Something more sinister in the future.

This is what happens when you do nothing about giving DC statehood: you make its residents a political punching bag while making the streets less safe and a ground zero for an authoritarian regime to railroad our Constitutional rights.

#TaxationWORep

En su afán de “DEPORTACIÓN MASIVA” Donald Trump, Marco Rubio y Nayib Bukele han legitimado a Nicolás Maduro

SIN DUDA — Maduro permitirá que todos estos hombres hablen públicamente sobre el maltrato y abuso que sufrieron a manos de ICE (EE.UU.) y CECOT (El Salvador)

I'm summing all this up to say: for whatever reason, we still have not cracked the proverbial code on what will finally compel a better dialogue on immigration.

But every second passed w/o Dems reclaiming the terms of the debate, inches our democracy closer to the brink of losing it for good. END

100 years ago, the US's flavor of reactionary politics-turned-policy was the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, which severely restricted immigration to the US.

And for years among countless conversations with colleagues I've alluded to this 100-yr mark, and how our present day strikes an eerie rhyme 20/

This has been the hardest part for myself, and I believe, for many of my colleagues in the space. We have come across as hyperbolic for years, staring down into the what ifs of reactionary politics turned into policies.

And now we are on the precipice of seeing that realized. 19/

Why do I say that? For the simple reason that, in the 1920s the US used to fumigate Mexican workers crossing the border to clear them of any lice or disease bc they were seen as "dirty."

This is what inspired Nazi Germany's gas chambers.

www.vox.com/2019/7/29/89...

18/

5. Unfortunately, I think we have yet to see the worst that supercharging DHS with the $100B that came from the Fugly* Bill.

But I do *hope* what is to come will do service to repelling us away from the cruelty we are about to collectively experience at scale, for at least the next 100+ yrs

17/

Let's take the family-based system for starters.

There are different priority categories based on relation to your relative, and THEN, each country gets placed onto their respective list. This has meant disproportionate wait times, sometimes taking DECADES.

This is just one ex among many. 16/

We can't defend what we don't make visible, what is already in front of our noses, hidden in plain sight.

4. NOW go in and fix and fortify the current visa system for immigrants and nonimmigrants, and those who remain practically shut out of access to the system, the undocumented.

15/

In fact, this is literally the driver of that pendulum swing in the recent Gallup poll!

The countless posts, videos, stories, anecdotes of "Trump said he would go after criminals, not my [INSERT SPOUSE, FAMILY, COWORKER/BUSINESS OWNER/EMPLOYEE OF ANY PROFESSION]!"

14/

Those econ arguments are helpful for gathering and organizing those grasstops leaders, it is valuable for sure.

BUT -- We need the IRL perspective of communities, tethered to the realities of how embedded immigrants already are, in their neighborhoods, workplaces, places of worship, schools...13/

Also turns out, ICE's street kidnappings are illegal as recently ruled in a district court, against 4th&5th amdmts.

3. There is a time and place for economic arguments, but we grossly silo this set of arguments in a grasstops business leaders, glossy paper kind of way....

12/