Why Come North? A Panel Discussion On U.S. Immigration Policy

With Guest Host John Harwood.

Crisis at the US border. What do Latinos on this side of the border have to say? We’ll ask our special  roundtable.

With so much conflict elsewhere, the crisis on America’s southern border has been shoved offstage in recent days. But Washington still has no new plan for the surge of unaccompanied children arriving from Central America – much less a new immigration policy overall. Can we find an approach combining order and compassion? We’ll ask a reporter, an immigration lawyer, a former Bush administration official, and community activist in Los Angeles, who was one of those unaccompanied minors 15 years ago. This hour, On Point: seeking answers on immigration.
- John Harwood

Alan Gomez, immigration reporter for USA Today. (@alangomez)

Fermin Vasquez, communications specialist at Community Coalition. (@fermin101)

José Cárdenas, associate in the consulting firm Visión Américas. Former career US Diplomat. (@JoseCardenasUSA)

Claudia Valenzuela, associate director of litigation for the National Immigrant Justice Center.

USA Today: Some cities open arms to children caught on the border — "Federal law requires that children be placed in protective care while their immigration cases are resolved. And while Christie was critical of the Obama administration for failing to secure the border and allowing for that flood of children, he said his office would consider any request from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to house the children in his state."

 The Wall Street Journal: Crossings Trigger Anti-Immigration Rallies -- "Since October, about 57,000 unaccompanied minors have entered the country illegally, many fleeing poverty and violence or hoping to reunite with family in the U.S. The flow slowed this week, but reports of migrants swarming the border and being transported to towns in the country's interior have attracted new supporters of grass-roots organizations that fight illegal immigration."

POLITICO: Mitch McConnell: No ‘throwing money’ at border --"McConnell suggested that in order to calm the chaotic situation that has thousands of adults and unaccompanied minors traveling from Central America and across the U.S.-Mexico border, the border needs to be secured. 'It’s very, very simple,' McConnell said. 'If word got out that you’d be humanely detained and immediately returned, it would stop. It doesn’t require massive amounts of federal assistance that the president has asked for.'"