[HN Gopher] ICE Deports 3 U.S. Citizen Children Held Incommunica...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       ICE Deports 3 U.S. Citizen Children Held Incommunicado Prior to the
       Deportation
        
       Author : mandmandam
       Score  : 657 points
       Date   : 2025-04-26 08:49 UTC (14 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.aclu.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.aclu.org)
        
       | clusterfook wrote:
       | <<Insert Rage>>
       | 
       | But for interesting HN discussion... anyone got any juice on why
       | this is happening. Is there orders going down the chain of
       | command from the president to do this sort of thing. Was this
       | behaviour always there but less reported before? Are they more
       | emboldened by the current environment?
        
         | ohgr wrote:
         | As my wise but now throughly dead German grandmother said:
         | 
         |  _"Do you think the nazis appeared out of thin air? No they
         | were everywhere just waiting for someone to enable them with a
         | label and an ideology."_
         | 
         | I suspect something analogous is happening here and it's
         | similarly not pretty. Hopefully it'll get nipped in the bud
         | quickly.
         | 
         | My fellow citizens scare me more than the government does.
        
           | surgical_fire wrote:
           | The interesting thing about this parallel, is that the "final
           | solution" in Germany was final because it was not the
           | original solution.
           | 
           | Originally they wanted to, well, deport the undesirables to
           | some far off country, initially to Madagascar if memory
           | serves.
           | 
           | Managing mass incarceration and deportation is a difficult
           | task however, and these people (both then and now) are not
           | exactly competent at anything beyond bravado.
           | 
           | Watching this unfolding from afar is interesting, because I
           | can do so with some healthy detachment. If I lived across the
           | pond I would be pretty desperate right now.
        
             | watwut wrote:
             | The end goal was world domination, as in owning whole
             | world. So, they would eventually come to Madagascar too.
             | 
             | Majority of Jews killed in Hocaust were not Germans. They
             | were from conquered countries.
             | 
             | So, while there was some Madagascar plans floating and
             | while they tried to deport as many German Jews (majority of
             | who were atheists, considered themselves Germans etc) in
             | first stages, they were aware there is going to be showdown
             | later on anyway.
        
             | afpx wrote:
             | Unfortunately, if this follows history, the safest thing to
             | do is to not do anything, blend in, and wait for external
             | help. Afaik, only a handful of Germans who resisted
             | survived. But, I don't see any help for us coming anytime
             | soon.
        
               | ohgr wrote:
               | I suspect it won't come. The US embedded itself in
               | everyone else's business and is now withdrawing so we all
               | have our own problems to deal with.
        
               | giraffe_lady wrote:
               | Then honor demands that we die. I think there are still
               | other outcomes possible but if that's how it is that's
               | how it is.
        
               | afpx wrote:
               | Yeah, there are some possibilities. For example, if a
               | strong resistance leader emerged. But, are there any good
               | candidates for that role? I can't think of any.
        
               | giraffe_lady wrote:
               | Things like this are stopped by movements, not individual
               | heroes. There are almost certainly organizations in your
               | area already working against this. No one is coming to
               | save us. But if anyone does it is the people who were
               | already trying to, bolstered by people like you who see
               | it now. Get in there.
        
               | afpx wrote:
               | (Edited based on comment below)
               | 
               | I recognize the optimism, but realistically, without a
               | strong and strategic leader, coordination will collapse
               | into disorganization and infighting. Historical examples
               | like Occupy Wall Street demonstrate that leaderless
               | movements tend to self-sabotage and generate instability
               | without achieving meaningful outcomes.
        
               | SinjonSuarez wrote:
               | While it may not have been your intention, the language
               | in a couple sentences of your reply doesn't leave much
               | room for a continued discussion.
               | 
               | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought-
               | terminating_cliche
        
               | afpx wrote:
               | Oops - I'll update.
        
               | Der_Einzige wrote:
               | The safest thing to do is GTFO before the masses rush to
               | do it. The breakdown of separation of powers in the
               | canary in the coal mine.
        
             | southernplaces7 wrote:
             | >Managing mass incarceration and deportation is a difficult
             | task however, and these people (both then and now) are not
             | exactly competent at anything beyond bravado.
             | 
             | The holocaust also required mass incarceration and
             | deportation, except that the huge undertaking of
             | deportation was towards death camps in occupied territories
             | instead of some foreign land. On the first point above, I
             | caution against thinking that it would be much easier; it
             | wasn't really, they just decided that they wanted to kill
             | the people they considered undesirable after all.
             | 
             | On the second point, it's worth noting that the efforts at
             | expulsion partly failed because many other countries,
             | despite knowing of the brutal repression being suffered by
             | the jews (and others but the jews in particular) decided to
             | stonewall most avenues of exit from Nazi domains.
             | Deportation would have still been terrible, but at least it
             | would have put millions of eventual victims outside the
             | reach of gas chambers and death squads. Such as it was, a
             | sort of tacit complicity of indifference didn't allow that
             | to happen, by others who weren't even necessarily
             | supporters of the Nazis.
             | 
             | In either case, be careful about calling evil people
             | practicing evil ends incompetent. In so many ways they were
             | very competent at far more than simple bravado, and
             | underestimating the capabilities of barbaric monsters is
             | always dangerous for future lessons.
        
               | surgical_fire wrote:
               | > be careful about calling evil people practicing evil
               | ends incompetent.
               | 
               | The Nazi were a mess, plagued with infighting, and
               | completely incapable of measuring the strength of their
               | opponents, which eventually led to their downfall.
               | 
               | Incompetent evil people can still do a lot of harm until
               | they screw up for good. This doesn't stop them being
               | incompetent.
        
               | southernplaces7 wrote:
               | >The Nazi were a mess, plagued with infighting, and
               | completely incapable of measuring the strength of their
               | opponents, which eventually led to their downfall.
               | 
               | no the Nazis weren't entirely a mess or completely
               | incompetent.
               | 
               | There was lots of infighting, partly deliberately
               | designed to be that way by Hitler's tactics for
               | organizing his own subordinate leadership levels, but
               | there was also a massive amount of military, industrial
               | and logistical competence and a robust amount of cohesion
               | and careful, powerful cooperation on fundamental aims.
               | 
               | Had there not been, the Nazi's never would have risen to
               | power so effectively, formed their dictatorship so
               | effectively or managed a colossal war against multiple
               | enemies for so many years so effectively, and only been
               | defeated at such a gargantuan cost in lives and
               | resources. The Nazis underestimated the military strength
               | of their enemies, but not nearly so badly as to not wage
               | very effective war and pose a very, very serious threat
               | to these enemies for several years.
               | 
               | I really suggest a book called "The Wages of Destruction:
               | the making and breaking of the Nazi Economy" by Adam
               | Tooze, as a nice basic primer on how wrong these ideas of
               | supposedly incompetent Nazis are.
               | 
               | The above is all deviating a bit from the topic at hand
               | but with this sidestep into a look at the Nazis, you're
               | working from a simplistic caricature view of a more
               | complex situation with complex evil people, and I fear
               | that this is also all too common when many critics today
               | view the Trump government. It's not staffed entirely by
               | caricaturesque evil idiots. Many of its supporters are
               | intelligent and cohesive in their guiding methodologies.
               | (Also, no, the above isn't to compare the bad actions of
               | Trump's government to the completely unrestrained
               | monstrosities of the Nazis. I'm comparing defects of
               | external analysis)
        
           | sitkack wrote:
           | I too have noticed the same language coming out of folks
           | here, folks that have had accounts for over 10 or 15 years.
           | They were always here, but now they emboldened and they are
           | doing their best to make sure that overton window stays very
           | very open on the right.
        
             | ohgr wrote:
             | I had a friend until recently. Really nice guy. Always
             | looking out for people. Never said a bad word. In the last
             | couple of years he turned into a nasty piece of work
             | jumping on every politicised story out there and treating
             | it as gospel. He alienated everyone around him.
             | 
             | It turns out that some people don't have a mind of their
             | own and are waiting for orders.
             | 
             | Here is no exception. Look at the foaming at the mouth
             | praise of the second coming of Microsoft when Satya took
             | over. And where we are now? Look at the hype as well -
             | blockchain, crypto and AI now. Mindless people slithering
             | all over everything.
             | 
             | In fact I find a lot of the people in the technology sector
             | to either be entirely morally bankrupt or lack any kind of
             | self or societal awareness of their speech of actions. It
             | disgusts me. I've been on HN pretty much since day one but
             | the accounts last perhaps 6 months before I tire of it.
             | 
             | I moved out of the tech-first industry about 10 years ago
             | and into a position of tech as a tool not a reason for a
             | business existing and there are better people here.
        
               | kentm wrote:
               | I've been in tech for about 2 decades now, and the
               | general culture has always been to disregard ethics and
               | social impact. How many times have we heard "We're just
               | building tools. Tools are apolitical and ethically
               | neutral, it's how you use them that matters!" It turns
               | out that is actually not the case.
               | 
               | Plus the insistence that we can cordon off an area of
               | life and designate it non political is incredibly common
               | but also pretty naive (and dare I say privileged).
               | 
               | That is to say, we in the tech industry often encourage
               | this sort of moral bankruptcy and like to pretend we're
               | above it all.
        
               | ohgr wrote:
               | I think a lot of that attitude is self-justification to
               | proceed as they intend without moral compass. Personally
               | I can't do that. Everything we do has a consequence.
               | 
               | I've got a copy of Careless People sitting in front of me
               | I'm scared to read at the moment.
        
               | kentm wrote:
               | "It is difficult to get a man to understand something
               | when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."
               | 
               | It's definitely a factor (perhaps the dominant factor)
               | and the easiest place to see it at play is on HN whenever
               | the adtech industry is being criticized.
        
           | stackskipton wrote:
           | Since we are quoting, I quote FDR: "Democracy has disappeared
           | in several other great nations--not because the people of
           | those nations disliked democracy, but because they had grown
           | tired of unemployment and insecurity, of seeing their
           | children hungry while they sat helpless in the face of
           | government confusion and government weakness through lack of
           | leadership in government."
           | 
           | True, we are not in bad shape like 1930s Germany or United
           | States but as neoliberalism rot has really set in, people
           | feel economically shaky, and government clearly is not
           | responsive to them. Combined with Social Media warping people
           | brain on what is "success" and "strong man" who will take
           | care of things is clearly appealing. Many of them can also be
           | turned around but it's going to take some doing.
        
         | elmerfud wrote:
         | Your last statement is correct. They are just emboldened by the
         | current political environment. Any law enforcement has a
         | problem where all they see is criminals all day everyday, now
         | we know they aren't always criminals, but that's their view
         | point. There should be sufficient checks and balances to ensure
         | that due process is still upheld. What we're seeing now is the
         | lack of checks because law enforcement feels they will never be
         | held accountable for violating due process. This, while likely
         | not a direct order of the president, it is an environment that
         | his rhetoric has fostered. Even in the cases where the supreme
         | court has said, unanimously, that people have been deported
         | improperly this environment causes those in positions to
         | correct it to ignore the courts.
         | 
         | I support the general idea of expedited deportation of those
         | here illegally, those without valid documents to be here, I
         | don't automatically have a problem if there is greater
         | restrictions on entering or issuing new visas, but I have a
         | major problem with violating due process and these kind of
         | mistakes that's are a result of lack of due diligence.
         | 
         | The courts need to get more heavily involved here. It's easy to
         | blame the president but short of some directive telling people
         | to violate the law the blame is misdirected (until it's
         | election time). The blame needs to be on those individuals
         | doing this thing or seeing it and ignoring it. This is where
         | the courts need to totally strip away default qualified
         | immunity, especially for immigration officers. Because
         | qualified immunity allows them to just say they were following
         | orders without them having to evaluate if what they are doing
         | is legal or not.
         | 
         | I believe if qualified immunity was gone a lot of this nonsense
         | would stop. They would make sure that anyone who was deported
         | was meant to be deported.
         | 
         | I have a friend who is here legally awaiting an asylum hearing,
         | been waiting for 5 years. They were stopped by police for a
         | valid reason and, from what was described the police had
         | probable cause, but the charge itself is very minor. Because
         | she's documented waiting asylum they contacted immigration, for
         | no reason. There was no probable cause to think she was in
         | violation of her immigration status, but they still contacted
         | them and they requested she be held. So now she detained and
         | there's probable cause to do so but it's immigration so they
         | can.
         | 
         | This is where no qualified immunity would make these officers
         | think twice. They know they have no probable cause to continue
         | to hold her beyond the initial charge. Without qualified
         | immunity they would understand that continuing to hold someone
         | after a judge has allowed their release means that they would
         | lose their house their life their future. So I really think we
         | need to end to qualified immunity across the board. Have the
         | people who are supposed to protect us and be responsible for
         | their actions.
        
           | rsyring wrote:
           | Without qualified immunity, no one in their right mind would
           | want to work in law enforcement. LE would become an easy
           | target for malicious litigation where the cost/effort to
           | defend would, itself, be the weapon, regardless of whether or
           | not the lawsuits were won.
           | 
           | LE personnel would have to get insurance, like doctors, which
           | would be crazy expensive and, considering their pay scale,
           | unaffordable.
           | 
           | I don't like some of the implications of qualified immunity,
           | but I understand why it's there and needed.
           | 
           | I think the only real solution to LE abuses is criminal
           | accountability and prosecution. We already have the laws and
           | processes in place to make that happen. It's hindered by the
           | tribal nature of the human condition and I'm not sure you get
           | around that very easily, at least, not at scale.
        
             | tastyfreeze wrote:
             | Your solution is what qualified immunity prevents.
        
             | ProfessorLayton wrote:
             | Yet other countries get by just fine without giving law
             | enforcement qualified immunity. See Canada for example.
        
               | stackskipton wrote:
               | Canada does not have what they call "Qualified Immunity"
               | but they have large scale immunity under the law already.
               | (https://winnipegpolice.substack.com/p/trust-and-
               | confidence-t...)
               | 
               | "Qualified Immunity" comes from the fact Americans have
               | independent judicial branch and can directly bring law
               | enforcement into that judiciary. In most countries, any
               | action against law enforcement for their official duties
               | is limited to government/department so they have large
               | scale defense anyways.
        
             | tbrownaw wrote:
             | > _LE personnel would have to get insurance, like doctors,
             | which would be crazy expensive and, considering their pay
             | scale, unaffordable._
             | 
             | So pay would have to go up?
             | 
             | There'd probably also have to be something where if they
             | were following department policy, then the officer (well,
             | their insurance) can turn around and demand reimbursement
             | from the department.
        
             | olddustytrail wrote:
             | Scotland doesn't have the concept but we still have police
             | officers. I think England is the same.
             | 
             | You can't really claim that something is absolutely
             | necessary when there are countries that don't have it.
        
             | elmerfud wrote:
             | Qualified immunity, as it is today, is far too broad.
             | Because literally any action that an officer takes that has
             | not been specifically ruled on by the courts is a defaulted
             | as being immune to prosecution. Even when that officer is
             | knowingly violating department policy even when they're
             | reasonably aware they are a violating the law. They still
             | retain qualified immunity.
             | 
             | It's nice to live in that dreamland that we can resort to
             | criminal prosecutions for officers who violate the law that
             | does not happen as often as it should. As part of their
             | job, what they are trained to do, is to be able to evaluate
             | a reasonable suspicion and probable cause. Yet you
             | regularly see officers violate those standards with
             | impunity. The problem is when someone violates your rights
             | by arresting you without sufficient probable cause there is
             | nearly no recourse for the average person.
             | 
             | If immigration took you and held you for 2 weeks, how
             | disruptive would that be to your life? Would you lose your
             | house, your job, more than that? If it was found that they
             | had no probable cause to for an arrest what realistic legal
             | recourse do you have, and how many years would it take for
             | that recourse?
             | 
             | So if you want to maintain qualified immunity because you
             | believe it's a requirement for these people to do their
             | jobs then where is the balance to that? Because right now
             | there is no balance. If you don't want officers to be held
             | directly responsible or to have to pay for expensive
             | insurance policies somebody needs to pay because without a
             | financial incentive things don't change. What about
             | something that puts a strict financial incentive on getting
             | things right at the first time. Obviously this would be a
             | burden that the taxpayers share but when the taxpayers
             | realize they're shelling out money for people who are not
             | diligent in their work that will change very quickly. If
             | someone is arrested and the courts find there was no
             | probable cause for the arrest. How about $10,000 a day for
             | every day that that person was held. That puts a meaningful
             | financial burden on getting it right. Because then it
             | becomes readily apparent which officers are problematic and
             | which ones are not.
             | 
             | The situation we're in right now is not working and there
             | doesn't seem to be any plans to fix it. Because literally
             | my friend where there is no probable cause for them to be
             | arrested and held by immigration is being held by
             | immigration. Like most people they live month to month. So
             | if they're not working nobody pays their bills nobody pays
             | for their apartment. If they're held for 2 weeks or a month
             | or God forbid even longer before they're let go where is
             | the actual financial recourse because they lost everything
             | in their life? Because your suggestion doesn't solve for
             | that problem and provides no incentive for immigration to
             | follow the laws or even follow the courts.
             | 
             | Because the interesting thing is with the original arrest
             | they would have been released the next day on their own
             | recognizance. Police that do not care about the
             | constitutions or due process or the rights of individuals
             | proactively contacted immigration and immigration requested
             | that she be turned over to them. No reason given and
             | there's no reason for the police to have suspected that a
             | person with all the proper documentation and identification
             | is in violation of any federal immigration law. So tell me
             | honestly what is your solution if it's not to strip away
             | qualified immunity and if it's not to place a heavy
             | financial burden on these agencies in some way that directs
             | back to the individuals that are willfully violating
             | people's rights?
        
             | UncleMeat wrote:
             | Colorado very strongly limited qualified immunity for state
             | cops. There are still state cops there.
        
         | eviks wrote:
         | All of the above?
        
         | potato3732842 wrote:
         | Because it's always been happening. If they didn't already have
         | this sort of abuse practiced they wouldn't be so good at it.
         | The ACLU used to write basically the same exact pieces about
         | the DEA
         | 
         | Maybe it's 10% or 20% more prevalent or worse, I can't say from
         | my vantage point, but it's a difference of degree, not a
         | categorical one. You read these stories and they read exactly
         | like all the other stories of how all sorts of "criminals" have
         | been abused by the system for years, especially when they have
         | a political blank check to do do. Making it hard for people to
         | get a lawyer, moving too fast for people to appeal anything or
         | get outside scrutiny is exactly how these systems have always
         | behaved when they feel like it.
         | 
         | Now it's ICE and not DEA or whatever but this is basically the
         | level of abuse with which the authorities have always treated
         | with.
         | 
         | It's nice that the public is paying attention now, but I have
         | very little hope that it will actually lead to systemic
         | changes.
        
           | hartator wrote:
           | Yes, nothing much changed law-wise.
           | 
           | No due process at the borders is a shame both now and before,
           | but hopefully this time there is a willingness to change
           | things. Probably not at the next swing of power.
        
             | ty6853 wrote:
             | My guy will do better with the power they never destroy.
        
             | whimsicalism wrote:
             | It is genuinely an extremely difficult challenge to manage
             | illegal crossings if every individual must be processed
             | through the full U.S. legal system which has massive
             | resourcing and backlog problems (3m+ cases).
             | 
             | Voters across the political spectrum have made it
             | unmistakably clear -- in poll after poll -- that they are
             | deeply dissatisfied with the current rate of illegal and
             | asylum-seeking entries.
             | 
             | Is there a morally permissible way to enact their will?
        
               | amanaplanacanal wrote:
               | Congress could increase funding for the courts enough so
               | that they could do their job. But that would go against
               | the Republican quest for smaller government and lower
               | taxes.
        
               | vlovich123 wrote:
               | This quest is a fig leaf. The expansion of the government
               | has proceeded equally under both presidents. The
               | republicans just choose to spend the budget on other
               | things and are less willing to raise taxes to fund
               | things. The current tariffs are an interesting PR
               | workaround.
        
               | unethical_ban wrote:
               | Admit that the current and past efforts to keep people
               | out and quickly deport people failed. And then set up
               | reliable systems of verifying people's citizenship before
               | they can get a job and quickly deport those who should be
               | deported.
               | 
               | Make it easier to work here legally in the US like it
               | used to be in the 90s, and threaten CEOs with jail time
               | if their companies have a pattern of hiring ineligible
               | workers.
               | 
               | And let's be clear, a lot of this border security
               | "crisis" is rooted in racism and Fox news alarmism. The
               | GOP likes having the problem because it keeps the base
               | angry.
        
               | 0x5f3759df-i wrote:
               | Immigration courts are already separate from the rest of
               | the legal system so the implication here is wrong.
               | 
               | Going too slow for you? Hire more immigration judges,
               | which are executive employees not full article 3 judges.
               | 
               | Voters across the political spectrum have made it clear
               | in poll after poll the last few weeks that they do not
               | approve of the way this administration is grabbing
               | whoever they can and shipping them out of the country
               | without any check or verification that they are deporting
               | the right people.
               | 
               | If the administration can declare you an illegal
               | immigrant with no due process they can ship anyone they
               | want out of the country. They could grab you off the
               | street, ship you to and El Salvador torture prison
               | intentionally or by mistake (as they have already
               | admitted to) and there's nothing you can do about it.
        
               | UncleMeat wrote:
               | Too bad.
               | 
               | A world where the government gets to say "well it is
               | annoying and expensive to follow the law give people
               | rights so we just won't" is a horror show.
               | 
               | If the people really want a world where people are denied
               | legal process then they can build the popular support for
               | a constitutional amendment. Until then, the government is
               | going to have to pay for this shit.
               | 
               | And we _did_ have a legislative effort to reduce the
               | number of illegal border crossings. Trump scuttled it.
        
               | shadowgovt wrote:
               | Purely hypothetically, blue sky solution space?
               | 
               | If the law exceeds the government's ability to enforce
               | it, relax it. It's de facto relaxed because of the lack
               | of fundamental resources to enforce it... Put the reality
               | on paper.
               | 
               | Stop treating the southern border as a war zone and
               | reopen it. It used to be more open. It was, in fact, more
               | open in that magical America great period that MAGA
               | ostensibly seems to be nostalgic for. Not only did the
               | country survive the openness, it flourished.
               | 
               | If the law is too hard to enforce, have less of it. Lower
               | scrutiny. Hand out day passes. Welcome The stranger with
               | a smile and a friendly wave.
        
               | Terr_ wrote:
               | In fact, that process is why deportation courts exist:
               | The theory goes that you're not really _punishing_
               | anyone, you 're just sending them straight back out the
               | door they just came through, therefore, a lower intensity
               | of process is acceptable.
               | 
               | However that rationale becomes evil nonsense the moment a
               | government starts "deporting" arrivals into a damned
               | concentration camp, or back into the hands of people that
               | want to kill them, seizing their property, separating
               | them from their children, etc. since all of that is
               | obviously punitive.
        
           | hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
           | > Because it's always been happening.
           | 
           | I don't like this kind of response because it's basically
           | kind of an assumption, and you don't really give any evidence
           | for it.
           | 
           | On one hand, sure, abuses by people in positions of power
           | have always happened, so if you're just making a general
           | argument that enforcement authorities abuse power, I mean
           | yeah, human nature.
           | 
           | But this article is making some specific points:
           | 
           | 1. Those who were deported were given basically zero access
           | to even talk to a lawyer, and that in at least one case a
           | habeas corpus petition was deliberately avoided by deporting
           | the family at 6 AM before courts opened.
           | 
           | 2. Multiple US minor citizen children were deported.
           | 
           | So, no, without more evidence, I'm not willing to believe
           | that it's just some minor increase of degree. While yes, I'm
           | sure there have been abuses in the past, the current policy
           | seems hellbent on deporting as many people as possible, due
           | process be damned, and that was _not_ the policy in previous
           | years. I 'd also highlight that the current President has
           | said, explicitly, that deporting people without due process
           | is his goal: https://truthout.org/articles/we-cannot-give-
           | everyone-a-tria...
           | 
           | In other words, I don't believe this is just an aberrant,
           | abusive exception to the policy. It very much seems like this
           | _is_ the policy now.
        
             | pclmulqdq wrote:
             | No, this kind of deportation and treatment of
             | prisoners/detainees has been happening forever. This exact
             | behavior has been happening forever, not just a general
             | idea of malfeasance. The current attention on it smacks of
             | politics in a way that is also very inhuman. Remember the
             | "kids in cages" saga?
        
               | hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
               | > No, this kind of deportation and treatment of
               | prisoners/detainees has been happening forever.
               | 
               | Another assertion without any justification or data.
               | 
               | > Remember the "kids in cages" saga?
               | 
               | Yes, of course, and that's the point. There was huge
               | outcry then, and that cruel policy was implemented by the
               | same person responsible for this policy. It doesn't make
               | sense to say "this has been happening forever" and then
               | bring up an example from 2017-2020. We are all well aware
               | of Trump's view on immigration and the rule of law. The
               | whole point is that Trump's policies are a huge
               | aberration from what any other administration, Republican
               | or Democrat, has put forth in the past 50 years.
        
               | giraffe_lady wrote:
               | I almost completely agree with you here. But it _is_
               | striking that they didn 't need to create any new
               | agencies to do this. All the parts of it were in place.
               | They were in place already for trump to use the first
               | time, and they were still in place when he got back into
               | power.
               | 
               | Due process and transparency on border & immigration
               | interactions has been alarmingly bad for a long time now.
               | Has this _never_ happened before, hidden inside this
               | apparatus? I 'm not confident of that. This is certainly
               | different in its scale and ferocity. But I see where they
               | are coming from too.
        
               | margalabargala wrote:
               | Much as I detest the current administration, the parent
               | comment is correct. While things under both Trump
               | administrations did get mildly worse than they were under
               | his Democrat predecessors, they were plenty bad under
               | Obama and Biden as well.
               | 
               | You're talking about bringing up examples from 2017-2020;
               | it turns out, plenty of the examples that were brought up
               | back then, were in fact from the Obama years. Example: ht
               | tps://apnews.com/article/a98f26f7c9424b44b7fa927ea1acd4d4
        
               | hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
               | Let's look at your own link:
               | 
               | > The story featured photos taken by AP's Ross D.
               | Franklin at a center run by the Customs and Border
               | Protection Agency in Nogales, Arizona. One photo shows
               | two unidentified female detainees sleeping in a holding
               | cell. The caption refers to U.S. efforts to process
               | 47,000 unaccompanied children at the Nogales center and
               | another one in Brownsville, Texas.
               | 
               | I don't know how else you're supposed to handle 47,000
               | _unaccompanied_ children when there simply aren 't the
               | facilities to hold them all, e.g. in foster homes. I
               | think that is fundamentally different than deporting US
               | citizens.
               | 
               | And yes, when it comes to Trump's first term, I don't
               | really see anything wrong with keeping unaccompanied
               | children in detention centers, at least temporarily. The
               | much bigger issue I had was the specific policy of
               | separating families.
        
