Re the Sept. 26 issue… 

From AS:

“It’s rare that I agree with any of your political views, but I agree with your thoughts on legalizing hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans. The decision to do so is ridiculous!

“Not only does it encourage more illegals, but you’re right about all the other nationalities that are excluded. Why are Venezuelans favored? Are they lighter skinned, better workers, have a better command of the English language?

“Are there a ton of Venezuelans in the US who can vote? Was there some kind of bribery involved? It’s unbelievable. Who advised that move?”

My Response: First, I should have said, in reporting this, that the estimated 472,000 Venezuelans that will receive “temporary” legal status along with work permits now is in addition to an estimated 274,000 Venezuelans that have qualified for “temporary” legal status already. (That was under a separate presidential order earlier this year.)

The legal status of the 274,000 who had come earlier was also labeled as temporary. But Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has just granted them an 18-month extension. This was needed because of “Venezuela’s increased instability and lack of safety due to the enduring humanitarian, security, political, and environmental conditions,” the department said in a statement.

So, we are talking about more than 700,000 “temporary” new US residents.

The Biden administration says it is granting legal status and work permits for these Venezuelans in order to provide financial relief for the cities that are currently housing them.

During the first half of the year, when the Biden administration allowed more than four million undocumented migrants to enter the US borders, border states like Texas, California, and also Florida were harboring the bulk of them. Back in April of 2022, those besieged governors decided to start transporting a small fraction of the undocumented immigrants to cities like LA and New York. (And even, by Ron DeSantis, to Martha’s Vineyard!) These are cities that had presented themselves proudly as havens, as “sanctuary cities” for illegals. Suddenly, the White House was hearing from all the influential Democrats in those places.

Liberals, who, it turns out, were very unhappy with having to support all those illegal immigrants, demanded federal aid to pay for the enormous costs of providing them with housing, food, and medical care. New York, in particular, was overwhelmed. Mayor Adams actually began making public media appeals to the federal government for help.

The rationale for giving these 700,000 Venezuelans legal status and work permits is that some of them could get jobs. Then they could pay for their own upkeep. This would reduce the financial pressure on state and local governments.

But why Venezuelans?

The Biden administration says it’s because of the chaos going on in Venezuela since Nicolás Maduro took over as president in 2013. He installed a makeshift socialist economic and political structure along classic Marxist lines. An “improvement” that has devastated the economy and everyday life for most Venezuelans. In their “socialist paradise,” they are suffering ongoing shortages of key necessities, random power outages, police abuse, and hyperinflation.

From KK:

“There’s a major flaw in your immigrant voting theory and that is your assumption that they will vote Democratic. In the previous election, the Republicans did a good job of selling the anti-socialist anxiety story to most immigrants from Latin America. In your state, the Democratic Party saw reduced support in Hispanic Miami-Dade and lost two seats in the US House. Trump performed well with non-Cuban Hispanics, and many Venezuelan-American voters passionately campaigned for him.

“Doral, the city with the largest Venezuelan-born population in the country, showed a 41% swing toward Trump. He had a 1.4% win in the city in 2020 after having lost by 40% to Hillary Clinton in 2016 when she received 52% of the votes.”

My Response: I held that optimistic theory myself for the last several years after reading about the trend you mention – the surveys showing that many Latinos are moving away from the Democratic party.

As you can see from this chart, Latinos’ party affiliation has been steady since 2019.

That said, you have a point re Venezuelans. Those coming here are fleeing a country that was wrecked by electing a communist dictator. Cubans, who came to America to escape the wrecked economy and political dictatorship of Cuba, are largely politically conservative. The Venezuelans may act like the Cubans and vote Republican. And if they do that, Biden’s gambit will have failed.

But there is a big difference between Cuban refugees that came in the 50s and 60s and the Venezuelans coming to America today. The great majority of Cuban immigrants are and have always been people that were or would be successful professionals and entrepreneurs in Cuba. They experienced communism under Castro. They know what socialist policies did to their once rich and free country. They don’t want to see communism taking root in the USA.

Most of the Venezuelans that are about to become legalized are relatively uneducated and poor. They will almost certainly want every dollar of welfare that the governors, mayors, and federal government are willing to give them. These are prime candidates for voting Blue.

From JM:

“Without even looking at the Taki piece, I recall a headline that read: Biden wants Ukraine to win… by the inch.

“We never seem to learn that war is not fought incrementally. That was the overarching lesson from Vietnam. Yet…”

My Response: Yes. It disappoints me to think about how many of my very smart, good-willed, and otherwise fair-minded friends and family members have become so supportive of our involvement in Ukraine. Surely, they know that we basically started it.

Like most of our generation, they must remember the Vietnam war – the damaging and devastating futility of it – not to mention Korea and every other proxy war the US has fought since President Eisenhower, who actually knew something about war, warned us about the military-industrial complex.

More from JM:

“I am not pro war or pro military. I am pro our American way of life. Which is fast disappearing. There are surely times when a country has to fight. What I am insisting on is that when it happens we bring maximum force to bear as GHW Bush did to defend Kuwait.

“Ukraine should have been handled as Kuwait was. Putin, like we did with Hussein, should have been given an ultimatum. Leave Ukraine or your army will be destroyed. If he failed to heed the warning, his army would be decimated in 72 hours.

“Yes, I know there is a lot wrong with that scenario. But not pushing back against Putin was a very large mistake.

“I think Putin has something on Biden, and more than likely it’s proof of Biden selling influence.

“In our lifetimes, we have never been in a weaker position to avoid war.”

My Response: You make good points. I’ve had the same thoughts.

When it comes to war, it’s difficult to have a “right” opinion. Wars are too complicated, too damaging, too terrible.

My bias when it comes to war is always towards pacifism. Not because I think that is always the “right” thing to do. But if I don’t know what the right thing is, not fighting seems like the wiser choice.

Of course, it’s easy for me to say that. I have no fear for my own personal safety when I imagine myself in war, as irrational as that is. I’m not against war for visceral reasons. It’s more theoretical…