David, this was one of those essays you don’t just read…nah ..you sit with it. Line by line, quote by quote, I could hear the scaffolding of a whole political myth unraveling. And that’s what made it powerful: not just the facts, but the way David slow walked us through the lie until it collapsed under its own weight.
The line that hit me hardest was this: “To uproot them summarily is an act of profound inhumanity, a betrayal of the values we claim to hold dear.” That sentence alone should be framed and mailed to every policymaker clinging to cruelty as strategy.
But it wasn’t just a moral appeal no it was a numbers game too. The part that laid out how undocumented immigrants “pay billions in taxes” and how mass deportations would cost “hundreds of billions over a decade”? That’s the kind of empirical gut-check we need in every debate moving forward. Because you can’t say “fiscal conservative” with a straight face while proposing “the largest forced migration in modern history.”
And I appreciate that you didn’t stop at policy..nope…you named the emotional trick. “It’s easier to demonize an ‘other’ than confront complex societal issues.” Facts are great. But calling out the emotional bait is what cuts through. That’s the kind of framing I’m always chasing in my own work too.
If you’re someone who reads all the way to the end of pieces like this, you might like what I’m exploring on my page. (Just click the name.) But either way David, this one mattered. This is why we’re here.
Project 2025’s main objective is to destroy America. I’m surprised that Putin didn’t write a glowing forward. I’m sure he at least got to sign off on the final draft.
No David. Why are you a discounting the heritage foundation and project 2025? Their whole plan is to whitewash America and to have white girls giving birth and only white girls. Let’s call this out for the racism and white supremacy that it is. You are trying to use logic and that does not apply in our current fascist society.
Phenomenal piece of writing. I am saddened to read comments by people who either didn't read your full intelligent essay on this or who want to bring up issues that don't apply to the point you are trying to make. The problem is not the undocumented immigrants who are already here but the system in our government that makes it almost impossible to assimilate them legally into our society. Rather than deporting migrants, removing immigrants from their families in a heinous and immorally cruel manner, instilling fear in decent people and destroying our economy along the way, resources should be used to make the path to citizenship quicker and easier. Instead of hiring ICE agents, there should be more immigration agents, administrative personnel, lawyers and judges put into place throughout our country. It's the corporations and businesses hiring undocumented immigrants that should have to pay the price. They want cheap labor but don't want to pay the price to fix the system. Unfortunately, this approach is going to make things worse for everybody including the businesses who are losing their labor force and for those of us who buy their goods. None of this will end well for our country.
Thanks so much for this accessible article, David! I teach a writing course with a focus on racial myths, controls, and classification in the U.S. This could be an excellent new reading assignment for the topic called Facts and Fakes about Immigration.
This is very intelligently written, but sadly, the people who should be reading this will never see it. While all of us agree with it, it won't change anything. And the most important person who should see is it Trump. I am so depressed with all of it.
As a tourist in Mexico City in 2000 I had the same driver all week. The taxi he drove belonged to someone else. He got one day a year off -- Christmas -- and it was unpaid. He work when he was sick. He never missed a day. He knew that he would keep this schedule until the day he died. Is it any wonder that the United States looms as a place of hope? I just wished that I could have given Victor a taxi of his own. My receipts: I have a Masters degree in Spanish; I taught it. I love Mexico.
If trump could read, when he reads this he’d just yell, “Fake news!” Millions would believe him - hating minorities is in their DNA. They believe trump because they WANT to!
David thoughtful and well written however there were severe costs to all US citizens on the immigrant wave under Biden. As you know, we in Massachusetts were swamped with over 5,000 plus families seeking asylum alone. People sleeping in the airport flocking to Boston as a sanctuary city. Our governor had to seek an emergency $2 Billion dollars in shelter aid for these people. It’s been disastrous for the state but no gov official here wants to talk about that fact. So the costs were born by the MA taxpayers. And some of the costs are continuing. You do not address this fact. In this case, under Biden’s mismanagement he burdened us with huge costs. We received no help from the Feds. Biden should have closed entry to the US to relieve the onslaught but he did nothing. Same thing happened in NYC and other cities. And we wonder why Trump won? Of course Trump goes too far but people wanted action and Trump certainly delivered on that.
David, you fail to acknowledge that the current administration doesn’t hate all immigrants, just immigrants of color. White South Africans were invited to “seek refuge” in the United States to escape the fear of death in their native homeland. Problem is, there is zero evidence of discrimination or maltreatment on whites in South Africa. You also fail to identify the underlying reason for the current administration’s hatred of people of color, RACISM. Trump’s father was a Nazi and racist. Cohen, the family’s long time attorney who “tutored” DJ was also a Nazi and racist, as well as the attorney for New York’s mob bosses. Fine role models indeed, who instilled in DJ an early and long standing hatred and disrespect for the law. The Republican uniform not long ago was bed sheets and hoods, now it is the much flashier red tie and suits.
