to ask a very ignorant question re America

[PaulaHollywood]

I am aware that this will make me look stupid..but Trump goes on and on about border control and as he put it in yesterday's debate, all of the people "pouring in" from the Middle East etc. But from what I've always seen, it's incredibly difficult to move to the States unless it is with work, you have a duel citizenship or you marry someone from there. After I finished uni I was desperate to move out to California after having worked there during my Camp America stint and falling in love with one particular area but it seemed impossible. So who are all these people "pouring in" and how are they doing it ??

[user1471446905]

He's mainly talking about mexicans and they walk over the border! He is a lunatic however!

[vinoandbrie]

Illegal immigrants crossing the border from Mexico, largely. He's not talking about legal migration, or people there on business visas.

[M0nstersinthecl0set]

He's talking shit. Like all far right idiots he tries to convince everyone the world is a worse place (because of people x, y or z) and pretend he has a solution to a problem that's fabricated / part of his delusion.

[Caipira]

The things that happen on planet Trump have very little to do with reality.

[JustGettingStarted]

There are a certain number of refugees/asylum seekers, and then some who attain citizenship can sponsor some immediate family, as well.

But otherwise it's those who cross from Mexico,perhaps Canada.

[PinkyOfPie]

From what I understand it's not hard to be an undocumented Mexican in US. Border is huge so easy to get over and lots of people willing to extort them in crappy underpaid jobs.

[PaulaHollywood]

I understand many come from Mexico but from what he says, millions are "flooding in" from all over Europe and the Middle East. Perhaps as you say JustGettingStarted, a lot of people sponsor family members.

[lljkk]

It's not that easy to get over... folk swim (drown), walk thru the desert (die of heat stroke), get smuggled (and raped) by coyotes. Get caught in high numbers and dropped back over fence only to try again. There's a minor civil war going on in Mexico so not really pleasant for folk to hang about at border without some wealth. Not just Mexicans, there's a mass migration from central American countries (they get exploited horribly en route).

The journey is often incredibly treacherous. Very much like the mass influx migrant crisis in Europe. But most get thru eventually, and there are many many jobs in USA. Most of the workforce in US agriculture has Hispanic origins.

[SpiritedLondon]

Get smuggled and raped by coyotes?

[lljkk]

coyotes = slang for smugglers that specialise in illegal aliens

[Scarydinosaurs]

Lljk that definitely needed clarification 😳

[SabineUndine]

What Caipira said!

[maggiecate]

780,000 refugees have been admitted to the USA since 9-11, so averaging about 50k per year. Trump's 'but they could be terrorists' argument is presumably based on a grand total of three of these people being charged with links to terrorism.
thinkprogress.org/trump-blatantly-lies-about-how-many-syrian-refugees-the-us-has-accepted-e70447f9293f#.l0tij8al5

[Mumoftwoyoungkids]

Scary I'd say it is pretty well known - I knew it and I've never been to the US.

Presumably the whole "Europe and the Middle East" thing is because it sounds a lot more far away and scary than Mexico - the average Republican voter probably has a Mexican cleaner / driver / employee in their business.

[Rainbunny]

Well given that a political fact checking site has given Trump a 2% truthful rating I think it's safe to say that he is lying to get his base supporters riled up about something they care particularly (obsessively) about - illegal immigration. It is actually somewhat true that people from many nations will fly to South America and use the Mexican-USA border crossing to claim asylum but the numbers are relatively tiny.

Despite the ugly rhetoric that would make you think the USA was very unwelcoming to refugees, the USA actually does take a decent number each year (between 70-80 thousand people are resettled into the USA every year). The refugee resettlement process is very long and extensive and the majority of refugees to make it to the USA have typically been displaced from their homes and living in camps or a host country etc...for at least a decade and have to go throw a background checking process that takes about two years to complete before they can come to the USA.

Ironically, the state of Texas which is currently in a legal fight with the federal government over their refusal to take in any Syrian refugees (Texas will lose - they're violating federal law by refusing) actually takes in more refugees than any other state in the USA.

[Rainbunny]

Ugh- through NOT throw!

[user1476140278]

Your question just highlights what shite he talks. He makes stuff up to satisfy the legions of uneducated racists out there.

[DoNotBlameMeIVotedRemain]

He's insane.

[sykadelic]

It's not just people crossing the border illegally, it's coming here legally (as a tourist/student/work) and either staying illegally, tricking someone into marrying them, or paying someone to marry them.

Unless you've dealt with immigration (in the US or anywhere I'd bet) you cannot really know or understand the true extent of the fraud. It was truly disheartening to me (someone who paid thousands to do it legally) to see just how much really goes on. It's also disheartening because it makes it that much harder for genuine people.

[oldlaundbooth]

Off topic but there's also the Green Card lotto... Not what Trump's on about though...

[OlennasWimple]

Yy, as sykadelic says, there are overstayers too, as well as those crossing the border illegally.

Like most of what Trump says, there's a tiny grain of truth to it but it's hyper inflated incendiary rhetoric

[Atenco]

My heart bleeds for you sykadelic

[mathanxiety]

I agree with Sykadelic's explanation of how people get there.

I live in a city with a large Polish population, and also a large Irish population. Plenty of visitor visas get overstayed, and there are lots of roofers and other contractors who employ people who are illegal.

There are many places where you can get a fake driver's licence. DD2 had one from Arizona while under 21 in university in Washington DC, for drinking purposes. She could probably have got herself a real DC one with the name and fake SSN of the Arizona one if she had wished. Fake IDs are very popular among university students and illegals alike.

I have a green card due to marrying a US citizen. (I am Irish). There was an interview process to prove the marriage wasn't a cynical plot. We had to show documentation of living together, do separate interviews where dates and general narrative of how we met had to match up.

I have a cousin who entered illegally but was eventually able to become a citizen through a legalisation process. She wouldn't have passed a normal application because she will always be dependent on family thanks to an intellectual disability and partial deafness. Her brother (also a cousin obv) supported her, got her a sheltered job, looks after her still. Another of that family who had been legally adopted by the same older cousin (parents both died while the younger family members were still young) went to university in the US but sought medical attention for bipolar disorder while a student, and was booted out of the US upon graduation. I would personally have no qualms about seeking a way to get around the system when it is so horribly unfair.

[FleurThomas]

The US system is still fairer than the UK one- everyone who gets a student/residence visa can count their stay towards a green card in the future. In the UK you do have people who've lived here for years on 'company visas' (usually from India) who can't despite earning £100k plus a year.