The Deep Dive with Andy Heintz

In Part 2 of my interview Pervez Hoodbhoy, he discusses and proposes solutions to some of Pakistan's biggest problems including settling the Kashmir issue with India, the need for education reform, and creating a more egalitarian environment in the country. Pervez is a media commentator, author, nuclear physicist and Pakistani intellectual. This interview was originally conducted on July 21, 2024.

In this episode, author, media commentator, intellectual and nuclear physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy discusses thebiggest problemsfacing Pakistan, and how religious persecution and the exploitation of the general public is built into the country's political system. He also traces the rise of religious fundamentalism in Pakistan, the similarities between the popular jailed former Prime MinisterImran Khan and President Donald Trump, and how Khan'seducation policies are one of the worst legacies leftover from his time in power. He also discusses how the importance of Pakistan has decreased in the eyes of U.S. foreign policy makers and why he thinks this is a good thing. This interview was conducted on July 21, 2024.

This episode will feature an interview I conducted with my friend Hayley Rauzi on June 9, 2024. During the interview, Hayley talks about refugee policies in my home state of Iowa and in the United States in general. Hayley has worked for a number of refugee organizations in the state of Iowa including the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) and the Ethnic Minorities of Burma Advocacy and Resource Center (EMBARC). Hayley and I discuss the challenges facing refugee organizations and the people they serve, how rising nationalism and xenophobia has effected refugee organizations, and how ordinary citizens can support refugee-friendly policies and refugee organizations. Hayley also debunks negative myths and stereotypes about refugees. I thought this was a timely subject with Donald Trump returning to the White House on January 20, 2025. During his first presidency, the Trump administration pushed anti-refugee policies including a travel ban that was particularly hostile to refugees from Muslim-majority countries. In fiscal year 2017, Trump lowered the refugee admissions ceiling from 110, 000 (set under President Barack Obama's administration) to 50,000. The Trump administration continued to decrease the maximum number of refugees allowed to be admitted into the country in the following years. It lowered the refugee admissions ceiling to 45,000 in 2018; 30,000 in 2019; and 18,000 in 2020. The Trump administration also used fear-mongering to inaccurately paint refugees from certain countries as terrorist threats. While it is understandable that people are focused on Trump's promise to support mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, we also shouldn't forget to be ready to oppose the future president if he tries to push anti-refugee policies that are similar to the ones he promoted during his first term in office.

This episode of the Deep Dive features Part 2 of my interview with Maria Gonzalez-Alvarez, which was conducted on July 4, 2024. Maria is a community organizer for the Des Moines-based Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice and the co-founder of Immigrant Allies of Marshalltown, Iowa. Marshalltown is a racial and ethnically diverse town of about 28,000. Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice (MMJ) is a state-wide, membership-based legal service and advocacy organization led by immigrants and refugees. Immigrant Allies in Marshalltown is an organization that seeks to empower undocumented immigrants and strengthen the local community through education, advocacy, events, actions and collaboration. Maria and I and examined how certain politicians have used fearmongering rhetoric to push an immigration agenda that is hostile to undocumented immigrants. We also look at how some politicians have weaponized individual crimes by people who happen to be undocumented to otherize and demonize undocumented immigrants as a whole. I wanted to this interview with Maria to encourage people to not let the immigration debate be hijacked by those pushing the politics of fear over the politics of compassion and reasonable dialogue.

