Apparently the Trumpies don't plan to bother making even a pretense of following the law:
And they really are looking. Immigration hardcase Stephen Miller is in charge of this operation, and even before COVID hit he apparently tried to use a minor outbreak of mumps to justify a border shutdown. That didn't fly, so he and his allies have moved on:
They have looked at tuberculosis and other respiratory diseases as options and have asked allies inside the Border Patrol for examples of illnesses that are being detected among migrants.
....[Miller] said the new administration intended to use the law, citing “severe strains of the flu, tuberculosis, scabies, other respiratory illnesses like R.S.V. and so on, or just a general issue of mass migration being a public health threat and conveying a variety of communicable diseases.”
They aren't being creative enough. Colds can be dangerous, after all. Shingles, ebola, HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, syphilis, bubonic plague, West Nile, zika, measles, MRSA, bird flu. Pretty much anything will do. All you have to do is convince a judge in the eastern district of Texas, right?
Hangnails. Hell, as far as Miller is concerned, cooties should do.
Honestly, it's a surprise he's even bothering to look for a fig leaf here.
Trumpism. It's a highly pathogenic disease that affects the mind by turning people into parroting assholes. This pandemic has been spreading around these past 2 years unabated. Surely it can serve as the basis for his immigration move.
/s
10 years. It started at least as early as that magical ride down a golden escalator in 2015. Perhaps even earlier, as birtherism started in like 2007.
It was abated in Nov. 2020.
+1
But do you need the snark tag?
See it is just TOTALLY UNFAIR that Real President Trump should have to deal with these LIBRUL ELITIST HOAXES about "communicable diseases" and all that "science" stuff when EVERYBODY KNOWS that the REAL disease is IMMIGRANTness and also BROWNness and it's a THREAT to REAL AMERICANS something something POISONING OUR BLOOD froth foam rant ...
Thanks again, Republicans! You really know how to pick 'em!
I'm stealing this entire post, lock stock, and barrel.
Trump and the GOP are becoming more like the Nazis by the day.
sad but true
I just don't understand why they don't just re-write the immigration statues? This is what I assumed they were going to do...eg. get entirely rid of the Refugee status category.
Birthright citizenship would be more difficult, but just deny any status to anyone that is not here officially, legally and with the tons of paperwork ever lawful immigrant must have.
This seems easy-peasy to me...if I were Trump, you have majorities in both houses congress and the Supreme Court on your side...why not an entirely different immigration scheme?
I am really gland that these guys are dumb because their goals should be fairly easily achieved. (yes, I do see an ex post facto problem, but not really...everyone here without bulletproof paperwork is to be excluded...probably no court hearing at all since, by definition, they are already illegally have presence in the United State). Traveller
PS I don't mind other lawyers beating me up on this seeming simplicity....that I see.
"why not just re-write the immigration statues?"
They could, but what's the fun of that? It's so effete and orderly, namby-pamby goody-two-shoes, not manly enough for defenders of a besieged nation. Besides, it would take too long and they don't have a big enough majority to be sure they could pass it, and lawmaking isn't dramatic. They'll save the lawmaking for the really crucial things that can't be done any other way. Tax cuts, mainly.
For immigration they want something quick, decisive, and able to give them videos of uniformed upstanding Americans rounding up all those dangerous furriners and beating some of them. The cruelty is the point, after all. Ditto taking arbitrary executive action. They might get around to changing immigration laws eventually, but the videos (and the contracts with friends for building and staffing the camps) are more important.
To be serious here for a second, MAGA is all about the idea that trump's iron will is the force that's going to make everything happen, which means action has to emanate from the White House and has to show results quickly. If it goes through the sausage factory it'll get all bogged down and that impression of trumpian will that they're after would dissipate. They'll do as much as they can with executive orders, mostly the stuff that'll have a harder time in Congress. What Republican is going to be against tax cuts? But the other stuff is chancy there.
True that. The whole point of a Trump presidency is to take a boot to the ass of people who are out of line. It's abusive, toxic masculinity on steroids and with four shots of whiskey.
