“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

But keep the Syrians the hell out of here.

It seems Texas is suing the federal government to stop it from re-settling six Syrian refugees. Texas isn't the only state that doesn't want any Syrian refugees, either. There are quite a few, mostly run by republican governors. I'm sure that's a surprise to everyone since republicans have always been so welcoming to immigrants.

Homicidal_Squirrel said:

But keep the Syrians the hell out of here.

It seems Texas is suing the federal government to stop it from re-settling six Syrian refugees. Texas isn't the only state that doesn't want any Syrian refugees, either. There are quite a few, mostly run by republican governors. I'm sure that's a surprise to everyone since republicans have always been so welcoming to immigrants.

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They've had enough tired and poor coming for decades. Allow them some skilled and middle class or better for a change

Maxperson said:

They've had enough tired and poor coming for decades. Allow them some skilled and middle class or better for a change

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There's a reasonable chance that refuges from Syria are professionals etc. More so than what our odds of such from Mexico are. So that argument is moot.

Additionally, it's a lot of effort to block 6 measly immigrants. We lose more mexicans in the back of trailer trucks parked in the heat. If there's some kind of quota of unwanted people, they could easily find 6 and deport them to account for the unwanted influx and TX would improve the quality of its residency.

Much like somebody I know tried to argue to me that Separation of Church and State isn't actually a law, the quote on the Statue of Liberty isn't either.

But they sure are defining statements of how America is supposed to work and how we are supposed to be.


We are supposed to welcome people whose lives suck and be the chance for them to get on their feet. Yeah, that sometimes floods the workforce with cheap labor. And sometimes bad guys take advantage of the system, like they do any system. We could spend more time working on finding the bad guys, like the bankers who screwed America, and the nutjobs who keep going postal, a bit less time worrying about a bunch of people who statistically, haven't been much of a problem.

Janx said:

There's a reasonable chance that refuges from Syria are professionals etc. More so than what our odds of such from Mexico are. So that argument is moot.

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It's really only moot if it's guaranteed that they are skilled and middle class or better.

Much like somebody I know tried to argue to me that Separation of Church and State isn't actually a law, the quote on the Statue of Liberty isn't either.

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The separation of church and state isn't written in the Constitution. It's an invention based on the portion of the Constitution that says that the government can't make laws with respect to establishing a religion or prohibiting the free exercise of religion. Saying a prayer in school isn't a law, so it doesn't qualify. The Supreme Court apparently couldn't figure out what was or was not a law, so they just separated it completely with some bench legislation.

We are supposed to welcome people whose lives suck and be the chance for them to get on their feet. Yeah, that sometimes floods the workforce with cheap labor. And sometimes bad guys take advantage of the system, like they do any system. We could spend more time working on finding the bad guys, like the bankers who screwed America, and the nutjobs who keep going postal, a bit less time worrying about a bunch of people who statistically, haven't been much of a problem.

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There was a time when we had plenty of room and resources to welcome all the poor who wanted to come here. That time no longer exists.

Maxperson said:

There was a time when we had plenty of room and resources to welcome all the poor who wanted to come here. That time no longer exists.

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Syrian refugees do not pose a significant resource burden. The bulk of the cost of resettling them is already handled by a handful of private organizations.

Beyond that, the resources actually exist. We would just prefer those resources stay allocated to a small number of very rich people and corporations.

Maxperson said:

It's really only moot if it's guaranteed that they are skilled and middle class or better.

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Middle class or better only happens if you have a job at the time. Nobody coming into the US as a refuge has a job yet.

Given that I was poor until I got my first job at a Fortune 20 company and instantly became upper middle class, the only key attribute that may matter in your argument is being skilled. Which I was.


There are no guarrantees in life. Only statistics. I can easily guess that statistically, the distribution of skillsets and backgrounds is likely higher for people coming from Syria, than from Mexico. So we're going to get more unskilled labor from Mexico than Syria where folks normal middle class lives were destroyed and they used all their resources to escape.

So statistically, odds are better that 6 Syrian refugees are going to be skilled compared to 6 illegal mexican immigrants because anybody who has skilled in Mexico likely has a stable gig. Where in Syria, the entire country is unstable, driving everybody out (in fact, people with means are more likely to escape as they have the resources to make the desperate trek in the first place).

In any case, I didn't realize that we didn't have the resources (that private parties have already ponied up per Umbran). Clearly we live in two different realities. Yours where we are all crowded elbow to elbow eating scraps, and the one the rest of us live in where somebody is physically holding the resources they intend to hand over to the new comer.

Which is it? The man holding the stuff or your delusion that the man's hand is empty?

"Sure, we want immigrants, but not the Scots."

"Sure, we want immigrants, but not the Irish."

"Sure, we want immigrants, but not the Italians."

"Sure, we want immigrants, but not the East Indians."

"Sure, we want immigrants, but not the Syrians."

Every group of immigrants wants to be the last, once they've gotten in. That is true right back to the first group of immigrants. For Canada, at least, the Syrian refugees who the government is proposing to bring in have been in refugee camps for up to 5 years. They are in need and present virtually no chance of being a danger.

Maxperson said:

They've had enough tired and poor coming for decades. Allow them some skilled and middle class or better for a change

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I doubt you, or one of these mostly republican governors, would take the time to determine who is middle class or skilled. The argument these governors are using is that some terrorist is going to sneak in, so all Syrians must be stopped from coming in. They're assuming that all Syrians are potentially terrorist. It would be the same regarding the skill level and socioeconomic status. They'd just assume all immigrants are poor and unskilled.

Homicidal_Squirrel said:

I doubt you, or one of these mostly republican governors, would take the time to determine who is middle class or skilled. The argument these governors are using is that some terrorist is going to sneak in, so all Syrians must be stopped from coming in. They're assuming that all Syrians are potentially terrorist. It would be the same regarding the skill level and socioeconomic status. They'd just assume all immigrants are poor and unskilled.

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I would in fact suspect that people who are stuck in crappyland will begin to feel marginalized and become terrorists. Our best cure for terrorism is prevention by enabling a better life for those people.


Yeah, I reckon three of those guys might take my job someday because they're better at it than me. Or that two of those people might need some more help that costs a bit more in taxes. Or that one of those guys might go nuts.

But it's not like we don't have locals going nuts, so what's one more?

Over 4 million people have fled from the conflict in that small middle eastern country. What happens to Syria when there are not enough Syrians left there to fight for it?