The politics of immigration reform

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ political stunt of flying 48 Venezuelan migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, a Democratic stronghold and wealthy vacation community, may have won applause from Republican supporters but it also appalled many who saw vulnerable people being used as political pawns. The scheme may trigger a criminal investigation and has brought the question of immigration reform to the forefront at a time when the U.S. is seeing a record number of migrant arrivals.

For decades, politicians and policy experts have talked about the need to fix our broken immigration system—from securing the border to paving a path to citizenship – so why has reform remained so elusive? We’ll talk about our immigration policies, why historic numbers of people are coming to the U.S. and why the issues has become so politicized.

Guests

Theresa Cardinal Brown, Bipartisan Policy Center’s managing director of immigration and cross-border policy who served in both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. @bpc_tbrown

Hamed Aleaziz, immigration policy reporter for the Los Angeles Times. @haleaziz

We recommend

Los Angeles Times, The Biden administration remade ICE after Trump: But will it last? – “True to Trump’s harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric, ICE officers in his administration were directed to make nearly every immigrant without legal status a priority for arrest — even if the person had deep roots in the U.S. and no criminal record.”

New York Times, ‘I Ended Up on This Little Island’: Migrants Land in Political Drama – “After long, perilous journeys, Venezuelans unexpectedly found themselves on Martha’s Vineyard, wondering what comes next.”

Texas Tribune, Arrests along U.S.-Mexico border top 2 million a year for the first time – “Federal authorities are on pace to make more than 2.3 million arrests during the 2022 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. That will far exceed last year’s record of more than 1.7 million arrests.”