‘A bipartisan problem’: Americans debate immigration policy

Music, welcome to a very special America speaks right here at straight arrow news, there is no issue in America today that divides people more personally, more viciously than immigration. We saw it in the debate. We see it in the campaign itself. People are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. Some people desperately want our borders to be open to give people the chance to come to America. Some people desperately want our borders to be closed to prevent not just illegal immigration, but legal immigration as well. Is a contentious issue, and it’s driving people to opposite sides of the spectrum, which is exactly why we decided to explore it today. Listen, watch, because you’re going to be surprised by what you hear. There are two issues that are dominating the presidential campaign right now. One of them is affordability. The other is immigration. And there’s nothing more controversial, more divisive than the issue of immigration and American politics. Right now, as I look at this focus group, I see people from all across the country. It’s going to see so many states resented. I’m going to ask you a very simple question. I say the word immigration, and in a sentence, you think, what? Karen? One sense, when you hear the word immigration,

it is totally out of control. It doesn’t have to be this way. I believe it’s deliberate, and I shut up. I We need change now. Ryan, the word immigration, you think, what something that we need to put a solution in place to fix Kevin from Florida,

Messi, but also helps both parties with the way it is currently. They rally against it, but they also secretly like it. Immigration, to me, is about enforcing the current immigration laws, but at the same time promoting legal immigration, because, you know, that’s, that’s where my people came from.

Matt, from Florida, you hear immigration, you think, I think we need to find a way to

make it easier to with the naturalization of the of the immigrants legally. Ben from Pennsylvania,

if it’s legal, it’s fine, but currently, I think it needs to be gotten under control. Melissa from New York,

immigration is a problem, but it’s also it’s a bipartisan problem. It’s not problem, it’s the problem through every single administration. Colleen from California, um, I feel like we’re in over our heads. And when I think of immigration, I’m thinking of crime, I’m thinking of fatalities. Um, it’s out of control. Steve from Wisconsin, yeah, this is absolutely out of control. It’s absolutely a disaster, and that we, for decades, both parties, have completely failed to come up with comprehensive immigration reform where there are people that want to come here, that have skills, and that we have a bottleneck that has been around for a long time from both parties, and that an open border policy is not solving it, it’s only making it worse. Kelly from Pennsylvania, when I think of immigration, I think it is out of control. I think it needs to be put back into perspective. And I also believe there is a way to do it the right way. There’s a lot of people out there that have come here legally, and those people, I think, should be put first. And we do need to shore up our borders. We do need to take care of our people, because there’s people, there’s crime waves everywhere, there’s there’s actually, we’ve seen them being bused into our area, which is a really small area in Pennsylvania, so it’s got to get under control. Janice from Alabama,

I think it’s, it’s become an overwhelming problem, and we’re even seeing an impact here in some of the Northern count counties in Alabama, where it’s simply overwhelming our resources, our infrastructure, our health care system, our educational system, and it’s there, obviously there’s a legal path to citizenship now, which I think gets overlooked and it gets kind of lost in the conversation there. I think we could stand to have a little more legal immigration, simply because so many people will be retiring over the next 10 years to replace those workers, especially if they’re skilled workers. But the way it is now, with just flooding open borders, it’s a strain on it’s a strain on a lot of communities. Okay, Kim from Arizona, I think it’s quite problematic. I’m close to the border, about 20 minutes to the border, and I see it daily. I feel like it’s affecting our jobs, our well being, and it’s just it’s a travesty.

And Wilbur from India,

yeah, it’s an illegal invasion brought to us by career politicians. We need Trump back. You.

Out, okay, this is not a partisan discussion. No, I’m sorry this is an issue, but I’m going to go there. You’re I just want to put it in a sentence. You said the word invasion

that is really strong. Tell me why? Well, it’s been unfettered act. It’s been unfettered access, and there’s no screening. Even in the medical community, my wife’s a nurse, and several illegals come here, I’m sorry, migrants, and they have no medical history. So if they have a problem, you run them through the middle CAT scan, MRI, you name it. And of course, they don’t pay anything for it.

