June 24, 2025 • 35 mins
Why does immigration reform keep failing in America, even as the crisis at the border grows worse? Join me in the 3rd episode of my immigration series, as I unpack the political drama and real-world consequences of decades of broken promises and missed opportunities. From the Clinton era to today, I’ll trace how border policies have evolved, why bipartisan deals keep collapsing, and what’s driving the surge of families and children arriving at our borders. Join me as I take an in-depth look at the human cost of Washington’s gridlock and what it means for the future of the country. Don’t miss this revealing look at the forces shaping one of America’s most urgent—and unresolved—challenges.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Raheel Khan (00:25):
February 7th, 2024, the US Senate after months of
intense negotiations finally hasa bipartisan immigration deal on
the table.
Republicans had pushed hard fortough border security measures,
and Democrats, believe it ornot, agreed to what was arguably
the toughest border bill indecades.
(00:46):
It literally had everythingRepublicans claimed they wanted.
So what happened?
49 Republicans voted against it,only four voted for it.
Even Mitch McConnell who hadactually pushed for these
negotiations in the first placevoted no.
How come?
(01:07):
Well, you heard it in the clipabove.
Donald Trump told Republicans tokill the bill so he could run on
immigration in 2024.
They did exactly what he asked.
Welcome back to Khannecting theDots.
This is episode three of myimmigration series, and today
(01:27):
we're looking at how close we'vecome to fixing immigration and
why time and time again we keepfailing because here's the dirty
secret about immigration inAmerica.
We know how to fix it.
We've known for decades.
Other countries have functioningimmigration systems and we've
(01:47):
had bipartisan agreements on thetable multiple times, agreements
that could have made a realdifference.
So why don't we fix it?
The answer shockingly, isn'tabout policy disagreement.
It's pure, unadulteratedpolitics.
It's true that immigration is ahot button campaign issue for
(02:09):
both parties, but when it comesto actually passing
comprehensive reform,Republicans have generally been
the ones to stand in the way.
But before we delve into thispolitical soap opera, I wanna
explain something that rarelygets covered clearly, and I
think it's crucial tounderstanding why our whole
system is so broken.
(02:31):
How does someone actually becomea US citizen.
Given the complexity of ourimmigration system?
If you're anything like me,you've had a vague idea at best,
but never knew the full answer.
This confusion isn't accidental.
Politicians have kept theprocess opaque for years.
Let's start with the basics,which often get jumbled
(02:54):
together.
What's the difference between avisa and a green card?
Think of visas like temporarypermission slips.
They're like hotel reservationsfor the US that lets you enter
for tourism work or study, butthey always come with an
expiration date.
Green cards, on the other hand,are more like buying a home.
(03:16):
They grant you permanentresidence, allowing you to live
and work indefinitely in theU.S..
Here's the crucial part.
Green cards are the essentialfirst step towards citizenship.
Unless you're born in the UnitedStates, you simply can't become
a citizen without one.
Now, you don't necessarily needa temporary visa first to get a
(03:38):
green card.
It just really depends on yoursituation.
Take for example, if you'realready here legally, such as a
student, worker, or tourist.
You can sometimes apply tochange your status.
If you're outside the US, you'llapply for something called an
immigrant visa, which isdifferent from those temporary
visas and will allow you toenter the country as a permanent
(04:01):
resident.
There are multiple paths to geta green card.
Let's look at a few of themhere.
Family reunification.
This is the largest route byfar.
About 65% of all legalimmigrants come through family
sponsorship.
US citizens can sponsor closerelatives like spouses,
(04:22):
unmarried children, parents andsiblings.
Green card holders can sponsorspouses and unmarried children.
The huge catch here.
Strict per country caps, only 7%of green cards can go to any
single country each year.
Regardless of how many peoplefrom that country are eligible
(04:43):
and waiting.
The result?
Waits can be shockingly long, upto 20 years for siblings from
Mexico, or even 24 years fromthe Philippines.
Employment based immigration.
This covers skilled workers.
People with advanced degrees andinvestors, but there are only
(05:04):
140,000 employment based greencards available globally each
year.
And guess what?
The same 7% cap applies heretoo.
So countries like India, facewait times that can spend
decades effectively puttingentire careers on hold.
Diversity visa lottery.
(05:24):
Each year, 55,000 green cardsare awarded by random lottery,
but you must be from a countrywith low recent immigration.
So major countries like India,Pakistan, China, Mexico, Brazil,
Nigeria are excluded.
There are also minimum educationor work requirements.
(05:45):
Millions of people apply, andeven if you win the lottery, you
still have to go through thefull immigration process.
Refugees and asylum.
Refugees apply from outside theUS while asylum seekers apply
from within.
Annual admissions typicallyrange from 50,000 to 125,000,
(06:06):
though this number can fluctuatepretty dramatically depending on
who's in the White House.
Temporary Visas.
Student, tourists, and temporaryworkers don't automatically get
permanent status.
Some people do manage totransition.
Maybe a student gets a workvisa, then finds an employer to
sponsor them for a green card.
But this process is long,incredibly uncertain and offers
(06:30):
absolutely no guarantees.
Even after getting a green card.
Citizenship isn't immediate.
You must wait three to fiveyears before you can apply.
During that time, you mustmaintain a clean record.
Learn English, and study civics.
In the best case scenario,marrying a US citizen.
(06:52):
Tomorrow you're looking at atleast three to five years from
start to citizenship.
For most, it takes much longer.
For millions more, there simplyis no legal path available.
This is why there are over 12million undocumented immigrants
in the United States for most.
It's not a matter of choice.
(07:13):
The math just doesn't add up.
The legal routes are so limitedand backlogged that there is no
realistic way to come herelegally.
I know that's a lot of policydetail, but understanding these
mechanics is crucial tounderstanding our system and the
problems in it.
Politicians and pundits love totalk about getting in line, but
(07:37):
for most people, that line is soimpossibly long that actually
waiting for results can take alifetime.
Or there's just no line at all.
So how did we get here?
Let's dive into 30 years ofpolitical failures.
Let's go back to Bill Clinton inthe 1990s, because this is
(07:57):
really where everything startedto go wrong.
I talked about some of hispolicies in my last podcast, but
let's take a refresher.
Even though Clinton inherited arecession.
He managed to turn the economyaround, which gave him a lot of
goodwill and a real window forcomprehensive immigration
reform.
(08:17):
But instead of using thateconomic strength to push for
real change, Clinton made achoice that still haunts us
today.
Rather than fixing the system,he decided to split the
difference.
Give Republicans more borderenforcement and give Democrats,
well, really not much ofanything.
Operation Gatekeeper in 1994 wassupposed to deter immigration by
(08:40):
making border crossings moredangerous.
