I produced a film Garden City Kansas ( can be viewed on Apple TV and Prime Video) that came out 2023 that tells the story of three men who plot to blow up a housing project, home to new arrivals in western Kansas. Most of the people were Muslim. Garden City has welcomed hundreds of immigrants from Mexico, Vietnam and Africa. They come to work in the meat packing industry. The community understood the city would dry up blow away if they did not welcome the world. The schools have children that speak 30 different languages. They make it work. It is not a perfect place but it is a place we should all try to understand. I hope you watch and share.
Refreshing to read an informative interview about immigration. There’s so much misinformation out there. Another example of how Democrats have dropped the ball on messaging.
Because of directly affected friends, I've been involved in immigration issues since 2015. This is the clearest, most comprehensive and accessible interview on immigration I've seen. I wish it could be more widely distributed and that it was taught in our schools. The disinformation surrounding the issue is massive and disheartening. Thanks so much for this, both of you.
People didn’t vote against the immigration ‘system’, Trumpers and others degrade and demonize immigrants as the reason white working people are struggling, so those working people don’t look at|see that the unchecked capitalism creating billionaires and ten-millionaires who choose to keep wages down and prices up, are why white working families are struggling financially. Get out of your heads. They don’t hate the ‘system’ they hate immigrants because they’ve been told over and over since Reagan that immigrants are the enemy of workers. Pretty smart. Highly effective.
Great interview! I’ve been in the immigration trenches for a long time and this is the best I’ve heard for years. We need to get this/these messages out there.
Anti-immigrant forces had all the imagery and narratives needed to convince the public that Biden had failed to address a massive crisis—never mind that Trump had killed the immigration bill that could have helped. The message was clear: Trump would "fix" it. And at its core, anti-immigrant sentiment has always been about race. Meanwhile, Democrats faced the nearly impossible task of countering a *perceived* crisis, one cemented in the public's mind by relentless media coverage. Few arguments could compete with the image of thousands of migrants squeezing through barbed wire barriers—a picture worth a thousand words.
Okay, Anand, while I'm sure that many of us, including me, benefit from such a thorough presentation of the many complex issues associated with immigration, I'll just say that the nugget of this article is (I'm paraphrasing) that the whole thing comes down to white resentment. Period. Too many white people have a creeping sense that they are being displaced and that white people will before long be a minority population. Which is true. What they don't seem to understand, amazing really considering what has happened with virtually every immigrant group that's come to this country, is that immigrants become Americans at the speed of light. And they have contributed and will continue to enrich our society in ways large and small, from the much more interesting food we now enjoy (not just meat and potatoes) to other cultural inputs in our music, our architecture, even the way we laugh (just a little metaphor). IMO integration of this wave of immigrants is made MUCH more difficult because they are largely brown people, and we are a racist society. Maybe, too, at a deep deep level, there is the sort of repressed guilt white people harbor at having driven our native 'brown' population out, or killed them, which is much like the guilt we feel about building wealth on the backs of imported slaves. What a clusterf***.
The way Musk’s DOGE is going about agency personnel cuts is the equivalent of thinking we all need to lose 30 pounds & deciding to saw off legs arbitrarily. What Trump & Musk are doing will hurt millions of people in ways that we’re only beginning to see.
How can I get an innovative idea to you, Anand, about a way to get young people (and young adults) interested in engaging with issues they care about most via immersive venues in which they would welcome participation because it is authentically meeting them "where they are". Traditional ways (as Anat was speaking about on today substack video) will not reach them; they do not engage as readily is those activites. Can contact me at sfurey@comcast.net
I produced a film Garden City Kansas ( can be viewed on Apple TV and Prime Video) that came out 2023 that tells the story of three men who plot to blow up a housing project, home to new arrivals in western Kansas. Most of the people were Muslim. Garden City has welcomed hundreds of immigrants from Mexico, Vietnam and Africa. They come to work in the meat packing industry. The community understood the city would dry up blow away if they did not welcome the world. The schools have children that speak 30 different languages. They make it work. It is not a perfect place but it is a place we should all try to understand. I hope you watch and share.
