The Rational Middle

Today we talk about the wall on the southern border of the United States — its efficacy and impact — with Dr. Luz Maria Garcini, a scholar at the Center for the United States and Mexico and an Assistant Professor at the Center for Research to Advance Community Health.

Mark Erlich, former union leader for the New England Regional Council of Carpenters and now a Wertheim Fellow of Research on Misclassification and the Underground Economy at the Harvard Law School, discusses the challenges and impacts of misclassification of workers and the influence of this practice on immigrant laborers, the undocumented, and American-born workers.

Ken Janda, Adjunct Professor in Healthcare Management at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University, discusses the challenges that we face as a country regarding uninsured Americans, the undocumented, COVID-19, and the cost of healthcare.

Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, assistant dean for civic engagement and a lecturer at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin, shares the history of the undocumented and their struggle to forge avenues to legal status in America — including DACA recipients find themselves today and what they might expect in the future.

Iliana Perez, Director of Research & Entrepreneurship at Immigrants Rising, shares her thoughts on the DACA Supreme Court decision, her personal story as a Dreamer, and how that has driven her work in providing resources to immigrants — from legal assistance, work opportunities, small business investment, and access to mental healthcare — regardless of status.

Tom Jawetz, Vice President of Immigration Policy at Center for American Progress, speaks on his experience with getting legislation across the finish line and what it takes to build bipartisan bills in Congress as well as how to bring about change at the state and local level.

This special edition of the Rational Middle podcast was recorded this morning as the decision on DACA was handed down by the Supreme Court. Charles Foster is Chairman at Foster, LLP, one of the larger immigration law firms in the country. He is the past national president AILA (American Immigration Lawyers Association), and senior immigration policy advisor to George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He discusses the challenge DACA faced in the courts and reacts in real time to the decision to strike down Trump's recension of the program.

Steven Scarborough, Strategic Initiatives Manager at Center for Houston's Future, discusses the latest research on the impact on immigrants working on all levels of healthcare to fight against the coronavirus.

Tony Payan & Pamela Lizette Cruz of the James A. Baker, III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University discuss ways to solve the challenges associated with the undocumented population through the concepts of identification and taxation which must form the basis of any pathway to legal status.

Pat Kiley, a founding principal of Kiley Advisors LLC, a consulting firm that advises CEO's and Senior Executives on matters of Leadership and Strategy, talks with host Loren Steffy about the history of immigration and the construction industry and the need for comprehensive reform.