Welcome to this throwback edition of the award-winning Best of Left podcast, where we remember the past and choose to repeat it.

It's frankly amazing that the incoming Trump administration has managed to cause so much chaos that the deportation machine that was at the heart of his campaign promises has been overshadowed by lawlessness to an extent

that we are already in the middle of a constitutional crisis.

So later than expected for these reasons, we are working on a new episode diving into Trump's

deportation policy, but for today, we're looking all the way back to episode 943, published in 2015,

to highlight how long Republicans, including Trump, have been beating the drum for hate

and fear of immigrants, as well as some progressive perspectives on immigration.

Sources today include AJ Plus, The David Packman Show, The Majority Report, The Young Turks, CNN, Democracy Now, Learn Liberty, and the Migrant Rights Network.

I remember my eyes were like almost about to cry.

There was a hint of embarrassment, to be quite honest.

I realized that my silence was not protecting me.

I'm not protecting me. It was always a huge concern.

Never tell anybody anything.

My parents always told me never to tell anybody that I was undocumented.

So I was always afraid to tell anybody up until that moment.

The first person I told that I was undocumented was my high school vice principal.

I told him because I had just found out that my dad's court hearing for his residency had been denied.

I sort of broke down and I told him.

The very first person that I disclosed my status to was actually a high school friend.

High school was a big challenge for me because while everybody was getting their driver's license or getting jobs, I was like, oh, I can't get that.

I wondered if this was going to question our friendship, actually.

The first person that I told was my ninth grade computer ed teacher, Miss Mitchell.

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