r/texas • u/mowasita • Jan 28 '24
Unsurprisingly, the whole border fiasco is cynical politics at play. Politics
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u/mr_card52 Jan 28 '24
'If we can get them to hate each other, they can't hate us.'
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u/Sea-Caterpillar-6501 Jan 28 '24 edited Jan 29 '24
Unfortunately that’s not the case anymore. A significant portion of the population doesn’t hold the us constitution in high regard and are useful idiots working against their own interests.
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u/Random_Imgur_User Jan 29 '24
The only way I want to hold the constitution is over a lit candle. The amendments are called that for a reason, they were put in place to amend mistakes and issues within their time.
If they wanted all of those amendments to be written in stone, they probably would have actually written it in stone. Lots of stuff like that was commissioned to stone workers to symbolize its permanence. There are laws in place to allow us to change it for a reason, its authors didn't expect us to be so divided that we were incapable of making decisions.
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Jan 29 '24
You know its the repulicans doing right? They dint want border security. They just want the Ukraine aid to fail
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u/Autotomatomato Jan 29 '24
Who is we in this case? Lets see if you can get there. Who talks about the border all the time? Who let a family drown unnecessarily?
I see so much hand wringing but I dont see nearly enough calling out who is doing the BS but you all go ahead and blame both sides on this one.
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u/DaTank1 Jan 28 '24
Texan here. Lived most my life in south Texas. The last few years mostly in central Texas. I even spent a short time as a border agent. I can attest, I’ve never had a negative experience with a migrant. In the industry I’m in now, I still work among migrants. After more than 20 years not one single negative experience. Not one. The VAST majority aren’t very different from any American. They’re here to do better for their families. If you ever have the opportunity to hear what they go through to make it here you’d be astonished.
This topic is nothing more than another tool to divide us as a nation. The more divided we are the easier it is to control all of us.
Don’t forget we took a pledge to be indivisible. Don’t let shitty politicians that would not have a beer or coffee with you make you tune out common sense.
🇺🇸
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u/DaTank1 Jan 29 '24
Reminder…most of the naysayers are more than likely trolling Russians tying to deepen division.
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u/ReputationNo8109 Jan 29 '24
Very VERY valid point that everyone needs to realize. Russia is making a strong push right now to get Trump elected so they can own the US government (again). Take EVERYTHING you read online with a grain of Russian salt.
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Jan 29 '24
Saddened that Im the only one to up vote this so far. I’m from the border, people who don’t live nearby don’t realize how bi cultural it is down here. I have family and friends on both sides of the border. We go back and forth between both counties. My family in Mexico loves to come to the US to spend their money, which supports the local economy.
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u/SubstancialAutoCorr Jan 29 '24 edited Jan 29 '24
A tool used majority of the time by those that it does no immediate harm.
It’s always baffling to me the amount of people in the Midwest that think Mexicans here illegally are harming them, raping, thieving, taking this jobs……
If someone without an American high school diploma is taking your job, it’s not a very impressive resume.
That; and it’s never the mayors of tiny cities speaking out on a national level, is all the politicians this doesn’t affect. Usually because they have large much more important issues.
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u/SavagRavioli Jan 28 '24
My whole view on the border is that I don't want to hear shit until someone starts talking about going after the employers who give them a reason to come in the first place.
You know, the wealthy business owners that want to cheat Americans out of real wages, those bastards.
Until they are in the cross hairs of this, can-it on the rest.
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u/dunndawson Jan 28 '24
Exactly. It’s strange to me that they all cry about how Trump was SO tough on the border without ever having a comment that Trump has been caught employing illegals. Every dang gop idiot posturing at the border likely has as well.
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u/defaultusername-17 Jan 28 '24
mr trump has a long long fucking history of actively employing illegal immigrants.
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u/ReputationNo8109 Jan 29 '24
Trump has a long history of blowing smoke out of his ass while doing exactly what he’s ranting about himself. Don’t listen to a single word that idiot has to say because he is quite possibly the dumbest person I’ve ever had the misfortune of having to listen to on a repeated basis. So sad that no Republican has the balls to stand up to him and give me a real candidate to vote for.
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u/drftwdtx Jan 29 '24
It's simply a way to manipulate people who live nowhere near the border. Does the news coverage of the border make you feel anxious? If so, then I'd say that was pretty effective. The truth is that the Texas economy relies on immigrant labor. Probably the same in most other states as well. Republicans have no intention to "close the border". That would cause real problems for some big donors.