And it worked sort of, it didmake crossing more dangerous.
It shifted crossings from SanDiego to places like Tucson,
Arizona and El Paso, Texas.
People started dying in thedesert in record numbers.
But here's what it didn't do.
It did not reduce immigration.
(09:01):
By pushing crossings into moreremote deadly areas, it
completely ended the circularmigration pattern that had
worked for decades.
Suddenly crossing back and forthbecame way too dangerous, so
people who came simply stayedpermanently.
The border militarization afterOperation Gatekeeper was
(09:22):
staggering.
In 1993, border enforcement costabout a billion dollars per
year.
In 2024, over$18 billion, andfrankly, with diminishing
returns.
But Clinton's biggest disasterwas arguably NAFTA.
The theory was simple.
Create jobs in Mexico andMexicans won't need to come to
(09:45):
the U.S..
Unfortunately, it had the exactopposite effect.
NAFTA destroyed small scaleagriculture in Mexico by
flooding the market withsubsidized American corn and
wheat.
Millions of Mexican farmers losttheir livelihoods, and so what
did they do?
They headed north.
So we integrated our economieswithout integrating our labor
(10:06):
markets.
That, my friends, createdexactly the pressure cooker of
illegal immigration we're stilldealing with today.
Now, fast forward to George W.
Bush.
He actually understoodimmigration better than most
politicians.
As governor of Texas.
He'd seen firsthand the benefitsand negatives of immigration and
(10:29):
its real impact on the economy.
As a result, he made immigrationa top priority from day one,
from the very start.
Bush began working closely withMexico's then President Vicente
Fox.
Together, they kicked offserious talks about
transformative changes, findinga way for millions of
(10:49):
undocumented immigrants to getlegal status and setting up a
robust guest worker program.
While they didn't nail downevery detail before everything
changed, this was shaping up tobe the kind of major immigration
reform we hadn't seen indecades.
Then 9/11 happened suddenly.
(11:10):
Immigration wasn't abouteconomics anymore, it was about
security.
The Department of HomelandSecurity was created and
immigration enforcement wasmoved to an agency focused on
terrorism and threats.
This was a profound shift thatwe're still stuck in today.
For the first time in Americanhistory, immigration was
(11:30):
primarily viewed through asecurity lens rather than an
economic one.
But Bush didn't give up.
In 2005, senators John McCainand Ted Kennedy drafted
comprehensive reform thatunfortunately went nowhere.
In 2007, Bush tried again with acompromise that actually had
(11:50):
bipartisan support built off theframework of that 2005 reform.
So what killed it?
Three forces (11:57):
fierce Republican base opposition.
Democratic Union opposition, andsomething that's rarely
discussed, massive protests thatcompletely backfired.
In 2006, pro immigration groupsorganized huge marches across
the country.
They thought they were helping,they weren't.
(12:18):
While many waved American flags.
Others waved Mexican flags andcarried signs in Spanish.
This unfortunately solidifiedconservative sentiment against
them, and the bill RepublicanSenator Trent Lot actually said
They lost me when I saw so manyMexican flags.
At the same time,anti-immigration groups saw
(12:40):
their membership surge.
Republican offices were floodedwith angry calls.
Conservative commentators likeRush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity
then turned the word amnestyinto a political death sentence.
Any path to citizenship, nomatter how long or difficult
became rewarding Lawbreakers.
(13:01):
The word amnesty itself becameso toxic that Republican
politicians still can't saypathway to citizenship without
facing primary challenges today.
Well meaning advocacy tragicallylikely hurt the cause, a pattern
that is unfortunately repeateditself many times.
(13:21):
After eight years of Bush,Barack Obama was elected on the
promise of hope and change.
When running for president, hepromised to deliver
comprehensive immigrationreform.
A big hope for advocates whothought their moment had finely
come.
And yes, Democrats controlledCongress, but the reality was
(13:43):
more complicated.
As soon as Obama took office,the country was facing the worst
economic crisis since the GreatDepression.
His first job was to stabilizethe economy and prevent a total
collapse.
Once that immediate crisis wasaddressed, he and Congress
turned to another huge priority.
(14:03):
Healthcare reform.
Passing the Affordable Care Acttook up almost all the political
oxygen in Washington.
Meanwhile.
Immigration reform required 60votes in the Senate to overcome
a filibuster.
Even with democratic majorities,that was a tall order.
Republican leaders, especiallyMitch McConnell, made it clear
(14:24):
early on that their main goalwas to block Obama's agenda at
every turn.
In fact, McConnell famously saidhis top priority was to make
Obama a one term president.
So, while healthcare reform wasabsolutely critical, it came at
a political cost.
By the time the A CA passedDemocrats had lost momentum, the
(14:48):
Tea Party was on the rise, andthe window for sweeping
immigration reform had slammedshut.
With immigration reform stalledin Congress.
Obama took a different approach,one that would earn him a
controversial nickname.
He became what many called thedeporter in chief.
Why?
Because he believed that byramping up enforcement and
(15:09):
showing Republicans, he wasserious about border security,
he could build the politicalcredibility needed to finally
get comprehensive reform passed.
Here's a surprising number.
Obama deported more people thanany president in American
history, over 3 million duringhis eight years.
Despite that massive number, andto no one's surprise,
(15:33):
Republicans didn't give him anycredit.
Instead, they used hisdeportation numbers to argue he
was weak.
Because there were stillundocumented immigrants in the
country.
The bitter irony.
Obama actually proved thatenforcement only approaches
simply don't work.
Despite record deportations,people kept coming.
(15:56):
In fact, the 2008 recession didmore to reduce immigration than
all his enforcement measurescombined.
Obama's one moment of real hope,came in 2013 with the"Gang of
Eight".
Four Republican and fourDemocratic senators who spent
months negotiating comprehensivereform.
(16:16):
This bill wasn't justcomprehensive.
It would have fundamentallytransformed America's
immigration system for thebetter.
Let me break down what wasactually in it, because it's
stunning how close we came tosolving this.
For the 11 million undocumentedimmigrants at that time, it
created something calledregistered provisional immigrant
(16:38):
status.
Basically a 13 year pathway tocitizenship.
But here's the catch.
They'd have to pay fines, backtaxes, learn English, pass
background checks, and meetemployment requirements.
This was absolutely not amnesty.
It was earned legalization withreal consequences and
(17:00):
requirements, but the bill wentway beyond just dealing with
undocumented immigrants.
It would've eliminated thefamily visa categories for
siblings and adult marriedchildren of US citizens.
You know that chain migrationthat Trump always complained
about in his first term.
Instead, it created a new meritbased point system.
(17:22):
Giving permanent residency basedon education, skills, and
English proficiency.
