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Post by oldarmybear on Jun 5, 2019 18:41:42 GMT -5
WaPo: Immigrants Stealing Succulents from State Parks, Harming Ecosystem
Foreign nationals, primarily from Asia, are reportedly disrupting West Coast ecosystems by arriving in the United States and stealing succulent plants from U.S. state parks.
A detailed report by the Washington Post reveals how foreign nationals from Asia are increasingly coming to the U.S. to rip succulent plants out of the ground at state parks to sell them in their home countries of South Korea, China, and Japan.
The Post noted the most recent case in which wildlife detectives caught three South Korean nationals stealing succulents after arriving in the U.S.: But wildlife detectives who had been tracking the three South Korean nationals since they arrived at Los Angeles International Airport in October 2018 noticed that their rented minivan was full of boxes and rubber totes — not the typical gear for a week-long vacation. The men chatted on handheld radios as they explored the parks and always seemed to wear bulky backpacks. Watching from a distance, wardens saw what they were stuffing inside: Dudleya succulents, which have spiky blue-green leaves immediately recognizable to anyone on Pinterest and Instagram. [Emphasis added]
On Friday, the three men were charged with stealing more than $600,000 worth of wild succulents from public lands and attempting to smuggle them into Asia, where a lucrative black market for the trendy houseplants is flourishing. The bust, which led to the seizure of more than 3,700 plants, was part of a larger crackdown on succulent poachers who are believed to be part of international smuggling rings. Overseas, the plants retail for as much as $50 each, according to wildlife officials, and are a highly prized consumer good among the growing middle class. [Emphasis added]
The trio allegedly made repeated trips to three state parks in Northern California, filling up their two rental cars with Dudleya plants before returning to the nursery to unload their harvest. They had just dropped off approximately 3,715 succulents at a commercial exporter’s warehouse when the wardens pulled them over. [Emphasis added]
Now, environmental and wildlife experts are worried the stealing of thousands of succulents on the West Coast by foreign nationals, who sell the plants back in their native countries, will disrupt ecosystems and potentially lead to the extinction of particular plants like the Dudleya, which helps fight erosion in California. Law enforcement officials only became aware of the issue in 2017 when they noticed that thousands of succulents were being ripped up by foreign nationals living in the U.S. In the most recent case of the three South Korean nationals stealing succulents from state parks, one of the men actually operated a nursery in San Diego County where he allegedly would package and ship the succulents to Korea.
Every year, millions of legal immigrants, nonimmigrants, and tourists from around the world are admitted to the U.S. Specifically, the U.S. brings more than 1.2 million legal immigrants to the country annually. The vast majority are low-skilled nationals who arrive from Central and Latin America, China, and India.
www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/06/04/wapo-immigrants-stealing-succulents-state-parks-harming-ecosystem/
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Post by katie5445 on Jun 14, 2019 0:47:39 GMT -5
You are making the assumption that it isn't hard work that takes getting here, which is an excuse.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2019 0:57:11 GMT -5
AnGood Grief...No I am not making that assumption and NO WHERE did I imply such a thing.
I said, "You either want it bad enough to go thru the process, or you don't. If your husband did it, so can anyone else that wants to come to America."
Does that sound like I don't know it is not an easy task? No one has even hinted at it being a difficult process, but if you want it bad enough, you go thru the steps and become a citizen. So, don't you even try to go there...
An excuse for what, pray tell??? You mean like the excuse you use for not becoming a citizen...hard long process, money, time??? Those excuses???
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Post by katie5445 on Jun 14, 2019 1:17:33 GMT -5
My husband had far more on his side than many immigrants and it still wasn't easy or close to cheap, thousands actually, that was my point. He was white, English, Christian and had some $$ and still needed a sponsor. "Don't even try to go there," yeah right what are you going to do with another useless threat and try and keep some control, if possible, it's only a wee meaningless board, we are not making policy. Considering you have not had the experience and I have, I will go there and you got nothing.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2019 1:23:34 GMT -5
So that is how you deal with being wrong...you turn it around and assume this or that, to try to ignore that you don't have a point worth delivering. Twisting and turning still doesn't change facts and no one but you actually falls for it...so continue on...LOL!! BTW...that wasn't a threat, I don't make threats..I make promises, but I don't waste my time on people that have to deflect from the point to sound like they have one.
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Post by katie5445 on Jun 15, 2019 22:53:01 GMT -5
My comment was based on I have been there, yours is based on telling me, "don't ever go there," and I am wrong. You either have been through something or you have not. Simple, or it should be.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2019 18:24:28 GMT -5
With all your hoopla and blah blah blah...it still comes down to the fact that if a person wants to become a citizen of this country they can...thus making them a legal immigrant and thousands upon thousands of people have done it. It also goes right back to my comment that illegals have no rights here and they should be prosecuted for breaking the law. I just find that the topic at hand is not quite as high on the priority list as smugglers that traffic in drugs, kids, people instead of plants. Now feel free to carry on with the blah blah blah... I have made my point and all this back and forth is only deflecting from the thread topic.