               | margalabargala wrote:
               | Yes, I fully agree with everything you're saying.
               | 
               | My point is more that I'm not sure exactly how much of
               | what ICE does can particularly be attributed to the
               | administration, on account of the same _sorts_ of stuff
               | happening under every administration, and the waters
               | getting muddied by things being presented in false
               | contexts, which is what I was trying to show with the
               | link I posted.
               | 
               | The family separation policy was horrible, but it was yet
               | another piece of cruel dehumanization on the cruel
               | dehumanization pile that was already there. Secretly
               | revoking student visas and then snatching that person off
               | the street by masked plainclothes officers like happened
               | to Rumeysa Ozturk is cruel and awful, but also, the
               | personnel who did that and their attitude did not appear
               | overnight; ICE is has ICE has always been, and all that
               | changes is the length of the leash given by the
               | President.
               | 
               | What I object to is the implicit framing of what was
               | happening pre-Trump as being fine and correct, and it's
               | only what Trump is doing that's beyond the pale. But I am
               | glad that it's opening people's eyes to what is happening
               | and hope that by shining light on it, perhaps post-Trump
               | we can move to something better than pre-Trump.
        
               | reseasonable wrote:
               | The treatment part has happened for decades, Las Hieleras
               | is one of many examples. But the deporting citizens part
               | hasn't happened for about 70 years since Operation
               | Wetback which was nearly an identical playbook of today.
               | 
               | Mass visa revocations happened about 50 years ago since
               | the Iran Hostage Crisis. And a few other events over the
               | 20th century reflect well with today like Japanese
               | internment camps. CECOT out does Gitmo and Angel Island,
               | but damn, we just do a lot of fascist and unjust stuff as
               | a nation.
               | 
               | The 1880's resulted in us switching our attention from
               | Native Americans to immigrants and we never really let
               | off the gas on that front.
        
             | southernplaces7 wrote:
             | >I don't like this kind of response because it's basically
             | kind of an assumption, and you don't really give any
             | evidence for it.
             | 
             | Whether you like it or not, it has indeed been happening
             | for a long time, and under multiple administrations from
             | either party. If you're interested in the tragedy of it all
             | enough to care, then go look these cases up instead of
             | first accusing someone of lying because they might be
             | smearing a politician that you preferred, and who isn't the
             | current orangutan in the White House.
             | 
             | Trump's administration is notably and vocally hostile to
             | illegal immigrants, to migrants and I suspect to immigrants
             | in general, but it's mainly still using the tools and
             | practices that have long since been refined by multiple
             | federal agencies whenever opportunities for heavy-
             | handedness presented themselves.
             | 
             | Because it's Trump's administration, and enough of the
             | major media system is unsupportive of him (still, for now),
             | the matter is gaining more attention. This attention is a
             | good thing, but it shouldn't cloud one from considering the
             | possibility that the bureaucratic defects and authoritarian
             | inertia of federal policing exist beyond the confines of a
             | single type of administration.
        
               | yuliyp wrote:
               | I guess the question is how frequent it's been. A big
               | part of Trumpism is taking sketchy practices that used to
               | be exceptional and turning them into standard operating
               | procedure, and then claiming "oh look others did this
               | before"
               | 
               | I mean, look at Hillary Clinton's emails, extorting of
               | lawfirms, big tech, etc, his ignoring of court orders,
               | etc. All are things that you can look at and say "he's
               | not the first to do this" and be completely correct, but
               | completely missing the point that he's doing it waay more
               | aggressively.
        
               | hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
               | > extorting of lawfirms
               | 
               | When did that happen previously?
        
               | southernplaces7 wrote:
               | I actually mentioned this same worry in a previous
               | comment on this post thread, and I don't think that i'm
               | missing the point about Trump doing certain things in way
               | more aggressive and possibly new ways. It's something
               | that should be cause for lots of worry.
               | 
               | However, as I explained above, the deportations of
               | citizens are nothing new and though it's good that they
               | now receive attention, they should be viewed from the
               | wider context of decades of federal overreach and
               | authoritarian practices by certain agencies.
               | 
               | my other comment similar to what you mention
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43803664
        
               | hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
               | This is like the third or fourth response I've seen that
               | keeps making the same assertion with no evidence to back
               | up their position. So I'll be very clear on what I think
               | is new and not just "more of the same":
               | 
               | 1. The deliberate attempts to deny due process by
               | scheduling deportations before filed writs can be
               | responded to in court.
               | 
               | 2. The deportation of US minor citizen children _as a
               | matter of policy_.
               | 
               | If you have any evidence of the above by non-Trump
               | administrations, again as a matter of policy, I'm all
               | ears. Everything else is just "feels".
        
               | southernplaces7 wrote:
               | >If you have any evidence of the above by non-Trump
               | administrations, again as a matter of policy, I'm all
               | ears. Everything else is just "feels".
               | 
               | I assume you know how to use the internet, so please go
               | do a few searches, on Google or the search system of your
               | choice, for the sake of informing yourself better.
               | They're there, and if you care about the subject enough
               | to make claims, you should be aware of wider history.
               | 
               | Illegal actions, whether by policy or by bureaucratic
               | inertia towards authoritarian tendencies, have been the
               | case under multiple previous administrations. Under Obama
               | these were even (in a very different context) taken to
               | the level of outright killing American citizens without
               | due process via drone strike. Under Bush II, they
               | involved very illegal and repeated acts of
               | "extraordinary" rendition to black sites. There are more
               | examples, many involving deportations.
               | 
               | Trump getting attention for things that have also been
               | the case since before him poses the risk of making people
               | think that it will all be okay if they just get rid of
               | Trump, even if it's good that the attention is at least
               | being given to this finally.
               | 
               | None of this is to defend the Trump administration or
               | ICE. The cases documented in the link in this post are
               | grotesque, and deserve the full force of censure by other
               | branches of government and the public, and the media, but
               | that doesn't excuse simplistic examinations of a wider
               | injustice.
        
               | MegaButts wrote:
               | JFC if someone asks you multiple times for a source then
               | provide a fucking source, instead of continuing to be an
               | obnoxious holier-than-thou "do your own research you
               | ignoramus" asshole.
               | 
               | You are so completely incompetent when it comes to
               | discourse that I have to assume you are purposefully
               | spreading misinformation. Either provide evidence or do
               | everyone else the favor of shutting the fuck up you
               | intolerable asshat.
        
           | UmGuys wrote:
           | It has not. We have never previously sent immigrants to
           | foreign concentration camps. There were internment camps
           | which were bad enough during the war, but we're now
           | kidnapping people, sending them to El Salvador, and locking
           | them up for life.
        
             | queenkjuul wrote:
             | People here really seem to like ignoring that part for some
             | reason. That is a very real line that had not previously
             | been crossed.
        
               | freen wrote:
               | Especially the part about "we imprisoned legal residents
               | of the US in a foreign country without due process and
               | now can't do anything about it, even though the Supreme
               | Court told us we have to return them to the USA, because,
               | whoops, they are imprisoned in a foreign country!" bit.
        
               | vkou wrote:
               | Can't do anything to bring them back, yet keep sending
               | more people there.
               | 
               | Here's a riddle for everyone. What do you call a prison
               | where people go in without trial, never come out, and
               | there's always room for more?
        
         | HDThoreaun wrote:
         | The suffering is the point. The current administration thinks
         | that by publicly treating anyone vaguely foreign horribly they
         | will be able to end the allure illegal immigration. I guess the
         | dirty secret is that this sort of stuff has been happening, the
         | difference is that now the government wants everyone to know
         | about it
        
         | somenameforme wrote:
         | Every day across the world thousands of people are removed from
         | countries around the world for violating immigration laws.
         | Except in cases of where it coincided with criminality, it's
         | always going to be very ugly, because it means somebody had
         | built up a life for themselves somewhere and that is now ended
         | due to them having been born in a different place and then
         | overstayed their permission, or never received such, to stay
         | somewhere else.
         | 
         | Like in this case, what do you propose as an alternative with a
         | precedent that you think could be agreeable to most people? The
         | parents were in the country illegally, and the children's
         | citizenship was solely one of birthright. Any sort of
         | "pleasant" outcome would effectively require turning birthright
         | citizenship into defacto citizenship for the parents as well,
         | at least if they can stay illegally for long enough. That's not
         | only completely unrealistic, but also a complete slap in the
         | face to the millions of people who try to migrate legally and
         | are refused entry.
        
           | yodsanklai wrote:
           | > it's always going to be very ugly,
           | 
           | It doesn't have to be as ugly as what is described in the
           | article.
        
           | apical_dendrite wrote:
           | > Any sort of "pleasant" outcome would effectively require
           | turning birthright citizenship into defacto citizenship for
           | the parents as well, at least if they can stay illegally for
           | long enough.
           | 
           | No, there are lots of immigration statuses between "illegal"
           | and "citizen". DAPA, which was the Obama administration's
           | policy, gave parents of US citizens a status where they could
           | get temporary renewable work permits and exemption for
           | deportation. This was not citizenship, or even a status that
           | could allow someone to eventually become a citizen.
        
             | pclmulqdq wrote:
             | Most of those statuses are called "visas" and they have
             | been around for a while. Obama's innovation was giving a
             | weird form of status ("we know you broke the law and we
             | aren't enforcing it") to people who broke the law when
             | crossing the border. Most people with a non-illegal and
             | non-citizen status are supposed to apply for that status
             | before crossing the border.
        
               | sanderjd wrote:
               | This gets at another portion of the answer to the "what's
               | your alternative suggestion?" question: I'd suggest
               | Congress pass laws, rather than presidents making stuff
               | up, illegally. This is clearly not a partisan point!
               | Every president in my voting lifetime - Bush, Obama,
               | Trump, Biden - has made up immigration law while Congress
               | sat on its thumbs.
        
               | pclmulqdq wrote:
               | Exactly. People forget, but the first selective
               | enforcement edict (on illegal immigration) came from HW
               | Bush.
        
               | roamerz wrote:
               | There have been many laws passed by Congress addressing
               | immigration. It is against law to cross the border
               | without authorization. This particular case exists as a
               | result of not enforcing those laws. Pretty simple.
        
               | sanderjd wrote:
               | Despite past congresses passing laws, the system is not
               | good. A major contributor to the problem of people
               | immigrating illegally is that our legal immigration
               | system is a total mess. This is why there have been a
               | number of efforts at reforms over the past few decades.
               | But none of them have worked, leaving us in this
               | situation where presidents from both parties do all this
               | illegal stuff by executive action.
        
               | apical_dendrite wrote:
               | I agree with you.
               | 
               | I think there has to be a reasonable solution that gives
               | legal status to the guy who's been here for 20 years and
               | is making a positive contribution to society, but doesn't
               | allow someone to show up and exploit loopholes to stay
               | forever.
               | 
               | I think a reasonable compromise would look something like
               | this:
               | 
               | * Make it much easier for people to get temporary visas
               | for the kinds of jobs where we need migrant workers.
               | 
               | * Provide a pathway to citizenship for people who have
               | been in this country for a very long time and are
               | contributing to society.
               | 
               | * Make it very difficult for people to come to the US
               | without a visa - e.g. make people apply for asylum
               | outside of the US. Stop issuing temporary protected
               | status to huge blocks of migrants.
               | 
               | Unfortunately, political polarization has basically made
               | it impossible for Congress to solve real problems.
        
               | sanderjd wrote:
               | Yep, the solution is pretty clear in broad strokes, as
               | you described, but the bases of both parties advocate for
               | radically opposed policy through executive action, which
               | just makes the situation worse.
        
               | jfengel wrote:
               | It's not quite that Congress has sat on its thumbs.
               | Individual Congressmen have been (figuratively) screaming
               | at each other. Committees are at each other's throats
               | trying to get some sort of legislation to the table.
               | Nobody can stand the possibility of giving the other side
               | what they want -- at the insistence of their
               | constituents.
               | 
               | The net result, of course, is identical to if they had
               | all stayed home.
        
               | sanderjd wrote:
               | Yeah I think you just described what sitting on their
               | thumbs looks like, for a legislative body :)
        
               | apical_dendrite wrote:
               | Sure, the point is that the poster I was responding to
               | said that the only way to avoid putting US citizen minor
               | children in a position where they have to either leave
               | the country, or stay in the country without their
               | parents, is to effectively grant citizenship to the
               | parents. My point is that that's a false choice, it would
               | be possible to grant the parents a temporary, conditional
               | status that's based on having minor US-citizen children.
               | It's not an ideal solution, but it protects the
               | constitutional rights of US-citizen minor children
               | without granting citizenship to the parents.
        
               | sashank_1509 wrote:
               | How is that any different from granting parents
               | citizenship. In some sense you presume birthright
               | citizenship doesn't make sense. Let us say an immigrant
               | illegally comes into the country and becomes a robber. He
               | in fact, just mugs people on the street. Clearly he's a
               | net negative, someone you want to deport. Now he has a
               | child. Now by virtue of him having a child, we can no
               | longer deport him, because then we make the child who's a
               | citizen less parent less. Also assume in this case the
               | mother is some criminal too, to drive the point home.
               | 
               | The simpler, logically consistent solution would be that
               | the child's citizenship is only granted if the parents
               | are citizens. (Or at least if parents are not illegal
               | immigrants). Then when you deport the parents, you can
               | legally deport the child too. It still is not a pleasant
               | situation, there is no ideal solution here, except he
               | should have never been let in at all, but once he is,
               | these seem the only choices
        
               | apical_dendrite wrote:
               | It's completely different. A conditional work visa is
               | just that, conditional. If you commit a crime you can
               | lose status and be deported. In fact, DAPA eligibility
               | was dependent on not having a felony record. That is not
               | the same thing as citizenship. There's no reason to
               | believe that because you give a temporary work
               | authorization to someone that you have to then make that
               | person a citizen.
               | 
               | Citizenship by blood creates its own problems. I am
               | eligible for Polish citizenship if I choose to pursue it
               | based on where my ancestors lived. I have never been to
               | Poland, don't speak the language, and don't really know
               | that much about the culture or feel any loyalty or even
               | much affinity to Poland. On the other hand, let's say
               | that someone is born in Poland to immigrant parents.
               | Culturally they are entirely Polish - they lived their
               | whole life there, speak the language, were educated by
               | the Polish school system and consider themselves entirely
               | Polish - they've never lived anywhere else. Yet they
               | would not have the same ability to become a citizen that
               | I have. If I got Polish citizenship, I'd just take
               | whatever benefits I could from it and contribute nothing
               | to Poland. How is it logical that I could be a Polish
               | citizen and this person couldn't be?
        
           | sswatson wrote:
           | The phrase "solely one of birthright" suggests the
           | diminishment of the citizenship of certain people. That is
           | not how citizenship works: no one is less of a citizen than
           | anyone else.
           | 
           | The most objectionable part here -- by far -- is not the
           | deportation of the parents, but the deportation of _citizens_
           | and the lack of due process.
           | 
           | The alternative being proposed is that if ICE is going to
           | deport the parents of US citizen children, the parents should
           | be given the opportunity to seek legal counsel regarding how
           | they're going to ensure care for their children.
        
             | kadushka wrote:
             | _no one is less of a citizen than anyone else_
             | 
             | This is not true - a citizen by birth can become the
             | president, a naturalized citizen cannot.
        
               | bryanrasmussen wrote:
               | that's true, so basically they deported somebody that one
               | day could become President!
        
               | lawn wrote:
               | They deported someone with (supposedly) more rights than
               | Elon Musk.
        
               | V-eHGsd_ wrote:
               | While true, I believe op was talking about with respect
               | to the protections afforded by the law.
        
               | threatofrain wrote:
               | While true, one thing OP could be talking about is the
               | spiritualism implied by that rule, and whether it finds
               | catch in the American psychology.
        
             | IG_Semmelweiss wrote:
             | US hospitals do not have magical pixie dust to grant US
             | citizenship.
             | 
             | This is why birthright as a legal concept is a diminishment
             | of citizenship for all those who hold it.
             | 
             | Parents pass on the shared history, values, and national
             | culture to their kids. Parents are those who give value to
             | US citizenship.
             | 
             | Not coming out of a belly, that happens to be inside a US
             | hospital.
        
               | Erem wrote:
               | US constitution thoughtfully disagrees with you,
               | elevating presence on the land at birth over bloodline
               | wrt citizenship.
               | 
               | "All persons born or naturalized in the United States,
               | and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of
               | the United States and of the state wherein they reside."
               | -US Constitution, 14th Amendment
               | 
               | Quite literally, US hospitals do have that magic pixie
               | dust because they are on the land of this country.
        
               | IG_Semmelweiss wrote:
               | >> and subject to the jurisdiction thereof
               | 
               | Will need to be resolved.
               | 
               | Its not a coincidence that Switzerland is the longest-
               | lasting democracy in the world by a factor of 4x, vs USA.
               | Their framers had the foresight to enshrine their
               | communities' common history, values, and culture.... over
               | pixie dust.
        
               | cycrutchfield wrote:
               | It has been resolved, for over 125 years of precedent.
               | 
               | If you don't know US history, why bother to show your
               | ignorance so visibly?
        
               | Revanche1367 wrote:
               | Ironically, his parents didn't do a good enough job of
               | passing on the shared history, values, and national
               | culture of the US.
        
               | cycrutchfield wrote:
               | US v. Wong Kim Ark (1898)
               | 
               | Wax poetic about nativism all you like, it won't change
               | the truth.
        
               | roughly wrote:
               | > Parents pass on the shared history, values, and
               | national culture to their kids.
               | 
               | Except our nation's shared history, values, and national
               | culture is that we're a nation of immigrants, a melting
               | pot of global cultures, a refuge for those in need, and a
               | place where anyone can come to seek their fortune, so
               | obviously American parents haven't been passing on those
               | values to their children if we're still having this
               | debate, and I think the only fair response to that is to
               | deport all the children who don't meet your standards of
               | citizenship, by which I mean the entire cohort that's
               | arguing all this is OK.
        
               | shadowgovt wrote:
               | To be blunt, America's children are getting a lot more of
               | their shared cultural values from Bluey than their
               | parents, so I think we could stand to pump the brakes on
               | concern about whether children born in this country are
               | as American as children born in this country to parents
               | who were born in this country.
               | 
               | That way lies a very ugly argument about who is enough on
               | the team. One that almost nobody who thinks themselves
               | American wins, because the real winners of that argument
               | should be the folks stuck into reservations by the alien
               | ancestors of those who see themselves as "true Americans,
               | born of Americans."
               | 
               | For Americans in particular, the best strategy for not
               | having their own legitimacy challenged is definitely
               | _not_ to pull too hard on the legitimacy thread.
        
               | roughly wrote:
               | As maybe my favorite Twitter dunk of all time goes - "Ah
               | yes, Jack Posobiec, of the Mayflower Posobiecs."
        
               | kj4211cash wrote:
               | Do you really believe this? I've never met anyone opposed
               | to birthright citizenship for the US. Our shared history,
               | values, and national culture are all about immigration so
               | this isn't computing for me. Plus the law seems settled
               | on this issue, or at least was before Trump 2.0. I
               | genuinely don't understand how thinking people can
               | support the current administration's policies on numerous
               | issues. Tried going to r/conservative, watching Fox News,
               | etc. but it hasn't helped much to date.
        
               | cycrutchfield wrote:
               | It's pretty easy to understand, you only need to look at
               | which subset of immigrants they have a problem with.
               | There's one commonality with all of them, and it is (so
               | to speak) only skin-deep.
        
               | shadowgovt wrote:
               | The great irony of the American bigot arguing against
               | "chain migration" is that their immediate forefathers not
               | only allowed it as a compromise, but embraced it with
               | open arms.
               | 
               | In the fifties and sixties, those in America who deeply
               | concern themselves with average skin tone saw a darkening
               | country. They believed that fast-tracking immigration for
               | family members would allow Europeans escaping the
               | aftermath of World War II to immigrate rapidly to
               | America, which would bolster the numbers and tilt the
               | national average a bit, if you will, caucasian.
               | 
               | ... what they fundamentally failed to grasp is that after
               | the war, America sent her fighting boys (and girls) out
               | to enforce Democracy over Communism at the point of a
               | sword. Sen them to countries where the average citizen
               | was not, generally, bothered by intense direct sunlight.
               | And those boys fell in love. With people who distinctly
               | _lacked_ a certain, shall we say, Innsmouth look that our
               | bigot friends preferred in their fellow citizens. Plus,
               | folks from geographically-adjacent countries who went
               | through the arduous process of naturalization were able
               | to bring their extended families in as well.
               | 
               | The final consequence was a policy that had been
               | supported on one side for mostly economic and "melting
               | pot" reasons that was _also_ supported by bigots for
               | decidedly bigot reasons... Turned out to make the country
               | more diverse, not the less-diverse the bigots had hoped
               | for.
               | 
               | It's a feel-good self-own story.
        
             | chasd00 wrote:
             | What you're really saying is you want this family broken up
             | for the rage bait. You want the picture of a child crying
             | for their mother as the plane takes off for the views.
        
               | sixothree wrote:
               | Fairly clear that is not the argument here.
        
             | EasyMark wrote:
             | I don't think it was meant to devalue their citizenship,
             | but citizenship doesn't trump their safety or need to be
             | with their parents. The parents are going to be deported
             | for being here illegally, would you have the child be
             | separated and put in a foster/community home? Emotions are
             | important but the only pragmatic solution here is to deport
             | all 3, if your nation's policy is deportation for being
             | here illegally. I agree with that policy in general but not
             | with the US policy of Trump of manhandling illegal aliens
             | or their children. Nor do I agree the lawlessness of what
             | they're doing currently by sending off "suspected gang
             | members" without due process to what amount to torture
             | camps in El Salvador.
        
               | lawn wrote:
               | Sentencing children to die as they can't receive proper
               | medical care when deported is not in any way the best
               | solution.
               | 
               | Unless of course your lack empathy and de-humanize people
               | by calling them "aliens".
        
           | sanderjd wrote:
           | > _the children 's citizenship was solely one of birthright_
           | 
           | Under the US Constitution, this is not a distinction. What
           | you're looking for is just "the children's citizenship"
           | without this qualifier that signifies nothing under the law.
           | 
           | The better alternative is to aggressively enforce employment
           | laws against _employers_. Immigrants come here and stay here
           | to work.
        
             | firesteelrain wrote:
             | Agree and proper border control which the previous
             | administration failed to enforce. Step 1 is stop the
             | influx.
        
               | faster wrote:
               | The data seem to show that at the end of Biden's term,
               | ICE enforcement actions were very low. But for some
               | reason, the stats page doesn't show Trump's previous
               | term. https://www.ice.gov/statistics
               | 
               | Looking at the most recent DHS yearbook (apples and
               | oranges, but the best I can find so far) at
               | https://ohss.dhs.gov/topics/immigration/yearbook and
               | scaling to match the curve at the ICE stats page, it
               | looks like illegal immigration was way down at the end of
               | Biden's term.
               | 
               | So maybe the influx was already slowed dramatically. I
               | don't think it's possible to stop people from wanting to
               | go to the US, except by making it worse that the places
               | people are leaving. I don't think that's a worthy goal.
        
               | firesteelrain wrote:
               | The question we have to ask ourselves is why was ICE not
               | empowered to conduct enforcement ? Why were border
               | crossings up over Biden's term and then when Trump is
               | elected and comes into office they drop dramatically ?
        
               | sanderjd wrote:
               | I'm in favor of that too, but I think this insistence on
               | it being step 1 is actually just a resistance to solving
               | the real problem. (Which is that employers are happy to
               | pay below market wages to illegally employ immigrants who
               | are here unlawfully.)
        
               | firesteelrain wrote:
               | We should go after it all to include implementing
               | E-Verify for all. Republicans are also in favor of the
               | guest worker program to legally meet the demand. But we
               | have to stop the flow
        
               | sanderjd wrote:
               | I agree that we should do those things. But what I've
               | seen for the past couple decades that I've been voting is
               | that Republican politicians pretend to want to do those
               | things, but refuse to do them "until we've stopped the
               | flow" or "but the border has to be step 1".
               | 
               | This is a classic political tactic to be able to say you
               | want to do something, but never actually have to do it.
               | Politicians use this tactic when they don't actually want
               | to do the thing for some reason. In this case, it's
               | because it's really unpopular with business owners, who
               | like to employ illegal immigrants.
               | 
               | It's perfectly reasonable to say "we need to crack down
               | on employers _in conjunction with_ aggressive border and
               | deportation enforcement ". But I'm very skeptical of
               | anyone saying "stopping the flow is step 1". I've heard
               | that story before!
        
             | laurent_du wrote:
             | Not enough. Some immigrants come and stay to commit crimes.
        
             | retzkek wrote:
             | And then, what? Are citizens beating down the doors to do
             | these jobs but getting out-competed by migrants? Are these
             | the same citizens who are lining up to do sweatshop labor
             | when manufacturing "returns" to the US?
             | 
             | If undocumented workers are finding productive work in an
             | economy with low unemployment then the problem is that the
             | government is not facilitating them gaining legal status.
        
               | tastyfreeze wrote:
               | The problem would be minimum wage and insurance
               | requirements for employing citizens. There are plenty of
               | citizens that would work those jobs but nobody would hire
               | them because they cost too much. What you are arguing for
               | is to continue allowing people to come here so employers
               | can pay them less than a citizen is legally required to
               | be paid. Once they become legal employers no longer want
               | to employ them for the same reason they don't want to
               | hire citizens.
        
               | mgkimsal wrote:
               | US citizens by and large don't want to go work in tobacco
               | fields for $15/hr, in a state with $7/hr min wage. But
               | mexican workers coming over legally, getting the work
               | visas and all that... will.
        
               | sanderjd wrote:
               | What I'm arguing for is to _not_ let employers do that.
        
               | whimsicalism wrote:
               | or alternatively that the US doesn't have a guest worker
               | program similar in scope to most of the developed world,
               | and this is at least partially due to political concerns
               | around birthright.
        
               | conor_mc wrote:
               | We do have a chicken and egg problem. I think the idea
               | here is that it's a systemic issue and the enforcement is
               | focussed on individuals. This is analogous to the concept
               | of getting everyday people to recycle when the companies
               | creating the products have greater control over how much
               | garbage is produced.
               | 
               | Employers need to stop taking advantage of undocumented
               | workers at artificially suppressed wages. This has acted
               | like a subsidy keeping these poor business models afloat.
               | This has led us to the situation we are in now, where
               | we've become dependent on undocumented migrants (food
               | production etc), who we are being taking advantage of
               | (lower wages, less rights), and also trying to villanize
               | & deport them (the article above). All simultaneously.
               | 
               | It's possible with careful coordination of industry,
               | legislation, and immagration, we wouldn't be here. But
               | now that we are, we need to either find a way to improve
               | the situation or reverse it.
        
               | sanderjd wrote:
               | I don't think it's chicken and egg at all. I think lots
               | of employers employ immigrants illegally, and then the
               | immigrants take all the political heat. Anyone pissed
               | about "all these illegals" should be at least just as
               | pissed about all the businesses illegally employing them.
               | 
               | We should stop letting employers do this, and then we all
               | discover that we still really want to employ immigrants,
               | we should enable that, legally.
        
               | sanderjd wrote:
               | I think then we would have an "oh shit" moment and
               | finally reform the legal immigration system to allow
               | immigrants to come do all these jobs legally.
               | 
               | It would be a forcing function.
        