I want to see actually, I see Steve nodding your head. Please tell me why. Because I completely agree we do not have the capacity or the resources take take in this, whatever you want to call it, invasion, is not a bad term, but we do not have the resources. 35 $36 trillion worth of debt and deficits going on into perpetuity. We cannot afford this. Why would we take on this burden? I just can’t understand that for communities in the states and the cities that have to deal with this, this is catastrophic, and it’s going to be getting worse. Kelly, your ground zero, your state, because of some of the stuff that’s been talked about in recent weeks. Do you agree or disagree? I agree. I agree. Because just recently, like I said, they’ve been busting them into our area and taking over hotels in our area, and our area is supporting it. There’s vouchers for them, there’s health care for them there, and we actually have a lot of veterans in our area and homeless veterans that are overlooked. And that, to me, it’s not fair. It’s not right. We should be taking care of our own, just like when you’re on an airplane and they tell you, put the oxygen on yourself first before you help other people. We have to help our people first. We can’t be helping this influx, and it’s just amazing the amount of benefits that they’re receiving, especially from this area. And I’ve seen it. I’ve seen hotels taken over, and I’m just afraid that it’s going to spill into the streets. And I’ve never been afraid to walk the streets. And I live in little old Scranton. I walk to the car with my keys strategically placed. I just, I worry. I worry. Kim, you’re from Arizona, you’re ground zero for some of this. Is this alarmist, or is this real? This is real. I’m seeing like, cars that they come through

like 90 100 miles an hour. Just police are like chasing them with boatloads of cars. I’ve seen like groups of people walking that they obviously look like migrants.

They’re getting all kind of benefits, and I really feel like it’s affecting our economy locally here in Arizona,

does anyone want to speak up in favor of immigration?

I’ll speak up, Matt, go ahead. Yeah, I think I would use you said alarmist. I think it’s probably there’s a lot of

I think it’s a problem. Immigration is a problem. We got to figure out a way to get the people who are here and integrate them the ones who want to I don’t think there’s any statistics that show that these migrants are harming they’re doing jobs that most of us probably don’t want to do. A lot of them are paying taxes. So I think the problem is we’re we do need to secure the border, right? There’s too many people coming in, but these people are here. So what do you want to do with them? We got to figure out a way how we can help them and help everyone else and make it legal. I just don’t know what you know. The other option is to deport everyone. These people are fleeing a very dangerous situation. I think we should have some more compassion for them. And yes, I understand that they go to the hospital and maybe they don’t have to pay some bills. It’s not really a great life that they’re living. Any one of you can give up everything and and be subsidized by the government. It’s, it’s not a great life. I don’t think. I mean, I live in California, LA, we have a lot of legal immigrants too, but

we just have to find a solution, solve this problem, because we do need the workforce? I mean, nobody wants their jobs. Is anybody going to be want their jobs? What are they? You know, no. So we kind of find we have to find a solution for that, instead of just blaming them for everything. Melissa,

yeah, I was going to agree with Chandler and Matt. It is a problem, but there’s also a lot of propaganda that’s out there, unfair propaganda that, you know, parents are committing crimes and all the streets are I live Midtown, and it’s perfectly fine, and immigrants are significantly less likely to commit crimes than

people who are born in the United States. They’re, they are? They?

Be a drain on our resources, so there needs to be

safeguards and things like that in place, but they’re not coming after our jobs. They’re not they don’t vote. I mean, there’s just so much, so much negativity and lies basically out there about undocumented individuals. Steve from Wisconsin, You look upset, right? Because they are actually talking about giving them the right to vote. They are taking away resources from people who are in our country, who are citizens here that have been wanting to get resources for decades, and all of a sudden, all this money becomes available because of this influx, and so the people who are here, if I was one of these poor people living in an inner city, I would be upset about not getting the resources, because now they’re being deflected, redirected to people who are just coming in recently, illegally because of an open border I have, and you’ve Been waiting patiently. Yeah. No. I mean, I think the language and the specifically, like words like invasion, are used specifically

alarmist language to incite distrust and hatred toward people who are different.

