Thursday, April 4, 2024

Of Elephants and Rooms

 


Of Elephants and Rooms

More and more of our examinations are done through a haze of insincerity and self-interest. From pharmaceutical investigations to political surveys to environmental impact studies, we are inundated with information shaped and filtered by outcome and intent.

Illegal immigration is a great example. We debate over the accuracy of "illegal" vs. "undocumented," as if that makes a difference.

An interesting subset is illegal Chinese immigration, which should be easier to distill.

In 2021, 342 illegal Chinese nationals were encountered by U.S. officials at the border. (N.B. "encountered.") In 2022 there were over 2000. In 2023 there were 24,125 illegal Chinese encountered. In 2024, so far, there have been 22,223 illegal Chinese nationals encountered entering the U.S. illegally.

Now, movement in China is scrutinized. Those guys did not end up on the border simply searching for banned books to read.

Another way of putting those numbers is that in the last two years American immigration officials have encountered 45 Chinese battalions. Battalions.

The administration says the border is "secure." Beyond "secure," "illegal," and "undocumented," why would a state allow this?

 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I learned to be President all you need is ability to sign your name

jim said...

45 Battalions.
The problem here is not just that the government seems able only to disperse the spoils, not to govern. The real problem is whether or not the people will tolerate this, an inherent quality of self-governance.