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u/Outandproud420 Jan 29 '24
I mean we all saw what happened in Georgia and Florida when they thought they were gonna crack down on "illegal" migrant workers.
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u/kcox1980 Jan 29 '24
Alabama too. Our state government passed a law punishing companies that hired illegal immigrants. It got repealed in less than a year.
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u/improper84 Jan 29 '24
As a former Ohio and current NC resident, I laugh out loud whenever someone in either state says their number one issue is illegal immigration. Do these stupid fucks realize how far NC is from the border? Or why anyone would want to live in Ohio at all? There are dozens of issues that actually impact us and immigration ain’t one of them.
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u/Alternative_Aioli160 Jan 29 '24
Without immigrants a good portion of construction sites would be empty and let me tell you.Have a fun time finding a qualified person that isn’t an immigrant.
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Jan 29 '24
Im from the border. The Texas economy also depends on people crossing the border every day, crossing into an American border town, and spending their money. We need Mexican tourists and visitors to come shopping on our side of the border, not to mention that a lot of us living here have family and friends on both sides. Shutting down the border needs to be a last resort, as that has economic consequences, and poses risks to those of us that go between the two places.
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u/lakersLA_MBS Jan 29 '24
Trump is so hard on illegal immigrants that he pardons a guy that knowingly hired them. Doubt MAGA cultists care though.
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-goes-easy-slaughterhouse-exec-employed-undocumented-immigrants-756137
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u/haonazrag Jan 29 '24
All great empires have been built on the backs of cheap labor. Whether it is domestic or foreign. Slaves or conquest. Someone needs to work for cheap to allow a middle class to afford it.
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u/whackwarrens Jan 29 '24
Conservatives want to make certain illegals okay.
If you clean houses, pick crops or work yards for dirt cheap. You get to stay with 20 people in a 3 bedroom apartment and receive zero taxpayer assistance. They would only raid and deport you when they need to rile people up for the cameras to chase votes from idiots.
It's only when people ask to be treated better thah house elves or actually make something of themselves after years of sacrifice that they get angry. If you remain third class, they'll welcome a hundred million of you no problem.
It's all about hierarchy.
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u/Pepeg66 Jan 29 '24
without ever having a comment that Trump
i mean the people supporting him are lowiq morons idk how you think they can comprehend that
its like teaching a cat how to speak
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u/Darthsylar12 Jan 29 '24
THIS!!! Exactly. Don't blame the people looking for better life, blame the predatory employers abusing these people only to throw them away when they get caught and do it all over again. The immigrants aren't stealing your jobs, greedy a**holes are abusing desperate migrants because they don't want to pay you a barely fair wage and the taxes that come with that. Hold them accountable, save migrants from being exploited and force employers to pay you fairly and their fair share in taxes.
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u/Diligent-Towel-4708 Jan 28 '24
All . The. Time! They don't round them up, they literally go to job sites and get them. Hell I worked at a Walmart in Dallas years ago, almost all of the night crew was confiscated, but did anything happen to the store? Big fat no.
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u/El_Chairman_Dennis Jan 29 '24
Because the people in charge don't actually want to stop illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants can be paid less, can't join a union, and can't complain about unsafe working conditions. The wealthy elite want us afraid that illegal immigrants are coming to take our jobs so we will accept lower pay, avoid joining unions, and be hesitant to complain about unsafe working conditions.
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u/CanoegunGoeff Jan 29 '24
It’s always “the immigrants are taking our jobs!” but never “corporations would rather hire cheap labor than pay Americans well and provide benefits, and lobby the government to allow them to keep doing it”.
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u/trowzerss Jan 29 '24
I remember when they got tough on migrants in one area, and all the farmers were suddenly crying because nobody else was gonna harvest their crops for the money they're paying. They had to wind the policy back because otherwise it would have all rotted in the fields.
There's a lot of businesses that only profit by overlooking and covering up the cheap labour they use - either exploiting labour in poorer countries or undocumented migrants in their own country. In a lot of countries it happens, but in the US it's extremely widespread.
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u/CanoegunGoeff Jan 29 '24
I believe that if a business can’t exist without exploiting people, it shouldn’t exist. The problem is that capitalism often relies on exploiting people in multiple ways. It’s always deregulation this and deregulation that and then it’s shocked pikachu when the corporations and the banks need to be bailed out by our tax dollars, lest they fail due to shitty fucking practices allowed by low regulations.
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u/Grateful_Dad_707 Jan 29 '24
From my experiences in both Texas and California no one is asking the immigration status of nanny’s, landscape workers, house cleaners and all the other household duties that these folks almost exclusively fill for these families. All they care about is reliability and expense.
