Rodrigo Zúñiga Mouret

Marine Biologist || He/Him || Haverford ‘20 || 🇲🇽

[derek guy @dieworkwear]

I debated whether to share my story on here, but I guess I will.

I think there's an idea out there that millions of violent criminals are pouring across the border, carrying machetes and drugs, looking to harm Americans. Certainly, while some people fall into that category, the vast majority of undocumented immigrants don't.

My family escaped Vietnam after the Tet Offensive and went through an arduous journey that eventually landed them in the Canada. My father worked there for a time as a janitor; my mother, a secretary. When work fell through, my dad was offered to work with his sister in the United States, so he went, as our family needed money. He ended up staying in the US longer than he was supposed to — not knowing immigration laws — and asked my mom to come be with him. Of course, she went and carried me over the border while I was still a baby.

I'm still unsure whether we technically broke an immigration law. The border between Canada and the United States was pretty porous (as it is today, for the most part). But either way, since I came here without legal documentation, I eventually fell into the category of being an undocumented immigrant. Yet, I've been in the United States since I was a baby. My identity and roots are very much based in this country, no different from anyone else.

The lack of legal immigration has totally shaped my life. It has made every interaction with the law much scarier. It has shaped which opportunities I could or could not get. It has taken an emotional toll, as this legal issue hangs over your head like a black cloud.

There are millions of people in my situation — people who were brought here as children, some babies, and were unable to raise their hand during this process and say "maybe we should hire a lawyer." Parents may have crossed the border not knowing about the law, as the law can be pretty confusing and lawyers are expensive. Perhaps, in the end, they should have hired a lawyer; but sometimes life is messy. In the end, they crossed for the same reason many people rise every day: to support their families.

I think it's unreasonable to deport millions of people who have contributed positively to society. It's simply not true that the majority of these people are violent criminals carrying drugs. Many own small businesses; many work as skilled laborers (including garment workers!). The vast majority are good, honest people. For those of us who grew up in the United States, sending us "back" to our "home" country would mean sending someone to a foreign land, as they grew up in the United States. Tearing families apart based on immigration status seems inhumane.

About twenty years ago, I watched with some small measure of hope that the Dream ACT would pass and help a portion of undocumented immigrants. I saw people march angrily in the streets (something I supported). But I was dismayed to see nothing really come about. In fact, when Obama passed DACA, I was skeptical that it would be sensible to give your information to the federal government without a guaranteed path to citizenship. It seems that the Trump administration may use those lists to hunt down immigrants.

I think the ICE sweeps are inhumane. I support and admire the protestors who are putting their bodies on the line for non-violent resistance. Ultimately, I think we need to solve this issue on a systemic level. It's unreasonable to me to expect that the government will deport some 10-20 million people. Even deporting 1 million will cause an insane amount of chaos, not to mention an incredible amount of wasteful government spending. The militarization of law enforcement is over the top and only escalate the situation.

I have seen people march on this issue, only for it to be dropped later and dissolve into quiet grumbles. In the end, nothing is done for immigrants. Time passes until decades later, we have another political crisis like the one we have today. This cycle seems unsustainable. I hope people sustain this energy to solve the immigration issue and put undocumented immigrants — most who are peaceful, skilled, and hard-working citizens — on a path to citizenship. As time continues to go by, many undocumented immigrants are seeing their lives wasted away.

If you care about this issue, I hope you get involved on the long haul: volunteer for pro-immigrant groups, donate to mutual aid, and perhaps pursue career paths that help people in this situation. I was moved to read someone on here say that, when they found their employee was undocumented, they helped them get a green card. The path was difficult, as our immigration system is broken (it took them 11 years). But I can tell you that this is like pulling someone drowning in raging waters.

Ultimately, I hope me sharing this story helps push back against the idea that all undocumented immigrants are MS-13 members. I know many people in my position and they are all like your neighbors.

[Rodrigo Zúñiga Mouret @DigoZuniga3]

@barfieldgussy AA

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

It is indeed "one of the most extraordinary Truth posts of Trump's presidency" in the sheer level of gaslighting at play: he's trying to make one of the biggest and clearest humiliations in US history look like a win.

