I am officially designating the improvidently admitted legal immigrant ethics train wreck as merely an extension of the Illegal Immigrant Ethics Train Wreck, particularly since so many progressives refuse to acknowledge the distinction between legal and illegal in this matter. They also refuse to acknowledge that time marches on, and that policies that made sense in the past often do not make sense, or are not even responsible, today.

Item: One of my Trump Deranged Facebook friends whom have mentioned here several times, as part of one of his daily attacks on the President, cited as authority this section of a speech given by Ronald Reagan shortly before leaving office…

My friend was responding to the Trump Administration’s decision to pause immigration from 19 nations whose culture may not be wise to introduce into American society. The speech, however, cuts against the argument—pro-Somali as well as other immigrant groups uninterested in assimilation—he thinks he is making. Rep. Omar (D-Minn), quite properly excoriated by President Trump (though not in the measured terms he should have used), has said repeatedly that she regards herself as representing “her people,” Somalis first. Omar’s people, like the Congresswoman herself, generally have no intention of becoming Americans in the sense that President Reagan meant. They want to continue to embrace the toxic culture of their failed state but in a more prosperous and accommodating environment among, to be blunt, “suckers.”

Item: I recommend this useful and well-reasoned blog post. Key section:

“….the basic intuition is: immigration means more transactions, more gains from trade. Those who believe in markets — in positive-sum interactions — should support immigration.

This is not the trumping response it appears to be. Immigration does not only import workers—nor even just increase mutual-gain transactions — it imports people, so potentially affects all aspects of the receiving society. This means, of course, that there are a much wider range of possible concerns about immigration that “yes, but more gains from trade” is not an adequate response to.

Efficiency and number of transactions are not the only issues for a social order, particularly not a flourishing social order. There are also issues of social cohesion; social resilience; connections and social capital; the distribution of GDP gains; effects on relative prices; congestion costs; how well institutions are managing the influx; effects on local communities; cultural differences; social coordination issues and the ability to manage collective action problems; increased competition for positional goods — goods that cannot, or are blocked from, responding to increased demand.

Item: This…

🚨NEW: Ex-MSNBC Host Krystal Ball *CAN'T GRASP* why minorities join ICE🤦‍♂️

"What is wrong with you!? Not only do you not have morality, apparently you don't have self-preservation! These people hate you!"

"You're never going to belong — and you're the one implementing the… pic.twitter.com/HyGmT1xHfh

— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) December 2, 2025

How can any medium justify giving a platform to a “pundit” this dumb, confused, and devoid of core American values? Minorities join ICE because they correctly regard themselves a Americans, not tribes, and their loyalty is to the United States, whose laws they will be enforcing. Krystal Ball, who has an interesting dossier on Ethics Alarms, doesn’t appear to know what “morality,” and certainly not ethics, is.

Item: The New York Times issues another tainted account of Trump rhetoric in an article filled with well-poisoning and nods to Democratic talking points in “Trump Calls Somalis ‘Garbage’ He Doesn’t Want in the Country.” (Gift link!) I have often thought that Trump’s aides should have a man with a blow gun hiding in the meeting room to temporarily paralyze the President with a dart to the neck when he starts ranting like this. The point that Somalis come from a culture so antithetical to U.S. values that a strong argument can be made that we shouldn’t let them immigrate at all is a valid won. Calling them “garbage” is not an ethical way to make that argument.

Meanwhile, note the Axis-style cheap shots like saying that during the Cabinet meeting he “appeared to be fighting sleep” and categorizing a legitimate concern about Somalia as “bigotry” and”nativism.”

Item: Another Times pro-illegal immigration whine (and another gift link): David French’s ‘I’ve Been Doing This Work for 25 Years and I’ve Never Seen Such Fear.’ You see, enforcing the laws is bad because it makes law-violators feel bad. Meanwhile, French takes his own cheap shots (Gee, why does he think ICE agents are masked? He knows damn well, as to the Times editors, but includes the description as an innuendo suggesting something sinister anyway) while not dealing with the two reasons there is such “fear”:

1. Illegal immigrants are justly afraid of being apprehended and facing accountability. Aw….

2. Legal immigrants are fearful because news sources like the Times want them to be.

Item [ADDED] I didn’t read the Washington Post’s head-exploding effort to sympathize with the poor, misunderstood legal Afghanistan immigrant—legal only because President Biden’s disastrous chaotic withdrawal from the country brought to our shores unvetted refugees accepted out of U.D. guilt. The Post reported

“The course of Lakanwal’s journey from a trusted U.S. battlefield ally to the suspected shooter of two National Guard members on the streets of downtown D.C. remains unclear, in part. But like many Afghans who had worked for the United States and came to this country after the chaotic August 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, he appeared to struggle to adapt to his new circumstances and refused to take many of the entry-level jobs available to him as a recent immigrant…“These guys were elite soldiers who had a career and homes in Afghanistan, but when they came here they lost everything. They are told ‘You need to work,’ but they don’t have the skills,” said a former senior Afghan commander now living in the United States, who didn’t know Lakanwal personally but has extensive contacts in the Afghan refugee community, including with other former Zero Unit fighters. “They’re not ready to just integrate themselves into the community,” said the former commander, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of concern that discussing the sensitive issue could affect their immigration status.

Top Trump administration officials have tried to characterize Lakanwal’s alleged violent crime as a by-product of President Joe Biden’s hasty evacuation of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, and the influx of tens of thousands of Afghans to the United States that these officials say took place without proper vetting.

But interviews with former Afghan fighters and the Americans who worked with them suggest a more complex tale.”

There is nothing new or remarkable about legitimate refugees fleeing their native country having to adapt to lesser occupations than they once held. Such transplanted foreigners usually manage not to feel the urge to shoot U.S. soldiers. If they are “not ready to integrate” into a U.S. community, then they should be kept out of the U.S.

“Top Trump administration officials have tried to characterize Lakanwal’s alleged violent crime as a by-product of President Joe Biden’s hasty evacuation of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, and the influx of tens of thousands of Afghans to the United States that these officials say took place without proper vetting”? Yes, and that is probably because his violent crime IS a by-product of President Joe Biden’s hasty evacuation of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, and the influx of tens of thousands of Afghans to the United States without proper vetting.”