Scala Wag

Interested in looking past the noise and media manipulation to get to the truth. 🧐

[Scala Wag @wag_scala]

@ChristinaPushaw And yet the @MiamiHerald can’t figure out why they’re on the brink of bankruptcy.

[Scala Wag @wag_scala]

It’s hard to know because the Census doesn’t collect legal-status data. My personal guess is around 10% without lawful status, whether from entering illegally or overstaying a visa—but that’s just my estimate. And “benefit of the doubt”? An ICE arrest is not a deportation. There still has to be a legal basis for removal. If someone can establish lawful status and there’s no other ground making them removable, they aren’t simply deported because ICE detained them.

[Scala Wag @wag_scala]

@T_BUFF_JR @WPLGLocal10 “Non-citizen” does not mean “illegal immigrant,” and it certainly doesn’t mean “deportable.” That category includes lawful permanent residents, visa holders and others legally in the country. You can’t take a 38% non-citizen figure and pretend 38% of Doral is about to be removed.

[Scala Wag @wag_scala]

Impressive. In just a few replies, you’ve invented my immigration history, a fake marriage, a crime, and now an argument I never made about “most Venezuelans.” Don’t bother waiting for another reply. Just keep writing both sides of the conversation in your head—you clearly don’t need facts, or me, for any of it.

[Scala Wag @wag_scala]

@cramos1705 @haleyngreen___ @WPLGLocal10 Your debating method is adorable: invent a story, demand I deny it, then treat my refusal to entertain your fantasy as proof. By that logic, I could accuse you of anything and declare your silence a confession. That isn’t reasoning—it’s intellectual bankruptcy with a keyboard.

[Scala Wag @wag_scala]

@cramos1705 @haleyngreen___ @WPLGLocal10 Think about what you’re actually saying: because I’m Venezuelan, you assume I couldn’t possibly have earned legal residency without fraud. That’s not an argument—it’s an insulting stereotype about Venezuelan immigrants.

[Scala Wag @wag_scala]

So now being Venezuelan requires ideological obedience? I’m supposed to support illegal immigration because we share a birthplace? No. I followed the law, became an American, and formed my own opinions. Your invented story about my green card is just what’s left when you have no argument.

[Scala Wag @wag_scala]

Calling me the “worst immigrant” because I respect the law and don’t want the country overrun with people who filed fake asylum cases isn’t an argument. If you’re claiming people with valid legal status are being deported simply for existing legally post the case and the facts. I’m happy to discuss evidence, not slogans.

[Scala Wag @wag_scala]

What you call “cruelty” is largely an interpretation shaped by how enforcement is framed by the media, which openly dislikes the administration. Family detention, raids and rapid removals didn’t begin with Trump; they happened under Obama and before. I had to carry papers in the 90s because of constant INS (what they were called then) raids around Miami.

[Scala Wag @wag_scala]

¿Y por qué te cuesta tanto aceptar que un venezolano que siguió todas las leyes para entrar y quedarse en este país pueda estar en contra de la inmigración ilegal? ¿O es que, por ser venezolano, todas mis opiniones tienen que pasar por el filtro de lo que tú crees que un venezolano debe pensar?

[Scala Wag @wag_scala]

@roncleon @WPLGLocal10 No. I said they cannot legally vote in federal elections. Obviously someone can break that law, just as someone can break any other law. That doesn’t make them an eligible voter—it makes the vote illegal.

[Scala Wag @wag_scala]

@cramos1705 @haleyngreen___ @WPLGLocal10 Being Venezuelan doesn’t obligate me to support illegal immigration or people with fake asylum claims. I’m an American first, and I respect the laws of the country I chose to make my home. If that makes me a “piece of shit” to you, so be it.

[Scala Wag @wag_scala]

Context matters. The last administration faced roughly 8.7M Southwest-border encounters in four years—volumes CBP itself said the system wasn’t resourced to handle. And many more who arrived undetected or overstayed their visas. Really bad criminals and gang members were among those who came in, even if they were a minority. Cleaning up an overwhelmed system can produce harsh-looking enforcement. You can criticize the methods, but declaring “cruelty” the motive is still assigning intent based on the conclusion you already hold. If it seems to you it might be on a “totally different level” it is because the problem is larger than it ever has been.

[Scala Wag @wag_scala]

That standard would implicate Obama too. Children were held behind chain-link fencing in 2014, his administration expanded family detention, detained asylum-seeking mothers and children partly for deterrence, conducted family raids, and carried out hundreds of thousands of removals annually. Critics called those practices cruel too. The existence of a harsh policy doesn’t, by itself, prove cruelty was the policymaker’s motive.

[Scala Wag @wag_scala]

This is the problem with starting from a conclusion and working backward. You already believe Miller’s motive is cruelty, so every enforcement action becomes evidence of cruelty. Information that reinforces that belief gets accepted; anything that complicates it gets dismissed. That’s confirmation bias, not proof of motive.

[Scala Wag @wag_scala]

@HailComrade @wercusm @WPLGLocal10 You just proved my point. You have no documented statement that cruelty was the goal, so you’re inferring motive from policies you already oppose and a person you dislike. You’re entitled to that interpretation, but it’s still an interpretation—not an established fact.

[Scala Wag @wag_scala]

@HailComrade @wercusm @WPLGLocal10 Miller did push a goal of 3,000 ICE arrests a day—not 3,000 deportations. But “cruelty is the point” is your interpretation, not a documented goal. What is documented: smugglers lie to migrants, exploit them for profit and abandon them on deadly routes. That’s real cruelty.

[Scala Wag @wag_scala]

One exceptional case proves that an erroneous deportation can happen—not that I “would have been deported.” In fact, your own article says a judge ruled this deportation violated a specific settlement and ordered it corrected. You’ve gone from “you WOULD have been deported” to “here’s one case where someone was wrongly deported.” Those are very different claims.

[Scala Wag @wag_scala]

@Amboidtest @haleyngreen___ @WPLGLocal10 A fake asylum claim is one built on knowingly fabricated facts—sometimes prepared by unscrupulous attorneys or consultants who know the applicant doesn’t legitimately qualify but file it anyway to collect a substantial fee.

[Scala Wag @wag_scala]

@HailComrade @wercusm @WPLGLocal10 Exactly. You don’t know. Yet you were the one repeatedly stating as fact that I “would have been deported.” Thanks for finally acknowledging it was speculation.