I think it is a problem, though, and you know, Joe Biden signed an executive order that has reduced illegal immigration pretty significantly earlier this year. Physically Raise your hands. Have you seen actual, really bad behavior, serious problems because of immigration? Okay, I want to call on you guys right now, Darlene Aline and mark three different states, three different regions of the country, and you’re telling me that visibly you’ve seen this, Darlene, you start, yeah, absolutely. Going to Boston, going to work, taking the tea.

The airport, Logan Airport, they’ve been,

it’s been over inundated two or three separate times. There was assault a battery. I’ve seen it myself with fighting amongst themselves.

Aline from California, yeah, I’ve been in LA 15 years, and it’s pretty bad here. I can get to that another time. But before I moved in San Francisco, there was a murder, a young college, young college student, anyway, and it was an illegal immigrant, and there is, you know, no motive behind it. And I’m, you know, I’m just reading about all these murders, and they’re all tied to illegal immigrants being in, LA, the same thing, murders gang related looting. I know that’s more affordability, but it just, it’s, tied to if they can get them illegal immigrants, per se. So Mark, what have you seen from Louisiana? Well, I’m right outside of New Orleans. So we had a large Hispanic population that came in after Hurricane Katrina to help us rebuild. Okay, so those were the good ones. However, more recently, we’ve had some the good ones. Do you really want to use that language the good ones?

Okay, the

workers,

the ones that take and put in the time and the effort and taking provide. And you know, I see a lot of them provide for families. You know, they’re providing for their families with what they earn. So, I mean, in that respect, I see, you know, one of the other participants here had mentioned, you know, people deserve the right to take and earn a wage. You know,

am I a fan of immigration? No, but I, you know, that was the backbone of this country. You know, was immigration.

Lot of us wouldn’t be here.

But getting back to, you know, what we were talking about, or what I started to talk about, we’ve had some issues here locally where they had one immigrant that had kidnapped a 15 year old girl and sexually assaulted, yeah, you know, we’ve had some carjackings. We’ve had

invasions, you know, different things like that.

Yeah, Anthony, you’re in New York. What have you seen?

Honestly, I usually work late night, 5pm to one in the morning. I go home. Half of the hotels are full of migrants, immigrants. They’re outside. They’re there. Matt, when you hear this conversation, do you think that it’s

that there’s a problem with it, that there’s a underlying dislike of it or not, I.

I can hear it here. I hear it on the news. My the thing for me is that there’s a distinction between an illegal immigrant and someone’s a and a and a someone who’s entered the country legally, who’s seeking asylum and trying to, you know, become a citizen, which they don’t have, you know, that’s what we have to kind of figure out, I think, is how to do that. And I think so there’s a lot of people that

I think are, are confusing the two. And the other question is, what do you want? They’re here. What do you want to what are we going to do with

them? The people who want to think of the problem out of here,

deport them.

Send them home. Send them home reaction

to a country that isn’t safe for them, that they you know,

many of their asylum plans by leaving illegals here, you undermine the system of legal immigration, because you send a message that laws can just be tossed out the window. Bingo. How you going to distinct between an illegal immigrant and as someone who’s gotten here? Really right? How do you do that? It’s really easy to do.

Exactly how easy is it to do? Yeah, well, the ones that have began the process to come here legally, or are here legally. There’s documents within our government to prove that, not all, I mean, but there’s 11 million of them. And I don’t think people really comprehend how much 11 million exactly is like, even if like the deport, the deportation process and isn’t just okay, you look like an illegal or you are one. You get deported, you have a hearing, you go to court. You know, are we going to build 100,000 new courthouses and detention centers and hire 300,000 immigration lawyers and judges and administrators to do all this, it’ll take, what, 1520, years to deport 11 million people. It’s just it’s not going to happen.

