“The border itself is the crisis,” with Silky Shah

Hello from Jay’s COVID den!

Mai would like you to know that she begged Jay to skip recording and rest after he tested positive for COVID, and did the same with Tammy a few weeks ago. They did not listen. Please don’t follow their bad example!

This week, Tammy and Jay chat with repeat guest Silky Shah, executive director of Detention Watch Network and longtime organizer for immigrant rights. [1:45] We start, though, with a discussion of “Veep,” which Jay has been rewatching—a show that continues to be relevant and prescient ten-plus years on. [14:40] Then we talk about Biden’s disappointing policies on immigration, including the continuation of Title 42 and other policies designed to exclude asylum seekers, [50:00] and reflect on some small wins that follow years of organizing by groups like the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON). 

In this episode, we ask: 

How do anti-immigration policies actually worsen the same border conditions that some claim to be fighting through deterrence?  

What makes immigration intersectional? 

How might the immigrant-rights movement adopt a broader framework of immigrant justice? 

For more, see: 

• More on the Biden administration’s anti-immigrant moves, including a potential reinstatement of family detention 

• Hannah Dreier’s NYT report about migrant child labor in the U.S.

• The fire at a Juárez migrant detention center that killed dozens

• A glimmer of good news: DHS expands protections for whistleblowers 

• The Tennessee GOP’s attack on two Black legislators

Plus, listen to Silky’s August 2022 TTSG appearance, ​​Immigration’s “catalyst moments,” and a September episode where we discuss Ron DeSantis’s migrant-busing stunt: GOP cruelty gone wild. 

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