           | DragonStrength wrote:
           | The issue is some ability to fight. For instance, I don't
           | think the child of a US citizen should be deported without
           | consent of their citizen parent or a ruling against that
           | parent. I'd like some assurance my own child won't be
           | disappeared to another country without my consent.
        
             | whimsicalism wrote:
             | > I don't think the child of a US citizen should be
             | deported without consent of their citizen parent or a
             | ruling against that parent.
             | 
             | Think it should depend on custody. US courts don't just
             | always favor the custody of the citizen parent.
        
               | FireBeyond wrote:
               | If only custody and other issues could have been
               | determined h a court, not ICE ignoring the court while it
               | expedited a flight out of the country then said "sorry,
               | too late".
        
           | UncleMeat wrote:
           | > and the children's citizenship was solely one of birthright
           | 
           | My citizenship is solely that way too, even though
           | generations of my ancestors were also citizens.
           | 
           | Unless you personally naturalized then your citizenship is
           | solely by birthright. The vast majority of US citizens are
           | this way. Insisting that this is somehow worth less in terms
           | of legal protections is just frankly wrong.
           | 
           | Imagine you said this for other circumstances. "Well, a
           | parent going to prison is always going to be hard for the
           | family - better imprison the whole family!"
        
           | nikanj wrote:
           | The previous time the big mad that Obama was (supposedly) not
           | born on the US soil, now the problem is that someone was born
           | in the US.
           | 
           | Is there an acceptable way for POC to get citizenship
           | anymore, if it's not by inheritance and it's not by being
           | born in the US?
        
             | tuan wrote:
             | 5mil for a gold card and expedited path to citizenship I've
             | heard.
        
               | chasd00 wrote:
               | Just like everywhere else.
        
               | usernomdeguerre wrote:
               | There are places that do not have pay-for-citizenship.
        
             | tastyfreeze wrote:
             | A quarter of US citizens are not white. Maybe POC isn't the
             | best term to use here.
        
           | __turbobrew__ wrote:
           | > Like in this case, what do you propose as an alternative
           | with a precedent that you think could be agreeable to most
           | people?
           | 
           | I like how nobody has actually answered this question yet,
           | and have only harped on your birthright comment.
           | 
           | The parents are in the US illegally, ICE deports people who
           | are in the US illegally. Presumably the parents didn't want
           | to leave their USC kids behind so they brought them.
           | 
           | I guess possible options are
           | 
           | 1. Allow illegal parents to designate USC kids a guardian who
           | has legal US immigration status
           | 
           | 2. Dont deport illegal immigrants who have USC kids
           | (basically making birthright transitive to parents)
        
             | Swizec wrote:
             | > 2. Dont deport illegal immigrants who have USC kids
             | (basically making birthright transitive to parents)
             | 
             | Birthright is _somewhat_ transitive. US citizens can
             | sponsor family members for a green card once they're 18.
        
             | Volundr wrote:
             | While plenty of people would prefer 2) there would be a lot
             | less outcry if they were allowing 1) _especially in cases
             | where the kid already has a legal USC guardian_ like the
             | one discussed here where the father couldn 't even speak
             | with the mother before her and his child was deported.
        
             | FireBeyond wrote:
             | > The parents are in the US illegally
             | 
             | No, the father is not. And when trying to get the mother
             | legal help for her situation was cut off from her. Same
             | when the court tried to get information, ICE ignored it,
             | got her on a plane and then shortly after said "sorry, too
             | late".
        
               | __turbobrew__ wrote:
               | The question then is the mother the legal guardian of the
               | kids and was she given a choice to hand off the kids to
               | someone else? If the mother was the legal guardian and
               | she decided to take the USC kids with her, that is her
               | right.
               | 
               | I think the details will matter here, it does seem like
               | ICE skrewed the pooch here in not giving the family
               | recourse to get the kids out of the detainee facility. If
               | the USC kids were involuntarily detained that is a
               | problem (despite it may be legal to do that according to
               | US federal law).
        
           | IG_Semmelweiss wrote:
           | First, the US needs to resolve its issue of citizenship. It
           | has been proposed that the US citizenship model was always
           | like the Swiss model - you could only be a citizen if you
           | were born of at least 1 citizen (naturalized or otherwise).
           | For reasons I'm not clear, this has not been strictly
           | enforced for some time. Instead we defaulted to "anyone born
           | in a US hospital is a citizen"
           | 
           | Then, as welfare, lack of law enforcement and border grew,
           | the broken citizenship process became a larger problem that
           | now we have to deal with.
           | 
           | To me, the answer to your question of what is the alternative
           | is as follows: The sole act of breaking laws and cutting the
           | line to come into the country, to then birth babies here for
           | the pusposes of straightjacketing the host's own response
           | seems like should not be allowed, full stop. The premise of
           | becoming a US citizen cannot be grounded in 2 crimes being
           | committed before you are a citizen (1 illegal entry, 1 lying
           | about your asylum petition).
           | 
           | We then have the issue of citizenship. It cannot be that
           | because you come out of a womb that happens to be passing by
           | a US hospital, you are a US citizen. US hospitals do not have
           | magic pixie dust that grant american-ness. The Swiss have the
           | right model that you actually have to come from at least 1
           | national parent, to foster national unity. The Swiss have the
           | longest-lasting democracy in the world for a reason. Ignoring
           | this seems suicidal. In nature and history, no humans
           | prospered without an organized tribe centered around shared
           | history and values.
           | 
           | Then there are the cases of people that came here, all
           | legally, and found a life worth having by contributing to
           | society. There should be a path for them to be citizens. What
           | that path looks like, I dont know. But that's a conversation
           | worth having soon since they are paying the price for the
           | crimes and abuse committed by the 1st group.
        
             | whimsicalism wrote:
             | Let's remind ourselves of the text of the 14th amendment:
             | 
             | "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and
             | subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the
             | United States and of the State wherein they reside."
             | 
             | > It has been proposed that the US citizenship model was
             | always like the Swiss model - you could only be a citizen
             | if you were born of at least 1 citizen (naturalized or
             | otherwise). For reasons I'm not clear, this has not been
             | strictly enforced for some time.
             | 
             | I think any clear reading of the 14th amendment shows that
             | you are incorrect.
        
               | IG_Semmelweiss wrote:
               | IANAL, but interpretation of:
               | 
               | "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof"
               | 
               | seems critical to make a determination on whether you are
               | correct or not.
               | 
               | Take the act of a random french spy who goes to the UK
               | for the purpose of defecting, without express permission
               | of either government. Does that make him a subject to the
               | UK crown? I think the historical outcome of such
               | situation would be crystal-clear.
        
               | whimsicalism wrote:
               | Are only people with at least 1 naturalized citizen
               | parent the only people subject to the jurisdiction of the
               | United States?
        
               | IG_Semmelweiss wrote:
               | This is switching the topic.
               | 
               | The 14th amendment discusses who is a citizen. It does
               | not capture who is a subject to US jurisdictions, or not.
               | That part is open to interpretation , likely because it
               | is based in common law.
        
               | whimsicalism wrote:
               | e: You've now edited your comment to be consistent with
               | what you originally said. Before edit, the commenter said
               | that the jurisdiction clause meant that at least one
               | parent needed to be at least a legal visitor to the US.
               | 
               | Not only is that not in the text of the 14th, it's
               | different from your original proposal two comments ago.
               | If you really want to do this fine-grained reading to try
               | to support your point, you might notice that 1. the
               | subject to the jurisdiction clause is the baby, not the
               | parents, 2. breaking a law does not mean you are not
               | subject to the jurisdiction of the state you reside in.
        
               | jf wrote:
               | Please note that the 14th Amendment does not "discuss"
               | who is a citizen, a better word would be "establishes" or
               | "determines" - the "discussion" happened during the
               | drafting and ratification processes and all of those
               | records are available for you to read. Post ratification,
               | the court system uses those discussions as part of their
               | decisions on issues related to clarification of questions
               | that arose after ratification. Those court decisions are
               | also available for you to read.
        
               | jf wrote:
               | Your example doesn't make sense because the 14th
               | amendment only applies to the United States and not the
               | United Kingdom.
        
               | mrj wrote:
               | That's been a fringe legal theory for a while. But
               | historically it's been understood that even if in the
               | country illegally, somebody driving too fast is going to
               | get a ticket, right? If they commit a crime they are
               | thrown in jail. Clearly they are subject to jurisdiction.
        
               | IG_Semmelweiss wrote:
               | but they could very well be deported 1st. There's nothing
               | stopping that, in fact.
               | 
               | The only reason they go to jail is because de-facto that
               | is is fair for the victimm in that he/she gets
               | "Restitution" in the form of jail time for the non-
               | citizen, and presumably, the foreign country may even be
               | able to challenge that.
               | 
               | The dejure interpretation may be he should be banished,
               | although that would be unfair to the victim.
        
               | whimsicalism wrote:
               | How could they deport them? They're not subject to the
               | jurisdiction of the authorities, right?
        
               | vessenes wrote:
               | SCOTUS ruled on this over a hundred years ago, in the
               | case of a child born in the US of Chinese immigrants who
               | went to China in his 30s, and was denied re-entry. Denial
               | theory: Chinese citizens are subject to the Chinese
               | emperor annd therefore aren't subject to the jurisdiction
               | of the US.
               | 
               | SCOTUS response: "LOL". 6-2 (1 abstention) in favor of
               | him being a citizen. The majority assent lays out pretty
               | clearly that the jurisdiction language was to except
               | diplomats and Native American tribespeople who had
               | different treaties and status.
               | 
               | The Wong Kim Ark ruling is super, super, super clear that
               | it would only be in EXTRAORDINARY circumstances that the
               | 14th wouldn't apply. For instance, two people in an
               | invasion force sent by King George to take back the
               | colonies have a baby with each other on US soil: probably
               | not a citizen. Even then, if those two were in prison and
               | had the baby: probably a citizen. Baby of two diplomats:
               | not a citizen (called out in the ruling).
               | 
               | The dissent says: The 14th was really about Dredd Scott,
               | and giving former slaves born in US soil full citizenship
               | rights, and therefore "jurisdiction" is _obviously_ only
               | for naturalized citizens: Mr. Ark didn't _seek_
               | citizenship and therefore didn't have it, since he wasn't
               | a former slave or child of a former slave, the 14th
               | doesn't apply.
               | 
               | The current attempt to reframe the 14th while including
               | the Ark ruling relies on the _very novel_ idea that
               | anyone in the country without permission is not "subject
               | to the jurisdiction of the US". ICE's actions clearly
               | bely that take. It's not a tenable angle to try and get
               | rid of birthright citizenship, full stop.
        
               | cyberax wrote:
               | > "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof"
               | 
               | It means that the parents must be immune from the US
               | government actions. For example, if they are diplomats
               | and literally can't be arrested even if they commit a
               | murder in the plain sight.
        
             | ivape wrote:
             | The people that come here legally don't really build
             | anything of significant value when you compare it to entire
             | immigrant communities. Mexicans, Chinese, Indians, Irish,
             | you name it, they build vast amounts of culture and
             | businesses that get integrated into America. Even if you
             | give me 2 million of the smartest legal immigrants, they
             | will pale in comparison to what large immigrant communities
             | offer to the fabric of America. This is deeply American
             | issue, you either get it or you don't.
             | 
             | Just Apu from the Simpsons is only possible due to our
             | immigration. Just the very fucking iconic cartoon
             | character. This is not from legal immigration. Taco
             | Tuesdays, every Irish pub, like, it sounds silly, but what
             | they offer America is ten fold. I do not care about the
             | best and the brightest, give us your tired and poor.
             | 
             | The American right-wing reeks of elitism (soft language for
             | racist/xenophobic) and it is the antithesis of the American
             | spirit and dream. I'm not with it.
             | 
             | This will be one of my final posts on this topic because I
             | believe we are only in month five, and have 3.5 years to
             | go. I pray the midterms are a landslide, and I pray the
             | next Democrat grants Amnesty. See you all on the other
             | side, because to me this issue is no different than the
             | anit-gay marriage bullshit from the 2000s that we wiped the
             | table clean of once and for all. We are a nation of
             | immigrants and we will be so until eternity.
        
               | generalizations wrote:
               | > American right-wing reeks of elitism
               | 
               | Common notion, but based in ignorance. I've found that
               | the left wing is more idealistic, but in the sense that
               | they have chosen not to learn from history and rely on
               | immediate emotional values. The right wing sees second
               | order effects and acts on them.
               | 
               | Thus, you get the left calling the right
               | heartless/immoral/racist, and the right calling the left
               | idiots.
        
               | Erem wrote:
               | > The right wing sees second order effects and acts on
               | them.
               | 
               | It's hard to take this one at good faith. The right wing
               | is very publicly melting down the CDC for glue while the
               | second order effects of a preventable measles epidemic
               | spreads through the country. Is there a more targeted
               | claim you want to make?
        
               | generalizations wrote:
               | The right wing had a big problem with the role the CDC
               | played in the authoritarianism of the COVID era. Now
               | they're melting down a weapon of that authoritarianism.
               | What's more important, preserving civil rights by
               | preventing authoritarianism, or a single epidemic? Gotta
               | think long term here.
               | 
               | I suspect that you merely dislike the authoritarian
               | things the government is currently doing; I dislike that
               | the government is authoritarian. We are not the same.
        
               | professor_x wrote:
               | Learning from history and still ending up on the side of
               | almost every issue that is considered unspeakably cruel a
               | generation later.
               | 
               | Slavery, segregation, women's suffrage, child labor
               | protections, labor rights, Social Security, interracial
               | marriage, homosexuality, civil rights legislation, same-
               | sex marriage, the Vietnam War, the Iraq War, prohibition,
               | environmental protections, public education expansion,
               | healthcare reform, voting rights expansion, immigration
               | rights, disability rights, reproductive rights, minimum
               | wage laws, workers' compensation laws.
        
               | generalizations wrote:
               | >> rely on immediate emotional values....Thus, you get
               | the left calling the right heartless/immoral/racist
               | 
               | > considered unspeakably cruel
               | 
               | You're not disagreeing on any pragmatic basis, just the
               | emotional one. Like I said.
        
               | usernomdeguerre wrote:
               | They gave you a whole list of pragmatic policy
               | differences, are you ignoring them or in agreement?
        
               | generalizations wrote:
               | No, they gave a list of policy differences - and
               | justified them with an emotional argument: "cruel". They
               | said nothing about the pragmatic justification of them.
               | Which is exactly my point: the left tends to operate on
               | ideological emotional values.
               | 
               | They could have said things like 'reproductive rights
               | leads to X goods for the populace' or 'prohibition was a
               | net positive in Y ways' or 'minimum wage laws are shown
               | to improve GDP by Z amt on average' - but they didn't.
               | They used an emotional argument. Like I said they would.
        
               | kj4211cash wrote:
               | "Not to learn from history"? We're in the twilight zone
               | now. It's the right wing that is currently enacting
               | tariffs, scapegoating immigrants, pushing for appeasement
               | in Ukraine, etc.
               | 
               | The Republican party traded logic for populism long ago.
        
             | mayneack wrote:
             | Why does the birthright status quo need resolving? Why is
             | there magic pixie dust based on who your parents are? None
             | of these are fundamental truths. The US and the Swiss just
             | chose different laws.
        
               | rs186 wrote:
               | Exactly. Same for dual citizenship. I realize there is
               | nothing right or wrong about whether a countries allows
               | dual citizenship -- it's just two different ways of doing
               | things. Although that's a bit of a stretch here.
        
             | chasd00 wrote:
             | > It has been proposed that the US citizenship model was
             | always like the Swiss model - you could only be a citizen
             | if you were born of at least 1 citizen (naturalized or
             | otherwise)
             | 
             | I like this a lot. That makes total sense and would take
             | away the incentive to cross the border to give birth.
        
           | mayneack wrote:
           | > That's not only completely unrealistic
           | 
           | I don't see how it's unrealistic.
        
           | tomrod wrote:
           | > what do you propose as an alternative with a precedent
           | 
           | There is a moral answer, the practical answer, and two
           | popular answers, none of which are particularly satisfying.
           | 
           | The moral answer is open borders. Both capital, which is
           | generally freer than people are, and people should be able to
           | vote with their feet. However, this is unsustainable unless
           | all or a large bloc of countries allow it in reciprocity, or
           | at least countries with an EU-like agreement. It would make a
           | lot of sense for all of North America to have an EU-like
           | agreement, economically, militarily, and legally.
           | 
           | The practical answer: amnesty for parents of children who are
           | born here, conditional on criminality aversion. Like a form
           | of probation.
           | 
           | The right-wing propaganda answer: immigrants somehow took
           | jobs they are unwilling to do and therefore, while we might
           | crack a few eggs making the omelette, all immigrants must go.
           | Authoritarians love this view.
           | 
           | The left-wing propaganda: all immigrants are noble victims of
           | evil capitalist systems, and therefore any control over
           | borders is inherently racist and fascist. This is clearly
           | also unsustainable, and authoritarians love for their
           | opponents to have this view.
        
             | yubblegum wrote:
             | > The moral answer is open borders. Both capital, which is
             | generally freer than people are, and people should be able
             | to vote with their feet. However, this is unsustainable
             | unless ..
             | 
             | A strong no on this being "the moral answer". If people are
             | permitted to vote with their feet maybe people are also
             | permitted to build pickets around communities. That sounds
             | more "moral" to me than entirely ignoring the wishes of the
             | chosen destination's "people". IFF the destination is happy
             | to welcome people who think their community better than
             | their own and want to move over, then fine, that is a much
             | better candidate for "the moral answer".
        
               | tomrod wrote:
               | We already do this between states in the US and in the
               | EU, so clearly it can work in practice. We don't normally
               | look at it that way, but that is precisely how we
               | structured things.
        
               | yubblegum wrote:
               | Someone moving from Virginia to California is moving
               | within the same socio-political order and culture.
        
               | tomrod wrote:
               | Correct! It wasn't always that way, but isn't it
               | wonderful that our laws and governance allowed such a
               | flourishing!
        
             | whimsicalism wrote:
             | To what degree do we let the people decide how their
             | republic is structured?
             | 
             | Voters have rejected this sort of cosmopolitanism at the
             | ballot box, repeatedly. To suggest that governments should
             | open borders over the wishes of their citizens seems to
             | simply be an object-level misunderstanding over the goals
             | of statecraft.
        
               | tomrod wrote:
               | Repeating a bit, but we already do this between states in
               | the US and in the EU, so clearly it can work in practice.
        
               | whimsicalism wrote:
               | Because voters decided there was a common interest,
               | cultural identity, etc. and mutually agreed on political
               | integration. Voters clearly do not want a unified
               | Americas.
               | 
               | The purpose of a Republic is to be a stable entity that
               | ensures the welfare of its citizens. It is not to have a
               | single-minded obsession with global welfare at the
               | expense of its own sustainability or the desires of its
               | citizens.
        
               | tomrod wrote:
               | > voters decided there was a common interest, cultural
               | identity, etc. and mutually agreed on political
               | integration.
               | 
               | I'm less confident that this was performed in either
               | location due to direct democracy, and more because it
               | made political sense and was expedient at the time that
               | these locale enacted the governance structure.
               | 
               | In other words, it's not a one-and-done-forever type
               | discussion, and things (clearly) evolve over time.
        
               | UncleMeat wrote:
               | We don't elect an all powerful leader. The people did
               | vote for Trump. But "well they voted for Trump" is not an
               | excuse for him to do literally anything. If the people
               | want legislative changed then they elect people in
               | Congress. If the people want to change the constitution
               | itself then they can seek that too.
               | 
               | But "well Trump won so just have ICE kill them all" (this
               | is what my aunt, a republican lobbyist, wants) is not a
               | thing.
        
           | exe34 wrote:
           | "what do you propose as an alternative with a precedent that
           | you think could be agreeable to most people?"
           | 
           | A fair trial in court for a start.
        
           | p_j_w wrote:
           | > what do you propose as an alternative with a precedent that
           | you think could be agreeable to most people?
           | 
           | How about real actual fucking due process? Maybe they can NOT
           | cut off communication when the citizen father tried to
           | provide her with a phone number for legal counsel. Anything
           | else is ghoulish. Keep defending it if you really don't give
           | a shit about your level of humanity.
        
             | rdtsc wrote:
             | > Maybe they can NOT cut off communication when the citizen
             | father tried
             | 
             | Is father a US citizen?
             | 
             | Based on https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscour
             | ts.lawd.21... assuming that's the right case it doesn't
             | seem like he is
        
               | jolmg wrote:
               | Possibly meant "the citizen's father"
        
               | rdtsc wrote:
               | That could be, but I see other comments also indicating
               | the father is a U.S. citizen.
        
           | shadowgovt wrote:
           | > also a complete slap in the face to the millions of people
           | who try to migrate legally and are refused entry.
           | 
           | Yeah, it sounds like a completely unworkable situation.
           | 
           | If only there was some way to make it easier for people to
           | stay in the United States with much relaxed concern about
           | their citizenship status or documentation.
           | 
           | ... Oh wait, we could just do that. Because it's our laws,
           | which means it's rules for a game we made up for ourselves.
           | The universe does not care about the lines drawn on a map.
           | People do. If the lines drawn on a map and the separation of
           | human beings across those lines is becoming painful... Maybe
           | we stop hurting ourselves?
           | 
           | We could care less. We did care less in the past. It seemed
           | to work pretty well.
        
         | miltonlost wrote:
         | > anyone got any juice on why this is happening.
         | 
         | Because Trump is an abject racist with a white nationalist
         | policy who ran on deporting what he finds to be undesirable.
         | It's not hard.
        
         | Larrikin wrote:
         | >anyone got any juice on why this is happening.
         | 
         | Their skin color and national origin is offensive to the
         | president and the percentage of the country that voted for him.
        
         | pge wrote:
         | The current administration has set targets for numbers of
         | people deported(which ICE is currently behind on). That creates
         | an incentive to skip due process in order to get more people
         | deported more quickly (and the awareness that there will no
         | consequences for doing so probably contributes as well)
        
           | scarface_74 wrote:
           | And while trying to meet those numbers, they are being
           | specifically told not to do mass raids of farms and other
           | business in red states that will hurt Trump voters
        
             | mgkimsal wrote:
             | I suspect it's Trump donors they may be looking to spare,
             | at least a bit. I don't get the impression they care about
             | previous Trump voters very much, except to buy merch at
             | this point.
        
             | morkalork wrote:
             | Also, businesses caught employing illegal immigrants
             | seemingly don't face any punishment either. Migrants
             | wouldn't enter the US illegally if they couldn't find
             | employment, and they wouldn't find employment if businesses
             | were harshly punished. As it is, everyone is incentivized
             | to keep this cat and mouse game going.
        
               | _DeadFred_ wrote:
               | THe FBI/ICE sure cam after a judge that helped an illegal
               | immigrant. I'm sure the FBI/ICE is using the same zeal to
               | go after employers who helped them.
        
               | tomrod wrote:
               | I'm a bit hazy on the story, but wasn't ICE interfering
               | with her court?
        
               | Terr_ wrote:
               | And without any (actual, real, judicial) warrant.
               | 
               | So in principle not that different from a biker gang that
               | claims they "just want to talk to" someone who just
               | finished being a witness.
        
             | FireBeyond wrote:
             | Unless it's Tyson chicken and the undocumented workers are
             | getting a bit "uppitty" about OSHA stuff, then coordinate a
             | raid but when the workers talk about the printed
             | instructions they got from Tyson about how to fill out
             | paperwork if you are undocumented, and what you plan to do
             | about that, "we have no plans to investigate the company".
        
             | chairmansteve wrote:
             | Yep. Their rabble rousing lies are meeting the hard reality
             | that the country depends on these workers. They can't
             | deliver without destroying the food and construction
             | industries. So it's random German tourists at the border.
        
           | briffle wrote:
           | They are also trying to push for an end to birthright
           | citizenship.
        
           | masklinn wrote:
           | The administration has also been "defending" their absence of
           | due process and trying to work around judge orders to stop,
           | shaving as close to the letter of judicial orders as they
           | could when they don't just ignore them entirely.
           | 
           | ICE taking that as _carte blanche_ to smash and grab is
           | perfectly logical given that agency is ICE.
        
           | chairmansteve wrote:
           | Explains the deportation of Canadian and European tourists.
           | They need to get their numbers up.
        
         | doctorpangloss wrote:
         | Previously with the family separation policy it was part of an
         | aggressive campaign led by Stephen Miller personally. There are
         | now a few more people who want to do this as much as he does,
         | all in the administration. It was Trump who hired those people,
         | and then it was Trump who rescinded family separations and
         | fired Neilsen over it, because it made bad media. The public
         | has a template for exactly how to stop it. All that said, this
         | is what the Republican base wants.
        
         | UmGuys wrote:
         | Are you serious? Trump campaigned on spreading cruelty to these
         | people and he's doing it. There's financial incentive to keep
         | people in private prisons, and we're paying to send them to
         | concentration camps, so it's not money. It's just bigotry.
        
         | yibg wrote:
         | Deportations have always happened of course. But details
         | matter. What's making this administration different are:
         | 
         | - sloppiness and seeming cruelty of the process, intentional or
         | not
         | 
         | - disregard for judicial rulings
         | 
         | - pushing boundaries with regards to who (those with legal
         | status) and how (sending people to foreign prisons)
        
       | globalnode wrote:
       | theyve started arresting judges too, rip.
        
         | llm_nerd wrote:
         | Bondi -- an outrageously partisan hack who is destroying the
         | DOJ -- reached peak irony when she stated that "no one is above
         | the law" in talking about that case.
         | 
         | Donald Trump and his administration are on an absolute crime
         | spree[1]. Insider trading, launching shit-coins and engaging in
         | self-dealing, _completely_ disregarding both the constitution
         | and the courts, up to and including the Supreme Court.
         | 
         | The US is currently a lawless banana republic with the dumbest
         | autocrat in history. That's the one saving grace: This herd of
         | absolute imbeciles are so catastrophically stupid -- a cluster
         | of plastic-faced Fox news clowns -- that they are bound to
         | destroy everything so completely that they are overthrown out
         | of necessity. Will the US survive this? Given that it voted for
         | this rapist, charity-stealing moron twice, hopefully not. The
         | fractured nations that come out of this hopefully have a better
         | path.
         | 
         | [1] Ignoring that he is giving the most laughably corrupt
         | pardons in history, to outrageously guilty thieves, fraudsters
         | and human effluence. Trump's grotesque abuse, and quite literal
         | selling, of pardons should be the impetus for whatever husk
         | remains of the dissolved United States to abolish presidential
         | pardons.
        
           | kylehotchkiss wrote:
           | I try to not let it get to me by telling myself they all are
           | just victims of lead poisoning
        
           | tartieret wrote:
           | I absolutely love your summary
        
           | Chris2048 wrote:
           | > when she stated that "no one is above the law" in talking
           | about that case
           | 
           | My reading is that the judge lied to the FBI in order to help
           | the subject escape, AFAIK this is a felony (obstruction?) and
           | anyone else would be charged - so why isn't it equally
           | applicable to a judge? I think people are assuming the judge
           | has some form of power that she doesn't.
           | 
           | Not going to discuss Bondi or Trump, on a GBA basis.
        
