20 quick points to remember the next time a loved one tries to make you fear the "illegals"

[CousinIT]

20 quick points to remember the next time a loved one at the holiday party tries to make you fear the "illegals."

Original Twitter thread:

Link to tweet

UNROLLED:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1077260445189169152.html

In honor of baby Jesus & his family of refugees/immigrants, here are a 20 quick points to remember the next time a loved one at the holiday party tries to make you fear the "illegals."

(Thread)
#ChristmasEve2018
Xmas Eve
1. If US politiicians really wanted undocumented immigration to end, they'd start locking up the Americans who hire them. The demand for undocumented labor would swiftly end. They never talk about that. There's a giant "Help Wanted" sign at our border and it's not coming down.

2. The majority of undocumented immigrants are people who overstay their visas, not illegal border crossings. Politicians don't talk about this.

3. Undocumented immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than US-born citizens. Legal immigrants also commit crimes at lower rates than US-born citizens.

4. Undocumented immigrants pay state, local & sales taxes. Over 11 billion in 2016,
How undocumented immigrants pay taxes, explained
They also pay billions into Social Security and Medicare.
https://www.vox.com/2018/4/13/17229018/undocumented-immigrants-pay-taxes

(And when legal immigrants arrive here as adults, we don't have to pay for their education & they can start paying into our Social Security system.)
5. President Ronald Reagan supported Amnesty (his word) and argued that open borders allow them return home when they're done working here.
A Reagan Legacy: Amnesty For Illegal Immigrants
As the nation's attention turns back to the fractured debate over immigration, it might be helpful to remember that in 1986, Ronald Reagan signed a sweeping immigration reform bill into law. The bil…
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128303672

6. "Illegals" is a racist, dehumanizing, other-izing term. It's un-Christian and hypocritical - if you drive 56 in a 55 zone, aren't you an 'illegal' too?
If you disagree, count how many other types of lawbreakers FOX News calls "illegals."

7. Trump is an illegal. $25 million for education fraud alone. And I don't really need to say this, but more to come.

8. Politicians don't try to punish people who give jobs to undocumented workers (driving down supply of jobs) bc fear of Central American & Mexican immigrants & asylum seekers gets massive votes & campaign donations. It's a racket.

9. From slavery to Chinese railroad workers to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory to today's overseas sweatshops, exploited labor by marginalized peoples has always propped up the US economy.
Without 'illegals' you'd pay $40 for a salad.
And I know, salads don't apply to Trump.

10. Trump hires undocumented workers. Going back to the 80s w/undocumented polish construction workers.
The same people who exploit undocumented labor also exploit fear of the undocumented. You're being suckered by very rich hypocrites.

11. No national Democratic politicians have called for any legislation or policies that could ever lead to "Open Borders."
This is important. Any politician or media figure who uses the term "open borders" is lying.
The Bible calls that "bearing false witness."

12. They are never going to build a wall across thousands of miles of desert, rivers and forests, private and commercial property - while forcing Americans to give up their land under eminent domain law.
Wall fans are arguing for big govt to seize private American property.

13. The wall will not stop undocumented immigration. Ladders and shovels are things that will still exist.
As will America's giant "Help Wanted" sign.

14. People who support stealing migrant children are legally still allowed to call themselves Christian. They are not.

15. America has crumbling roads, bridges, a deliberately underfunded public school system, neglected infrastructure and an underfunded VA.
A guy who's hired undocumented workers wants $5billion to keep undocumented workers from coming here for work. It's all a scam.

16. Trump promised his supporters that Mexico would pay for the wall.
He promised you, #MAGA. Many times. Now he literally wants you to pay for his own broken promise.
(And the majority of 2016 voters rejected it, 74 million total (HR & 3rd parties) vs. DT's 62 million)

17. The majority of Americans still oppose the wall. They know it's expensive, bigoted, stupid and won't work. The majority of Americans don't hate America.

18. Undocumented immigration has dropped to a 12-year low. There is no 'crisis' and you have been lied to:
Undocumented immigrants in the U.S. drop to lowest level in 12 years
The number of undocumented immigrants from Mexico continued to decline, while more came from Central America, according to the Pew Research Center
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/undocumented-immigrants-in-united-states-drop-lowest-in-12-years-2018-11-28/

19. Trump did not pay federal taxes for years and committed tax fraud to avoid paying the taxes that you paid, which he now seeks to misuse.
Donald Trump Acknowledges Not Paying Federal Income Taxes for Years
The admission of using a loss to avoid future taxes came in response to a question at Sunday’s debate with Hillary Clinton.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/10/us/politics/donald-trump-taxes.html
Seriously, we need to see Donald Trump’s tax returns
Congress could produce them with a simple committee vote, but Republicans are covering for Trump.
https://www.vox.com/2018/10/3/17932216/donald-trumps-tax-returns

20. Fear of "illegals" is a scam designed to get alarmed FOX news viewers to vote for an agenda centered on more tax cuts for very rich people, who don't need more tax cuts.
#maga #christmaseve2018 #christmas

Bonus #21. If you don't like our drug war refugees from Central American drug war violence seeking asylum in America then stop supporting the drug war.

Bonus #22. It's Jesus' birthday so here's his take. From Matthew 25, which modern RW evangelicals seriously need to read:
"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,"

#maga

[Hoyt]

1. While I didn't check their credentials, the best care my FIL got while dying

in a nursing facility was from the ladies who showed up with a smile, but couldn’t speak English very well. I hope they understood how much my late wife and I appreciate their cheerful care and doing stuff most of the other staff made it clear they didn’t like.

Somebody gives me that immigrant hatred and they might just get punched.

Good post.

[SCantiGOP]

2. You could really stop the list after #1

What if Tyson Foods, one of the country’s largest poultry processors, knew that if undocumented people were found working at any of their facilities the manager of that facility as well as the Corporate CEO and Board of Directors were going to serve a mandatory 30 days in jail.
Three things would happen immediately:
The cost of your Christmas turkey would probably double; the economy would fall into a severe recession; and there would be no more jobs for any non-citizen in the entire country.

[Shanti Mama]

3. We'd have lower flow back and forth across the border

if we'd let migrants come in, do the work, and go home. The big mistake was trying to seal the border instead of understand why folks come in. Many, many did not want to live in the US permanently. They love their homes. It's where their families are. But when we made it more difficult to cross back and forth migrant labor began to stay.

It's a colossal policy failure!

Of course, I understand the current wave is of people who do want to settle here UNTIL such time as their own countries become safe. The US is not the end all be all to all of them.

[SHRED]

4. a great point

One that does not get enough attention.

[Shanti Mama]

5. Thx. Listened to a podcast or NPR segment about this

The guy had spent his academic career studying this and made such complete sense. I wish I could remember a little bit about who/what/when.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

9. it's the stupidity of the war on drugs applied to migrants

Rotten Ronnie's "zero tolerance" drove up the street price of illegal drugs, which made it worthwhile for organized crime (cartels) to get involved, which escalated the response, and so on.

De-escalate this stupid shit.

[NNadir]

6. Ain't gonna happen in my family holiday. Happily my brother-in-law is a Hispanic immigrant...

...and his two daughters are therefore also Hispanic.

One of my nieces lives in Texas. I'm dying to hear from her tomorrow about how that's going.

[spinbaby]

7. They want immigrants to be scared and illegal

Employers like Dump want their workers cheap and compliant. The more scared and illegal they are, the cheaper and more compliant.

[ProudLib72]

8. Remember #7 at all costs

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