I mean, you can try, but it’s just not going to happen, especially coming from, where come from, to do that. Well, that’s what I’m saying, too. Like,

that’s why they also have the infrastructure to make it legal and and fast track people that Congress has failed us by not figuring this out for the last couple of decades, to let people that want to come in to work and to earn and have legitimate asylum claims. The process right now is not being vetted properly. Are not being

able to be vetted properly, and the bad ones are or given the good ones, you know, what’s a bad one? Bad one. I mean the ones that I but how many

didn’t you tell

the ones that are draining, the ones that are killing people, ones that are carjacking and killing actors in downtown LA, those

angels, you can’t talk about one from the good ones. What are you going to just want? Have you Googled how many illegal immigrants have committed murder in the last five years? Is not very many,

carjacking and there’s America,

yeah,

anybody’s open border solution? No, it’s not. Coming into this country illegally. Is a crime, correct? Perfect,

that’s a crime

for

bad name. The ones that are here working, trying to provide for their family and trying to do the right thing, they’re giving those ones a bad name. And now everybody’s just in a, you know, a hot it’s just, yeah, it’s a hot mess. It’s so we Yeah, I don’t know. I think everyone here agrees that immigration is a problem. We have to figure out a better way. But no one on no one on either side. I don’t have the answers, but I know the answer isn’t deported.

Yeah, I mean, I think he’s gonna try, but it’s like I said, there’s two, there’s just way too many people. It’s never gonna happen. There’s no are you going to put them in like camps until you can get I was going to get jobs?

What also is not a completely open border? Well, it’s not

an executive order closing it illegal border crossing their lowest point in four years. I think everyone here agrees that we need to not have an open border. But

if they have children, they’re United States citizens. Now you’re going to take their parents away. I mean, it’s just, it’s, it’s inhumane. I’m Jewish. It’s, I’m Jewish too. What does that matter? The idea is we want people to come in legally, Congress.

Should have been able to figure out by now, but they haven’t. You can’t go backwards. You have to figure out how to we need to go forward in a way that’s more productive, in a way that identifies and you just not let open borders in an area right now, in an environment right now, it’s not safe or here. What can you do with the people that are here put in the work? If they’re not going to go to work and they’re not gonna be a part of the system, then let’s depart. Aren’t most

even if you don’t deport them, cut off their funds. If they’re not gonna work, don’t right the

money that they’re getting over in their side. We can’t afford it. There’s a there’s a lot of lies out there. First of all, immigrants. First of all, undocumented immigrants cannot receive welfare. They cannot vote, yeah, of course, not. None of these things

are less crimes. They’re here to work, or they’re here to work,

pay taxes, and nobody’s coming after any of our jobs. They’re all men.

And how

men are there are women, there are babies, there are children, and they’re being separated from their illegals. They’re not on you. They’re not criminals, they’re not being released. How are you going to deport all these people? I’m a little

confused, the ones that are not come on, look, this is getting it sounds. Obviously. Got an opinion on this. You know what? I have not heard.

I’ve not heard a solid plan from either candidate on how this is going to be achieved. Okay, I have not heard it from either one, because it’ll be achieved. They don’t want, I mean, they don’t really have a plan. That’s why they say things like mass deportation or build a wall, very simple ideas that people can get behind without really thinking too deeply about how they’ll work. Like a wall is going to stop illegal immigration and mass deportation is not going to happen, but they make people happy to hear them vote for them, I think was

a plan that was it is a plan that’s not a normal plan. I mean, you could come here to start. Wouldn’t a wall work? Because most people who are here illegally come here via like flight. They’re usually overstaying pieces and stuff like that. Even if a wall was there, you can, like, climb it or dig it, or, like, go through it, or literally anything past that was the case in the past, Kevin, you’re correct. They came via other modes. But during the past three years, that’s not been the case. It’s true. Those are asylum seekers, though, so even if they were on the wall, they wouldn’t be let through by border patrol because they’re asylum seekers. They’re not

Trump’s executive orders.

You’re correct, yes.

And even this, this this part bipartisan plan about normalizing 5000 immigrants per day. How was that logistically possible, that if all of a sudden, if, even if Trump would have agreed to it, if the Republicans we could have passed that 5000 immigrants per day, how are they going to communicate that? How are they logistically going to shut down a border at 5000 per day? That was ridiculous. That border plan that they were talking about, that Trump was against was a total non starter. It was completely nonsense, but yet that’s a talking tool right now, how he’s against closing down the border when he was the one that had the wall playing. But anything just looks nice. Yeah. I mean, like I said, the border crossings are at their lowest point in four years right now, so it’s because of the tension, because it’s a big Hubert, oh, that’s what I’m saying. Democrats have capitulated on the issue. Like, you know, everyone’s agreeing with Trump is so, like, you know, like, Harris is pushing a border bill written by Republicans. You know what I’m saying? Like, so, they’ve, they’re, they’re agreeing with you, you know, like, it’s it, it’s, it’s done that you, you Republicans have won the issue of immigration. They want it’s done. Okay, hold on, I went for 11 minutes without saying a word. That is the second longest I had

in my career.