             | llm_nerd wrote:
             | >the judge lied to the FBI
             | 
             | These were ICE "agents" with an administrative warrant. Nor
             | did she "lie", she refused them entry to an operating
             | courtroom -- which she was 100% right to do.
             | 
             | So nothing you said is accurate.
             | 
             | There is a _100%_ chance she will be completely exonerated,
             | but of course this clown administration -- full of in-the-
             | open criminals of the worst kind -- doesn 't care about
             | that, they just care about intimidation. Which is precisely
             | why they brought up charges without a grand jury, which is
             | basically unprecedented, because a grand jury would never
             | have levied such a charge, and then arrested her in public
             | with a perp walk with a photographer at the ready. And they
             | _know_ it won 't stick. But because they're an
             | administration of criminal garbage they just want to put
             | the judiciary in its place, while supplicants and smooth-
             | brains cheer them on.
        
               | Chris2048 wrote:
               | Apologies, It was the FBI that arrested her, but may not
               | have been to whom she lied; This is described as:
               | 
               | "Obstructing or impeding a proceeding before a department
               | or agency of the US"
               | 
               | -- https://www.washingtonpost.com/documents/d62bd73e-a370
               | -40e4-...
               | 
               | My understanding is that even in the case of an ICE
               | agent, can also be a felony:
               | 
               | https://www.birdsall-law.com/legal-implications-of-
               | interferi...
               | 
               | The agents are described by the FBI agents as "Agents
               | from [DHS], [ICE ERO]" without scare-quotes - are you
               | implying that they weren't legitimate agents? That said,
               | FBI and CBP agents are also described as being present,
               | so the distinction between ICE/FBI, and a
               | judicial/administrative warrant seem unimportant.
               | 
               | > Nor did she "lie", she refused them entry to an
               | operating courtroom
               | 
               | She appeared to co-operate (leading them away to talk to
               | the Chief judge), while actually helping the subject
               | evade arrest (returning and actually instructing them how
               | to escape).
               | 
               | The first part, the deception, is what makes the lie
               | rather than a mere upfront refusal.
               | 
               | > which she was 100% right to do
               | 
               | obstruct the agents? In which case they are right to
               | arrest her.. I'm not sure what your angle here is.
               | 
               | > nothing you said is accurate.
               | 
               | Seems to me your own corrections are just as inaccurate.
               | The above should clarify.
        
       | zarzavat wrote:
       | "Deports" is wrong word for removing a citizen. "Expels" would be
       | more appropriate.
        
         | estebarb wrote:
         | There are already words for that: banished, disappeared, forced
         | exiled, concentration camp victim... just reuse terms already
         | used to describe crimes done by nazis and other fascist
         | goverments.
        
         | bryant wrote:
         | > "Deports" is wrong word for removing a citizen. "Expels"
         | would be more appropriate.
         | 
         | While this is true, the use of what's technically the wrong
         | word highlights that the wrong action is being applied.
         | 
         | The action is a deportation. The targets are people who
         | must/shall _not_ ever be deported. Therefore the headline
         | immediately gets attention for concisely describing a
         | violation.
        
           | OutOfHere wrote:
           | I think what happened here is that the parents were here
           | illegally. The children just had to accompany the parents. I
           | find it quite possible that the children will be allowed back
           | in once they no longer have to depend on their parents.
        
             | davorak wrote:
             | The reports of no due process or little to no due process
             | for citizens[1], that is the main point to my
             | understanding. Due process for [1] would at least include
             | making sure the proper documentation was in order so they
             | could easily return in the future, making sure any health
             | care needs could be meet in Honduras or any other critical
             | needs, (not all the details are in but) the father in [1]
             | wanted the child to stay in the US, but they were deported
             | anyway.
             | 
             | I am not seeing all the details I want, but given the
             | reports of 4 year olds having to defend themselves without
             | representation it is easy to believe these reports of no or
             | little due process for child citizens.
             | 
             | [1] https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/25/us-citizen-
             | deportat...
        
             | macinjosh wrote:
             | You are correct. People watch too much TV and think this is
             | out of the ordinary. If the children were kept here we'd be
             | weeping about kids being separated from their parents.
        
               | acdha wrote:
               | This just dishonest. In the past, the rule of law
               | applied. The law is not perfect or kind, but there was a
               | process where people could defend themselves and
               | egregious violations of U.S. law like this would be
               | avoided. It wouldn't be the child being "separated from
               | their parents", it would be the family choosing to go
               | together OR the family choosing to have their child live
               | with relatives.
               | 
               | The case we heard about yesterday illustrates the
               | difference. A judge Trump appointed raised the alarm not
               | just because due process is being violated but because a
               | two year old's father was pleading with the court to let
               | his daughter live with him. Prior to this administration,
               | nobody would have blinked an eye at a U.S. citizen
               | switching custody to a U.S. citizen parent, and it'd save
               | the government a lot of money to let that happen.
               | 
               | https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/25/us-citizen-
               | deportat...
        
               | OutOfHere wrote:
               | That's an unfortunate incident. As per my understanding,
               | the father can technically go get the child back while
               | the child is under the age of 16, using just the child's
               | US birth certificate, but only through the land border. I
               | understand that this can be difficult since traveling
               | from Honduras to a US-Mexico land border crossing could
               | not be too easy.
        
               | sanderjd wrote:
               | It's not just "unfortunate", it's also illegal.
        
               | sanderjd wrote:
               | Yes, because expelling citizens is illegal, and
               | separating children from their families is tragic. Just
               | being sarcastic and cynical about it doesn't change this.
        
             | sanderjd wrote:
             | What does this "had to" mean? Was it "forced to" or was it
             | "chose to"? Seems like the former.
        
             | tomrod wrote:
             | > here illegally
             | 
             | I have to wonder what horrors and shames ones pathway of
             | life must have taken to think a person existing in a space
             | is summarizable as illegal. A person cannot be illegal.
             | They cannot exist in a space illegally. They could enter a
             | space illegally. They could be unauthorized to be in a
             | space. But by simple fact that they exist in the world, if
             | the law makes them illegal to exist, then that law is
             | unjust and should be considered void ab initio based on the
             | very few common similarities among coherent moral
             | frameworks.
             | 
             | From a practical perspective, as parents and tutelaries of
             | children who have citizenship, they should be allowed to
             | stay as guardians and join the US society. We have so many
             | who thumb their nose at culture in the US, whether the
             | right wanting to commit genocide against the outgroup under
             | the guise of MAGA or the left self-shaming because they
             | know the US can be morally better, but of all people,
             | immigrants, especially undocumented and unauthorized
             | immigrants who risk everything and worked outside standard
             | pathways just for the chance to be at the periphery of US
             | society, vulnerable to the predators and outlaws that
             | inhabit that domain, they should be given extraordinary
             | respect and consideration -- which is what we grant all
             | persons who are in the United States and subject to its
             | jurisdiction (which is geographically defined).
        
               | pessimizer wrote:
               | > A person cannot be illegal. They cannot exist in a
               | space illegally.
               | 
               | I don't know if this is true, it seems more like a
               | situational demand that you're making but giving it the
               | tone of a fact that you're pointing out.
               | 
               | If you break into my house, and I shoot you while you're
               | doing it, I won't go to prison. So either you're illegal,
               | or I've become so extraordinarily _legal_ that I can
               | shoot people with impunity. Whatever has happened in that
               | hypothetical, I do not think it is unjust. If you also do
               | not, you don 't agree _with your own premise._
               | 
               | Maybe if you make it rhyme, it will slip past people's
               | reasoning skills better.
               | 
               | > I have to wonder what horrors and shames ones pathway
               | of life
               | 
               | You don't know anyone here. Your self-regard is off the
               | charts.
        
               | tomrod wrote:
               | > You don't know anyone here. Your self-regard is off the
               | charts.
               | 
               | Ironically, I know myself fairly well and quite a few
               | folks in all political persuasions, and thus remain
               | confident in my priors. But I could see how one could
               | mistake empathy for egomania.
               | 
               | Calling people "illegal" is a hallmark of steeping in
               | rightwing/authoritarian propaganda as it is about
               | "othering" others. Self-abuse should be discouraged
               | whether it is physical (cutting, suicide, etc.) or mental
               | (losing one's capacity and faculties for reasoning to
               | authoritarian propaganda).[0,1,2,3]
               | 
               | [0] https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3
               | 934064
               | 
               | [1] https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9
               | 7810031...
               | 
               | [2] https://www.biblio.com/book/fox-effect-how-roger-
               | ailes-turne...
               | 
               | [3]
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brainwashing_of_My_Dad
        
               | chasd00 wrote:
               | Can I exist in your bedroom while you sleep tonight? Your
               | argument is ridiculous.
        
               | tomrod wrote:
               | My bedroom constitutes the entirety of the US border?
               | Your argument is reductive.
        
               | s1artibartfast wrote:
               | I think this is the rhetoric that drove the country to
               | this point. They are here illegally. They can exist
               | elsewhere legally.
               | 
               | Respect for law is critical, and valorizing the breaking
               | it undermines the very concept of society.
               | 
               | If you want more immigration, work to increase legal
               | quotas and update the law.
        
               | tomrod wrote:
               | I cannot fathom being so far removed from facts on the
               | ground as this comment suggests its commentator is.
               | 
               | 1. "respect for the law" requires both due process, for
               | both citizens and people in the geographical jurisdiction
               | of the US, and respect for the courts. Anyone who works
               | around due process and court orders does not respect the
               | law. This is a general statement regarding the treatment
               | by the current regime, using ICE, towards immigrants and
               | anyone they think is associated to it. Literally -- this
               | article is about deporting of US citizens held
               | incommunicado and without legal representation, and
               | people are already protesting judges being arrested and
               | legal residents being exiled without due process.
               | 
               | 2. "this is the rhetoric that drove the country to this
               | point" would more appropriately be attributed the
               | othering of immigrants and groups MAGA doesn't agree with
               | - how many Haitians ate dogs and cats in Ohio? Maybe more
               | than 0, but certainly not the unmoored groundswell of
               | false-flag horror that crested at the rightful mocking of
               | Trump's debate performance.[0] Ref: the moral teachings
               | on motes, beams, eyes, Golden Rule, etc. across time and
               | religions of all stripes. I reject the notion that me
               | expressing empathy for immigrants and the xenophobists is
               | rhetoric driving the country apart. It's calling a spade
               | a spade.
               | 
               | 3. "If you want more immigration, work to increase legal
               | quotas and update the law." This is sort of one of those
               | feel-good statements that have no meat or content in
               | them. We had a perfectly cromulent immigration reform
               | ready to go until Trump threw a tantrum and got
               | Republican legislators to vote against their own
               | interests because it would hurt his presidential chances.
               | We could go back to that, it had some good political
               | will, instead of the authoritarian nonsense chaotically
               | deployed. Of course, you wouldn't want me to be the
               | authoritarian -- we'd come out of things with an open
               | border and trade agreement across the Americas because
               | that's more efficient and morally justifiable than
               | military intervention at a mis-named "invasion" at the
               | border (almost as poorly named as DOGE). So rather than
               | enabling groups to work towards coherent immigration
               | strategies, we have a tyranny of the majority assumed to
               | be the will of the land.[1]
               | 
               | [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNbhpkJ69ts
               | 
               | [1] "It is abundantly clear that many activist judges
               | around the country have been acting politically in order
               | to sabotage President Trump's agenda, and disenfranchise
               | the 77 million Americans that voted for him." - Rep.
               | Derrick Van Orden (R-Wisc.) (This is 100% political
               | grandstanding, since polls show that most people now
               | disagree with Trump's agenda, [1a])
               | 
               | [1a] https://archive.ph/T7yVp, especially the immigration
               | section is now underwater
        
               | amanaplanacanal wrote:
               | If respect for the law is critical, why is this
               | administration and ICE ignoring and actively working to
               | evade court orders?
        
               | s1artibartfast wrote:
               | They shouldn't be, and we should work to hold everyone
               | accountable to the laws.
        
               | int_19h wrote:
               | Respect for law, like any other kind of respect, has to
               | be earned.
               | 
               | If you pass nonsensical, or worse yet, outright evil
               | laws, not only will they not be respected, but one can
               | reasonably argue that it is a moral duty to disrespect
               | them and assist in their breaking. The Underground
               | Railroad is a prominent historical example of this.
        
           | sanderjd wrote:
           | No, deporting means sending someone back to their country of
           | origin. You can't "deport" someone from their country of
           | origin to some other country.
        
         | AStonesThrow wrote:
         | > "Deports" is wrong word for removing a citizen.
         | 
         | In fact I looked this up recently, and "deportation" has
         | historically been used in the sense of "dispossession", i.e.
         | expelling citizens. For example the notorious deportation of
         | defeated Jews to Babylon.
         | 
         | But nowadays that "deportation" so often connotes
         | "repatriation" we'll need to make those distinctions. And
         | people seem to be completely unaware: we're in a Year of
         | Ordinary Jubilee!
        
         | rsoto2 wrote:
         | Trafficked*
        
         | rsoto2 wrote:
         | These people are being sold to El Salvador. They are being
         | trafficked.
        
       | k310 wrote:
       | Why the deliberate atrocities?
       | 
       | I read an article that starts with this proposition [1]
       | 
       | > The real question, however, is not how America lost its way. We
       | know the mechanics of it. It lost its way in large measure
       | because Donald Trump, a Pied Piper of malice, led it astray,
       | though one can't lay all of that or even most of it on Trump. The
       | American people, nearly half of those who voted, in their
       | infinite wisdom empowered Trump to do so. They were looking for a
       | Trump, yearning for a Trump, to do so.
       | 
       | > They wanted a Trump to destroy the nation. They hoped he would
       | destroy the nation both by sowing chaos and discord and by
       | supervising a demolition of our institutions and values. So the
       | real question we should be asking is why so many of our fellow
       | Americans desired this, and what deep proclivities Trump drew
       | upon to prompt the nation, at least a good part of it, to self-
       | immolate. What does Trump give them?
       | 
       | Having read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich as a young
       | person, this is reminiscent of a fascist playbook.
       | 
       | Except that it seems that social media are in effect creating a
       | culture of resentment, projection of weakness and failure onto
       | others and driving it for profit with unfiltered echo chambers.
       | 
       | The cause and effect seems to be playing to a vengeful base in
       | order to keep legislators in line until their branch and the
       | judicial branch are rendered impotent.
       | 
       | Exploring the parallels with Nazi Germany, the amassing of data
       | was paramount.
       | 
       | > DOGE is building a master database for immigration enforcement,
       | sources say [2]
       | 
       | Further,
       | 
       | > TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TEXTED COLLEGE PROFESSORS' PERSONAL PHONES
       | TO ASK IF THEY'RE JEWISH [3]
       | 
       | > The school later told staff it had provided the Trump
       | administration with personal contact information for faculty
       | members.
       | 
       | > The messages, sent to most Barnard professors' personal
       | cellphones, asked them to complete a voluntary survey about their
       | employment.
       | 
       | > "Please select all that apply," said the second question in the
       | Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, survey.
       | 
       | > The choices followed: (including) "I am Jewish"; "I am
       | Israeli"; "I have shared Jewish/Israeli ancestry"; "I practice
       | Judaism"; and "Other."
       | 
       | Data?
       | 
       | IBM provided Germany with tabulating equipment to manage
       | "undesirables" [4] [5]
       | 
       | The notion of cultural supremacy resonates with some in Silicon
       | Valley, land of big and targeted data.
       | 
       | 'Reboot' Revealed: Elon Musk's CEO-Dictator Playbook [6]
       | 
       | Silicon Valley Whistleblowers Warn Elon Musk 'Hijacking'
       | Republicans to Control Entire US Government [7]
       | 
       | PDF of their letter. [8] 630K
       | 
       | [1] https://whowhatwhy.org/culture/the-agonizing-work-of-art-
       | tha...
       | 
       | [2] https://www.yahoo.com/news/doge-building-master-database-
       | imm...
       | 
       | [3] https://theintercept.com/2025/04/23/trump-eeoc-barnard-
       | colum...
       | 
       | [4] https://allthatsinteresting.com/ibm-nazis-ww2/3
       | 
       | [5] https://allthatsinteresting.com/ibm-nazis-ww2
       | 
       | [6] https://www.thenerdreich.com/reboot-elon-musk-ceo-
       | dictator-d...
       | 
       | [7] https://bylinetimes.com/2025/02/07/silicon-valley-
       | whistleblo...
       | 
       | [8] https://america2.news/content/files/2025/02/Musk-NRx-Memo-
       | Fe...
        
         | stevenwoo wrote:
         | When they separate undocumented children from their families in
         | the first Trump term and did not bother to leave a paper trail
         | so that these families could be reunited so it would take years
         | if ever for these children to be returned to their parents, not
         | one person in the entire chain of command was punished for it.
         | When there are zero consequences for doing wrong, we should not
         | be surprised the wrong doing continues. Same with Bush Jr using
         | private servers to hide his administration's emails - now every
         | GOP administration is going to use this tactic with whatever
         | technology permits it like Signal is being used to bypass laws
         | for record keeping today because no one holds them to account
         | and no one will.
        
           | k310 wrote:
           | Crimes and atrocities will continue to be committed as long
           | as there are no consequences for them. Period.
        
           | shadowgovt wrote:
           | [delayed]
        
         | jaybrendansmith wrote:
         | I weep for my once great, free, and democratic country.
        
       | xtiansimon wrote:
       | Of course the administration was lying when it said they would
       | only target "criminals".
       | 
       | Of course it's impossible to know who "really" is a critical
       | mastermind. (Comic book lives) /s
       | 
       | Everyone should pay attention and amplify these stories of
       | targeted non-criminal families, because the "radical left" is
       | next. Joking/not-Joking
       | 
       | Here's another family in Washington state,
       | 
       | "A high schooler stays back as his family, separated by
       | deportation, returns to Guatemala"
       | 
       | APRIL 26, 2025 WEEKEND EDITION SATURDAY
       | 
       | https://www.npr.org/2025/04/26/nx-s1-5330896/a-high-schooler...
        
         | croes wrote:
         | The target only criminals, they just didn't tell who they see
         | as criminal.
        
       | thrance wrote:
       | Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/3081/
        
       | asimpletune wrote:
       | The purpose of this evil is to spread fear, provoke a response
       | and get publicity, push and prod the system for weakness/loyalty,
       | condition their supporters to accept these atrocities as normal
       | and necessary, and to communicate the blueprint by example, as it
       | gets repeatedly acted out in public. The message is this is how
       | we're operating, so if anything looks weird to you, trust the
       | plan because we're on the same team (wink wink). I wouldn't be
       | surprised if we start seeing domestic terrorism and public
       | lawlessness go unpunished if it's directed towards immigrants,
       | journalists, judges, and other 'enemies'.
        
         | sophacles wrote:
         | It's already started. Remember all those pardons for the Jan 6
         | terrorists?
        
         | aprilthird2021 wrote:
         | Yeah the judge pardoned after stealing money meant for a slain
         | officer's memorial and used that money on her own plastic
         | surgery was pardoned by Trump too
        
       | switch007 wrote:
       | The value of citizenship is being eroded each year, with
       | governments increasingly keen to strip people of citizenship [0].
       | 
       | First they came for the terrorists, then they came for the dual
       | citizenship lesser criminals.
       | 
       | We're getting a glimpse of who's next. The Dutch government
       | wanted to strip citizenship from people convicted of a crime with
       | an "antisemitic element"
       | 
       | https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/26/how-idea-of-st...
        
         | harvey9 wrote:
         | "First they came for the terrorists," Probably the least
         | thoughtful appropriation of Niemoller's speech I've ever seen.
        
       | djoldman wrote:
       | From what research I've seen, the phrasing here should be that
       | non-citizens were deported and chose to bring their US citizen
       | children with them. The children themselves were not deported.
       | 
       | This in no way excuses any of the other issues like not allowing
       | contact with legal advocates / attorneys.
        
         | nessbot wrote:
         | You got a source for that? I've hear otherwise about some of
         | the parent's decisions for their US citizen children.
        
           | evv555 wrote:
           | You got a source for that?
        
             | rsfern wrote:
             | The habeas petition for VMS (the two year old) indicates
             | the father (who was not detained at the time of the filing)
             | transferred provisional custody rights to a US citizen
             | relative, and that communications with the mother (who was
             | removed along with their US citizen child) were cut off
             | when he tried to share their lawyers contact info
             | 
             | PDF: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.l
             | awd.21...
        
           | lostdog wrote:
           | ICE is supposed to keep records, and the courts are supposed
           | to create a transparent record in the case of a dispute.
           | 
           | But ICE hid the evidence and prevented the courts from
           | looking into it.
        
         | afavour wrote:
         | Difficult to describe them as _choosing_ to do anything:
         | 
         | > ICE held the families incommunicado, refusing or failing to
         | respond to multiple attempts by attorneys and family members to
         | contact them. In one instance, a mother was granted less than
         | one minute on the phone before the call was abruptly terminated
         | when her spouse tried to provide legal counsel's phone number.
         | 
         | What would they do, leave their child in an ICE facility and
         | hope that somehow word gets back to family to go get them?
        
           | gpm wrote:
           | They would transfer custody to an individual who was allowed
           | to remain in the US. This _had been organized_ in the case of
           | at least one of the US citizens deported (expelled?) here.
        
             | Volundr wrote:
             | How do you arrange this when not allowed to speak with
             | anyone?
        
               | gpm wrote:
               | The mother and child were in custody, the father was not,
               | and was prompt in acquiring legal counsel, arranging
               | this, and suing, leading to exceptionally clear
               | circumstances in this case. This is the docket for the
               | lawsuit:
               | https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69940863/v-m-l-v-
               | harper...
               | 
               | The mother was also technically able to speak with the
               | father, though monitored, for less than a minute, and
               | they were interrupted when the father attempted to give a
               | number for the attorney to the mother.
               | 
               | To be clear, I'm not defending _any_ of ICEs actions
               | here, I 'm saying that they kidnapped this child who had
               | arrangements made to remain in the US despite ICEs best
               | (also almost certainly illegal) attempts to prevent that
               | from happening.
        
               | op00to wrote:
               | You do seem to be defending the actions by asserting that
               | it was the parents decision rather than an action forced
               | by ICE.
        
               | gpm wrote:
               | I don't see how you come to that conclusion.
               | 
               | I am arguing by pointing to the most clear and egregious
               | violation of the law and human rights, that isn't meant
               | to excuse any other violations.
               | 
               | I am not asserting that ICE followed _any_ of the parents
               | decisions, so I don 't see that I could have possibly
               | accidentally implied that ICEs actions were ok because
               | they made the parents make an impossible choice and then
               | followed it.
        
               | Kim_Bruning wrote:
               | > The mother was also technically able to speak with the
               | father, though monitored, for less than a minute, and
               | they were interrupted when the father attempted to give a
               | number for the attorney to the mother.
               | 
               | Based on your wording alone, would it be safe to say the
               | mother was unable to avail herself of counsel before
               | making a decision?
        
               | gpm wrote:
               | To the extent that they let the mother make a decision,
               | which is itself unclear, I would say all evidence points
               | to that.
               | 
               | We only really have the father's and judge's account of
               | events here.
        
               | chasd00 wrote:
               | > We only really have the father's and judge's account of
               | events here
               | 
               | Given that, then this whole thread is pointless. I just
               | assumed people were more informed based on what they're
               | claiming.
        
               | gpm wrote:
               | The fact that there's a lawsuit here with briefs
               | describing what happened in detail, and rulings from a
               | judge with detailed timelines, means we have a great deal
               | more accurate information than most news stories provide.
               | If you're not willing to make a judgement off of this
               | information, when it is so unambiguous, you're never
               | going to be able to make a judgement in time to react to
               | anything.
        
               | shadowgovt wrote:
               | The point of due process is to construct such a record.
               | The fact that due process is being denied in these
               | circumstances is one of the reasons that so much of the
               | public discussion is rumor and innuendo.
               | 
               | And this is actually one of the many things that this
               | executive doesn't seem to grasp about the fundamentals of
               | how this England-inherited, American-modified government
               | functions. Due process doesn't just protect the people.
               | It protects the king from rumors abounding about his
               | tyranny that eventually lead to his beheading, because if
               | there is no record to show then there is no record to
               | justify the actions of the crown either.
               | 
               | The Magna Carta has stood for about a thousand years. But
               | it has stood because every monarch who tried to place
               | themselves above it found themselves much shorter by the
               | end of their reign.
        
               | chasd00 wrote:
               | If the mother is not a us citizen is she entitled to
               | counsel? Or entitled to anything else? Curious to know to
               | what parts of US law apply to non citizens and what parts
               | do not.
        
               | dharmab wrote:
               | Yes, the sixth amendment is very clear on this.
        
               | Zak wrote:
               | In noncriminal matters such as deportations, there's no
               | right to counsel at public expense. The broader rights to
               | due process of law and habeas corpus have generally been
               | held by the courts to apply to immigration detention and
               | deportation, and people are certainly free to hire
               | counsel at their own expense in such proceedings.
               | 
               | It gets tricky when a deportation is completed before a
               | court can hear the case. Attempting to prevent a detainee
               | from communicating their location and situation to
               | someone who could bring a legal action on their behalf
               | doesn't appear to be explicitly illegal, but it's
               | certainly an attempt to subvert due process and probably
               | ought to be illegal.
        
               | vlovich123 wrote:
               | > In noncriminal matters
               | 
               | It's interesting how the administration always talks
               | about these people being here illegally and that they're
               | all criminals but then leverages the non-criminal aspect
               | of the proceedings to their advantage.
        
               | tomrod wrote:
               | I agree with the substance of your point. I'd argue that
               | it is less "interesting" and quite horrifying to be on
               | the receiving end!
        
             | wslh wrote:
             | Easy to explain, traumatic to experiment.
        
           | Terr_ wrote:
           | Especially when the same politicians and agencies pushing the
           | whole cruel scheme have a past history of _permanently losing
           | hundreds of children_. [0]
           | 
           | "Leave your 2-year-old with the angry government man who will
           | _totes_ ensure they are reunited with your spouse " is not a
           | choice that exists.
           | 
           | [0] https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/12/16/us-lasting-harm-
           | family-s...
        
         | miltonlost wrote:
         | Oh wow, what a choice! Imagine, having a gun to your head and
         | saying "but i had a choice!" In no way can you say that these
         | people, given no legal advocates, chose to bring their
         | children, or at least freely chose.
        
           | koolba wrote:
           | Being eventually forced to decide whether to leave your child
           | behind or take them with you out of the USA is a direct
           | consequence of the choice to illegally enter the country.
           | 
           | Are you suggesting we never deport parents under any
           | circumstance? Having a citizen child is not some get-out-
           | deportation-free card.
        
             | exe34 wrote:
             | Did a judge rule on this alleged "illegally"? Elon Musk
             | also entered the country illegally to work by pretending to
             | be a student, and somehow he got given the keys to the
             | treasury.
        
             | paulryanrogers wrote:
             | No one is saying parents cannot be deported. Rather that
             | ICE clearly engineered the circumstances to ensure the
             | child and mother were deported without any practical
             | opportunity for the child to stay.
        
             | lokar wrote:
             | Entering the US without permission is a civil offense, not
             | a crime in the way most people think of them.
        
               | didgeoridoo wrote:
               | You're thinking of visa overstay (a civil offense).
               | Unauthorized _entry_ is a criminal misdemeanor. Re-entry
               | after deportation rises to a felony.
        
