that he intends to prosecute and imprison his political opponents. In fine DARVO tradition, he views the due-process prosecution of the various, wide-ranging variety of crimes for which he is on trial as purely political, as trumped-up false charges, dirty tricks deployed to defeat him, and cheat him out of his rightful, inevitable electoral victory. He can’t see them as the natural outcome of having been caught breaking the law. He can’t see that, because he believes he’s above the law. Laws are for other people, not him. He figures that others are doing to him now what he plans to do to them once he gets a chance.
As for, immigrants, they’re all portrayed as criminals “destroying the fabric of the country.” Trump can’t wait for the day when he can command the execution of midnight raids where doors are kicked in, heads are broken, and terrorized foreigners are dragged away to detention centres. It’s a would-be strong-man’s wet dream. And that single would-be strongman, along with his hateful followers, are doing more to destroy the fabric of the United States than all of the immigrants he’s so eager to throw out would ever be able to.
YNnB is correct. What I said: “He’s a wannabe Hitler now, screeching about rounding people up and mass deporting them.”
Hitler did do that, you know. Before the full-on genocide he was rounding up and mass deporting. He didn’t plan to go full-on genocide from the beginning; he started with the mass deportations.
The issue isn’t long-term thinking, the issue is the impossibility of colonizing Mars.
Well, when you start talking about needing to increase the population (but only a certain type of population increase), and that there are too many of the “wrong kind” coming into the country, combined with rounding up groups of people and sending them away, it starts looking very much like the groundwork for much worse, such as genocide and eugenics. We know what German party tried that, and we know who led that party.
@Your Name’s not Bruce?:
You guys really don’t like Trump, do you? Anyhow, I’ve seen people make both of the following points, but rarely directly after each other:
You’re entirely sure that there is no political motivation in the prosecutions of Trump? That this isn’t a case of wanting to “prosecute and imprison [ones] political opponents”?
Here, for example, is Alan Dershowitz:
OK, Dershowitz is a defence lawyer, so it’s his job to argue for defendants, but it’s still the case that Alvin Bragg concocted novel legal theory to make this prosecution. There’s no way that it would have been brought save for the desire to get Trump. But Trump is, of course, the villain because he “intends to prosecute and imprison his political opponents”.
It doesn’t surprise me at all that Coel finds Alan Dershowitz a serious person.
So if Trump has broken the law, why should we care if seeking justice is politically motivated? What difference does it make? It’s not as if he would be any less guilty if there were absolutely no political motivations, which when talking about politicians, or anyone really, is only a matter of degree. And if it’s not politically motivated, someone will always come along and politicize it. That’s kind of how it works, when it’s someone in the public eye especially.
So if we somehow magically remove all political motivations, does that mean Trump is absolved of all wrongdoing? Does he think no one will have noticed that he’s breaking the law, and he will be allowed to continue to get away with it? Seems like an empty complaint. The crimes he’s been charged with and convicted of don’t exactly look frivolous either, if that’s his grievance.
I think he just likes to whine about how badly he’s been treated — while treating everyone badly himself.
What’s not to like about a greedy, self-serving, self-centered, misogynistic, racist, thin-skinned, shallow-minded, easily-played, abusive, boorish, ignorant, hubristically over-confident, braggidocious, felonious, dishonest, twice-impeached, dayglow-orange, Dunning-Krueger poster-boy, and aspiring dictator? Why should anyone have second thoughts about handing over the Presidency of the United States to such a man for a second time? The United States is just lucky that his desire to remain in office unconstitutionally at the end of his term, and the amplification of that desire by his deluded supporters, was exceeded by their collective stupidity. There may not be such luck if it comes to a second round if those around him have learned from the mistakes of the first attempted coup.
Seriously Coel, “dislike” has very little to do with it. It’s not just that he’s “uncouth” or that he “rubs me the wrong way.” He doesn’t just flout norms, and “tell it like it is.” He is fundamentally unfit for public office, and manifests multiple traits that run counter to the continued survival of the political foundations of the country he seeks to take control of. He’s a menace to the Constitution, being both ignorant of its provisions, and contemptuous of the limitations it places upon the power he craves. These character traits of his were obvious for years befor he ran for office, and in any other candidate, would have instantly destroyed their political career. That Trump managed to be win power despite them demonstrates a fightening support for dictatorship amongst his supporters, and shows that the United States is in deep trouble. They can’t see, or accept the fact that the desire to hurt their putative enemies comes at the price of self-immolation. Trump is a wrecking ball. The only thing that matters to Trump is Trump, and if retaining his throne and crown means the destruction of the Republic, that’s a price he’s willing to let others pay. But don’t send him the bill; he’ll stiff you.
Coel @ 11 –
So you think it’s odd or noteworthy not to like Trump? Can you explain why? Can you tell us what we’re missing? What good or likable or admirable qualities does he have?
Serious question. Please do explain.
@Ophelia:
It’s entirely appropriate to dislike him, and he has no good or likeable or admirable qualities that I can make out.
The problem comes when dislike of him reaches such an intensity that it overwhelms any notion of fairness, due process or truth, and when it is taken to justify bad behaviour by one’s own side.
@Tim:
Attempted rebuttal by a mere snide remark noted.
And we are talking about the same Alan Dershowitz are we? The one who was (quoting wiki): “American lawyer and law professor known for his work in U.S. constitutional law and American criminal law. From 1964 to 2013, he taught at Harvard Law School, where he was appointed as the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law in 1993. Dershowitz is a regular media contributor, political commentator, and legal analyst.”
I’d take Dershowitz’s knowledge of US law above yours Tim, so if he says: “Nor did this case seem to be based on the evidence or the law. In fact, I saw no credible evidence of a crime”, isn’t that worth noting?
Coel – ah well I’m relieved to know you share my inability to find anything good about him. Seriously; not sarcasm. I find it fascinating that I can’t come up with even trivial qualities that are likable.
The next bit…yes, no doubt, but what can anyone expect? What mechanism can we deploy to make the dislike less intense? Given what he’s done to us already and will do more of if he gets the chance? How can we have a calm impartial conversation with or about someone who is holding us by the neck and squeezing?
[…] a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Biden exercised his parole […]
It’s amazing that the media still treats Trump like a “normal” candidate, when he is anything but. They have to white-wash him because simply reporting the truth about Trump makes them sound biased against him.
@Coel, FYI re this:
Here in California, at least, registering to vote means simply filling out and submitting a form. The registration then must be approved by election officials, who presumably do any necessary background checking, using information supplied by the registree on the form (Social Security number, driver’s license or state ID, etc.)
I’m not sure how requiring “proof of citizenship” at the point of registration would help, since documents can be faked.
Matters are complicated by the fact that election administration in the US is decentralized–each state makes its own rules about these things.
Lady M, yes here in Georgia too. When I moved here from N.C. they mailed me a registration form, and I sent it in, and that was all it took. I’m assuming they already knew I was a citizen and eligible to vote. It was the same way when I moved from Calif. to N.C. I didn’t have to provide proof. We are required to provide identification in order to cast a vote, and they check your name off of a list of registered voters (presumably to prevent multiple votes). I think it’s similar in all states.
I believe voting is very secure in the US generally, and if it weren’t, we would have known about it long before Trump was making baseless claims of voter fraud (which he was sued for by the way, and lost).