Speak to us. And a whole bunch of you are speaking at the same time, because this is the point. You’re doing exactly what America’s doing, and you should not feel good. You should not feel bad. This is America, and that’s the purpose of this podcast,

the purpose of this discussion. And you guys are actually reasonably civil. I want you to evaluate the two presidential candidates, because immigration is going to determine a lot of votes for a lot of people across the country. So let’s start with the front writer, front runner, Kamala Harris. How do you evaluate what she has done and where she stands? And we’ll do an immigration Mark. I’m going to start with you, and then I’m going to go Karen, and then Ryan. I.

I think what somebody pointed out a moment ago about her backing a Republican bill that had been presented, I think was a good move.

You know, we need bipartisanship in this, and that’s one of the things that we’re lacking in the country. And I think that she can take and bring the parties back together,

Karen, your evaluation of the Democratic nominees immigration position. I’m not sure I know what it is.

I don’t know what her plan is. I know she was raised in a middle class family,

but I don’t know what her plan is. I just being asked like I I won’t speak ignorantly, then,

Brian, you’re up.

Yeah, I agree with that one. I haven’t heard an exact plan be put forward yet, but at the same time, what I what I would say is that I don’t see the proposed plan coming from Trump as something logistically or feasible that’s going to work, although I do understand where people are coming from. We’re going to do Trump in a moment. We’re doing Harris now, Wilbur from Indiana, your evaluation of the Harris plan,

just like every other policy she doesn’t have, there’s no plan on immigration from Kamala Harris. Kim,

I would have to agree with Wilbur on that. I feel like she has no direction and

way that she’s going to resolve this issue. Does anyone want to back Harris or want to support her on immigration? I only see two hands up, three hands up, four hands up. Okay, Melissa, you’re up.

Well. I from what I’ve heard from her, she supports an earned pathway to citizenship for the people who want to be here, and she wants to to revive a tough border.

I mean, we need to see it, and we need to have bipartisan support, but that has been what her policy has been as of late. Matt,

yeah, I, as someone else, had said there was a she was backing a Republican plan, a border plan, and it got shot down. I don’t 100% understand what her her plan is. Outside of that, I think she didn’t push hard enough to find out why they didn’t want that to happen, and then if you don’t like that, what can we do to change it? But

people are that far off when they say that. She hasn’t come out with an exact plan, but you know, she’s working with the the administration now, and they’ve been trying to do something. So I think it’s going to take both sides to work and try and find something that can be good. Steve, go ahead,

look, it’s the equivalent of hiring an arsonist to put out the fire that they caused. She has been a part of this administration for three and a half years, and now she’s coming in all of a sudden, interested in the immigration problem when she was or was not, the borders are, I don’t know. I don’t care. It’s been a huge problem. It’s the equivalent of hiring an arsonist to put out the fire that they caused. Vice President has very little power to do anything. I don’t so any time people say she’s been there for three years, she she can do very little. She has no power to do anything. She can start by visiting it. She can, yeah,

she’s got a lot of catch up to do. What would that accomplish? Oh, nothing, of course, yes. Nobody. Seriously, legitimately, she goes there and looks bring ideas to she could have brought ideas to Biden or to the administration, she couldn’t down there and said, This is what am I, Vice President,

the border

she she neglected after becoming borders are? She neglected, never. Borders are. Yes, she

was, that is

an absolute lie. She was not

saying

everyone

has no has no power whatsoever. She is basically number two. She’s on standby. That is all

she was. I never all

for President, for President before and when she ran in 2019 as a primary candidate for the Democrat Party, indicated her position on an open border, which she was in favor of. So her light switch. At this point, I find a little vice president can have power, but, I mean, I’m sorry,

an opinion, but they do not have any power. So she’s got nothing to do with this. So she’s got no responsibility for this whatsoever.