And here's something thatwould've been truly
revolutionary, A new W Visaprogram for lower skilled
workers that for the first timeever would've allowed them to
eventually apply for permanentresidency without needing
(17:43):
employer sponsorship.
Think about that, a legalpathway for the very people who
had been crossing the borderillegally for decades.
The border security measureswere also massive.
They proposed doubling theexisting border patrol force,
creating 700 miles of fencingand allocating$46 billion in
(18:05):
border security funding.
And here's the kicker.
None of the undocumentedimmigrants could even get green
cards until all theseenforcement measures were
operational first.
The Congressional budget officeran the numbers and found this
bill would reduce the federaldeficit by nearly$1 trillion
(18:25):
over 20 years while boosting GDPby 1.4 trillion.
The bill would've paid foritself and then some.
The bill passed the Senate witha huge 68 to 32 vote with 14
Republicans voting for it,including big names like John
McCain, Lindsey Graham, SusanCollins, Lisa Murkowski, and
(18:50):
Marco Rubio.
Those names probably soundfamiliar.
Three of the last four are stillin the Senate today, while Marco
Rubio has one of the mostimportant positions in today's
government as Secretary ofState.
Sadly, when the bill went to thehouse, it died.
Why?
House Speaker John Boehnerrefused to even bring it up for
(19:12):
a vote, using the excuse that itwouldn't pass with the majority
Republican support.
But the real reason was he wasfacing the surging tea party
movement, who were adamantlyopposed any immigration bill
that didn't focus solely onenforcement.
The final nail came whenmajority leader, Eric Cantor,
widely expected to be the nextspeaker, lost his primary
(19:35):
election to a tea partychallenger who campaigned
specifically against immigrationreform.
If a member of leadership couldlose over this issue, any
Republican could.
But despite all that, mostexperts actually believe that if
Boehner had brought the bill upfor a vote, it would've passed
with enough support fromDemocrats and moderate
(19:57):
Republicans.
So comprehensive reform diedagain, killed by politicians too
afraid to lose power andinfluenced by toxic messaging.
Now let's step back and examinewhat was happening at the border
during those Obama years.
Because the roots of this crisisdidn't sprout overnight, but a
(20:17):
lot of those changes came to ahead during Obama's terms.
As I mentioned earlier,Clinton's border militarization
effectively ended circularmigration while the 2008
recession delivered a fataldeath blow to economic
migration.
Construction, and other heavyimmigrant sector jobs vanished
overnight.
Net undocumented immigrationactually hit zero with the
(20:42):
population stabilizing around 11million.
But by 2011, something entirelynew was happening.
Families and unaccompaniedchildren from Central America
started arriving, and theyweren't just seeking work, they
were literally running for theirlives.
Let me give you the numbers thattell the story.
(21:02):
Unaccompanied minors surged fromabout 16,000 in 2011 to almost
39,000 in 2013.
By the summer of 2014, borderpatrol was picking up over 1000
kids every single week.
Families from the NorthernTriangle, that's El Salvador,
Honduras, and Guatemala becamethe fastest growing group at the
(21:24):
border.
So why the sudden shift?
Because the Northern Trianglehad become one of the most
dangerous places on Earth.
In El Salvador, the homiciderate was more than 25 times
higher than in the U.S..
Gangs like MS 13 and Barrio 18ran neighborhoods extorting
businesses, threateningfamilies, and killing anyone who
(21:47):
refuse to pay.
Studies found that more than twothirds of migrants had family
members who were murdered,kidnapped, or disappeared.
One MS 13, member Chillinglytold NPR, my job is to collect
extortion.
If they delay payment too long,we kill the person.
It's obligatory.
(22:08):
She added that after givingsomeone 24 hours to pay.
We found their houses empty.
They had to leave because theysay they don't have enough money
to pay the extortion.
On top of the violence, centralAmerica was getting hammered by
climate disasters, droughts,destroyed crops year after year
in what's called the drycorridor.
(22:29):
By 2016, more than 6 millionpeople in the region were food
insecure.
On top of all that, here'ssomething we don't talk about
enough.
Guns.
Every year, hundreds ofthousands of firearms, many from
the US were being smuggled intoMexico and Central America.
Between 2014 and 2016, almost70% of crime guns recovered in
(22:54):
Mexico, and nearly half in ElSalvador and Honduras were
traced back to the U.S..
These weren't just huntingrifles, these were military
style weapons that made gangviolence, even deadlier.
And let's be honest about theAmerican handprint here.
Sadly, it extended way beyondguns.
(23:14):
During the Cold War, wesupported dictators and fueled
the civil wars like inGuatemala, where 200,000 people
were killed.
Later, we deported gang membersback to Central America without
warning local authoritieshelping to spread gang culture.
Trade deals like NAFTA andCAFTA, think NAFTA, but for
(23:36):
Central America, hurt localfarmers and workers, but didn't
create legal pathways for themto come here.
By the 2016 election, this newmigration crisis was front and
center.
Donald Trump wasn't justcampaigning against illegal
immigration in general.
He was focusing in on thisspecific wave he called the
(23:57):
asylum seekers.
An invasion warned about toughpeople, maybe we don't want in
our country, and famouslypromised to build a wall to stop
what he saw coming.
His rhetoric tapped into realanxiety about what was happening
at the border.
He oversimplified it and cast,the immigrants, as the villains
blaming undocumented persons forall the problems in America.
(24:20):
Of course, the situation is farmore complex than anyone could
solve, but when people areafraid, they often look for
simple solutions to complexproblems.
So they voted Trump in to fixit.
So when Trump took office in2017, he didn't just continue
the enforcement heavy approachof his predecessors, he turned
(24:41):
it up to 11.
Donald Trump ran in the mostrestrictionist immigration
platform in modern Americanhistory.
Build the wall.
I.
Ban Muslims.
End birthright citizenship, massdeportations.
Yes.
Even in his first term, he kepttalking about wanting to end
birthright citizenship.
His Muslim ban started as anexplicit proposal for a total
(25:04):
and complete shutdown of Muslimsentering the United States after
courts struck it downrepeatedly.
The final version banned travelfrom several Muslim majority
countries and a few non-Muslimcountries, which the Supreme
Court upheld.
Another defining policy was themigrant production protocols,
which came to be known as theRemain in Mexico policy.
(25:27):
This policy forced asylumseekers to wait in dangerous
Mexican border cities.
About 60,000 people werereturned to Mexico, where they
face kidnapping and violence.
Human rights first documented atleast 636 cases of violent
crimes against return migrants,although this was likely a
(25:47):
massive under count.
But despite all that, Trump'soverall deportation numbers
weren't actually that differentfrom Obama's.
They were just meaner and morechaotic.
