Politics Random, Random

[ti-amie]

[skatingfan]

Megyn Kelly has a 14-year-old daughter.

[ponchi101]

There's a sick, sick joke there that would ban me so quickly. And since I cannot be banned...

[Owendonovan]

I'm expecting an attack on Venezuela this week by the US as the Epstein show heats up.

[ponchi101]

If there is an attack on Venezuela, and Tiny decides to take Maduro out:
What would be more despicable of me? Thank Tiny? Or thank Jeffrey?

[dryrunguy]

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first survey of illegal immigrants and immigrant non-citizens in the United States. (I hope I am describing them correctly.) They were asked an array of questions about what it is like to be in the United States with all of the uncertainty and everything that is going on with raids, deportations, etc. The results are incredibly fascinating. I won't be able to pull the graphics into this post, but you SHOULD be able to see them at the link since I am using one of my 10 permitted NY Times article shares per month for this post. Really fascinating stuff.

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Under Trump, Immigrants Are More Fearful but Determined to Stay, Poll Finds
A national survey found that half of all immigrants in the United States say they feel less safe since President Trump took office. Still, many say their future remains bright.

As the Trump administration seeks to remake the immigration system and deports tens of thousands of people, many immigrants are more scared about living in the United States, and yet their resolve to remain here is largely unchanged.

A new national survey of immigrants in the country — both documented and undocumented, and varying widely in how and when they arrived — found that about half of all immigrants say they feel less safe since President Trump took office. The survey was done by The New York Times and KFF, a nonprofit that conducts polling and research about health policy.

Among the immigrants surveyed — whether they are here legally or not, or have been naturalized as citizens — concern that they or a family member could be detained or deported has risen significantly since before Mr. Trump’s return to power.

Still, large majorities also say their own future, and that of their children, remains bright, with the concept of the American dream retaining its powerful appeal. About 70 percent said that if they could go back in time, they would still make the choice to migrate to the United States.

The survey captured a snapshot of immigrant life against a backdrop of enormous change in the United States, with many people standing by their choice to come — sometimes illegally — even as their image of the country as a welcoming place has been shaken. Immigrants feel that, across every measure, they are better off in the United States compared with the living conditions that propelled them to leave their homelands.

The survey, of 1,805 immigrants across the country, is a broad look at a group for which there is often very little data to understand their views and experiences, given that the U.S. Census Bureau does not ask specifics about immigration status. The group is also a small share of the population and too difficult to reach to be measured with accuracy by most surveys.

[Read more about how this survey was conducted here and see all the questions that were asked here.]

The poll reflected the breadth of immigrants in the United States, including a significant share who find Mr. Trump’s immigration policies “necessary” and some who are “proud” of increased enforcement. For many Americans, the archetype of an immigrant may be someone who has recently arrived in the country. But a vast majority of immigrants living in the United States — more than 70 percent — have been in the country for 10 or more years, according to the available data from the Census Bureau. A little more than half are U.S. citizens, and 53 percent say they speak English exclusively or at least very well.

Even as the United States has historically been seen as a melting pot, immigrants themselves believe that label may no longer apply.

The survey found that 60 percent of immigrants, including a majority of those with legal status, say that the United States used to be a “great place” for immigrants but no longer is — a view that is especially common among those from Latin America and Asia. European immigrants were likelier to say that the United States was a great place for immigrants.

Marcos Herrera, 42, moved to Florida from Chile in 2009 to join his Puerto Rican girlfriend. He hoped to continue his studies in mechanical engineering but could not afford to finish his degree and now works as a custodian at Walt Disney World.

Though he became a legal permanent resident and feels mostly safe, he said that he has watched with terror and sadness as other Latinos in Florida have been picked up and deported after years of working hard in the country.

“In the past, there was no fear like there is now,” he said. “Families should not be separated.”

Even as the current view of the country has dimmed for many — amid raids, anti-immigrant rhetoric and masked agents that now permeate American life — their commitment to stay has not.

The share of immigrants, 70 percent, who said that they would still make the choice to migrate to the United States is largely unchanged from two years ago, before Mr. Trump’s push for mass deportations.

For most, especially those who escaped violence, poverty and repression, their view appears to be a matter of perspective.

Large majorities say that their financial situation is better in the United States than the country they left (70 percent), their employment situation is better (65 percent) and educational opportunities are better for themselves and their children (74 percent). Slightly fewer, though still about half, say that their safety is better because they came to the United States.

Most immigrants expressed optimism about their future in the United States, regardless of Mr. Trump’s approach to immigration enforcement. Nearly 80 percent, including a majority of those who are undocumented, said that they were on their way to achieving the American dream or had achieved it already.

“People often compare their decision about moving, or not, compared to where they were,” said Pawan H. Dhingra, a professor at Amherst College who researches immigration and was not affiliated with the survey. So it was not necessarily surprising, he said, that immigrants were both “feeling less safe and still feeling like the American dream is possible.”

The survey offers insight into the prevailing mood among immigrants — including citizens, legal permanent residents and undocumented immigrants, who were identified in the poll as not being citizens or having a valid visa — more than nine months into Mr. Trump’s efforts to secure the border, carry out mass deportations and curb legal and illegal immigration.

Mr. Trump has moved decisively — and divisively — to fulfill his campaign promise to impose a hard-line immigration agenda, after winning in 2024 with support from voters who shifted to the right amid scenes of disorder at the border and an influx of migrants in large cities.

