America Faces No Greater Threat Than Joe Biden and the Democrat Party. Their Assault to Our Borders Is As Great As Their Assault to Free Speech and Free Elections
Monday, January 8, 2024
CALIFORNIA - HIGHEST STATE TAXES AND MOST EXPENSIVE MEXICAN WELFARE STATE IN THE WORLD - LEGALS ARE DOING THE MATH AND FLEEING MEXIFORNIA
HALF THE POPULATION OF CA WAS BORN IN MEXICO. OF COURSE, THEY HAVE NO IDEA THE ACTUAL COUNT AS CA IS AN OPEN BORDER STATE. TO ENTER THE STATE ALL ONE NEEDS IS A VOTER REGISTRATION CARD THAT READS 'DEMOCRAT'.
‘We’re leaving!’: Rich Americans are ditching California and ‘taking their tax dollars with them.’ Here’s why they’re leaving — and where they’re headed
‘We’re leaving!’: Rich Americans are ditching California and ‘taking their tax dollars with them.’ Here’s why they’re leaving — and where they’re headed
The Golden State has lost some of its shine for its wealthiest residents.
California’s population dipped below 39 million in 2023, the lowest count since 2015, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Data shows the state lost 75,423 residents in 2023 — continuing a dramatic trend that started with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
What’s concerning is not how many people are leaving — the state has experienced lopsided out-migration for decades, according to the Los Angeles Times — but who is leaving.
Analysis of the approximately 750,000 people who have bid farewell to California over the last three years has revealed that thousands more high-earning, well-educated workers have left the Golden State than have moved in.
This is a problem — as Joel Kotkin, a fellow at Chapman University, told the Los Angeles Times — because: “People who are leaving are taking their tax dollars with them.”
The wealthy: ‘We’re leaving’
California has the highest state income tax in the country. Technically, its income tax brackets end at 12.3%, but the state applies an additional 1% on personal income over $1 million — meaning its wealthiest residents must pay a whopping 13.3%.
Those ultra-wealthy Californians, the top 1%, typically pay between 40-50% of the state’s personal income tax revenue. And some have clearly had enough of propping up the state’s finances.
“I’m seeing anywhere from two to five clients a month calling me and saying ‘We’re leaving,’” Todd Litman, an estate planning attorney told Sky News. “They have $1 million to $2 million sitting in their IRA and they’re saying: ‘When I retire and start pulling that IRA out, I’m going to be paying 13% state income tax, so I don’t want to do that.’ So, they’re heading out because of that reason.”
It is not just wealthy residents leaving; businesses are also exiting the state — again due to high tax rates, punitive regulations, high labor, utility and energy costs, among other things.
That loss of vital income tax is very problematic for California, which is facing a record $68 billion budget deficit, largely due to an unprecedented drop in tax revenue.
For many of the wealthiest individuals, a 13.5% income tax rate is more of an annoyance than an economic hindrance. The same cannot be said for those a few tax brackets below.
In tax years 2020 and 2021, the average gross income of taxpayers who moved from California to another state was about $137,000, according to IRS migration and personal income data.
That would place those individuals in California’s largest state income tax bracket — at 9.3% — which applies to single filers who earn between $61,215 and $312,686 per year, or married couples filing jointly with an annual income of $122,429 to $625,372.
If you earned $137,000 last year in California, your estimated state income tax for 2023 would be $9,896, according to the SmartAsset tax calculator. And if you reduced your taxable income by maxing out your 401(k) contribution at $22,500 (the 2023 total) and your IRA contribution at $7500 (for those aged 50 and older), your estimated state income tax would be around $6,827.
That’s on top of federal income tax — which, with a household income of $137,000 would be around 22-24% — plus property taxes of around 0.71% and sales tax of at least 7.25%. That’s a lot of tax to pay each year — and it has stung Californians even more in the wake of COVID-19, when the nation has battled inflation and housing costs have soared to record highs.
If not California, then where?
Several hotspots for fleeing Californians are Texas, Florida, Arizona, Tennessee and Nevada. What ties these states together? They are all very tax friendly.
Texas and Florida experienced the highest population growth in 2023, according to Census data, with gains of 473,453 people and 365,205 people, respectively. Both states have no personal income tax — which could help wealthy individuals save thousands of dollars each year.
