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reasonsforhope · 1 year

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“America likes to tell a certain story about itself: It’s a safe haven, a place of refuge for the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. It’s a story that history shows hasn’t always been true. But thankfully, it just got easier for Americans to take matters into their own hands and turn that aspiration into a reality.

The Biden administration on January 19 launched the Welcome Corps, a new program that will allow groups of Americans to directly sponsor refugees to resettle in their communities.

Whereas recent programs have focused on bringing over people from specific places — Afghanistan, Ukraine, Venezuela — this program makes it possible for private citizens to resettle people from any place in the world, so long as they are refugees as defined by the US Refugee Act.

Under the Welcome Corps program, you and a few of your friends can pool together funds to provide an immigration pathway that allows vulnerable people who may not otherwise be able to immigrate the ability to rebuild their lives in the US. Forming a private sponsor group involves bringing together at least five adults in your area and collectively raising $2,275 for each person you want to resettle in your community. With that money, sponsors commit to helping them through the first three months there, which can include securing and furnishing housing, stocking the pantry with food, supporting job hunts, and registering kids for school.

It’s a powerful way to improve life for the newcomers, granting them protection from persecution or violence in their country of origin, plus the chance to access health care, education, and socioeconomic opportunities. It can also improve life for everyone who’ll be in the newcomers’ orbit, including you and your neighbors. Research suggests welcoming refugees will likely benefit your community as a whole, for example by opening new businesses that revitalize neighborhoods. In Canada, a similar private sponsorship program has proven immensely popular and successful over the past decade.

But you might be thinking: Why should it fall to private citizens to fork over the cash, time, and energy to resettle refugees? Shouldn’t that be the government’s job?

...It’s a fair point: This is the government’s job. That’s why the advocacy groups that pushed for the Welcome Corps program insisted that any refugees who come to the US via private sponsorship should be in addition to the number of traditional, government-assisted resettlement cases.

The State Department has signaled that it agrees. This means that by sponsoring a refugee, you can play a role in allowing the US to take in more refugees overall. It really is additive.

And unlike prior programs for Afghans or Ukrainians, which were temporary, ad hoc responses to crises, the Welcome Corps is intended to be a permanent fixture. The hope is that it’ll complement the traditional resettlement process, which has been struggling for years.”

-via Vox, 1/27/23

#refugees #asylum #us politics #immigration #migration is a human right #refugee #afghanistan #ukraine #welcome corps #refugee sponsorship #united states #human rights #immigration reform #immigrant rights #good news #hope #this has SO MUCH potential to make a difference #to let us help people rather than just watch the government be awful and racist #it's huge

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dontmean2bepoliticalbut · 6 months

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 9 months

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Officers working for Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security initiative have been ordered to push small children and nursing babies back into the Rio Grande, and have been told not to give water to asylum seekers even in extreme heat, according to an email from a Department of Public Safety trooper who described the actions as “inhumane.”

The July 3 account, reviewed by Hearst Newspapers, discloses several previously unreported incidents the trooper witnessed in Eagle Pass, where the state of Texas has strung miles of razor wire and deployed a wall of buoys in the Rio Grande.

According to the email, a pregnant woman having a miscarriage was found late last month caught in the wire, doubled over in pain. A four-year-old girl passed out from heat exhaustion after she tried to go through it and was pushed back by Texas National Guard soldiers. A teenager broke his leg trying to navigate the water around the wire and had to be carried by his father.

The email, which the trooper sent to a superior, suggests that Texas has set “traps” of razor wire-wrapped barrels in parts of the river with high water and low visibility. And it says the wire has increased the risk of drownings by forcing migrants into deeper stretches of the river.

The trooper called for a series of rigorous policy changes to improve safety for migrants, including removing the barrels and revoking the directive on withholding water.

“Due to the extreme heat, the order to not give people water needs to be immediately reversed as well,” the trooper wrote, later adding: “I believe we have stepped over a line into the inhumane.”

Department of Public Safety spokesman Travis Considine did not comment on all the contents of the trooper’s email, but said there is no policy against giving water to migrants.

