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Mexican president Nieto's poll numbers are at all time low of 24%, according to Reforma newspaper. He took office in late 2012 and has been hurt by human rights scandal of the murder of 43 students in the state of Guerrero, corruption issues, and failure to improve the economy. The invitation to Trump to visit Mexico left even people close to the president surprised, and was criticized widely inside Mexico. It is not clear what Trump or Nieto gained from the trip. As Trump continued his talk about building a wall on the Mexican border and having Mexico pay for the estimated $23 billion it would cost. He did this in a speech to supporters in Pheonix on the same day he met Nieto, showing the use of teleprompters and prepared script was not his way of campaigning. Just as the message to black people that Democrats take them for granted cannot resonate without the basic message delivered with compassion and understanding- such as done by the presidents Bush and Reagan- so also the message to Hispanic people is suffering from the same lack of empathy. Recent polls show only 3% of blacks support Trump. McCain and Romney gained only 4-6% in the U.S. presidential elections of 2008 and 2012. The message of the wall is also baffling as an election strategy. A Gallup poll in July 2016 shows only 15% of Americans opposing a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, and only 24% of Republicans. There is another problem in the strategy. The rhetoric about walls and mass deportations, and the Trump temperament combined with handling of nuclear weapons is not winning college educated women in the suburbs with polls showing Trump lagging behind Clinton by about 20 points or 4 million voters with this group. It is hard to undo the damage done by this kind of rhetoric used in the primary elections as it gains distrust of voters. It would require a bad economy with illegal immigrants taking local jobs, and handling of immigration seen as weak, for such a message to gain some national traction. Both are absent for the most part with a steadily improving economy since 2012, lower unemployment, a tough enforcement policy on deportatons under Obama that exceeded that under Geoge W. Bush, and the talk of a wall comes with illegal immigration having declined steeply since the 2008 financial crisis. The real culprit appears to be elsewhere, the triple hit taken from hollowing out of the manufacturing economy that hurt the Conservatives in Canada, the insecurity created for older whites from the job losses and hits to net worth from the 2008-2009 financial crisis, and the increasing loss of access to health care and educational opportunities with high  costs. About 62 million households or the bottom half of the distribution in the U.S. have a net worth of about $10,000, a quarter of this group having zero net worth, according to the Federal Reserve's Janet Yellen at an Inequality Conference in Oct 2014. Problems no wall is going to solve, problems that built up over 2 decades, problems that will take a generation to fix.  It shows the tech miracle of the last 2 decades as a mirage for quality of life of the middle and working class. Tech as a tool to a goal, not a goal in itself, is the better way forward. ...

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About 105,000 airings of ads on immigration making up 42% of all Republican ads in battleground states are on the Immigration issue since Harris became candidate July 22, according to WSJ analysis. WSJ polling shows 59% of respondents favored the bipartisan Senate deal negotiated by Republican Senator Lankford with Biden which Trump rejected in February. This deal would have effectively closed the Border, added Border Patrol resources, and would have passed says Lankford in NYT if it came only 3 months earlier in December 2024 before Mr. Trump won the primaries. Mr. Trump rejected the deal preferring to run on it, leading to action by Biden to do this with executive orders and cut illegal entry. This means less advertising for discussing the Economy and less for Inflation, which is the top issue says WSJ polling, immigration coming in second.   WSJ cites the Congressional Budget Office on the number of legal migration in the Biden term as 4.5 million, and illegal entry at 4.5 million. Instead the Trump-Vance Republican campaign is using the figure over 4 times that for illegal migration of 20 million without saying why and makes less distinction between legal and illegal entry, says WSJ. And makes statements that economists say is not the case that this will solve the housing supply and cost crisis, and other cost of living pressures. ...

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Pam Bondi, US Attorney General gives a vigorous defense of the DJT administration and the president in hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. She tells US senators it was Democrats who politicized the Justice Department first. And Bondi defended the hard work of the administration in fighting illegal immigration and violent crime. In 5 hours of exchanges she answered Senators on the other side- “Don’t you ever challenge my integrity.” “I have abided by every ethical standard. Do not question my ability to be fair and impartial as attorney general.” She told Senator Durbin of Illinois when asked about the sending of the National Guard to Chicago- “I wish you loved Chicago as much as you hate President Trump." Senator Graham of South Carolina, and Senator Grassley of Iowa who is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, asked Bondi why the Jack Smith investigation into Trump under president Biden had looked at phone calls made by Senator Graham and by Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, both Republicans. Graham asked Bondi: “Can you tell me why my phone records were sought by the Jack Smith agents? Why did they ask to know who I called?” Grassley called this an "outrage" and an "unconstitutional breach." At the same time FBI Director Kash Patel said on X that he had fired "those who had acted unethically" in this situation. These exchanges show the mood of the Nation and the people as the National Guard heads to Chicago in September 2025 to reduce violent crime and tackle illegal immigration.     ...