Total deportations were actuallylower, about 1 million over four
years, compared to Obama's 1.5million during his last four
(26:09):
years.
What Trump did do wasdramatically cut legal
immigration.
He slashed refugee admissionsfrom 110,000 to just 15,000 the
lowest Since the modern programbegan.
He made it much harder to getwork visas and tried to end
family reunification.
Trump also implemented moreaggressive interior enforcement.
(26:33):
Ice workplace raids increased by60% in his first year.
Targeting not just individualworkers, but conducting mass
arrests.
Sometimes over 100 people in asingle operation.
Trump understood something,previous Republican presidents
missed.
His base wasn't just opposed toillegal immigration.
(26:53):
They were opposed toimmigration, period.
Even Trump, despite hispolitical power and fanatical
fan base, the MAGA movementcouldn't get comprehensive
reform done.
His one attempt in 2018 failedwhen neither party trusted him
to stick to any deal.
After the chaotic immigrationdebates during Trump's first
(27:13):
term, Joe Biden came into officepromising to create a fair and
humane immigration system.
He certainly tried to reverseTrump's approach, but he ran
into the very same politicalreality that has stymied every
president since Reagan.
Strong Republican opposition tosolving the immigration crisis.
But Biden also inheritedsomething far worse than what
(27:36):
Trump had faced in 2016.
During the Biden years, what hadbeen primarily a northern
triangle crisis exploded into ahemisphere wide collapse.
The numbers are staggering.
In fiscal year 2021 aloneencounters with people from
Ecuador, increased eightfold.
Venezuela went from just 1200encounters in 2020 to nearly
(27:58):
48,000.
In 2021, Haiti jumped from about4,400 to over 45,000.
Cuba from just under 10,000 toover 38,000.
Why this sudden hemisphere Wideshift?
Because multiple countriescollapsed at once.
Venezuela's economic meltdowncreated the largest displacement
(28:19):
crisis in Western Hemispherehistory.
7 million people have fled.
Haiti faced multiple disasters,devastating earthquakes in 2010
and 2021.
Hurricane Matthew in 2016,political chaos.
And then the 2021 presidentialassassination.
Nicaragua's, Daniel Ortegacrushed the political
(28:42):
opposition, jailing opponents,and forcing dissidence to flee.
Cuba cracked down a mass protestthroughout the country.
The COVID pandemic madeeverything worse.
Displacing Venezuelan andHaitian refugees who have been
living in other South Americancountries and climate disasters
kept coming.
(29:03):
Honduras and Guatemala gothammered by back-to-back
hurricanes in 2020 and displacedat least 1.5 million people.
By 2023.
Biden was politically vulnerableon immigration with over 2
million border encountersannually.
Republicans saw a hugeopportunity and demanded border
security measures as a price forcritical Ukraine aid.
(29:26):
What happened next wasremarkable.
Senator spent 10 weeksnegotiating the toughest border
border security bill in decades.
This was one tough bill andessentially everything
Republicans had been demandingfor years.
I.
It would've given the Presidentauthority to shut down the
border when encounters reached5,000 per day for seven days or
(29:48):
8,500 in one day.
It completely reformed theasylum processing with much
higher standards.
It provided$20.3 billion forborder security more than Biden
originally requested.
And yes, it would've requiredcontinued construction of
Trump's border Wall.
Like I said, this was aRepublican dream.
(30:10):
The Border Patrol Union, thesame union that had endorsed
Trump, actually endorsed thisbill.
So what happened?
You heard it up at thebeginning.
Donald Trump thought it was moreimportant to run on immigration
than to solve it.
In January, 2024, Trump startedcalling Republican senators.
(30:30):
His message was simple.
Don't give Biden a win.
Keep the border chaos going so Ican run on it in the election.
And they listened.
This moment perfectly captured30 years of immigration,
politics.
A bipartisan solution killed notbecause it was bad policy, but
because solving the problemwould eliminate a valuable
(30:53):
political weapon.
So let's step back and look atthe deeper pattern we've
uncovered here.
What we've traced through 30years of American politics isn't
just a series of policyfailures.
It's something more fundamentalabout how our political system
responds to complex long-termchallenges.
Think about what we've seen.
(31:14):
Every single president, Clinton,Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden knew
the immigration system wasbroken.
They all had experts tellingthem what needed to be done.
The policy solutions have beensitting on the shelf for
decades.
But here's the sad truth.
The closer we got to actuallysolving the problem, the more
(31:36):
likely politics was to kill it.
The Gang of eight Bill in 2013,it passed the Senate with
bipartisan support and would'vesolved most of these issues.
Dead on arrival in the housebecause of primary politics.
The 2024 border deal.
It gave Republicans everythingthey said they wanted for years.
(31:58):
Killed with a phone call becausesolving the problem would hurt
Trump's campaign.
This reveals something crucialabout how immigration politics
actually works in America.
For many politicians,immigration isn't just a problem
to be solved.
It's a powerful political tool.
Republicans often rally aroundborder security and cultural
(32:19):
concerns while Democrats focuson compassion and immigrant
rights.
But the reality is that thebiggest roadblocks at fixing the
system have come fromRepublicans, opposition to
comprehensive reform.
Especially efforts that includea pathway to citizenship.
For many Republicans, fear andenforcement remain strong
(32:40):
motivators, and without thatpolitical leverage, the
incentive to compromisediminishes.
Meanwhile, Democrats havegenerally pushed for solutions
but have been stymied by thisresistance.
I.
As a result, the human cost hasbeen staggering.
We've militarized our border,turning it into a deadly
(33:00):
obstacle course that's killedthousands.
We've separated families fordecades through backlogs and
caps.
We've created a population of 12million people living in the
shadows, vulnerable toexploitation and abuse.
Most tragic of all, we've met agenuine humanitarian crisis,
people fleeing violence,persecution and climate
(33:23):
disasters, with walls, detentioncenters, and political theater.
The shift from economicmigration to asylum seekers
fundamentally changed what wewere dealing with, but our
political system didn't adaptbecause the politics were too
valuable.
What's happening now under Trump2.0 isn't an aberration.
(33:45):
It's the logical endpoint ofdecades of gridlock and half
measures.
When you refuse to solve aproblem for three decades,
eventually someone comes alongwho promises not to manage it,
but to wage war on it, andthat's exactly what Trump is
doing.
Mass deportations, militaryinvolvement detention camps,
(34:06):
think Guantanamo Bay, emergencydeclarations.
Where about to see what happenswhen the world's most powerful
country treats immigration, notas a policy challenge, but as an
existential threat.
We spent this episode lookingbackward at 30 years of failure.
But history doesn't end here.
(34:27):
What happens next will determinewhether this becomes a story
about American democracy'sability to course correct or
about how fear and politicalopportunism finally broke our
immigration system beyondrepair.
