r/neoliberal 6d ago

Nearly half of GOP voters want military to put immigrants in camps News (US)

https://www.axios.com/2024/12/30/gop-voters-support-military-immigrants-camps
548 Upvotes

521

u/rr215 European Union 6d ago

This shit is absolutely going to infect legal immigration discussions, the H1B visa discourse is seemingly becoming a bipartisan issue against expanding caps.

Idiots all around.

371

u/mullahchode 6d ago edited 6d ago

the fake story about haitians eating pets already infected legal immigration discussions. they were all on work visas or TPS, and of course no one was eating pets anyway, and one would have to be pretty racist to believe that

62

u/AnnoyedCrustacean NATO 6d ago

It's just so fucking stupid.

I wish my fellow Americans had brains

316

u/GrandePersonalidade nem fala português 6d ago

It was never about just "illegal immigration". That's just an easy deniability for racism, a dogwhistle. It was never about paperwork.

183

u/HHHogana Mohammad Hatta 6d ago

Yeah look at the Haitians eating dogs nonsense. Most of those Haitians were already on Visas, most of the business love these people, Springfield really needed these immigrants since they were on industrial decline before, and they still did this shit.

142

u/volkerbaII 6d ago

It doesn't even matter whether the Haitians were here legally or not. The fact that immigrants stealing and eating pets was an issue that people took seriously tells you everything you need to know about the level of racism this movement is steeped in. They focused on illegal immigrants because it's more favorable ground, but when the illegals are all gone, it's not like they are going to stop there.

37

u/RetardevoirDullade 6d ago

It is also notable how fast the Haitian discourse died down. Much fewer people are talking about them these days. Unlike illegal immigration though, about which people talk nonstop.

45

u/College_Prestige r/place '22: Neoliberal Battalion 6d ago

The discussion died down but I bet when people who believed it sees someone who could be Haitian that's the first thing they think about. That's why these instances of essentially blood libel are so toxic

3

u/dangerbird2 Franz Boas 6d ago

Meanwhile turns out the “real Americans” weren’t actually having their jobs stolen, and just got fired for showing up to work on meth

2

u/SharkSymphony Voltaire 6d ago

America has never been what Haitians needed it to be. This is going to be one in a very long string of dashed hopes.

46

u/1897235023190 6d ago

If people were concerned about paperwork, they’d be supporting more immigration judges, more USCIS personnel, and faster processing. But it’s the opposite. That’s seen as “weak on the border.”

16

u/naitch 6d ago

For many average voters it is, in fact, just about or mainly about that. But huge emphasis on illegal crossings/undocumented migration brings into positions of authority people with an ideological agenda against all inmigration, usually with at least some racial component.

6

u/TouchTheCathyl NATO 6d ago

There's also the hella fucking racism of assuming all brown people are illegal immigrants which these people do wrt the Haitians comment.

2

u/RiverboatRingo 6d ago

So like, I would have agreed with you until last week, but we now have an actual group of Republicans lead by Musk who are very clearly making that distinction.

2

u/GrandePersonalidade nem fala português 6d ago

I wish I was as optimistic as you, but I feel like the base is going to swallow them

3

u/RiverboatRingo 6d ago

This really leans into the theory that we are currently realigning, a theory I happen to agree with.

The same old shit we could say about Republicans in 2015 is rapidly becoming less relevant.

25

u/vikinick Ben Bernanke 6d ago

We could have had a bad bitch who helped us with the economy just a little.

30

u/RetardevoirDullade 6d ago

How much do people care about tech H1B outside of online? It seems unclear to me that most care about tech worker immigrants as opposed to unskilled ones.

37

u/rr215 European Union 6d ago

I think a lot are using H1B as a general catch all for immigrant workers, both skilled and unskilled.

2

u/remote_control_bjs NATO 6d ago

In DeKalb, IL, 60 miles west of Chicago. Heard 3 clowns in their 50s+ at a wine bar of all places this evening talking about FoxNews and their various H1B takes. Quite the spirited and racist discussion. Definitely taking place offline now, well before Trump is even president.

22

u/Sarcastic-Potato European Union 6d ago

This could be such a huge opportunity for the EU (if we weren't busy fucking around like usual). The EU needs highly skilled labor - and the US used to be the go to place for those people. The EU needs to loosen up their immigration policies for highly skilled workers and take all those people that are now thinking twice about moving to the US

31

u/outerspaceisalie 6d ago

The EU is too hostile to business and pays advanced skills too little. That's why people leave to the us.

The EU literally will never solve this problem at the current rate.

9

u/Sarcastic-Potato European Union 6d ago

I agree - I think there are a multitude of things the EU could (and should) do different. But all in all I think the second trump term could benefit the EU if they manage it correctly (which they probably won't)

5

u/outerspaceisalie 6d ago

I'd like to see the EU fix their stagnation. I'm kinda rooting for them. It does seem unlikely though. They've conceded to their own slow demise and live in denial about it.

4

u/Sarcastic-Potato European Union 6d ago

I'm rooting for them as well, especially because I think the alternative would be horrible. The biggest problem right now in my opinion is that the countries in the EU still try to work against each other. Each and every country thinks it's the best country and the EU should be happy that they are a part, when instead we should realize that only by working together as one strong entity we could matter on the world stage.

