Biden administration waives 26 federal laws to allow border wall construction in South Texas - eviltoast
    • WarmSoda@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      marking the administration’s first use of a sweeping executive power employed often during the Trump presidency.

      It’s shitty all the way around.

    • the post of tom joad@sh.itjust.works
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      The controversial work, which included construction on federally designated wilderness, was permitted under the Real ID Act. Created in the wake of the September 11 attacks, the act grants DHS the authority to waive any law, including bedrock statutes meant to safeguard the environment and areas of cultural significance, to build border barriers in the name of national security

      source

    • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      The article is misleading, Biden is actually explicitly not ignoring this law that is from 2019: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/jun/30/joe-biden-forced-build-donald-trumps-border-wall/

      TLDR: This is a 2019 law passed by Congress during the baby hands administration. The Biden administration has been pretty careful not to overstep other branches of government(I think as a direct response to how flagrantly and harmfully baby hands used executive action), and while Biden returned wall money taken from the DoD, the rest of the wall money was explicitly designated by Congress for building the border wall in 2019 and Congress will not cancel that legislative order(wall funds), despite Biden asking Congress to cancel the 2019 wall funds law since arriving in office in 2020.

      This post is misleading, the money is being legally used for a legislatively required purpose and any federal laws are being broken legislatively by Congress as a result of baby hands in 2019, not the Biden administration.

        • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Yup. It’s too bad that something functioning correctly doesn’t mean it’s functioning well.

          • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            26 laws waived for Biden to build Trump’s wall for him, and we won’t help the poor because [stack of excuses].

            • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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              Wow, you even misunderstood the TLDR.

              Congress is building this wall from a baby hands law in 2019 that broke those federal laws, Biden tried to stop the wall legally, Congress told him no, and to your last point he just canceled 90 billion dollars of debt for a poor people.

              You could be more wrong, but it would be hard to imagine how.

              • SpookyUnderwear
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                1 year ago

                Alright man enough with the “baby hands” stuff. It was slightly humerus the first time I read it but after seeing you post it for the third time it just makes you look sad now. We get it. You don’t like him. You look like a conservative who repeats “sleepy Joe” unironically.

                Edit: holy shit you made the same comment 10 times. Nah, I’m good.

                • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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                  1 year ago

                  As soon as diaper don stops calling names, he’ll stop receiving the same treatment.

                  Oh, and yeah a lot of people were asking why. I just reposted the answer to everybody who asked why this was happening.

              • OurToothbrush@lemmy.mlM
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                1 year ago

                Mod hat:

                Hey, there are a millions of ways of making fun of Trump without body shaming. Body shaming affects everyone, and Trump will not see your comment.

                • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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                  1 year ago

                  I completely agree that name calling should be off the table, but as long as baby hands continues to body shame and use pejorative nicknames on public forums, I have no problem with equal treatment.

                  I don’t see the benefits of giving special treatment to abhorrent people.

                  • OurToothbrush@lemmy.mlM
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                    1 year ago

                    Okay, well, youre going to be banned if you keep doing it. “But he started it” isnt a valid reason to body shame here.

    • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Why do you think The President is beholden to congress? The separation of powers explicitly says that isn’t the case and if there is something the president is doing that the other 2 branches of government say he shouldn’t do, there is a specific process for such a thing. Otherwise he has enormous leeway to do what he feels should be done even if some dumb asses in congress or on the internet don’t want it to be the case.

      • Changetheview@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I get what you’re saying, but there’s a lot more to separation of powers than this. You might be well aware of all this, but for those that aren’t, here’s a giant wall of text.

        The executive branch’s powers are clearly defined and including acting as the head of the military, the head of foreign affairs, and the executor of the laws congress passes. It is quite restricted by congress in many ways. Of course, the executive branch has emergency powers and limited ways around the laws congress enacts, but that’s not the default and it is very much intended to be restricted by congress.

        The executive branch also has room to make interpretations (create regulations) and to prioritize certain laws when they come into conflict.

        This is what they’re doing here. They have weighed the laws (from congress) they are tasked with enforcing, which includes (a) specific immigration restrictions and (b) a variety of other ones that could impact their ability to execute the immigration restrictions (the “26” laws waived, including water and environmental protections). The DHS (an executive branch agency) has determined that (b) these 26 place an undue burden that prevents them from executing (a) the immigration restrictions, and is therefore temporarily waiving (b).