Next episode, we examine whatthat breaking point looks like
in practice.
Thank you for listening totoday's episode.
(34:49):
If you liked what you heard,please consider subscribing and
sharing with a friend.
Until next time, stay curious,stay critical, and stay
connected.
February 7th, 2024, the US Senate after months of
intense negotiations finally hasa bipartisan immigration deal on
the table.
Republicans had pushed hard fortough border security measures,
and Democrats, believe it ornot, agreed to what was arguably
the toughest border bill indecades.
(00:46):
It literally had everythingRepublicans claimed they wanted.
So what happened?
49 Republicans voted against it,only four voted for it.
Even Mitch McConnell who hadactually pushed for these
negotiations in the first placevoted no.
How come?
(01:07):
Well, you heard it in the clipabove.
Donald Trump told Republicans tokill the bill so he could run on
immigration in 2024.
They did exactly what he asked.
Welcome back to Khannecting theDots.
This is episode three of myimmigration series, and today
(01:27):
we're looking at how close we'vecome to fixing immigration and
why time and time again we keepfailing because here's the dirty
secret about immigration inAmerica.
We know how to fix it.
We've known for decades.
Other countries have functioningimmigration systems and we've
(01:47):
had bipartisan agreements on thetable multiple times, agreements
that could have made a realdifference.
So why don't we fix it?
The answer shockingly, isn'tabout policy disagreement.
It's pure, unadulteratedpolitics.
It's true that immigration is ahot button campaign issue for
(02:09):
both parties, but when it comesto actually passing
comprehensive reform,Republicans have generally been
the ones to stand in the way.
But before we delve into thispolitical soap opera, I wanna
explain something that rarelygets covered clearly, and I
think it's crucial tounderstanding why our whole
system is so broken.
(02:31):
How does someone actually becomea US citizen.
Given the complexity of ourimmigration system?
If you're anything like me,you've had a vague idea at best,
but never knew the full answer.
This confusion isn't accidental.
Politicians have kept theprocess opaque for years.
Let's start with the basics,which often get jumbled
(02:54):
together.
What's the difference between avisa and a green card?
Think of visas like temporarypermission slips.
They're like hotel reservationsfor the US that lets you enter
for tourism work or study, butthey always come with an
expiration date.
Green cards, on the other hand,are more like buying a home.
(03:16):
They grant you permanentresidence, allowing you to live
and work indefinitely in theU.S..
Here's the crucial part.
Green cards are the essentialfirst step towards citizenship.
Unless you're born in the UnitedStates, you simply can't become
a citizen without one.
Now, you don't necessarily needa temporary visa first to get a
(03:38):
green card.
It just really depends on yoursituation.
Take for example, if you'realready here legally, such as a
student, worker, or tourist.
You can sometimes apply tochange your status.
If you're outside the US, you'llapply for something called an
immigrant visa, which isdifferent from those temporary
visas and will allow you toenter the country as a permanent
(04:01):
resident.
There are multiple paths to geta green card.
Let's look at a few of themhere.
Family reunification.
This is the largest route byfar.
About 65% of all legalimmigrants come through family
sponsorship.
US citizens can sponsor closerelatives like spouses,
(04:22):
unmarried children, parents andsiblings.
Green card holders can sponsorspouses and unmarried children.
The huge catch here.
Strict per country caps, only 7%of green cards can go to any
single country each year.
Regardless of how many peoplefrom that country are eligible
(04:43):
and waiting.
The result?
Waits can be shockingly long, upto 20 years for siblings from
Mexico, or even 24 years fromthe Philippines.
Employment based immigration.
This covers skilled workers.
People with advanced degrees andinvestors, but there are only
(05:04):
140,000 employment based greencards available globally each
year.
And guess what?
The same 7% cap applies heretoo.
So countries like India, facewait times that can spend
decades effectively puttingentire careers on hold.
Diversity visa lottery.
(05:24):
Each year, 55,000 green cardsare awarded by random lottery,
but you must be from a countrywith low recent immigration.
So major countries like India,Pakistan, China, Mexico, Brazil,
Nigeria are excluded.
There are also minimum educationor work requirements.
(05:45):
Millions of people apply, andeven if you win the lottery, you
still have to go through thefull immigration process.
Refugees and asylum.
Refugees apply from outside theUS while asylum seekers apply
from within.
Annual admissions typicallyrange from 50,000 to 125,000,
(06:06):
though this number can fluctuatepretty dramatically depending on
who's in the White House.
Temporary Visas.
Student, tourists, and temporaryworkers don't automatically get
permanent status.
Some people do manage totransition.
Maybe a student gets a workvisa, then finds an employer to
sponsor them for a green card.
But this process is long,incredibly uncertain and offers
(06:30):
absolutely no guarantees.
Even after getting a green card.
Citizenship isn't immediate.
You must wait three to fiveyears before you can apply.
During that time, you mustmaintain a clean record.
Learn English, and study civics.
In the best case scenario,marrying a US citizen.
(06:52):
Tomorrow you're looking at atleast three to five years from
start to citizenship.
For most, it takes much longer.
For millions more, there simplyis no legal path available.
This is why there are over 12million undocumented immigrants
in the United States for most.
It's not a matter of choice.
(07:13):
The math just doesn't add up.
The legal routes are so limitedand backlogged that there is no
realistic way to come herelegally.
I know that's a lot of policydetail, but understanding these
mechanics is crucial tounderstanding our system and the
problems in it.
Politicians and pundits love totalk about getting in line, but
(07:37):
for most people, that line is soimpossibly long that actually
waiting for results can take alifetime.
Or there's just no line at all.
So how did we get here?
Let's dive into 30 years ofpolitical failures.
Let's go back to Bill Clinton inthe 1990s, because this is
(07:57):
really where everything startedto go wrong.
I talked about some of hispolicies in my last podcast, but
let's take a refresher.
Even though Clinton inherited arecession.
He managed to turn the economyaround, which gave him a lot of
goodwill and a real window forcomprehensive immigration
reform.
(08:17):
But instead of using thateconomic strength to push for
real change, Clinton made achoice that still haunts us
today.
Rather than fixing the system,he decided to split the
difference.
Give Republicans more borderenforcement and give Democrats,
well, really not much ofanything.
Operation Gatekeeper in 1994 wassupposed to deter immigration by
(08:40):
making border crossings moredangerous.
And it worked sort of, it didmake crossing more dangerous.
It shifted crossings from SanDiego to places like Tucson,
Arizona and El Paso, Texas.
People started dying in thedesert in record numbers.
But here's what it didn't do.
It did not reduce immigration.
