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Honestly with Bari Weiss
America’s Broken Immigration System: An Honest Debate
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America’s Broken Immigration System: An Honest Debate
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The debate about immigration brings out some of the deepest anxieties and biggest disagreements in America. And right now, all of it feels like it’s coming to a head. In 2022, there were over 2.76 million illegal migrant crossings at the Southwest border. That’s roughly the population of Chicago, America’s third largest city. To address this unprecedented surge, President Biden recently announced tougher restrictions and made a show of visiting the border himself. 

But unlike a decade or two ago, when the immigration debate was mostly about economics, today it’s an issue that’s subsumed by the culture wars and our polarized discourse. Republican governors bus migrants to sanctuary cities and they’re called “xenophobic” and “cruel” by the left. But what happens when a Democratic governor does much the same thing, bussing migrants from Colorado to New York City and Chicago? Is it still a heartless political stunt? Or is all of this just an inevitable consequence of our broken immigration system? 

So today: a debate moderated by guest host Kmele Foster between Alex Nowrasteh and Jessica Vaughan. Are current levels of immigration helping or hurting America? How do we balance humanitarian concerns with America’s economic and security needs? Should we be trying to enforce more or less restrictions at the border? And what exactly should we do to fix our immigration policies?

Alex is the director of Economic and Social Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. Jessica is the director of Policy Studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that describes themselves as “pro-immigrant but low immigration.”

While Alex and Jessica couldn’t be more opposite in their approach – Alex favors free immigration, while Jessica argues for restrictionist policies – today on Honestly we look for common ground, debate the facts, and search for solutions

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The immigration system isn't broken..it isn't enforced.

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I agree with Steve Mumford below.. this libertarian is not living in the real world so why bother?

Here are my questions.. without the debate form drama..

1. There was a bipartisan bill derailed by some "at the end of the spectrum" R's .. what was in it, and is it revivable? Why or why not?

2. When Alex talks about "immigrants" who is he talking about.. some average of MS-13 folks, general border-crossers, and Asian MDs and tech folks? How can there possibly be a meaningful average of folks like that?

3. No one questioned Alex's math. He argued that, say, 20 out of 100 immigrants commit crimes compared to say more 30 out of 100 natives. But people who say "we're stuck with 30 per 100 already, why let in 20% times whatever number of new folks more?" And being wary of newly admitted (or not legally admitted) criminals is definitely a function of neighborhood and if we average across the US the impacts, of course, will disappear.

4. No one discussed pressures on housing, the environment, etc. of unlimited new people coming to this country.

5. And a truly weird wonky suggestion. Our neighbor Canada doesn't seem to have the same partisan drama. Let's just adopt what they have.. adjusted for our country.. but the adjustments have to be agreed to by the majority of both parties in Congress. I wonder what that would look like?

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