Saturday Politics Thread: Illegal Immigration Backgrounder [Y-not]

[Draggingtree]

Ace of Spades:

Saturday Politics Thread: Illegal Immigration Backgrounder [Y-not]

 

Good morning, morons and moronettes!

I've started preparing the candidates' bac

kgrounders on my least-favorite issue -- illegal immigration -- but it is a tremendous slog and I'm still trying to decide on the format. Frankly, there is so much posturing and outright lying going on that it is difficult to tease out where the candidates stand, and what they have done, when it comes to illegal immigration and immigration policy more generally.

 

In any event, to get us started on this topic, I thought we could do a quick review of the mess we're in and how we got here. Then I'd like to get the sense of the AoSHQ Horde with a poll. *typo fixed*

 

First, take these:

How did we get here?

In trying to get a sense of the historical trends in U.S. immigration, I reviewed a number of sources. I wanted to avoid an out and out advocacy group (even one from the Right side of the aisle) to get as neutral a description as possible. (Of course, the Smart Set, which includes the Media Complex, is so in the tank on this issue, there is no truly neutral source, but I did my best.)

 

[Draggingtree]

Saturday Politics Thread: Immigration, Part Two [Y-not] —Open Blogger

Good morning, horde! Today we'll continue exploring one of the trickiest (and most depressing) of the issues facing conservatives today: immigration.

 

Last week we had a brief "history lesson" on how U.S. immigration policies have evolved over the past 50 years. We also looked at a snapshot of the illegal immigration population, including which states have the largest populations of illegals.

 

In trying to decide how to proceed with our candidate evaluations, I decided that it might be most helpful to start with their reactions to Obama's manufactured border crisis. My rationale was that this would be the best way to come up with a head to head comparison given that many of our GOP prospects had limited experience with illegal immigration prior to last year. Of course, the challenge here is that, with the exception of Jeb Bush, most GOP hopefuls are starting to talk tougher now that the primary season is underway. Whether or not their tough talk matches their previous statements and records http://ace.mu.nu/archives/356792.php