(09:01):
By pushing crossings into moreremote deadly areas, it
completely ended the circularmigration pattern that had
worked for decades.
Suddenly crossing back and forthbecame way too dangerous, so
people who came simply stayedpermanently.
The border militarization afterOperation Gatekeeper was
(09:22):
staggering.
In 1993, border enforcement costabout a billion dollars per
year.
In 2024, over$18 billion, andfrankly, with diminishing
returns.
But Clinton's biggest disasterwas arguably NAFTA.
The theory was simple.
Create jobs in Mexico andMexicans won't need to come to
(09:45):
the U.S..
Unfortunately, it had the exactopposite effect.
NAFTA destroyed small scaleagriculture in Mexico by
flooding the market withsubsidized American corn and
wheat.
Millions of Mexican farmers losttheir livelihoods, and so what
did they do?
They headed north.
So we integrated our economieswithout integrating our labor
(10:06):
markets.
That, my friends, createdexactly the pressure cooker of
illegal immigration we're stilldealing with today.
Now, fast forward to George W.
Bush.
He actually understoodimmigration better than most
politicians.
As governor of Texas.
He'd seen firsthand the benefitsand negatives of immigration and
(10:29):
its real impact on the economy.
As a result, he made immigrationa top priority from day one,
from the very start.
Bush began working closely withMexico's then President Vicente
Fox.
Together, they kicked offserious talks about
transformative changes, findinga way for millions of
(10:49):
undocumented immigrants to getlegal status and setting up a
robust guest worker program.
While they didn't nail downevery detail before everything
changed, this was shaping up tobe the kind of major immigration
reform we hadn't seen indecades.
Then 9/11 happened suddenly.
(11:10):
Immigration wasn't abouteconomics anymore, it was about
security.
The Department of HomelandSecurity was created and
immigration enforcement wasmoved to an agency focused on
terrorism and threats.
This was a profound shift thatwe're still stuck in today.
For the first time in Americanhistory, immigration was
(11:30):
primarily viewed through asecurity lens rather than an
economic one.
But Bush didn't give up.
In 2005, senators John McCainand Ted Kennedy drafted
comprehensive reform thatunfortunately went nowhere.
In 2007, Bush tried again with acompromise that actually had
(11:50):
bipartisan support built off theframework of that 2005 reform.
So what killed it?
Three forces (11:57):
fierce Republican base opposition.
Democratic Union opposition, andsomething that's rarely
discussed, massive protests thatcompletely backfired.
In 2006, pro immigration groupsorganized huge marches across
the country.
They thought they were helping,they weren't.
(12:18):
While many waved American flags.
Others waved Mexican flags andcarried signs in Spanish.
This unfortunately solidifiedconservative sentiment against
them, and the bill RepublicanSenator Trent Lot actually said
They lost me when I saw so manyMexican flags.
At the same time,anti-immigration groups saw
(12:40):
their membership surge.
Republican offices were floodedwith angry calls.
Conservative commentators likeRush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity
then turned the word amnestyinto a political death sentence.
Any path to citizenship, nomatter how long or difficult
became rewarding Lawbreakers.
(13:01):
The word amnesty itself becameso toxic that Republican
politicians still can't saypathway to citizenship without
facing primary challenges today.
Well meaning advocacy tragicallylikely hurt the cause, a pattern
that is unfortunately repeateditself many times.
(13:21):
After eight years of Bush,Barack Obama was elected on the
promise of hope and change.
When running for president, hepromised to deliver
comprehensive immigrationreform.
A big hope for advocates whothought their moment had finely
come.
And yes, Democrats controlledCongress, but the reality was
(13:43):
more complicated.
As soon as Obama took office,the country was facing the worst
economic crisis since the GreatDepression.
His first job was to stabilizethe economy and prevent a total
collapse.
Once that immediate crisis wasaddressed, he and Congress
turned to another huge priority.
(14:03):
Healthcare reform.
Passing the Affordable Care Acttook up almost all the political
oxygen in Washington.
Meanwhile.
Immigration reform required 60votes in the Senate to overcome
a filibuster.
Even with democratic majorities,that was a tall order.
Republican leaders, especiallyMitch McConnell, made it clear
(14:24):
early on that their main goalwas to block Obama's agenda at
every turn.
In fact, McConnell famously saidhis top priority was to make
Obama a one term president.
So, while healthcare reform wasabsolutely critical, it came at
a political cost.
By the time the A CA passedDemocrats had lost momentum, the
(14:48):
Tea Party was on the rise, andthe window for sweeping
immigration reform had slammedshut.
With immigration reform stalledin Congress.
Obama took a different approach,one that would earn him a
controversial nickname.
He became what many called thedeporter in chief.
Why?
Because he believed that byramping up enforcement and
(15:09):
showing Republicans, he wasserious about border security,
he could build the politicalcredibility needed to finally
get comprehensive reform passed.
Here's a surprising number.
Obama deported more people thanany president in American
history, over 3 million duringhis eight years.
Despite that massive number, andto no one's surprise,
(15:33):
Republicans didn't give him anycredit.
Instead, they used hisdeportation numbers to argue he
was weak.
Because there were stillundocumented immigrants in the
country.
The bitter irony.
Obama actually proved thatenforcement only approaches
simply don't work.
Despite record deportations,people kept coming.
(15:56):
In fact, the 2008 recession didmore to reduce immigration than
all his enforcement measurescombined.
Obama's one moment of real hope,came in 2013 with the"Gang of
Eight".
Four Republican and fourDemocratic senators who spent
months negotiating comprehensivereform.
(16:16):
This bill wasn't justcomprehensive.
It would have fundamentallytransformed America's
immigration system for thebetter.
Let me break down what wasactually in it, because it's
stunning how close we came tosolving this.
For the 11 million undocumentedimmigrants at that time, it
created something calledregistered provisional immigrant
(16:38):
status.
Basically a 13 year pathway tocitizenship.
But here's the catch.
They'd have to pay fines, backtaxes, learn English, pass
background checks, and meetemployment requirements.
This was absolutely not amnesty.
It was earned legalization withreal consequences and
(17:00):
requirements, but the bill wentway beyond just dealing with
undocumented immigrants.
It would've eliminated thefamily visa categories for
siblings and adult marriedchildren of US citizens.
You know that chain migrationthat Trump always complained
about in his first term.
Instead, it created a new meritbased point system.
(17:22):
Giving permanent residency basedon education, skills, and
English proficiency.
And here's something thatwould've been truly
revolutionary, A new W Visaprogram for lower skilled
workers that for the first timeever would've allowed them to
eventually apply for permanentresidency without needing
(17:43):
employer sponsorship.
Think about that, a legalpathway for the very people who
had been crossing the borderillegally for decades.
The border security measureswere also massive.
