Thinking Citizen Blog — The Most Important Domestic Chart of the Year — “Surge at the Border” (NYT) ?
Thinking Citizen Blog — Saturday is Justice, Freedom, Law, and Values Day
Today’s Topic: The Most Important Domestic Chart of the Year — “Surge at the Border” (NYT) ?
Last week, the New York Times Editorial and Opinion section featured an article by Steve Rattner, a former counselor in the Treasury Department of the Obama administration.
Entitled “More Than Words — Ten Charts That Defined 2023,” the article is a must read by anyone remotely interested in politics in general or the outcome of the 2024 presidential election in particular because if it doesn’t answer the most important question worth asking, it at least raises it — what are the most important facts to be held upper most in your civic brain as you strive day to day to make sense of the chaos of the upcoming presidential campaign season? Of the ten charts, my focus here, today is Chart #9: “Surge at the Border.”
I am eager to hear from you which of Ratner’s ten charts you think most deserve our collective attention. If there is a chart that does not appear in his top ten that you think is more important, please, oh please, share.
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
“SURGE AT THE BORDER,” 1960–2023 — unfortunately, Rattner’s chart did not cut and paste, this one covers roughly the same data from Pew Research
1. “The flood of migrants seeking to cross our southern border surged to record levels, creating a political crisis for Mr. Biden.”
2. “Misinformation added to the commotion. The 2.5 million “encounters” in fiscal 2023 cited in press reports represented the number of migrants who were apprehended by US Customs and Border Protection.”
3. “Roughly one million of those apprehended were released inside the US to await hearings in our underfunded and backlogged immigration courts, creating a major challenge for New York City and other cities to which many traveled.”
NB: “Beyond the 2.5 million encounters a (relatively) modest 600,000 were believed to have sneaked into the country without being caught….Oof the 1.4 million new court cases added in fiscal year 2023, just 100,000 have been resolved.” Did you process what you just read? Is it humanly possible to do so? What is to be done?
DAVID LEONHARDT — NEW YORK TIMES DATA GUY — COMMENTS ON BORDER SURGE
1. “The debate over border security in Congress is ultimately about whether the United States should accept much more immigration than federal law allows.
2. “To many Democratic politicians and immigration activists, the answer is yes. They believe that the U.S. has a humanitarian responsibility to admit millions of migrants who live in countries that are poorer or beset by turmoil.”
3. “These immigration proponents believe that the proposals in Congress to toughen border security are cruel and xenophobic, needlessly turning away people who are eager to contribute to American society.”
NB: “To many Republican politicians — and most voters, polls suggest — the porous southern border is an urgent problem. Since President Biden took office, the number of people apprehended at the border (a proxy for flows of illegal immigration) has risen more than fourfold compared with the average level in the 2010s. The data suggest that thousands of people are entering the country illegally each day. This surge has created chaos in in parts of southern Texas and Arizona and has strained resources as far away as Chicago, Denver and New York.”
US OPINION POLLS ON IMMIGRATION PROBLEM — what is the best poll on this topic? What is the latest result?
1. Arizonans, Texans care a lot about immigration. How much do those further from the border care? About half as much?
2. National data hides the sharp difference in salience.
3. “When experts try to explain why immigration rises and falls, they talk about “push” and “pull” factors. Push factors are those such as war, famine or economic crisis that cause people to leave their home countries and seek a new home. Pull factors are those that can lure people to a new country, such as an economic boom in that country or a more lax immigration policy. Both push and pull factors have played a role in the surge o migration to the U.S.” (Leonhardt)
NB: “Venezuela has descended into disarray in recent years, and Nicaragua’s government has become more repressive. But push factors don’t explain the entire surge — and maybe not even most of it. There have been no recent wars in Latin America, and the region’s poverty rate has been flat. Pull factors have also been important. During Biden’s presidential campaign, he spoke in much more welcoming tones than not only Donald Trump but also Barack Obama. “We’re a nation that says, ‘If you want to flee, and you’re fleeing oppression, you should come,’” Biden said during a 2020 campaign debate co-hosted by Univision, which has a large audience in Latin America.”
FINAL NOTES — so what does your heart say? what does your head say?
1. Remember when Obama was known as “the deporter-in-chief”?
2. I am the son of an immigrant and have always been an open borders guy.
3. America’s edge has always been its immigrants — who work harder and have a stronger belief in this country than non-immigrants because they know better what the alternative is — and it’s more fresh in their minds, hearts, and souls.
NB: But let’s be realistic. Do the math. What’s the limit? Who is doing this work? who should be?
Opinion | More Than Words: 10 Charts That Defined 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/18/briefing/immigration-debate.html
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
For the last four years of posts organized by theme:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
Four special attachments below:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to justice, freedom, the law or basic values.
Or the coolest, most important thing you learned in your life related to justice, freedom, the law, or basic values. Or just some random justice-related fact that blew you away.
This is your chance to make some one’s day. Or to cement in your mind something that you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply about something dear to your heart.
