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FEATURING IVÁN ESPINOZA-MADRIGAL - Republican Vice Presidential running mate JD Vance admitted on national television that spread false rumors about Haitian migrants consuming people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio. In an interview on CNN, he said, “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.” Donald Trump at last week’s debate with Kamala Harris repeated the rumors and the Republican presidential ticket has doubled down on them, spurring bomb threats in Springfield and upending the small town that had been experiencing an economic revival thanks in part to migrants.

The extremist rightwing Heritage Foundation has made immigration its number one issue. Its Project 2025 mandate for a new Republican president targets both undocumented immigrants and legal methods of immigration. The broad vision of Project 2025 is that immigrants don’t belong in the United States, and therefore the next administration would have a mandate to dramatically increase the budget of the Customs and Border Patrol agency, completely seal the border with Mexico, eliminate several categories of visas and legal statuses, and federally divest from “sanctuary” cities. 

As part of YES! Magazine's new Progress 2025 initiative, we explore what a progressive vision of immigration would look like.

NOTE: An earlier version of this post erroneously attributed Vance's comments to an interview on NBC. He made the comments on CNN.

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