6

u/hibikir_40k Scott Sumner 5d ago

The EU has a big problem, and that's language. One might be able to work wherever in Schengen, but the mental energy required to move from one country to another is quite high.

The reason Spain is doing relatively well is simple enough: An entire continent of people who liven in countries poorer than Spain, but have a much easier time moving in and being successful at work. The number of Latin American immigrants has exploded, and GDP goes up with immigration.

So even if we managed to make the EU more business friendly, the EU is going to be less effective at making immigrants productive, and attracting them in the first place.

20

u/Creative_Hope_4690 6d ago

Did Canada not try that and it still has a poor economy contrast to the US?

26

u/bigpowerass NATO 6d ago

Canada did try that - the money is too good in the US to turn it down. Even H1Bs are better compensated than Canadians. This is contingent on the US shutting down that program and no longer being an option for skilled immigrants.

14

u/Passionateemployment 6d ago

how is it bipartisan when this clearly shows that democrats are the least supportive of putting immigrants in camps 

18

u/lunartree 6d ago

There's a lot of Democrats right now parroting the "H1B visas only exist to depress wages" line.

On the other hand, we now know what issue to push to drive a wedge into the GOP and hopefully get immigration levels increased.

1

u/TheOnlyFallenCookie European Union 5d ago

Dems should say they are happy reps support visas too, and then enjoy the dumpster fire

-25

u/ArtisticRegardedCrak 6d ago

The H1B thing has been a hot topic in the tech space since things started to cool down post lockdowns. The supply of CS graduates has reached an all time while the supply of introductory CS related jobs has retracted so naturally people want to restrict competition (rightly so I’d add). However, try to explain to the average person that H1B migrants do not actually compete with new grads for work.

69

u/Zenkin 6d ago

The H1B thing has been a hot topic in the tech space since things started to cool down post lockdowns.

Literally the same as all immigration. If people encounter any economic hardship, they blame immigrants. The consternation towards H1Bs died down after ~2014, but is rearing its head now.

53

u/GrandePersonalidade nem fala português 6d ago

The rightly so in your reply makes no sense. What's right about seeking to make the workforce less capable to gain special benefits?

6

u/blewpah 6d ago

What's right about seeking to make the workforce less capable to gain special benefits?

I wouldn't agree that right is the best word but it's certainly predictable that people would oppose something that they think is likely to harm their financial and career prospects.

-18

u/ArtisticRegardedCrak 6d ago

Educated and trained domestic workers should have a priority in the job market if they’re unemployed with skilled migrants filling necessary gaps. If we have a surplus of workers in an industry who need jobs then that industry should not be pulling workers from overseas. There is also something to be said of a US graduate who has taken on all the debt/risk of funding their education never being able to compete with a migrant who has had their education subsidized by the state in a less competitive advanced economy.

16

u/actual_wookiee_AMA Milton Friedman 6d ago

Why exactly should they not be pulling workers? And so what if other countries are subsidising their education, that is just free foreign aid and a direct competitive advantage for the US against those countries.

→ More replies

38

u/ryegye24 John Rawls 6d ago

Migrants are not some fungible commodity we order from the migrant factory. They are people, they are making an individual choice to come here, we should respect their freedom to make that choice.

11

u/actual_wookiee_AMA Milton Friedman 6d ago

Even if they were all robots that came from a factory, the argument for protectionism is still stupid and detrimental to Americans in the long term

9

u/ryegye24 John Rawls 6d ago

Yep, it's always self-defeating even on its own terms.

-9

u/ArtisticRegardedCrak 6d ago

Labor is bought and sold on the market, we have control over that market. America is not a free economic zone

14

u/ryegye24 John Rawls 6d ago

Even if nativist protectionism weren't inherently self-defeating, having control over the structure of markets is not justification to abuse that control.

37

u/Zenning3 Emma Lazarus 6d ago

Exactly, so lets not literally make everybody poorer because a bunch of entitled tech workers don't want to compete.

-1

u/ArtisticRegardedCrak 6d ago

That’s not how it works, H1B require large amounts of money and labor in terms of regulatory compliance and tend to lower wages compared to equally qualified candidates. You’re literally adding government waste and lowering wages, why wouldn’t you allow the market to naturally adjust with domestic employees?

26

u/Zenning3 Emma Lazarus 6d ago edited 6d ago

That is literally how it works.

[H1bs] tend to lower wages compared to equally qualified candidates

Nope. Literally untrue, no matter how much people like to repeat it. And I swear to god don't paste that stupid EPI article where it refuses to understand how DOL determines the pay minimums. The reality is that companies pay these candidates similar total compensation to natives, while also having to pay additional overhead.

You’re literally adding government

Yep, I hate government waste, we should just make it easier to become an American Employee. But, to keep in mind, those guys are paying taxes, and are very easily paying for themselves.

7

u/actual_wookiee_AMA Milton Friedman 6d ago

So eliminate the regulatory part entirely?

Lowering wages in fields with high unemployment is good, actually.

→ More replies

4

u/actual_wookiee_AMA Milton Friedman 6d ago

It should be.

12

u/actual_wookiee_AMA Milton Friedman 6d ago

Why would wanting to restrict competition be right? Is this neoliberal or neoprotectionist?