Considine also provided an email from DPS Director Steven McCraw on Saturday calling for an audit to determine if more can be done to minimize the risk to migrants. McCraw wrote troopers should warn migrants not to cross the wire, redirect them to ports of entry and to closely watch for anyone who needs medical attention.

In another email, McCraw acknowledged that there has been an increase in injuries from the wire, including seven incidents reported by Border Patrol where migrants needed “elevated medical attention” from July 4 to July 13. Those were in addition to the incidents detailed by the trooper.

“The purpose of the wire is to deter smuggling between the ports of entry and not to injure migrants,” McCraw wrote. “The smugglers care not if the migrants are injured, but we do, and we must take all necessary measures to mitigate the risk to them including injuries from trying to cross over the concertina wire, drownings and dehydration.”

The incidents detailed in the email come as Abbott has stepped up efforts in recent weeks to physically bar migrants from entering the country through his Operation Lone Star initiative, escalating tensions between state and federal officials and drawing increased scrutiny from humanitarian groups who say the state is endangering asylum seekers. The most aggressive initiatives have been targeted at Eagle Pass.

The state has also now deployed a wall of floating buoys in the Rio Grande, which triggered complaints over the weekend from Mexico.

Federal Border Patrol officials have issued internal warnings that the razor wire is preventing their agents from reaching at-risk migrants and increasing the risk of drownings in the Rio Grande, Hearst Newspapers reported last week.

The DPS trooper expressed similar concerns, writing that the placement of the wire along the river “forces people to cross in other areas that are deeper and not as safe for people carrying kids and bags.”

The trooper’s email sheds new light on a series of previously reported drownings in the river during a one-week stretch earlier this month, including a mother and at least one of her two children, who federal Border Patrol agents spotted struggling to cross the Rio Grande on July 1.

According to the email, a DPS boat found the mother and one of the children, who went under the water for a minute.

They were pulled from the river and given medical care before being transferred to EMS, but were later declared deceased at the hospital. The second child was never found, the email said.

The Governor has said he is taking necessary steps to secure the border and accused federal officials of refusing to do so.

“Texas is deploying every tool and strategy to deter and repel illegal crossings between ports of entry as President Biden’s dangerous open border policies entice migrants from over 150 countries to risk their lives entering the country illegally," said Andrew Mahaleris, Abbott’s press secretary. "President Biden has unleashed a chaos on the border that’s unsustainable, and we have a constitutional duty to respond to this unprecedented crisis.”

The DPS trooper’s email details four incidents in just one day in which migrants were caught in the wire or injured trying to get around it.

On June 30, troopers found a group of people along the wire, including a 4-year-old girl who tried to cross the wire and was pressed back by Texas Guard soldiers “due to the orders given to them,” the email says. The DPS trooper wrote that the temperature was “well over 100 degrees” and the girl passed out from exhaustion.

“We provided treatment to the unresponsive patient and transferred care to EMS,” the trooper wrote. A spokesperson for the Texas National Guard did not respond to a request for comment.

In another instance, troopers found a 19-year-old woman “in obvious pain” stuck in the wire. She was cut free and given a medical assessment, which determined she was pregnant and having a miscarriage. She was then transferred to EMS. The trooper also treated a man with a “significant laceration” in his left leg, who said he had cut it while trying to free his child who was “stuck on a trap in the water,” describing a barrel with razor wire “all over it.” And the trooper treated a 15-year-old boy who broke his right leg walking in the river because the razor wire was “laid out in a manner that it forced him into the river where it is unsafe to travel.”

In another instance, on June 25, troopers came across a group of 120 people camped out along a fence set up along the river. The group included several small children and babies who were nursing, the trooper wrote. The entire group was exhausted, hungry and tired, the trooper wrote. The shift officer in command ordered the troopers to “push the people back into the water to go to Mexico,” the email says.

The trooper wrote that the troopers decided it was not the right thing to do “with the very real potential of exhausted people drowning.” They called command again and expressed their concerns and were given the order to “tell them to go to Mexico and get into our vehicle and leave,” the trooper wrote. After they left, other troopers worked with Border Patrol to provide care to the migrants, the email said.

The trooper did not respond to a request for comment Monday. His email was shared by a confidential source with knowledge of border operations. It was unclear whether the trooper received a response from the sergeant he’d messaged.