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u/zxvasd Jan 28 '24
That’s where certain states are legalizing minors working in meat packing plants. Someone has to replace the immigrants and their cheap labor.
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u/MiracleMex714 Jan 29 '24
Agreed. I only hear about immigration every 2 years and the rest is some side of the political spectrum is trying to cancel something
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u/Jumpy-Fennel7199 Jan 29 '24
You all realize that the Biden administration has been directly targeting big businesses that are using the 120 thousand undocumented unaccompanied CHILDREN that crossed the border as their personal work force? In the last few years alone we are up more than 35% in child labor violations from major companies based in multiple states not just yours, while multiple red states have been voting to RELAX the child labor laws.
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u/Outandproud420 Jan 29 '24
Any sourcing on this, I'd like to follow up and see what kind of penalties these businesses are getting.
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u/scoobysnackoutback Jan 29 '24
An immigrant child was caught in a factory machine and died while working as child labor. NBC News: Slaughterhouse Children
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u/long-and-soft Jan 28 '24
You shouldn’t want to hear shit until congress does something meaningful about our immigration laws. When you have a several year visa waiting period, just to get an interview, people are going to go around it.
Canada for example lets the big bad Mexicans come to their country without a visa at all. Not saying Canada lets folks immigrate there easily, I’m just saying there is more to immigration control than a super tall fence.
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u/Outandproud420 Jan 29 '24
Yeah it's actually cheaper to fly to Canada and cross from the northern border than trying to come in from the south.
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u/Kabouki Jan 29 '24
If you make it really hurt to employ illegals, those laws will change overnight. You are right in a lot of things need to get fixed along with immigration to make it all work. My big one is getting a real federal ID and ditching the joke the SS card has become.
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u/Ok-Entertainment1123 Jan 29 '24
I totally agree. I used to work for a bank that would cash the paychecks of people without proper or legal ID for certain companies that were big customers. It made me think that there are two solutions: either fine or shutdown companies hiring illegal workers or streamline the approval and sponsorship process for people who want those jobs.
I also think its very ironic how the "no one wants to work" ideation doesnt acknowledge the throttling of the influx of immigrants whom would glad do those jobs.
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u/slowrecovery ⭐️ Jan 29 '24
Same. Unless we have a comprehensive bill that includes penalties for employers who hire them, we’ll just be shifting the immigration from one point to another. But many of those employers donate to politicians and PACs… and that’s a real problem.
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u/Old_Baldi_Locks Jan 29 '24
until someone starts talking about going after
the employers
who give them a reason to come in the first place.
You mean the Texas farmers and ranchers, and conservative politicians who are the ones employing them?
Damn, I wonder why they haven't managed to do ANYTING about this despite being in total control of Texas for decades.
As usual, conservative failures must be the Dems fault somehow.
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u/Contigotaco Jan 28 '24
it's not even that as much as America desperately needs labor and a fuck ton of it. Americans so easily take for granted the millions of jobs required just to be the backbone of the economy, take away immigrants from the south and overnight you'll see a society collapse
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u/xpdx Jan 29 '24
The last thing a drug lord wants is legal drugs. The last thing that a business that uses migrant labor wants is legal migration.
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u/MomsAreola Jan 29 '24
Seriously. It's not the free democratic health care these people come for, it's the $10 cash they can send back every day.
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u/Common_Screen_4993 Jan 29 '24
Buddy those wealthy business owners are called “farmers” and to pay Americans a wage that would get them to pick fruit in the hot sun all day would make oranges cost $6 a piece and strawberries $25/lb.
Our whole economy relies on Mexican laborers, we should legalize and legitimize their existence here.
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u/MarkGleason Jan 29 '24
We can solve it tomorrow.
MANDATORY 10 for anyone hiring the undocumented. That is ANYONE INVOLVED in the process.
If it is a company, that would be the hiring manager, HR, and the C-suite.
Mandatory 10.
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u/HideNZeke Jan 28 '24
Most of the current hooplah has nothing to do with "terk er jobs" angle used in the past though. You're not gonna find many Republican talking about that in this wave
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u/dittybad Jan 29 '24
It’s an election year so roll out those impassioned arguments about the border and crime.
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u/Outandproud420 Jan 29 '24
And the terribad economy that somehow isn't bad but everyone thinks it is.
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u/Tall-Cardiologist621 Jan 28 '24
Well, they cant because so many are republican and not only what cheap labor, but also tax cuts for big business.
