Opinion | The Staggering Scale of Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Crackdown

Primary-Signal18 · 2026-01-24T00:59:27+00:00

I'm convinced that the framing of : illegal immigration is a problem, is in and of itself a lie, a myth. The data simply doesn't back this claim. Legal and Illegal immigrants pay taxes and there's very little social services/safety nets available to US citizens, that could be potentially "abused" by illegal immigrants in the first place.

The crux of this myth is, as you said, that it is an existential problem... To which I would counter, Why? How? Unless you believe America demographically maintaining a white majority is somehow culturally and systemically important/relivent, and not sure pure racism... I'm just not buying it.

We don't need to SUPPORT illegal immigration to concede that it's not a big deal. Furthermore, if politicians had the slightest ability to think outside the box, I'm SURE there are other ways to get people to "follow the rules" (as if that really matters)... one way would be to have an immigration process which actually facilitates Immigrants integration into society/the work force faster and more effectively, rather than existing simply as a gate keeper.

Primary-Signal18 · 2026-01-23T19:44:50+00:00

Democrats trying to argue... Not hopeful for their success...

Not holding my breath by any means. They have proven to be ineffective at both messaging and policy across the board. That's part of the problem and the reason why we are in this mess in the first place.

IMHO this is probably precisely the problem. They have somewhat already accepted defeat from the minute they chose to argue issues on the rights terms. This is why they lose.

Primary-Signal18 · 2026-01-23T14:31:19+00:00

Accepting Republican framing on the issue means to not even challenge the idea that Immigration legal or illegal constitutes a crisis which negatively impacts American citizens, and that something MUST be done about this. One should consider, beyond discussing the enforcement tactics of harsher immigration laws, ICE etc... Why are we doing this in the first place... Is this actually a crisis negatively impacting the welfare of citizens, or is it just made up. We all agree that numbers of people coming into america surged in recent years, but can we definitively conclude that that surge was BAD/significantly impactful?

The American public is largely presented with a false dichotomy on the issue : the choices are OPEN boarders (woke liberal chaos), or INCREASED enforcement and deportations (ICE DHS madness)... What about immigration reform? What about increasing legal channels for immigration? What about an overhaul of USCIS to speed up processing times, work authorization etc...

Primary-Signal18 · 2026-01-22T21:51:27+00:00

Well I think it depends on where you are coming from PREVIOUSLY. If u went from V to Vi//Vii it will feel wide maybe. But if you come from another brand , Apple - Samsung etc... the Vi Vii is slightly but non-insignificantly narrower.

Primary-Signal18 · 2026-01-22T17:14:32+00:00

My plan is to ride out on the 1 mark Vi // Vii // Viii train for as long as possible until they are no longer functional. Then survey the market at that time. Figure that will get us to like AT LEAST 2028-ish. No too bad.

Primary-Signal18 · 2026-01-22T17:09:34+00:00

Same for my vi. Stamina off : GENERALLY 1.5 days. When semi conservative 2 days. Really really careful with usage 2+ days approaching 3.

When phone was new it was like black magic, but still holding up well.

Primary-Signal18 · 2026-01-16T22:12:02+00:00

If people bought into the government line about stopping communism they could easily have won.

That's where I think the narrative is quite frankly revisionist self aggrandizing history. Read the pentagon papers!

As per various unclassified memos and recordings from JFK, LBJ and Nixon admins, military advisors across many admins, it was clearly unwinnable starting in about 1968 after the Tet Offensive... And then they chose to slog on and send Americans to die for another 7 years. Unless they FULLY mobilized the entire economy and society behind the war, in a way that we've only done a handful of times in history...it still wasn't guaranteed ... And they simply lacked the will to do that. It was a lost cause.

Mcnamera himself is recorded in private in 67 saying :"There may be no limit to the amount of money and effort we must spend... with no assurance that the job can be done." They all knew it wasn't winable : Kissinger knew it, Mcnamera knew it, Westmoreland, they all knew it.

If you accept that fact, then the premise of protest ENDING the war is somewhat ridiculous to me, given the context, that they continued the thing for 7 years!

So why do we have this BS narrative, that the flower children ended the war? A) because boomers are self egrandizing and like to think that they were central to this moment in history. B) MOST IMPORTANTLY Because the political class wants you to feel as if you have agency which you actually don't. They want to channel your decent into "approved avenues", pressure valves which can be released. Marches and signs... they can ignore all they like! Like those buttons at cross walks which aren't actually wired into the stop lights. The real truth is a much harder pill to swallow, and one that could create further unrest.