Considine acknowledged that DPS was aware of the email and provided the additional agency emails in response. Those emails detail seven other incidents reported by federal border agents in which migrants were injured on the wires, including a child who was taken to the hospital on Thursday with cuts on his left arm, a mother and child who were taken to the hospital on Wednesday with “minor lacerations” on their “lower extremities,” and another migrant taken to San Antonio on July 4 to receive treatment for “several lacerations” that required staples.

Victor Escalon, a DPS director who oversees South Texas, wrote in an email Friday to other agency officials that troopers “may need to open the wire to aid individuals in medical distress, maintain the peace, and/or to make an arrest for criminal trespass, criminal mischief, acts of violence, or other State crimes.”

“Our DPS medical unit is assigned to this operation to address medical concerns for everyone involved,” Escalon wrote. “As we enforce State law, we may need to aid those in medical distress and provide water as necessary.”

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an-onyx-void · 27 days

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Disclaimer: I am not the original owner or creator of this content. The source account is listed below.

#tiktok #cbs #cbs news #us news #united states news #us news source #immigration policy #immigration reform #us immigration #immigration #state of texas #texas #law enforcement #police #texas department of public safety #governor greg abbott #greg abbott #Gregory Wayne Abbott

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personal-blog243 · 4 months

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Holy shit this is huge! We need to follow this to hopefully see this is carried out successfully but this sounds awesome!

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tomorrowusa · 1 month

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One word I didn't expect to hear describing Joe Biden's State of the Union speech was "energetic" – but there it was bigtime. 😎

Dark Brandon was in the House and wasn't taking any prisoners. His fervent advocacy for progressive and pro-democracy policies left no one in doubt that he is The Anti-MAGA.

President Biden sounded like an older version of Harry Truman though without swear words. And much of the speech was aimed directly at the Republicans and at the GOP Supreme Court – calling them out right to their faces.

Biden wasn't just energetic, he absolutely taunted Republicans on an issue they've shot themselves in both feet on – immigration reform.

Biden’s Border Taunts Clearly Hit a Republican Nerve

Finally, he arrived at the topic that he knew Republicans couldn’t resist, because it represents that party’s most embarrassing recent failure. He reminded the country that at Donald Trump’s direction, Republicans had killed the strongest immigration bill in years, one that would reduce the flood of asylum seekers and bolster security at the southern border. And immediately the boos poured in from the red side of the chamber. “What are you against?” he asked, finally laughing at the opportunity to expose a bit of rampant hypocrisy. “Oh, you don’t like that bill?” It would save lives and bring order to the chaos at the border, he said, reducing fentanyl smuggling and giving every president the ability to shut down crossings when the surge of migrants became too great. [ ... ] Biden’s provocation on this issue may have been the most successful moment of the evening, one that will be replayed many times in the months to come on the campaign trail. And the power of it could be seen in the downcast face behind him of Speaker Mike Johnson, who wouldn’t bring the border bill to the House floor. All he could do was shake his head and hope Biden changed the subject.

Democrats have reason to feel good about this speech and it showed. His departure from the chamber was delayed by enthusiastic Democratic House members who were asking for selfies and getting autographs from Biden while chatting with him. If they had thought the speech was a dud they would have fled immediately.

On a somewhat funny note, the extended post-speech coverage of Biden's socializing on the House floor delayed the start of the GOP reply by the rather wooden Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama. Many viewers may have tuned out before her speech finally started a little before 11 PM Eastern Time.

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 3 months

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Matt Davies

* * * *

The immigration bill hangs in the balance.

What’s happening.

The core group of Senators negotiating the immigration bill continues to work on the text of a final bill—cheered on by President Biden in speeches over the weekend. Senator Chris Murphy said the following:

We do have a bipartisan deal. We’re finishing the text right now. We are sort of finalizing the last pieces of text right now. This bill could be ready to be on the floor of the United States Senate next week. But it won’t be if Republicans decide that they want to keep this issue unsettled for political purposes. I was glad to hear the president come out and speak forcefully in favor of this bill. I’m hopeful that we will still have enough Republicans in the Senate who want to fix the problem at the border rather than just to do Donald Trump’s bidding, but we will see over the next 24 to 48 hours whether that’s true.