8

u/LazyImmigrant 6d ago

I think a lot of it has to do with how high tech wages are in the US. I got my start in tech in 2008 because I was being paid the equivalent of $9k a year which can be a value prop for companies. If a company has to pay $65k for a new grad, in a time when the market is soft, they are likely to prefer a H1b who comes with a little more experience and works for $90k. If new grads were making something like $30k then you would actually see companies investing in new grads even when the market is soft. Back home in India during the boom days, even the shittiest companies will hire new grads and put them through 6-9 months of bootcamp style training. I don't see tech companies ever paying new grads $65k and then spending resources on them for 9 months hoping they will be productive one day and will stick around.

-2

u/ArtisticRegardedCrak 6d ago

I definitely agree with many CS grads specifically having high expectations for jobs, the number of software engineers who are not willing to work for anything other than a tech company making more than the median household income straight out of college is absurd and contributes to unemployment. That said the system needs to prioritize Americans before it starts working for non-Americans, cutting off supply of over qualified migrants willing to work for less than equally skilled Americans helps Americans during industry recessions.

17

u/GrandePersonalidade nem fala português 6d ago

Yes, what you want during recessions is precisely reduced demand, less innovation, and a less capable workforce

278

u/12hphlieger Daron Acemoglu 6d ago

Yeah, this isn’t surprising. Some of the rhetoric about immigrants from even “normal” GOP voters is pretty dehumanizing. My MIL is one of those “We just all need to be nicer to each other” conservatives, but was saying some Nazi-esque things about immigrants that basically the whole room agreed with over Christmas. My wife and I were pretty shook.

157

u/GrandePersonalidade nem fala português 6d ago

Even the H1B debate is an example. The literal qualified legal immigrants who went through insane hurdles for work are considered in the conversation as borderline work animals whose well being is completely irrelevant and the only analysis is whether they cost one grape or add one grape to the meals of a random American (while ignoring that in terms of basic econ the H1B visa is for the benefit of everyone)

104

u/12hphlieger Daron Acemoglu 6d ago

Yep, I know. The funnest thing about all of this is they live in a very rural community in Western KS. They have no doctors. None of the area hospitals do. It’s a huge a problem. A problem that could be lessened with skilled immigration through H1B or some other program. Some of these people are fine with this, because having no doctor is better than a brown doctor.

44

u/WAGRAMWAGRAM 6d ago

Some of these people are fine with this, because having no doctor is better than a brown doctor.

It's a quack science anyways, I saw it on Facebook

20

u/suzisatsuma NATO 6d ago

Yeah! All you need to do is eat horse paste! lol

5

u/Caberes 6d ago

I hear you but you also have to acknowledge that H1Bs aren't chained to there work place and they aren't here for some personal humanitarian goal. They are here to make money, and they can switch jobs as long as they can find a new sponsor. Some entry level IT person is probably stuck with their initial sponsor, but an experienced doctor is going to have a decent amount of freedom to relocate to higher paying metro.

11

u/flakAttack510 Trump 6d ago

they can switch jobs as long as they can find a new sponsor

And their sponsor wins the H-1B lottery. That means they only have a 25% chance per year of their job change actually being allowed. If an H-1B worker wants to change jobs, they essentially have to restart the entire process over again.

3

u/Caberes 6d ago

You got a source on that? I’m like 90% sure that once you’re in you have like 6 years to bounce around assuming everyone does there paperwork right

7

u/flakAttack510 Trump 6d ago

https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/temporary-workers/h-1b-specialty-occupations/faqs-for-individuals-in-h-1b-nonimmigrant-status

An H-1B transfer requires a new petition that has to go through the full process again. It also resets your 6 years.

1

u/noxx1234567 5d ago

It's impossible to be a doctor on H1B due to AMA regulations , the very few that make it essentially start over with tests & residency

1

u/dolphins3 NATO 5d ago

I remember reading an article about healthcare deserts a while back that I wish I'd saved, and one of the doctors interviewed was an Indian nephrologist (I think?) who came to the US through some program to recruit doctors for healthcare deserts, and at the time of publication he was shutting down his practice and returning to India because he was sick of the 90%+ white community treating him and his family like shit.

The article went on to interview all the community members who were all surprised Pikachu and distraught that instead of having their very serious health problems treated locally they would have to choose between 1.) dying a miserable death 2.) making at least a two day trip to the big city with a total of 12 hours of driving and an overnight hotel stay to see the next nearest specialist taking patients.

Seems like they should have been kissing the ground this doctor and his family walked on but apparently that was too hard.

28

u/RetardevoirDullade 6d ago

while ignoring that in terms of basic econ the H1B visa is for the benefit of everyone

To be fair, pro-immigration people generally do a poor job of explaining this, and it is also probably a bit harder to explain since it requires people to understand how extending generosity to others can ultimately benefit you as well.

45

u/spacedout 6d ago edited 5d ago

I've seen upvoted comments in this sub talking about expanding H1B visas to lower wages in tech or among doctors. Why would any worker support a policy that its advocates say will lower their wages but will supposedly create beneficial 2nd order effects?

To be clear, I don't believe the lump labor fallacy, but it seems some pro-immigration commenters/shit posters here do...

13

u/No_Switch_4771 6d ago

It is very funny, and telling to see how much the tone changes regarding immigrant labour here when the conversation turns to tech workers instead of say, farm labour. 

