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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 17, 2025

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Remember when Trump totally ended the deluge of illegal immigrants in a week using only executive power? And remember when that executive power was upheld in court? That's the clearest proof you can get that Biden was lying through his teeth when he claimed that it was impossible to stop the illegals using executive power. In fact it's also good evidence that Biden intentionally manufactured the crisis.

Also, remember when the Democrats, who created this crisis, tried to pass this backstabbing bill multiple times with literally zero Republican support? That's the clearest proof you can get that the Democrats were lying through their teeth when they claimed the bill was a "compromise" when in fact it made zero concessions. If Democrats were gonna completely give up on Republican support and still try to pass the bill, they would bring it into total alignment with their priorities. And guess what, no changes were needed; it was already in perfect alignment.

Yeah I remember that bill. The bill that would have done nothing to mitigate the illegal immigration issue while being so loaded with poison pills it was more deadly than a pound of fentanyl. Good the Democrats weren't able to pass it.

Remember when Trump totally ended the deluge of illegal immigrants in a week using only executive power?

People cite this frequently, but I think the biggest change isn't one of law or even executive policy, but only one of stated preference. The Biden administration was perceived as being friendly to illegal immigrants asylum seekers, and when a flood showed up in response, then administrative choices (the CBP app, for example) demonstrated the perception to be broadly correct. So far, at least, it seems enough to merely change that perception, although I assume some actions to back it up would eventually be necessary.

In my post 9 months ago I agreed with the notion that Biden was fundamentally at fault for the surge of immigration, and that he could have reduced it significantly with powers he already had. This was borne out when illegal immigration numbers plummeted towards the (very) end of Biden's presidency. That said, immigration is still fundamentally broken in a lot of ways that only the Legislature can fix. From my post:

The issue with this idea is that even if Biden were to reimplement all of Trump’s executive orders, they still amounted to little more than a bandaid on a bullet hole. Critics of the bill are technically correct in pointing out that there was less blood before Biden ripped off the bandaid, but it’s ludicrous to then assume that the bandaid was all that was ever needed. US immigration law and border enforcement is fundamentally broken in a number of ways, and this bill would have gone a long way in addressing the worst problems. Recall that Trump himself tried to go after asylum laws directly, but his efforts mostly fizzled in the courts.

The fact no Republicans voted for the bill after Trump told them not to is just an indication that R congressmen are utterly beholden to Trump. Remember that Lankford, a Republican immigration hawk, was the chief architect of the bill in the first place.