I find myself conflicted. As I think many moderate liberals find themselves.
I agree with David and others touting the benefits of having a burgeoning immigrant population and sensible immigration policy, that promotes and protects that population. I also believe that, as a sovereign nation, the U.S. has the right and obligation to secure its borders.
I myself emigrated from the U.S., back in 2017. I know and accept that there are pathways to immigration to most countries, and that these pathways have rules and requirements that govern the ability to immigrate to these countries, which take considerable time, expense and effort to accomplish this move. It wasn’t just a matter of thinking I deserve to be accepted and move to a foreign land, of which I was not a citizen, with the expectation that I could flout any local rules and laws.
So, I see no problem with having rules and laws governing this aspect of societal infrastructure.
While I revile and am disgusted with the methods of Trump’s enforcement policies, I also see, if the current administration is to be believed, that illegal border crossings have been slowed to insignificant numbers.
Congress has, for decades, refused to legislate sensible immigration policy, because the divisiveness of the issue might jeopardize their political existence. That cowardice has, by default, left immigration policy in the hands of the executive, which took the country on a roller coaster ride, with each change of party in the White House. Now, with an authoritarian in charge, we suffer the extremes of his policies.
The U.S. is at an existential crossroad. I seriously doubt it will survive the next election because the next election will not be “free and fair”. Trump’s ability to avoid incarceration for his crimes, depends on him and the MAGA movement retaining power past the 2026 and 2028 elections.
Democrats need to moderate, and vocally reject the extreme left positions that the right seizes upon, blows out of proportion, and causes rifts in our own caucus. Unless they can attract the moderate conservatives to reject the extremes of the right, and join a moderate progressive movement, the extreme right will succeed and a permanent takeover will occur.
David, this was one of those essays you don’t just read…nah ..you sit with it. Line by line, quote by quote, I could hear the scaffolding of a whole political myth unraveling. And that’s what made it powerful: not just the facts, but the way David slow walked us through the lie until it collapsed under its own weight.
The line that hit me hardest was this: “To uproot them summarily is an act of profound inhumanity, a betrayal of the values we claim to hold dear.” That sentence alone should be framed and mailed to every policymaker clinging to cruelty as strategy.
But it wasn’t just a moral appeal no it was a numbers game too. The part that laid out how undocumented immigrants “pay billions in taxes” and how mass deportations would cost “hundreds of billions over a decade”? That’s the kind of empirical gut-check we need in every debate moving forward. Because you can’t say “fiscal conservative” with a straight face while proposing “the largest forced migration in modern history.”
And I appreciate that you didn’t stop at policy..nope…you named the emotional trick. “It’s easier to demonize an ‘other’ than confront complex societal issues.” Facts are great. But calling out the emotional bait is what cuts through. That’s the kind of framing I’m always chasing in my own work too.
If you’re someone who reads all the way to the end of pieces like this, you might like what I’m exploring on my page. (Just click the name.) But either way David, this one mattered. This is why we’re here.
I absolutely agree with your view and observation of David’s article. It was one I HAD to read to the end will save and share.
Project 2025’s main objective is to destroy America. I’m surprised that Putin didn’t write a glowing forward. I’m sure he at least got to sign off on the final draft.
No David. Why are you a discounting the heritage foundation and project 2025? Their whole plan is to whitewash America and to have white girls giving birth and only white girls. Let’s call this out for the racism and white supremacy that it is. You are trying to use logic and that does not apply in our current fascist society.
Phenomenal piece of writing. I am saddened to read comments by people who either didn't read your full intelligent essay on this or who want to bring up issues that don't apply to the point you are trying to make. The problem is not the undocumented immigrants who are already here but the system in our government that makes it almost impossible to assimilate them legally into our society. Rather than deporting migrants, removing immigrants from their families in a heinous and immorally cruel manner, instilling fear in decent people and destroying our economy along the way, resources should be used to make the path to citizenship quicker and easier. Instead of hiring ICE agents, there should be more immigration agents, administrative personnel, lawyers and judges put into place throughout our country. It's the corporations and businesses hiring undocumented immigrants that should have to pay the price. They want cheap labor but don't want to pay the price to fix the system. Unfortunately, this approach is going to make things worse for everybody including the businesses who are losing their labor force and for those of us who buy their goods. None of this will end well for our country.