These tax-friendly states are particularly attractive to retirees, who don’t want to lose a sizable cut of their retirement benefits to the taxman.
If you’re considering moving states because you’re tired of paying high income taxes, it’s important to remember that personal income tax rates only tell part of the tax story.
You have to consider each individual state’s personal income tax brackets and the available deductions, exemptions and credits. Also remember that property and sales taxes can impact a state’s affordability.
For example, while Texas — the most popular destination for Californians — has no state income tax, it has one of the highest effective property tax rates in the country, at 1.68%. In a similar vein, tax-friendly Tennessee has the highest sales tax in the country, at 9.548%.
Of course, it is not just tax rates causing Californians to leave the Golden State, but that is a major factor — and it may end up hurting those who choose to stay, if the state’s economy suffers as a result.
By Steven Camarota and Karen Zeigler, December 19, 2023
Excerpt: Analysis of this data shows both immigrants and the U.S.-born make extensive use of means-tested anti-poverty programs, with immigrant households significantly more likely to receive benefits. This is primarily because the American welfare system is designed in large part to help low-income families with children, which describes a large share of immigrants.
More than 7-in-10 households headed by immigrants in the state of California are on taxpayer-funded welfare, a new study reveals.
The latest Census Bureau data analyzed by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) finds that about 72 percent of households headed by noncitizens and immigrants use one or more forms of taxpayer-funded welfare programs in California — the number one immigrant-receiving state in the U.S.
Governor Gavin Newsom and California Democrats are actively advancing a bill, initially proposed by Democratic Assemblyman David Alvarez, which offers discounted college tuition to Mexican citizens.
Alvarez asserts that this legislation, now signed into law by Newsom, has the potential to “unlock a significant untapped resource.”
Alvarez said, “We live in a dynamic border region where we need to educate more students to fill the jobs required for growth. This bill will allow low-income residents who live close to the border to attend local community colleges.” (Trending: Major Women’s Race Won By Two Men)
“The law will create a 5-year pilot program that allows students who live in Mexico and within 45 miles of the California border an exemption from out-of-state tuition rates.”
“This pilot program can unlock a significant untapped resource to prepare a more diverse population among our workforce,” Alvarez added.
Alvarez said, “There are students who might actually be U.S. citizens but happen to be living in the Baja region because of the cost of living, So there are some students who find themselves in that situation who don’t have a California residence because families can’t afford to live here.”
Dr. Mark Sanchez, Superintendent/President of Southwestern College in Chula Vista, CA said, “This is a transformational bill for the realities of our region. By expanding affordable access to our region’s community colleges, our binational students will be better equipped to enter our workforce and be a part of this thriving binational economy.” (Trending: Ilhan Omar Caught In Major Lie)
Bill Wells the mayor of El Cajon, said, “27% of the people that live in my town are Hispanic, and they’re asking me to make sure that we have low crime and good parks and safe streets. They don’t want me to be giving in-state tuition to people that live in other countries, foreign nationals, whether they be from Mexico or Ireland… people want us to be taking care of their kids and their community.”
“It’s really just kind of nibbling around the edges of the whole concept that borders just don’t matter, that we should just open up the borders and let anybody do whatever they want,” he added.
“Where does it end? Do we give unemployment benefits to people that don’t live in the country? Do we give unemployment benefits to people that aren’t even citizens? Do we give a free attorney to somebody that we give health care to people that aren’t citizens?”
Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman scolded the Wall Street Journal for cheerleading an open-border immigration policy. "It's just obvious you can't have free immigration and a welfare state," he warned.
This leads to a “transfer state,” as the Heritage Foundation describes, the government taxing the upper and middle classes, transferring money to lower economic classes via subsidies and benefits.
In other words, “The transfer state redistributes funds from those with high-skill and high-income levels to those with lower skill levels.”
Heritage makes the assumption, “It takes the entire net tax payments (taxes paid minus benefits received) of one college-educated family to pay for the net benefits received by one low-skill immigrant family.”
What happens when that ratio changes to one financially sound family supporting not one, but two, three, or more families through ever-increasing taxes and families to support?