Because business actually likes having millions of workers with little ability to negotiate better pay or report abuse in the workplace. So the current immigration “system” works just fine for them.
And then as Altoid wrote, the rest of the GOP coalition (as well as centrists and low info voters) actually wants to see foreigners abused by law enforcement and the judicial system. If the system was better designed there would be less leeway for the cops and the courts to totally destroy foreigners’ - and the Americans’ who love them - lives. Demonstrative cruelty is the point, and nothing is crueler than a “system” in which there is no correct path to navigate through it. See prisoners in Guantanamo for another example of this infinite Catch-22 supported wholeheartedly by the GOP and conservative Dems.
Plus, it’s actually unpopular with voters to end certain statuses like “refugee” when specific examples are raised. “Oh I didn’t mean those refugees should be denied entry, just the other undeserving ones” is more of what the actual American voter supports… similar to abortion on which the American voter frequently expresses “oh I didn’t mean those women should be forced into birth, just the other undeserving ones.” Codifying “only those people but not these people” into written law is surprisingly difficult… much easier to just randomly enforce existing law against undesirables while giving leniency to desirables, as it leaves fewer paper trails.
As others have noted in some detail, if it was that easy, it would have been done 30 years ago. For what it's worth, the middle east (aka Israel) situation is "easily" solved, too. And yet, here we are.
Because Biden is still president.
Trump's minions don't have competence needed to write a statute like that.
related
How will Trump be able to put the hurt on Denmark using tariffs?
The International Emergency Economic Powers Act , a (1977) federal law authorizes the president to regulate international commerce after declaring a national emergency in response to a threat to the United States which has its source outside the United States. The IEEPA authorizes the president to declare the existence of such as threat.
There you have it. As long as I'm here:
Something is rotten in Denmark
Unwilling to deal is their monarch
Won't sell what he owns
For a trillion krones
To our 21st century Bismarck
* plural is kroner, poetic license
😉
The incoming administration seems to be looking for every opportunity to seize additional powers for the Presidency. Not too surprising for The (narcissistic, egomaniacal) Felonious Guy. Should we be relieved that he’s not looking to declare martial law outright in favor of incremental authoritarianism?
Shouldn’t need to be said that declaring a ‘national economic emergency’ is absurd when unemployment is at historic low levels, inflation is decimal places away from the FOMC’s target, and growth is among the best in the free world. Trump seems to believe that balance-of-trade deficits represent theft by foreign nations from the US, instead of simply a case of us buying more stuff from them than they buy from us. Designating that as an emergency is also absurd as trade deficits have been ongoing for decades.
The problem is that lots of laws were passed that gave the president power that bypasses Congressional approval because it was presumed the president would be a prudent, even-tempered person. They didn't consider the possibility that he could be a raving idiot crazyman, which is what Trump is.
The problem is that lots of laws were passed that gave the president power that bypasses Congressional approval because
it was presumed the president would be a prudent, even-tempered personthe last thing members of Congress want is that anything be recognized as their responsibility.It wasn’t the assumption of prudence. They were trying to avoid the regional tradeoffs and backroom deals they thought would come from Congress. The President was thought to be above that because he represented the entire nation.
But the rest of your post is spot on:
They didn't consider the possibility that he could be a raving idiot crazyman, which is what Trump is.
"among the best in the free world" Its amongst the best of the last 80 years in the USA.
There’s truth in all these comments. I’ve been concerned about the imbalance of power favoring the Executive since the Nixon administration. Congress has been too willing to surrender its responsibility. Presidential emergency powers should be limited in time and funding, with extensions requiring explicit Congressional action. Also, allowing the Executive to re-allocate funds from Congressional appropriations is a camel’s nose. Either a ‘rainy day fund’ or special, limited, emergency borrowing authority should be legislated in advance.
Stephen Miller is as close to being the reincarnation of Joseph Goebbels than anyone in post world war 2 history. A truly vile and disgusting human being.
