The White House statement comes after a week of frantic negotiations in the Senate.

The White House statement comes after a week of frantic negotiations in the Senate.

President Joe Biden on Friday urged Congress to pass a bipartisan bill to address the immigration crisis at the nation’s southern border, saying he would shut down the border the day the bill became law.

“What’s been negotiated would — if passed into law — be the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we’ve ever had in our country,” Biden said in a statement. “It would give me, as President, a new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed. And if given that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill into law.”

Biden’s Friday evening statement resembles a ramping up in rhetoric for the administration, placing the president philosophically in the camp arguing that the border may hit a point where closure is needed. The White House’s decision to have Biden weigh in also speaks to the delicate nature of the dealmaking, and the urgency facing his administration to take action on the border — particularly during an election year, when Republicans have used the issue to rally their base.

The president is also daring Republicans to reject the deal as it faces a make-or-break moment amid GOP fissures.

  • Kaboom@reddthat.com
    744·
    10 months ago

    6 million illegals in 3 years. Its a problem. Hell a couple thousand caused problems for NYC. How do tiny border towns stand a chance?

      • Kaboom@reddthat.com
        825·
        10 months ago

        Maintain infrastructure, pay for roads that can handle the traffic, pay for public schools that can handle the masses, pay for enough fire fighters and trucks, shit like that, and ramp up in the time frame of 3 years

          • Kaboom@reddthat.com
            421·
            10 months ago

            They pay sales taxes, sure. But they don’t pay income or property taxes, not without an SSN. (Texas does not have an income tax, but has property taxes. The Feds have an income tax. Don’t be pedantic)

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
              16·
              10 months ago

              Sorry… so you’re blaming immigrants for the fact that Texas’ tax regulations are severely fucked up?

              Maybe Texas shouldn’t cater so much of their tax code to rich people? Shouldn’t that be the issue?

              • Kaboom@reddthat.com
                216·
                10 months ago

                How is having property tax but not income tax fucked up? How does it cater to rich people, any more than having income tax?

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
                  10·
                  10 months ago

                  Texas has one of the lowest state and local tax burdens in America. It also has no state estate or inheritance tax, while 16 states — including Iowa, Kentucky and Maryland — have at least one or both policies. Dick Lavine, a senior fiscal analyst for Every Texan, says high-end homes in Texas also tend to be under-appraised for tax purposes.

                  “Texas does not require disclosure of the sales price at which real estate changes hands,” Lavine wrote in an email. “All but 12 states have some form of disclosure.” Large commercial and industrial properties in Texas also tend to be under-appraised, he adds. “In addition to lack of disclosure, large firms often abuse ‘equal and uniform’ appeals to lower their appraisal to the ‘median value of comparable properties,’ regardless of actual market value.”

                  https://www.chron.com/politics/article/Texas-income-tax-property-laws-business-owners-16610385.php

                  Texas’ tax code is the second most unfair in the US, and the state relies on sales tax and other forms of regressive taxation that fall hardest on those with the least means. Households earning less than about $21,000 pay 13% of their income in taxes on average. The top 1% of households, with income over about $618,000, pay roughly 3% of theirs. Wealthy people also can decide when and if to pay taxes in ways that people who earn wages cannot—for example, by timing when to sell a stock or other financial asset.

                  The state’s tax code contributes to extreme levels of wealth inequality. The 66 wealthiest billionaires in Texas own more wealth than 70% of Texans combined. The wealthiest 1% of Texas households own $4.9 trillion, nearly half the state’s total wealth. Black and Latino Texans own much less wealth than they should due to historical and ongoing discrimination.

                  https://news.bloombergtax.com/tax-insights-and-commentary/texas-wealth-tax-ban-was-a-mistake-other-states-shouldnt-repeat

                  https://itep.org/whopays/texas/

                  But sure, it’s immigrants that are the tax burden.

              • Kaboom@reddthat.com
                117·
                10 months ago

                So you’re suggesting that illegal immigrants should steal identities to pay taxes?

                • ThunderWhiskers@lemmy.world
                  5·
                  10 months ago

                  No, he’s suggesting that your original statement (the one actually being discussed) is wrong. No one suggested that immigrants SHOULD do anything, especially identity theft. Your whataboutism has no power here. Stop embarrassing yourself.

            • ThunderWhiskers@lemmy.world
              6·
              10 months ago

              How exactly are you proposing that these people don’t pay property tax?

              I would also wager that the amount of unreported tip income is just as large a problem as undocumented workers from a tax standpoint.

        • ThunderWhiskers@lemmy.world
          8·
          10 months ago

          What the fuck are you even talking about? Taxes pay for all of those things. They don’t just crumble to dust in the proximity of non-citizens.

    • Psythik@lemmy.world
      4·
      10 months ago

      You’re forgetting that the entire reason why so many people enter legally is because it’s next to impossible to enter legally unkess you have lots of connections in the US. Your average foreigner doesn’t stand a chance.

      Don’t want 6 million people to enter illegally? Make it easier to enter legally. It’s that simple, yet people like you will never understand that. “Securing the border” only makes the problem worse. We should be opening it instead.

      • Kaboom@reddthat.com
        111·
        10 months ago

        493,000 immigrant visas were given out in 2022. It’s extremely easy to enter, just too many too quick, and y’all have to wait your turn.

        • Marcbmann@lemmy.world
          2·
          10 months ago

          Eh, but how much of that is tourist visas. And where are they coming from.

          I’m of the opinion that an open border with Mexico is an issue. Which just should not be controversial.

          But I’m also married to someone who entered with a tourism visa. Legal immigration is nearly impossible in the US. There are very very few options for a person to enter the country and be on a path to a green card. Saying otherwise is purely ignorant.

            • Marcbmann@lemmy.world
              2·
              10 months ago

              You should look at what the requirements look like for an immigrant Visa. The average person in South America does not have the ability to satisfy those requirements. But that doesn’t mean they are unable to become a valuable and contributing member of society.

              I know people in the US that came here illegally and have gone on to become business owners. But only because they were able to meet and marry a US citizen.

              There needs to be a legal path to entry. And we should be stopping the flood of people coming over the border at the same time.

              • Kaboom@reddthat.com
                111·
                10 months ago

                We can only take so many, so quickly. What we’re doing now is completely unsustainable.

                So why not select for the best and brightest?

                • horsey@lemm.eeEnglish
                  42·
                  9 months ago

                  People who work highly educated or skilled jobs don’t actually want the US to allow a bunch of immigrants to come and compete with them. That’s the situation with tech workers and H1B visas. Jobs going unfilled right now are not the ones worked by the best and brightest or most highly educated…

                • Marcbmann@lemmy.world
                  2·
                  9 months ago

                  I can’t agree with that. It’s only unsustainable because we have a flood of immigrants coming over the border and a catch-and-release program.

                  And my wife has a PhD, of which she did a year in the US. Not in something useless like poetry, but in meteorology. She did not have the connections to get a US sponsorship from an employer. So without knowing someone, she was without options.

                  I know immigrants who have found their way into the US legally, and overstayed. They have gone on to become business owners, or successful in their respective fields. The issue with your assumption is that you think we’re actually effective at selecting the best and brightest.

                  The reality is that if we secured our borders, we wouldn’t be overwhelmed.