Which is why a welfare state in an open-borders country will eventually reaching a tipping point. Are we already there?
As reported by Fox News’s Griff Jenkins, “Encounters with illegal immigrants at the southern border have topped over 300,000 in December.” Do the math. That’s 3.6 million per year, more than the population of every U.S. city except Los Angeles and New York.
How many migrants are not encountered? Those are called “gotaways” and Border Patrol estimates 1,000 per day, or 365,000 per year. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas acknowledges, “600,000 illegal ‘gotaways’ crossed border in 2023, calls immigration system broken.”
These are estimates. But the real number is unknowable. Let’s say a million gotaways a year, making the total 4.6 million migrants a year, more than the population of L.A. added to America each and every year.
As most migrants are unskilled, unable to speak English, many illiterate and unemployable, they are by necessity, supported by American taxpayers for food, shelter, education, travel, health care, and clothing.
What does that cost? “NYC’s daily per-person cost to house migrants climbs to nearly $400.” What about health care? California plans to provide free health care insurance to all illegal migrants, at an annual cost of about $4,000 for each adult.
According to Judicial Watch the “Net cost of illegal immigration is greater than the annual gross domestic product (GDP) of 15 different states.”
Clearly this is not sustainable. U.S. national debt recently topped $34 trillion. With the current interest rate on the debt at about 3 percent, interest on the debt is more than $1 trillion per year. Interest alone consumes about a quarter of the $4.4 trillion in annual federal receipts, more than defense spending.
We will be borrowing money to pay the interest on previously borrowed money. Economist Herbert Stein observed, “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop“.
The something is America as we know it.
There is no interest in securing our national border. In a hyper-partisan Washington, D.C., this is one of few examples where Republicans and Democrats actually agree.
Democrats want new voters. Their policies and leaders are not so popular these days. Some 63 percent of likely U.S. voters think the U.S. is heading in the wrong direction, according to Rasmussen Reports. Only 24 percent of voters strongly approve of the job President Biden is doing.
Creating a new dependency class of tens of millions of potential voters serves Democrat electoral interests. Republicans don’t mind ceding power to the Democrats as long as their wallets are thick with cash.
Open borders provide cheap labor for the Chamber of Commerce Republican establishment. GOP lawmakers are rewarded with generous campaign contributions and other financial perks in exchange for looking the other way from an open border.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson visited the U.S.-Mexican border with a gaggle of Republicans, huffing and puffing about what a “catastrophe” exists at the border. So what? Lots of talk but no action.
Going back to his predecessor Paul Ryan, Republicans have fought Trump on building a border wall and applied no pressure on Biden to secure the border. They could defund any responsible agencies including Homeland Security and Customs and Border Enforcement until the border was secure,
They will probably vote to reward DHS with a new building, rather than holding them accountable, as they did with the weaponized and corrupt FBI. The DHS secretary, rather than securing the homeland per his job description, blames climate change rather than his inaction and incompetence.
The power of the purse and impeachment are unknown or enigmatic concepts to Congressional Republicans. Instead, the Republican Speaker is “advocating” for solutions. What a tough guy he is.
Financial ramifications are a fraction of the problem. What about the fact that there are millions of young, military aged men, from all over the world, including countries not friendly to U.S. interests, unvetted, with unknown backgrounds or intentions, now in this country?
How many are, as Trump would describe, “bad hombres”? Intent on crime or terrorism? The number of Chinese migrants crossing into America has risen dramatically.
If 4 million to 5 million migrants come to America each year, and 10 percent are troublemakers, that’s 450,000, the same size as the active duty U.S. Army.
Our enemies would not need to attack us from the outside, their militaries may already be embedded in America.
Is this migration? Or an invasion? And why is it being allowed, facilitated, and encouraged?
Rasmussen Reports ran a poll on X where 93 percent of respondents agreed that, “The current situation with migrants at the border with Mexico is an ‘invasion’ of the United States.”
On President Biden's inaugural day, he introduced policies that incentivize illegal immigration:
• Paused Deportations
• Suspended "Remain in Mexico"
• Stopped Border Wall Construction
This surge in illegal immigration is a national security crisis, costing American taxpayers hundreds of billions per year. Major U.S. cities, grappling with the escalating financial burden, are slashing budgets for essential services such as fire, police, sanitation, and education. President Biden holds the power to halt this crisis that is draining America's resources.