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This editorial in the WSJ points out the dangers to the Republican party in taking the stand on immigraton along the lines suggested by Donald Trump in August 2015- deportation for all illegal immigrants, no birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants, and no remittances allowed for illegal immigrants to their home countries. It points out that remittances actually improve the economies of the countries south of the U.S. border in Latin America and reduce illegal immigration. There is a need for seasonal workers in farm areas where there is a severe shortage of workers even at $17 an hour. Reducing immigration is better accomplished by more guest worker programs. A likely result would be the move of farms and factories to regions with low cost labor in Latin America or other countries. For the Republican Party this type of policy would bring back the period of the 1920's, says the WSJ, when Irish and Italian immigration was opposed by the party, alienating the two ethnic groups till they were won back in the Reagan period- a sure way to lose in 2016....

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Under Mette Frederiksen immigration which reached 21,000 in 2015 was down to a little over 1000 a year. She is a strong fighter for workers and families and labor rights and yet tough on illegal immigration. She has been proven right about this as Britain and the US under Biden are seeing illegal immigration as a threat to workers and labour, are seeing the risks of distraction from illegal immigration doing a serious disservice to workers and families by making it hard to fight for workers and families on wages, cost of living and other issues.  Even with a strong record of fighting for workers and families, Frederiksen was one of the first European leaders to see the dangers of illegal immigration to society. It gave parts of the political spectrum that had no interest all along in workers and families doing well, an issue to run on that would come to cause grave harm to workers and families. This turned out to be the error of Angela Merkel a CDU leader brought up in Communist East Germany, who had no idea of the risks of her approach for open immigration. As Merkel let this chapter unfold it created fissures in Europe, with Tories and Nigel Farage taking Britain out of the EU and laying waste to its economy for 5 years till Labour's Starmer adopted a tough immigration policy and became prime minister in 2024. That danger then spread to the US in 2016 which also suffered as Republicans and Trump did the same in the US around rhetoric but without serious action on immigration till the Lankford- Biden legislation.  That bill would have closed the border with Mexico and ended immigration as an issue forever if passed into law in December 2023, as Senator Lankford says would have happened. Ending immigration as an issue forever alongside foreign wars as an issue, so that a concentrated effort could be made on improving badly damaged lives of workers and families. And on rebuilding badly damaged manufacturing in the US, rebuilding collapsing infrastructure, and competing with better education and healthcare with the large Asian countries China, Japan/ South Korea, India. ...

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When Whitmer in Michigan said "FIx the Damn Roads" that is exactly the kind of language people wanted to hear. Harris and Walz should do the same. They should take up Border Security in a big way face the issue head on. President Biden has already used executive action to cut migrant flow at the border. The next step is take up the issue and defuse it for good. It was evident in Arizona today when Harris said she would sign into law the legislation negotiated by Republican Senator Lankford that passed the Senate and was held up by Trump for making it an election issue. Lankford says in today's NYT August 10 interview shown in this page that the bill would have passed in December 2023, once Trump became the nominee in February 2024 he realized it had no chance. Harris needs to repeat that at every rally "We will Pass the Lankford -Biden Immigration Bill" "Smash the Gangs" that is the message Starmer took from Labour Together think tank paper "Migration and Insecurity." Keir Starmer studied the issue of immigration carefully and told the public he was different - he would tackle illegal immigration head-on. He said he would "Smash the Gangs" benefitting from illegal migrants. In his first week the setup the Border Security Command. That week it was shown that Tories wasted time and money on Rwanda scheme that had deported hardly a couple of migrants. ...

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Out of 50 economists in a WSJ Survey on inflation in the US, 28 economists say inflation will be higher under a president Trump. Only 8 economists say inflation will be higher under a president Biden. Trump's plan to crackdown on illegal immigration and to raise tariffs will put an upward pressure on prices say the economists in the WSJ Survey. This weeks inflation figure came out at 3%. Under president Biden inflation which reached 9% has come down to 3%, a remarkable achievement that the president alluded to in his press conference yesterday. This is a result of president Biden's cost of living actions on several fronts including housing, energy, retail prices, banking, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, childcare. Biden has made it his top priority. By raising tariffs across the board on imports Trump's actions would lead to higher prices.

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Anxieties about illegal immigration and cost of living propel Trump to a win in the 2024 presidential elections. He wins more votes from younger people, from rural voters, and from Latinos, black people without a college degree. 