               | kjksf wrote:
               | Is it, though?
               | 
               | > Entering the United States illegally is not classified
               | as a civil offense; it is a criminal offense. Under U.S.
               | law, specifically under Title 8 of the U.S. Code,
               | unauthorized entry into the country is considered a
               | misdemeanor. The specific statute is 8 U.S.C. SS 1325
        
             | oblio wrote:
             | Americans are extremely cruel.
             | 
             | The real solution to this is to end jus solis.
             | 
             | Separating children from parents is incredibly cruel,
             | inhumane, even.
        
               | tomrod wrote:
               | > The real solution to this is to end jus solis.
               | 
               | No, that's a step down a terrible return to pre-Civil War
               | policy. We should be actively fighting against
               | enslavement and for due process, not throwing our hands
               | up and saying "well, guess we can't [bring them back from
               | El Salvador, have a sane policy with respect to families,
               | have people's rights to citizenship and legal residence
               | respected]".
        
             | datameta wrote:
             | This is like claiming that getting conscripted into the
             | Russian Federation Armed Forces is a direct consequence of
             | entering illegally
             | 
             | So is their life forfeit now, and the respective goverment
             | absolved of responsibility?
        
               | tomrod wrote:
               | Such a society that chooses that has no respect for the
               | rights of an individual.
        
               | remarkEon wrote:
               | Conscription was, and probably still is in places around
               | the world, a consequence of illegal entry or for a number
               | of different offenses. It isn't here in the United States
               | so I'm not sure what your point is.
        
             | BobaFloutist wrote:
             | Actually yeah, I think having a minor citizen child should
             | probably automatically make you a citizen, or at the very
             | least a legal permanent resident (but that's stupid, let's
             | just stick to citizen).
        
         | ajross wrote:
         | > From what research I've seen, the phrasing here should be
         | that non-citizens were deported and chose to bring their US
         | citizen children with them. The children themselves were not
         | deported.
         | 
         | That seems deliberately Orwellian. What's the "not deported"
         | scenario you're imagining? Literally abandoning your child in a
         | jail somewhere?!
         | 
         | It's not like these folks are in hotels, or have access to
         | phones or family.
         | 
         | I mean, yikes. Is that really what we've come to in the
         | discourse on this site? Putting scare quotes around "deported"
         | to pretend that it's only "other issues" that are problems?
        
           | ModernMech wrote:
           | Not ironically, yes, that's where we are. I remember when we
           | would say such things about a school of children being gunned
           | down. "Really?? That's where we are now as a society? How did
           | we let this happen?"
           | 
           | We let it happen by not saying "enough" when the last thing
           | happened. If a school of kids gets gunned down and a society
           | lets that slide, that society becomes one _more tolerant_ of
           | violence against children. We said we were powerless to stop
           | that, so here we are now, bringing violence against children
           | as a matter of federal policy.
        
           | eastbound wrote:
           | The US has decided they do not want the mother in US, because
           | she's not citizen. I don't understand why it's Orwellian, it
           | was written all over when she illegally entered the US. And
           | she was given the choice to get separated or keep the child.
           | 
           | The only Orwellian thing is she was lied to by Democrats that
           | she could lead a safe life in the US. That's on you.
        
             | ajross wrote:
             | > And she was given the choice to get separated or keep the
             | child.
             | 
             | Representing that as a "choice" is precisely the Orwellian
             | part. I'm guessing you don't have kids.
        
               | eastbound wrote:
               | You're taking the rest of the world hostage with the
               | child.
               | 
               | The crime was that she was allowed here in the first
               | place, whether by the people who made her believe it was
               | possible, or by her breaking the laws as the act of entry
               | in the country.
        
               | sixothree wrote:
               | It is hard to distinguish a lack of empathy from pure
               | evil.
        
               | tomrod wrote:
               | The Lumineers nailed it. The opposite of love isn't hate,
               | it is indifference.
        
             | chasd00 wrote:
             | > The only Orwellian thing is she was lied to by Democrats
             | that she could lead a safe life in the US. That's on you.
             | 
             | This cannot be overstated. I wish I had a thousand up votes
             | to give you. Democrats made a promise they knew would never
             | hold up just for the votes. Now the chickens are coming
             | home to roost and these people who were lied to by
             | Democrats are the ones paying the price.
        
               | jmull wrote:
               | What's the logical train of thought here?
               | 
               | It's OK for a citizen to lose their rights if a political
               | party exists that espouses views you don't agree with and
               | it's possible someone related to that citizen may (or may
               | not) have listened to those views?
        
               | ajross wrote:
               | I think the steelman version would be that the rights in
               | question shouldn't exist. In that world view, the
               | birthright citizenship granted by the 14th amendment is
               | an inconvenience to be worked around; and the business
               | here about forcing a "choice"[1] where the parents will
               | "deport" their own citizen children is in fact the
               | desired policy result and not a humanitarian horror.
               | 
               | [1] Which of course isn't one, thus the Orwellian point
               | upthread.
        
               | tomrod wrote:
               | Yeesh. Even the steelman is grossly immoral!
        
               | const_cast wrote:
               | The tired trope of blaming all bad Republican actions on
               | Democrats because they "let it happen" is lame.
               | 
               | No, the democrats are not secretly worse because they're
               | watching evil happen. The people doing the evil are
               | worse, actually. That's just how that works.
        
               | low_tech_love wrote:
               | What promise was that, exactly? Do you have a quote?
               | 
               | If not, and you mean "promise by inaction", then could we
               | say then that Trump made a promise to racists, neo-nazis,
               | crypto criminals, the Russian government, etc?
        
             | low_tech_love wrote:
             | Honest question, does it have to be done this way? Or could
             | they wait maybe 2 extra hours until the child was safe? It
             | seems to me that they are cowards who prey on those weaker
             | than them and are too afraid to face those of their "own
             | size".
        
         | tomrod wrote:
         | This is not accurate, though I have found that people who steep
         | in rightwing propaganda tend to repeat these type of talking
         | points.
         | 
         | The Rawlsian veil ethic applies here.
         | 
         | EDIT: RE - the knee-jerk downvotes. I appreciate that people
         | pointing out authoritarianism can be painful if you are
         | embracing it. Cognitive dissonance is never a fun thing to work
         | through, and having done it a few times I sympathize with the
         | struggles you face or may be facing.
        
           | mariodiana wrote:
           | I'm not going to downvote you. But Rawls never applies. Rawls
           | is a big scam. At root, it is relativism wrapped up in the
           | august raiment of state-of-nature social contract theory,
           | whatever his protests to the contrary; and the relativism in
           | this case is what "feels right" to him and his fancy
           | neighbors living in Cambridge.
        
             | tomrod wrote:
             | Rawls is just an extension of the golden rule, and anyone
             | who is against treating others how they themselves would
             | wish to be treated is probably someone who shouldn't have
             | authority over others.
        
         | gpm wrote:
         | In at least one of the cases here:
         | 
         | The father explicitly did not want the child deported with the
         | mother, had informed ICE of that, and initiated legal
         | proceedings to that effect [1].
         | 
         | The mother and US citizen child were held largely
         | incommunicado. They were not given access to a lawyer, and
         | communication with the father was monitored, and upon the
         | father attempting to give them the phone number for an attorney
         | the phone was taken from the mother. Then promptly put on a
         | flight out of the country
         | 
         | When a judge attempted to contact the mother, while the mother
         | and child were still in US custody: The US did not respond for
         | an hour presumably so that it could remove the mother and child
         | from US custody prior to responding.
         | 
         | > The Government contends that this is all okay because the
         | mother wishes that the child be deported with her. But the
         | Court doesn't know that. [2]
         | 
         | And that's a quote from the Trump appointed very Trump leaning
         | [3] judge.
         | 
         | All actual evidence we have here is that the child was
         | intentionally deported (expelled?) against the parents wishes.
         | Certainly against one of the parents wishes.
         | 
         | [1]
         | https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.lawd.21...
         | 
         | [2]
         | https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.lawd.21...
         | 
         | [3] See prior rulings:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_A._Doughty#Notable_rulin...
        
           | chasd00 wrote:
           | A mother's wish, written/formal or not, for her child will
           | always override that of a father. Fair or not, that's what
           | happens in the US courts.
        
             | gpm wrote:
             | Actually what happened in the US court here is the US court
             | attempted to intercede while the mother and child were
             | still in US custody and ICE ignored the court until they
             | had successfully removed the mother and child from US
             | custody. As a result the court never got to learn the
             | mothers wishes at all.
             | 
             | (Also not true, but that's besides the point)
        
             | ffsm8 wrote:
             | While true, kinda irrelevant?
        
             | lokar wrote:
             | She was initially unaware the child could remain. When she
             | found out she wanted the child to stay.
             | 
             | Or at least that is what some reports say. It's confusing.
             | Fortunately we have a system to due process to figure these
             | issues out.
             | 
             | Unfortunately the current regime has decided that all due
             | process is subject to their discretion.
        
             | BobaFloutist wrote:
             | > Fair or not, that's what happens in the US courts.
             | 
             | That's also not actually true. Mothers tend to get custody
             | because both parties are more likely to agree to give them
             | custody (or the father is more likely to cede custody).
             | 
             | If it comes to an actual legal battle, fathers are actually
             | more likely to win custody than mothers.
        
           | wat10000 wrote:
           | Note that it's advised for a single parent traveling
           | internationally with their children to carry an letter from
           | the other parent granting permission, because it may
           | otherwise be interpreted as an attempt at international
           | kidnapping and you may be prevented from traveling. The US
           | government itself says this: https://www.usa.gov/travel-
           | documents-children
           | 
           | Yet here they are deliberately moving a child internationally
           | against the express wishes of at least one of the parents.
        
         | rsfern wrote:
         | One thing I don't understand is how this is even a choice the
         | parents have the legal right to make, assuming their US citizen
         | children do not have passports (I don't know if the answer to
         | that is publicly known). Can a child legally be taken out of
         | the country without a passport and some kind of verifications?
        
           | pessimizer wrote:
           | I think the US government seizing the birthright citizen
           | children of undocumented immigrant parents is an extreme
           | position.
        
             | rsfern wrote:
             | That's a strawman argument that I would never advocate, and
             | completely ignores my question.
             | 
             | Alternatives include arranging legal custody for the child
             | and to stay in the US with a relative (as one family was
             | attempting), or finding a legal way for them to leave the
             | country with their parents.
             | 
             | Instead, it seems the government is rushing to illegally
             | remove these children before the courts can intervene
        
               | exe34 wrote:
               | > it seems the government is rushing to illegally
               | 
               | That's the last 4 months really.
        
             | bee_rider wrote:
             | What's the non-extreme option, if the plan is to kick out
             | the non-citizen parents of US citizen children?
        
               | paulryanrogers wrote:
               | Delay deporting the non-citizen parent _at least_ until
               | the citizen children have reasonable accomodations to
               | remain in the country?  "The plan" isn't sacred. Humans
               | rights are sacred.
        
               | s1artibartfast wrote:
               | They can have the same accommodation as other US citizen
               | children abandoned by their parents.
        
               | jedberg wrote:
               | The government has a duty to protect its citizens. So in
               | this case, that would mean finding suitable childcare for
               | the citizen child before making them an orphan.
               | 
               | But ideally we wouldn't be making them orphans.
        
               | oblio wrote:
               | End jus solis. Allow all current parents to stay.
               | 
               | There ya go, the humane solution to this.
        
               | hsuduebc2 wrote:
               | Can someone who down voted this comment please explain
               | why? Is this because you do not agree with his general
               | stance or because it simplifies and doesn't contribute to
               | the debate?
        
               | tomrod wrote:
               | Not sure who downvoted, but simply ending jus solis
               | because authoritarians want to make people's lives
               | miserable is an extreme position with an awful BATNA.
        
               | wat10000 wrote:
               | I would not consider a radical change to how US
               | citizenship has worked for at least a century and a half
               | to be "non-extreme."
        
               | BobaFloutist wrote:
               | I think birthright citizenship is one of the few examples
               | of America doing something strictly better than most
               | other countries.
        
               | bee_rider wrote:
               | "End Jus Soli" would require a constitutional amendment
               | and would be universally opposed by at least one party.
               | So, it is bringing the conversation in the direction of
               | ridiculous out-there topics.
        
               | bee_rider wrote:
               | Birthright citizenship is explicitly included in the
               | 14'th amendment of the US constitution. Technically the
               | constitution could be amended again. But if we include
               | wildly controversial constitutional amendments that one
               | of our parties would be completely opposed in the list of
               | possibilities, the conversation will quickly get silly.
        
               | throwaway48476 wrote:
               | Foreign citizenship is being subject to a foreign power.
        
               | bee_rider wrote:
               | I don't see any connection here.
        
             | AustinDev wrote:
             | What happens is a single parent is sent to prison? The
             | state takes care of the children.
        
               | codr7 wrote:
               | Takes care, interesting choice of words there.
        
               | 1659447091 wrote:
               | They look for other relatives to take the children first.
        
           | mc32 wrote:
           | The same happens to US citizens who have/bear children in
           | other countries. Moreover some will do much as assume the
           | children do not have local citizenship but US citizenship
           | despite being born in that non-US country.
        
             | 47282847 wrote:
             | Only few countries give birthright to children born on
             | their territory.
             | 
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jus_soli
        
               | tomrod wrote:
               | One of which is the US,and would require a constitutional
               | amendment to change.
        
               | mc32 wrote:
               | Rather a different interpretation of the XIV. It was
               | intended for slaves and the children of slaves (there
               | were few non-British foreigners in the US) at the time.
               | However, over time, it was interpreted to mean anyone not
               | only the descendants of slaves/ex-slaves). That could
               | very well be re-interpreted.
        
               | wat10000 wrote:
               | "All persons born or naturalized in the United States,
               | and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of
               | the United States and of the State wherein they reside."
               | 
               | This seems pretty clear to me. How else could you
               | interpret it?
        
               | remarkEon wrote:
               | The entire interpretation of that amendment turns on this
               | phrase:
               | 
               | >and subject to the jurisdiction thereof
               | 
               | And if you go back and read what the drafters of that
               | amendment stated they meant on the floor of congress,
               | they did not intend it to mean Jus soli. The idea was so
               | ridiculous at the time that no one thought it worth
               | writing it down. Pity. The controlling Supreme Court case
               | spends a lot of time talking about English Common Law and
               | what "subject to the jurisdiction of the King" meant. It
               | is not hard to believe, at all, that the current SCOTUS
               | may have a different interpretation than "anyone who
               | happens to be born across this line on the map is a US
               | citizen and is granted all rights, responsibilities, and
               | privileges thereof".
        
               | wat10000 wrote:
               | Do you have more info about what they said they meant?
               | 
               | Certainly that clause has weight. It excludes diplomats,
               | members of occupying armies, and members of Native
               | tribes. But it seems strange to apply it to others,
               | unless you're also going to say that they have immunity
               | from our laws as well.
        
               | remarkEon wrote:
               | It's not that they have "immunity", it's about whether
               | the US Government has jurisdiction over them, meaning
               | they can conscript them in time of war, collect taxes and
               | so on, and that there isn't another foreign power that
               | can do or already does this.
               | 
               | Howard, who introduced the Amendment, said this[1]:
               | 
               | >This amendment which I have offered is simply
               | declaratory of what I regard as the law of the land
               | already, that every person born within the limits of the
               | United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, is by
               | virtue of natural law and national law a citizen of the
               | United States. This will not, of course, include persons
               | born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who
               | belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign
               | ministers accredited to the Government of the United
               | States, but will include every other class of persons. It
               | settles the great question of citizenship and removes all
               | doubt as to what persons are or are not citizens of the
               | United States.
               | 
               | >Now, all this amendment provides is, that all persons
               | born in the United States and not subject to some foreign
               | Power--for that, no doubt, is the meaning of the
               | committee who have brought the matter before us--shall be
               | considered as citizens of the United States ... If there
               | are to be citizens of the United States entitled
               | everywhere to the character of citizens of the United
               | States, there should be some certain definition of what
               | citizenship is, what has created the character of citizen
               | as between himself and the United States, and the
               | amendment says citizenship may depend upon birth, and I
               | know of no better way to give rise to citizenship than
               | the fact of birth within the territory of the United
               | States, born of parents who at the time were subject to
               | the authority of the United States.
               | 
               | Doubly funny that he added a line in that speech where he
               | thinks all ambiguity is gone.
               | 
               | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_M._Howard#Speech_
               | on_the_...
               | 
               | [2] https://archive.org/details/the-congressional-
               | globe-39th-con...
        
               | wat10000 wrote:
               | Thanks. Dude couldn't even make his own statements
               | unambiguous. And he can't seem to make up his mind about
               | whether the "subject to the jurisdiction" clause refers
               | to the child or the parents.
        
               | remarkEon wrote:
               | One of the disadvantages of the overly verbose style
               | common at the time.
        
               | Aloisius wrote:
               | Having read the Senate debate on the amendment to grant
               | citizenship to what would become the 14th amendment, I
               | can't disagree more.
               | 
               | They were absolutely aware that is what it. Indeed, they
               | stated it outright:
               | 
               |  _> The proposition before us ... relates simply in that
               | respect to the children begotten of Chinese parents in
               | California, and it is proposed to declare that they shall
               | be citizens. ... I am in favor of doing so. ... We are
               | entirely ready to accept the provision proposed in this
               | constitutional amendment, that the children born here of
               | Mongolian parents shall be declared by the Constitution
               | of the United States to be entitled to civil rights and
               | to equal protection before the law with others._
               | 
               | - Senator John Conness (R-CA), May 29, 1866 during Senate
               | debates on citizenship amendment introduced by Senator
               | Jacob Howard (R-MI)
               | 
               | The only real change came when they worried that
               | citizenship would be extended to Indians in tribes we had
               | treaties saying we wouldn't do just that leading to a
               | change that excluded them.
        
               | Aloisius wrote:
               | _> there were few non-British foreigners in the US_
               | 
               | People born in the Germany made up about 3.5% of the US
               | population (1.11 million) in 1860. While they were one of
               | the largest groups, many states/territories had large
               | percentages of other non-British people like California,
               | where 9% of the population was born in China. Then you
               | have territories like New Mexico where most of the
               | population had been born in Mexico.
               | 
               | Regardless, the debates for the 14th Amendment make it
               | _absolutely_ clear they understood they understood a
               | child born to, say, Chinese parents in the US would get
               | citizenship.
        
               | 47282847 wrote:
               | The point was that its not wrong to assume you will not
               | get local citizenship, since in most parts of the world
               | you won't.
        
               | wat10000 wrote:
               | If by "only a few" you mean "almost every country in the
               | Americas, plus some more."
        
               | 47282847 wrote:
               | Yes. As per the article, 33 countries. Of ~195 in total.
               | 
               | Or, in population: 13%.
        
               | wat10000 wrote:
               | "A few" means, like, 3-5.
        
               | mc32 wrote:
               | I've known children of US citizens who were presumed
               | Americans though having been born in a south American
               | country. Government kicked them all out for being
               | personae non grata Americans --children not excepted.
        
               | wat10000 wrote:
               | What's your point? Other countries also engage in
               | lawlessness to remove people they don't like?
        
               | mc32 wrote:
               | Well, people are acting like it's uniquely an American
               | thing to do.
        
               | wat10000 wrote:
               | They are? Where?
        
               | low_tech_love wrote:
               | That's because, for a while, the USA has been seen as the
               | main exponent (although obviously not the only one) of
               | western ideals such as freedom, democracy, human rights,
               | etc. So yeah it's logical that people would expect that
               | the "leader of the free world" does not act like some
               | other random country.
        
               | neither_color wrote:
               | It's not a few. It's the majority of two continents.
        
               | mc32 wrote:
               | It's the great minority of countries in the world.
        
               | neither_color wrote:
               | Well then it's a good thing historical context matters
               | more than numerical consensus when analyzing why the
               | majority of two continents settled by Europeans in the
               | last 500 years nearly all opted for one broad form of
               | conferring citizenship over another. If you were to
               | redact the name of all 195 countries, but list ten facts
               | about them and draw random names, you could accurately
               | predict which ones will have birthright citizenship just
               | by looking at other properties.
        
         | s1artibartfast wrote:
         | Should it be removed for the USC children? Can they return
         | freely without visa?
        
         | tailefer wrote:
         | And I suppose Sophie had a choice too.
         | 
         | The actions by ICE in this and other cases are beyond
         | defensible. If they have a case, let it be heard in open court
         | with adequate counsel. Stop playing the silly reindeer games
         | with people's lives.
         | 
         | That would be one way to make America great again.
        
         | jmull wrote:
         | You are detained and a guard brandishing a machete presents you
         | with a choice: he'll either cut off your right hand, or cut off
         | your left.
         | 
         | Being right handed, you choose your left, and he lops it off.
         | 
         | Was it really your choice to have your left hand cut off?
        
           | tomrod wrote:
           | Aye. BATNA (best alternative to negotiated agreement) is a
           | framework to evaluate this with.
        
         | gradus_ad wrote:
         | Illegal aliens must be deported to maintain rule of law. Their
         | anchor babies will not and should not save them.
        
           | freen wrote:
           | I seriously doubt you are of sufficient "in group" status to
           | avoid the gulag.
           | 
           | I hope that it is never decided that you are a
           | terrorist/enemy combatant/whatever and shipped off without
           | due process to an American concentration camp. (Auschvits
           | wasn't in Germany either).
           | 
           | Oh, you are a citizen? "Home Grown" so to speak? Trump
           | explicitly said that he needs five more concentration camps
           | in El Salvador just for people like you.
        
           | tomrod wrote:
           | The rule of law requires due process and following court
           | orders.
           | 
           | Declaring a fake 'invasion' and implementing authoritarianism
           | under the guise of emergency powers was already done in Rome,
           | and decidedly is not the rule of law.
        
           | wat10000 wrote:
           | We don't consistently enforce speed limits but the rule of
           | law held up fine. Why does this have to be enforced
           | absolutely?
        
           | darksaints wrote:
           | I sincerely hope people like you get sent to a Salvadoran
           | torture gulag the next time you drive over the speed limit.
           | Because we absolutely understand no circumstances can afford
           | a breakdown in the rule of law.
        
             | Der_Einzige wrote:
             | I'm so tired of how when fascists operate in the open, the
             | attempt to throw back their rhetoric to them is always
             | perceived as "weak", "beta", and incompetent from the
             | public at large. Feels like some SCP object of right wing
             | reaction exists in this country.
             | 
             | There's never any kind of "extreme" movement designed to
             | stamp this shit out in the USA. It ends up being kids
             | wearing red who have never done pushups or other hard
             | exercise before, mixed with a healthy dose of spooks making
             | absolutely sure that these organizations never gain any
             | real power.
             | 
             | A whole lot of authoritarian bootlickers in this thread who
             | are ready to sell out their countrymen to CECOT themselves
             | deserve to spend some time in a torture prison like that -
             | because there is nothing else in this world that will
             | convince them of the utter inhumanity of such a place.
             | 
             | But you know, "so much for the tolerant left" and all that.
             | Fuck this stupid, tyrannical, authoritarian, reality.
        
               | JumpCrisscross wrote:
               | > _the attempt to throw back their rhetoric to them is
               | always perceived as "weak", "beta"_
               | 
               | You're literally calling "the left...beta" in this thread
               | [1]!
               | 
               | [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=Der_Einzige
        
           | lostdog wrote:
           | February 29th, 2027, the so called "Hacker News" is declared
           | a criminal and illegal site. The wartime powers delegated to
           | the Supreme President allow him to imprison domestic enemies
           | and remove them. Gradus_ad is right in the middle of
           | explaining the difference between "begging" and "panhandling"
           | to the hobo he is harrassing, when disguised agents grab him
           | off the street for commenting on a criminal site. He is
           | whisked off to a correction facility in Hungary (it is now
           | illegal for this publication to call them "gulags") and never
           | heard from again. Luckily the agents who disappeared him say
           | everything was handled legally!
        
         | ridgeguy wrote:
         | There are more egregious cases, of course.
         | 
         | https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/us/politics/us-citizen-de...
         | 
         | A post elsewhere about the details said ICE found the two-year
         | old was unable to 'describe her status in full, intelligible
         | sentences', so deported, even though her father (not deported
         | and not consenting to his child's expulsion) wanted her left
         | with him.
         | 
         | From my experience with two-tear olds, I guess ICE was
         | technically correct.
         | 
         | edit - typo
        
         | JumpCrisscross wrote:
         | > _phrasing here should be that non-citizens were deported and
         | chose to bring their US citizen children with them. The
         | children themselves were not deported_
         | 
         | This is what ICE alleges. They're a uniquely uncredible witness
         | among government agencies [1][2].
         | 
         | A judge found the father's allegations worthy of meriting
         | "strong suspicion that the Government just deported a U.S.
         | citizen with no meaningful process," an act which is itself
         | illegal [3]. _That_ is far more credible.
         | 
         | [1] https://www.aclu.org/court-cases?issue=ice-and-border-
         | patrol...
         | 
         | [2] https://apnews.com/article/ice-immigration-arrest-trial-
         | cont...
         | 
         | [3]
         | https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.lawd.21...
        
       | andsoitis wrote:
       | While the 3 minors are US citizens, their parents are not and the
       | parents can be deported because they are in the country
       | illegally.
       | 
       | That means you have the following options:
       | 
       | a) deport nobody, i.e. you don't apply the law
       | 
       | b) deport just the parents. What do you do with the minor
       | children? Separating them from their parents (different
       | countries) would be cruel.
       | 
       | c) deport the entire family, including the US minors. Since they
       | have US citizenship, they can always return to the US.
        
         | miltonlost wrote:
         | DEPORTING US CITIZENS is the logical choice? Logical to deport
         | children to someplace they have never been and they don't have
         | citizenship to? It's still illogical, evil, unconstitutional,
         | and cruel.
        
           | tomrod wrote:
           | Its post hoc logical, if you want to justify the actions of
           | an autocratic regime and don't have an ethical foot to stand
           | on.
        
         | otde wrote:
         | Why is a) bad? Have you considered d) pass a different law? Why
         | are you pretending the law is some immutable thing that we
         | always need to follow, regardless of the situations an unjust
         | law might place someone in if followed?
        
           | samlinnfer wrote:
           | Instead of processing immigration applications fairly for
           | everyone, we just should let people who break the rules get
           | away with it?
           | 
           | Having deportation as an actual threat, reduces the amount of
           | people who attempt to break the rules since they know there
           | are consequences.
        
             | undersuit wrote:
             | What about the threat of jail? Is the US punitive system
             | not effective? In many ways I'd rather be an immigrant than
             | a citizen if the punishment for crimes is deportation
             | rather than detention... as long as I'm not being sent to
             | country that has also suspended their constitutional right
             | to due process.
        
               | samlinnfer wrote:
               | First, I don't believe this crime rises to the level of
               | jail. Second, it doesn't make sense here because if the
               | parents are jailed who will take care of the children?
               | I'm also not sold on putting more people into the meat
               | grinder of US judicial system. When they deported at
               | least they will be free. Ironically, compared to the US
               | judicial system, this is the more human approach.
        