President-elect Donald Trump has promised to carry out mass deportations when he returns to the White House in January 2025. Trump has already nominated immigration hardliners like Stephen Miller, Tom Homan and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to be part of his administration. Homan, who will serve as the Trump administrations border czar, has been called the architect of Trump's family separation policy, which led to more than 5,500 children being separated from their parents at the border. More than 1,000 of these children still have not been reunified with their parents. Miller, who will serve as President-elect Trump's deputy chief of staff and Homeland Security Advisor ,was a lead author of some of Trump's most controversial immigration policies including zero-tolerance policies that led to families being separated from their children at the border. Noem, whom Trump has chosen to be his Homeland Security Secretary, voiced support for Trump's Muslim ban in 2017, opposed allowing Afghan refugees settling in South Dakota after the U.S. military's withdrawal from Afghanistan, and personally supported Texas Gov. Rick Scott using razor wire to fortify Texas' southern border. She even went as far as telling Fox News she would personally drive to Texas to provide Scott with more wire. Given Trump's ugly rhetoric and extreme anti-immigrant policies, I thought this would be a good time to focus on groups who already have experience working with and advocating for undocumented immigrants. This is Part 1 of an interview I conducted with Maria Gonzalez-Alvarez on July 4, 2024. Maria is a co-founder of Immigrant Allies in Marshalltown. Marshalltown is an ethnically and racially diverse city of about 28,000 people in the state of Iowa. Immigrant Allies' formation was in response to a raid on the Swift & Company meatpacking plant in Marshalltown in December of 2006. The raid resulted in 90 workers being arrested and taken to Camp Dodge, a National Guard facility in Johnston, Iowa. Maria's mom was among those arrested, but she fought her case and was later released. Maria reports her mom is currently a resident who is applying for U.S. citizenship. After 72 hours, the arrested workers being held at the National Guard facility were either deported or taken to out-of-state federal detention centers. Five other Swift plants were raided by ICE on the same day and 1, 282 workers were arrested. At that time, it marked the largest immigration raid in U.S. history.

Immigrant Allies, which was founded in 2010, has worked to empower undocumented immigrants while also strengthening the local community through a focus on education, advocacy, events, action and collaboration. Since the interview was conducted, Maria also has taken a position as a community organizer for Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice. MMJ is a state-wide legal service and advocacy organization led by immigrant and refugee voices and their allies. Maria reports MMJ is seeking financial support to expand its team and provide additional training opportunities. It welcomes donations and volunteers who share the organization's vision. In our interview, Maria discusses the origins of Immigrant Allies, shares her past experiences as an undocumented immigrant (she is now a resident in the process of becoming an American citizen), highlights Immigrant Allies' accomplishments, dispels myths about undocumented workers, talks about how immigrants have helped fuel economic growth in Marshalltown, and shares her views on what reforms could make the immigration system easier to navigate for people wanting to come to the United States.

This monologue is meant to highlight and support the inspiring social movements that exist in Sudan especially the youth-driven Neighborhood Resistance Committees that helped lead to the ouster of long-time dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019, putting an end to his 30-year rule. The Neighborhood Resistance Committees are local resistance committees comprising hundreds of neighborhood groups drawn from all socioeconomic classes and ethnic backgrounds. Members of these neighborhood committees also have taken brave risks to provide humanitarian aid to people in conflict-stricken communities caught in the middle of the Sudan's brutal civil war between between two warring generals. The bravery and inspiring examples of direct democracy by the resistance committees and other decentralized mutual aid networks, farmers unions and trade unions shouldn't be forgotten because of the man-made humanitarian emergency in the country. Sudan's civil war began in April 2023 when the Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces tried to seize power. The RSF is the reconstituted version of the notorious JanJaweed. Instead of disbanding the JanJaweed after it was complicit in government-backed crimes against humanity and possibly genocide in Darfur two decades ago, Omar al-Bashir's organized remnants of the group to safeguard his rule against any potential coups by members of the military. Bashir officially recognized the RSF as a fighting force in 2017. The fighting that broke out between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed forces in April 2023 stemmed from disagreements between RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, and the country's de facto leaders General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan about the RSF being integrated into the national army. The fighting between the two armed factions has created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. On November 1, The United Nations office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that about 26 million people have acute hunger in Sudan with 755,000 facing catastrophic hunger conditions. Save The Children reports that the more than two million babies that have been born since the fighting started in April are at risk because of a decimated health care system and crisis levels of hunger. It reports more than 80 percent of the hospitals in the worst affected regions have closed and two out of three people don't have access to essential healthcare services. Before the fighting started, Sudan already had one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, according to the United Nations. On a positive note, OCHA reported in its report on November 14, 2024, that Sudanese authorities decided to continue to allow the delivery of aid through the Adre border crossing point from Chad to Darfur. The UN's Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Clementine Nkweta-Salami called the Adre Border crossing a critical lifeline for hundreds of thousands of Sudanese citizens. This is a welcome change from other instances when warring factions have blocked the delivery of food, medicine and other essential supplies and attacked health facilities, ambulances and health care workers.