4

u/MasterRazz 6d ago

Quite frequently, one of the main arguments in favour of more immigration is "They'll do the jobs Americans don't want to do," but in the case of tech, those are jobs that Americans want to do and are being priced out of.

2

u/No_Switch_4771 6d ago

The complaints against immigrants in tech here is that they are willing to work longer hours for less. Which is the same reason "They do the jobs Americans don't want to do."

If jobs that rely on immigrant labour couldn't you would see them have to improve pay and working conditions and hours in order to attract labour too. 

1

u/die_rattin 6d ago

people care more about well-paying jobs that are already undergoing layoffs than low-paying jobs that nobody wants to do

wow

13

u/No_Switch_4771 6d ago

Thats not the takeaway here. Rather its that r/Neolib is full of tech workers (with its male, young, highly educated userbase) who are suddenly very worried about the localized downsides of immigration where they previously only had to think of the diffused upsides. 

Or; now that its their jobs macro economics isn't as fun any more. 

It's rent seeking hypocrisy. 

Outside of this bubble you get a lot more negativity towards low skilled immigration than the other way around.

3

u/Gemmy2002 6d ago

You can't explain it to people who believe in the lump of labor fallacy, they will vehemently deny there is any benefit.

3

u/GrandePersonalidade nem fala português 6d ago

Exaggerating it probably makes it easier to understand. Would the US be more prosperous if the initial colonists closed themselves off from any immigration to "protect themselves and their stability" or of they received a constant massive influx of well educated workers every year?

I think that every reasonable person can intuitively understand that the second is better for everyone.

99

u/Noocawe Frederick Douglass 6d ago

I have a couple family members like that...

They want us all to be nicer to each other, but what it really means is that we don't ostracize or make them feel bad when they say racist things, while they continue to want us all to be nice, but underneath the surface they believe in the philosophy of "separate but equal" with defined social hierarchies.

57

u/EclecticEuTECHtic NATO 6d ago

"we should all be nicer to each other"

"You're not being nice"

"Shut up"

14

u/Mrchristopherrr 6d ago

I’m not racist

…but

30

u/Mickenfox European Union 6d ago

The entire right wing media has maintained a clear and coordinated message of "immigrants are violent animals that will murder your family" for years. That's the cause of this.

1

u/JaneGoodallVS 6d ago

I'm surprised it's that low, especially given how strongly normal people reacted against Trump saying it, and that Trump said it

91

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

31

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

11

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

→ More replies

14

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

7

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

→ More replies
→ More replies

123

u/reubencpiplupyay The World Must Be Made Unsafe for Autocracy 6d ago

As a liberal democratic society, we declare that there are certain rights that cannot be abrogated simply because the public no longer believes in them. And if the public one day turns against those rights, the state has the obligation to use force to defend the liberal democratic order from the people.

And there we see the problem. There is no institution on earth so strong that it can stop the will of the people from overturning the liberal democratic order. A lot of analysis has focused on structural factors like institutions, but there is surprisingly little that focuses on the foundation for all those institutions: the civic culture.

And the truth is that American civic culture is in terrible shape. Maybe it has gotten worse, or maybe has been bad for a long time. We can debate the causes and the details, but it is very clear that there is a significant section of American society which does not hold allegiance to the values supposedly embodied by the United States. They might believe they are still loyal, but their actions and their views, as seen with polling like this, demonstrate otherwise.

A liberal democracy cannot simply declare that the cultural sphere is outside of its zone of concern. It cannot simply declare neutrality on what is the foundation of society. To do that is to allow antidemocratic and anti-liberal sentiment to metastasise into a movement that may some day bring about the destruction of the liberal democracy. The use of force to uphold the republic might be an antidote to reactionary swells, but prevention is better than a cure.

I am not advocating for massive censorship of the kind usually favoured by those that mention the paradox of tolerance. Instead, I am asking for the liberal state to become an active promoter of republican virtue in every aspect of the culture. From a young age, citizens must be steeped in a liberal democratic culture that permeates society. Every effort must be taken to ensure that the people produced by American society do not support the xenophobic and reactionary barbarism so prevalent in the America of today.

68

u/B1g_Morg NATO 6d ago

The people in America are much more allegiant to the flag than any ideals it is supposed to represent

37

u/_meshuggeneh Baruch Spinoza 6d ago

Absolutely.

Individual rights are not up to the popular vote.

2

u/DeepestShallows 5d ago

Well sure, in America it’s way worse than that: the founding document of American civil rights was created such that rights could only be recognised or updated with the unanimous consent of all the states.

American civil rights are predicated on “protecting” the rights that everyone agrees on (which are least in need of protection).

15

u/B1g_Morg NATO 6d ago

The people in America are much more allegiant to the flag than any ideals it is supposed to represent

23

u/[deleted] 6d ago edited 6d ago

[deleted]

1

u/AutoModerator 6d ago

np.reddit.com

NP Reddit links are totally fine, but please do not rely on them for preventing brigading. They were never an effective solution for Old Reddit and are entirely unsupported on New Reddit and the official app. Admins have specifically said they will not moderate NP links differently than non-NP links

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

5

u/Hexar27 NATO 6d ago

Tom Nichols explores this in his book Our Own Worst Enemy.

7

u/HeightEnergyGuy 6d ago

You did read about that time we put all those Japanese citizens into camps right?