As many Republicans publicly announced their opposition to a bill that has yet to be released, at least one Republican Senator criticized his party for sacrificing the nation’s immigration policy to Trump's re-election bid. See Washington Post, Lankford defends bipartisan border security bill after attacks by Trump, GOP.

GOP Senator Lankford told an interviewer on Sunday that Republicans demanded immigration reform as a condition of funding Ukraine and Israel. Having extracted that quid-pro-quo from Democrats, Republicans said, “Just kidding.” In Lankford’s words:

So we actually locked arms together and said we’re not going to give you money for this. We want a change in law. When we’re finally going to the end, they’re like, ‘Oh, just kidding. I actually don’t want a change in law because it’s a presidential election year.’

We all have an oath to the Constitution and we have a commitment to say we’re going to do whatever we can to be able to secure the border.

Republicans have viciously attacked Lankford (a member of their party) for having the audacity to perform his constitutional function against the wishes of defendant Trump. The Oklahoma Republican Party has “censured” Senator Lankford for “playing fast and loose with Democrats”—which is apparently how MAGA extremists view bipartisan negotiations. See The Hill, Oklahoma GOP votes to censure Lankford over Senate border talks.

What President Biden is doing.

Meanwhile, President Biden is leaning into the proposed bill in a big way. A proposed provision would allow the President to “shut down the border” if illegal crossings exceed 5,000 per day. In a written and video statement released on social media last Friday, President Biden said he was prepared to “close the border” immediately if Congress passed the proposed legislation.

And . . . just like that, progressive media outlets that had been repeating the GOP’s false narrative that Biden has allowed an “open border” began suggesting that Biden was “going too far” by saying he would close the border. (I am looking at you, Alex Wagner of MSNBC).

We need to support the President.

We cannot criticize Biden for everything he does. For months, Democrats and major media outlets have suggested that Biden might lose in 2024 because of the border. He has now called the GOP’s bluff by saying, “If you pass it, I will sign it and enforce it.”

We cannot turn on a dime and immediately criticize Biden for addressing the “border crisis” in a manner that is proportional to the perceived crisis created by MAGA extremists and a complicit press. If we do that, we are telling him he cannot defend himself—and America’s vital interests—over an issue that is critical to his re-election.

So, let’s support President Biden as he navigates through this difficult issue. He has plenty of people spotting issues and second-guessing every word he writes or utters on the subject. We need to support him in a full-throated manner for his consistent commitment to immigration reform.

Extra credit.

Here is a fun fact to pull out of your pocket next time someone says that Joe Biden is in favor of “open borders”: Guess what bill President Biden sent to Congress on the first day of his presidency? A bill to strengthen our border security and modernize our immigration system. Joe Biden has been trying to solve the border and immigration crisis since his first day in office. Let’s not let the press and our friends pretend otherwise. Instead, let’s support Biden and amplify his tremendous efforts to date.

Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter

#Robert B. Hubbell #Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter #the Border #Immigration Reform #Putin Republicans

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politijohn · 2 years

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Joe Biden's approval rating as of late with critical demographics:

18-34 year-olds: 32%

Hispanics: 30%

No college degree: 30%

Perhaps the least surprising results one could expect of a President who flops on climate justice, tuition-free college, canceling student debt, immigration, marijuana reform, and virtually anything substantive

#joe biden #centrism #liberalism #democrats #embarrasing #current events #news #marijuana #legalize marijuana #tuition free college #cancel student debt #immigration reform

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bajaarizonabooksart · 1 year

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What does my Italian grandmother have to do with the U.S.-Mexico border today? Find out on my blog post.

#migration #immigrants #immigration #immigration reform #italian american

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illegalpeople · 10 months

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Hear me out: we do DeSantis' sneaky refugee relocation stunt but don't make it a sneaky lie. We make it true!!! We find places in the US where refugees can get jobs and relief and we send them there! Activate the American Dream now!

Please don't elect me President. I'm serious.