Can’t really do anything like, I mean, most is off.

Come on,

she’s following Joe’s lead, and Joe’s not doing anything. And Kamala was on tape today was from years ago, where she was saying that’s now a deportation up with education over and over again. What’s an issue with a pathway decision? Why would anyone not want that? Why they not figured it out by now? This has been decades. This is not new, because the filibuster exists in the Senate.

Coming across and love is not that simple. It’s not that we already have a pathway

to we’ve had it for 150 years. Why aren’t we following it? Right? My ancestors came over from Ireland. They came over

just yours.

I’m sorry there was yours.

You had to prove that you could support yourself before they left,

that they could support themselves. Yes, you had to have, well, how do they prove

it? How did those people prove that they came from either your they did, they showed that they because they had, they had to have money came. But they had to

have

money. Come on, yeah, they showed it. They did. They had to have a certain amount. Did they show like, $20 in their pocket? And then in the border, people were like, you can

look at any old census. If anybody came in from Ellis Island, they had no, and a sponsor in the United

States. So why, if we could do it, then I don’t understand why we can’t do it now in the right way. Hold

on, American. Hold on before I go to Trump, Luke, you’re from Illinois, Chicago has had a significant reaction to immigration, and yet you’re silent.

There’s whole debates going on. There four of you who have not spoken up, Luke, why are you quiet when the issue is so important, and I know you care about the one thing I know about immigrants is that they work the hardest jobs because they gotta work under the table. And so with that in with that in mind, it just baffles me to even think that we can even look at them as the devil like, to me, I’ll I go to Lowe’s talking while I see like 100 immigrants. To me, I’m like, Oh, they in the 100 degree weather. They deserve some sort, I don’t wanna say healthcare, but they deserve some sort of treatment for being out there, because I could never do it. So you know, that’s the only reason why I held back, because I honestly feel like it’s more of a situation of trying to get citizenship than it is avoiding taxes and all that other stuff and all. Because every time I look around the manual labor that I can never work because I probably passed on the most of us would, those immigrants are working there. Well, I’ll go on. Ben, why have you not participated? Half the people here were arguing with each other, and yet you were silent. Tell me why they have they have both got valid points on both sides. And while I do agree that

there’s a problem with the borders, and that’s a real issue that we’re facing. Everyone across the board has agreed with that. Fact, I still cannot come up with a practical solution to that, like we’ve talked about mass deportation and how that that’s not really practical. And so I just feel if I do have an answer to the problem, basically everyone has just been firing shots. I’m just hearing everyone talking to each other and mentioning the problem, but no solution so far. Lila, does the fact that you are the child of an immigrant parent have any impact on your feeling about immigration?

I have a lot of sympathy for asylum seekers, but at the same time, I have a lot of respect for the process and the commitment my both of my parents made to come here legally, and what Ben has been through, it is A significant effort, and to just discard the rule of law, to me, is, is is inappropriate. I’m from from New York, and half of the people who are Puerto Rican or Dominican, we’re not immigrants. Some of them just don’t speak English. It doesn’t the English as a second language has been a thing since I was a kid. I’m English is my first language, but I have a lot of family from Puerto Rico, and they’re not immigrants at all. They’re citizens. They don’t speak English much. So it doesn’t really make any sense for that to be Puerto

Rico and US territory. I mean, it’s part of our country, so that’s

what I’m saying, the English, Spanish language.

Saying, does it tie into

people? Because they’re different? Not that at all. There is an impact in community on health care, education,

housing, for example. I mean, there’s an impact to every single community that has an influx of immigrants from wherever they come from. But this is not about language. This is not about language. It’s not about what they speak. I’m also planning it hard to understand where the language thing came in. Why?

Yes? It Yeah, the language thing really is not a big deal. The idea is, are they coming into America to be able to get on government benefits? Are they coming here to work and succeed and to make their own way, or are they coming to get onto a gravy train of rich American benefits that are richer than most of the other countries in the world? They don’t get benefits though. They don’t get benefits and

work and pay taxes, and they don’t get benefits. We get a taxes, they

don’t

get them to give them all the stuff they get.

