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Chris J. Karr's avatar

"Why they threw so much money at ICE and insulated it from the normal appropriations process is something that Republicans need to answer, along with why they are going to such lengths to prevent ICE from being subject to the same rules as other law enforcement agencies."

You can't have a proper battalion of Stormtroopers if they are accountable to the Republic Senate.

I flew back from Hawaii yesterday ahead of all of the TSA chaos. The biggest issue we had to deal with is that we had to sit around a while, since United wouldn't take our bags more than 4 hours before our flight.

I saw some reporting on social media that LGA had a grand total of ONE ATC working last night. Haven't verified that myself, so YMMV.

Kim's avatar
2dEdited

Trump 100% owns the fact that TSA is not funded. There is no disputing that and if you try, you will share in the blame. And telling Congress not to go home for Easter. To pass the save act for Jesus give me a freaking break. He has shown us in every way possible that he is not a Christian and has no idea who Jesus is. Pardon me while I go vomit.

Bill Pearson's avatar

Thanks for the update David, none of the story made any sense; it's still hard to get one's head around?

Better yet, this, 100%: "but the buried lede is that Trump is more willing to negotiate with terrorists than Democrats.'

Curtis Stinespring's avatar

Terrorists under threat are more amenable to negotiation and more reliable than Congressional democrats.

Bill Pearson's avatar

Well there ya go Curtis, you've found the solution; trump just threaten to blow them off the face of the earth eh?

By the way C, for bonus point; who said this in Nov of 2011: "Our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate. He’s weak and he’s ineffective. So the only way he figures that he’s going to get re-elected, and as sure as you're sitting there, is to start a war with Iran."

Curtis Stinespring's avatar

The only assassination attempts against federal executive branch and legislative officials I'm aware of came from the left - three against Trump alone.

Regarding negotiation, Trump actually negotiates instead of taking the easy way out. It's easy to cave.

SGman's avatar

You are misremembering: they were all Republican voters.

Curtis Stinespring's avatar

Means nothing. Even I have voted democrat.

SGman's avatar

You're claiming a thing that is not factual.

And it's no surprise to me that you've voted Democratic before - assumedly before the Civil Rights Acts and the shifting of Southern Democrats to the Republican Party.

Bill Pearson's avatar

You are talking about TACO man..right? And so we are clear, Obama negotiated the same deal trump now is begging for; you know Curtis, the one trump tore up.

Curtis Stinespring's avatar

Show me where he's begging. Obama caved.

Bill Pearson's avatar

Interesting take on The Bulwark today, you should take a peak. That said, here's a great excerpt from a British Substack:

The logic, insofar as there is any, goes like this: the war has crashed the global oil market so hard that the administration needs the enemy’s oil to keep gasoline prices from eating the midterms. They are unsanctioning the people they’re bombing because the bombing is working too well at the thing they didn’t want it to do. The sanctions were necessary to stop Iran funding the war, but the war made the sanctions too effective, so the sanctions had to be lifted to fund the war effort against the country that no longer needs sanctions because the oil revenues that sanctions were preventing are now required to prevent the economic damage caused by preventing those revenues, which is itself a consequence of the military campaign designed to make the sanctions unnecessary by making Iran the kind of country that doesn’t need sanctioning, which it would be, if the sanctions hadn’t been lifted to pay for making it that.

Cooter's avatar

Perhaps Republicans "overfunded" ICE in anticipation of the gargantuan effort to clean up Biden's 4 years of open borders.

For the love of....you KNOW ICE agents...and their FAMILIES...are being doxed.

Do better, Mr. Thornton.

David Thornton's avatar

Borders were not open under Biden. Do better, yourself.

Curtis Stinespring's avatar

Damn, David. You are risking all of your credibility with statements like that. How did we get those additional 20 million illegals other than from Biden / Mayorkas policies? Is the same thing happening now? No, we now have a mostly closed border.

I do appreciate your comments on flying and airport operations. I believe that is more your expertise as proven by hundreds of successful take offs and landings.

SGman's avatar

The spike started under Trump during the COVID pandemic. Biden (eventually) took steps to change the process to have people apply for asylum only at ports of entry or remotely via the CBP One app.

And it wasn't 20mil during those years, we're at ~11mil total - that's including those who came in prior to Biden.

Cooter's avatar

Biden didn't open the border...??? Explain the pattern below.

The spike started under Trump...??? Started? Sure, there was *A* spike in 2019; what happened in 2020? How about 2021 - 2024?

Total CBP Enforcement Encounters by FY:

2017: 526,901

2018: 638,178

2019: 1,148,204

2020: 646,822

2021: 1,956,519

2022: 2,766,582

2023: 3,201,144

2024: 2,901,142

2025: 691,906

2026: 153,155 to Feb

Let's annualize 2026: 153,155 * (12/5) = 367,572

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/cbp-enforcement-statistics

SGman's avatar

Encounters includes people being turned away at a port of entry. Split out your encounters into their components - you have to get the spreadsheet from CBP that shows which encounters were outside ports of entry and were not deportations of people already present.

Cooter's avatar

The discussion is about open borders, not deportations, and the numbers I displayed tell the story. However, the split you're looking for is in the link.

Curtis Stinespring's avatar

I refuse to acknowledge that those who were given a free pass by Biden's web app are lawfully present because they were not vetted nor detained pending vetting. The total number of illegals is diminished by phony asylum claims that liberals assume are valid and confer legal status.

https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/03/fair-study-on-illegal-immigrant-population.pdf

SGman's avatar

Yes, we know you like to call lots of things illegal that aren't.

Asylum claimants get to make said claims before any vetting occurs: they can literally just show up and do so.

Shame that Trump killed changing the law...

Curtis Stinespring's avatar

Sounds like the very definition of an open border.

Cameron Sprow's avatar

David had very little credibility before this.

David Thornton's avatar

I hadn’t seen that. I did say “reported” since it couldn’t be verified when I published. Still looks like possible excessive force, but I will wait for verification on citizenship.

I wonder where the plane was going.