The america you are describing isn't real beyond books written by people who were for the most parts hypocrites.

9

u/TouchTheCathyl NATO 6d ago

America fundamentally has no social contract right now. It arguably never did since any area in which we had one, there was a giant asterisk where we vented our distrust and hatred on an entire race used as an effigy of social illness.

We cancelled the Wicker Man festivals for being cruel and slowly turned more inward and afraid of each other without any effort to build trust.

48

u/RTSBasebuilder Commonwealth 6d ago

There really is a point in the sub where minds start to break that for quite a lot of people, a sizeable minority, perhaps even a slim majority of a nation's citizenry:

Democracy, human rights, rule of law, freedom from cruelty and arbitrary fear is more an aesthetic than a value or principle. Literally just that, nice sounding words to rally around.

Or in our sub's terms, they think of it as a luxury belief. No self-evident truths and inalienable rights that all men are created equal, and a government of the people, for the people by the people unless they can decide who counts as the people.

24

u/SamanthaMunroe Lesbian Pride 6d ago edited 6d ago

I've been getting used to it. Humanity didn't tolerate autocratic states for millennia for nothing, and we haven't found the switch that turns autocrat sympathizers into natural liberals either. This was very helpful with that.

Most of this species has wanted to be as homogenous and mercilessly intolerant of outsiders as eusocial bee and ant hives for millennia.

166

u/Longjumping_Gain_807 Thurgood Marshall 6d ago

Breaking news: Half of GOP voters don’t like immigrants.

Yeah we kinda already knew that. I don’t know what else that people could have been expecting. I mean here’s what Trump said about them:

They let — I think the real number is 15, 16 million people into our country. When they do that, we got a lot of work to do. They’re poisoning the blood of our country.

That’s what they’ve done. They poison mental institutions and prisons all over the world, not just in South America, not just to three or four countries that we think about, but all over the world. They’re coming into our country from Africa, from Asia, all over the world.”

They don’t care if they’re Africans, Asians, Europeans, they don’t care. They just don’t like immigrants.

129

u/forceholy YIMBY 6d ago

It's stuff like this that makes me think that footage of children getting hauled off to the camps isn't going to do much to change public opinion. The GOP wants this.

110

u/mekkeron NATO 6d ago

That's why I've always been very skeptical to the whole "Once Americans get a glimpse of what those deportations are actually gonna look like, they'll change their view." But I don't think that they will, simply judging by the reactions of people I know, to the family separations during Trump's first term. They had no shortage of excuses: "Well if I'm arrested, I'll be separated from my family too", "They should've come here legally", "Did you know that it was Obama who built those cages?", and so on. It'll be the same thing this time around

86

u/forceholy YIMBY 6d ago

I don't even think blood will move them. You have Europeans cheer when migrant boats get sunk. Why would it be any different here?

8

u/LowCall6566 6d ago

A minority of Europeans. Parties like AFD and Reform usually do not get more than 20%

50

u/boyyouguysaredumb Obamarama 6d ago

I don’t think the numbers in OP would be that different in European countries among conservative voters

→ More replies

18

u/attackofthetominator John Brown 6d ago

The issue is that number has been increasing every election.

12

u/ThisAfricanboy African Union 6d ago

Reform is leading in a few polls and are currently at best right behind labour. They are a plurality of political opinion.

6

u/Mickenfox European Union 6d ago

But thanks to the American electoral system you only need like 30% to win.

19

u/griminald 6d ago

 I've always been very skeptical to the whole "Once Americans get a glimpse of what those deportations are actually gonna look like, they'll change their view."

I think what people are relying on is the economics of deportations changing their view.

They'll never stop demonizing immigrants. But the money is the only language that may convince people this isn't worth it.

As people have started to realize, "Holy crap, tariffs might actually be happening", we're seeing more and more warning flags fly up about price increases.

I think the same will happen with a deportation program. We're already seeing warnings go up from construction industries about the cost increases.

3

u/Noocawe Frederick Douglass 6d ago

I feel the same way, they may only care if it affects the quality of service and goods they might want or need, prices of food and maybe just maybe if it affects their children, grandchildren or partners. Other than that I have no faith that they'd actually be torn up about it.

It's either that, or they fundamentally like the rhetoric but don't believe that what these people say they are going to do, are really going to happen. I genuinely have no idea, but if they had empathy or cared about liberal values they wouldn't want to deport people here legally in the first place or want massive prison camps holding people. Further, we all know that they'll blame the left or liberals for any bad outcomes anyway.

47

u/12hphlieger Daron Acemoglu 6d ago

I know people who will probably react gleefully to that footage.

34

u/forceholy YIMBY 6d ago

I'm old enough to remember people cheering war footage in 2003.

17

u/sluttytinkerbells 6d ago

/r/combatfootage is quite popular and the admins are cool with it.

29

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[deleted]

25

u/forceholy YIMBY 6d ago

I guarantee you that you will see a hotline set up to report suspected immigrants, cops detain US citizens and militias run around population centers harassing brown people.

11

u/mullahchode 6d ago

public opinion is more than just GOP opinion

6

u/forceholy YIMBY 6d ago

Let's hope you're right

1

u/mullahchode 6d ago

i don't know if the needle will move much but there will be some small % of trump voters who will think this stuff is icky.

