Marshall here. Welcome back to the realignment.

The border and immigration policy as a whole have been some of the most dominant issues in American politics over the past 10 years.

Zooming out, Western democracies are all experiencing populist assaults on the center right

and center left establishments driven by debates over immigration.

Right now then, listeners are probably wondering what's going on at the U.S. Mexico border.

Everything from the Biden Senate negotiations to asylum policy and the

busting of migrants to blue cities. All that doesn't even include the Supreme

Court's ruling on Texas's standoff with the administration over Razor Wire at the

border. Today's guest Jonathan Blitzer has just released an excellent book

about how we got here in the first place.

It's called everyone who is gone is here,

the United States, Central America,

in the making of a crisis.

What I found so interesting in the book

is the real focus on Central America. If you grew up in the 2000s like I did

you would think of immigration debates whether it's debates over legalization and

amnesty to the actual border itself you would think of it through the lens of

US Mexico policy.

What's really changed over the past 10 years is the real centrality of debates over

asylum for Central Americans and even as we get into it during the conversation

Latin Americans,

some countries like Venezuela and Chile.

...