Refreshing to read an informative interview about immigration. There’s so much misinformation out there. Another example of how Democrats have dropped the ball on messaging.
Because of directly affected friends, I've been involved in immigration issues since 2015. This is the clearest, most comprehensive and accessible interview on immigration I've seen. I wish it could be more widely distributed and that it was taught in our schools. The disinformation surrounding the issue is massive and disheartening. Thanks so much for this, both of you.
Just a youg guy still.
85 and 90 year olds here and still hopeful even with the social wear and tear.
We do need your voice and perspective so please hang in there as long as energy and funds allow.
Above all,be safe and take good care of your loved ones.
People didn’t vote against the immigration ‘system’, Trumpers and others degrade and demonize immigrants as the reason white working people are struggling, so those working people don’t look at|see that the unchecked capitalism creating billionaires and ten-millionaires who choose to keep wages down and prices up, are why white working families are struggling financially. Get out of your heads. They don’t hate the ‘system’ they hate immigrants because they’ve been told over and over since Reagan that immigrants are the enemy of workers. Pretty smart. Highly effective.
Great interview! I’ve been in the immigration trenches for a long time and this is the best I’ve heard for years. We need to get this/these messages out there.
Anti-immigrant forces had all the imagery and narratives needed to convince the public that Biden had failed to address a massive crisis—never mind that Trump had killed the immigration bill that could have helped. The message was clear: Trump would "fix" it. And at its core, anti-immigrant sentiment has always been about race. Meanwhile, Democrats faced the nearly impossible task of countering a *perceived* crisis, one cemented in the public's mind by relentless media coverage. Few arguments could compete with the image of thousands of migrants squeezing through barbed wire barriers—a picture worth a thousand words.
Bill Clinton was nothing if not "flexible" in his beliefs.
He was in many ways a gift to the conservatives and as a thank you they impeached him.
Okay, Anand, while I'm sure that many of us, including me, benefit from such a thorough presentation of the many complex issues associated with immigration, I'll just say that the nugget of this article is (I'm paraphrasing) that the whole thing comes down to white resentment. Period. Too many white people have a creeping sense that they are being displaced and that white people will before long be a minority population. Which is true. What they don't seem to understand, amazing really considering what has happened with virtually every immigrant group that's come to this country, is that immigrants become Americans at the speed of light. And they have contributed and will continue to enrich our society in ways large and small, from the much more interesting food we now enjoy (not just meat and potatoes) to other cultural inputs in our music, our architecture, even the way we laugh (just a little metaphor). IMO integration of this wave of immigrants is made MUCH more difficult because they are largely brown people, and we are a racist society. Maybe, too, at a deep deep level, there is the sort of repressed guilt white people harbor at having driven our native 'brown' population out, or killed them, which is much like the guilt we feel about building wealth on the backs of imported slaves. What a clusterf***.
The way Musk’s DOGE is going about agency personnel cuts is the equivalent of thinking we all need to lose 30 pounds & deciding to saw off legs arbitrarily. What Trump & Musk are doing will hurt millions of people in ways that we’re only beginning to see.
https://www.commoncause.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/FireMuskPoster_8.5x11.pdf
Asked whether it was trained on data from the federal government obtained by DOGE, Musk’s Grok 3 AI responded that “it’s plausible that data DOGE accessed could have flowed to xAI projects like Grok 3.” https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/20/musk-data-ai-00205259utm_campaign=wp_power_up&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter
How can I get an innovative idea to you, Anand, about a way to get young people (and young adults) interested in engaging with issues they care about most via immersive venues in which they would welcome participation because it is authentically meeting them "where they are". Traditional ways (as Anat was speaking about on today substack video) will not reach them; they do not engage as readily is those activites. Can contact me at sfurey@comcast.net
Thank you so much! You are a gift to all of us!
Fascinating and informative, thank you
Thank you, Felipe!
What’s it called?