Paradoxically the end of the pandemic, vaccines, and improvement in health care may have led to voters focusing on the cost of living as an element that was not tackled under the Biden administration. Housing and grocery costs were allowed to surge and tech monopolies operated as before. Even union leaders were not fully convinced about Democratic support because of the changes in the Democratic party since Clinton. 

A general sense of unease about immigration was not tackled early on in the Biden administration first 2 years when the surge from Venezuela became evident following the collapse of its economy. 

 

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The public health emergency announced for the pandemic ends on May 12. Title 42 is a law that uses the public health emergency and pandemic to turn people back from Mexico who cross the border illegally. Democrats and Mr. Biden were critical of the way people were treated at the border under the Trump administration. Yet when faced with higher numbers crossing illegally as Title 42 ends on May 12, Biden and Democrats see the need to replace Title 42 with rules that will tighten controls at the border. It is essential in several ways. It blunts the Republican message to voters that Democrats are not handling the border issue and uncontrolled immigration well. Mr. Obama did this for 8 years by continuing a high rate of deportation of illegal migrants before Mr. Trump.  What makes it possible for migrants crossing the US Mexico border illegally to seek to stay in the US, are US asylum laws that were passed after the refugee crisis during and following World War II. The next step is that the US will now end these asylum privileges as they are being used for economic reasons by huge numbers of migrants crossing from regions in Central America because of economic problems. When a coffee growing region in Guatemala was affected by a bad harvest there was a surge in migrants, with similar patterns repeating themselves over decades.  Just as Mr. Biden closed the Afghanistan war because he could see that it was the right thing to do and essential for the US to build abetter future for its people, Biden now sees the need to end rules and policies from a previous era that led to illegal immigration. Biden is also doing this by increasing legal pathways for immigration to the US where it is done officially and in a proper way. ...

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History will see the lack of working on a bipartisan basis from the beginning of the Trump and Biden terms to stop illegal migrants and fight CMC (Canada, Mexico and China) on fentanyl flows as a blot on both parties. A remarkable change has happened in a matter of 100 days in Canada's stance on immigration and fentanyl flows. Trudeau now calling for eradication of fentanyl, his deputy prime minister saying Canada has more fentanyl deaths per capita than the US because of smaller population, and the need to wipe it out off the face of North America. The Canada Conservatives generally support DJT. The Trudeau Liberals have shifted policy to support DJT policies on immigration and fentanyl flows. In general Canada is making a pronounced shift towards support of the US position on immigration.  It is not just DJT policy as closing the border was part of the agreement agreed by Biden in 2024 with Republicans in Congress led by Lankford-Graham-McConnell which was not passed because it was too close to the election. One can only say the Covid pandemic, vaccination shortfalls, failures of supply chain distracted Biden from acting early and similar to DJT on the first phase of immigration action on illegal migrants committing offenses. The release of illegal migrants across the US is something that Democrats will years from now see as a major error in its policies. History will see the lack of working on a bipartisan basis from the beginning of the Trump and Biden terms to stop illegal migrants and fight CMC (Canada, Mexico and China) on fentanyl flows as a blot on both parties. ...

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Texas under new state law S.B. 4 can  impose criminal penalties of upto 6 months in jail on non citizens who illegally enter Texas from Mexico. It allows state judges to order deportations to Mexico- without Mexico's consent- and allows local law enforcement to carry out the orders. The US Supreme Court upheld the US Court of Appeals 5th Circuit decision that says the law S.B. 4 passed in Texas can be enforced temporarily till it is submitted to the Court for final decision. Both Biden and Trump have visited the Texas border with Mexico. This was after Biden and Schumer passed a immigration bill 70- 30 in the Senate which Jim Lankford  Republican of Oklahoma had negotiated with Democrats. Biden said he would sign it to close the border- it would also change parole and asylum law to stop large illegal migration entirely. The former president intervened to stop passage in the House to keep the issue alive for 2024.

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Venezuelan illegal immigrant lawsuit reaches US Supreme Court for birthright citizenship. What did the US Supreme Court rule? Alongside we provide the summary of the US Supreme Court landmark decision which is coming in two parts, this being just the first. Simply stated the US SC ruled that district courts can give the plaintiffs relief in their individual circumstances but do not have the authority to extend this to into a "universal injunction." Three states and a Venezuelan illegal immigrant allowed into the US under the asylum policy make the case. And each case may have individual merits but does it apply to a whole geopolitical event? Yet the sheer numbers, the scale running into millions of people, amounting to it being an invasion, a geopolitical event resulting from Bush-Obama-Trump-Biden failures to assert the Monroe Doctrine and prevent intervention by foreign, specifically European powers in the affairs of the American continent. Yet at no point in the administration of the last 9 years has this situation been anticipated or this situation been singled out as one that no asylum policy of any nation is designed to tackle. The efforts to fix things as far away as the mountains of the Hindu Kush have frittered away the important resources of the US military to maintain the Monroe Doctrine. It can be said that the basic error was not to see president Monroe's policy for what it was - an effort to prevent the French, the Spanish or some other European power to bring back colonial rule or in some ways unsettle the affairs on this continent. The US Supreme Court is aware of the surroundings of this event as it takes up the issues of immigration and efforts by foreign powers to unsettle the fabric of the Nation. ...