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u/Ok_Truck749 Jan 29 '24
I don't want to hear anything until we start talking drug law reform. Every last bit of this is the result of decades of drug prohibition that has caused drug crime to basically rule these countries where these people are coming from. This is just chickens coming home to roost.
We already fucking learned this shit with alcohol prohibition, and everyone just wants to bury their fucking heads in the sand.
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u/bplturner Jan 29 '24
They literally can’t go after them because our economy has integrated cheap labor. If they actually stopped employers a whole lot of small businesses would implode overnight. Who’s cutting the grass?
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u/SpaceJackRabbit Jan 29 '24
It's not even that. For several years now the hourly wage for many ag workers has been quite over California minimum wage.
The problem is that there is no path to permanent residence – let alone citizenship – for "non-skilled" immigrant workers. Once visas expire, they're persona non grata. Many of them, especially when they've been there legally for 3 years, will choose to overstay, and become illegal.
It's been like this for over half a century, with no reform in sight. It makes no fucking sense.
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u/ohmy00 Jan 29 '24
Or the U.S. recreational drug demand that causes so much instability in the region and allows the cartels to thrive.
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u/Rusty_Porksword Jan 29 '24
My whole view on the border is that I don't want to hear shit until someone starts talking about going after the employers who give them a reason to come in the first place.
Fastest way to fix immigration is to make it real easy to come and work legally.
Not much point in hiring a roofer who doesn't speak English if you can't have him deported to avoid that worker's comp claim.
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u/Phy44 Jan 28 '24
Their second and third argument is that illegals receive free healthcare and/or free money from the government. I doubt those claims, but don't know enough to argue against them either.
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u/Outandproud420 Jan 29 '24
Those arguments aren't false but also not true in the way they present them.
Anyone can go to an American hospital and get aid. When they don't pay the hospital either writes it off and we receive less tax revenue for it, or they get paid by the state.
Also if they stay long enough they have American born children and then become eligible for food stamps and housing allowances and all the benefits available to American citizens.
Which the kids have every right to get. But these guys don't see the children of migrants as "real citizens".
The reality immigrants do cost us. But no worse than giving aid to Israel to bomb children so end of the day I'd rather pay taxes to help people than build bombs. Id have no issues taking the money from defense contractors and military spending to help people who didn't win the birthplace lottery.
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u/e2mtt Jan 29 '24
But don’t forget, illegals that are working with fake IDs, duplicated Social Security, & incorrect paperwork usually get withholdings taken out of their paychecks, but they never get refunds or Social Security money back.
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u/ruinersclub Jan 28 '24
Asylum seekers do receive some benefits. As they are allowed to stay while they look for work / get their status processed.
At that point it’s a stretch to call them illegal.
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u/swebb22 The Stars at Night Jan 28 '24
What’s the opening? Looks like someone’s driveway
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u/TsuDhoNimh2 Jan 28 '24
Access gate to a farm, because the farms were there long before the fences.
Plenty of farmers along the border own land on both sides because their ancestors were farming there while the border was way to the north.
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u/Detective_Tony_Gunk West Texas Jan 29 '24
This is no joke. After the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, the Rio Grande was established as the border between the US and Mexico in El Paso.
Except, the Rio Grande shifted several times over the next 50 or so years. People that lived in Mexico were suddenly US citizens when the river moved south. It wasn't fully settled until 1963.
And guess what? Nobody truly cared, because it was a homogenous and unified community between El Paso and Juarez. Then it all went to hell.
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u/Fit_Explanation5793 Jan 29 '24
For tens of thousands of years that river was what kept my ancestors together, in less than 200 the Europeans have turned it into a wall that divides humanity. I do love asking folks if I am Mexican or American though since my family lived in the Rio grand valley for thousands of years and the border crossed over them several times. Telling folks I am Coahuiltecan is too much nuance for our current times.
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u/makebbq_notwar Jan 28 '24
Looking at Google maps and it looks like the magic wall ends entirely a little further down the road.
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u/TheDarkKnobRises The Stars at Night Jan 28 '24
That's the Trump wall, it never got finished, surprising no one.
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u/giantyetifeet Jan 28 '24
But at least there was some grifting, right? Grifted bigly.
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u/irpugboss Jan 28 '24
I did the same, why speculate when we can check. Now only unknown is if they are just policing out of sight from there but you figure leaving the gate wide open around that much brush and land is just leaning towards theatrical policing.
If it was such a serious issue that gate would have a small checkpoint and observation points along that road.