               | undersuit wrote:
               | You said "break the rules". If you meant border crossing
               | say it next time. Also they aren't free if they are
               | deported to, like I already said, a country that has also
               | suspended due process.
        
             | otde wrote:
             | Why does the consequence have to be deportation? Can we
             | imagine a form of deterrence that doesn't necessitate the
             | cruelty of familial separation? Do we at least agree that
             | what is happening _right now_ , to this family and to
             | others, is deeply unjust?
        
           | nelsondev wrote:
           | Until a new law is passed, the government and courts have a
           | duty to follow the current law.
        
             | kccqzy wrote:
             | You have misunderstood what it means to follow the law. The
             | law guarantees liberties, but doesn't guarantee
             | prosecution. Obama has DACA, which gives young illegal
             | immigrants a deferral on their prosecution. More generally
             | there's the concept of prosecutorial discretion. Have you
             | ever for example driven a car badly, been pulled over, but
             | the cop let you off with just a warning?
        
               | thfuran wrote:
               | Or, for that matter, driven a car badly but not been
               | pulled over at all? Surely in the interest of absolute
               | lawfulness they then proceeded to the nearest police
               | station to demand to be ticketed.
        
               | remarkEon wrote:
               | Surely you understand the difference between a cop
               | declining to issue a speeding ticket and a federal
               | "discretionary" policy that makes it de facto legal to
               | violate standing immigration law at scale.
        
               | kccqzy wrote:
               | There is no difference. People often complain during the
               | pandemic that the San Francisco police department has
               | seemingly instituted a "discretionary" policy that makes
               | it de facto legal to violate traffic law at scale, you
               | know, including speeding, not stopping at stop signs, not
               | yielding to pedestrians. https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfran
               | cisco/comments/11nbnxw/san_f...
        
               | remarkEon wrote:
               | Maybe you are misunderstanding. A single cop deciding
               | "okay today I'm letting you off with a warning" is quite
               | different from the President directing the entire Federal
               | bureaucracy to not enforce existing immigration law. If
               | for some reason a large jurisdiction, say maybe the state
               | of California, decided that it was policy to let everyone
               | off with a warning for speeding infractions, then, if I
               | squint hard enough and ignore a wide range of second and
               | third order effects, then yeah maybe they are similar.
        
         | healsdata wrote:
         | d) Give them access to legal counsel and a judge who can all
         | help make this decision on a case-by-case basis and in
         | accordance with the law.
        
         | tomrod wrote:
         | d) Follow due process and allow the immigration judge to
         | determine
         | 
         | e) Amnesty if living here for awhile and not causing a
         | ruckus.[0] US is huge, it needs more people not less.
         | 
         | [0]
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Reform_and_Control...
        
           | harvey9 wrote:
           | E was what the Democrats have offered and it lost them the
           | last election
        
             | tomrod wrote:
             | Nah, lies, propaganda, and an incoherent strategy for Biden
             | leading to limited window with Harris lost the last
             | election.
             | 
             | There was a perfectly cromulent immigration plan ready to
             | be voted on by Congress before Trump threw a tantrum
             | because it would have hurt his election chances.
        
               | harvey9 wrote:
               | They threw Harris a hospital pass, and other variables
               | also matter, but ultimately the party that was positive
               | about migration lost the vote.
        
             | 0x5f3759df-i wrote:
             | E was what notable bleeding heart... Ronald Reagan chose
             | during his time in office.
             | 
             | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Reform_and_Cont
             | r...
        
           | gedy wrote:
           | > US is huge, it needs more people not less
           | 
           | Would be nice if we had more housing for that.
        
             | tomrod wrote:
             | A tangent, but a welcome one for sure! NIMBYism has led to
             | some pretty terrible outcomes. I recommend giving the work
             | of the StrongTowns organization a read for a critical
             | review of current policy and upcoming issues associated
             | with it, as well as reasonable recommendations for how we
             | can make stronger communities.
        
         | fnordpiglet wrote:
         | Except that's not the situation here and you left a key option
         | out.
         | 
         | D) the child remains with the legally resident / citizen parent
         | or their immediate families
         | 
         | In these cases they have legally resident parents, just not the
         | one who the child was with when snatched without due process.
         | They're being denied the ability to coordinate the handoff of
         | the child to the other parent or family who can take
         | responsibility. ICE is not allowing the families to coordinate
         | the child's care - they're isolating the parent from their
         | broader families, denying due process, access to legal
         | representation, and unilaterally deporting US citizen children
         | who have other options but were denied the ability to access
         | them.
         | 
         | In the United States our constitution assures -all people- due
         | process and basic human rights. There is no carve out that if
         | you're visiting the country or otherwise not a citizen that you
         | can be summarily detained, deprived of liberty, and handled
         | however the government chooses including extraordinary
         | rendition to third countries for indefinite imprisonment
         | without recourse. Nothing that is happening is allowable, or
         | even defensible because however you feel about immigration -
         | every action being taken could be taken to tourists, students,
         | or other guests if allowed under the premise only citizens
         | enjoy protections.
         | 
         | And in these cases, even citizens are being given no deference
         | - and the fact they're toddlers should be even more
         | frightening.
         | 
         | Here's a quote from the release that basically implies ICE is
         | murdering one child summarily:
         | 
         | """a U.S. citizen child suffering from a rare form of
         | metastatic cancer was deported without medication or the
         | ability to consult with their treating physicians-despite ICE
         | being notified in advance of the child's urgent medical
         | needs."""
         | 
         | So, the headline as written dramatically understates the
         | situation, and the proposed dichotomy is false. There are many
         | other options, spelled out in the law and regulation and
         | requirements - even constitutionally - and they're being
         | ignored as an apparent matter of political policy.
        
           | harvey9 wrote:
           | Your option d looks to be much like the option b in the post
           | you replied to
        
             | fnordpiglet wrote:
             | Except it's not, because it's not the parents but "a
             | parent" being deported, and b) was phrased fallaciously to
             | imply the child would be left alone without legal care
             | givers.
        
           | andsoitis wrote:
           | > In these cases they have legally resident parents, just not
           | the one who the child was with when snatched without due
           | process.
           | 
           | Is that true? I re-read the article (but didn't google for
           | other sources), but nowhere could I see that definitively
           | stated.
           | 
           | It would be interesting if the deportable mother of one of
           | these minors (e.g. the one who is pregnant) decided to leave
           | them with other family in the US rather than stay together as
           | a family, but it is of course her right to make such a
           | decision.
        
             | rsfern wrote:
             | In the case of the two year old who was removed with their
             | mother, they have US citizen family that the father is
             | trying to transfer custody (it seems he doesn't have legal
             | status, but I haven't seen a definitive source)
             | 
             | PDF: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.l
             | awd.21...
        
         | AIPedant wrote:
         | "you don't apply the law" is a really dishonest way of phrasing
         | this, when "hit them with a small financial penalty for the
         | civil immigration violation and fast-track their green cards"
         | is also an option.
         | 
         | Illegally immigrating to the US is a civil violation, not a
         | criminal one, and far less of a threat to US safety than going
         | 5mph over the speed limit or running red lights. It is entirely
         | lawful for the executive and judicial branches to use
         | discretion and compassion in cases when under-18 US citizens
         | are involved.
        
           | andsoitis wrote:
           | > Illegally immigrating to the US is a civil violation, not a
           | criminal one
           | 
           | It can be both, depending on the situation:
           | 
           | * First-time illegal entry into the U.S. (like crossing the
           | border without inspection) is a criminal misdemeanor under
           | federal law (8 U.S.C. SS 1325).
           | 
           | * Unlawful presence (like overstaying a visa) is usually a
           | civil violation, not criminal. It can lead to deportation but
           | not criminal charges.
        
             | AIPedant wrote:
             | I understand this is splitting hairs, but that law applies
             | equally to US citizens. And formally people aren't deported
             | for crossing into the US illegally, they are deported for
             | being there without a valid visa/etc. (Informally there is
             | more leeway for overstaying a work visa, of course.)
        
         | rsoto2 wrote:
         | Maybe if your labor is exploited by a capitalist hiring you
         | illegally you should be legalized instead of humiliated and
         | your life destroyed with a possible death sentence in a
         | concentration camp. Meanwhile all the money you paid into this
         | system is repatriated among "good just legal" citizens like
         | yourself.
         | 
         | You benefit from this monstrosity that takes advantage of
         | people and leaves them destitute and you know it deep down. If
         | yall support this don't ever delude yourself into thinking
         | you're a good person.
        
         | JumpCrisscross wrote:
         | > _c) deport the entire family, including the US minors. Since
         | they have US citizenship, they can always return to the US_
         | 
         | I mean sure. But let's let the next Democrat who's in charge
         | determine that kidnapping or maybe even voting wrong are crimes
         | that merit summary deportation. After all, if they're good
         | citizens, they can always return.
         | 
         | The history of suspending _habeas corpus_ is strikingly one
         | way. Maybe we 'll be the first society to defy that trend. But
         | the end game we're heading to is mass political violence.
        
       | chris_wot wrote:
       | So this is what America voted for.
        
       | beloch wrote:
       | Let's do a time warp.
       | 
       | It's 2018. Children are being separated from their parents and
       | kept in cages[1]. It's really important to notice that the
       | pictures in this article are not from reporters, leaks or
       | anything of the sort. They were released by Customs and Border
       | Protection and, no doubt, make things look better than they were.
       | 
       | What has changed since Trump's first term? Yes, there is now a
       | stronger sensitivity to separating children from their parents,
       | among the public at least. One solution is to simply deport child
       | citizens along with non-citizen parents and claim it was by
       | choice.
       | 
       | What solutions are we _not_ seeing in the media though? How many
       | photos are being published about conditions in ICE facilities,
       | Guantanamo bay, etc.? What 's going on that we just don't know
       | about this time? If some judge ordered the release of photos of
       | current conditions in ICE facilities, they'd be ignored or even
       | charged with some made-up crime.
       | 
       | I see a lot of people here trying to reason this away, but it's
       | going to be worse than last time and, eventually, the truth will
       | get out. I know it's tough to care about this while Trump is
       | simultaneously tanking the stock market, waging trade wars,
       | threatening multiple countries with invasion or annexation, etc..
       | That is by design. Even Americans who cannot spare any sympathy
       | for immigrants need to _make_ the time to care about how their
       | government is treating American children.
       | 
       | [1]https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44518942
        
         | AustinDev wrote:
         | Let's do another time warp.
         | 
         | It's 2000, Bill Clinton is about to wrap up his second term and
         | has deported more people in that term than any president ever
         | at nearly 7,000,000 deportations. Trump barely had 2,000,000
         | deportations in his first term. Trump's first term was the
         | lowest level of deportations for any administration since
         | Carter. Obama, Reagan, Both Bushes, Clinton and Biden all
         | deported more people every term of their administrations.
         | 
         | This has been going on for a long time. I doubt Trump will beat
         | Clinton's 2nd term. I'd be willing to bet on it if anyone wants
         | to take the other side.
         | 
         | There is so much lack of context in all these discussions. The
         | 'Maryland Man' that everyone is extremely concerned about was
         | first deported by Obama admin in 2009. Remigration is an ugly
         | business, but it has to happen if you want to live in a
         | sovereign nation under the rule of law.
        
           | dweinus wrote:
           | Oh cool, horrendous things like this have been done for
           | years. I guess it's fine then, human rights violations aren't
           | real if someone else did them too. /s
        
           | 0x5f3759df-i wrote:
           | "We're incompetent and can't achieve our goals by following
           | the same laws and due process previous administrations used
           | so we're just going to perform as many random acts of evil
           | and right violations to the people we can grab and hope that
           | makes up the difference "
        
             | AustinDev wrote:
             | I know, right? The incompetence is mind blowing. At least
             | they stopped letting people in, but they'll never reach
             | their stated goals. To be fair though 'due process' via a
             | hearing isn't that common in deportations in this country.
             | 
             | "The Obama administration has prioritized speed over
             | fairness in the removal system, sacrificing individualized
             | due process in the pursuit of record removal numbers.
             | 
             | A deportation system that herds 75 percent of people
             | through fast-track, streamlined removal is a system devoid
             | of fairness and individualized due process."[1]
             | 
             | 3/4 of Obama era deportations were 'nonjudicial removals'
             | meaning that there was no hearing in front of an
             | immigration judge before removal. People just didn't care
             | as much then I suppose.
             | 
             | [1] https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/speed-over-
             | fairn...
        
           | elliotec wrote:
           | How many of those included US citizens and legal residents?
        
             | AustinDev wrote:
             | Best data I can find says it's been on the order of >20
             | <100 per year over the last ~30 years. Which seems
             | relatively reasonable given the size the denominator.
             | Wrongly deporting legal residents and citizens is obviously
             | awful but there is no such thing as a perfect process.
        
             | umvi wrote:
             | Hard to tell since the legacy media has historically leaned
             | left (and has tended tend to look the other way on stories
             | that make democrat administrations look bad), but I would
             | not be surprised if, out of 7 million, some % of corner
             | cases slipped through due to human error.
        
           | JackYoustra wrote:
           | Saying "there is no such thing as a perfect process" when
           | discussing the unconstitutional deportation of LITERAL
           | American citizens on an overnight, including a child with
           | cancer deprived of medication, isn't a reasonable position.
           | It's an attempt to normalize extreme rights violations.
           | 
           | > Remigration is an ugly business, but it has to happen if
           | you want to live in a sovereign nation under the rule of law.
           | 
           | god, what enemies do you have?? I don't know how you go from
           | "give them due process" to "the west has fallen" unless you
           | mean restricting migration by law, which Biden proposed and
           | Trump rejected last year. I'm actually curious - are you
           | aware of that law? Did you hear about it?
        
             | AustinDev wrote:
             | >Saying "there is no such thing as a perfect process" when
             | discussing the unconstitutional deportation of LITERAL
             | American citizens on an overnight, including a child with
             | cancer deprived of medication, isn't a reasonable position.
             | It's an attempt to normalize extreme rights violations.
             | 
             | As I've mentioned in other comments non-judicial removals
             | (no immigration hearing) are in fact very common accounting
             | for nearly 75% of all removals. Deportation of American
             | citizens has happened, and it is wrong. It's been happening
             | every year in small numbers for the last 30 years. In the
             | OP case in particular the children were deported with the
             | parents at the parent's request according to a DHS
             | statement. So this was not a mistake.
             | 
             | >I'm actually curious - are you aware of that law? Did you
             | hear about it?
             | 
             | Of course, you're talking about The Emergency National
             | Security Supplemental Appropriations Act. The 'immigration
             | amendment' wasn't really necessary and you could argue the
             | better electronic communications outlined in the bill
             | actually could increase immigration efficiency. It was a
             | very popular lie that legislation was needed to stop
             | millions of illegals from entering the country during the
             | Biden administration. Border crossings have dropped ~95%
             | since the new administration took over. Probably for two
             | main reasons, no more parole while waiting for a hearing
             | and NGO funding drying up.
        
               | JackYoustra wrote:
               | If you think it's wrong then it certainly does not 'has
               | to happen if you want to live in a sovereign nation under
               | the rule of law'
               | 
               | If you can't criticize the overall objective (large-scale
               | depopulation of America because so-called undesirables
               | don't meet arbitrary legal criteria) then at least
               | criticize the approach - don't call it an ugly but
               | necessary business.
               | 
               | Call it a completely unnecessary violation of civil
               | rights and due process that it is! Don't make up garbage
               | about sovereignty.
        
               | AustinDev wrote:
               | My argument was that remigration is never going to be
               | pretty however it is necessary to enforce your
               | immigration laws as a nation to be fully sovereign.
               | Deporting citizens was never part of that argument. It's
               | obviously wrong, it's been happening at a small scale for
               | decades. If that number changes and we see even a 2-3x
               | growth in the number Americans mistakenly deported, I'll
               | be the first in line to call for regime change. It's
               | unacceptable just like the talk of sending US Citizens to
               | foreign prisons, it's just insane.
        
               | JackYoustra wrote:
               | At this point I mostly agree with you, but I kinda want
               | to keep going on the sovereignty thing. Prosecutorial
               | discretion and state incapacity to prosecute every crime
               | has existed... literally forever. Sovereignty only means
               | "supreme power or authority" - I don't see how migrants
               | threaten it, it's not like they're trying to lead an
               | insurrection or anything.
        
               | AustinDev wrote:
               | Sovereignty may have been an imprecise word choice for
               | sure. However, I do not think having 10's of millions of
               | people in the country without legal status who can be
               | easily abused is 'a good thing'. I also don't think
               | amnesty is a viable solution. So mass remigration is the
               | only real solution I see. As we approach a post-labor
               | economy over the coming decades how many more people do
               | we actually need? I don't know I'm not an economist but,
               | my gut tells me not a whole lot.
               | 
               | You didn't ask but what's my ideal immigration solution?
               | I'm not an expert but this seems common sense to me,
               | maybe it's extreme let me know. RICO the NGO's who funded
               | the mass migration. Offer a check and a plane ride for
               | anyone that wants to self deport. Stiff penalties and
               | permanent banning and deportation for those that don't
               | take the offer. On the legal immigration side cancel all
               | non-tourist visa types and let existing visas expire.
               | Replace them with a simple employer sponsored visa with a
               | ~400k/year (inflation adjusted) payroll tax and let any
               | company that wants to pay the tax sponsor as many people
               | as they want. The free market would sort out who is the
               | best and brightest and bring them over. Provide these
               | people and their immediate families with an easy path to
               | citizenship over ~5-10 years. Probably need some solution
               | for allowing in seasonal farm workers.
        
       | dghughes wrote:
       | How much do you want to bet legal US citizens deported will still
       | need to file for US taxes since you can never outrun the IRS.
        
         | diabllicseagull wrote:
         | US tax code do be like that
        
         | pembrook wrote:
         | Of course they do. The hilarity of the US's uniquely draconian
         | global taxation system collides with its incomprehensible
         | schizophrenic immigration system.
         | 
         | Complexity is the root of all evil.
        
       | nharada wrote:
       | Feels like this conversation is full of people getting hung up on
       | arguing the technicalities and exact phrasing of this situation.
       | Is that really important to the broader conversation?
        
         | whoknowsidont wrote:
         | When you're a sheltered suburbanite nerd (yeah, even the
         | "rural" ones) who will never have to truly worry about being in
         | this situation, this is just an exciting news story to squabble
         | over and smugly flounder about on your keyboard.
         | 
         | Deplorable.
        
           | Waterluvian wrote:
           | I feel more disgusted by the Americans who know this is wrong
           | but do nothing. I have no patience for evil people, but the
           | truly damned are all the Americans who know and sense better
           | but do not or cannot act properly.
           | 
           | If deporting U.S. CITIZEN CHILDREN does not send you to the
           | streets with fire and fury, you are well and truly lost. So
           | much damn talk over the decades I've been alive about
           | patriotism and liberty from America, but when a moment
           | unquestionably calls for action, it turns out Americans were
           | just unserious cosplayers the whole damn time.
        
             | wat10000 wrote:
             | It's worse than that. Far too many of us want this stuff.
             | 
             | I understand the basic idea of how you fight an oppressive
             | regime everyone hates. I have no idea how you go about
             | fighting one that half the country supports. Protests
             | aren't going to fix that.
             | 
             | Last time around, I could at least soothe myself with the
             | idea that he only won because our electoral system is
             | idiotic, and a lot of voters didn't understand what they
             | were voting for. This time? He won the most votes, and
             | everyone had every opportunity to see what they were
             | getting. I can only conclude that my countrymen are fucked
             | in the head.
        
               | mystraline wrote:
               | > I understand the basic idea of how you fight an
               | oppressive regime everyone hates. I have no idea how you
               | go about fighting one that half the country supports.
               | Protests aren't going to fix that.
               | 
               | In reality, around 22% of the US populace (not just
               | voters, but everyone) voted for Trump. Similar voted for
               | Harris.
               | 
               | The rest didn't vote. I refuse to attribute
               | justifications, since they are too numerous.
               | 
               | But that is correct, _peaceful_ protests like 50501 aren
               | 't going to do much. Their value is more networking and
               | mutual aid creation/management.
               | 
               | What does work, especially historically, is violence. As
               | a historian, when you look at pivotal points in history,
               | changes were only won after a LOT of violence was
               | applied.
               | 
               | The trick is that groups like 50501 are absolutely needed
               | for a different reason. The governments cannot negotiate
               | with 'terrorists', but can save face by negotiating with
               | 'peaceful groups'. We see this recently with MLK and
               | Malcolm X, Sinn Fein and IRA, Ghandi and dozens of
               | separatist factions.
               | 
               | I'm not publically advocating violence, but the more
               | fascist they become, well, that will be inevitable.
               | Different people and groups have different lines in the
               | sand.
               | 
               | We're already talking about breaching medical records for
               | 'defectives' (autism) list, turning trans folk into non-
               | humans, kidnapping/disappearing people off the street,
               | tattle-tale emails and phone#s to report people,
               | lebensraum (Canada, Greenland, etc), off-country
               | concentration camps (CECOT), and more. And we're only 3
               | months in of 4 years.
               | 
               | If I had the ability to get out, I would have. But I'm
               | guessing that even the better off here also don't have
               | the ability.
        
               | wat10000 wrote:
               | I think you're counting people who aren't even eligible
               | to vote. Among eligible voters, it was about 1/3rd to
               | each of Trump, Harris, and staying home.
               | 
               | I don't give a lot of credit to those who stayed home.
               | They also knew who Trump was and decided to let others
               | make the choice on their behalf.
               | 
               | I'm not confident that even violent action would change
               | things when so many people are in favor of or at least ok
               | with what's going on. You're not going to win a fight, so
               | is the idea to win hearts and minds? I don't see that
               | working.
        
               | mystraline wrote:
               | > I think you're counting people who aren't even eligible
               | to vote. Among eligible voters, it was about 1/3rd to
               | each of Trump, Harris, and staying home.
               | 
               | Oh, I absolutely am counting every human in the US, and
               | not registered voters. Total counts are like 45% of the
               | whole population voted.
               | 
               | I chose total counts to get a better idea of density vs
               | political affiliation since we have those at the district
               | level.
               | 
               | > I don't give a lot of credit to those who stayed home.
               | They also knew who Trump was and decided to let others
               | make the choice on their behalf.
               | 
               | Perhaps. Perhaps not. Usually, the back and forth between
               | statist democrat and statist republican weren't that much
               | diverging, although campaigns would portray the other
               | side as baby-eaters.
               | 
               | This is different. And even just 3 months, I'm seeing
               | apolitical people come out of the woodwork and actually
               | start being political. And even though I do vote, I get
               | the idea of 'as long as politicians do decent, I don't
               | care'.
               | 
               | > I'm not confident that even violent action would change
               | things when so many people are in favor of or at least ok
               | with what's going on. You're not going to win a fight, so
               | is the idea to win hearts and minds? I don't see that
               | working.
               | 
               | I'm not seeing a fight ala lines of militia lining up
               | firing in lines. I'm thinking what we're headed towards
               | is much much more like Luigi. Or more historically, what
               | we saw in France during WW2 - sabotage and hit-n-runs.
               | 
               | And the battle lines are also pretty defined as well. Its
               | going to be a fight between rural and cities.
               | 
               | Like I said, if I had the ability to leave until the
               | situation here comes to some semblance of sanity and
               | stability (along with respect for human decency), I would
               | leave. But at the moment, that is not an option for me.
               | So instead, its a "what can I do to safeguard me and
               | mine, for the foreseeable future?"
               | 
               | (So far, my answer is: grow my own food, get to know
               | local farmers and pay/trade, connect with local mutual
               | aid orgs, become more self-sufficient, canning and food
               | preservation. That sort of stuff. Goal is to just blend
               | in, and help non-violently where I can.)
        
             | whoknowsidont wrote:
             | >but the truly damned are all the Americans who know and
             | sense better but do not or cannot act properly.
             | 
             | MLK said it best: "the moderate who is more devoted to
             | order than to justice, who prefers a negative peace which
             | is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the
             | presence of justice"
             | 
             | And even now you have people that think showing up with
             | clever signs around the downtown parks / public areas on
             | the weekend when all the government offices are closed are
             | somehow going to get their message across. It's not enough.
             | It was never enough. It wasn't enough for Vietnam or Iraq.
             | It's definitely not going to be enough now. Americans are
             | going to have to choose to do some uncomfortable and maybe
             | even risky things to demonstrate our disapproval.
             | 
             | Or we have to admit that for many of us, this is who we
             | actually are as a country. It certainly is a good bit of
             | the voting public. I don't think it's a mistake that in
             | basically one generation we lied to the world about Iraq
             | then elected a fascist twice. And at that point I don't
             | think stern dissent is an effective or even morally correct
             | course of action.
        
               | thechao wrote:
               | I've been in the get-out-the-vote space for 25 years,
               | now. I've been politically active against gerrymandering
               | nearly as long. My wife was tooth-and-nails in the
               | redistricting fight (in Texas; Texas!) for ~10 years.
               | 
               | Here's my hands-on experience: at least half the people
               | you meet are defective, to a scary extent, functionally
               | in terms of empathy. Probably two thirds have serious
               | executive functioning deficits. That means they can
               | neither understand the plight of their fellows; and, even
               | if they could, they could not generalize their own
               | situation into a policy to help everyone in the same
               | situation.
               | 
               | EDIT: most people don't vote. A disproportionate number
               | that do are both empathetic, and high have high levels of
               | executive functioning skills. The flip side of the coin
               | are activated people who are missing one-or-the-other
               | skills, but are voting out of some other errant ideology.
               | I want to be clear that the distribution of voters is
               | "both sides": there are disgusting and enlightened voters
               | on both sides of the spectrum. We're _all_ trapped in the
               | box, together.
        
               | jml78 wrote:
               | My FIL has been a conservative his whole life and has
               | never voted. He immediately recognized the nazi talking
               | points from Trump. Said Trump was going full Nazi. But it
               | wasn't enough to get him to register to vote and vote
               | against a nazi
        
               | camgunz wrote:
               | I grew up working class in Indiana, and can confirm. My
               | in-laws were reeling after the 2016 election and they
               | just couldn't understand how people could vote for Trump,
               | basically. My answer was "you're polite, highly educated,
               | upper middle class people, most people everywhere are not
               | like you. That doesn't make them bad or less than, but
               | they make bad decisions basically constantly. This is
               | just one in a long stream of them."
        
               | nineplay wrote:
               | > MLK said it best: "the moderate who is more devoted to
               | order than to justice, who prefers a negative peace which
               | is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is
               | the presence of justice"
               | 
               | Are you a moderate who has a better plan? I ask that
               | sincerely, if I've given up its not because I prefer
               | peace but because I know a losing battle when I see one.
               | We don't have a charismatic leader like MLK. The
               | democratic party is in shambles. They're afraid of
               | fighting the tariffs and alienating the working class.
               | There is no one in the party who is broadly likeable, who
               | has any chance of bringing the voting public together.
               | Voters on the left still cling to their own personal pet
               | peeves and insist they will never vote for anyone who
               | doesn't specifically address whatever they think is the
               | _real_ problem.
               | 
               | The sad reality is that Trump's policies are still really
               | popular and if people are unhappy they are only unhappy
               | with the execution. You see that in this thread. People
               | see the this news story and see it as an unfortunate side
               | effect of a basically good policy. They think illegal
               | immigration is hurting our economy, they think 'anchor
               | babies' are people taking advantage of a loophole that
               | should be closed.
               | 
               | They think this country suffers because of tariffs and
               | maybe they think Trump got carried away but they still
               | support the idea. They are sick of Ukraine and think it's
               | time we walked away. They think DEI means a black women
               | will be hired over a white man under any circumstances.
               | They think DEI in schools means our kids are being taught
               | that the US is full of horrible backwards racists and
               | sexists who need liberal saviors to make it better. They
               | think that government agencies are overpaid and over
               | bloated and full of people who don't do anything but get
               | a fat paycheck.
               | 
               | These beliefs cut across people of all genders, of all
               | colors, of all ages, of all states and cities. We can't
               | even blame the boomers anymore and insist the younger
               | generations will save us. No one will save us.
        
