So Stupid It's Not Funny: Trump's claims on immigration get fact-checked - and it's embarrassing

[Trotsky]

Trevor Noah's show usually isn't that substantive, so I was pleasantly surprised to see him get immigration law 100% correct. And I was, somehow, still surprised at just how misinformed or purposefully dishonest Trump is on the subject. As I have mentioned here, I've done some immigration law work in the past, and Noah is on-point.



Trump's claim: the Diversity Visa Lottery is bad because countries are getting rid of all of their criminals by sending them into the VISA lottery, where they are picked at random.

FACTS: Lottery entrants apply individually and must meet admission criteria, including education requirements and no felony record. Among the millions of applicants, the Department of Homeland Security selects which regions get preference based on underrepresentation in the US population and then individually vet and select each admission.


Trump's claim: "chain migration" allows every immigrant to immediately bring in as many relatives as they want, and each relative can themselves bring in any relative they want, and so on and so on.

FACTS: Immigrants can only bring over their (1) spouses to whom they were married at the time of their petition for admission, and (2) unmarried children under the age of 21.
For all other family members, they must petition and be placed into a mandatory queue. Depending on the country of origin, bringing over siblings, parents, or children over the age of 21 takes an average of 8 years.


Trump's claim: the man who ran over pedestrians in New York City last Fall was an immigrant who could have brought as many as 23-24 of his family members with him.

FACTS: The driver was actually present on a green card and could not bring any family members with him. And, even if he could, bringing over such family members would, as we now know, take decades and hundreds of thousands of dollars.






Truthfully, the dishonesty and stupidity of Donald Trump and all of his followers is once again astounding.

 

[Makani]

I haven't watched The Daily Show much since Noah took over, but that's a pretty funny skewering of an ignorant rambler.

 

[Trotsky]

I haven't watched The Daily Show much since Noah took over, but that's a pretty funny skewering of an ignorant rambler.

Like Stewart, I cringe when he does childish voices. And he's much more of a centrist than Stewart, but that likely comes from only being superficially exposed to American politics until recent years.

But, being an immigrant himself, he clearly knows a fuck ton more about immigration than the moron in chief.

 

[Lord Commander Palis]

lol at making a thread with Trevor Noah's shit "show" as your thesis.

Low IQ shit.

 

[MicroBrew]

lol at making a thread with Trevor Noah's shit "show" as your thesis.

Low IQ shit.

Lol at your kneejerk defense of god emperor Trump.

 

[JSnake]

Just because something is written doesn't mean it gets followed. By the rule of law, the country shouldn't be letting in illegal immigrants and defending them from deportation in sanctuary cities either, yet it still openly happens.

 

[Damien Karras]

lol at making a thread with Trevor Noah's shit "show" as your thesis.

Low IQ shit.

Ad hominem much?

I wouldn't expect much more from there likes of you

 

[MicroBrew]

Just because something is written doesn't mean it gets followed. By the rule of law, the country shouldn't be letting in illegal immigrants and defending them from deportation in sanctuary cities either, yet it still openly happens.

Illegals can cross the border (most of them do) physically. Whereas an immigrant who comes here via the visa lottery , if they are from overseas or far away, can only bring in relatives by air or ship. Coming by air or ship requires some kind of visa.

 

[Trotsky]

Just because something is written doesn't mean it gets followed.

What's your point? That people are waiting years for their family members to be admitted just so that they can themselves sneak across and be every bit as deportable as they would have ever been? That makes no sense.

And there is still zero factual basis for any of what Trump said.

By the rule of law, the country shouldn't be letting in illegal immigrants and defending them from deportation in sanctuary cities either, yet it still openly happens.

Well, we don't "let in" undocumented immigrants, hence the undocumented part. And the only thing "protecting" undocumented immigrants is federalism, i.e. states' rights, and the will of local police forces who think that spending their time deporting productive members of their communities is a waste of their time/public function to keep the communities' safe.

But I don't think any of that is factually disputed.

 

[splendica]

Where are the statements made by Trump as they are written in the OP?

 

[JSnake]

What's your point? That people are waiting years for their family members to be admitted just so that they can themselves sneak across and be every bit as deportable as they would have ever been? That makes no sense.