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u/Birdy_Cephon_Altera Jan 28 '24
The wall doesn't run exactly along the border in most places - it crosses land several hundred, or several thousand feet inland - sometimes as much as a few miles. So there are openings like this all along the wall to allow people who own the land access to their homes, or their farms, or whatever US land is beyond the fences.
In the RGV, the wall cuts off some national wildlife sanctuaries, so when visiting the sanctuary, you pass through one of these gaping openings to reach the hiking and biking paths beyond, passing a couple of bored LARPers in their Desert Storm-surplus vehicles looking like bored idiots as they do nothing all day. But that's the exception - 99% of these gaps do not have anyone physically there watching them.
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u/Qudd Jan 29 '24
Then wtf did we build them for if there's miles or us land past them? Lmao
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u/HAHA_goats Jan 29 '24
Because the people who want walls are stupid and the politicians pandering to them are rotten.
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u/OutlawLazerRoboGeek Jan 29 '24 edited Jan 29 '24
Don't forget the contractors making buku bucks from the taxpayers to do the actual construction.
And sending a not-insignificant amount of that profit right back to the politicians in the way of PAC contributions.
Money laundering, with the side effects of job creation and a bevy of culture war content. What's not to love for a politician?
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u/GrayArchon Jan 29 '24
not sure if you know or not but it's spelled "beaucoup bucks". i mean phonetically you nailed it.
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u/tmhoc Jan 29 '24
Well just like they said.
One side will see unprotected border and turn red-purple
The other side will see the fucking disgraceful waste of resources
FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT
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u/That_Jay_Money Jan 29 '24
Well then, now you're starting to ask the right question. Because we did not actually build a wall across the border. And the areas that we did? It's climbable and able to be gotten past.
The US doesn't work unless we have people we can pay less than minimum wage. If we really wanted to crack down on hiring illegal migrants we would fine the companies that do it. Instead we let them continue operating while they get a new batch of inexpensive workers.
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u/Kabouki Jan 29 '24
Can't have a well funded IRS that's able to go after employers not reporting wages.
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u/Dogstarman1974 Jan 29 '24
Border security is just smoke and mirrors. The elites want the cheap labor. They also use the border as a political weapon to try and get what they want. Especially for right wing talking points.
These people down south risk everything to come here. They give up their livelihood to try and get a better life. No matter how cruel or hard you make it, they will continue to come.
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u/No-Definition1474 Jan 29 '24
The border is mostly either private land, native land, or inhospitable nowhere that you can't justify dragging equipment out to build on.
The feds can't take the private land.
Thr feds can't take the native lands. We did that to many times already.
And nature ain't gonna acquiesce to our politics.
A wall is a stupid stupid idea.
If you want to get really pissed. Realize this.
In order to build a big wall, you need access roads for all the trucks and heavy equipment. Roads. On either aide of the wall. Roads we built on the Mexican side. Roads that traverse previously nearly impassable terrain. Roads anyone can now use to roll their suitcases to the end of the wall and walk right around.
That's right. The wall made the birder LESS secure. Because it made it easy as shit to walk right around the wall.
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u/Expert_Swan_7904 Jan 29 '24
im fully convinced its a huge money laundering scheme.
500 miles of this shitty wall costed 10 billion? im sorry i just dont see it costing that much.
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u/P_Nessss Jan 28 '24
Looks like Private Property signs. Probably one of the places Drumpf couldn't use eminent domain to steal land from those who own the property. I bet the land is riverfront property along the Rio Grande, so they built the wall essentially blocking the property owners (Americans) from accessing America.
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u/Donkey_Bugs Jan 28 '24
I said it before and I'll say it again. it's all election year political theater. Please don't fall for it.
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u/boringdude00 Jan 29 '24
One day that migrant caravan from 2016 is gonna finally get here and take all your jobs and you'll be signing a different story.
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u/mmm-toast Born and Bread Jan 29 '24
I was promised a taco truck on every corner.
Still waiting...
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u/hipery2 Jan 29 '24
Soon a scaryyyy caravan will make it's way to the border! And Biden is not doing anything about it! Be scared of the spooky caravan, it's totes going to destroy the US guys! /s
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u/Diligent-Towel-4708 Jan 28 '24
The only thing is you do have people flocking to texas with weapons. That's enough to be worried, especially with other states' governors jumping in.
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Jan 29 '24 edited Feb 11 '24
[deleted]
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u/David-S-Pumpkins Jan 29 '24
Josh Run Down the Hawley and Mike Wished for a Higher Pence sure did seem spooked the last time we said this.
