After Texas Sent Him to Washington, One Migrant Launches a New Life

[Scott]

 

A bus with migrants sent to Martha's Vineyard, the upscale vacation island off Massachusetts, by Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, Sept. 16, 2022. (Matt Cosby/The New York Times)

When Lever Alejos of Venezuela arrived at the southern border penniless in July, he gladly accepted a free bus ride to Washington, D.C., courtesy of the state of Texas. He had no family or friends to receive him, and spent one night in the plaza across from Union Station. He soon settled into a homeless shelter.

 

“I have nothing,” Alejos, 29, said on his third day in the city, “but I have the will to work and succeed.”

 

Two months later, Alejos is making between $600 to $700 a week, saving up to buy a used car and planning to move out of the shelter.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-sent-him-washington-one-183737372.html

[Chomper Higgot]

Excellent example of what America needs more of.

[Hanaguma]

On 9/20/2022 at 11:15 PM, Chomper Higgot said:

Excellent example of what America needs more of.

Such an excellent example, why did he not apply for a visa from his home country? Would have saved him a long and dangerous, not to say expensive, trip.  Solidly middle class guy, business owner, in no way is he an asylum seeker.  

[Chomper Higgot]

2 minutes ago, Hanaguma said:

Such an excellent example, why did he not apply for a visa from his home country? Would have saved him a long and dangerous, not to say expensive, trip.  Solidly middle class guy, business owner, in no way is he an asylum seeker.  

Who knows?

 

Perhaps he didn’t have the financial means to do so.

 

I would suggest you ask him yourself but it seems he’s far too busy working hard for a better life.

 

Good for him, good for America.

 

The American dream is alive and well.

[Hanaguma]

8 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Who knows?

 

Perhaps he didn’t have the financial means to do so.

 

I would suggest you ask him yourself but it seems he’s far too busy working hard for a better life.

 

Good for him, good for America.

 

The American dream is alive and well.

American dream, with a free bus ride, free housing, etc.  He is earning about $2500 a month before taxes. How will he fare in DC once he has to pay his own rent, food, and so on. And he wants to get a car- does he have a drivers licence? 

 

The fact that he left a child behind in Venezuela speaks against his being a genuine asylee. More like an economic migrant obviously. 

[Chomper Higgot]

Just now, Hanaguma said:

American dream, with a free bus ride, free housing, etc.  He is earning about $2500 a month before taxes. How will he fare in DC once he has to pay his own rent, food, and so on. And he wants to get a car- does he have a drivers licence? 

 

The fact that he left a child behind in Venezuela speaks against his being a genuine asylee. More like an economic migrant obviously. 

He didn’t ask for the bus ride.

 

$2500 a month is already a great start.

 

Have you never heard of people starting with nothing but their labor and then going on to make a good life.

 

Go easy on the anger against this guy, he’s doing what’s necessary for a better life.

[Hanaguma]

34 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

He didn’t ask for the bus ride.

 

$2500 a month is already a great start.

 

Have you never heard of people starting with nothing but their labor and then going on to make a good life.

 

Go easy on the anger against this guy, he’s doing what’s necessary for a better life.

You misunderstand, not angry with him at all. He took advantage of a broken system and is doing what he has to do to feed his son. But the point is that the system IS broken. He shouldn't be able to swim the Rio Grande and then be rewarded with a work permit, free housing, etc. The blame is with Congress for not doing their most basic job, which is to secure the country. 

[Chomper Higgot]

1 minute ago, Hanaguma said:

You misunderstand, not angry with him at all. He took advantage of a broken system and is doing what he has to do to feed his son. But the point is that the system IS broken. He shouldn't be able to swim the Rio Grande and then be rewarded with a work permit, free housing, etc. The blame is with Congress for not doing their most basic job, which is to secure the country. 

And there was me thinking your comments about this migrant were about this migrant.

 

 

 

 

[Hanaguma]

4 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

And there was me thinking your comments about this migrant were about this migrant.

 

 

 

 

Exactly.  What he is doing is/should be illegal, but I don't have any anger about it.  Unlike many progressive types, we on the right have the ability to separate our feelings from politics. 

[Chomper Higgot]

2 minutes ago, Hanaguma said:

Exactly.  What he is doing is/should be illegal, but I don't have any anger about it.  Unlike many progressive types, we on the right have the ability to separate our feelings from politics. 

I find that amusing, given the part fear, anger and hatred play in rightwing politics.

 

Don’t get me wrong, emotions do often play a part on my side of the fence, in this particular case compassion for man making difficult decisions for the good of his family, admiration for his drive and commitment.

[Bkk Brian]

7 minutes ago, Hanaguma said:

Exactly.  What he is doing is/should be illegal, but I don't have any anger about it.  Unlike many progressive types, we on the right have the ability to separate our feelings from politics. 

