The Rational Middle

Muzaffar Chishti, Senior Fellow at the Migration Policy Institute and Director of the MPI office at the NYU School of Law, looks back at Biden's first year in office and sees the glass half full—and unpacks why public perception of the administration's response on immigration says otherwise.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, President of the American Action Forum, takes us through the ambition of the America Competes Act, how it hopes to sharpen America's competitiveness, and its implications for immigration.

Miriam Feldblum, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, joins host Loren Steffy to discuss the burden of a broken immigration system on our schools and colleges, why access to higher education is a must, and some possible state-level solutions in the face of a federal impasse.

Adam Isacson, Director for Defense Oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), discusses the U.S's competing narratives of the Southern border, their real effects on how Americans perceive migrants, and how the ideal of asylum is atrophying in the process.

Elena Marks, President and CEO of the Episcopal Health Foundation, returns to the Rational Middle for a close look at America's public health care system, how it fails the undocumented, and why this hurts all of us—with an eye-opening example of "the story of dialysis" among the undocumented.

Jeremy Robbins, Executive Director of the American Immigration Council, joins host Gregory Kallenberg to discuss the organization's recent merger with the New American Economy—and how such synergies allow advocates to better pursue immigration's deepest questions: "Who are we? What are we doing together?"

Denise Gilman, Director of the Immigration Clinic at UT Austin, discusses Texas's unique position in the immigration landscape and how persistent rhetorics of "immigrants as threat, fraud, danger" lead to policies such as Gov. Abbott's Operation Lone Star — a joint mission between the Texas Department of Public Safety and National Guard that arrests migrants on criminal trespassing charges.

Keegan Warren-Clem, Director of Medical-Legal Partnerships at the People's Community Clinic in Austin TX, walks us through the human costs of America's denial of healthcare to the undocumented, what we can be doing better, and why it's a good idea to have lawyers in healthcare settings.

Nobel prize-winning economist David Card joins host Melissa Brannan to talk labor, immigration, and how it is that outmoded economic ideas that have fallen out of favor in other areas of social life continue to find traction when it comes to immigration.

Ring out the old! Ring in the new! In our last episode of 2021, Rational Middle Podcast hosts Gregory Kallenberg, Loren Steffy, Chris Lyon, and Melissa Brannan reflect on the year (almost) behind us, the year (nearly) upon us, and what it will take to remain optimistic about immigration reform.