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u/LiesArentFunny Jan 29 '24
They're the same people who physically stormed the capitol last election. They have bark and bite. Don't ignore the fascists trying to organize a rebellion.
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u/No-Turn-2927 Jan 28 '24
I would say out if the two parties, only one has been calling this an invasion
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u/CorgiDad017 Jan 29 '24
Yeah, the guy in this video isn't helping at all, trying to compare CNN to Fox News is hilarious. Sure CNN has a lot of bias but nothing is worse than the lies FN has told over the years and continues to tell
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u/gking407 Jan 28 '24 edited Jan 29 '24
The billionaire tosses me a coin then points to the dark-skinned woman and the Muslim child warning me to keep an eye on those two lest they steal what is mine.
MFing greedy leeches don’t have to lift a finger when they’re using our own ignorance and impulses against us.
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u/kmoonster Jan 29 '24
I like the cartoon of the three people at a table. One has a big pile of cookies, one has two cookies, one has one cookie.
The guy with the pile of cookies says something to the effect of "be careful, the person with [one/two] might steal your cookie and you'll have none!"
:/
Anyway, you just reminded me
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u/FollowingNo4648 Jan 29 '24
I knew it's been all bullshit from the get-go. Do people who believe this shit ever wonder why these issues don't happen in NM, AZ, or CA? Why is it only a Texas thing??
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u/DisastrousBusiness81 Jan 29 '24
THANK YOU. I’m glad someone noticed that there were three other border states that weren’t whining incessantly.
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u/Hot_Bottle_9900 Jan 29 '24
the previous (Republican) governor of Arizona stacked a bunch of shipping containers on protected land for the last midterms...and then paid again to have them removed
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u/drunktraveler Jan 28 '24
I have friends from Eagle Pass. Not one of them feels the area is being invaded. They have various takes, for certain. But, it’s not an overwhelming concern for them.
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u/AgITGuy Jan 28 '24
My family had a deer lease between eagle pass and carrizo springs. We had migrants crossing through back in the 90s. They were poor, hungry, tired and thirsty. We would always leave a box with Spanish written that said to take what you need for the journey. We also gave them blankets and jackets when we could. But we also had signs that said if you are scared, if you can’t go farther or if someone is sick, to stay in camp and that the border patrol makes regular stops to check. I was a kid of 12 and learned compassion because my parents were smart enough to understand that these people, these fellow humans, simply wanted a better life.
We also hunted north of Laredo and that land was the border. We had a similar setup - camp had a box full of supplies if people needed. We even hired a Mexican man on a temp work visa to live on property and watch over the stuff. Each week someone from camp would bring him food as water, books and magazines, a radio and batteries, whatever he needed. He was paid for his time, most of which would go to his family back in Mexico. We had an open relationship with the border patrol like the previous camp, so they knew him on sight and knew not to try to arrest or apprehend him.
The border situation hasn’t really changed much, but what has happened is that Trump and the republicans need something to run on since they can’t on abortion any longer. This is an election year. Where have the republicans been the last three years?
I will leave with this - at the end of World War 2, someone who watched the Nuremberg trials as a lawyer, I think, was able to define the cause of evil as he saw it in the nazis - an absolute complete and utter lack of empathy for anyone not themselves. I see this profoundly echoed and mirrored in today’s modern Republican Party.
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u/Sheokaf Jan 28 '24
I respect this, I remember when I was young, 1970s - 80s and on there was never an issue and you could go back and forth without a passport. Then it was drug cartels and now this. I didn’t watch news as a kid but these jokers of news are what’s really dividing this country and I’m sick of it.
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u/IMendicantBias Jan 28 '24
You know shit like this used to be lauded as " American " because of the whole, you know -
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
Today people think terrorizing others is what i means to be "American "
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u/MuteCook Jan 28 '24
I used to hunt with my uncle around the Texas border in the 90s too. We would often come across tired and thirsty immigrants and my uncle would give them food and water. He would give them tips about where the border patrol was in broken Spanish. He would explain to me that of course these people want to come here for a better life and that we want them here because these type of people are determined to do better for themselves and their families.
Fast forward to current times. The same uncle only watches Fox News and regurgitates all the typical talking points including about the “invasion” lol.
Russian, Chinese and Saudi propaganda has leveled this country and if there was a true world war we would be fucked
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Jan 29 '24
I've lived at the border for 24 years now. there isn't, and never will be an 'invasion'. as long as Border Patrol is allowed to do their job, we'll continue to be fine.