4

u/SlideN2MyBMs 6d ago edited 6d ago

I'm a little more optimistic that we won't see something like this at scale simply because (1) it has less than 50% support even among Republicans, (2) it would be a logistical nightmare and Trump is extremely lazy and capricious and (3) any large mass deportation would quickly have a noticeable effect on labor markets and we've already seen what just the suggestion of limiting new legal immigration does to the tech CEOS. I do think we'll get more workplace raids and probably some very high profile ones where Trump declares victory and then moves on.

Edit: otoh, America has done stuff like this before: operation w*tback and japanese internment camps

6

u/forceholy YIMBY 6d ago

I dunno. You'll see MAGAs whining that they still see too many brown people for their liking.

4

u/Passionateemployment 6d ago

the gop doesn’t represent public opinion 

1

u/outerspaceisalie 6d ago

They'll literally cheer.

14

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

28

u/NewbGrower87 YIMBY 6d ago

Just go on Twitter

No thanks.

3

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/RetardevoirDullade 6d ago

Nah if they are white it matters less. Just go on Twitter and see for yourself what the MAGAs actually think

Handful of Twitter white nationalists are nothing in comparison to the millions of Trump voters of color

55

u/GrandePersonalidade nem fala português 6d ago

They don’t care if they’re Africans, Asians, Europeans, they don’t care.

You're mind-blowingly naive if you really believe this, lol

61

u/blatant_shill 6d ago

These people are going to be way more forgiving of white immigrants than non-white immigrants, but hatred of immigrants doesn't stop when immigrants are white. You're completely ignoring American history if you think that can't be the case.

25

u/GrandePersonalidade nem fala português 6d ago

Historically, surely. But things get away more vitriolic and hateful when they imagine the immigrant as brown. It's also been true throughout the entirety of American history. The recent H1B debate wouldn't be the same if they weren't imagining Indians.

16

u/blatant_shill 6d ago

The entire H1B visa debate that is getting people riled up is that these people think immigrants are coming for American jobs. Do you think that if you replaced Indian immigrants with immigrants from Eastern Europe that all these people would just be cool with it just because they are white? Racism is a major factor in why people hate immigrants, but so is nativism.

26

u/GrandePersonalidade nem fala português 6d ago

I think that if it was about English or Scandinavians, people would be significantly less bothered, yes. I think that Vivek particularly stinged as many people as he did for challenging the "racial hierarchy of inate abilities" that a lot of Americans believe in.

1

u/blatant_shill 6d ago

I didn't ask if people would be less bothered. I asked if you think people wouldn't want to crack down on immigration just because immigrants were white. I don't doubt people would be less bothered, but you just called that other person naive for saying what they said. It seems way more naive to think that the people who hate immigrants entirely based off fear would simply draw a line at white immigrants.

14

u/GrandePersonalidade nem fala português 6d ago

And I explained to you that the situation is significantly more complex and that the racial views of a lot of Americans have a lot of nuance for inside Europe as well, including that people from traditionally protestant countries are seen as intrinsecally superior to traditionally Catholic or Orthodox ones. What you asked is not some magical things that should completely determine the conversation, lol. Get a fucking grip 

It seems way more naive to think that the people who hate immigrants entirely based off fear would simply draw a line at white immigrants. 

Only if you interpret the reply in the most childish way for the sake of arguing. There will be multiple different lines at different points, and there is absolutely one separating non-Europeans from Europeans. Again, this is obvious and has been explicitly said multiple times, including by Trump. 

It's one of those things that I even get weirded out when someone tries to argue. Why would someone deny such an obvious, practical reality? 

2

u/blatant_shill 6d ago edited 6d ago

Go look back at your original reply to the first comment in this thread and stop pretending like it's other people being childish here. You came in calling someone naive, acting like this was an incredibly simple issue, and effectively said there no world in which white immigrants could be subject to anti-immigration sentiment. Now you're trying to act like I think racism isn't a factor and not actually addressing the question I asked multiple times, mostly likely because you know the answer and don't want to say.

Nobody here is debating or deny that racist people think there is a racial hierarchy, but that isn't even close to the sole reason for why people are opposed to immigration. Your views on this situation are deeply unserious if you're solely approaching it through a racial lens and not addressing the major reasons for why so many people are against immigration. People who are against immigration aren't just racist, they are people who have a zero-sum mindset and think others doing well means they do worse. There is literally a massive movement among leftists right now who are extremely progressive when it comes to racial issues that are railing against immigration because they think it harms them financially.

8

u/GrandePersonalidade nem fala português 6d ago

Both things can be true, and individuals can also believe in one but not another. For the average Trump voter, I do believe that racism is the main factor more than anything else. In a world in which "poisoning the blood of our nation", "great replacement theory" and "Americans are a group of shared ancestry" are a thing, I'll never understate the impact of racism in the views that people have of immigration. There is a reason that the debate revolves around Mexicans, Haitians, Indians, etc. It just makes the subject much more catastrophic for a considerable part of the American electorate, because those groups can "ruin" the country in a way the deeply connects to them.

→ More replies
→ More replies

2

u/FlamingTomygun2 George Soros 6d ago

Look at the uk pre brexit. They bitched about romanians, poles, albanians, and bulgarians all the time

6

u/savuporo Gerard K. O'Neill 6d ago

But things get away more vitriolic and hateful when they imagine the immigrant as brown. It's also been true throughout the entirety of American history.

