The current executive director of the National Immigration Forum (and former executive director of MIRA), Ali Noorani, took on Lou Dobbs and Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation last night:
What strikes the viewer most about the "debate" (which is a difficult thing to have when Lou Dobbs doesn't listen like a real journalist but tries to push his own nativist agenda and interrupt the speaker at critical points in their argument) is the figure they show about the percentage, by ethnicity, of recent naturalized citizens (at 7:10 of the video). There appears to be no point to showing this statistic during the course of the debate other than to highlight that Latino and Asian immigrants make up the bulk of newly naturalized citizens. There is a moment where Lou Dobbs seems to recognize that this figure contributes nothing to the debate (aside from confirming nativist's worst fears--that people of color represent the majority of immigrants) and tries to cover his tracks by inserting his usual "this isn't about race" comment. What is almost laughable about the inclusion of this statistic in the discussion is that, by definition, these naturalized citizens are not undocumented immigrants but were previously legal permanent residents. So, other than as a race-bating tactic, this snippet of information belongs nowhere in the debate of comprehensive immigration reform and whethere there should be a pathway to legal residency.
Also, I would like Robert Rector to tell this family and these detainees that we have a "de-facto amnesty" policy at the present time in the U.S.
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