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One of my biggest beefs with Trump has been his immigration stance, and I still have major objections to his overall policy, such as the border wall and the way he Demonizes immigrants with his rhetoric as nothing but a bunch of drug running thugs. But I do agree with his recent decision to suspend immigration. My position has always been that our immigration policy should be driven by economics, or more specifically, job availability, and up until the coronavirus crisis struck, we had a situation where job openings outnumbered unemployed, and by no small margin.

But things have changed. We can't be giving away jobs to immigrants when we have an unemployment rate of 12% that may go even higher before this is all said and done, and without jobs, there's no point in allowing more people to come into the country as without work, they may end up on public assistance. With the number of businesses expected to close, there's going to be a lot of people changing occupations.

However, I do think that they should allow some immigration on a case-by-case basis if, for example, an employer vouches for them or if an industry, say like agriculture, can make an argument that they cannot find sufficient workers from the available workforce.

Stopping immigration is necessary for a variety of reasons right now for the jobs and the spread of COVID19.

Now if the clown can stop getting baited into political arguments and taking shots at his governors, maybe something will get done to get us going again. That's real great leadership during a global pandemic to take shots at your governors who are also worried and having collapsing state revenues and businesses. Way to motivate them. The guy runs the government like he's the CEO of a company who thinks he can scream at the manager to get going and it doesn't work like that. He's a terrible politician. It might be part of the reason he got elected, but sheesh, the man should have some sense and be looking to motivate his governors, not belittle them or take petty shots.

I usually don't watch Trump the same as i don't watch any president. I find their speeches boring, vapid, and written for people like they're little kids looking for a cheer me up. I watched a few clips of these press conferences and see him taking little shots at his governors. It's just irritating. Just more of his usual combative, petty, BS talk that undermines his policies and the quality work he could be doing to make things better for the nation.

Aseahawkfan wrote:Stopping immigration is necessary for a variety of reasons right now for the jobs and the spread of COVID19.

Right now, it's us that should be stopped from contaminating other countries. We're the current hot spot in the world. It might be a testing and reporting difference, but Mexico has far fewer cases of COVID than we do. Warmer climate?

Aseahawkfan wrote:Now if the clown can stop getting baited into political arguments and taking shots at his governors, maybe something will get done to get us going again. That's real great leadership during a global pandemic to take shots at your governors who are also worried and having collapsing state revenues and businesses. Way to motivate them. The guy runs the government like he's the CEO of a company who thinks he can scream at the manager to get going and it doesn't work like that. He's a terrible politician. It might be part of the reason he got elected, but sheesh, the man should have some sense and be looking to motivate his governors, not belittle them or take petty shots.

He's not used to sharing power. The governors are the ones that will be making the decisions as to when to suspend the restrictions. It's the spoiled rich kid syndrome again. Trump is used to getting his way. He's not accustomed to playing a supporting role, the "I'm not a supply clerk" response he gave one of the governors being typical of a person that's used to giving orders, not taking them. He's used to being the star of the show. Even though he craves the power the governors have, he also wants deniability if things don't go right.

Aseahawkfan wrote:I usually don't watch Trump the same as i don't watch any president. I find their speeches boring, vapid, and written for people like they're little kids looking for a cheer me up. I watched a few clips of these press conferences and see him taking little shots at his governors. It's just irritating. Just more of his usual combative, petty, BS talk that undermines his policies and the quality work he could be doing to make things better for the nation.

As much as I disagreed with him, I liked watching Obama. I didn't often watch Bush 43 and couldn't stand to watch Clinton.

Although it was before my time, Kennedy's press conferences were classics, a complete 180 from Trump as his self deprecating humor was hilarious (When asked what his father said to him just prior to the election, JFK replied "He said Dammit, I'm not paying for a God dammed landslide"). So much different than the self-aggrandizing press conferences we see from Trump.

RiverDog wrote:Right now, it's us that should be stopped from contaminating other countries. We're the current hot spot in the world. It might be a testing and reporting difference, but Mexico has far fewer cases of COVID than we do. Warmer climate?

Agreed. If I were another nation, i wouldn't let us in right now either. Americans should be cut off from traveling. We also don't need any more people here either to stand in unemployment lines or add people to risk getting COVID and spreading it or requiring care.

As much as I disagreed with him, I liked watching Obama. I didn't often watch Bush 43 and couldn't stand to watch Clinton.

Although it was before my time, Kennedy's press conferences were classics, a complete 180 from Trump as his self deprecating humor was hilarious (When asked what his father said to him just prior to the election, JFK replied "He said Dammit, I'm not paying for a God dammed landslide"). So much different than the self-aggrandizing press conferences we see from Trump.

Unless you like watching ridiculousness and petty arguments, I wouldn't watch them either.

I can't watch presidents. They are too trained too talk a lot while saying nothing. I do like to read older presidential speeches or musings like Lincoln or Jefferson. They could really write back in the day.

RiverDog wrote:One of my biggest beefs with Trump has been his immigration stance, and I still have major objections to his overall policy, such as the border wall and the way he Demonizes immigrants with his rhetoric as nothing but a bunch of drug running thugs. But I do agree with his recent decision to suspend immigration. My position has always been that our immigration policy should be driven by economics, or more specifically, job availability, and up until the coronavirus crisis struck, we had a situation where job openings outnumbered unemployed, and by no small margin.

