Immigration has become one of the central issues of the 2024 race, with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump vowing to expand the draconian policies of his first term and deport 10 million immigrants from the country amid what he calls an “invasion.”

Democrats, meanwhile, are touting their own border crackdown at the Democratic National Convention this week in Chicago. President Joe Biden celebrated his executive action to block many asylum seekers at the southern U.S. border, and Vice President Kamala Harris promises to hire thousands more border agents if she is elected.

We host a roundtable discussion in Chicago with Oscar Chacón, executive director of Alianza Americas, an immigrant rights group; Maria Hinojosa, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, founder of Futuro Media and host of the Latino USA podcast; and Marisa Franco, director and co-founder of Mijente, a national digital organizing hub for Latinx and Chicanx communities.

  • SeaJ
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    3622 days ago

    Better idea: fix the fucking immigration process. You would be surprised how many “closed border” Republicans, when pressed, will ask for a system that is more progressive than our current one. You would be surprised how closely those votes align with “open border” Democrats. Politicians have made a wedge issue out of something that has no wedge in the public.

    • @gAlienLifeform
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      22 days ago

      So, you’re demanding a positive change instead of the border crackdowns that Harris and Trump have vowed to carry out?

      • @NOT_RICK
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        222 days ago

        First past the post sure is fun.

    • BlackbeardM
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      22 days ago

      Isn’t that what the bipartisan bill that Trump killed was intended to do?

      From what I know it included more money for detention beds, immigration judges+staff, asylum officers, lawyers for unaccompanied minors, and border cities, plus expedited work permits for folks already in the system, allowance for asylum officers to close out a claim rather than going through immigration courts, 250,000 new work visas, work authorization to the children and spouses of people who have H-1B visas, and also work eligibility for immigrants awaiting visas if they have a U.S. citizen spouse or fiancé or if their parent is the spouse or fiancé of a U.S. citizen, as well as workers who have claimed asylum but who have not yet had a hearing.

  • @[email protected]
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    422 days ago

    I’m all for cracking down on illegal immigration but at the same time we need to speed up legal immigration.

    • BlackbeardM
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      722 days ago

      That’s what the bipartisan border bill tried to do. Trump killed it.

    • @shalafi
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      522 days ago

      Agreed. I see what my wife’s going through with INS and it’s a damned nightmare of red tape. Slow red tape.

  • bluGill
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    -1822 days ago

    One more reason I’ll be voting for a third party. I hope enough people join me that it sends a message. Ideally enough that a “safe” state turns out a loss for who it is safe for - thus forcing those who are listening to loud voices hear the quiet ones.

    • @KeeponstalinOP
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      822 days ago

      I support the Uncommitted Movement in Michigan and the other anti-genocide movements in other critical swing states. I think pressuring Biden & Harris to pivot on their military support for the genocide and make Israel a partisan issue is the best shot we have ending US support for this genocide. I’m not convinced voting 3rd party will help imo

      • bluGill
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        -222 days ago

        Unfortunately your only option is supporting Genocide. Hamas has made it clear that their goal is genocide of Israel. Israel pretends to not support genocide anyway. There are people who don’t support genocide in the area, but they are not the ones who have power.

        • @KeeponstalinOP
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          -222 days ago

          Look for yourself, that’s not the case.

          Hamas 1988 Charter and Revised 2017 Charter

          The 1988 Charter, which is unreasonable for wanting Sharia Law and belief in the antisemitic conspiracy theory of the Elder Protocols of Zion, does not call for the extermination of all Jewish People. Hamas wants an end to Israel as an Apartheid State, not an extermination of all Israelis. Under Ahmed Yassin in the 1990’s, truces were offered in exchange for Israeli to withdrawal from Gaza and the West Bank to the 1967 borders. The 2017 Revised charter explicitly accepts a Two-State Solution of the 1967 Borders. Check Article 7 and 13 of the 1988 Charter to see yourself, compare it to Article 20 and 24-26 in the revised charter.

          There will be no end to the conflict until the end of the Occupation and Apartheid. Israel has repeatedly refused any permanent ceasefire. Instead they executed the principal negotiator on foreign soil. While they have perpetually delayed any genuine ceasefire, they have ruthlessly killed tens of thousands of children, hundreds of journalists, and even their own hostages. They have repeatedly displayed Palestinians in Gaza, bombed schools, Refugee camps, places of worship, historical sites. They have starved the entirely of Gaza more than even before Oct 7th, in which the majority of Gazans were food insecure due to the blockade.

          This has been nearly an entire year of genocide. Make no mistake. Israel is the obstacle to a ceasefire, not Hamas.

          History of peace process - The Intercept

          “A Textbook Case of Genocide”: Israeli Holocaust Scholar Raz Segal Decries Israel’s Assault on Gaza

          Law for Palestine Releases Database with 500+ Instances of Israeli Incitement to Genocide – Continuously Updated

    • @Hexbatch
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      822 days ago

      Third parties who are not a pity vote, in the USA , can only arise from the school boards and city halls.

      It cannot not be some national or state org who runs candidates for top offices only, asking for funds, and get a few votes

      I think that local process to build options is broke right now, because grassroots are stalled at the neighborhoods, except for a few places in big cities.

      It’s broke but it’s not dead

      If you want third party, then run or support school board candidates, dog catchers, sheriffs; and then look to the next county for like minded folks. Someday it could be a coalition to change state politics

      • bluGill
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        022 days ago

        Successful third parties run national candidates because it gets attention for their local candidates who do win elections.

        • @Hexbatch
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          122 days ago

          Which 3rd parties run for county offices? I’m out of the loop

          • bluGill
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            122 days ago

            None get all counties but the libertarians have a good number