#immigration #immigration reform #immigration policy #immigrant rights #donald trump #de santis #biden

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dontmean2bepoliticalbut · 11 months

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#us politics #twitter #tweet #conservatives #republicans #donald trump #gop #gop policy #gop platform #executive orders #birthright citizenship #us citizenship #citizenship #us constitution #immigration reform #immigration #immigrants #truth social #@SybilT2

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 2 years

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Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida took credit for sending planeloads of migrants to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, as part of an apparent bid to force authorities in another state to take responsibility for them.

State Sen. Julian Cyr of Massachusetts told The New York Times that around 50 migrants arrived in two planes about 3 p.m. local time, with no warning.

Fox News Digital, which first reported the story, published a video of migrants disembarking from planes on the island and getting into a van.

"Yes, Florida can confirm the two planes with illegal immigrants that arrived in Martha's Vineyard today were part of the state's relocation program to transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations," Taryn Fenske, the communications director for DeSantis, told the outlet.

State Rep. Dylan Fernandes on Twitter said the community rallied to help the migrants, putting them up in a local church.

"Our island jumped into action putting together 50 beds, giving everyone a good meal, providing a play area for the children, making sure people have the healthcare and support they need. We are a community that comes together to support immigrants," he wrote on Twitter.

He also shared photos of the makeshift accommodation.

Cyr, speaking with the Martha's Vineyard Times, criticized the move as a cruel political stunt. On Twitter, he said the migrants had arrived on a charter flight from Texas and appeared to be mostly from Venezuela.

"This is deeply disgusting. This is a cruel ruse that manipulates families that are seeking a better life," he said, describing them as "fundamentally racist tactics."

In recent weeks, the Republican-led states of Texas and Arizona have sent thousands of migrants to Democratic-led areas, including New York, Chicago, and Washington, DC.

They say President Joe Biden's policies are behind a rise in unauthorized migration and that Democratic-led cities should bear the responsibility for them. Some of the areas migrants have been sent to voted to become "sanctuary cities," places where authorities deliberately do not cooperate with efforts to enforce migration laws.

DeSantis is burnishing his anti-migration credentials amid rumors he's positioning himself for a presidential bid in 2024.

Martha's Vineyard is an agricultural area and exclusive vacation destination where former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, as well as Hillary Clinton, frequently spend time. In the offseason, it has about 20,000 residents, and locals told The New York Times there were concerns about the town's long-term ability to host the migrants.

Christina Pushaw, a spokesperson for DeSantis, used the situation to troll liberals.

"Martha's Vineyard residents should be thrilled about this. They vote for sanctuary cities — they get a sanctuary city of their own," she tweeted. "And illegal aliens will increase the town's diversity, which is strength. Right?"

Some of you may have been wondering, "Hey, @dontmeantobepoliticalbut, did DeSantis just use Floridian's taxes to fly migrants in Texas to Massachusetts?"

You'd be half-right. Remember Blue States pay for Red States. Florida used California's reallocated surplus taxes to fly Texas's migrants to Massachusetts...

The $12 million money comes from interest earnings from Florida's $8.8 billion portion of the American Rescue Plan's Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund. It provided $350 billion to state and local governments, which the U.S. Treasury said is "to support their response to and recovery from the COVID-19 public health emergency."

Another interesting thought....

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z34l0t · 1 year

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#John Oliver #last week tonight #Last Week Tonight with John Oliver #asylum seekers #refugee crisis #migrant crisis #immigration reform #title 42 #stephen miller is a chode #Youtube

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humanrightsconnected · 2 years

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It has been 10 years ago since applications under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program were accepted for the first time! As we celebrate this milestone, make sure also to read our action guide and find out how you can continue the fight to defend DACA ✊!

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tomorrowusa · 2 months

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Democrats pick up House seat in special election in NY-03!

I ❤️ NY-03!

Democrats have not won a major election in suburban Nassau County since Biden took the area in 2020. NY-03 is mostly in Nassau County and was famously won by Republican fabulist George Santos in 2022. It was Santos's ouster from the House which led to this special election.

So Democrat Tom Suozzi easily defeated his GOP opponent Mazi Pilip on Tuesday by a margin similar to Biden's win in 2020.

