The Senate has passed a bill making Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) the U.S.'s largest interior law enforcement agency with funding for Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda higher than most of the world’s militaries, including Israel’s.

Pending its passage in the House of Representatives, Trump’s bill could mean a massive increase in ICE funding as part of an immigration enforcement agenda worth $150 billion over four years.

This figure is more than the annual military budget of Italy, which at $30.8 billion, is the world’s 16th highest defense spender for this year according to tracker Global Fire Power.

It is also higher than military spending for Israel, ($30 billion), the Netherlands ($27 billion) and Brazil ($26.1 billion).

    • Damionsipher@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Leave the US. If you have expertise you’ll be easily welcomed into most countries, if not, there is are a lot of countries you can still move to that are not police states. Either way you’ll stop paying/supporting and supporting US fascism with your work. The immigrants your government is so eager to deport have been through worse.

      • Capricorn_Geriatric@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        The US is a bit special. It is the only state to require its citizens pay taxes to it on (regular) earnings abroad. Other places only tax earnings made inside their own borders.

        So to truly be off the hook for American taxes as a non-elite, you’ll have to renounce your citizenship.

        • Damionsipher@lemmy.world
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          9 hours ago

          Tyranny has taken over - staying is a choice to live in fascism. Fascism does not die from within, it does a slow death from being excommunicated from the world or it dies a quick death as the world responds to it’s expansionist tendencies. It does not die because people stop voting for it.

          • walktheplank@lemmy.world
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            9 hours ago

            I am not speaking about voting. I am speaking about revolution. Americans wouldn’t understand that I suppose. They certainly don’t seem to.

            • Damionsipher@lemmy.world
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              30 minutes ago

              Civil war/sabotage from within are option too, but I am not seeing any sense of leadership emerging on either of those fronts (not to say it would/should be obvious).

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          10 hours ago

          Don’t leave. It solves nothing

          It keeps you alive. Just ask all those Europeans who fled the bloodbath of the world wars.

          • walktheplank@lemmy.world
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            9 hours ago

            It ensures others fight your battles for you when it takes you standing up first to ensure others help.

              • walktheplank@lemmy.world
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                7 hours ago

                I have been shot at thank you very much. For just doing my job trying to help people. A good chunk of Americans certainly have been shot at with feeding the war machine for decades and having one of the highest mass murder and gun ownership rates in the world.

      • JordanZ@lemmy.world
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        23 hours ago

        The US is an odd duck when it comes to taxes

        The USA is one of the few countries of the world which levies personal income tax on all its citizens: not only on its residents - citizens or non-citizens - but also on its citizens who do not live in the country. All citizens of the United States are taxed under the same personal income tax system, regardless of whether they live in the country or abroad.

        • swampdownloader@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          11 hours ago

          This is true but you’re only taxed by the US if the country in which you live isn’t taxing you higher already. So if you move to a gulf Arab state with no income tax yes. But most places in Europe? You won’t have to pay US tax since domestic tax will be higher.

        • Damionsipher@lemmy.world
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          23 hours ago

          You only have to pay them if you move back to the US (and want to work). It’s not like other governments disclose your finances to the US.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            9 hours ago

            You only have to pay them if you move back to the US

            Specifically if you’re a contractor simply working abroad. If you don’t actually reside in the US and you earn foreign income /pay taxes for a year, you’re not going to owe anything.

            That said, if you travel overseas for three months on contract, earn a ton of money, and come home to spend it, you have to report that in the US minus taxes payed abroad.

          • protojefe@lemmy.ca
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            21 hours ago

            Absolutely not true. If you want anything to do with US banking, social security, Embassy services, you better pay up. And every bank you open abroad is literally required to disclose to the IRS that you have a bank account with them. Source: I live abroad.

              • JordanZ@lemmy.world
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                7 hours ago

                For more info…the legal requirement is part of FATCA

                The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which was passed as part of the HIRE Act, generally requires that foreign financial Institutions and certain other non-financial foreign entities report on the foreign assets held by their U.S. account holders or be subject to withholding on withholdable payments.

              • protojefe@lemmy.ca
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                18 hours ago

                Until you acquire a new citizenship and renounce your US citizenship, the US government affects everything you do, regardless of where you are. Just leaving with no intention of returning does nothing. Source: me

                • Damionsipher@lemmy.world
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                  17 hours ago

                  That anyone would want to be part of a regime that oppressive and call it freedom is insane, to put it lightly.

        • Damionsipher@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          People with far fewer resources than some of the poorest Americans make treks across continents. I’m sure most Americans could figure it out if they really wanted to.

            • Darleys_Brew@lemmy.ml
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              1 day ago

              Have you considered getting one of those floaty things with pushy arms that go in water?

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                1 day ago

                I was gonna say that you can’t just row across the ocean, but apparently you can.

                If you gain the sponsoring for an ocean rowboat, you can then secure sponsorship for the 3-4 months-worth of food since restaurants and gardens are hard to come by in the ocean. I understand that fish live in the ocean, but fishing eats into your 17 hours per day during which you’ll need to row. Also, trying to handle fish on the open ocean in a small boat is an incredibly risky maneuver. Even worse, once you catch the fish, you gotta set your boat on fire so that you can cook it and not get parasites.