They proposed doubling theexisting border patrol force,
creating 700 miles of fencingand allocating$46 billion in
(18:05):
border security funding.
And here's the kicker.
None of the undocumentedimmigrants could even get green
cards until all theseenforcement measures were
operational first.
The Congressional budget officeran the numbers and found this
bill would reduce the federaldeficit by nearly$1 trillion
(18:25):
over 20 years while boosting GDPby 1.4 trillion.
The bill would've paid foritself and then some.
The bill passed the Senate witha huge 68 to 32 vote with 14
Republicans voting for it,including big names like John
McCain, Lindsey Graham, SusanCollins, Lisa Murkowski, and
(18:50):
Marco Rubio.
Those names probably soundfamiliar.
Three of the last four are stillin the Senate today, while Marco
Rubio has one of the mostimportant positions in today's
government as Secretary ofState.
Sadly, when the bill went to thehouse, it died.
Why?
House Speaker John Boehnerrefused to even bring it up for
(19:12):
a vote, using the excuse that itwouldn't pass with the majority
Republican support.
But the real reason was he wasfacing the surging tea party
movement, who were adamantlyopposed any immigration bill
that didn't focus solely onenforcement.
The final nail came whenmajority leader, Eric Cantor,
widely expected to be the nextspeaker, lost his primary
(19:35):
election to a tea partychallenger who campaigned
specifically against immigrationreform.
If a member of leadership couldlose over this issue, any
Republican could.
But despite all that, mostexperts actually believe that if
Boehner had brought the bill upfor a vote, it would've passed
with enough support fromDemocrats and moderate
(19:57):
Republicans.
So comprehensive reform diedagain, killed by politicians too
afraid to lose power andinfluenced by toxic messaging.
Now let's step back and examinewhat was happening at the border
during those Obama years.
Because the roots of this crisisdidn't sprout overnight, but a
(20:17):
lot of those changes came to ahead during Obama's terms.
As I mentioned earlier,Clinton's border militarization
effectively ended circularmigration while the 2008
recession delivered a fataldeath blow to economic
migration.
Construction, and other heavyimmigrant sector jobs vanished
overnight.
Net undocumented immigrationactually hit zero with the
(20:42):
population stabilizing around 11million.
But by 2011, something entirelynew was happening.
Families and unaccompaniedchildren from Central America
started arriving, and theyweren't just seeking work, they
were literally running for theirlives.
Let me give you the numbers thattell the story.
(21:02):
Unaccompanied minors surged fromabout 16,000 in 2011 to almost
39,000 in 2013.
By the summer of 2014, borderpatrol was picking up over 1000
kids every single week.
Families from the NorthernTriangle, that's El Salvador,
Honduras, and Guatemala becamethe fastest growing group at the
(21:24):
border.
So why the sudden shift?
Because the Northern Trianglehad become one of the most
dangerous places on Earth.
In El Salvador, the homiciderate was more than 25 times
higher than in the U.S..
Gangs like MS 13 and Barrio 18ran neighborhoods extorting
businesses, threateningfamilies, and killing anyone who
(21:47):
refuse to pay.
Studies found that more than twothirds of migrants had family
members who were murdered,kidnapped, or disappeared.
One MS 13, member Chillinglytold NPR, my job is to collect
extortion.
If they delay payment too long,we kill the person.
It's obligatory.
(22:08):
She added that after givingsomeone 24 hours to pay.
We found their houses empty.
They had to leave because theysay they don't have enough money
to pay the extortion.
On top of the violence, centralAmerica was getting hammered by
climate disasters, droughts,destroyed crops year after year
in what's called the drycorridor.
(22:29):
By 2016, more than 6 millionpeople in the region were food
insecure.
On top of all that, here'ssomething we don't talk about
enough.
Guns.
Every year, hundreds ofthousands of firearms, many from
the US were being smuggled intoMexico and Central America.
Between 2014 and 2016, almost70% of crime guns recovered in
(22:54):
Mexico, and nearly half in ElSalvador and Honduras were
traced back to the U.S..
These weren't just huntingrifles, these were military
style weapons that made gangviolence, even deadlier.
And let's be honest about theAmerican handprint here.
Sadly, it extended way beyondguns.
(23:14):
During the Cold War, wesupported dictators and fueled
the civil wars like inGuatemala, where 200,000 people
were killed.
Later, we deported gang membersback to Central America without
warning local authoritieshelping to spread gang culture.
Trade deals like NAFTA andCAFTA, think NAFTA, but for
(23:36):
Central America, hurt localfarmers and workers, but didn't
create legal pathways for themto come here.
By the 2016 election, this newmigration crisis was front and
center.
Donald Trump wasn't justcampaigning against illegal
immigration in general.
He was focusing in on thisspecific wave he called the
(23:57):
asylum seekers.
An invasion warned about toughpeople, maybe we don't want in
our country, and famouslypromised to build a wall to stop
what he saw coming.
His rhetoric tapped into realanxiety about what was happening
at the border.
He oversimplified it and cast,the immigrants, as the villains
blaming undocumented persons forall the problems in America.
(24:20):
Of course, the situation is farmore complex than anyone could
solve, but when people areafraid, they often look for
simple solutions to complexproblems.
So they voted Trump in to fixit.
So when Trump took office in2017, he didn't just continue
the enforcement heavy approachof his predecessors, he turned
(24:41):
it up to 11.
Donald Trump ran in the mostrestrictionist immigration
platform in modern Americanhistory.
Build the wall.
I.
Ban Muslims.
End birthright citizenship, massdeportations.
Yes.
Even in his first term, he kepttalking about wanting to end
birthright citizenship.
His Muslim ban started as anexplicit proposal for a total
(25:04):
and complete shutdown of Muslimsentering the United States after
courts struck it downrepeatedly.
The final version banned travelfrom several Muslim majority
countries and a few non-Muslimcountries, which the Supreme
Court upheld.
Another defining policy was themigrant production protocols,
which came to be known as theRemain in Mexico policy.
(25:27):
This policy forced asylumseekers to wait in dangerous
Mexican border cities.
About 60,000 people werereturned to Mexico, where they
face kidnapping and violence.
Human rights first documented atleast 636 cases of violent
crimes against return migrants,although this was likely a
(25:47):
massive under count.
But despite all that, Trump'soverall deportation numbers
weren't actually that differentfrom Obama's.
They were just meaner and morechaotic.
Total deportations were actuallylower, about 1 million over four
years, compared to Obama's 1.5million during his last four
(26:09):
years.
What Trump did do wasdramatically cut legal
immigration.
He slashed refugee admissionsfrom 110,000 to just 15,000 the
lowest Since the modern programbegan.
He made it much harder to getwork visas and tried to end
family reunification.