Incorrect, Asians have had their moments.

1

u/RetardevoirDullade 6d ago edited 6d ago

The recent H1B debate wouldn't be the same if they weren't imagining Indians.

Do you really think people are going to be fine losing their jobs to immigrants (or thinking that) if said immigrants were white?

There just isn't a huge amount of white immigration to the US today to test this theory, but I think they would suffer no less hatred if that happened. East Asians, Southeast Asians, Africans etc aren't exactly white either, but you can see that the H1B discourse largely left them alone since the vast majority of H1Bs are Indians.

Besides, this kind of racial thinking wasn't shown to be helpful in trying to win elections

(Also, this is likely another reason why immigrants and minorities themselves may oppose increased immigration, to avoid the racism caused by bringing in too much of their "own kind" at once. It is less "F you I got mine" and more "I barely just got mine and I don't hate you but I can't let you in lest we both fail")

10

u/EdgeCityRed Montesquieu 6d ago

This happened to Polish workers in the UK.

After months of anti-immigrant rhetoric in the run up to EU referendum in the UK in June 2016, the number of racially aggravated offences recorded by the police in the same month was 41 per cent higher than in July 2015 (Home Office 2016). Laminated cards were left outside primary schools and posted through letterboxes of Polish people in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, with the words ‘Leave the EU/No more Polish vermin’ in English and Polish (Cambridge News, June 25, 2016). Arkadiusz Jóźwik, a 40-year- old Polish factory worker in Harlow, died after being punched to the ground for speaking Polish in the street. Bartosz Milewski, a 21-year-old student was stabbed in the neck with a broken bottle because his perpetrators heard him speaking Polish with his friend in Don- nington, near Telford (Independent, September 20, 2016). The wave of post-Brexit vote hostility revealed the extent of racism and xenophobia which affected not only Polish nationals but also other migrants and settled ethnic minorities, including British citizens (Burnett 2017; Komaromi and Singh 2016).

7

u/yes_thats_me_again The land belongs to all men 6d ago

I refuse to believe that if all immigration was from Denmark, anti-immigration sentiment would be even half of what it is

3

u/RetardevoirDullade 6d ago

These people are going to be way more forgiving of white immigrants than non-white immigrants

With the demographics of today's US and how the voters of different races voted in 2024 for Trump, I actually think that they will not be any more tolerant towards the white ones either.

1

u/from-the-void John Rawls 6d ago

People didn't consider Italians, Irish, and Poles to be "white" back then.

31

u/wallander1983 6d ago

In the UK, the Brexit campaign also stirred up hatred against hard-working Polish craftsmen and nurses, among others.

24

u/GrabMyHoldyFolds 6d ago

From what I've seen and read, Brits consider themselves to be somewhat of an ethnic group so the Polish are still "outsiders."

I worked with a Brit who immigrated here (US) around 2010 and he absolutely hated the Polish, he talked about them like an American racist talks about Mexicans or blacks.

12

u/colourless_blue John von Neumann 6d ago

Yes, a lot of the xenophobic rhetoric that fuelled Brexit was directed at Eastern Europeans (Poles and Romanians mostly). A lot of the narratives were similar to in the US re: the lump of labour fallacy, undercutting blue collar labour, etc. I think the ‘British as a self-identified ethnic group’ thing isn’t necessarily that widespread (even as a national identity it’s fractious), but it is an ethnic category in the census.

12

u/GrandePersonalidade nem fala português 6d ago

Yes, but this is not the brexit campaign. And well, the people speaking publicly are not stupid and understand very well that they need to paint their campaign with a case that isn't openly racist, mentioning shit like the great replacement just from time to time

4

u/Longjumping_Gain_807 Thurgood Marshall 6d ago

Maybe saying that they don’t care if they’re Europeans was a stretch but the others they definitely don’t like

10

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

→ More replies

11

u/Noocawe Frederick Douglass 6d ago

Well they don't mind the Eastern European women they meet at clubs, golf courses, restaurants or casinos though! Those are okay.

I wish I was joking... But it is weird how often I've met men who hate immigrants while being married to a trophy wife that immigrated here.

3

u/flakemasterflake 6d ago

It’s not weird if they’re conditioned to view wives as beneath them. Look up passport bros, being from third world countries is part of the appeal

2

u/Longjumping_Gain_807 Thurgood Marshall 6d ago

Oh I forgot to ping

!ping IMMIGRATION

1

u/groupbot The ping will always get through 6d ago

3

u/jayred1015 YIMBY 6d ago

I dunno, seems like a lot of GOP voters may differentiate between good immigrants (those who look like them perhaps) and bad immigrants.

24

u/Economy-Ad4934 6d ago

I’m shocked …. Because I thought it be much higher

18

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[deleted]

1

u/yes_thats_me_again The land belongs to all men 6d ago

More than half opposing it is pretty good

16

u/WifeGuy-Menelaus Victor Hugo 6d ago

a 1798 law

The Alien and Enemies Act, one of the Alien and Sedition Act, last used for Japanese-American interment

6

u/12kkarmagotbanned Gay Pride 6d ago

Absolute idiots

4

u/[deleted] 6d ago edited 6d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/p00bix Is this a calzone? 6d ago

Rule II: Bigotry
Bigotry of any kind will be sanctioned harshly.