Some would see that as a problem. Having no emotions on political decisions. 

 

Emotions are among the factors that turn us into rational, well-informed members of a democracy and can benefit many political decision making processes

[Hanaguma]

17 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

I find that amusing, given the part fear, anger and hatred play in rightwing politics.

 

Don’t get me wrong, emotions do often play a part on my side of the fence, in this particular case compassion for man making difficult decisions for the good of his family, admiration for his drive and commitment.

Personally, I would be angry at the feckless squishes in Congress who have been studiously ignoring this issue since the Reagan administration. 

 

Lots of fear and so on at Martha's Vinyard last week. They couldn't wait to get the nasty brown people off their lawns and safely far away.  

[Eric Loh]

1 hour ago, Hanaguma said:

Exactly.  What he is doing is/should be illegal, but I don't have any anger about it.  Unlike many progressive types, we on the right have the ability to separate our feelings from politics. 

Ya right. Critical race theory is a social emotional championed only by the right.

[KhunLA]

3 hours ago, Hanaguma said:

The fact that he left a child behind in Venezuela speaks against his being a genuine asylee. More like an economic migrant obviously. 

Yes, all crossing their home country border have escaped their 'oppression', crossing country after country to Mexico, and no longer being oppressed.  But seeking asylum ... ????

 

$$$$$$$$ is all they want.   Can't blame them, but, they are criminals as soon as they cross the border. IMHO

 

And if he didn't find a job, what other crime was he willing to commit while in USA for $$$

 

Be interesting to know what job he is working.  Is it McD @ $15 an hour, or $25 an hour job, paying an immigrant less/$15, and a US citizen isn't working now at a decent wage, who's worked & paid taxes for a few decades, or a new graduate, carrying $100k college debt.

 

Are those employers really facing worker shortages, or simply not paying the going rate, because they know immigrants are available.

 

Hard to blame either, employer or worker, but US citizens should come first, as that is what they pay taxes for.   Instead, they are footing the bill to lose better wages.

 

 

[Phoenix Rising]

2 hours ago, Hanaguma said:

You misunderstand, not angry with him at all. He took advantage of a broken system and is doing what he has to do to feed his son. But the point is that the system IS broken. He shouldn't be able to swim the Rio Grande and then be rewarded with a work permit, free housing, etc. The blame is with Congress for not doing their most basic job, which is to secure the country. 

Secure the country from those willing to work their behinds off, pay their taxes and respect the laws and election results?

Maybe their time would be betters spent protecting the country from those trying to overturn elections and stage a coup attempt.

[Hanaguma]

23 minutes ago, Phoenix Rising said:

Secure the country from those willing to work their behinds off, pay their taxes and respect the laws and election results?

Maybe their time would be betters spent protecting the country from those trying to overturn elections and stage a coup attempt.

Hard to believe they are willing to "respect the laws" when their very first act is to BREAK the law. Not sure what election results have to do with the topic- AFAIK non citizens are not allowed to vote.  I suspect you are making another snarky attempt to inject your irrational fear of the Bad Orange Man into the discussion.

 

They are free to work their behinds off and pay their taxes in THEIR OWN countries, apply for legal admission to the US (as thousands do every year) and wait their turn.  Each job an illegal migrant takes is another job that is not available to a legal resident, and another small bump downwards in wages for the most vulnerable Americans (especially BIPOC). 

[Hanaguma]

2 hours ago, Eric Loh said:

Ya right. Critical race theory is a social emotional championed only by the right.

uhhhh.... ok? Not sure what you are trying to get at here and how relevant it is to the problem of illegal immigration.

[placeholder]

8 minutes ago, Hanaguma said:

Hard to believe they are willing to "respect the laws" when their very first act is to BREAK the law. Not sure what election results have to do with the topic- AFAIK non citizens are not allowed to vote.  I suspect you are making another snarky attempt to inject your irrational fear of the Bad Orange Man into the discussion.

 

They are free to work their behinds off and pay their taxes in THEIR OWN countries, apply for legal admission to the US (as thousands do every year) and wait their turn.  Each job an illegal migrant takes is another job that is not available to a legal resident, and another small bump downwards in wages for the most vulnerable Americans (especially BIPOC). 

It may be hard for you to believe that people who commit a misdemeanor are willing to respect laws but they in fact do. They are far less likely to commit serious crimes than U.S. citizens.

Comparing crime rates between undocumented immigrants, legal immigrants, and native-born US citizens in Texas

We make use of uniquely comprehensive arrest data from the Texas Department of Public Safety to compare the criminality of undocumented immigrants to legal immigrants and native-born US citizens between 2012 and 2018. We find that undocumented immigrants have substantially lower crime rates than native-born citizens and legal immigrants across a range of felony offenses. Relative to undocumented immigrants, US-born citizens are over 2 times more likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes, and over 4 times more likely to be arrested for property

crimes. 