What are they getting?

Personal? They are. They are absolutely. Percentage of immigrants who are on welfare is percentage of immigrants who are welfare within the room. So they got a personal chef to make the food that they from, the culture they’re from, and they deliver it.

Look this up. It’s very easy. The percentage area they get housing vouchers they get

the government that is coming from private foundation,

absolutely, our government is not funding housing, their housing.

The percentage of immigrants on welfare is like 1% one and a 99% of all the immigrants. What about Eric Adams needing all the wanting government support for the influx in New York,

and why are they flying them all over to different cities? And why aren’t they being flown to Martha’s Vineyard? Well, I guess they were grow up,

because even mayor, even Mayor Adams in New York, is complaining that the influx of immigrants is straining their budget, and it’s not sustainable, and so are one of the mayors in California straining the budget on schools. But they’re not being handed anything. They’re not being given

crazy, no,

they were given a hotel in the such denial, I don’t understand. Maybe you don’t leave. Well, even the and the rhetoric is extremely dangerous. Yeah, I agree. The amount of you can go on welfare if you want. It’s not a fun life. I know people on welfare, but the amount of immigrant, illegal immigrants, who are on immigrants, who are immigrants who are on welfare, is about the same as the amount of American citizens on welfare. So it’s not like there’s some disproportionate amount of immigrants who are going on welfare

this amazing life. Most of them, the large majority, are coming here because they’re escaping issues and crime in their own country and they want for a living. Well, they say

that we’ve got our own American citizens that are on welfare that we’ve not been able to provide for, you’re bringing in 10s of millions of others that we can’t provide for them either, taking away the safety net for the people that we really should be supporting as a way to bring this conversation to a close. Can I get your reaction to Donald Trump’s position on immigration, and please be succinct. Get to the point you can be supportive or opposed. I don’t care. Let’s go Matt. You’re up first. Yeah, he was president. Tried to build a wall. It was unsuccessful. His

plan now is deportation. Not only isn’t it feasible financially, it’s inhumane. And I just the way that he talks about immigrants, not illegal immigrants, immigrants, I think, is it’s it’s what we hear in this room here. People just hear it. Janice,

I think immigration was an issue of his that he ran on successfully, obviously, in 2016 so I give him, I give him credit for recognizing the problem before the Democrats finally got around to understanding it was a problem. So do I think he has a solid plan? I’m not sure about that, but at least he reckon you can’t solve a problem if you don’t recognize that there is one. So I give him credit for that. Ryan,

yeah, I just, I don’t think that the proposed, you know, deportations and this kind of thing is logistically or feasibly possible. And I don’t think they’re ever going to able, they wouldn’t be able to pull it off, basically. So I would like to hear a plan from them that I think is actually feasible. Elaine, yeah, I think of.

Everything that I’ve heard him speak, I feel like immigration is one of the most passionate things that he’s focusing on. He did have a plan in 2016 he did start that wall he wants to get he wants to he’s talking about crime. He wants to weed the bad ones out. He wants to get the bad ones out like I’m saying, the ones that are convicted, the ones are that are committing the crime. He does have a plan. He is passionate about it. And moving forward,

I feel like it’ll be solved once he is in office. Lila,

I think securing the borders is extremely important, and I agree with his platform there. I think the idea of a border wall is completely silly,

and I would like to hear more detail around how he plans to do deal with 22 million illegal immigrants. You know, I think as much as I support the idea of taking people to task for coming here illegally, I just don’t know. I just have not heard anything from him that is, is a practical plan around him. Melissa,

I think his rhetoric is extremely dangerous. He just wants to mass deport non citizens. He doesn’t want to weed out. There’s no weeding out. He just wants to mass deport everyone, and today he said that he wants to give everybody a serial number. Now I’m also Jewish, and I’ve heard a bunch of people on here are Jewish as well, and regardless if you are not, I don’t know where we’ve heard that before about giving people serial numbers and rounding them up and deporting them, or doing worse, based upon a serial number. So I think it’s just crazy and disgusting. Kelly, great.