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Comments about immigration policy by Donald Trump, candidate for the Republican nomination for president in the 2016 election, create uneasiness in Mexico. Trump says he would block the billions of dollars that illegal immigrants from Mexico in the U.S. send back to Mexico, and deport millions of Mexicans in the U.S. illegally back to Mexico.

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In his 2019 State of the Union speech Mr. Trump calls for unity but continued emphasis on the border wall and strict immigration. Democrats offered little approval of the speech even when it sounded conciliatory on parental leave and infrastructure. The president continued his criticism of Democratic leaders Schumer and Biden in informal remarks.  The president called immigration a "moral issue," saying "no issue more illustrates the divide between America's working class and America's political class than illegal immigration," that wealthy donors and politicians call for open borders while living behind gates, walls, and guards. This is the first time a president goes into a State of the Union Speech with 37% of Americans supporting him according to a Gallup poll. The only time a U.S. president had less support was in 1983 when Reagan faced a recession and in 2007 and 2008 when Bush faced problems with the Iraq War. Another feature of this House of Representatives in 2019 after the 2018 Congressional elections is that 131 women are now in the House. The president congratulated the women to wide applause.   ...

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Fact check looks at the facts and what candidates claimed happened. Jeb Bush is right says fact check about the casinos Trump tried to get started in Florida. Fiorina overstates what she accomplished at H-P. Kasich is largely right about fixing the finances in Ohio. Trump is wrong about the U.S. being the only country with birthright citizenship- there are 30 countries according to The Center for Immigration Studies. Trump throws the number out of $200 billion, as what it is costing the U.S. for illegal immigrants. An estimate by The Federation for American Immigration Reform put this at $113 billion a year in welfare programs. From this one has to deduct what illegal immigrants pay in payroll taxes to get a good estimate. Trump says he never went bankrupt, he means not him personally- his companies have filed for bankruptcy Chapter 11 protection. Considering how many times Trump has misstated, it would be useful if the network broadcasting the debate would have an independent company do the fact check at the same time as the misstatements are thrown around, and show this on the bottom of the screen or during the advertising breaks, because it is very important to viewers to get the right information. In our opinionated partisan environment it is important to let candidates know that they cannot get away with it by misstating facts, over and over again....

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Crime by violent street gangs with whole sections of cities controlled by different groups, some a remnant of the guerilla wars, has fueled the migration crisis. Many people have left central American countries of San Salvador, Costa RIca, Guatemala, because of the crime and extortion experienced and the lack of law and order in these countries. Criminal violence by these gangs hurts business which leads to even fewer economic opportunities for young people. This leads to a steady flow of migrants to the borders of Mexico trying to enter the U.S. Experts say 95% of homicides in these central American countries are not tackled, with severe distrust of police.  There are fewer emigrants from Mexico as the economy has improved and population growth has slowed. Most of the faces of migrants are now from the Central American countries. A program is underway to create jobs skills in Honduras. But this a small effort in tackling a much bigger problem of violence, lack of economic opportunity, and the legacy of the civil wars in central America in an earlier period that have left whole sections of urban areas under control of former guerillas and militia turned into gangs.  ...

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Haberman, Swan and Igielnik of the NYT who have followed the Trump campaign closely, say the closing message is Immigration and the Border for the former president as the campaign enters its closing days. Democrats are also talking about tough action on this issue by increasing Border Patrol agents, increasing funding for technology at the border, and getting the Republican Lankford legislation passed as a top priority for Harris to permanently address shortcomings in US border protection. Without this legislation -that Mr. Trump blocked in the US Congress to use as a campaign issue- the most important missing piece of the puzzle of fixing the border by ending asylum and processing quickly, and removing loopholes that allow illegal entry into the United States, no permanent solution could be achieved is not to be taken lightly. Do a large majority of Americans grasp the need for tough but also comprehensive action with broad bipartisan support changing America's laws on the Border? That is now the question as Harris plans her own fight to limit immigration to legal entry as planned by the government to meet American needs. ...