Thanks so much for this accessible article, David! I teach a writing course with a focus on racial myths, controls, and classification in the U.S. This could be an excellent new reading assignment for the topic called Facts and Fakes about Immigration.
Project 2025, the Heritage foundation, they expect women to only be good for reproductive needs, white women that is.
Lies always unravel.
This is very intelligently written, but sadly, the people who should be reading this will never see it. While all of us agree with it, it won't change anything. And the most important person who should see is it Trump. I am so depressed with all of it.
As a tourist in Mexico City in 2000 I had the same driver all week. The taxi he drove belonged to someone else. He got one day a year off -- Christmas -- and it was unpaid. He work when he was sick. He never missed a day. He knew that he would keep this schedule until the day he died. Is it any wonder that the United States looms as a place of hope? I just wished that I could have given Victor a taxi of his own. My receipts: I have a Masters degree in Spanish; I taught it. I love Mexico.
Dumpf and his regime are a bunch of liars, racists and lovers of violence.
They are all rich, white folk.
Immigration protest pics from the weekend https://thistleandmoss.com/p/protest-signs-from-an-august-2nd
If trump could read, when he reads this he’d just yell, “Fake news!” Millions would believe him - hating minorities is in their DNA. They believe trump because they WANT to!
David thoughtful and well written however there were severe costs to all US citizens on the immigrant wave under Biden. As you know, we in Massachusetts were swamped with over 5,000 plus families seeking asylum alone. People sleeping in the airport flocking to Boston as a sanctuary city. Our governor had to seek an emergency $2 Billion dollars in shelter aid for these people. It’s been disastrous for the state but no gov official here wants to talk about that fact. So the costs were born by the MA taxpayers. And some of the costs are continuing. You do not address this fact. In this case, under Biden’s mismanagement he burdened us with huge costs. We received no help from the Feds. Biden should have closed entry to the US to relieve the onslaught but he did nothing. Same thing happened in NYC and other cities. And we wonder why Trump won? Of course Trump goes too far but people wanted action and Trump certainly delivered on that.
David, you fail to acknowledge that the current administration doesn’t hate all immigrants, just immigrants of color. White South Africans were invited to “seek refuge” in the United States to escape the fear of death in their native homeland. Problem is, there is zero evidence of discrimination or maltreatment on whites in South Africa. You also fail to identify the underlying reason for the current administration’s hatred of people of color, RACISM. Trump’s father was a Nazi and racist. Cohen, the family’s long time attorney who “tutored” DJ was also a Nazi and racist, as well as the attorney for New York’s mob bosses. Fine role models indeed, who instilled in DJ an early and long standing hatred and disrespect for the law. The Republican uniform not long ago was bed sheets and hoods, now it is the much flashier red tie and suits.
.. masterful 🧐👍😅.. no notes 😼😅
I find myself conflicted. As I think many moderate liberals find themselves.
I agree with David and others touting the benefits of having a burgeoning immigrant population and sensible immigration policy, that promotes and protects that population. I also believe that, as a sovereign nation, the U.S. has the right and obligation to secure its borders.
I myself emigrated from the U.S., back in 2017. I know and accept that there are pathways to immigration to most countries, and that these pathways have rules and requirements that govern the ability to immigrate to these countries, which take considerable time, expense and effort to accomplish this move. It wasn’t just a matter of thinking I deserve to be accepted and move to a foreign land, of which I was not a citizen, with the expectation that I could flout any local rules and laws.
So, I see no problem with having rules and laws governing this aspect of societal infrastructure.
While I revile and am disgusted with the methods of Trump’s enforcement policies, I also see, if the current administration is to be believed, that illegal border crossings have been slowed to insignificant numbers.
Congress has, for decades, refused to legislate sensible immigration policy, because the divisiveness of the issue might jeopardize their political existence. That cowardice has, by default, left immigration policy in the hands of the executive, which took the country on a roller coaster ride, with each change of party in the White House. Now, with an authoritarian in charge, we suffer the extremes of his policies.
The U.S. is at an existential crossroad. I seriously doubt it will survive the next election because the next election will not be “free and fair”. Trump’s ability to avoid incarceration for his crimes, depends on him and the MAGA movement retaining power past the 2026 and 2028 elections.
Democrats need to moderate, and vocally reject the extreme left positions that the right seizes upon, blows out of proportion, and causes rifts in our own caucus. Unless they can attract the moderate conservatives to reject the extremes of the right, and join a moderate progressive movement, the extreme right will succeed and a permanent takeover will occur.