And there is still zero factual basis for any of what Trump said.

Well, we don't "let in" undocumented immigrants, hence the undocumented part. And the only thing "protecting" undocumented immigrants is federalism, i.e. states' rights, and the will of local police forces who think that spending their time deporting productive members of their communities is a waste of their time/public function to keep the communities' safe.

But I don't think any of that is factually disputed.

One of the perks of being president is being privy to information the public wouldn't have.

Let's be honest here, the primary reason the Democratic Party want immigrants into the country is for votes; they've openly defied the federal government on the deportation of illegal immigrants from sanctuary cities, so it logically follows they'd try to get in as many as possible, regardless of what the laws/rules say.

 

[Pelosi2020]

Trevor Noah could be reading the back of a soup can and I wouldn’t trust a word from him.

 

[Trotsky]

One of the perks of being president is being privy to information the public wouldn't have.

Let's be honest here, the primary reason the Democratic Party want immigrants into the country is for votes; they've openly defied the federal government on the deportation of illegal immigrants from sanctuary cities, so it logically follows they'd try to get in as many as possible, regardless of what the laws/rules say.

Just prefacing a false or speculative statement with "Let's be honest" doesn't change anything.

Regardless of conspiracy theories about Democrats, the simple fact is that (a) we need to maintain an inflow of immigrants to support our demographic needs, and (b) providing a path to citizenship and some type of fee program is the most cost-effective and politically feasible way to address the issue. Whether the Democrats' motives are mixed or not, they have logic on their side. The countervailing approach, mass deportation, would cost tens to hundreds of billions of dollars in long-term costs just to get rid of citizens that will need to be recouped through subsequent immigration efforts.

 

[Quipling]

One of the perks of being president is being privy to information the public wouldn't have.

Let's be honest here, the primary reason the Democratic Party want immigrants into the country is for votes; they've openly defied the federal government on the deportation of illegal immigrants from sanctuary cities, so it logically follows they'd try to get in as many as possible, regardless of what the laws/rules say.

Let's be honest here.

Immigrants can't vote until they are citizens, and this takes years and years.

What you've proposed - and I know it's a common idea in right-wing circles that this is actually the dem plan -is a nonsensical strategy for this reason and others. And, if it were the actual dem plan, they'd have legalized immigrants in one fell swoop when they had the power, thereby giving themselves a majority for the next two decades. They didn't. They just changed the deportation framework a bit.

 

[Trotsky]

Where are the statements made by Trump as they are written in the OP?

Check the video: they're in it. I was pretty careful not to misconstrue anything he said. Let me know if you think I was inaccurate with any of my paraphrasing, and I'll change it accordingly.

 

[splendica]

Check the video: they're in it. I was pretty careful not to misconstrue anything he said. Let me know if you think I was inaccurate with any of my paraphrasing, and I'll change it accordingly.

I can't see the video as I'm at work, I'll have to check it another time. Are those quotes from actual videos of Trump speaking?

 

[Trotsky]

I can't see the video as I'm at work, I'll have to check it another time. Are those quotes from actual videos of Trump speaking?

Yep. They are from two separate events. The one about the diversity lottery is from one of the recent immigration open meetings, and the one about chain migration is from a speech (rally, I guess?) he gave last month, December 17th iirc.

 

[splendica]

​

Trevor Noah could be reading the back of a soup can and I wouldn’t trust a word from him.

Ditto, well said. Of the left, he's top 5 in slimy personalities to me.

 

[splendica]

Yep. They are from two separate events. The one about the diversity lottery is from one of the recent immigration open meetings, and the one about chain migration is from a speech (rally, I guess?) he gave last month, December 17th iirc.

Word for word, those don't sound like accurate quotes.

I found this statement on the NY killer, and Trump says (word for word), "he was the primary point of contact for, and this is preliminarial, 23 people that came in - or potentially came in - with him."



From that presser, he was obviously dealing with preliminary info and was making a statement against chain migration vs a shift toward merit-based migration.

Was this one of the clips because I can't find others like you describe in the OP.

 

[splendica]

The first two claims read much more all-inclusive than what was actually said unless very off the cuff and hardly a definitive statement of specifics.