This was no accident. Elon Musk correctly observed, “At this point, there is no question that this administration is actively facilitating illegal immigration.”
There’s more trouble besides an open border. Energy costs are up, and we are no longer energy-independent. America is fighting two proxy wars, in Ukraine against Russia, and in Israel against Iran. North Korea, China, and Taiwan are on deck.
Inflation has devastated middle class families. Homes are unaffordable. Personal and national debts are unsustainable. And finally, the cultural wars have destroyed Americans’ minds and sensibilities.
This deliberate effort to destroy America has a name. It’s the Cloward-Piven strategy, named after two communist sociology professors at Columbia University,
The four steps of the Cloward-Piven Strategy:
1. Overload and Break the Welfare System
2. Have Chaos Ensue
3. Take Control in the Chaos
4. Implement Socialism and Communism through Government Force
Number 1 is currently ushering in number 2. Number 3 will be determined next November. Donald Trump is the only hope to break the sequence. Another term of the architect Barack Obama, via Joe Biden, Gavin Newsom, or Michelle Obama, will guarantee number 3 and 4, and then it’s lights out for the America of the past 250 years.
Closing our border and enforcing existing immigration law would be a good place to start. Continuing on our current path is the “fundamental change” that Obama promised, and goodbye to America as we know it.
So handing Joe $14 billion to secure the border, is in fact handing him $14 billion to open the border. That's seven times what President Trump asked for for the construction of a border wall, which actually would have secured the border
Pres. Biden’s open-border policies – not climate change – are to blame for the record illegal immigration into the U.S., Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday, responding to DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas’ claim that climate change is a “root cause” of illegal immigration.
Sec. Mayorkas made the claim earlier in the day during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” while attacking Gov. Abbott for sending some of the illegal aliens who’ve broken into his state to Democrat-run, self-proclaimed “sanctuary cities” that claim to want them.
"The only climate that's changed is the refusal to enforce the immigration laws of the United States,” Gov. Abbott told Fox News Channel Host Sean Hannity. “You saw what happened four years ago when we had the lowest illegal immigration in 40 years,” Abbott added, citing border security policies instituted by former Pres. Donald Trump - which Pres. Biden immediately began reversing on his first day in office.
Biden should focus on securing the border and stop taking legal action against Texas’ efforts to secure its border, the governor wrote in a social media post:
“Mayorkas blames climate change for illegal immigration, not Joe Biden's open border policies. Biden is now suing Texas AGAIN for stepping up to stop illegal immigration. Time for the Biden Administration to stop the lawsuits and start to enforce federal immigration laws.”
“Climate change? Mayorkas is pathetic. The REAL reason illegal immigration records are being set is because Biden refuses to enforce immigration laws,” wrote in another post, vowing that Biden won't stop him from keeping Texans safe:
“We will send more buses and planes. We will continue building the razor wire walls that Biden wants to tear down.”
Sen. John Kennedy: Two Reasons Pres. Biden Is ‘As Popular as Herpes’ in Louisiana
There are two reasons that “Pres. Biden is about as popular as herpes” in his state, Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said in a Fox News Channel interview this week.
Sen. Kennedy was commenting on the Biden Administration’s discussions with Mexico about how to grant amnesty to the illegal aliens flooding into the U.S.:
“In Louisiana, Pres. Biden is about as popular as herpes. Why is that? 2 reasons:
“Number One: the people of Louisiana are not stupid.
“Number Two: They think the Biden admin is. They think that its stupidity runs from the river to the sea.”
“Exhibit A is the open border: Pres. Biden has dissolved the southern border,” Kennedy explained:
Our problems at the southern border are man-made – and that man’s name is Joe Biden. And, the people of Louisiana and the American people know it. Yet, he blames the media for his unpopularity. It’s hard to believe that the president could be that obtuse.
“There will not be a supplemental appropriations bill passed unless we take steps to secure the border,” the senator promised.
Kennedy then listed how “We could secure the border in six weeks, if we just did five things.”