Republicans sought to use immigration against Democrats in this election – and failed.

William Kristol and Andrew Egger observed at The Bulwark:

Republicans pummeled Suozzi on immigration with waves of hyperbolic border-invasion ads. But in his three terms in Congress Suozzi had been, for a Democrat, something of a border hawk. And he had plenty of money to portray himself as that. Indeed, he did so aggressively. When Republicans in Congress torpedoed the border bill, Suozzi attacked them for doing so and lamented that it would not now be able to expel “eighty percent” of asylum seekers and to stop migrants from flooding New York.

Yep, Republicans have been demanding border reform. When a viable bipartisan plan became a possibility in the US Senate, they shot it down on orders from adjudicated sex offender Donald Trump.

So now we have a Republican border crisis which Trump hopes will catapult his demented self back into the White House. But indications from NY-03 are that it probably won't work out for them.

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut was one of the senators who worked on the Senate bipartisan immigration reform which Trump sabotaged. Murphy sees the MAGA GOP flip-flop on the border as something which can be used against Republicans nationally.

Sen. Chris Murphy urges Democrats to follow Tom Suozzi and go on the offensive on the border

“Suozzi messaged aggressively on the issue, running ads that highlighted his support for a secure border and legal pathways to citizenship,” Murphy wrote. “He flipped the script on his Republican opponent, successfully painting her as unserious about border security because of her opposition to the bipartisan border bill, and turned what could have been a devastating political liability into an advantage.” Murphy acknowledged his frustration that after months of negotiating the bipartisan border security bill, Republicans in the Senate ultimately knifed it in a matter of days. But he said the GOP’s rejection of the bill provides Democrats with a way to counter GOP talking points on the border.

Back in NY-03, some Republican apologists tried to blame the 7.8% defeat of their candidate on the weather. The official NWS weather station at La Guardia Airport in Queens, next to NY-03, reported a grand total of 3.3 inches [8.38 cm] of snow on Tuesday. And the snow was over by 3 PM. In New York, polls are open until 9 PM. There was plenty of time for Republicans to sweep away the minor amount of snow from their sidewalks and get to their polling places. Don't let the GOP give you a snow job about their loss of a swing district.

Anyway, with the victory of Tom Suozzi, Republicans are one step closer to losing their majority under Speaker "MAGA Mike" Johnson.

#ny-03 #us house of representatives #special election #democratic victory #tom suozzi #mazi pilip #queens #nassau county #new york #snow #immigration reform #republican border crisis #chris murphy #“maga mike” johnson #donald trump #vote blue no matter who #election 2024

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 3 months

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Dave Whamond :: @DaveWhamond

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

January 28, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JAN 29, 2024

Today—last night U.S. time—three military personnel were killed and 34 more wounded in a drone attack on the living quarters at a U.S. base in Jordan, near the Iraq-Syria border. U.S. troops are stationed there to enable them to cross into Syria to help fight the Islamic State. There have been almost-daily drone and missile strikes on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since the October 7 attack on Israel by Iran-backed Hamas. The U.S. has blamed Iran-backed militant groups for the attack, and while no one has officially claimed responsibility yet, three officials from such groups have said an Iran-backed militia in Iraq is responsible.

President Joe Biden today called the act “despicable and wholly unjust,” and he praised the servicemembers, who he said “embodied the very best of our nation: Unwavering in their bravery. Unflinching in their duty. Unbending in their commitment to our country—risking their own safety for the safety of their fellow Americans, and our allies and partners with whom we stand in the fight against terrorism.”

“And have no doubt,” he said, “we will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner [of] our choosing.”

Republican war hawks have called for retaliation that includes “striking directly against Iranian targets and its leadership,” as Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) said, or by “Target[ing] Tehran,” as Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) said. Republicans are blaming Biden for failing to “isolate the regime in [Iran], defeat Hamas, & support our strategic partners,” as Representative Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) wrote on X, formerly Twitter, today.

But there is, of course, a larger story here. The Biden administration has been very clear both about the right of nations to retaliate for attacks and about its determination to stop the war between Hamas and Israel from spreading.