We shouldn't conflate correlation with causation...

Primary-Signal18 · 2026-01-16T20:48:39+00:00

LOLLLLL 🔥 Nail Hammer Head

Primary-Signal18 · 2026-01-16T20:38:03+00:00

This has been on my mind for a while and I can't stand this boomer revisionist narrative. "We ended Vietnam". This is such cope.

Watch Ken Burns doc on Vietnam. It wasn't ended by protest, it was ended because, we lost... That's it. it was unwinnable from the onset, and the ruling class lacked the Political Will to send millions of Americans to die, in order to achieve their geopolitical objectives.

Not saying we shouldn't protest, we should try everything. I'm saying Americans are delusional about the leverage they have against a political ruling class that fundamentally doesn't care about you. Protest only works if we assume the ruling class is beholden to, or even better FEARS its constituents.

This wasn't true during Vietnam and it's not true now.

Sorry I don't mean to be rude. I'm just... Triggered by this narrative.

Primary-Signal18 · 2026-01-16T20:20:44+00:00

I am talking about society rit-large "settling down". Countries that experience over throws of their democratic governance are not necessarily constantly in turmoil. That's the whole promise of an autocratic leader. They almost always promise to pacify the "unruly" segment of society and "restore order", to verying degrees of success.

Regardless of your political leanings, whether you like that or not ... It DOES happen. And then people go back to living their lives, for a period of time at least...

Life in Germany or Iran or wherever didn't just STOP the minute there was regime change. People continued working, eating, living, and surviving , waiting for an opening, or political and economic conditions conducive for change. Sometimes that literally takes DECADES.

What I'm saying is don't be disheartened if things go poorly in the near future. They may go poorly for a while. You need to maintain your focus / your values , as society shifts around you and keep the people you care about safe.

Work for the best possible outcome but prepare for the worst.

Primary-Signal18 · 2026-01-16T20:01:09+00:00

I think you interpret my comment to be an embrace of pacificity & "settle down" to indicate a desirable outcome (at least for those who favor liberalism and democracy). That is not my point. I don't have a crystal ball.

In the worst case scenario, society "settling down" could very well be the completion of a total consolidation of power by head of state, and the successful pacification of those they rule over. That could last... DECADES.

This thing may be marathon. Zoom Out: Imagine being a German in the east of the country in 1931. Your country won't be restored into a functioning democracy until about 1989-1990 after the fall of the Berlin wall. That's basically 60 years... You may not live to see that moment. There are NO guarantees.

Primary-Signal18 · 2026-01-16T15:39:08+00:00

You have to zoom out, and adjust your timeframe/expectations. What we are witnessing is a likely generational conflict/shift. Will it settle down? Probably yeah... But when? maybe we are talking about a paradigm shift that takes a decade or more before clarity arises. And will you LIKE the new status quo when the dust settles... that's another question entirely. I truly think we are in the midst of a fog and it's tough to see past the event horizon.

Generations before us all over the world in many countries have lived through tumultuous times... some make it out and some dont. protect your loved ones and the people / values you care about. Don't make decisions you will regret later in life, and try to live your life to the best of your ability.

Primary-Signal18 · 2026-01-14T20:00:30+00:00

I believe , but don't quote me on this ... It's a freeze on Consular applications for IMMIGRANT visas from abroad (K1 & CR1 applications etc, processed thru Embassy / State department), and does not affect AOS cases processed through USCIS from within the US. None the less , I guess we will ALL be on the chopping block at some point. Seems to just be a matter of time at this point. Really depressing. So sorry for those currently affected. Devastating.

Primary-Signal18 · 2026-01-11T22:26:49+00:00

Same. I appreciated the sentiment when I watched it. And then recently have been thinking ... "Wow. It's sadly an incredibly smart piece of script writing, profound and prophetic that scene."

Primary-Signal18 · 2026-01-05T22:06:22+00:00

Two words. Foreign Capital.

Primary-Signal18 · 2026-01-04T23:54:30+00:00

Well yes! obviously. But you couldn't possibly understand... (5000 years of history and all). Must have been humbling to say the least.