Mayorkas’ DHS Claims 2.3 Million Illegal Migrants, but Hides Millions More
A report by the Department of Homeland Security says the agency has released 2.3 million migrants into the United States up to September 2023.
However, the report hides the entry or stay of at least three million additional illegal migrants via various other routes during President Joe Biden’s three years.
Overall, the multiple routes delivered an increase of at least five million illegal migrants — or roughly one migrant for every two American infants born during Biden’s presidency.
The report was leaked and then posted late Saturday by the Washington Post, whose editors picked a stark headline, “U.S. released more than 2.3 million migrants at border since 2021, data show.”
That headline — although understated — is an extraordinarily dramatic description of the huge migrant numbers admitted by Biden’s pro-migration border chief, Alejandro Mayorkas.
It is also shocking because the true numbers have been successfully hidden by the established media from ordinary Americans for many years.
The report says the 2023 inflow includes 370,191 people allowed in via the “parole” loophole, 909,450 people allowed while officials begin multi-year deportation proceedings, and 118,100 child migrants who are sheltered by the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Post‘s article about the DHS report — “Immigration Enforcement and Legal Processes Monthly Tables” — revealed long-secret deportation numbers: “The DHS data … show more than 4 million border-crossers have been expelled to Mexico, returned to home countries or otherwise removed from the United States over the past three years.”
But the Post‘s reporters also showed the headline claim of 2.3 million admitted migrants is understated because millions of additional migrants sneaked in via other routes and times.
For example, in the 17th paragraph of their article, they noted:
The 2.3 million releases by CBP do not include the roughly 365,000 unaccompanied minors encountered by the agency since 2021 who were transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services.
The vast majority of the “unaccompanied minors” are older teenagers seeking jobs in the United States, often in labor-trafficking networks that pay for their migration through Mayorkas’ border.
In the 27th and last paragraph, the Post’s reporters noted:
The report does not include estimates for the number of border-crossers who were detected by CBP but not taken into custody, a category the agency refers to as “gotaways.” CBP detected about 600,000 gotaways in 2022 and 389,000 in 2021, according to a May 2023 report by DHS’s Office of Inspector General.
Those two inflows — teenage workers and 2021-2023 “gotaways” — added roughly 2 million migrants to the official count of 2.3 million, yielding a total of roughly 4.3 million.
The DHS report only includes data up to September 2023. Since then, roughly 900,000 additional migrants have crossed the U.S. border in October, November, and December. If half were deported, then an additional 450,000 migrants should be added to the inflow numbers.
However, the official report — and the Washington Post article — also ignored Mayorkas’ decision to minimize deportations from the country’s interior, and his massive increase in “overstay” legal visitors who stay in the United States when their visas expire.
For example, under Trump, DHS deported roughly 500,000 illegals in 2018 and 2019, according to federal data. But Mayorkas has only deported about 250,000 people in three years — leaving roughly 500,000 additional migrants in the United States.
RELATED: Houston Driver Smuggling Illegal Immigrants Attempts to Run Away from Texas DPS, FAILS
Texas Department of Public Safety
Government officials do not closely track the number of illegals who overstay their visas to take U.S. jobs. But there is much evidence that many foreigners — especially Indians — arrive legally carrying B-1/B-2visitorvisas or F-1 student visas while intending to illegally work in jobs that would otherwise go to better-paid Americans.
In June 2023, Mayorkas’ DHS released its annual visa overstay report for Fiscal Year 2022, revealing that an estimated 795,000 visitors remained long after their visas expired. The number is up by 313,000 from the 482,000 overstays in 2015.
The overstay number does not include the B-1/B-2 visitors who illegally work but return home before their visa expires.
Mayorkas’ s 500,000 not-deported migrants and his additional 313,000 overstays were not mentioned in the new report. But if those numbers are added, then Mayorkas’s stock of new illegal migrants jumps from 4.3 million to 5 million.
Moreover, Mayorkas and the Department of State have tried to raise the legal inflow of foreign contract workers via the H-1B, L-1, J-1, TN, H4EAD, F-1/OPT, H-2A, and H-2B programs. Those visa worker programs keep a population of roughly 500,000 migrants in agricultural and blue-collar jobs — and keep roughly 1.5 million foreign graduates in U.S. white-collar jobs that would otherwise go to better-paid American professionals.