The UAE, a U.S. ally in the Middle East, has emerged as one of the RSF's biggest supporters in its war with the SAF despite the group being a serial human rights offender guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity and possibly genocide. The UAE's support for the RSF stems from agricultural and gold interests in the African country along with a goal to expand it's influence and control in the Middle East and Africa. Progressives and other human-rights minded folks should demand the U.S. suspend military support for the UAE until it stops supporting the RSF. We should also continue to support and highlight Sudan's inspiring pro-democracy forces who offer the potential for a brighter future for the country and an impressive example of grassroots democracy from below for the world.

In this episode, I talk with Joa LaVille, co-founder of Immigrant Allies in Marshalltown, Iowa. Marshalltown has a population of about 28,000 people including a large Latino population that has enriched the city with restaurants, shops and other important contributions. I had the privilege to call Marshalltown home for five years. This interview was conducted on June 10, 2024. Joa and I discuss how Immigrant Allies advocates for undocumented workers, forges relationships with other local community immigrants and educates people about a complex topic that is often treated as a binary, black and white issue. She also talked about how Immigrant Allies uses stories of people's lived experiences to win hearts and minds of those who may have inaccurate or distorted beliefs about undocumented immigrants. Joa also shares how undocumented immigrants and their families, friends and allies in Marshalltown have been impacted by rise in xenophobic rhetoric deployed by irresponsible political officials, harsh immigration laws and a broke immigration system that is extremely difficult to navigate. I think this interview is especially important given Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election and his dishonest, shameless, fact-deprived and reckless fearmongering about undocumented immigrants. Immigrant allies shows how local organizations can empower undocumented workers while simultaneously strengthening the local community in small-town America. May we all follow their example.

This is a monologue I recorded before Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris in the U.S. Presidential elections on November 5, 2024. Given the ugly and scandalously dishonest rhetoric deployed by Donald Trump, J.D. Vance and other members of the GOP about about undocumented workers, I think progressive solidarity and partnerships with undocumented workers is more important than ever. I hope you enjoy the episode and then get to work forming partnerships, creating coalitions and establishing ties of solidarity with undocumented workers and their allies.

In Part 2 of the interview I conducted with Simon Rodriguez-Porras, we discuss the importance of a consistent and principled international Left that opposes imperialism in all its forms no matter who is the perpetrator and who is the victim. Rodriguez discusses promising examples of principled international solidarity including Syrian activists supporting Palestine while also opposing Iranian and Russian imperialism in Syria, and Chinese and Tibetans supporting Palestine while also opposing Chinese repression at home and imperialism in Tibet and Hong Kong. Rodriguez also discusses elements of the anti-Nicolas Maduro Left in Venezuela and promising democratic socialist movements in Brazil, Guatemala and Argentina. This interview was conducted on June 7, 2024. Rodriguez is the author of "Why did Chavismo Fail," a writer for the New Arab, and an editor at Venezuelan Voices.org.

In this episode of the Deep Divide with Andy Heintz, I talk with Simon Rodriguez-Porras. Simon is the author of "Why Did Chavismo Fail". He also is an editor at Venezuelan voices.org and a writer for the New Arab. In the episode Rodriguez discusses what the Left and Right get wrong when analyzing the overlapping economic, political, and human rights crises that have befallen Venezuela and caused about 8 million people to flee the country over the past decade. Rodriguez offers harsh criticism of the economic and political policies of Nicolas Maduro and his predecessor the late Hugo Chavez while also criticizing American foreign policy in Venezuela. My interview with Chavez was conducted on June 6, 2024, but I thought it was important to include after Maduro was fraudulently re-elected president on July 28, 2024. The government-controlled National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner without publishing a detailed account of the results, which has been standard practice since the establishment of an electronic voting system in the country in 2004. Meanwhile, volunteers for the opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia collected over 80 percent of the ballots whose results were printed and published online. The tallies showed Gonzalez receiving about 7 million votes to Maduro's 3 million. Venezuelans contested the results by taking to the streets and engaging in large, spontaneous protests including in areas that used to be strongly supportive of Hugo Chavez. Maduro's government responded with harsh repression with more than 2,000 arrested-including more than a 100 children-and 25 people killed. Rodriguez penned an excellent article about the fraudulent elections in the New Arab. In this episode, he challenges the view that Maduro and Chavez were democratic socialists while also explaining why Venezuelan economy's unhealthy dependence on oil exports didn't start with Chavez and why no government has been able to steer the country away from its oil dependency since the resource was first discovered in the country.