things that matter

No, Starbucks Is Not Doing A “Dreamers Day” Promotion In Stores, It’s A Fake Ad Targeting Undocumented Immigrants

@ShortTermEnthus / Twitter / Marco Paköeningrat / Flickr
By August 7, 2017 at 4:03 pm

You may have seen flyers promoting “Starbucks Dreamer Day” filling your social media feeds. According to the flyers circulating online, Starbucks is offering a 40 percent discount on purchases from the coffee company for undocumented immigrants. Let’s be clear. They are false and, according to Salon, were created by right-wing trolls.

A fake Starbucks advertisement targeting undocumented immigrants is spreading around social media.

The offer first started to show up on August 2, promising “undocumented Americans” a discount when they used the promo code “UNAFRAID.”

The false ads, using the hashtag #BorderFreeCoffee, appear to have originated from a 4Chan thread titled “Politically Incorrect.”

The posters, created in both English and Spanish, appear to have been created by people hoping to get undocumented individuals into Starbucks stores and have them detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). One user expressly suggested that people spread the posters widely to lure in large numbers of undocumented individuals so ICE could detain as many as possible in a series of raids. The thread is filled with derogatory terms for Jews, Latinos, African-Americans and the LGBTQ community.

Based on the thread, the poster went through several revisions before landing on one they thought would fool the public.

CREDIT: 4Chan

“How about we meme ‘Undocumented Immigrant Day’ at Starbucks into existence? Announce free coffee for all illegals on a certain date,” one user wrote. “August 11? 11 looks like II (for Illegal Immigrant). I’m open to suggestions there. Name a liberal place for all illegals to go at once and demand free stuff. Thoughts?”

John Kelly, Starbucks senior vice president of global communications, told The Associated Press the promotion is “One hundred percent fake.”

CREDIT: Credit: starbucks.com

Starbucks has also taken to social media to decry the fake promotion. They are replying to individual users to let them know the campaign is not real.

CREDIT: @Starbucks / Twitter

That’s just seven of the responses Starbucks has put out to people about the advertisement.

And other people are helping Starbucks spread the word about this fake ad.

(H/T: The Washington Post)


READ: Internet Trolls Started Promoting Violence Against Women After This Woman Was Violently Attacked By Men

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John Oliver Gave The Best Argument Against Trump's Proposed Surge Border Patrol Hiring

things that matter

John Oliver Gave The Best Argument Against Trump’s Proposed Surge Border Patrol Hiring

LastWeekTonight / YouTube
By Jorge Rodriguez-Jimenez August 8, 2017 at 11:53 am

“We have been down this road before.”

During President George W. Bush’s time in office, the United States experienced a doubling of Border Patrol agents — from 10,000 to 20,000 — in response to the 9/11 attacks. Now, President Trump wants to do something similar by trying to rush the hiring of 5,000 new Border Patrol agents. But John Oliver points out that the rush to hire agents in the past had some negative outcomes. According to The Hill, the Department of Homeland Security wants to drop the required polygraph tests for new hires to speed up the process. The thing is, the polygraph tests were implemented for Border Patrol after Bush’s rushed hiring of Border Patrol agents, which ended up disqualifying many of the hires, even though they had passed background checks. Even Border Patrol Chief Ronald Vitiello told The Hill that 60 percent of applicants can’t pass the polygraph test. As Oliver points out, when the polygraph tests were first implemented for Border Patrol hires, there were some astonishing revelations that disqualified people from serving, like a man who admitted to smoking marijuana 20,000 times during a 10-year period.

Oliver also explains that the job of Border Patrol agents is not all action, pulse pounding arrests, and round ups. In fact, most of the job just requires you to be alone in the middle of the desert for hours on end without seeing another person. There is also the responsibility of humanely encountering and assisting people who have crossed the border that doesn’t include guns, handcuffs, and shouting threats.

The rush to hire as many agents as possible also led to increased corruption within Border Patrol since people weren’t properly vetted or trained.

CREDIT: LastWeekTonight / YouTube

“Consequently, as the ranks grew, corruption and excessive force skyrocketed,” Oliver said. “Misconduct became such a problem that, at one point, the Border Patrol felt it needed to issue a memo about the fact that agents were averaging two alcohol-related arrests a week.”

Oliver ended his segment, with the help of Will Arnett, to create a realistic Border Patrol hiring ad showcasing what the job is really like: full of boredom.

CREDIT: LastWeekTonight / YouTube

“The point is: if you’re kind, physically fit, impervious to bribery and boredom, and you want to serve your country by enforcing a controversial and ever-changing set of policies in the most humane way possible, then give us a call,” Arnett says int he ad.


READ: John Oliver Called Out Herbalife For Targeting Latinos

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John Oliver, Border Patrol, immigration