Legal immigration inflows add another 1 million migrants each year.
The administration’s deliberate decision to sneak mass illegal migration into Americans’ society has smashed public support for migration — and is giving former President Donald Trump a huge boost in his 2024 race.
A YouGov poll conducted from December 31 to January 2, for example, showed that 54 percent of U.S. adults believe the migration issue is “very important.”
The DHS report is difficult to read, partly because the data is hidden in database tabs rather than in conventional charts or columns.
RELATED: OPERATION LONESTAR FOOTAGE Shows Texas DPS Clearing Brush and Erecting Barbed-Wire to Deter Illegals
Texas Department of Public Safety / YouTube
But the report includes many additional revelations. In 2019, for example, Trump’s border officers accepted 12,000 irregular arrivals of illegals at airports. But Biden’s airport inflow spiked to 350,000 in 2023.
Many Mexicans are trying to migrate into the United States, despite Mexico’s elections and economic growth. The report cites the arrival of 2.1 million Mexican migrants at U.S. borders in 2021, 2022, and 2023.
The vast majority were sent home in 2021 and 2022. But more than 130,000 Mexicans were allowed to enter the United States in 2023 as Mayorkas negotiated migration-management deals with Mexico.
So handing Joe $14 billion to secure the border, is in fact handing him $14 billion to open the border. That's seven times what President Trump asked for for the construction of a border wall, which actually would have secured the border
Americans Donate $55 Million to Fund Texas Gov. Abbott’s Border Wall, Half-Million to Transport Migrants to Other States
Americans have donated more than $55 million dollars to Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s “Operation Lone Star” to help fund construction of a border wall in his state, which is being overwhelmed by illegal immigration.
In April 2022, Governor Abbott directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to begin the voluntary transportation of migrants to sanctuary cities.
Over 12,500 migrants to Washington, D.C. since April 2022
Over 31,200 migrants to New York City since August 2022
Over 25,300 migrants to Chicago since August 2022
Over 3,400 migrants to Philadelphia since November 2022
Over 11,800 migrants to Denver since May 18
Over 1,200 migrants to Los Angeles since June 14
But, now that self-proclaimed sanctuary cities like Chicago have started passing measures to keep out the buses of illegal migrants they claim to welcome, Texas has turned to air transportation, Gov. Abbott reported earlier this month:
“Sanctuary city Chicago started obstructing and targeting our busing mission. Texas will now expand our operation to include flights to Chicago. Until Biden steps up to secure the border, we will continue to provide overwhelmed Texas border towns with much-needed relief.”
Texas' first migrant flight departed El Paso on Tuesday, December 19 and arrived in Chicago that evening with over 120 migrants.
Pres. Biden’s open-border policies – not climate change – are to blame for the record illegal immigration into the U.S., Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday, responding to DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas’ claim that climate change is a “root cause” of illegal immigration.
Sec. Mayorkas made the claim earlier in the day during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” while attacking Gov. Abbott for sending some of the illegal aliens who’ve broken into his state to Democrat-run, self-proclaimed “sanctuary cities” that claim to want them.
"The only climate that's changed is the refusal to enforce the immigration laws of the United States,” Gov. Abbott told Fox News Channel Host Sean Hannity. “You saw what happened four years ago when we had the lowest illegal immigration in 40 years,” Abbott added, citing border security policies instituted by former Pres. Donald Trump - which Pres. Biden immediately began reversing on his first day in office.
Biden should focus on securing the border and stop taking legal action against Texas’ efforts to secure its border, the governor wrote in a social media post:
“Mayorkas blames climate change for illegal immigration, not Joe Biden's open border policies. Biden is now suing Texas AGAIN for stepping up to stop illegal immigration. Time for the Biden Administration to stop the lawsuits and start to enforce federal immigration laws.”
“Climate change? Mayorkas is pathetic. The REAL reason illegal immigration records are being set is because Biden refuses to enforce immigration laws,” wrote in another post, vowing that Biden won't stop him from keeping Texans safe:
“We will send more buses and planes. We will continue building the razor wire walls that Biden wants to tear down.”
