The ICE Paranoia, what has the U.S. government promised me, and related rants.

Response to a Facebook post. 

CAMPAIGN promises. And lies. <>Obama's campaign (I covered it in California, Arizona and Nevada): Leniency to illegal migrants, end of Afghanistan war, closure of Guantanamo, better economy. What America had in Barry's years: A record (still) deportation high of 400,000 average, Afghanistan war stretched to 20 years and trillions$ in U.S. taxpayer money wasted as he hosted a recession. 

       But he wasn't demonized big time because he is COOL. I was in the West Coast because of the obvious reasons: Get new lawyers because ICE scared me as I produced anti-war concerts and published an anti-war newspaper. And my family who sent me money stopped sending due to the obvious. I needed a real job in L.A. I worked as an editor of an Asian newspaper. 

       <>Donald Trump: His personality is disgusting. But he tries his best to end wars. Repeat: I am anti-war. He cuts funding for USAID. I can rant how USAID in cahoots with George Soros' Open Society nonprofit underlings carried out their sinister plans in Asia, and how these "aid" was used as quid pro quo for trade gains and corruption by host governments. Etc etcetera. (Check how Mr Soros, the liberal funding demigod, masterminded the crash of Asian currency in the 1990s that made me fly to New York for a job.) 

       Troops in cities? Check Asheville how drugs proliferated from the year 2000. How did cops pull back, scared of cellphone cams than criminal guns? Having lived through dictatorship and military rule, I know how soldiers were. EJKs. Extra judicial killings. But did Trump's soldiers openly shoot at protesters the way I experienced them?  

       Maximum tolerance: Hit law enforcers with Subway sandwich? Ain’t that cool for insult trajectory? Yet crime is down in Chicago, Memphis, Albuquerque. Drug boats in Venezuelan waters? Yup. Because these hounds' entry point or passage in Darien Pass and Rio Grande to the U.S. border have been blocked by Claudia Sheinbaum and Mr Trump. Collateral damage of 20 in those hits? What about collateral damage in Ukraine and Gaza and 20 years of the Afghanistan war, which Trump ended with Doha Accords in 2020. 

       What has the US government promised me? None. I just stay realistic of my life. I don't break the law, I don't do SNAP, I enjoy a better economy than 2009, and I pray to my Filipino god and “anito” that all these wars that Washington feeds or fed end. As long as Mr Trump tries to end them and cut those dubious aid in favor of better trade deals, I am good as PBR and chicken pork adobo and my rice. And a dog and 2 cats. 

       Happy in America. 🗽🏃‍♀️🏃

ADD. Meme or signboard elsewhere: “Trump cares not for us.” 

       Pragmatically speaking, as a foreigner from a country that has been colonized by America for over 50 years and a government that is a zealot Washington ally, that line should read "America cares not for us" and I am talking about a Truth rather than a Fact for centuries. But then should the world depend on America as a dole-out pal or sweet benefactor? No. The world should not. 

Instead, America should treat the rest of the world on even ground. For example, lose the 750 military bases in 80 countries, cut the $840 billion military budget, cut the NATO juice, deal trade instead in a fair arrangement. Invite erstwhile "rogue leaders" to White House, negotiate economics, broker peace. 

       As my (white) American friends tell me: "I work, pay my bills, enjoy Netflix. I know, Pasckie, you've experienced the worst in your country. We whine a lot because the privileges that we so enjoy seem to have lessened because our President sends more money to a war and to bail giant corporations out." So I share leftover dinners and rehashed GMOs with my Conservative American BFFs Marta and Cindy. And then we laugh. 🗽🏃‍♀️🏃

Neverending Epstein Political Plotpoint.

Response to a Facebook post.

SUBJECT: A meme that supposedly quotes Zohran Mamdani saying Epstein could be the fall of Donald Trump’s government.  

IF all the VIP names that are floated in Jeffrey Epstein's murk space, or POTUS (1 current, 1 past), are proven guilty of whatever they did, it is not just a U.S. government that'd collapse. It's the entirety of America's glass house of global influence that'd shatter. But then, sorry. That’d be an overreaching ideation. Drama. 