                All told, it’s significantly cheaper to just fly, but that’s unhelpful advice to someone who just told you that they can’t afford to uproot their life and fly to another country. You might ask, how can you not afford that, and the problem is that hiking across countries smaller than my state gives you opportunities to work odd jobs in exchange for shelter, food, and money. But since planes and airports generally don’t hire random passengers, it puts you back in that “I’m fucked” boat that you suggested.

                Also, all this is giving your unserious comment the credence that you weren’t talking about taking a gondola ride across the Atlantic.

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            1 day ago

            All right well I’m not going to do this back and forth about it with you. You know nothing about me or my situation.

            • Damionsipher@lemmy.world
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              You are right. My comments shouldn’t be taken as precise advise for specific situations, but I stand by the generalities. I’m general though, if a family with less than a grade 5 education can make a cross-continent trek in hopes of a better life, most US citizens are well positioned to immigrate elsewhere.

      • 𝕱𝖎𝖗𝖊𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖈𝖍@lemmy.world
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        24 hours ago

        I left earlier this year. I’m a tan skinned Latina trans woman immigrant, basically their #1 target. I’m still absolutely terrified for my friends and family.

        I truly hate that I’m still chained to the US via my citizenship. A part of me hopes they denaturalize me so I don’t have to pay them shit.

        • Damionsipher@lemmy.world
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          23 hours ago

          Can’t you denounce your citizenship? It’s also not possible for them to force you to pay taxes on income you don’t earn in the US - unless you want to return at some point. I hope you’re some place safe that respects your identity now.

      • handsoffmydata@lemmy.zip
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        There are too few places to escape to in modern society, given the rise of authoritarian globally. I was planning on Germany until the Russia/Ukraine conflict. Now I find it more prudent to stay in the U.S. and relocate to a low population area. For the handful of dense urban environments in the U.S. there are far more wide open spaces with no people.

          • handsoffmydata@lemmy.zip
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            It’s all relative. It’d be just as easy to argue the head in the sand argument at an American who thinks they’re just gonna pack up to a random city in Europe and avoid the consequences of what’s happening globally. I understand we’re all just trying to feel like we have agency over our own lives and don’t exist at the whim of a handful of billionaires, so to each their own.

            • Damionsipher@lemmy.world
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              23 hours ago

              Fascism is always a possibility anywhere in the world. The difference is that it’s here and now in the US. I sure as shit would be doing everything I could to not be there anymore if I were there. It’s fucking scary enough watching it from Canada and I won’t have any hesitation to flee if the tanks start rolling in this direction.

    • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
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      Too late for that now…they’ll just take all your money, house, claim you’re not a citizen, force you to work for 1/256th of that you earn now and keep the bribe from companies that bought you.

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      1 day ago

      Then your government will acquire yet more debt. And if everything crumbles down for them, there will be your offspring paying for that debt and their taxes for generations.

      I don’t know what’s worse, honestly. I just know everyone needs to fight back and resist, and they’ll get exhausted fighting everywhere in the world. But it they don’t have to fight, they’ll just keep doing their shit.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      1 day ago

      The government can just print money, they don’t actually strictly need your taxes (see MMT). The only actual path is withholding labour and mass protests (with at least a credible threat of violent escalations).

      • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Printing money is how you get hyperinflation. You cant just print money without it flooding the market. If you do that too often, the money becomes worthless.

        • j0ester@lemmy.world
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          23 hours ago

          Fuck it! Either the dollar fails because no one wants to come to the US… or you just keep printing money. Either way you’re fucked.

          • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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            23 hours ago

            Yeah, I don’t see a lot of ways this ends well. Maybe a prolonged national strike. But even that isn’t likely to happen.

      • Fingolfinz@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I haven’t contributed to the economy in any meaningful way and have managed to make money without working any real job since the last place I worked at shuttered in 2020, withholding my labor. I’ve been doing my part. And I’m only one person so there’s not much else I can do unless more people are also doing it.

        • ObtuseDoorFrame@lemmy.zip
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          1 day ago

          Leaving would make it worse. Every single person who wants to leave as a result of this is the opposition. Without us, they have free reign.

          • Damionsipher@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            If the majority of the intelligencia class leaves the US will be critically harmed in one of its most lucrative areas. The US has done an excellent job of attaching to talent over the past century, if that talent simply up and leaves it places the US at a disadvantage economically, socially and intellectually (importantly including science and engineering fields).

            • brendansimms@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              I think you may be underestimating just how many engineering folks have zero morals and find it ‘fun’ to build bombs and missiles and sensors. They don’t require ethics courses for a reason

            • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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              1 day ago

              This is incredibly bad logic that you have constructed so that you can have the reality you want.

              Your simple solutions are like that of Elon Musk suggesting a submarine for a cave rescue just because you think it would be a cool way to do it. It has no backing of reality behind it.

              • Damionsipher@lemmy.world
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                23 hours ago

                You’re totally right, no other dictator has ever taken an oppressive position to their intelligentsia and those that remained in fascist nations have been super effective at degrading it from within… Just look at the USSR, Italy, Spain or Chile under their fascist leaders. They all were super supportive of their institutions of higher learning and those that remained stopped all kinds of atrocious government actions. They were all better off for staying put. /s

        • jonne@infosec.pub
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          1 day ago

          Even if everyone left, he’s still got a bunch of nukes and other powers that could affect the rest of us.