Karine Jean-Pierre: ‘Unfortunate’ GOP Focusing on Biden Family Instead of the American Family
Biden wants Mexican help to stop the migrant surge. Here's what Mexico wants in return.
The Biden administration is increasingly leaning on Mexico to curb the record flow of migrants crossing into the U.S., but Mexico has its own lists of ambitious asks for the U.S., say officials from both governments familiar with the discussions.
In a press conference on Friday,López Obrador called on the U.S. to approve a plan that would deploy $20 billion to Latin American and Caribbean countries, suspend the U.S. blockade of Cuba, remove all sanctions against Venezuela and grant at least 10 million Hispanics living in the U.S. the right to remain and work legally.
All of those are extremely tall demands of an administration headed into a re-election campaign that may hinge on how firmly Biden is able to get control of the southern U.S. border, which saw a record 300,000 migrants processed by Customs and Border Protection in December.
Responding to those requests, a senior Biden administration official told NBC News that AMLO, as López Obrador is commonly called, “has a very ambitious agenda. For some of these things, we would need Congress to act. We share the vision that we need to lift up the region.”
The two countries are expected to continue talks in Washington later this month. Mexico brings significant leverage to the negotiations, the U.S. and Mexican officials said. López Obrador’s administration would prefer that President Joe Biden win re-election in November, given Donald Trump’s rhetoric and actions during his time in office. But Biden is quickly running out of options to fix a problem that is driving down his poll numbers without increased support from Mexico, three U.S. officials told NBC News.
On Capitol Hill, negotiations over border security measures between Republicans and Democrats continue into their second month with no clear breakthrough. And new asylum policies introduced by the Biden administration in May failed to deter migrants, as evidenced by the record surge.
To bring the numbers down, the Biden administration needs Mexico to let it push more non-Mexican immigrants back across the U.S. southern border, as the U.S. was able to do through early 2023.
During the Covid pandemic, the Trump and Biden administrations used a public health order known as Title 42 to push migrants back into Mexico without an asylum screening. During that policy, which ended in May, Mexico took back migrants over 1 million times each year for three years. Under current policies, Mexico has agreed to take back 30,000 migrants per month, but that is only 10% of December’s tally.
Immigrants waiting to be processed at a US Border Patrol transit center, after crossing the border from Mexico at Eagle Pass, Texas on Dec. 22, 2023. (Chandan Khanna / AFP via Getty Images)
U.S. negotiators also want Mexico to step up enforcement on its southern border with Guatemala and deport more migrants who are apprehended within the country.
Mexico is willing to help the U.S. by increasing enforcement, one Mexican official told NBC News, though no numbers have been discussed so far. Mexico and the U.S. recently resumed deportation flights of Venezuelans, one of the top one or two nationalities now trying to cross into the U.S.
The senior administration official told NBC News that although there have been few flights so far, both countries expect to increase deportations to Venezuela this year. According to ICE flight data, there were 11 total deportation flights from the U.S. to Venezuela in 2023, but now there is one per week scheduled. Mexico said it restarted deportations to Venezuela on Dec. 30.
In return for its cooperation, the officials said, Mexico wants more financial aid for policing its borders. But Mexican officials said Mexico also wants the U.S. to show good faith about addressing the root causes of migration by investing more in programs to help Central and South American countries escape poverty. In many ways, Mexico sees itself as a byway country caught in the middle of a U.S. problem as most migrants are U.S.-bound, the senior administration official said.
The López Obrador administration did not respond to a request for comment.
While Title 42 was in effect, many shelters in northern Mexican cities like Juárez, Tijuana and Reynosa became overwhelmed with migrants, and many of them were forced onto the streets, where they were subjected to torture, extortion, rape and kidnapping. The legacy of Title 42 as well as Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, which forced asylum-seekers to wait in camps in northern Mexico, left Mexico with depleted resources and an aversion to taking in more migrants than its cities can handle.
Migration began to grow after the lifting of Title 42, and by late 2023, Mexico’s version of U.S. Border Patrol, the National Institute of Migration, was running out of funds for enforcement.
The issue of immigration now looms so large between the U.S. and Mexico, said the officials, that talks about fentanyl smuggling, another priority, have been all but sidelined for the moment.
This article was originally published onNBCNews.com
No comments:
Post a Comment