Kelly, yes,

everybody is speaking talking points and nothing to back it up, like, you know, saying we’re not giving out money here and we’re not giving out money here to the undocumented. You can Google it and you can see it. New York City is is being crushed with these debit cards that they gave out to these immigrants. And it’s not he’s not wanting to deport everybody. He’s trying to weed out the criminals, like the ones that go after Rachel Morin and the lake and Riley’s and the 13 year old who was raped in New York City. It’s there’s, they’re here. They are here. And no, and I’m not saying that normal Americans don’t do the same thing, but that’s one too many for our country. That’s just one too many, and it’s just, there’s, there’s talking points on both sides. I need to ask you, because, you know, I’m a stickler for language. You just use the phrase normal Americans? Well, I’m, I mean citizens, American citizens, the right, the American citizens that are here. They do. They’re they do commit crimes. I’m not saying they don’t. I’m not saying every single crime in this country is buying illegal I’m not saying that either. I’m saying there are crimes that are are perpetrated by both Americans and illegals. And he’s speaking of the ones that are committing he’s right, and he was cool, right? That’s the ones he’s talking about. He’s not no mask. Mass deportation is everybody. It is not

you’ve already you’ve already committed a crime. Coming here illegal. Illegal means illegal. So you’ve already committed a crime. It’s a crime. It doesn’t matter. It’s you can’t put a pretty face on it. Illegal means illegal Period. End of story. Then that’s what he’s talking about. That’s not what he sees. He said it with his own words, mass deportation. He’s not dividing people up. He’s not singling out the criminals and the people. The signaling criminals are criminals. Anyone who commits a

crime is in trouble. So what are we talking about here? Killings, kidnappings, card kidnappings, carjackings. Who’s doing that? Who’s going because it’s in the news. It’s in the news that actor that got shot in downtown LA illegal immigrants. It’s sickening, but there’s a lot of people get shot in downtown. No, I know, but they’re trying to illegals. Is where it’s streamlined. That’s that’s where they commit just a matter of crime, or less than average

Americans. It’s too much. It’s daily. You don’t like immigrants. That’s fine, or whatever. Don’t

blame you know, I mean, that’s yours. Don’t blame them for all the crimes you’re like, Oh,

you are. Because everybody, portion, every country in the world, has criminals, you know, everybody just want to blame them.

We’re letting them in where we should not let them in. But it’s a portion of the crimes that we’re.

And then, no, not true. It’s not portion of the crimes. I mean, everybody came from somewhere, or everybody’s an immigrant. Your parents know everybody’s good. Everybody committed crimes. Come out, and it’s not necessary. Yeah, it isn’t it. What’s not necessary? You’re saying they commit the crimes. That’s the whole about they commit crime. But in theory wise, they commit less crimes because they because they don’t want to go back to

their country, or ridiculous, less than 1% like immigrants, that’s fine. I

think anybody’s saying

that. You’re saying.

People can’t they like Irish at

all. When they came here, they were, oh, those people still. They’re okay to suck. It’s been two years since I did a focus group where I could not even get in to make a comment.

Lila, I want you to tell people in this session what you message me just now, I said, if that is a beer, please send one my way for this cacophony.

So that’s a very good way to end this conversation. I want to thank you all very much for being honest, for being passionate, for the most part, not entirely for being respectful and for proving, once and for all that we are a very divided country when it comes to immigration, and there’s a lot more talk and a lot less action. So all everyone. Thank you very much for your participation. Thank you. Thank you. The immigration issue is the most difficult we’re facing as a country, because there does seem to be no common ground we know three things. Number one, Americans don’t want to throw out young people who came here through no fault of their own. Number two, Americans do want some sort of barrier to make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to cross illegally. And number three, they expect Washington to get it done, because in the end, we all agree that the current system is broken. That’s exactly what you heard, and that’s exactly what needs to be done. If we can solve immigration, there’s no issue we cannot tackle. But if we can’t solve immigration, there’s no issue, no contentious issue that we cannot solve, and that’s the purpose of these conversations right here on straight arrow news, to hear the voices of real people and real concerns as we move through this election process. I’m Dr. Frank Luntz, thank you for watching, thank you for listening, and thank you for providing your voice to the voices of America. You.