Personally, I think he is more like this guy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhard_Heydrich
Even looks like him.
It feels icky to say this, but that's an insult to Reinhard Heydrich. He was a lot more intelligent (proving that intelligence is a tool, not a virtue) and vastly more competent than Stephen Miller. He built the Sicherheitsdienst from nothing to the most powerful intelligence operation in Nazi Germany. He organized and was a leader of the Night of the Long Knives. If Miller put together a similar operation, he' be lucky if it became known as the Night of the Long Spoons.
And Kenneth Branagh is never going to play Miller in an outstanding movie.
When I pointed that out, replete with pictures, I was blocked for a week on Facebook.
You could try again; apparently they’re not policing posts anymore.
A friend of mine was in grad school with him. Apparently he was an incel and jerk at least that far back.
Miller’s family must be so proud of their little boy monster all grown up!*
(It’s also how I feel Justin and other trolls’ parents would feel if they saw what they write anonymously on this blog.)
*I am aware that several of Miller’s family members have registered public disapproval of their spawn’s activities in the past. But maybe they’ve changed their minds like Pete Hegseth’s mom did after telling him he’s a monster to women. Bullies usually do manage to bully their own families into submission, just like everyone else.
The Woke Mind Virus, obviously. If they didn't have it they'd all be resting comfortably in a hammock somewhere warmed by their native breezes, but look what it's done to them!
They're going about this backwards. The US is likely to be the source of human-transmissable bird flu. Mexico will close the border to keep our disease out.
Hangnails should work for Judge Matt K.
I notice that the text of that first sentence of the NYT article has changed to be slightly less contemptuous.
(currently just outside of Kintampo, Ghana, attempting to avoid contracting any communicable diseases to bring back to the US)
Stupidity, obviously. The Idiocracy has arrived.
The key illness is watching too much reality TV and taking it seriously. But I guess they wont declare that something bad.
Shingles is definitely the way to show their utter contempt for the American judicial system
Surely "yearning to breathe free" can be characterized as a kind of respiratory disease. And highly communicable.
But won't this upset Minister of Disease Kennedy, who thinks epidemics are good because getting sick is the only legitimate way to develop immunity?
Not sure what this epidemic is called, but the symptom is unconditional discharge.
+1
Best laugh of the thread. Thanks.
Why bother? Trump has presumptive immunity for official acts. If he, as commander in chief, orders the army to the border with orders to shoot to kill due to, according to him, a credible threat to national security, he can't be prosecuted.
Wait a second... I was told that all that's necessary is to enforce the existing laws. Surely this could all be solved with a display of strength from our dear leader.
That's correct. "Open border" was always a lie.
Carter's funeral, find the guy who's working his own brainwave,
https://i.redd.it/a37j34c324ce1.jpeg
Damn G. W. Bush has gone really bald!
The problem for the Trump people is that all diseases, known and unknown, can be easily cured by ivermectin and fenbendazole. According to medical authority Mel Gibson, he has three friends who were cured of stage 4 cancer using those medications. Poor Mel’s house burned down in the fires. I wonder why he didn’t use those medications to put the fires out.
+1
The woke fire department insisted on using water hoses.
Should I be encouraged that they are looking for some sort of pretext to do what they want to do instead of just doing it and saying "because fuck you we can."?
The imaginary filth and disease of brown people because they are brown is a fairly consistent theme in American history and one of the key pillars of the MAGA movement.
That one is easy, and epidemic of bullshit.
Oh please. Any post that starts with "Trump says" is pretty worthless.
That's great.
What that tells us is that Miller and Trump want to regain Title 42 authority to turn migrants away at the border. And why would I say "that's great"? Because it demonstrates that all the "open border" blather was all a big fat lie. If Biden could have legitimately closed the border as the GOP has claimed, they wouldn't be looking foir an extraordinary tool like Title 42 to get the job done.
That and convince your boss that he has yet again made a brilliant observation.
One no one ever thought of before.