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Post by katie5445 on Jun 17, 2019 22:47:21 GMT -5
No a person cannot become a citizen of this country "if they want to" that is absurd and my point. When you tell a 30 year old that has been here since 6 months old or a 60 y.o. here for 40 yrs. to go back to their birth country, unless they have $$$$ they won't be coming back. And how do you send a 30 back to a country that is as foreign to them as it would be to you and me? What kind of "point" is that? That you think I and other dems have no problem whatsoever with illegal immigration is something the right wing keeps trying to promote. The vast majority outside of some weirdos do not promote open borders and kumabya.
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Post by oldarmybear on Jun 17, 2019 22:54:03 GMT -5
Do you support amnesty for illegals and do you support open borders? Do you, Katie?
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Post by katie5445 on Jun 17, 2019 23:15:08 GMT -5
Of course I don't support open borders as do few democrats but it doesn't seem to matter that some weirdo will say otherwise and the right jumps on it. Amnesty for illegals, I made myself very clear on who should get amnesty.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 19, 2019 15:52:06 GMT -5
Personally, I don't care what they go back to...they are here illegally, period. I didn't bring them here, I didn't ask them here, and I didn't ask them to stay. They are here only because they are taking the bennies away from REAL Americans that have earned the right to those bennies like veterans and the elderly, disabled, and helpless children. That money does not belong to them, it belongs to Americans. Our tax dollars were paid in to help America and Americans. NOTHING or NO ONE ELSE! And, YES...if someone really wants to become a citizen, they will and they can. Making excuses for them is not helping them. Excuses never help anyone. Too many people have come up with the money and the time to take that test, for it to be an impossibility as you imply. It is all a matter of WANTING IT BAD ENOUGH...just as I have said...IF they don't want it bad enough, then they need to go home...we owe them nothing!!!
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Post by katie5445 on Jun 19, 2019 22:26:20 GMT -5
They don't get benefits and many pay taxes without ever getting the availbility of SS or medical care/cash or food stamps,when will conservatives acknowledge that fact?
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Post by katie5445 on Jun 19, 2019 22:28:58 GMT -5
And it goes unnoticed, I do not support illegal immigration or open borders, doesn't seem to matter to the right WTF I or the vast majority of dems believe, not one damn iota, you will make it up as you go anyway, what else is new............
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Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2019 15:15:58 GMT -5
You can not speak for the vast majority of dems...you are one person with your own perspective of what liberal policy really is. I know you say you don't support open borders or illegal immigration, but the excuses you make for them and those that support it makes it hard to actually pinpoint your real beliefs. Tell me Katie, what have I made up...you want to sling your insults and insinuations around, but you never say what I did or said to make you imply those things..So fess up...what have I made up?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2019 17:10:28 GMT -5
No a person cannot become a citizen of this country "if they want to" that is absurd and my point. When you tell a 30 year old that has been here since 6 months old or a 60 y.o. here for 40 yrs. to go back to their birth country, unless they have $$$$ they won't be coming back. And how do you send a 30 back to a country that is as foreign to them as it would be to you and me? What kind of "point" is that? That you think I and other dems have no problem whatsoever with illegal immigration is something the right wing keeps trying to promote. The vast majority outside of some weirdos do not promote open borders and kumabya. How do you send a 30-year-old that been here since he was six months? I tell you, by enforcing the laws before child becomes 30 and our politicians of either persuasion have not been doing that for decades. They should be shamed. DACA is NOT a solution either and the politicians don't mean it to be. First, we need update our border laws and enforce them before we "DACA" anyone. Its like a home that suffered roof damage. First, you fix the roof, then you fix the inside. You keep trying to fix the floor before the roof--nothing really gets fixed.
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Post by skrumpie on Jun 20, 2019 17:37:46 GMT -5
A little off topic, but I love how the left argues for children of illegals, telling us we're going to send them back to a country they know nothing about, yada, yada.
This is with internet access. Anyone can know about other countries simply by reading about them, looking at photos and video, etc. Does it substitute for living there? Of course not, but it is an education nonetheless.
But what I really love is when someone on the left---and I don't know that this has happened here---whines that these kids who were brought here, for the purposes of this conversation, from anywhere in South America, will be sent back to an unfamiliar country whose language they probably don't know.
Now mind, whoever brought them here, whomever they lived with once they got here, likely speaks Spanish in the home. So to believe that these kids don't speak Spanish is just stupid.
The same left who will argue that these kids may not, or probably don't, or absolutely don't speak Spanish will tell us in the next breath, in a debate about (lack of) assimilation, that the first generation of children born of illegals will be bi-lingual, and that by the third generation they'll be completely assimilated and will speak only English.
So they will argue both sides with a straight face, and they will do it over and over again.
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