               | weaksauce wrote:
               | > Are you a moderate who has a better plan?
               | 
               | stop supporting moderate politicians that appeal to no
               | damn person. find someone with charisma like obama. there
               | is no magical moderate voter that the dems keep hoping to
               | appeal to. they already have been the center right party
               | for decades now.
        
               | nineplay wrote:
               | > stop supporting moderate politicians that appeal to no
               | damn person
               | 
               | I think you are right but I think half of democratic
               | voters think the party has gone too left ( abortion,
               | gender politics ) while half thinks it has gone too far
               | right. The democratic party is trying to have it both
               | ways and utterly failing, but in their defense I don't
               | think fully embracing either side will be enough for them
               | to win. The problem is largely the voters who absolutely
               | refuse to compromise on their personal hill to die on.
               | Republican voters will unite on anyone as long as they
               | piss of the left.
               | 
               | > find someone with charisma like Obama
               | 
               | That person does not exist, or if they do they are too
               | smart to support the shambling mess that is the
               | democratic party.
               | 
               | I think the party is gambling that Trump makes such a
               | hopeless mess of things that voters will have no choice
               | but vote blue. I'm not sure they will win that gamble.
        
               | camgunz wrote:
               | > Are you a moderate who has a better plan?
               | 
               | I wouldn't say I'm a moderate, but I do have a better
               | plan: https://runforsomething.net/
        
             | neilv wrote:
             | Additional reasons for inaction:
             | 
             | 1. They don't know what they can do that will be effective.
             | 
             | 2. They don't want to be targeted as dissidents or non-
             | loyalists to the regime.
             | 
             | 3. They're drained by their individual economic situations
             | and worries.
             | 
             | 4. They're drained by severe disappointment in large swaths
             | of the electorate, and in the failure of checks and
             | balances.
             | 
             | 5. Events are so upsetting that they're in denial or
             | consciously avoiding it.
             | 
             | It might be reassuring to see huge protests, but I wouldn't
             | encourage individuals to do that anymore, because most of
             | those people will be identified by the various surveillance
             | technologies that we've built. (Half of the surveillance
             | built by techbros, incidentally.) The identified can then
             | be further suppressed with automation, and the barriers to
             | doing that are much lower than mass physical roundups and
             | concentration camps.
        
             | s1artibartfast wrote:
             | Answering for myself, I don't see a movement that is
             | strictly for due process, law, and order.
             | 
             | Each side is so encumbered with baggage that I don't want
             | to support them.
             | 
             | One is breaking law and processes in egregious ways. The
             | other thinks that law should not apply to illegal
             | immigrants and even legal deportations are a due process
             | violation.
        
               | whoknowsidont wrote:
               | >The other thinks that law should not apply to illegal
               | immigrants and even legal deportations are a due process
               | violation.
               | 
               | Where? Who? You're just making this up.
        
               | s1artibartfast wrote:
               | Im entirely honest. There are many in this thread
               | suggesting amnesty or non-enforcement. If I dont want to
               | take part in an open boarder or anti-enforcement protest,
               | where do I go?
               | 
               | What do you think? Should all illegal immigrants be
               | deported?
        
             | mvdtnz wrote:
             | Americans have long since been lost. Some of their biggest
             | protests in recent history have involved wearing vagina
             | hats. They are an unserious people.
        
         | generalizations wrote:
         | Either the technicalities matter, or our legal system runs on
         | vibes. I think it is important.
        
           | ridgeguy wrote:
           | Our legal system has always depended on vibes to mitigate
           | technically correct unjust or catastrophic outcomes. It's
           | broadly labelled "prosecutorial discretion", and operates at
           | every level of the justice system.
           | 
           | IMHO, it's essential.
        
             | nickff wrote:
             | Prosecutorial discretion hasn't meant much to me since the
             | Bond got prosecuted for violating a chemical weapons
             | treaty, and Yates got prosecuted for fish-shredding.
             | 
             | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_v._United_States_(2014
             | )
             | 
             | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yates_v._United_States_(201
             | 5...
        
               | Misdicorl wrote:
               | Sometimes the vibes are wrong, and things go haywire.
               | This is why zero tolerance policies have to be instituted
               | in schools. That doesnt mean the general idea is wrong.
               | Strict adherence to written law will always fail justice.
               | The world is too nuanced and too fractal to handle every
               | edge case well.
        
               | noelwelsh wrote:
               | Every system fails sometimes. The only interesting
               | question is whether it is systemic or not.
        
             | timewizard wrote:
             | > has always depended on vibes
             | 
             | Jury trials do. Administrative trials never have.
             | 
             | > It's broadly labelled "prosecutorial discretion",
             | 
             | Federal DAs win 98% of their cases. This discretion is not
             | what you think it is.
             | 
             | > IMHO, it's essential.
             | 
             | Well, unless they're J6 defendants, or any other group
             | labeled by the media as undesirable.
        
             | generalizations wrote:
             | Good vibes, or bad vibes? The technicalities of the law
             | keep both in check. Vibes don't just allow us to "mitigate
             | technically correct unjust...outcomes" - they also let
             | people in power "mitigate technically correct
             | _just_...outcomes " to achieve their own desired ends.
        
           | intermerda wrote:
           | I assume you believe it's important that the federal agents
           | should raid every marijuana dispensary in the US and for the
           | DOJ to prosecute dispensary owners and individuals who smoke
           | and participate in weed consumption in each state. Is that
           | correct? After all, technicalities matter.
        
             | the8472 wrote:
             | The flip side is unevenly enforced laws, with parts of the
             | government having discretion onto whom they bring down the
             | monopoly on violence.
        
           | rsoto2 wrote:
           | It was once legal to own people so what the fuck do you think
           | it runs on
        
             | ithkuil wrote:
             | Laws != Legal system
        
         | SpicyLemonZest wrote:
         | The broader conversation is impossible to have. "What policies
         | do we need to ensure due process without compromising the
         | effectiveness of immigration enforcement?" Even trying to start
         | the conversation feels like a troll, because when the system
         | looks like it does today who's going to concede the premise
         | that immigration enforcement shouldn't be compromised?
        
         | exceptione wrote:
         | I think the one who derailed the conversation did not do that
         | on purpose, but yes, throwing in a technicality to us/the HN
         | crowd is like throwing red meat to the lions.
         | 
         | It seems we as technical people give little reason for giving
         | us a leading role in society. I admit that the media doesn't
         | help as they keep the big picture out of frame, but then again,
         | we are very easily cornered with minor details.
         | 
         | Anne Frank's house is not far from where I live. I bet that the
         | term "forcefully" in a sentence like "She was forcefully
         | deported" could have been up for debate too, who knows, but in
         | the end it would not have really helped the girl.
        
         | perihelions wrote:
         | C-f "citizenship"--55 results
         | 
         | C-f "metastatic cancer"--1
         | 
         | There's a poor child that's being withheld access to their
         | medication and to their oncologists, and the adults in the room
         | --adults in uniforms, adults with guns, adults in suits and
         | adults in black robes--all of these adults are doing their
         | adult things with their adult words, and the sum total of all
         | that is the child still is without their cancer medicine.
         | 
         | What good can we be, if *this* result is the sum total of our
         | good intentions?
        
           | freen wrote:
           | The purpose of a system is exactly what it does.
           | 
           | This IS the point, the goal, and the purpose.
        
           | mindslight wrote:
           | The assumption of "good intentions" is not really warranted
           | at this point. This movement is mainly driven by people who
           | feel they have been marginalized by our society, and they
           | want to lash out and see other people get hurt, period.
           | 
           | Regardless of the ways they have been marginalized, and how
           | much marginalization they have done to themselves by failing
           | to engage with the complexity of the world and following
           | malicious leaders instead, this is where we are at. We need
           | to stare this bare reality in the face lest the supporters,
           | enablers, and fence-sitters continue soothing themselves with
           | rationalizations.
        
           | watwut wrote:
           | Not all of those adults have good intentions. In fact,
           | situation happened because of adults who have bad intentions,
           | managed to execute them and are happy about the result.
           | 
           | And they have been giving benefit of the doubt too many times
           | already. At this point, it is absurd to pretend there are
           | good intentions in the core of this.
        
           | slg wrote:
           | >There's a poor child that's being withheld access to their
           | medication and to their oncologists, and the adults in the
           | room--adults in uniforms, adults with guns, adults in suits
           | and adults in black robes--all of these adults are doing
           | their adult things with their adult words, and the sum total
           | of all that is the child still is without their cancer
           | medicine.
           | 
           | People like to blame these sort of situations on leadership
           | and systems, but every individual involved in this is making
           | a personal choice to let this happen.
           | 
           | Even if you agree with the general motivations and principles
           | behind these, do you not have the humanity to realize the
           | absurdity and cruelness of what is being done in some of
           | these examples? No special accommodation can be made to get
           | the kid with cancer their medicine while they are in custody?
           | 
           | I genuinely don't know how those questions can be answered
           | any other way than "cruelty is the point" and if that is your
           | response, I don't know how you sleep at night.
        
             | low_tech_love wrote:
             | Every individual involved in this is doing it because there
             | is something to be gained. The system is basically saying
             | "the more you deport, the more numbers you generate, the
             | more funding you get and the less I will check what you do
             | with it". We can blame the individuals sure, but if they
             | keep getting showered with money for doing the wrong thing,
             | of course the system has a big responsibility. Why should
             | the people involved not do this if they are being
             | explicitly encouraged by their employer to do it?
        
               | int_19h wrote:
               | Based on some interactions I have had with CBP and ICE in
               | the past as a legal immigrant, I'm confident that many of
               | those people aren't doing it because of any sort of
               | monetary gain or career advancement, but simply because
               | it gives them an outlet to realize their sadistic
               | tendencies.
               | 
               | And because is tolerated and even encouraged, these jobs
               | attract exactly those kinds of people. Which is how you
               | end up with an organization with an internal culture that
               | revels in human suffering.
        
             | JumpCrisscross wrote:
             | > _every individual involved in this is making a personal
             | choice to let this happen._
             | 
             | To be fair, you and I are involved. I'm on vacation in
             | Mexico. You're presumably also doing something comfortable.
             | We've had, in the span of days, a judge arrested in her
             | court room and multiple U.S. citizens--children, no less---
             | illegally detained and deported.
             | 
             | It's blowing my mind to say this. But the right is clearly
             | using violence as a political tactic. That means there is
             | not only legitimacy, but necessity, in the opposition to
             | begin deploying violence as a political tactic as well. (By
             | this I mean disrupting infrastructure, interfering with law
             | enforcement, disrupting lawmaking, _et cetera_. Break their
             | cars. Hack their systems. Block their streets and maybe
             | cause damage to their buildings. Under no circumstances do
             | I mean causing physical harm to anyone.)
             | 
             | ICE "abruptly terminated" a phone call with the detained
             | mother "when her spouse tried to provide legal counsel's
             | phone number". The brown shirts [1] are here.
             | 
             | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmabteilung
        
               | int_19h wrote:
               | Remember Willem van Spronsen?
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Tacoma_immigration_det
               | ent...
        
               | belorn wrote:
               | Things are moving closer and closer to a civil war.
               | Occupying and destroying government property is where the
               | military get called in. Shots will be fired and that will
               | be the flame that ignites the powder keg. A lot of
               | children will die, and even more will grow up in an
               | endless cycle of death.
        
           | andrepd wrote:
           | You are wrong in assuming good intentions. This child is on
           | the eyes of some people "less than human".
        
             | egberts1 wrote:
             | As evidenced by some 291,000 undocumented children whose
             | administrative paperworks are lost.
             | 
             | https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2024-08/
             | O...
        
         | pyuser583 wrote:
         | Americans don't trust the press.
         | 
         | A lot of these technicalities are parsing "what did the press
         | actually say" which is the first step in dealing with an
         | untrustworthy source of truth.
        
           | intermerda wrote:
           | The distrust of the press has been cultivated intentionally.
           | A POTUS saying "What you're seeing and what you're reading is
           | not what's happening" would have been seen too farcical for a
           | comedy. And yet here we are.
        
             | pyuser583 wrote:
             | When you read article after article that imply one thing,
             | but actually say something else, how should we respond?
             | 
             | Parsing out what the article says is necessary.
             | 
             | It's how articles are written, and how reporters and
             | editors ask they be read.
             | 
             | "John Doe committed a terrible crime, the FBI said" does
             | not mean the press is reporting the John Doe committed a
             | terrible crime.
             | 
             | I wish the press would respond to cultivated mistrust by
             | committing to high standards, but they have not.
        
               | foxglacier wrote:
               | Absolutely. And this whole idea of demonizing
               | misinformation just makes it worse by implying that true
               | information presented in a way that intentionally and
               | actually misleads readers is somehow OK.
        
             | lazide wrote:
             | The 'press' has been clear bullshit (for me) since Gulf War
             | 1.
        
             | timewizard wrote:
             | > The distrust of the press has been cultivated
             | intentionally.
             | 
             | Yea, by the press itself, or, do you honestly believe the
             | billionaire owner class of this form of media has done an
             | excellent job reporting truthfully over the past 30 years?
             | 
             | Pull yourself back from your politics and genuinely
             | consider this.
        
               | pyuser583 wrote:
               | When reading an article, how do I figure out what the
               | "good reporter" is trying to say, and distinguish it from
               | what the "bad owner" is trying to say?
               | 
               | The best way I know is to carefully parse the text in its
               | most literal form. That is what the "good reporter" is
               | saying. The "general idea" of what is being said is
               | probably what the editor wants.
               | 
               | Owners and editors want "wow" articles. Journalists know
               | most of what they report is just "somebody said
               | something."
        
               | timewizard wrote:
               | The point I'm replying to is that this was "cultivated
               | intentionally." I understand the mechanism we're trying
               | to determine the source.
               | 
               | You also seem to forget that journalists sometimes leave
               | and become owners in their own right. Where does that
               | blurry line begin and end, actually?
               | 
               | Means, motive, opportunity. It's always the same triad
               | and you can't avoid applying to all parties involved.
               | 
               | Given that and the importance of broadcast media I can't
               | imagine why anyone thought they were getting the truth.
               | Or even if they were somehow not a highly selected and
               | edited version of it. Designed to manipulate and control
               | not to inform.
        
           | watwut wrote:
           | The press has way better track record then right wing
           | personalities systematically villyfying it.
        
             | ithkuil wrote:
             | But yet, due to the nature of asymmetric warfare, it's so
             | easy to discredit a reputable institution that holds itself
             | to some standards which sometimes are not met. All you need
             | to attack it is to not have any such standards but just
             | flood the zone with shit and when you say something wrong
             | just lie or claim "I never claimed to be an expert, I hate
             | experts, I'm just a comedian/or something like that"
        
         | cryptoegorophy wrote:
         | What's the conversation? Separating kids from parents or
         | deporting them with parents because we don't want them to be
         | separate? There is no question about breaking the law by
         | parents. Question is do you let children be with their
         | mothers(who apparently asked to do so) or no.
         | 
         | As someone who came legally to Canada and went through thorough
         | screening of 4 years before coming I just don't get how people
         | are ok with "cheaters" gaming the system.
         | 
         | "Think of the children" works when you are in a super white
         | rich neighborhood, if you never lived in slums you won't
         | understand the abuse of the system by "think of the children",
         | you just don't see it from the other side.
        
           | bodiekane wrote:
           | > just don't get how people are ok with "cheaters" gaming the
           | system.
           | 
           | This is a story about citizens being deported without due
           | process, without access to lawyers, without access to
           | healthcare.
           | 
           | You don't have to be "ok with cheaters" to still want those
           | people to have basic human rights and to see the system have
           | legitimate judicial review.
           | 
           | The punishment here is far worse than the crime, and it's
           | directed at children who didn't commit the crime, and it was
           | doled out in a horrifyingly abusive totalitarian police-state
           | style. Maybe you're not seeing things from the right side?
        
           | watwut wrote:
           | A dad of a kid was literally fighting for the kid to stay. He
           | is an American. I read about one case and that was the
           | situation.
           | 
           | Maybe stop making hypotheticals designed to excuse what
           | happened and fake concerns. There was no attempt to keep
           | family together oe do right by the kids.
        
             | JumpCrisscross wrote:
             | > _dad of a kid was literally fighting for the kid to stay.
             | He is an American_
             | 
             | Are you saying he's figuratively American, or that the
             | father is a U.S. citizen. Because VML's petition for writ
             | of _habeas_ [1] doesn 't mention the latter.
             | 
             | [1] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69940863/1/v-m-l-
             | v-harp...
        
           | gopher_space wrote:
           | > As someone who came legally to Canada and went through
           | thorough screening of 4 years before coming I just don't get
           | how people are ok with "cheaters" gaming the system
           | 
           | We grew up with the idea that America was a beacon, not a
           | whites-only gated community.
           | 
           | There's no reason for us to think less of someone just
           | because they want to be here. Our ancestors did exactly the
           | same thing.
           | 
           | It sucks that you're here complaining about the Statue of
           | Liberty.
        
           | neither_color wrote:
           | >I just don't get how people are ok with "cheaters" gaming
           | the system.
           | 
           | I usually steer clear of talking about these issues but
           | there's something in the framing of this issue that maga has
           | intentionally made people misunderstand: People do not say
           | "I'm going to risk my life crossing a desert, and then when i
           | have kids I'll be untouchable!" The actual "cheaters" are the
           | birth hotel operators, whose clients are wealthy
           | international elites who fly in while pregnant, then
           | immediately leave to raise their US citizen babies abroad:
           | 
           | https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/feds-raid-l-
           | maternity-h...
           | 
           | These instances of people actually and deliberately cheating
           | the system require a completely separate system of
           | enforcement that does not need to target desperate people who
           | happened to get pregnant over the course of living life and
           | making ends meet and whose children for all intents and
           | purposes will grow up as regular English-speaking Americans
           | who will go to school, work and pay taxes just like everyone
           | else. Immigrants on dual-intent visas(e.g forever h1b but not
           | yet green card), asylum seekers, etc do not get pregnant to
           | "cheat the system".
        
           | thephyber wrote:
           | Have you seriously not gone through the thought exercise of
           | why some thoughtful + well-informed people would oppose your
           | opinion on the subject?
           | 
           | (1) in previous centuries, the US accepted as many immigrants
           | as could arrive "on Ellis Island" and it only took a few
           | weeks. All of the immigration barriers that you overcame were
           | added by American legislators many centuries after my
           | ancestors came to America. I don't view "illegal immigrants"
           | any different than I viewed my own ancestors who came to
           | America in the 1500s.
           | 
           | (2) US law affords legal pathways to residency/ citizenship
           | for refugees and political asylum claimants. Just because you
           | used one slow legal workflow doesn't mean you should look
           | down on people who used a faster legal workflow. They aren't
           | "gaming" the system -- they are using the fast lane that was
           | installed purposefully. If anything, we should use the
           | legislature to revisit the fast lane (the refugee and
           | political asylum claims)
           | 
           | (3) an infant didn't have any volition in this situation.
           | Maybe they were born here as an "anchor baby" (which the
           | Trump Admin is trying to redefine as not-a-citizen, breaking
           | with all of the jurisprudence). If they were pushed over the
           | border by their parents or someone else, we have a duty to
           | make sure their life is handled with care, not malice.
           | 
           | (4) there are political and media interests in making "legal
           | immigrants" like you hate other immigrants. It makes native
           | born Americans feel like they have cover for their hatred of
           | immigrants. You should sit with the thought experiment of
           | whether it's actually relevant to the conversation that you
           | "spent years getting here the hard way" or whether the
           | conversation would be more productive without it.
           | 
           | (5) the reason the "immigration system is broken" is because
           | there are multiple factions in America who can't agree on
           | what kind of changes to make to it. Famously Obama tried to
           | force Congress to deal with it around 2013, but the "Gang of
           | Eight" couldn't come up with even broad guidelines for
           | changes that both parties would agree to. There are simply
           | too many people who have strong opinions and yet believe
           | untrue things about American immigration. Are you perhaps in
           | this category?
        
             | remarkEon wrote:
             | Re point (5), the "gang of eight" bill would've been the de
             | facto process (illegally entering, having children or
             | marrying, attempting to bring family over via chain
             | migration) the de jure one via advertising to the rest of
             | the word that violating US immigration law does not matter.
             | We ended up running an experiment over the course of the
             | last 4 years to see what that looks like and the results
             | are grim.
             | 
             | >There are simply too many people who have strong opinions
             | and yet believe untrue things about American immigration.
             | 
             | You appear to be operating from a different premise than
             | people who are skeptical of past efforts to "reform"
             | immigration law. "Permanent legal mass migration" is not
             | the bargain the country wants to make, and thus far every
             | attempt to "reform" immigration operates from that initial
             | premise.
        
               | BobaFloutist wrote:
               | Our economy, ability to feed ourselves, and ability to
               | sustain our population is fundamentally dependent on
               | "Permanent legal mass migration."
        
               | throwaway48476 wrote:
               | Wages are too low to incentivize investment in automating
               | these jobs, precisely because of illegal immigration.
        
           | mariodiana wrote:
           | Exactly. Children belong with their parents. And if their
           | parents don't belong here, then Q.E.D.
        
         | 3vidence wrote:
         | This is what HN has felt like for the past ~year ish. Makes me
         | realize this community has a lot of "bike shedding" types who
         | easily miss the forest from the trees.
         | 
         | Slowly stopped looking for insight here on any topic that
         | involves even a small amount of larger picture thinking, really
         | quite sad.
        
         | JumpCrisscross wrote:
         | > _Is that really important to the broader conversation?_
         | 
         |  _Habeas corpus_ predates the Magna Carta [1]. A U.S. citizen
         | 's right to _habeas_ has been wilfully abrogated by the state.
         | If this stands, I 'm absolutely for taking all the pardoned
         | January 6th nutters and sticking them in Guantanamo or wherever
         | come 2028 or 2032.
         | 
         | [1]
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_corpus#Origins_in_Engla...
        
       | santoshalper wrote:
       | I think a couple of things are important to remember in a time
       | like this:
       | 
       | 1. This behavior, whether legal or not, is profoundly inhumane.
       | 
       | 2. No law, statute, or rule requires us to treat anyone
       | inhumanely. The people behaving this way are doing it because
       | they want to. These are not people you want to have access to any
       | power.
        
       | blinky81 wrote:
       | I cannot for the life of me understand why Americans have such a
       | problem with other people coming here to seek a better life. Half
       | this country has been tricked into seeing hardworking immigrants
       | as a threat to their safety and livelihood -- but by all metrics,
       | immigrants are a net positive to society.
       | 
       | I also take issue with the idea that this extreme exclusionary
       | mindset is somehow new to America. A lot of people frame what's
       | happening as if it's the first time this country has gone through
       | this. There is a long and storied tradition of otherizing,
       | deporting, and imprisoning. Going back to our very foundation --
       | America was born out of a process of expelling Native people from
       | their lands. Then there's the Great Migration period and the
       | intense reaction to it, the Palmer raids, FDR's internment camps,
       | Eisenhower's deportations, McCarthy era "anti-communism", mass
       | incarceration as a reaction to the Civil Rights Act,
       | Islamophobia, and now this aggressively right wing anti-
       | immigration sentiment.
       | 
       | The people of America, unfortunately, are prone to drastically
       | evil actions when they are tricked by opportunistic political
       | actors into believing their way of life is somehow under attack.
       | This cycle has been going on for a long time.
        
         | aprilthird2021 wrote:
         | > The people of America, unfortunately, are prone to
         | drastically evil actions when they are tricked by opportunistic
         | political actors into believing their way of life is somehow
         | under attack.
         | 
         | All people are like this. When the economic prospects for you
         | look bleak, it's very aggravating to see someone you believe is
         | an outsider is succeeding. We see microcosms of this in the bay
         | area where people blame tech workers for driving the cost of
         | living up and making it hard for regular people. In reality,
         | housing policy has done that, but people get mad seeing new
         | outsiders enjoying the life that has become harder and harder
         | for them to afford.
        
           | anon7725 wrote:
           | > When the economic prospects for you look bleak
           | 
           | This is the richest nation on earth with a roughly 4%
           | unemployment rate we're talking about here.
        
             | throwaway48476 wrote:
             | People are buying groceries on credit.
        
         | koolba wrote:
         | > I cannot for the life of me understand why Americans have
         | such a problem with other people coming here to seek a better
         | life. Half this country has been tricked into seeing
         | hardworking immigrants as a threat to their safety and
         | livelihood -- but by all metrics, immigrants are a net positive
         | to society.
         | 
         | I have no issue with _legal_ immigration. Far from it, I'm in
         | favor of attracting the best, brightest, and most hard working.
         | 
         | But knowing people overseas that want to come to the USA but
         | are respectful enough to want to do it legally, I take issue
         | with anyone that enters the country illegally. They're cheating
         | the system and showing immediate disdain for our system of
         | laws. The second order effects of funneling money to smugglers
         | and coyotes are bad as well.
         | 
         | Every country has a right to decide who can visit or immigrate.
         | That's the right of any sovereign state.
         | 
         | If the people of America want more immigration then have them
         | petition their representatives to change the laws to all for
         | it.
        
           | darksaints wrote:
           | They deported a US Citizen. A child. Kept from contact from
           | her US Citizen father.
           | 
           | If that's the sort of way that you believe we should treat
           | legal immigrants, you have no basis to claim any support for
           | them.
        
             | rdtsc wrote:
             | > A child. Kept from contact from her US Citizen father.
             | 
             | Is that true?
             | 
             | If this is the correct case link it doesn't seem like the
             | father is a US citizen?
             | 
             | https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.lawd.2
             | 1...
             | 
             | > father executed a Provisional Custody by Mandate under
             | Louisiana Revised Statutes
             | 
             | It seems odd that he would give provisional custody to
             | "family friend" then?
             | 
             | Then this doesn't add up then
             | 
             | > Respondent Harper later sent an email further evincing
             | her refusal to release V.M.L. to her custodian, see Exh. 2,
             | and stating that she would instead require V.M.L.'s father
             | to turn himself in for detention and deportation,
             | 
             | So they wanted to deport the US citizen father?
             | 
             | It's possible that I am looking at a different court case
             | perhaps.
        
