Immigration and the Problem at the Border

The Biden administration plans to end use of Title 42, the pandemic-era border policy, next ...

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The Biden administration plans to end use of Title 42, the pandemic-era border policy, next month. The governor of Texas is busing migrants to the nation’s capital. Meanwhile, illegal border crossings are on the rise. Does anyone have a plan? Ali Noorani, president of National Immigration Forum and author of Crossing Borders, joins Sarah to discuss America’s immigration woes.

Show Notes:

–“Crossing Borders: The Reconciliation of a Nation of Immigrants” by Ali Noorani

–Room to Grow: Setting Immigration Levels in a Changing America

–Texas Tribune: “San Antonio and other Texas cities confront the spillover from the border migration crisis”

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Comments (38)
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  1. Avatar photo
    Clifford from WA

    This is the sort of content I love the dispatch for

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    Ben Connelly

    This was very interesting. One of my favorite recent interviews on this podcast.

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    Marc Frischhertz

    While certainly not the solution to the whole problem, but increasing legal immigration and securing the border is the kind of reasonable thing that should be won’t happen.

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    Marc Frischhertz

    This was very informative. If only our elected representatives could have such an intelligent conversation about the problem perhaps something could be done

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  5. David Clark

    Sarah—excellent podcast. I appreciated your civil but hard questioning about such a difficult problem. Because of your strong involvement with Texas politics, I would be interested on your “take” regarding immigration by the Texas Federal representatives. In particular your senators and representatives “on the border.”

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  6. Matt Foster

    Okay. I'm sure someone will jump all over me for this, but I have lived in Houston my entire life with the exception of 4 years of college in Austin. I have never experienced ANY ill effects of illegal immigration. Not once. I also have yet to hear an actually coherent argument as to why illegal immigration is a problem other than that it's illegal, benefits cartels, etc. I do not understand how this gets blown into such a major issue when I don't see how it actually impacts American citizens. Can someone help me out?

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    1. Clark Monson

      From my perspective, illegal immigration is a problem primarily because of what you mention as well as because the people who come here illegally are not able to fully integrate into the broader American system in the same way as legal immigrants. Having gone through the permanent residency process with my Canadian wife (haha, not the same as Jonah's "Canadian girlfriend" comment), and then having gone through the Canadian immigration process myself, I can say that the US process is hot garbage from start to finish, and by all accounts from people I know who are going through the process currently, it's even worse than when we did it. The insanity, time, cost, and extremely limited avenues for legal immigration are one of the primary motivators to come here illegally. It's a self-inflicted wound.

      We need much higher levels of legal immigration, better border enforcement, and a way to incentivize people not to overstay visas (I like a strong e-Verify system but it's not a panacea). And with the incentives current members of Congress have to flog the problem rather than solve it, we'll get none of those things. And this will still be a problem 10 or 20 years hence.

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      1. Matt Foster

        That's mostly what I was getting at. The problems I am aware of related to illegal immigration stem from the fact that it is illegal in the first place. I'm not for completely open borders, but I think we should have significantly more legal immigration - it shouldn't be so hard to come here legally.

        The illegal immigration problem is incredibly overblown. The arguments that I tend to hear are mostly lies/falsehoods. For example, that immigrants are a drain on the welfare system - the same one they can't access because they aren't here legally. I never hear real arguments explaining any real problems.

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    2. Avatar photo
      Scarlette Tarte

      Exactly. I live in Texas too. The immigrants are great. They work their butts off. AND they pay local taxes, and use local businesses. I love them.

      I was never really exposed to a lot of immigrants till I moved to Texas. They don't bring "ill effects". Oh, except the ill effect of being darker than the white people here, and having different music and better food.

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    Martin

    One thing that is fascinating to me is how accepting Americans are of so many immigration restrictions, when they seem so fundamentally anti-American to me.

    Why do government bureaucrats get to tell Americans who they can hire or rent property to, based on the other person’s citizenship status or country of birth? Someone needs a permit to *work*? It is wild to me how willing people are to trade fundamentals freedoms for imagined security from competition.

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  8. DocHeartless

    So in basketball it is common practice to try and get in the head of an opponent that drives into the paint but it doesn't go well. If you swat away some jump shot or a layup, you are essentially required to say, "Get that weak ___ stuff outta my house!". I couldn't help but think of this right off the bat when Mr. Noorani made that first line of argument about how Biden's changes were "in ways" going to strengthen enforcement. Lol, this ain't NPR or Fox News, this is The Dispatch's house and that's Isgur in the paint! Admittedly, she did jump in awfully fast so maybe there was a "Having said that" qualifier that was incoming. In which case I apologize for my snarky bball metaphor.

    I lean pretty pro-immigration and generally agree with most of what Ali said. This issue must be completely maddening for all insiders, since there are so many decent ideas that just need congressional wherewithal to implement. Whah, whah. So we're left trying to fix things as best we can with executive action and creative lawyering. Whatever happened to the e-verify movement? It seems like a decent way to stem some immigration would be to punish businesses that employ illegals? Again, I think we need more immigration, not less, but our current MO seems particularly cruel. We hold out jobs and a better future like we're dangling string in front of a kitty, and then we punch that kitten in the face when they try to go for it.

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  9. Mathew A

    We should not release anyone into the country that doesn't have an approved asylum claim. They should either remain in Mexico, or be held in detention.

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    Lori Giblin

    This is one I need to listen to a second time. I really believe that if the legal immigration system was fixed some of our border problems would go away. I don't think most Americans realize how broken our legal immigration system really is. But I will react to Sarah's comment that the US won't deport the dreamers if DACA gets dismantled by the Supreme Court. How would any of us feel if our legal status all of a sudden went away? It's not as simple as not being deported as a result. Going to school, getting a job, health insurance, drivers licenses, marriage licenses, etc are all dependent on having a legal status. Sure we won't deport them, but we will just let them live unsettled lives dependent on schools, employers, hospitals overlooking their status here? I lost my visa to live and work in Indonesia in 2001 (where I had made my home for 10 years) because the US started bombing Afghanistan after 9/11 and it was a scary time. But I still had my US Passport that allowed me to get back home. These dreamers won't have that...

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      Scarlette Tarte

      And under the aggressive right, they may deport them. I would not believe they won't do it. They are itching to do something like that.

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