If you have any questions about this removal, please contact the mods.

23

u/FuckFashMods 6d ago

Can't believe the US is about to run concentration camps again

11

u/Passionateemployment 6d ago

with republicans slim majority in congress i doubt it. democrats don’t even support this 

8

u/AnnoyedCrustacean NATO 6d ago

Deportation camps, concentration camps, it's all the same thing

And we are planning for them already

2

u/from-the-void John Rawls 6d ago

Trump is going to do it without congressional approval.

9

u/LtCdrHipster Jane Jacobs 6d ago

Another Trump cycle outrage. Trump will get tons of negative press on this, make a big showing about using the military, and then it'll just be, like, 10 guys in national guard uniforms driving military trucks with people apprehended at the boarder to a normal detention facility, then claim a great victory.

3

u/Wonderful-Topo 6d ago

yea logistics is not something his admin does well. But I assume it's a money funneling thing - give his friends a ton of money to "build" the camps, give contracts, but don't really build much or do much.

2

u/Cosmic_Love_ 6d ago

Good news is that 3 quarters of Americans oppose this. And I bet that number goes up when it actually does happen. Words on a survey pale in comparison to the horror of it actually happening.

2

u/technologyisnatural Friedrich Hayek 6d ago

yeah we know 😔

this ain't goin' anywhere though ... unless Trump declares a national emergency 😬

2

u/NotABigChungusBoy NATO 6d ago

I think we can agree that immigrants should ideally come here legally and also that the vast majority of illegal immigrants are good people who are looking for a better life for their family.

Theres no long term economic downsides to illegal immigration either

3

u/actual_wookiee_AMA Milton Friedman 6d ago

This has to be a leading question, no way that many people would agree... right?

10

u/Passionateemployment 6d ago

it’s the gop why are you surprised? lol

11

u/Born_Revenue_7995 6d ago

I unironically thought it would be higher

1

u/actual_wookiee_AMA Milton Friedman 6d ago

Voters aren't always representative of party members

1

u/Insomonomics Jason Furman 6d ago

Very healthy major political party we have here in the United States.

1

u/Independent-Bite283 5d ago

What a stain in the biggest democracy of the world founded by migrants , what an ugly stain and an embarrassment

i guess the answer to the question they made after ww2: is yes it can happen here

1

u/Lycaon1765 Has Canada syndrome 5d ago

And this is why you shouldn't be nice to conservatives anymore.

-7

u/kolejack2293 6d ago

Not to be that guy, but we look inherently dishonest saying 'immigrants' when its really illegal immigrants. This is the type of shit that makes moderates think of us as disingenuous, and eventually turn away from us.

17

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[deleted]

6

u/Spectrum1523 6d ago

Okay, then the poll should reflect that. Pretending that the poll says what it doesn't isn't helpful

6

u/caroline_elly Eugene Fama 6d ago

This gets repeated to make the other side look bad, but the data don't support that.

https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2024/09/27/trump-and-harris-supporters-differ-on-mass-deportations-but-favor-border-security-high-skilled-immigration/

71% of Trump supporters favor admitting higher skilled immigrants, 63% favor letting international students stay after graduation. Even 49% favor accepting refugees.

Support fell significantly for illegals, so it isn't accurate to say conservative voters don't draw that distinction.

2

u/Intelligent-Pause510 6d ago

it absolutely is a distinction among IRL conservative voters not just this online echo chamber

My own mother is a perfect example. Her best friend is a lady called Usha from india and they came here legally and she loves them, but she does not have much support for people who came here illegally (and neither does Usha funnily enough.)

I support letting people immigrate I do, and I think it should be way easier and I think that people here undocumented should be given a pathway in.

A lot of people really do see a distinction, and while for some people its about race, for a lot of people they just want people to do it the legal way or not at all.

4

u/Intelligent-Pause510 6d ago

You're not wrong but this place is becoming an echo chamber similar to regular reddit political subs.

The hard cold fact is that the vast majority of this country regardless of political alignment does not want more immigration at all, and wants illegal immigration dealt with.

While I like this subs open borders policy and I personally support it, most people on here seem to be unaware how overwhelmingly unpopular of a policy that is in america. They see the moronic incident in a town in bumfuck nowhere ohio about haitian immigrants and are like "well since 70% of americans dont want more immigrants that means 70% think that haitains are eating dogs because they are racist"

Until democrats start actually listening to what regular people are wanting and feeling and seeing they will continue to lose elections that could have been easily won.

1

u/Steak_Knight Milton Friedman 6d ago

“You mean illegal immigrants, right? Right!?”

😐

-1

u/Any-Feature-4057 6d ago

This is the golden chance for Democrats gaining the upper hand. We have to promote ourselves that we are the centrist party. We aren’t racist towards Indian. We are opening our legal immigration to get the smartest talent from all over the world.

I’m pretty sure Indian techbro will like this.

Hopefully our far left faction won’t sabotage our effort tho

-4

u/TrekkiMonstr NATO 6d ago

Alright yeah I'm against birthright citizenship now, fuck these guys

4

u/forceholy YIMBY 6d ago

Don't worry, Trump promised to get rid of that too

4

u/TrekkiMonstr NATO 6d ago

Yeah but he wants to get rid of it to kick the good people out