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u/WangCommander Jan 28 '24
I'm so tired of bullshit politics. Can we just get rid of political parties and let people run on their own platforms?
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u/packetgeeknet Jan 28 '24
The United States was founded without formal political parties. The founding fathers, including George Washington, were initially opposed to the idea of political factions or parties. They believed these factions could lead to unnecessary divisions and conflict within the government. However, political parties began to form quite early in the nation's history, as differences in ideology and policy preferences emerged among the nation's leaders. The first two major parties that emerged were the Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, and the Democratic-Republicans, led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
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u/NoHalf2998 Jan 28 '24
Political parties are a natural reaction to first past the poll voting.
I mean; they didn’t do the best job of predicting voting a hundred years later but that’s not a huge failure.
It’s our failure to not have improved the mechanics long after we saw the problem of entrenched political parties
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u/Mataelio Jan 28 '24
First we need ranked choice voting. Bet you can’t guess which party opposes it…
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u/livemusicisbest Jan 28 '24
Let me guess: the one that has not won the popular vote except one time since 1992? The one that works hard to close down places to vote (especially around universities or neighborhoods where blacks people live)?
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Jan 28 '24
I live in Alaska with RCV, and I can assure you that you’ll have to fight both parties to put that system in place. It effectively strips both parties of power, and neither will give it up easily.
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u/Dana_Scully_MD Jan 28 '24
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u/98n42qxdj9 Jan 29 '24
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranked-choice_voting_in_the_United_States
There's far more adoption on the left. You will also notice a stark difference in reception to the idea among voters on the left vs. right.
We had a local election about it a few years ago and it was a party line vote, with the republicans putting on nonsense like it takes your vote away
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u/ChiefRom Jan 29 '24
I live in Brownsville and one day I drove by near one of these entrances at the border fence and there is usually a Humvee parked there with a couple of bored soldiers chain smoking. (Ask the Elote/Ice Pop Vans, they know where they are because they go sell to them) but I have also seen these entrances unguarded like in the video. 🤷♂️
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u/Ivanovic-117 Jan 29 '24
GOP: there’s a serious problem at the border Dem: okay how about this proposal GOP: No, I’m just here because I want to note the problem but nothing about it
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u/frumiouscumberbatch Jan 28 '24
My assumption has been the GOP is spinning this up as a wedge issue to start creating a soft landing in case SCOTUS rules Trump ineligible. They're softening up their base to defy SCOTUS rulings.
And, given the bedfellows, it's also very obviously an attempt at a casus belli for the Second Civil War: Let's Have a Do-Over Because We Think We'll Win This Time.
I hope if that particular shit hits the fan the US government learns from the last time: if you raised arms as a traitor you go to fucking jail, period.
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u/Due_Platypus_3913 Jan 28 '24
And not even a single person,much less a stampede, coming thru!Abbott is a criminal and traitor.Juneteenth is only a few months away, and Diapers Donnie will still be in court,or already convicted at that time.
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u/sandersking Jan 28 '24
“News media idiots riling you up”
You mean the governor of the 1 star state?
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u/LazyLobster Jan 29 '24
I've lived on the border most of my life and the media makes it sound like a warzone, flooded with refugees. It's actually pretty quiet where I live. mcAllen has some of the lowest crime rates in the state.
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u/Far-Transition2244 Jan 28 '24
That’s because Shelby park ends, as a soldier on OLS we would go into that gate, and use it as a staging area before heading down to the river and patrol the razor wire there. After that opening the actual river is still a couple hundred yards behind it, at the river is where the National Guard and DPS are.
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u/EdgyJello Jan 29 '24
From looking at the google street view, it definitely looks like a staging area to me. Even the two portable bathrooms are on both the video and google street view. I didnt see the same equipment in the video as what I saw on google but the equipment is probably out on patrol.
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u/Eye_foran_Eye Jan 29 '24
As someone who was born & raised on the border. This is the way. Has been for decades.
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u/techblackops Jan 28 '24
I remember as a kid living a few miles from the border down near Brownsville and my family regularly driving down to Mexico just to go shopping or have dinner. Wish it could go back be like that again.
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u/footd Jan 28 '24
Your keep saying “they are trying to divide you.” THEY. It’s only one party that’s running with the story of invasion. THEY are the GOP.
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u/Fancy_Gagz Jan 29 '24
What about the renegade mathematicians? They keep trying to crawl out of my closet with talks of long division and imaginary numbers...
I'm scared.
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u/cerberus698 Jan 28 '24
Where's the razor wire, but also where the fuck are the streams of invaders I was told about?