       This: Powerful individuals globally, political or whatever, commit shenanigans with their uncontrollable dicks but those essentially simply served as cinematic fodder. Yet those indiscretions weren't hard to believe as facts. (Note: Indiscretions didn't necessarily mean they violated the law but moral dirt is a truth. Ergo, their morality is shot, whether the accusation is simply a rumor or proven fact.) 

       Meanwhile, whether these powerful men are guilty or not per the Epstein saga, there's no document that'd warrant prosecution. The case is still weak although the political intrigue is strong. Yet if alleged victims could do a Virginia Giuffre (per Prince Andrew), probably. The emergence of new “witnesses” though is weird due to the timing (Trump II). Why didn’t they come out during Joe Biden’s 4 years? Or alongside Virginia?  

       What is bothersome to me: This Epstein spectacle has diverted attention from the real scourge: Human trafficking as an institutionalized evil. What is clear: This neverending noise is a way to continue chewing at Donald Trump's fort, hoping it'd crumble to smithereens. <>Especially that his foreign policy playbook is working. <>Especially after the BBC bombshell proves that the January 6 theatrics wasn't what the Left fed the public. <>Especially that the Dems lost the shutdown strategy. Or well. 

       America is such a Hollywood showtime or Netflix thriller. But now it is boring. Can the hate-Trump scriptwriters devise new plot points other than Epstein and Jan 6? What about when Donald had close door meetings with extraterrestrials? A bit of sci-fi maybe? Uh huh. 🏛🗽🏛

AGAIN, on Immigration (excuse the repetitiveness).

Response to a Facebook post. 

I AM Asian. Let's look at this issue pragmatically as we calm the drama down. To be in America as a foreigner, you need to be useful to America. You need to be NEEDED. Let me elaborate.

       <>Regardless that many Asians are also illegal/undocumented or "visa overstays," they are the highest household earners among all ethnicities and the most educated/skilled (among all races here, including whites). They are essentially "quiet," partisan/politically unengaged, and law obedient. They work, they pay taxes, they have fun. Useful and needed. 

       <>Central Americans and those that entered/crossed via the southern border are a bit complicated and complex. They are similar to those who entered Europe illegally via the border "laxity" of the Schengen Area. Their punishing journeys in large groups are mostly facilitated by human traffickers and drug cartels. Syndicates and smugglers and coyotes, in cahoots with border patrols and bent/corrupt local officials, profit from them. Many are forced to "pawn" their kin left behind back home vis-a-vis "cartel activities" in America. 

       Meanwhile, many are deposited in factories and farms as an arrangement with business owners, paid in coins, housed in trailer homes like sardines in a can, no health security, not counted when calamities hit them. But they toil the land. They are "needed" by America that way. As long as they don't "moonlight" as mules or drug couriers, they can stay. Slaves but hey they keep farms and factories "alive." Never mind that they don't speak English. THAT is the reason why this side of partisanship wants them here otherwise all illegals in America are legal now. As we speak, there are 14 million undocumented in America, a modest number since that's only the official count. This: Around 70 percent of farm workers are illegal. 

       <>Anyhow, it was Barack Obama who deported the most number of illegals, 400,000 on average, in his first term. That rivaled Dwight Eisenhower's Operation Wetback in 1954. Donald Trump had so far deported close to 200,000 this year but that's mainly because Joe Biden also let in a record number from 2021 to 2024 1st Q. Also in 2021, Joe abolished the Merida Initiative, the US/Mexico et al law enforcement cooperation/partnership per anti-cartel or human trafficking program. As expected, cartels exploited that; smugglers from elsewhere in the world hooked up with Mexican cartels for "management" of border crossings. Hence the record numbers, in many instances, 4,000 to 6,000 a day. 

       <>In fairness to Obama or Trump, the illegals that they sent home or removed are those with clear ties with cartels or criminal organizations, has active crime dossier, no adapting citizen kin here, not sponsored by NGOs or churches, and don't qualify for asylum (the program has been bankrupt for years). Yet millions stay because they are NEEDED by the economy. 

       <>I can talk more but this is already long. This immigration issue has to be discussed in length over one-click of memes. I could be wrong but majority of my insight are based on my work as journalist who covered the border in California and migrant shelters, police beat, and I worked as well as paralegal for an NGO in LA and law office in New York + I co-wrote a grant for a nonprofit that assisted via legal advice to illegals in both cities. 🗽🏃‍♀️🏃