Trump also implemented moreaggressive interior enforcement.
(26:33):
Ice workplace raids increased by60% in his first year.
Targeting not just individualworkers, but conducting mass
arrests.
Sometimes over 100 people in asingle operation.
Trump understood something,previous Republican presidents
missed.
His base wasn't just opposed toillegal immigration.
(26:53):
They were opposed toimmigration, period.
Even Trump, despite hispolitical power and fanatical
fan base, the MAGA movementcouldn't get comprehensive
reform done.
His one attempt in 2018 failedwhen neither party trusted him
to stick to any deal.
After the chaotic immigrationdebates during Trump's first
(27:13):
term, Joe Biden came into officepromising to create a fair and
humane immigration system.
He certainly tried to reverseTrump's approach, but he ran
into the very same politicalreality that has stymied every
president since Reagan.
Strong Republican opposition tosolving the immigration crisis.
But Biden also inheritedsomething far worse than what
(27:36):
Trump had faced in 2016.
During the Biden years, what hadbeen primarily a northern
triangle crisis exploded into ahemisphere wide collapse.
The numbers are staggering.
In fiscal year 2021 aloneencounters with people from
Ecuador, increased eightfold.
Venezuela went from just 1200encounters in 2020 to nearly
(27:58):
48,000.
In 2021, Haiti jumped from about4,400 to over 45,000.
Cuba from just under 10,000 toover 38,000.
Why this sudden hemisphere Wideshift?
Because multiple countriescollapsed at once.
Venezuela's economic meltdowncreated the largest displacement
(28:19):
crisis in Western Hemispherehistory.
7 million people have fled.
Haiti faced multiple disasters,devastating earthquakes in 2010
and 2021.
Hurricane Matthew in 2016,political chaos.
And then the 2021 presidentialassassination.
Nicaragua's, Daniel Ortegacrushed the political
(28:42):
opposition, jailing opponents,and forcing dissidence to flee.
Cuba cracked down a mass protestthroughout the country.
The COVID pandemic madeeverything worse.
Displacing Venezuelan andHaitian refugees who have been
living in other South Americancountries and climate disasters
kept coming.
(29:03):
Honduras and Guatemala gothammered by back-to-back
hurricanes in 2020 and displacedat least 1.5 million people.
By 2023.
Biden was politically vulnerableon immigration with over 2
million border encountersannually.
Republicans saw a hugeopportunity and demanded border
security measures as a price forcritical Ukraine aid.
(29:26):
What happened next wasremarkable.
Senator spent 10 weeksnegotiating the toughest border
border security bill in decades.
This was one tough bill andessentially everything
Republicans had been demandingfor years.
I.
It would've given the Presidentauthority to shut down the
border when encounters reached5,000 per day for seven days or
(29:48):
8,500 in one day.
It completely reformed theasylum processing with much
higher standards.
It provided$20.3 billion forborder security more than Biden
originally requested.
And yes, it would've requiredcontinued construction of
Trump's border Wall.
Like I said, this was aRepublican dream.
(30:10):
The Border Patrol Union, thesame union that had endorsed
Trump, actually endorsed thisbill.
So what happened?
You heard it up at thebeginning.
Donald Trump thought it was moreimportant to run on immigration
than to solve it.
In January, 2024, Trump startedcalling Republican senators.
(30:30):
His message was simple.
Don't give Biden a win.
Keep the border chaos going so Ican run on it in the election.
And they listened.
This moment perfectly captured30 years of immigration,
politics.
A bipartisan solution killed notbecause it was bad policy, but
because solving the problemwould eliminate a valuable
(30:53):
political weapon.
So let's step back and look atthe deeper pattern we've
uncovered here.
What we've traced through 30years of American politics isn't
just a series of policyfailures.
It's something more fundamentalabout how our political system
responds to complex long-termchallenges.
Think about what we've seen.
(31:14):
Every single president, Clinton,Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden knew
the immigration system wasbroken.
They all had experts tellingthem what needed to be done.
The policy solutions have beensitting on the shelf for
decades.
But here's the sad truth.
The closer we got to actuallysolving the problem, the more
(31:36):
likely politics was to kill it.
The Gang of eight Bill in 2013,it passed the Senate with
bipartisan support and would'vesolved most of these issues.
Dead on arrival in the housebecause of primary politics.
The 2024 border deal.
It gave Republicans everythingthey said they wanted for years.
(31:58):
Killed with a phone call becausesolving the problem would hurt
Trump's campaign.
This reveals something crucialabout how immigration politics
actually works in America.
For many politicians,immigration isn't just a problem
to be solved.
It's a powerful political tool.
Republicans often rally aroundborder security and cultural
(32:19):
concerns while Democrats focuson compassion and immigrant
rights.
But the reality is that thebiggest roadblocks at fixing the
system have come fromRepublicans, opposition to
comprehensive reform.
Especially efforts that includea pathway to citizenship.
For many Republicans, fear andenforcement remain strong
(32:40):
motivators, and without thatpolitical leverage, the
incentive to compromisediminishes.
Meanwhile, Democrats havegenerally pushed for solutions
but have been stymied by thisresistance.
I.
As a result, the human cost hasbeen staggering.
We've militarized our border,turning it into a deadly
(33:00):
obstacle course that's killedthousands.
We've separated families fordecades through backlogs and
caps.
We've created a population of 12million people living in the
shadows, vulnerable toexploitation and abuse.
Most tragic of all, we've met agenuine humanitarian crisis,
people fleeing violence,persecution and climate
(33:23):
disasters, with walls, detentioncenters, and political theater.
The shift from economicmigration to asylum seekers
fundamentally changed what wewere dealing with, but our
political system didn't adaptbecause the politics were too
valuable.
What's happening now under Trump2.0 isn't an aberration.
(33:45):
It's the logical endpoint ofdecades of gridlock and half
measures.
When you refuse to solve aproblem for three decades,
eventually someone comes alongwho promises not to manage it,
but to wage war on it, andthat's exactly what Trump is
doing.
Mass deportations, militaryinvolvement detention camps,
(34:06):
think Guantanamo Bay, emergencydeclarations.
Where about to see what happenswhen the world's most powerful
country treats immigration, notas a policy challenge, but as an
existential threat.
We spent this episode lookingbackward at 30 years of failure.
But history doesn't end here.
(34:27):
What happens next will determinewhether this becomes a story
about American democracy'sability to course correct or
about how fear and politicalopportunism finally broke our
immigration system beyondrepair.
Next episode, we examine whatthat breaking point looks like
in practice.
Thank you for listening totoday's episode.
(34:49):
If you liked what you heard,please consider subscribing and
sharing with a friend.
Until next time, stay curious,stay critical, and stay
connected.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.