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).
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.
The US is an odd duck when it comes to taxes…
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.
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.
No, but there will be a war front that you can position yourself on the not-scum side of.
As if any cops would even attempt to stop them instead of joining in. Calling the police is just giving them backup.
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.
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.
Renouncing US citizenship is no easy task, and I’d rather not do that before I get new citizenship
Totally fair - being stateless is objectively worse that being hated by your state (I don’t mean that sarcasticly, it’s fucked up on so many levels)
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.
Head in the sand is always an option, until it’s not.
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.
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.
I would have been gone years ago I just don’t really have the means to leave
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.
Sure. We’ll just start walking from the American continents to… Well, fuck
Have you considered getting one of those floaty things with pushy arms that go in water?
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.
Thats a brilliant deep dive. Thank you.
I guess that’s how most immigrants make it to the US?
No.
Literally most fly in, and then just say they are here to visit, then stay.
Your understanding of modern immigration is similar to what you see on Fox News.
Do you think land crossing don’t happen? Do you think ocean crossings don’t happen? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Alan_Kurdi
Do you know what “most” means?
Sorry, I thought I’d made it clear enough that I was taking the piss.
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.
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.
You know literally nothing about immigration, do you?
Beyond personal experience and the experiences of colleagues, friends and family going to/from a wide variety of countries, and how different countries structure their legal immigration process, not much I guess.
Riiiiiigth…
Yup