Charles Gibbs first found his sea legs at 15. He spent two years as a midshipman on a gunboat

under the command of his father, a captain in the US Navy. But naval discipline was not

for him, and Gibbs soon fell into a life of pirating. During a decade of villainy on

the high seas, he claimed to have murdered over 400 people. But in 1830, his pirating

days came to a swift end when he was arrested, taken to New York and executed on Ghibit Island.

The Ghibit was the post that criminals bodies were hung from after execution as a warning

to others. And New Yorkers had nicknamed the island after the gruesome structure. But it had

once had a different name, one it revered to after the hanging stopped in 1839. Ellis Island.

Half a century later, the first migrants landed on the island after traveling across the Atlantic

in search of the American dream. So far this year, over two million people following that same

dream have entered further south at the Mexican border. With 18 days to go until the midterm

elections, I'm John Prado and this is checks and balance from the economist.

Each week, we take one big theme, shaping American politics and explore it in depth.

Today, will immigration lose Democrats votes in the midterms?

At the southern border, the diggers are back. Joe Biden abruptly halted construction of the wall

between America and Mexico on his first day in office. But in the face of record numbers of

migrants arriving there, he's quietly reversed course, filling in some gaps left by the Trump

administration. 2000 miles north, New York's mayor, Eric Adams, has declared a state of emergency.

20,000 migrants have arrived in the city, bust there after crossing from Mexico.

The problem at the border is now spreading throughout the country. Can it ever be solved?

With me this week to talk through immigration, the southern border and the midterms are Charlotte

Howard and Idris Calune. Charlotte, you're back. How is your break?

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