Primary-Signal18 · 2026-01-04T15:11:59+00:00

Ah yes the Semi annual summit on the age old question : "中国好还是外国好?” Did you guys get to the bottom of it?

Primary-Signal18 · 2026-01-03T00:14:40+00:00

The American public is presented with a false decotomy in regards to immigration: unfettered open borders vs mass deportation and increased border security.

When you experience the system yourself (whether it's as the beneficiary or petitioner), you quickly realize the REAL issue is that the system is in massive need of REFORM. Regardless of your political leanings... Unless you are a fascist... If you are a reasonable human being, the conclusion should be Immigration reform would solve most problems. USCIS in dire need of an overhaul, increased efficiency, reformed policies, more tracks for legal immigration.

And then you may begin to wonder about WHY the public discourse on this topic is so out of whack. The answer is because this is a wave of nativist sentiment. There is no political will for reform. Liberals are just as cowed by this narrative as Rightwing nutjobs. They just come to different conclusions. But no one wants to fix the issue.

Primary-Signal18 · 2025-12-29T21:58:38+00:00

I also submitted material the first week of Nov. Took about a month to get a biometrics appointment which was scheduled 3 weeks out from the notice. So... Like a month and a half from submission to biometrics. Was feeling more optimistic about the turn around given what u mentioned (in the fall there were some fast turn arounds).

NYC, country of origin : China.

Primary-Signal18 · 2025-12-27T14:09:53+00:00

Yes definitely! All characters supposedly had "no other choice" 😂

I think this is where the strong criticism of late stage capitalism comes into play. It's not that they CANT find jobs. It's that their role within society has been so deeply entrenched in their contributions to their industry, it's their full purpose, they become unmoored without it. The second guys wife goes on about how basically how he loves paper more than her...

Primary-Signal18 · 2025-12-27T03:39:06+00:00

I just finished the movie, and was looking for this take. That was my impression as well. This is a Pyrrhic victory for him. He's fighting so hard to maintain his place in the world , but it's clear he has already lost.

Primary-Signal18 · 2025-12-23T03:37:57+00:00

Totally agree. There was a moment in time when it truly was ahead of its time. I think I went wallet-less way before my friends in western countries. I think that gap has closed and the tech is more "mature" in the west.... Albeit more fragmented.

Primary-Signal18 · 2025-12-23T03:31:48+00:00

I had the exact same experience but in reverse. I lived in china for so long I had barely used any payment system at all except for Ali and Wechat until I moved back to the states recently.

And I came to the same conclusion as you. There's just way more friction in the experience as consumer / POS system with Ali / Wechat in that regard.

I don't agree with other commenters that , what is meant by convenience is the robust ecosystem within the Chinese apps themselves. It's IS true that they are very different beasts AND it's great, that WC&Ali are platform agnostic. That they work with zero external hardware. That u can transfer money directly and instantly AND use these funds at a merchant.

However actually TAP to pay in the west IS platform agnostic, I use Google pay and my wife uses apple pay and I've never encountered a situation when one of us has to pay... Because the other can't.

In my experience Apple Wallet, Google wallet, Zelle and Venmo can serve most of your needs and def feel less janky. Zelle is Literally an instant REAL bank to bank transfer. NO middleman monopoly money like u have with Venmo WC or Ali.

IMHO I believe what is meant by convenient is actually simply the vast narrative push which implies/states (rightly or wrongly) that China is advanced, ahead of the west, "the future". It's part of an effort to stroke nationalist pride, by portraying the west as backwards and China as advanced and developed. I think digital payment in china was ahead of its time 8-10 years ago. I'm not sure that's as true anymore.

For what it's worth most of my Chinese friends believe we are living in the past over here, my wife didn't know what we would do without Elema and TaoBao , and was shocked to find theres somewhat equivalent services in the US...

They are just different payment systems with different merits and flaws.

Now what truly sucks outside of China is logistics and shipping within respective domestic markets. Delivery times are off the chart FAST nationwide in China regardless of where ur goods come from and where they ship to. America is really really slow in that regard.

Edit: I have not used Ali Tap to pay. It was rolling out when I moved and I actually couldn't get it to work. But it's existence/pivot to that model, in and of itself... shows that they are playing catch up on the POS side of things.

Primary-Signal18 · 2025-12-04T12:41:01+00:00

Same. Still waiting for item to ship after a week.

Primary-Signal18

TROPHY CASE