But things have changed. We can't be giving away jobs to immigrants when we have an unemployment rate of 12% that may go even higher before this is all said and done, and without jobs, there's no point in allowing more people to come into the country as without work, they may end up on public assistance. With the number of businesses expected to close, there's going to be a lot of people changing occupations.

However, I do think that they should allow some immigration on a case-by-case basis if, for example, an employer vouches for them or if an industry, say like agriculture, can make an argument that they cannot find sufficient workers from the available workforce.

Yawn...Its another wag the dog for his adoring faithful. It's a useless political exercise, particularly right now. This pandemic he's handled positively horribly has made life in America much less desirable for everyone for some time to come.

Hawktawk wrote:Yawn...Its (immigration moratorium) another wag the dog for his adoring faithful. It's a useless political exercise, particularly right now. This pandemic he's handled positively horribly has made life in America much less desirable for everyone for some time to come.

It's not going to change any minds of people that were on the immigration fence. We have a far larger problem with the pandemic than other countries, particularly those to the south of us have been so controversial. If anything, Mexico should be building a wall on their side of the border to keep us out. And speaking of Trump's border wall, we haven't heard too much talk from the right lately about that hideous waste of taxpayer money. The virus didn't sneak through unguarded portions of the Sonoran desert or swim across the Rio Grande. Just like the vast majority of illegal aliens and the 9/11 terrorists, it came to us through ports of entry, like Sea-Tac and JFK airports.

The pandemic isn't going to change the will of people in 3rd world countries to immigrate to our country, and I'm afraid that the lack of job prospects won't, either, which is why this time I'm on Trump's side of the debate. Although I don't think we should go cold turkey and refuse to consider anyone as there are still a number of occupations, like doctors and other medical workers, that we still have shortages of and that we need to admit now more than ever, there aren't going to be the wholesale job openings that we've had available for much of the past decade for some time to come.

Economics needs to be the primary driver of our immigration policy. We need to be admitting immigrants based on what they can contribute to our society.

Economics needs to be the primary driver of our immigration policy. We need to be admitting immigrants based on what they can contribute to our society.

That's true in any moment, pandemic or not. I was surprised how difficult it is to enter Canada when I applied. I found there are really only 3 ways to become a resident of Canada: marry a Canadian, have a bona fide job offer or be starting a business, have enough money (I think the figure was minimum $10k in savings). They won't let you apply without one of those 3 (I did option #1). I'm not sure what the rules are for extended family, I'll have to check, but I don't think it's as open as the US.

I also had to do a battery of health tests to make sure I could contribute to the country and not pose too much health burden on the health system. Lastly, I had to get an FBI criminal background check. The stack of papers for my application was about an inch thick, and took about a year to get approved. It might be exactly the same in the US - I don't know because I've never had to apply.

Economics needs to be the primary driver of our immigration policy. We need to be admitting immigrants based on what they can contribute to our society.

I-5 wrote:That's true in any moment, pandemic or not. I was surprised how difficult it is to enter Canada when I applied. I found there are really only 3 ways to become a resident of Canada: marry a Canadian, have a bona fide job offer or be starting a business, have enough money (I think the figure was minimum $10k in savings). They won't let you apply without one of those 3 (I did option #1). I'm not sure what the rules are for extended family, I'll have to check, but I don't think it's as open as the US.

Yep. It was the same position I've taken with Deplorables like Idahawkman when the economy was purring along with several hundred thousand more job openings than unemployed. I do agree with Trump with regards of allowing "chain migrations" where one family member comes in then uses it as a foot in the door to bring the rest of their family in. Certainly references should be a factor that helps determine the worthiness of an applicant and having family here usually solves a housing issue, but bottom line is that each applicant needs to be judged according to their own merit.

I-5 wrote:I also had to do a battery of health tests to make sure I could contribute to the country and not pose too much health burden on the health system. Lastly, I had to get an FBI criminal background check. The stack of papers for my application was about an inch thick, and took about a year to get approved. It might be exactly the same in the US - I don't know because I've never had to apply.

I agree with that position, too. There should be age preferences. 18-35 excellent, 36-50 OK, 51+ probably not. In order to support things like Social Security and Medicare, we need young, healthy workers that will contribute and not take out of the system.

I don't know exactly what kind of requirements we have. The only thing I have first hand knowledge about is the citizenship test that I've helped friends study for, which is a piece of garbage IMO. I would wager a lot of money that Donald Trump couldn't pass a basic citizenship test.

The thing I found irritating is they were praising Trudeau while attacking Trump and praising Europe, when it is harder to gain entry into those nations. We're literally one of the easiest nations in the world to immigrate to even with Trump as president. It's nuts how the media will praise these other nations while vilifying Americans when it is harder to enter those other nations. It's hypocrisy at it's finest. It's more of the example of talk over action. Trump talks a bad game, but these other nations talk nice but make it hard to again. It begs the question is the policy more of a statement of intolerance or a bunch of hollow words?