​DONALD J. TRUMP RESPONSE TO THE POPE

Quote: FrGamble

I just wanted to point out that I wonder if there is any other country in the world that you can enter as freely as the Vatican. Any nationality at all can walk into the grand Piazza San Pietro and visit the awesome Basilica of St. Peter. There is no passport control and no wall stopping anyone from visiting.

Regardless of whether or not it's a country (and I say it isn't), can anyone from any place in the world immigrate to the Vatican, set up shop or find work there without much in the way of red tape?

Most Western countries, excluding anomalies like Cuba, are rather easy to get into for a visit. Even countries which have developed immigrant paranoia to a fine bureaucratic art, like the US, eagerly welcome visitors who'll spend money. It's those wishing to emigrate or those seeking refuge who find it hard to get in and stay.

How many Syrian refugees are living at the Vatican now?

Yeah, you can't really immigrate to the Vatican. I guess it does have some pretty high walls and strict policies to gain citizenship. I stand corrected.

If you read the text of the Pope though I wonder if we are making too big of a deal about this.

Perhaps the Pope is exactly the right person to speak on this just because he's a sovereign of a nation with no immigration? No "dog" in the fight.

They say it didn't hurt Trump at all because
conservatives don't like the new pope anyway.
I certainly don't. He's just another uber socialist.

No one holds sovereignty over it. That is probably the one attribute it shares with countries which make it look a lot like a county.

I haven't put together my own list of attributes of what I think makes something a country, but I think the Vatican qualifies as one.

It's more like an embassy than a country. It's
the embassy of Roman Catholics in Italy and
has the same rights as any foreign embassy.

Quote: FrGamble

If you read the text of the Pope though I wonder if we are making too big of a deal about this.

I think so. I thought the pope was speaking in very pastoral terms. Christians should be more concerned with building bridges than walls. I don't think he was putting together a full fledged immigration policy on the fly.

In 2013, the census estimated U.S. immigrants and their U.S.-born children now number approximately 80 million persons, or one-quarter of the overall U.S. population. The USA has issued millions of Border Crossing Cards to Mexican citizens to allow them to shop, and do business in the US border regions. Total Fertility Rates of women in Mexico are low or lower than in the USA (although they are younger). Millions of illegal immigrants come to the USA with jobs waiting for them. We already have a wall in the urban areas of the border.

No intelligent human being wants to stop the traffic back and forth from the USA and Mexico. In 2014 we had 41,223,292 pedestrians cross our souther ports of entry.


Rank Port Name Port Code Year Pedestrians
1 CA: San Ysidro 2504 2014 7,925,371
2 TX: El Paso 2402 2014 6,572,313
3 CA: Calexico 2503 2014 4,567,333
4 TX: Laredo 2304 2014 3,447,437
5 CA: Otay Mesa 2506 2014 3,415,957
6 AZ: Nogales 2604 2014 2,886,022
7 TX: Hidalgo 2305 2014 2,290,469
8 AZ: San Luis 2608 2014 2,287,955
9 TX: Brownsville 2301 2014 2,232,400
10 AZ: Douglas 2601 2014 1,011,564
11 TX: Eagle Pass 2303 2014 856,700
12 CA: Andrade 2502 2014 800,176
13 TX: Progreso 2309 2014 760,655
14 CA: Tecate 2505 2014 743,666
15 CA: Calexico East 2507 2014 310,344
16 NM: Columbus 2406 2014 267,792
17 TX: Roma 2310 2014 247,768
18 NM: Santa Teresa 2408 2014 175,112
19 TX: Del Rio 2302 2014 104,252
20 AZ: Naco 2603 2014 79,325
21 TX: Presidio 2403 2014 77,759
22 TX: Rio Grande City 2307 2014 60,193
23 TX: Fabens 2404 2014 56,644
24 AZ: Lukeville 2602 2014 44,716
25 AZ: Sasabe 2606 2014 1,369

Quote: Evenbob

They say it didn't hurt Trump at all because
conservatives don't like the new pope anyway.
I certainly don't. He's just another uber socialist.

Are you kidding me. No way Trump wins the general
The Pope is a rock star in this country
Yea Trump draws big crowds in this country
but
the Pope draws gigantic crowds in this country.

Trump is actually backing down, amazing
From last nite

"Well, the Pope is a wonderful guy. I think he said something much softer than it was originally reported by the media. I think he heard one side of the story, which was probably by the Mexican government, I think he was very much misinterpreted, and I also think he was given misinformation. I like his personality, I like what he represents, and I certainly have great respect for the position."

Quote: Pacomartin

I think so. I thought the pope was speaking in very pastoral terms. Christians should be more concerned with building bridges than walls. I don't think he was putting together a full fledged immigration policy on the fly.

No one is putting together an immigration policy. That's the problem.

Immigrating legally to the US is incredibly difficult. It's not just a matter of waiting patiently in line, or following the proper channels. The easiest way is to marry an American citizen, and even that involves months or years of red tape and tons of wasted time and money. Second easiest is to invest $500,000 to $1 million, depending where it goes. But you can guess there aren't many people in a position to do this. For everyone else, you either have to have family who are US citizens, or have a firm job offer and hope your employer is interested in keeping you.

At the same time there is a large demand for immigrant labor in many fields, but particularly in unskilled and low-skilled labor.

The end result is obvious.

If you think actually kicking all the illegal immigrants out and walling off Mexico to prevent any more from coming in is a good idea, you may as well nuke Washington and Manhattan and be done. The economic impact would likely be lower.

Let's face it, the pope is everything the Republicans hate. He is a foreigner who left his country to move to a country where he has no income, gets free food, free housing, free travel. He is pretty much a freeloader.