        You can read the actual order here: https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2023-22176.pdf

        Notice that it does not say it’s randomly waiving laws of its own accord without a law that it is executing. It is clearly referencing the statues (enacted by congress) that it is acting on. It is identifying that it is failing to execute some laws, but only so it can prioritize another one it has deemed more important for this specific action. It’s also become popular for the executive branch to use emergency decrees to act unilaterally, but these are supposed to be much more limited and a functioning judiciary/congress should hold the executive accountable when this happens.

        What the executive branch is NOT doing here is very important too. It is NOT deciding it doesn’t want to do what congress says. Congress could rewrite the immigration law or any of the other 26 laws to change the way the executive branch executes them, if it feels the executive is implementing them wrong. And the judicial branch could easily weigh in on this if someone affected brings the case to them.

        • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
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          Agreed with what you are saying. But the important thing I was getting at is that the Executive Branch isn’t paralyzed just because Congress passes a web of laws that make all actions of the executive unlawful. They are fully autonomous and able to prioritize what laws they enforce, and how they enforce them which is absolutely what they are doing here. Though obviously leftists would prefer that Biden enforce different laws with different priorities.

          • Changetheview@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Very true. Even just writing (or rewriting) the regulations is full of ways to get whatever the executive branch wants.

    • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz
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      1 year ago

      It’s fine. When the migrant workers and others performing the “unsavory” jobs aren’t around to fulfill them any longer, we’ll just fill the positions with influencers who aren’t doing any real work anyway. Although I think it would be funny as hell to see Trump in an orange jumpsuit working the fields.

      • Cruxifux@lemmy.world
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        It’s always weird to me when I see liberals espousing the sentiment that we need foreign workers, or else who will do all the shitty work we don’t want to do?

        It’s just as disturbing and racist to me as the “keep them migrants out of my country!” Take conservatives generally have. Americans are fucked right up man.

        • FarFarAway@startrek.website
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          To be fair a couple of states cracked down hard on illegal immigrants and millions of dollars of crops rotted cause there was no one there to pick em. The states reversed course pretty fast.

          Americans are pretty lazy at this point, and I speak as an American.

          • Cruxifux@lemmy.world
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            Which tells me that American farms would rather watch crops rot than pay people a proper living wage.

            That’s fucked up.

            • FarFarAway@startrek.website
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              This is also true, but that true across most industry in America at this point.

              If pay is even across the board than why would one person want to toil in the sun vs sit on thier bum and deal with angry customers. Most pick the angry customers…

              Even when the more manual labor jobs do pay well, a ton of people quit after a day or two, granted they’re usually younger people who didn’t realize what the job would entail.

              • Cruxifux@lemmy.world
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                Nobody said pay should be equal across the board. We’re talking about exploitation of migrant workers here man.

                • FarFarAway@startrek.website
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                  1 year ago

                  I’m not saying that either I’m saying Americans are lazy and have no sense of work ethic and immigrants regardless of what they’re paid (not that I want them to be paid anything but the fair wage anyone else should be entitled to) are a required part of our work force and I’m grateful for the work they do. We wouldn’t have roads or building, or food. Some get paid well, some get paid shit. Im not a farmer so I can’t tell you if they chose to let the whole seasons crop go to waste over paying others more to pick said crops, or if they just didn’t have anyone that wanted to do actual work. From my narrow view, I have the tendency to think that no one wanted to work.

                  Honestly, I think I took your comment to mean something it didn’t. I’m sorry for any misunderstanding.

                  • Deceptichum@kbin.social
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                    1 year ago

                    It’s not lazy to not want to do back breaking labor for poverty wages.

                    It’s entitlement to think these companies should be able to abuse workers like that.

          • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Farm work is a lot different today than it was 30 or 40 years ago. Back in the '80s and '90s, it wasn’t uncommon for kids in rural communities to do farmwork like picking berries.

            Fast forward to today and that would never happen. Farmers have very exacting standards and require very high productivity standards that only skilled adult laborers can meet. They’re not going to hire kids or other Americans.

            This reporter did a good job capturing just how fucking difficult farmwork is:

            https://youtu.be/Yg3WFt72RM8?si=_P4GIFppISGNVvZU

            • Tak@lemmy.ml
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              There is no such thing as unskilled labor but this video shows not that Americans won’t do farmwork but that Americans want to be paid more.

              Americans do a lot of hard manual labor but it is labor that is generally paid much better.

        • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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          What’s so weird about telling the truth? That you’re uncomfortable about it?

          It’s not like you can be an illegal immigrant and walk into an office building and go through the corporate HR process to get hired on a white collar job. The desirable jobs will mostly require proof of citizenship or a work visa. Therefore the illegal immigrants will be looking for the under-the-table work which is usually the undesirable jobs.

        • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz
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          Well that certainly wasn’t my intent in my statement, it was more just an observation that so many Americans are too damn entitled to do the work that others are happy to get paid for.

          • Cruxifux@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            People would do it if they were paid properly to do it. We shouldn’t have to imperialize and impoverish other countries to the point that they have to make dangerous journeys to come to do shitty jobs (and when I say shitty I mean ridiculously underpaid) or else crops will rot. Getting mad at the people for not wanting to do these jobs is aiming your anger at entirely the wrong people.

            • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz
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              No, but complaining about things not being done to your satisfaction when you’re not willing to do the job yourself certainly is. It’s bad enough how many people are disgusted by the idea that their food actually comes from dirt, but it’s also pretty sad that these same people consider working on farms as menial labor not worthy of minimum wage when those workers are the ones actually putting in the hard labor.

              • thecrotch@sh.itjust.works
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                Who’s complaining about satisfactory work? The illegals do fine work. They do it for a low wage and without the protection of labor laws because they’re illegal and have to take what they can get. Americans can get jobs where they are protected by labor laws and make more money, so they do. That’s not entitlement it’s common sense.

        • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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          I’m a conservative. I want immigrants to come legally. We need to provide paths for people to come here.

          Honestly immigrants tend to work harder and still believe in the American dream. I have more in common with the immigrants than I do most liberals. They don’t see America as failing, they seem as the land of opportunity.

          My roommate is an immigrant. Works 14 hour days, 5 days a week. He loves what America has provided for him.

          • MelodiousFunk@kbin.social
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            Honestly immigrants … still believe in the American dream

            That’s because they’re new. Just wait until they’ve had the rug yanked out from under them a few times while someone tut-tuts about bootstraps.

            • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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              He’s been here for twenty years. He made 500k last year. He’s a big advocate of pulling yourself up from your bootstraps. That’s his story as an immigrant from Mexico who had nothing and now has a good career.

              More Americans could learn from immigrants and pulling themselves up instead of expecting things to come to them.

              • Nudding@lemmy.world
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                You know the phrase pulling yourself up by your boot straps was first invented to make fun of people like you? Lmao

                • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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                  1 year ago

                  Someone is awfully judgy. He’s a traveling nurse. He goes from assignment to assignment.

                  I’m only at that house a few weeks out of the year. So I have no issue renting a room to a good cause.

            • generalpotato@lemmy.world
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              Lol, no. Been here 20 yrs, pull in great money as a sr software engineer in the valley and I still think America is the land of opportunities and call it home. I started with 0 dollars in my bank with a simple part time job that would pay me $7.25 an hour at my local community college.

              Sometimes, you actually do need to pull yourself up by the bootstraps and work hard to get to where you need to be. I’ve seen a lot of entitlement around me and people complaining without doing much of anything to fix it.

              Complaining and not doing anything about it isn’t unique to the US. That said, America still offers a ton of opportunities for those looking to succeed, and there’s a reason why the American economy commands ~28% of the world’s GDP. All things considered and if this admin stays in office for another term, I see the opportunities increasing even further.

              • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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                1 year ago

                The entitlement is what is killing our country. People just want the nanny state to take care of them.

                I grew up poor, and was told if I did X Y and Z i would be successful. I did those things. I was successful. I had liberal friends who were surviving paycheck to paycheck. I put them on the same plan and they gasp became successful.

                It is why I love immigrants. They don’t listen to people who say you can’t be successful in America. They just come here and crush it.

                • generalpotato@lemmy.world
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                  My take is that it appears to be driven by mentality rather than whether somebody is an immigrant or not. People, immigrant or not who like putting in the work end up succeeding while those that complain or act entitled do not. It’s plain as day, nobody is going to give you a hand out so you have to work for it. Welcome to capitalism. It sucks, but get with it or you lose.

                  I’ve got successful immigrant and non immigrant friends and those that end up succeeding also end up being like minded. That said, I do think that, yes, immigrants more commonly have the “work hard or fail” mindset given their prior socioeconomic status typically ends up being unfavorable which serves as a catalyst for them.

                  I agree with entitlement becoming more and more common these days but that can also be attributed to people being generally more outspoken and having platforms to voice their concerns.

                  • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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                    1 year ago

                    While I support living wages and single payer system. Until those happen, hard work is the path to success.

                    I’ve done well and I’ve worked hard.

                    Ive watched immigrants come and start businesses while people from here say there is no opportunity to do that here.

                    Socialism/communism isn’t the answer as everyone just ends up with less and not enough.

                    People need to realize they control the destiny and can chart their own path.