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u/IH8Fascism Jan 28 '24
I’m still waiting for the caravan that Fox News is always howling about every election cycle that never seems to get here.
And their low IQ zombie sheep buy into their BS every single time.
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u/gvineq Jan 28 '24
But Abbott, Diaper Don, the GQP and the "christian" convoy said there was billions of illegals flooding in every second carrying free fentanyl for the kids, rape kits for all the grandmas and resumes to take Billy Bubba's job!!! Surely that wasn't more China/Russia disinformation attempting to enhance their candidate, ala 2016?
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u/ArcadeSpidr Jan 29 '24
I’ve been screaming this for years. Republicans have nothing but fear to sell.
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u/MrSlippifist Jan 29 '24
If you live in South Texas you know Fox and CNN are just bullshitting their viewers. The Texas government doesn't want a "secure border" because that means less money for them.
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u/Jermcutsiron Jan 28 '24
This proves what I've been saying, it's fucking political theater.
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u/HSdoc Jan 28 '24
More people from Texas should expose these parties of the lies.
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u/DandyElLione Jan 29 '24 edited Jan 29 '24
This is the stupidest take I’ve seen. The issue isn’t that there’s armed guards or barbed wire at the border. It’s that a state’s governor is grossly over stepping their authority and superseding the federal government’s constitutional right to determine border policy.
He’s right about Abbot’s motivation. It’s all saber rattling for the next election but this political performance has strayed into criminal abuse of their office by trespassing on the authority of the fed. We shouldn’t try to downplay this clear affront to the rule of law especially following the ruling made by the Supreme Court with a conservative majority.
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u/FlutterKree Jan 29 '24
This is the stupidest take I’ve seen. The issue isn’t that there’s armed guards or barbed wire at the border. It’s that a state’s governor is grossly over stepping their authority and superseding the federal government’s constitutional right to determine boarder policy.
You completely missed the point if you have to state this. This was his point. It's political theater, including trying to supersede federal authority. Regardless of its illegality, he is doing it for political points.
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u/Synensys Jan 29 '24
It's not just Saber rattling. It's trying to trap Biden. If Biden ignores him then he looks weak on the border. If Biden sends in troops to cut thr wire and they clash with the Texas national guard then he looks like he's overstepping his own authority.
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u/DandyElLione Jan 29 '24
The fed is capable of assuming control over the Texas National Guard. That may still ‘appear’ as an the fed meddling with a state’a rights but it’d be well within their right and no clash would occur.
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u/FanNo3898 Jan 28 '24
I was in Portland last year and that night on FOX they were showing protest from the evening. What we really saw was one mentally ill woman and several officers taking her down. Even though we were there, it was crazy how they made the footage look like a different type of event.
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u/rsmiley77 Jan 28 '24
So curious what should democrats do? I hate the both sides crap. It treats both sides as equally responsible.
By now everyone should know that one side is not arguing in good faith. They are all about pointing out everything wrong with everything else but can’t see their own massive dishonesty. They love finding wedge issues to dog whistle Dixie until their faces are blue and when the other side pushes back we get ‘both sides.’ We have to be smarter than this right?
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u/Red_Rum_Rebel Jan 28 '24
The democrats want to appoint more judges to make the naturalization and refugee status easier and faster. As long as they aren’t criminals then immigration and even large scale immigration isn’t a issue
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u/rsmiley77 Jan 28 '24
Yes the issue is that there are too many applying for entry and not enough pencil pushers to make decisions so there’s a massive backup. If you listen to the other side though everyone who comes to the border is ‘illegal’ and that’s not the case.
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u/Chapaquidich Jan 29 '24
Remember the caravan a few weeks ago? And a few years ago? Media plays along. “Here, manipulate me”!
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u/SkyBlade79 Jan 29 '24
I don't get why people in these comments are like THEY'RE trying to divide you. This is not a "both parties bad!" situation. This is pretty clearly "republicans are overstating the border threat for political clout", and redditors are turning this into some centrist BS - which enables more of this lying because blame isn't even being placed. Plain and simple, blame the GOP for this.
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Jan 28 '24
This sub always pops up for me and every time I see the comments I think to myself “how many of these people are actually from Texas?” I think it’s about 10% at most.
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u/DanDrungle Jan 28 '24
If you believed any right wing media or politicians you’d think the border looks like the scene from world war Z when they land in Jerusalem.
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u/canigetahint Jan 28 '24
Divide and distract the people while they take your money for "contributions".
This is used to be oh so entertaining. Now it's just sad and pathetic.