Iran would like that war to spread. It is eager to stop the normalization of relations between Arab states and Israel, and is backing Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, and Hezbollah in Lebanon—all nonstate militias—to try to stop that normalization.

They are trying to stop what Patrick Kingsley and Edward Wong outlined in the New York Times yesterday: a new deal in the Middle East that would end the war between Hamas and Israel and establish a Palestinian state. The constant round of phone calls and visits of Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken with at least ten different countries is designed to hammer out deals on a number of fronts.

The first is for a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel, which would require the exchange of more than 100 Israeli hostages taken on October 7 for thousands of Palestinians held by the Israelis. The second is for a new, nonpartisan Palestinian Authority to take control of Gaza and the West Bank. The third is for international recognition of a Palestinian state, which would be eased by Saudi Arabia’s recognition of Israel. If that recognition occurs, Arab states have pledged significant funds to rebuild Gaza.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has rejected this proposal, but his popularity is so low people are talking openly about who can replace him. Hamas and Iran also reject this proposal, which promises to isolate Iran and the militias from stable states in the Middle East.

Behind this story is an even larger geopolitical story involving Iran’s ally Russia. As Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg retorted when Senator Wicker called on Biden to respond to the attack that killed three Americans “swiftly and decisively for the whole world to see”: “Wasn’t funding Ukraine and Israel the first, critical step in deterring Iran? We are in this place now due to the Russian fifth columnists in the Republican Party including Trump who slavishly do Putin’s bidding.”

Rosenberg was referring to the fact that Iran is allied with Russia, and Russia is desperate to stop the United States from supporting Ukraine. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, apparently thought his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine would establish control of the eastern parts of that country in a matter of days. Instead, the invasion has turned into an expensive and destabilizing two-year war that has badly weakened Russia and that threatens to stretch on.

In the United States, today marks the 100th day that extremist Republicans have refused to provide supplemental funding for Ukraine or Israel arguing that funding to protect the U.S. border must be addressed first. On October 20, 2023, as David Frum pointed out today, Biden asked Congress for “$106 billion to aid Ukraine and Israel against attack by Russia, Iran, and their proxies.” That funding has bipartisan support, but “[f]or 100 days, House Republicans have said NO,” Frum said. “Today, Iranian proxies have killed Americans.”

Republicans’ insistence that they want border funding has proved to be a lie, as Democratic and Republican senators have hammered out a strong agreement that extremist Republicans now reject. Former president Trump has made it clear he wants to run on the idea that the border is overwhelmed, so has demanded his supporters prevent any solution. Today, on the Fox News Channel, when asked why Republicans should let Biden “take a victory lap” with a border deal, Senator James Lankford (R-OK), who has been part of the border deal negotiation team, responded with some heat:

“Republicans four months ago would not give funding for Ukraine, for Israel, and for our southern border because we demanded changes in policy. So we actually locked arms together and said we’re not going to give you money for this, we want a change in law. And now it’s interesting, a few months later, when we’re finally getting to the end they’re like, ‘Oh, just kidding, I actually don’t want a change in law because [it’s] a presidential election year.’ We all have an oath to the Constitution, and we have a commitment to say we’re going to do whatever we can to be able to secure the border."

MAGA Republicans in charge of the Oklahoma Republican Party showed where Trump Republicans stand when they voted on Saturday to “strongly condemn” Lankford for “playing fast and loose with Democrats on our border policy.” They said “that until Senator Lankford ceases from these actions the Oklahoma Republican Party will cease all support for him.”

In The Atlantic, Frum noted that “vital aid to Israel and Ukraine must be delayed and put in further doubt because of a rejected president’s spite and his party’s calculation of electoral advantage. The true outcome of the fiasco in Congress will be the collapse of U.S. credibility all over the world. American allies will seek protection from more trustworthy partners, and America itself will be isolated and weakened.”

Rosenberg wrote: “If you are unhappy with Iran today, first thing you should do is come out for funding Ukraine fully. Nothing will embolden Iran more than a Russian victory in Europe.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Dave Whamond #Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richardson #The Atlantic #Immigration Reform #Election 2024 #US Foreign policy #war in Ukraine #war in Israel #Iran #radical republicans #MAGA #Putin Republicans

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