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2014704117

What organizations like FAIR do is lump the misdemeanor of crossing the border with felonies to come up with their alarming figures.

[Hanaguma]

1 hour ago, placeholder said:

It may be hard for you to believe that people who commit a misdemeanor are willing to respect laws but they in fact do. They are far less likely to commit serious crimes than U.S. citizens.

Comparing crime rates between undocumented immigrants, legal immigrants, and native-born US citizens in Texas

We make use of uniquely comprehensive arrest data from the Texas Department of Public Safety to compare the criminality of undocumented immigrants to legal immigrants and native-born US citizens between 2012 and 2018. We find that undocumented immigrants have substantially lower crime rates than native-born citizens and legal immigrants across a range of felony offenses. Relative to undocumented immigrants, US-born citizens are over 2 times more likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes, and over 4 times more likely to be arrested for property

crimes. 

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2014704117

What organizations like FAIR do is lump the misdemeanor of crossing the border with felonies to come up with their alarming figures.

The gentleman in the case here is obviously cherrypicked as a "best case scenario" for purposes of sympathy and to match up with the political agenda of the reporters.  Good father just trying to support his son, that kind of thing. Hardly the typical case for illegal immigrants.

 

Unless you consider identity theft, tax evasion, driving without a license, and so on to all be beneath worry. Plus the usual crimes of property, violence and drugs that get committed by everyone. Bottom line is that there would be ZERO crimes committed by them if illegal aliens were not permitted to stay in the country. Release them into the public to await hearings and you are allowing crime that doesn't need to happen. 

 

The crime stats are all over the place, especially because local/state jurisdictions do not keep the stats on the immigration status of people arrested/convicted. The federal government does. 

[placeholder]

6 minutes ago, Hanaguma said:

The gentleman in the case here is obviously cherrypicked as a "best case scenario" for purposes of sympathy and to match up with the political agenda of the reporters.  Good father just trying to support his son, that kind of thing. Hardly the typical case for illegal immigrants.

 

Unless you consider identity theft, tax evasion, driving without a license, and so on to all be beneath worry. Plus the usual crimes of property, violence and drugs that get committed by everyone. Bottom line is that there would be ZERO crimes committed by them if illegal aliens were not permitted to stay in the country. Release them into the public to await hearings and you are allowing crime that doesn't need to happen. 

 

The crime stats are all over the place, especially because local/state jurisdictions do not keep the stats on the immigration status of people arrested/convicted. The federal government does. 

Actually, when people are admitted through the standard immigration process they also bring with them all sorts of crime.  The identity theft issue is actually the opposite of tax evasion since many undocumented immigrants actually pay social security/medicare taxes with no hopes of refund. In California, at least, undocumented workers can get driver's licenses. As for tax evasion, that's as much a crime of employers isn't it? In fact, as has been been pointed out repeatedly, if the government truly wanted to solve this problem, all it would have to do is create severe penalties for hiring workers. Threaten employers with some serious jail time. In Texas 8.5% of the workforce is reckoned to be undocumented aliens. In home construction it's estimated to be 25%. Maybe Governor Abbot could start there. But of course that won't happen because the present state of things suits powerful economic interests. When the right wing in America starts pushing hard for this, get back to me.

In fact, like the anti-marijuana lows, immigration laws are bad laws that drastically need reform. Which is why there are bad outcomes.

As for the crime stats, In The study I cited it was clearly stated that Texas was chsen precisely because it does track immigrant status in its database. It doesn't hurt that it's the second most populous state and has the highest rate of employment of undocumented immigrants.

[Bkk Brian]

2 hours ago, KhunLA said:

Be interesting to know what job he is working.  Is it McD @ $15 an hour, or $25 an hour job, paying an immigrant less/$15, and a US citizen isn't working now at a decent wage, who's worked & paid taxes for a few decades, or a new graduate, carrying $100k college debt.

 

Are those employers really facing worker shortages, or simply not paying the going rate, because they know immigrants are available.

 

Hard to blame either, employer or worker, but US citizens should come first, as that is what they pay taxes for.   Instead, they are footing the bill to lose better wages.

 

Whatever job he got I hope it all works out for him, just hope it wasn't for one of Trumps resorts or buildings that are known to have employed them.

[Hanaguma]

36 minutes ago, placeholder said:

Actually, when people are admitted through the standard immigration process they also bring with them all sorts of crime.  The identity theft issue is actually the opposite of tax evasion since many undocumented immigrants actually pay social security/medicare taxes with no hopes of refund. In California, at least, undocumented workers can get driver's licenses. As for tax evasion, that's as much a crime of employers isn't it? In fact, as has been been pointed out repeatedly, if the government truly wanted to solve this problem, all it would have to do is create severe penalties for hiring workers. Threaten employers with some serious jail time. In Texas 8.5% of the workforce is reckoned to be undocumented aliens. In home construction it's estimated to be 25%. Maybe Governor Abbot could start there. But of course that won't happen because the present state of things suits powerful economic interests. When the right wing in America starts pushing hard for this, get back to me.