The president has ended paths to asylum, deported people to countries where they are not from and deployed agents in a made-for-TV display of force. The scope of the crackdown has already tested voters who support Mr. Trump’s deportation goals but believe that his methods have been too aggressive.

The share of immigrants who worry that a family member could be detained or deported jumped significantly, to 41 percent, up from 26 percent two years ago, during more lenient Biden-era immigration policies. Concern about deportation has grown since 2023 among citizens and noncitizens, among those here legally and those who are not.

Roughly half of immigrants — including 82 percent of undocumented immigrants — said that they were afraid about what was happening with immigration enforcement; a similar share said they felt angry.

“I feel we had the American dream, until everything in January started to fall apart,” said Leticia Anaya, 60, a Mexican mother who became a U.S. citizen in 2001 and lives in Aurora, Colo.

Ms. Anaya, whose father crossed the border in the 1970s and sponsored her for a green card in 1990, said that her family had made a plan when they heard of U.S. citizens being detained by federal agents. They stored all their documents, including naturalization papers, birth certificates and passports, in a “special box” tucked in a closet at home, she said.

“It’s not like I am very afraid, but it could happen,” said Ms. Anaya, who said she lost her job with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs because of Mr. Trump’s mass layoffs. “I look Hispanic. I have an accent.”

Still, 40 percent of immigrants say that they feel Mr. Trump’s enforcement tactics are necessary, and 15 percent say that the tactics made them feel proud.

Roughly 30 percent of undocumented immigrants say increased enforcement is necessary.

Those who say increased enforcement is needed are disproportionately U.S. citizens, many of whom have been here for decades, the survey found.

“Trump is trying to make this country more valuable instead of bringing anybody that wants to come in and do whatever they want,” said Gustavo Rojas, 42, a citizen who came to the United States from the Dominican Republic in 1990 and lives in Boston. “I just think that Biden was slipping too much. Way too much.”

Mr. Rojas, who is unemployed and identifies as a Republican, said that he had struggled to start a career after high school and tried to join the Marines but was discharged because of a schizophrenia diagnosis. He said he believed that he was better off in the United States because of what he described as generous government assistance.

“I think the country’s going in the right direction,” Mr. Rojas said of the immigration crackdown. “It’s not affecting me at all.”

Other surveys have shown that Americans have grown skeptical about the future of the American dream, with 53 percent of respondents in a 2024 Pew Research Center survey saying that it is still possible.

The new survey found that most immigrants — regardless of their immigration status — feel that their children will have a better life. A similar share expressed this in 2023, before Mr. Trump took office.

Sami Takieddine, 46, was born in Britain to parents who fled Lebanon’s civil war in the 1970s. The family moved to the United States in 1980, when Mr. Takieddine was an infant, and found a foothold in New Jersey and Georgia.

Over four decades, Mr. Takieddine notched one milestone after another: He became a citizen, bought a home, sent his two teenage children to good schools and climbed the ranks to become a director at a technology company in Atlanta.

“I think that America stands for, ‘Do good things, be good at what you do, be good to other people and you can really succeed,’” Mr. Takieddine said, adding that the American dream still exists.

“It just needs to be rejuvenated,” he said.

But he worries that, in the Trump era, Americans have stopped valuing the plight of immigrants fleeing war-torn countries or those who “for whatever reason, just want a better way of life in America.”

“I think that’s a travesty,” he said.

Worries are pervasive. Forty-three percent of immigrants say they worry that they or a family member could have their legal status revoked. And the same share worry that they or a family member could be separated from children or other family members.

Those fears are most pronounced among undocumented immigrants, 70 percent of whom are concerned about their legal status; one-third of U.S. citizens and about half of permanent residents share these concerns.

And for many, financial concerns are also mounting. Nearly half of immigrants, including 62 percent of undocumented immigrants, say it has been harder for them to earn a living since January.

Huayun Geng, 49, a software engineer living in Washington State, said that although he had found success in the United States, he worried about the future of his two children, ages 16 and 8.

Mr. Geng, who emigrated from China in 2012 on an H-1B visa and became a legal permanent resident in 2020, said that the country had been made politically unstable by the divide between Democrats and Republicans.

He also worried that the United States had isolated itself as its education system weakened, dulling the nation’s global competitive edge.

“I’m living a better life myself now in U.S. over when I was in China, but I feel like it’s getting harder and harder for people who just came in to achieve the same kind of dreams as I did,” Mr. Geng said. “Now, when I’m looking at my kids, I feel like it will be very hard for them.”

Here are the key things to know about the The New York Times/KFF survey of immigrants:
The survey was conducted among 1,805 adult immigrants nationwide from Aug. 28 to Oct. 20.

The poll includes immigrants who are U.S. citizens, those with visas or permanent residency and those who are likely undocumented, who were identified as not being citizens or having valid visas.

The survey was conducted on the telephone, via the mail and online, and could be taken in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Haitian-Creole. The survey was designed by researchers at KFF in collaboration with The Times, and was administered by SSRS, a public opinion research company. You can see the exact questions that were asked and the order in which they were asked here.

To further ensure that the results reflect all immigrants, not just those willing to take a poll, the poll gives more weight to respondents from demographic groups that would otherwise be underrepresented among survey respondents, like immigrants without a college degree and those who do not speak English proficiently.

The margin of sampling error for all immigrants is about plus or minus three percentage points. In theory, this means that the results should generally reflect the views of the overall population of immigrants, though many other challenges create additional sources of error. The margin of error is larger for subgroups.

You can see full results and a detailed methodology here. If you want to read more about how this poll was conducted, you can see answers to frequently asked questions.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/us/i ... =url-share