But there's no amount of lipstick that can disguise this pig. What happened is remarkably similar to the 2022 Liz Truss fiasco in the UK: Trump came out with a remarkably foolish and terribly executed policy that created a market panic—including in the bonds market—and he had to walk it back.

But unlike the British system that—for better or worse—can get rid of woefully incompetent Prime Ministers (that is, more incompetent than the average), the U.S. is stuck with Trump.

And unlike Liz Truss, Trump remains insulated by a circle of sycophants like Lutnick who reframe humiliating capitulations as 'extraordinary' triumphs, and a voter base that interprets even his most flagrant policy failures as masterful 4D chess moves.

Fact is, even after this retreat, the U.S. is in a far worse position than it used to be.

Contrary to what Lutnick and Trump are saying, what this episode proved beyond doubt is that the world is NOT ready "to work with President Trump to fix global trade". In fact, besides Israel's Netanyahu, I haven't seen a single country on earth come out publicly to support Trump's plan.

Sure, a couple of weaker countries who are heavily dependent on trade have reluctantly come forward to find a way to mitigate the damage Trump would do to their economies but to conflate this with enthusiastic cooperation is pure fantasy.

What we're witnessing instead is damage control by nations caught in the crossfire of his insane economic policies. And you can be sure that the long-term strategy of these countries will now be to reduce dependencies and trading links to the U.S. in order to avoid being caught in a similar situation in the future.

More importantly, the countries that together make up about 50% of trade with the U.S.—namely Canada, the EU and China—have all announced retaliatory tariffs and measures, which a) means that Trump's claim that countries other than China "aren't retaliating in any way, shape, or form against the United States" is a complete lie and b) shows that his approach has accomplished the remarkable feat of uniting geopolitical rivals in opposition to him.

Which is undoubtedly why his new approach seems to be to single-handedly focus on China, with a retreat to the good old U.S. strategy of trying to get others to help them contain China.

This has zero chance of working either, for 2 main reasons.

The first one is that if Trump has demonstrated one thing in the past 3 months, it's that he's fundamentally unstable and unreliable, and so is the United States. His chaotic governance sends a clear message to the world: America's word means nothing beyond the next Truth Social post.

If the notion that a country would take the risk of putting all its eggs in the American basket was already delusional before his presidency; it is now beyond absurd. What he's done is transform America from a cornerstone of global trade into a risk factor that must be hedged against.

The second one is that the "deal" on the table for these countries is absolutely repugnant, from their standpoint.

I mean, think about it: the "deal" would presumably be for these nations to abandon or significantly reduce their economic relationship with China—their largest trading partner in many cases—in exchange for a trading relationship with the U.S. that is worse than it used to be, with 10% additional tariffs. In effect it's asking countries to sacrifice their economic sovereignty and strategic flexibility for a lesser punishment.

It's a lose-lose proposition that might play well on Truth Social, but will get you laughed out of the room in the world of international relations. Unless you're say a tiny country that has the misfortune of being too weak and dependent on the American market.

But even in this latter case, these countries might amuse Trump in the short-term but they'll undoubtedly put in place long-term strategies to de-hitch themselves from the US crazy train as fast as possible in the medium term.

So all in all, what we're looking at here is not a strategic masterstroke but the desperate flailing of an administration that didn't anticipate how markets and trading partners would respond to economic coercion.

Trump is "teaching the world a lesson" all right: he taught them that America is now the biggest threat they face for their prosperity and the result of this won't be to "work with him", but to hedge themselves as much as they can from the American madness he's unleashed.

History will remember this not as an "extraordinary" moment of American strength, but as the point when the world concluded that diversifying away from the American market was no longer just economically prudent but existentially necessary for their own economic security.

[Rodrigo Zúñiga Mouret @DigoZuniga3]

Not a great start to the “make America healthy again” movement. This kind of thing will continue to happen when you make massive cuts to overhead funding for biomedical research institutions. Patients all over the country are going to feel the ramifications of this.