In fact, like the anti-marijuana lows, immigration laws are bad laws that drastically need reform. Which is why there are bad outcomes.

As for the crime stats, In The study I cited it was clearly stated that Texas was chsen precisely because it does track immigrant status in its database. It doesn't hurt that it's the second most populous state and has the highest rate of employment of undocumented immigrants.

The obvious first step is to control the border. Second is to rapidly return people across it. Third is for the Congress to do their job instead of grandstanding and blowing smoke.  

 

The state governors are somewhat at the mercy of the feds. I agree that they could take stronger action, wish they would to be honest. But the simple fact is that controlling the border is a federal responsibility, and they are NOT doing it.  Immigration is a job for Washington to do, and they are failing. Everything stems from that initial problem. Biden has had control of both houses of Congress for 2 years and has done nothing at all on the issue.  How about taking half the extra money the IRS is getting and using it to upgrade the CBP and hire more agents? Nah, never happen with this government.

[placeholder]

11 minutes ago, Hanaguma said:

The obvious first step is to control the border. Second is to rapidly return people across it. Third is for the Congress to do their job instead of grandstanding and blowing smoke.  

 

The state governors are somewhat at the mercy of the feds. I agree that they could take stronger action, wish they would to be honest. But the simple fact is that controlling the border is a federal responsibility, and they are NOT doing it.  Immigration is a job for Washington to do, and they are failing. Everything stems from that initial problem. Biden has had control of both houses of Congress for 2 years and has done nothing at all on the issue.  How about taking half the extra money the IRS is getting and using it to upgrade the CBP and hire more agents? Nah, never happen with this government.

The first step is to control the border? Why is that the first step? Can it even be done? It's like saying to solve the drug problem the first step is to keep drugs from coming in..  Instead of investing money in treatment or even decriminalization. You offer no good reason to start that the US shouldn't start with severe economic penalties imposed on owners instead. Far better to work on the demand side if the goal is truly to reduce the number of undocumented aliens. These people mostly come to work. If employers were severely penalized, then a way to accommodate the needed immigrants would be found.

 

[Hanaguma]

7 minutes ago, placeholder said:

The first step is to control the border? Why is that the first step? Can it even be done? It's like saying to solve the drug problem the first step is to keep drugs from coming in..  Instead of investing money in treatment or even decriminalization. You offer no good reason to start that the US shouldn't start with severe economic penalties imposed on owners instead. Far better to work on the demand side if the goal is truly to reduce the number of undocumented aliens. These people mostly come to work. If employers were severely penalized, then a way to accommodate the needed immigrants would be found.

 

I would have no trouble with doing both simultaneously.  But again both are things that the federal government should do.  And neither are happening now. There are literally thousands of people coming across every day with no resistance from the government.  The most basic principle of national identity is to have secure borders.   Then work on stiffer employment laws.  Then 'encourage' employers to hire legal residents and citizens. 

[EVENKEEL]

Biden should be impeached for failing to protect the borders of the USA.

[coolcarer]

42 minutes ago, Hanaguma said:

I would have no trouble with doing both simultaneously.  But again both are things that the federal government should do.  And neither are happening now. There are literally thousands of people coming across every day with no resistance from the government.  The most basic principle of national identity is to have secure borders.   Then work on stiffer employment laws.  Then 'encourage' employers to hire legal residents and citizens. 

Biden is offering a $10,000 bonus for new border control recruits, he’s not doing nothing

[Chomper Higgot]

4 hours ago, Hanaguma said:

I would have no trouble with doing both simultaneously.  But again both are things that the federal government should do.  And neither are happening now. There are literally thousands of people coming across every day with no resistance from the government.  The most basic principle of national identity is to have secure borders.   Then work on stiffer employment laws.  Then 'encourage' employers to hire legal residents and citizens. 

The most basic aspect of American identity is ‘a nation built by immigrants seeking freedom, opportunity and a better life’.

 

 

[KhunLA]

1 hour ago, Chomper Higgot said:

The most basic aspect of American identity is ‘a nation built by immigrants seeking freedom, opportunity and a better life’.

Since 2000, legal immigrants to the United States number approximately 1,000,000 per year

[EVENKEEL]

So an illegal migrant crosses into the US illegally, gets a job and this makes yahoo news, amazing. At least biden could pretend to control the southern border. And there's still braindead idiots believing him.

[Chomper Higgot]

9 hours ago, KhunLA said:

Since 2000, legal immigrants to the United States number approximately 1,000,000 per year

And?