The Rational Middle

Dree Collopy, partner of Benach Collopy LLP and author of the American Immigration Lawyers Association's (AILA) Asylum Primer, gives us an update on where asylum stands in the United States as Biden concludes his first month in office.

Jacob Monty, Trump 2016 campaign advisor and Managing Partner of the labor and employment law firm Monty & Ramirez LLP, has left the Republican party as it departs from the big tent strategy and becomes the party of Donald Trump.

Laura Collins, Director of the Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative shares her insights on the current status of immigration reform in Congress and with the American people. She explores why she thinks Congressional gridlock exists and how we can break the stasis and create meaningful change to the American immigration system.

Steven Scarborough, Strategic Initiatives Manager at the Center for Houston's Future, shares an update to the Center's report on how immigration will shape the region's impact over the next several decades.

Tony Payan, director of the Center for the United States and Mexico at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, weighs in on Biden's latest round of executive orders which seek to assess the damage done by Trump's anti-immigration policies and lay the groundwork for rebuilding a broken immigration system.

Join hosts Chris Lyon, Gregory Kallenberg, and Loren Steffy for a round table discussion of everything from the Biden/Harris inauguration, executive orders, and the administration's comprehensive immigration reform proposal.

This week, we speak with Sanaa Abrar, Advocacy Director for United We Dream, the largest immigrant youth-led network in the United States. She discusses the hopes that many immigrants in America have regarding a new administration and Congress. These two branches of government may soon have the opportunity to help Dreamers and the 11 million undocumented come out of the shadows and get right with the law so that they can be more fully productive members of society.

We kick off 2021 with a renewed discussion about Congress, common sense, and the issues that divide us. With the inauguration of President-Elect Joe Biden just one week away, Jorge Lima of Americans for Prosperity discusses what changes the new year brings to the challenge of immigration, economy, coronavirus, and civility with our fellow Americans following the insurrection at the Capitol.

Join hosts Gregory Kallenberg, Chris Lyon, and Loren Steffy for a recap of the year with The Rational Middle, the state of division in the United States, the election, the pandemic, and where we're going in 2021.

Now that the electoral college has voted, we talk with political analyst Scott Braddock about what can both parties learn from their experiences from the 2020 election, and how can those lessons be leveraged going forward.