Stew Berger

U.S. Immigration Policies: A Recent History and Facts MAGA's going nuts over Trump telling CBS's 60 Minutes his deportation policy "might be too tough," that it's "actually doable" to reach an immigration deal with the new Democratic Congress. The interviewer said "some kind of legal status" and Trump said "yeah"..."But let the people that are here, and in some cases here for ten and 15 years, work a deal for them." migrationpolicy dot org says immigrants are 15% (50 million) of our population, and they're 18% of our civilian workers. --We know what Trump and his administration have done in the last 2 years (more on that below). --January 2024, Trump told the GOP to block the Bipartisan Border Act, claiming it wasn't tough enough and saying it would give the Democrats a win. Democrats said Trump ordered to "kill the bill" so he could campaign on the border issue, and they agreed. It partly would've revised asylum rules and included provisions for Afghan allies, green card expansions, and work authorizations. The Senate blocked it. Previously: --2005 and 2006, the House and Senate passed immigration and immigration reform bills, but the 2 chambers could not agree on a compromise bill, and it died. --2012, President Obama announced an executive order on DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. --2013, a bipartisan group of eight senators drafted amnesty legislation. It passed the Senate but the House didn't vote on it, and it died. --2014, President Obama announced an executive order on DAPA, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans. But states sued and it was blocked. --2017, President Trump signed an executive order on his Muslim Travel Ban. He rescinded DAPA and said he'd phase out DACA. DACA is still in effect, but only for renewals (436,000 recipients). --migrationpolicy dot org says there've been 980,000 deportations in the first year and a half of the Trump administration. 61% of deportations by ICE were of unauthorized immigrants here at least two years, and 15% were here 10 or more years. There were also many self-deportations. --Only 20% of all deportations in this period were of people with criminal convictions. Of deportations of people here two or more years, 71% did not have criminal convictions. --69 percent of deportations were of people caught at the border, with 31% arrested in the interior. --ProPublica says over 506 U.S. citizens were mistakenly or temporarily detained.

Alaska Senate race: someone grabbed this screenshot of a New York Times analysis with the outlet saying Democrat Mary Peltola is still favored to win if neither of the top 2 get 50% by Nov. 18th and it goes to ranked choice tabulation (voters' 2nd choice). More ballot batches will come in this coming week, supposedly favoring Peltola, and we should know the winner by the 18th. Reports of tens of thousands of votes left to be counted from rural and remote precincts and overseas (many to be counted by hand). The Peltola campaign has also sued the state to get records of rejected absentee ballots to double-check legality and whether they were counted properly. So far, Peltola is still ahead by about 640 votes with 74% reporting.

Do you think Democrats should impeach Trump? Let us know what you think or anything else you think and feel these days.

Come join us and talk about your thoughts and feelings around the election and policies.

How are you feeling after the election?....you're welcome to join in and speak.

At least we had a few days of sweet peace and celebration before Trump glitched and jammed up the throttle on his crazy train. Back to the salt mines, but we feel the power, and less than 2 months now until the new Democratic Congress is sworn in and maps a better path forward.🇺🇸

President Trump is again accused of verbally abusing a woman and not taking personal responsibility for the massive GOP election losses. Trump "screamed" at Susie Wiles, Chief of Staff, says the Daily Mail before she resigned or he fired her. Sources said "He exploded at her" (CNN said he was "furious" with her) and yelled at her, claiming it was her fault Republicans lost, until she left the Oval Office on Thursday, and as the door closed behind her, he was still yelling. Two sources said Trump threw her out of the meeting, also attended by a few other top White House officials. Wiles had also wanted the administration to change its immigration policy to deport only migrants convicted of violent crimes or who were wanted, and she'd pointed out how the all the deportations were costing them votes. One report said Wiles was trying to pin the blame for election losses on Pete Hegseth because of the illegal Iran war and how it's making us pay higher prices. Incoming Chief of Staff Stephen Miller is set to take over on Monday.

I believe that the seismic U.S. political shift that you and we have all brought about together has as much to do with the need to reinstitute Democratic policies as it does with rescuing the American psyche. You could call it our national soul, and we can tell how it's doing by our feelings; (this is one reason why empathy, despite Elon Musk claiming it's a weakness, is just as important as rational thinking.) The image I get is that Trump created a restriction and tightening of this national psyche through hateful policies, abuse, negativity, self-centeredness and erratic behavior, and it's like we kept going down further and further into a smaller and smaller hole. But now, we have shot back up to the surface, we can spread our arms and take deep breaths again, and we're looking around to see where we should go first to get our country going in the right direction again. The psyche of America depends at least partly on liberty and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution, and so these are things we must always have for our country to operate normally and vibrantly--not only for us but for the generations to come.

Tax experts think the new Democratic Congress might push measures to increase taxes on the rich and corporations--and cut taxes for the rest of us, but those tax cuts might not be possible because of the deficits. CNBC says if these things pass, Trump would probably veto them, but that might help new tax policies get passed in 2028. 2 other ideas are a federal wealth tax and a tax on unrealized gains. In Colorado, supporters of a tax-the-rich amendment that would take effect this January have declared victory. Washington state has a 9.9% millionaire tax going into effect in January 2028. In California, a 5% billionaire tax measure appears headed for defeat. Then there's Social Security. Without help, the fund is expected to run dry as soon as 2032, and if and when it does, retirees' benefits could drop by between 22% and 26%. Much work for Democrats, and hopefully some Republicans will pitch in.