           | JumpCrisscross wrote:
           | > _They're cheating_
           | 
           | "Of course, 'It is illegal and unconstitutional to deport,
           | detain for deportation, or recommend deportation of a U.S.
           | citizen.' See Lyttle v. United States, 867 F.Supp.2d 1256
           | (M.D. Ga. 2012) (citing Tuan Anh Nguyen v. Immigration &
           | Naturalization Serv., 533 U.S. 53, 67 (2001) (affirming that
           | a citizen has the 'absolute right to enter [the United
           | States] borders'); Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U.S. 618, 629
           | (1969) ('This Court long ago recognized that the nature of
           | our Federal Union and our constitutional concepts of personal
           | liberty unite to require that all citizens be free to travel
           | throughout the length and breadth of our land uninhibited by
           | statutes, rules, or regulations which unreasonably burden or
           | restrict this movement.')" [1].
           | 
           | To the extent someone is unequivocally cheating, it's ICE.
           | 
           | [1] https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.lawd
           | .21...
        
             | koolba wrote:
             | If you read the complete sentence you'd realize I'm
             | referring to cheating against every other potential
             | immigrant to come to the USA.
             | 
             | > To the extent someone is unequivocally cheating, it's
             | ICE.
             | 
             | So what exactly is ICE supposed to do if they are deporting
             | the illegal alien mother and child is a citizen? Forget the
             | possibility of a deported father. Say a single mother with
             | no legal status is being deported.
             | 
             | Does she not get the option to take her child with her?
             | 
             | If she didn't take the child the same people would be
             | likely be screaming about ICE separating families.
             | 
             | Kids are not a get out of jail free card.
        
               | JumpCrisscross wrote:
               | > _you'd realize I'm referring to cheating against every
               | other potential immigrant to come to the USA_
               | 
               | I know. I'm pointing out that the mother's illegal
               | immigration is outweighed by ICE's illegal detention,
               | deportation and wilful abrogation of legal and
               | constitutional rights of a U.S. citizen.
               | 
               | > _what exactly is ICE supposed to do if they are
               | deporting the illegal alien mother and child is a
               | citizen?_
               | 
               | Follow the law. In this case, that would involve
               | transfering the child to her designated custodian [1].
               | 
               | > _If she didn't take the child the same people would be
               | likely be screaming about ICE separating families_
               | 
               | Not an excuse for breaking the law!
               | 
               | [1] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69940863/1/v-m-
               | l-v-harp...
        
         | madcadmium wrote:
         | > by all metrics, immigrants are a net positive to society.
         | 
         | What about wage suppression?
        
           | mikeyouse wrote:
           | In study after study, immigrants actually raise the wages of
           | citizen workers by taking the lower paying jobs while
           | citizens can then be more productive. The idea they suppress
           | wages is just another form of the 'lump of labor' fallacy.
           | 
           | https://www.jstor.org/stable/41426727
           | 
           | https://www.dagliano.unimi.it/media/12-Ottaviano-
           | Peri-2008.p...
        
             | annexrichmond wrote:
             | You are really twisting things to make your argument sound
             | plausible in the general case. More supply means less
             | wages. Why focus on low paying jobs? Are you seriously
             | suggesting that if we import every software engineer from
             | India that wants to come here that my salary will increase?
             | If so, that's very interesting why tech CEOs are lobbying
             | so hard for this.
        
               | JackYoustra wrote:
               | Your "more supply equals lower wages" argument is
               | demolished by top economic research. A recent NBER study
               | calculated that "immigration, thanks to native-immigrant
               | complementarity and college skill content of immigrants,
               | had a positive and significant effect between +1.7 to
               | +2.6% on wages of less educated native workers" between
               | 2000-2019.
               | 
               | The economy isn't zero-sum. As Milton Friedman noted,
               | "most economic fallacies derive from the tendency to
               | assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain
               | only at the expense of another." Immigrants create demand
               | for housing, food, education, entertainment, and
               | specialized services that natives often provide.
               | 
               | Historical evidence consistently disproves the fallacy:
               | When women entered the workforce, it didn't cause massive
               | job losses among men. When segregation was abolished,
               | Black workers didn't cause mass unemployment among
               | whites. The vast majority of Americans descend from
               | immigrants who contributed to economic growth.
               | 
               | Research on H-1B visas shows that firms that get
               | immigrant labor end up "hiring more tech workers and
               | paying them more, because they become more efficient and
               | sometimes scale up." In fact, studies show each H-1B
               | worker creates approximately 1.83 jobs for native-born
               | Americans.
               | 
               | The UK's Migration Advisory Committee, after reviewing
               | studies from 2003-2018, concluded that "immigration had
               | little or no impact on average employment or unemployment
               | of existing workers" and "little impact on average
               | wages."
               | 
               | The overwhelming consensus among economists is that
               | immigration grows the economic pie rather than merely
               | redistributing slices. That's why America's most
               | immigrant-rich cities consistently have the highest
               | wages, not the lowest.
               | 
               | PLEASE, I am begging you. Spend 15 minutes reading actual
               | economic research before posting confidently incorrect
               | Econ 101 oversimplifications. The "immigrants take our
               | jobs" fallacy has been debunked by virtually every
               | reputable economic study for the past 30 years. This
               | isn't some fringe academic view. It's the overwhelming
               | consensus of actual economists who study this for a
               | living. Your intuition about "more workers = lower wages"
               | seems logical but falls apart when tested against actual
               | economic data. The real world is more complex than a
               | supply-and-demand graph from an introductory textbook.
        
               | remarkEon wrote:
               | Nowhere in the economic research does it explain what you
               | are so confidently stating, that wages are, somehow, the
               | _only_ thing in all of economics where positive supply
               | shocks do not matter. The arguments that tend to be made
               | are that, on a long enough time horizon, mean wages
               | increase because overall economic output goes up, and
               | mean economic output goes up because there is a higher
               | supply of available labor.
        
               | JackYoustra wrote:
               | You're fundamentally misunderstanding both the economic
               | research and my argument. No one is claiming wages are
               | "the only thing in economics where positive supply shocks
               | don't matter."
               | 
               | The research shows that labor markets aren't simple
               | supply-demand curves because of complementary
               | productivity effects and gains from specialization,
               | selection effects, and, of course, demand generated by
               | the immigrants. If you have general labor size increase,
               | in general equilibrium with a responsive central bank
               | interest rates will lower to keep employment tight.
               | 
               | This isn't about "long enough time horizons" - studies
               | find positive or neutral effects in the short and medium
               | term too. The fundamental issue is that your model
               | assumes a fixed economic pie that immigrants simply
               | divide into smaller slices, when in reality immigrants
               | help grow the pie overall.
        
               | remarkEon wrote:
               | Okay. Which other things don't see effects from positive
               | supply shocks? You're just restating my premise about
               | time horizons. The pie grows, with time, if a bunch of
               | other things happen in the right order. Wages haven't
               | grown in two decades in the UK, your original example.
               | So, how are you defining short and medium term? Three
               | decades?
        
               | JackYoustra wrote:
               | man idk, maybe it was the long conservative rule after
               | the crash? Maybe it was the long austerity? Maybe it was
               | the huge mass of natives that voted to crash out of an
               | agreement with a bloc that handles over 80% of their
               | trade?
               | 
               | More seriously...
               | 
               | - for US: The newest NBER IV estimates put the wage
               | effect of all 2000-19 US immigration at +2 % for non-
               | college natives. Show me a UK study of similar vintage
               | that finds anything near -2 %.
               | 
               | - for UK: UK real wages tracked productivity one-for-one
               | after 2008; BoE and NIESR pin that on capital deepening,
               | Brexit and austerity. Not on immigration, which the MAC
               | finds moved wages by _at most_ -1% (aggregate, not
               | yearly!) and the final report was ~0.1%, basically a null
               | finding.
               | 
               | - We've already been through lump of labor, so I don't
               | know why you've been banging on equilibrium.
               | 
               | And to finally address your time horizons: Short-run?
               | Mariel-style shocks still show null effects. Medium-run?
               | 2009-20 UK data flips positive. Long-run? Productivity
               | wins. Pick your horizon. Immigration is at worst a
               | rounding error next to TFP, which is positively
               | associated with migration.
               | 
               | Happy to dive deeper, but at this point the burden of
               | proof is on anyone claiming large negative wage effects.
               | The best evidence, across multiple methods and countries,
               | just isn't there.
        
               | annexrichmond wrote:
               | Strawman. You're talking about wages and jobs in
               | aggregate which wasn't my argument at all. Nothing you
               | said addresses how _my_ salary is affected in the
               | industry the person is joining.
               | 
               | Sure, in total, other jobs may be created and growth is
               | increased -- it's essentially a tautology.
        
         | ExoticPearTree wrote:
         | > I cannot for the life of me understand why Americans have
         | such a problem with other people coming here to seek a better
         | life.
         | 
         | They do not come legally. That's the problem. Plain and simple.
        
         | nineplay wrote:
         | I'm surprised you single out Americans who on the whole still a
         | lot more welcoming than a lot more countries in Europe and
         | Asia. The last few months have torn that reputation apart of
         | course, and there is loud group who would happily shut the
         | borders, but there are a lot of citizens who are happy with
         | legal immigration, sympatric to illegal immigration, and still
         | embrace the melting pot.
         | 
         | My conversations with H-1B visa holders is that whatever
         | aggravations they may have in the US, they can still get into
         | the US. Other countries just don't have that pathway
        
         | rsoto2 wrote:
         | I'm an "illegal."
         | 
         | Physics degree. Magna cum laude. Engineer. Homeowner. If you
         | heard me speak you would never guess I was not American. I have
         | been here 30 out of 32 years an I have no legal pathway to
         | residency or citizenship.
         | 
         | I guess I should have helped poison our cities with black tar
         | heroin via a shitty PHP website running in the tor network like
         | Ulbritch, maybe then I could get a pardon from the orange
         | moron.
        
         | remarkEon wrote:
         | It's many different things, but scale and time horizon is
         | certainly one of them. The scale of immigration over just the
         | last 30 years is truly unprecedented, and will have political
         | impacts for the next 50. The share of the population that is
         | foreign born is up to 15% (likely much higher, since it's
         | difficult to actually count illegal immigrants), which is the
         | first time since the mid 19th century it's reached that level.
         | Qualitatively, seeing e.g. a childhood neighborhood turn into
         | something that resembles a (very) foreign country is ...
         | jarring. I'd also submit that your brief summary of American
         | history is wrong, and is part of the problem. It very slyly
         | changes the foundation of the nation from something heroic to
         | something that we should be ashamed of, and that mass
         | immigration is the only way to do penance for that sin. It's
         | fine to advocate for people coming here to seek a better life,
         | but it's wrong to describe America as a "nation of immigrants",
         | when the reality is closer to a "nation of settlers" who built
         | up a largely empty country. I also tend to roll my eyes when
         | people invoke "Islamophobia", since the United States is a) not
         | a Muslim country and therefor does not have to defer to Islamic
         | interests, and b) that term is typically invoked in an attempt
         | to bully someone into agreeing with a more extreme position
         | since, well, you don't want to be Islamophobic now do you.
        
       | int0x29 wrote:
       | And one child deported without cancer meds. At that point you are
       | just trying to kill people
        
         | umvi wrote:
         | I don't think it's intentional, but rather collateral damage
         | from trying to do deportations quickly and at the "millions"
         | scale
        
           | intermerda wrote:
           | It's intentional. The cruelty is the point.
        
           | watwut wrote:
           | It is intentional to discourage others and to make people
           | afraid. It is even openly intentional.
        
           | shadowgovt wrote:
           | [delayed]
        
       | pjmlp wrote:
       | Remember Night of Broken Glass from 1938, eventually it will be
       | too late if there isn't a major stand-up movement.
        
       | righthand wrote:
       | > No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
       | privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor
       | shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property,
       | without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its
       | jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
       | 
       | The states are responsible for providing equal protection of the
       | laws to everyone here. The states need to stand up and fight ICE.
        
         | JumpCrisscross wrote:
         | > _states need to stand up and fight ICE_
         | 
         | We honestly need a Democrat governor to grow a pair and begin
         | arresting ICE agents unlawfully detaining and kidnapping
         | people. Then let the FBI and Bondi escalate it into a full-
         | blown states' rights issue.
        
           | Der_Einzige wrote:
           | I'm so tired of how pussy democrats are. The moderate wing is
           | so dominated by corporate money that they'll never do it and
           | just let American fascism happen.
           | 
           | The left in America is ran by geriatrics (Bernie) or
           | unelectable young people (AOC). None of them have the guile
           | to do what you've said (or rather to pressure and call for
           | the governors to do that).
           | 
           | The left has a pussyfooting problem. The left is beta, and
           | has surrendered the aesthetics of power to the right again
           | and again throught history (and the only times that they keep
           | it they end up becoming as bad or worse than what they are
           | fighting)
           | 
           | Basically we are fked.
        
       | guywithahat wrote:
       | How come every time I see a headline like this it's totally
       | wrong? Last time the pitch was some illegal immigrant who was
       | covered in MS-13 tattoos wasn't MS-13. I wouldn't be surprised if
       | in a few days we learn neither of their parents are citizens and
       | they're foreign nationals.
       | 
       | All that aside, this has nothing to do with startups or tech and
       | doesn't belong here.
        
         | lostdog wrote:
         | You are posting blatant misinformation. The MS-13 tattoos were
         | painted into an existing picture.
        
           | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
           | The tattoos don't even matter. The judge said not to deport
           | him and they did it anyway.
        
         | latexr wrote:
         | > this has nothing to do with startups or tech and doesn't
         | belong here.
         | 
         | The guidelines _explicitly_ say HN is not just for that. It's
         | right at the top.
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
         | 
         | > On-Topic: (...) That includes more than hacking and startups.
        
         | JackYoustra wrote:
         | "How come every time I see a headline like this it's totally
         | wrong?"
         | 
         | This isn't wrong. It's documented fact. Three U.S. citizen
         | children (ages 2, 4, and 7) were deported by ICE through the
         | New Orleans field office. A federal judge has already scheduled
         | a hearing about this, citing a "strong suspicion" that a
         | 2-year-old U.S. citizen was deported "with no meaningful
         | process."
         | 
         | You're doing exactly what propagandists hope for - spreading
         | doubt about documented human rights abuses without bothering to
         | verify the facts.
         | 
         | "Last time the pitch was some illegal immigrant who was covered
         | in MS-13 tattoos wasn't MS-13."
         | 
         | If you're referring to a case with photoshopped tattoos, you're
         | literally proving my point! You fell for actual fake news and
         | are now using that to dismiss real, verified reporting from
         | multiple sources including federal court records.
         | 
         | "I wouldn't be surprised if in a few days we learn neither of
         | their parents are citizens and they're foreign nationals."
         | 
         | You've already decided what "truth" you want to emerge.
         | Meanwhile, one of these American children has cancer and was
         | deported without their medication despite ICE being notified of
         | their urgent medical needs.
         | 
         | Your cynicism isn't wisdom, it's complicity. You're pre-
         | emptively discrediting reports of government abuses against
         | literal American children because acknowledging them might
         | force you to confront uncomfortable truths about a system you
         | apparently want to defend at all costs.
         | 
         | These aren't anonymous claims! They're documented cases with
         | legal representation, court filings, and federal judicial
         | review already underway. What would it take for you to actually
         | care about American citizens losing their rights?
        
         | sschueller wrote:
         | If these people were all really MS13 then where are the
         | shootouts with ICE? I thought this gang was so ruthless and
         | violent that they had to be declared a terrorist organization?
        
       | stefap2 wrote:
       | Six months ago I would have endorsed wide-scale deportations, but
       | after seeing the consequences--families swept into jails, plain-
       | clothes officers ambushing people on their way to work or school,
       | and communities living in constant fear--it's clear that
       | indiscriminate removals are neither practical nor just. This
       | approach diverts resources from pursuing violent offenders,
       | erodes faith in the rule of law, and forces the whole country
       | toward a "papers-please" surveillance culture, where everyone
       | must carry ever-stricter IDs. Watching longtime neighbors dragged
       | off for minor infractions, the policy feels capricious, and that
       | perception of unfairness only accelerates the broader corrosion
       | of civil liberties. A sound path must still secure the border,
       | yet focus enforcement on genuine threats and offer law-abiding
       | residents a transparent route to legal status, so safety is
       | preserved without sacrificing the freedoms.
        
         | mtVessel wrote:
         | Serious question: how did you envision "wide-scale
         | deportations" playing out, prior to these events?
        
           | selimthegrim wrote:
           | I'm sure they thought it was like the Boondocks Catcher
           | Freeman master's version of slavery where they were all in
           | the fields playing games and hanging out with pre-packed
           | picnic baskets, waiting for the expedition
        
           | chrisulloa wrote:
           | seriously can't believe anyone thought it would happen any
           | other way
        
           | eschaton wrote:
           | Exactly--plenty of people said exactly what would happen. Why
           | did you not believe them? Will you believe them in the
           | future?
        
             | slg wrote:
             | >Will you believe them in the future?
             | 
             | An underdiscussed frustrating aspect of this whole era is
             | that there is never any true retrospection. There is no
             | adjustment in the credibility of the people who predicted
             | exactly how things would play out or the people whose
             | predictions ended up being incredibly wrong. If there is a
             | lack of consequence for being wrong, it ends up meaning
             | there won't be any consequences for maliciously lying in
             | the moment knowing it's only a matter of time until they
             | are proven wrong because when that day comes, they have
             | already moved onto some other lie and the cycle continues.
        
               | stefap2 wrote:
               | I think the retrospection should be why the massive
               | influx was allowed to happen between 2020 to 2024.
               | Because it did happened before, so it's not like we
               | didn't know this will/can happen. There should be massive
               | increase in processing of claims. Not extrajudciary
               | deporting people. Why would somebody predict
               | extrajudicial deporting if that hasn't happened before?
        
           | hayst4ck wrote:
           | I think the most common of human mistakes is to think that
           | because something is easy to say, it is easy to do.
           | 
           | Once you actually dig in to how to accomplish something you
           | find the devil in the details and complexity in places you
           | didn't realized it exists. I would not believe someone is an
           | experienced programmer unless they understand this idea in
           | their bones.
           | 
           | I think so many people here, with the benefit of hindsight,
           | are accusatory, but they've committed this very same type of
           | error themselves.
           | 
           | I am _vehemently_ against this administration, but feeling
           | like something must be done about border violations is
           | reasonable and thinking there is a way to do that is
           | reasonable. I personally don 't think it's the best use of
           | resources, but I think it is reasonable to want some kind of
           | border with meaningful enforcement.
           | 
           | What is not reasonable is thinking this administration would
           | do it in good faith, rather than as a means of power grabs
           | against the legal system, but some people aren't capable of
           | taking heed of warnings, and must experience consequences
           | before they understand. Some people aren't able to think
           | through "where is the public plan that explains this" and
           | realize that if it's not there, if there is only the concept
           | of a plan, then that's someone vying for power, not someone
           | attempting to solve a problem.
           | 
           | When people come back to reality and choose to be grounded in
           | it, that should be celebrated rather than persecuted even if
           | they materially caused damage by their ignorance and lack of
           | thought. Game theory requires punishment/defection against
           | those who don't cooperate, but it also requires forgiveness
           | for those who repent.
        
             | PoignardAzur wrote:
             | I strongly disagree with your framing. Yes, policies can
             | have unintended consequences and immigration policy in
             | particular is a minefield of obvious solutions having
             | terrible results... But that's not what we're talking
             | about.
             | 
             | When OP says "I was for wide-scale deportations until I saw
             | people I like being deported", it's not a case of
             | unintended consequences, it's a case of "When I voted for
             | the leopard party I didn't think the leopards would eat the
             | faces of people I like!"
             | 
             | Unintended consequences means things like "criminality
             | increased because immigrant communities lost trust in the
             | police".
             | 
             | But come on. "Families swept into jails, plain-clothes
             | officers ambushing people on their way to work or school"
             | is _how deportations work_. Being surprised by that is like
             | being surprised that the death penalty means people get
             | executed.
             | 
             | This isn't a failure of epistemology, it's a failure of
             | empathy. OP just didn't think that the people getting
             | deported would turn out to be people with moral value.
        
               | JumpCrisscross wrote:
               | > _When I voted for the leopard party I didn 't think the
               | leopards would eat the faces of people I like_
               | 
               | This isn't a good-faith interpretation of their comment.
               | 
               | There are plenty of illegal immigrants with a criminal
               | record. Trump's pitch was to deport them. There was
               | _also_ a pitch that strongly hinted at deporting
               | basically anyone who isn 't white, and I think this
               | appealed to the racist fifth of Americans [1], but plenty
               | of people were messaged the first part with the second
               | being segregated to rallies, NewsMax, Twitter, _et
               | cetera_.
               | 
               | [1] https://www.splcenter.org/resources/stories/poll-
               | finds-suppo...
        
               | ripe wrote:
               | > There are plenty of illegal immigrants with a criminal
               | record.
               | 
               | I keep hearing this claim, but was there ever any proof
               | of it?
               | 
               | To be precise: is there any reason why criminals cannot
               | be caught without hunting for immigrants to deport?
        
           | stefap2 wrote:
           | Good question. I still think it's unfair for these people to
           | stay here, when legal refugees spent waiting years or decades
           | for permission to enter often in bad conditions in refugee
           | camps. The issue here is officials keep rounding up students
           | on legal visas and parents who've lived here for years--
           | exactly the people the article labels "families who had lived
           | in the United States for years and had deep ties to their
           | communities." Where are the fresh arrivals?
        
             | low_tech_love wrote:
             | So basically you came to the same conclusion as everyone
             | else who is against this (and who I assume you would
             | consider to be your political opponents): that even though
             | it sounds good and reasonable on paper (as a populist
             | concept), in practice it is invariably used for arbitrary
             | exercise of power.
             | 
             | Here is the thing: hard and complex problems require hard
             | and complex solutions, but you chose to put in power the
             | people who like easy solutions. I hope it's never late to
             | learn a lesson.
        
               | JumpCrisscross wrote:
               | > _hard and complex problems require hard and complex
               | solutions_
               | 
               | There's actually a simple solution to illegal
               | immigration: go after the employers. We don't because we
               | want to have our cake and eat it too. (Same reason these
               | raids aren't happening on farms in red states.)
        
               | low_tech_love wrote:
               | So, real story, I work in a university in Europe, and
               | we've been told by the immigration explicitly that we
               | need to increase at least 50% of rejections to
               | applications from Pakistani students. Apparently they
               | come with a student Visa to take a Master's degree but
               | after a month or two they get a job and disappear from
               | the university. And this is not desirable.
               | 
               | The fun part is that they _are allowed to work_ with
               | their student Visa, and they pay the tuition fees
               | normally, which is _spicy_.
               | 
               | So basically we have a huge gang problem right now, but
               | instead of deporting gang criminals, we're deporting
               | honest Pakistani young people who are actually working
               | legally for the country's companies. But guess how many
               | companies ever got in trouble for this?
        
             | recursivegirth wrote:
             | I think people often forget that even though these people
             | came here illegally, a majority of them submit themselves
             | immediately to authorities to enter into the immigration
             | court. Nine out of ten times, they are just given a future
             | court date and released on their on recognizance legally
             | into the United States (typically with some restrictions on
             | movement).
             | 
             | Why? Because that's how the system was legally designed to
             | work. You want them to stay here, because some % cases are
             | valid (a lot surrender at ports of entry). So then you must
             | ask yourself, what went wrong? Cartels figured out they
             | could break the system by overwhelming it, yet we had a
             | clear cut way to solve it.
             | 
             | The parties politicized the topic by not doing anything
             | about it... and now here we are.
             | 
             | Question: When Obama/Biden supported legislation to hire
             | more immigration judges to work through the backlog of
             | cases, did you support the legislation as well?
             | 
             | There are for more just ways to handle this. These people
             | are tyrant oligarchs, and need to be treated as such.
             | Today's it's "those people", tomorrow it will be "your
             | people".
             | 
             | https://immigrationimpact.com/2015/05/21/bi-partisan-
             | house-b...
             | 
             | https://www.axios.com/2024/12/31/biden-immigration-courts-
             | de...
        
           | like_any_other wrote:
           | Competently? Just as DOGE isn't the only way to cut
           | government waste, so are these injustices not a necessary
           | component of wide-scale deportations. Most countries, of
           | course, don't have to even attempt this, as they didn't
           | neglect their borders for decades. We could as well blame
           | this as a necessary consequence of that prior neglect, as
           | payment coming due - but we won't, because we liked that
           | policy, but don't like this one.
           | 
           | We also publicize these injustices widely, but when e.g.
           | Meloni released the video of a migrant committing rape, the
           | whole journalistic world called it an outrage and
           | impermissible (then promptly returned to plastering the
           | covers with the picture of a drowned child. A treatment the
           | Southport children didn't get, nor does, e.g., Bernard
           | Fowler's death [1] get the "well how did you _think_
           | immigration would play out? " treatment).
           | 
           | A spin as old as time - when it's due to policies you like,
           | it's all just random, isolated tragedies. When it's policies
           | you don't like, it's an unavoidable, even deliberate
           | consequence. You may recognize it from the "real communism
           | has never been tried/free healthcare? what's next - gulags??"
           | debate.
           | 
           | [1] https://news.sky.com/story/man-given-indefinite-hospital-
           | ord...
        
             | JumpCrisscross wrote:
             | > _could as well blame this as a necessary consequence of
             | that prior neglect_
             | 
             | The endgame for this policy is a Democrat President
             | deporting and detaining abroad January 6th types, and other
             | violent criminals on the right. (Or worse, nonviolent
             | agitators.) _Habeas corpus_ predates the Magna Carta [1]
             | for a reason.
             | 
             | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_corpus#Origins_in_
             | Engla...
        
           | camgunz wrote:
           | I'm pretty sympathetic to people who are hawkish on
           | immigration: the right's been demagoguing it for... forever?
           | You hear all kinds of total bullshit like they drive down
           | wages or they eat fuckin dogs or whatever.
           | 
           | The real tragedy is that immigration is probably the reason
           | we've outpaced other OECD nations in economic growth
           | recently, and more to the point, immigrants almost always
           | drive wages up. TL;DR: immigration is practically all upside.
           | 
           | The second part of this is that immigration and border
           | enforcement is often pretty cruel, just by nature. You're
           | talking about turning kids back into some Central/South
           | American social system, breaking up families, etc. You only
           | hear about it now because the Trump admin perversely rejoices
           | in trumpeting the cruelty, but it's only slightly more gross
           | now than it usually is. Until Trump, the right used to leave
           | this part out.
           | 
           | https://www.ucdavis.edu/magazine/how-does-immigration-
           | affect...
        
         | sjducb wrote:
         | Well done for changing your mind. Most people would find this
         | post impossible to write.
         | 
         | The arguments that changed your mind are important information.
         | If we want to change the minds of fence sitters then focusing
         | on these arguments should be the priority.
         | 
         | You make an interesting "right-wing" case against mass
         | deportation of immigrants.
         | 
         | > This approach diverts resources from pursuing violent
         | offenders, erodes faith in the rule of law, and forces the
         | whole country toward a "papers-please" surveillance culture,
         | where everyone must carry ever-stricter IDs.
        
         | yibg wrote:
         | This makes it sound like an unintended consequence, rather than
         | the goal. "Papers please" is the desired end state.
        
       | selimthegrim wrote:
       | See also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43806201
        
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