[The Boston Globe @BostonGlobe]

Mass General Brigham said it will let go of hundreds of employees in the next two months, the largest layoff in the organization’s history, as the health system grapples with financial shortfalls and operational challenges. https://t.co/w4elM60MFG

[F. Perry Wilson, MD MSCE @fperrywilson]

Yes, the US government has been subsidizing science. That is not a weakness of our system. It is one of our greatest strengths. Turning our back on NIH and the institutions who do science for the sake of science, not profit, debases us all.

[Hank Green @hankgreen]

This is probably methylene blue, which was originally ab industrial dye but has show to be biologically active and was used as an effective early malaria treatment. We know that, at the wrong doses, it is neurotoxic, but there are worm and mouse studies that small doses could have small positive effects on memory and longevity.

There have been a couple small human studies that have shown small effects and others that have shown no effect. This is true of many compounds that turn out to have no (or negative) effect on human biology. It has become a meme supplement with lots of exaggerated claims in the pseudo-health space. There is no robust research that it has positive impacts on people, which makes it sound like “well it might!!” And yeah, it might, but, like, anything might. And if we don’t know it works at all, we /definitely/ don’t know the dose that is effective and safe, which does make the eye droppers full of it concerning.

The point is we don’t know and RFK jr. very clearly prefers vibes to the methods of science.

[Rodrigo Zúñiga Mouret @DigoZuniga3]

Now that a republican president won the popular vote, can we all now agree to get rid of the electoral college?

[Rodrigo Zúñiga Mouret @DigoZuniga3]

@soFISHtication @marshalhedin If anything, it’ll come looking for me, the roommate.

[HulloThere @jethroreading32]

He’s shy because his brain is visible

[Rodrigo Zúñiga Mouret @DigoZuniga3]

@soFISHtication @jmhuiee Jonathan breaking up with you is the least of your problems if you think that publicly throwing shade on chicharrón de queso is gonna fly in a Mexican household. Sleep with one eye open, roomie.

[Danny Gold @DGisSERIOUS]

The Iraqi guy i follow on IG who does funny nature videos in broken English just posted a more compassionate and well written statement then like 90% of activists and journalists I’ve seen.

[Rodrigo Zúñiga Mouret @DigoZuniga3]

Sometimes what I think is funny is not as funny as exactly how funny I think what I think is funny is.

[Mae 🫡 @mae_fab_]

they should make a leather life jacket for when cool guys like me fall off the boat

[Rodrigo Zúñiga Mouret @DigoZuniga3]

Just wrote my first science poster abstract since 2019 😎
I’m back, baybee

🌊 🌊 🌊
🐌🌋🦪

[Rodrigo Zúñiga Mouret @DigoZuniga3]

@soFISHtication Too much ranch.

[Rodrigo Zúñiga Mouret @DigoZuniga3]

@sunmuffin42 @JohnAlberse Yes I do have it 😂
I don’t think I’ve used the word in that context since I left Texas for college, so i have no idea how geographically widespread that use is for our generation…

[Rodrigo Zúñiga Mouret @DigoZuniga3]

75% of the skills that I use on the day-to-day in my new fancy marine science job didn’t come from any college class or research experience…

I kid you not, they came from modding Minecraft, setting up Minecraft servers, and torrenting movies/video games in middle/high school

[Kareem Carr, Ph.D. @kareem_carr]

Here are some good questions to ask when interpreting plots on social media:

- What is the causal question?

- Does this data provide an answer?

- Is any relevant data missing?

- What are they implying we could do about it?

- Is that consistent with your moral principles?

[Kareem Carr, Ph.D. @kareem_carr]

This bar chart has attracted the attention of the richest man in the world. Let me walk you through how I would interpret it as a statistician (and a human).

[Rodrigo Zúñiga Mouret @DigoZuniga3]

subtitles don’t use “tsk tsk” they use “[sucks teeth]” and I don’t think that’s beautiful at all