This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and the New Yorker.

Welcome to the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.

The 2024 election will be well about a lot of things, not least our democracy,

but it seems to me that the subject with the most substance in terms of

policy and also the most peril for the Democrats is immigration. And it was very

much in the news this week.

Politicians on the right have sometimes distorted the situation at the border for

sheer political gain.

But the numbers of people seeking asylum now are tremendous.

President Biden is saying that he would shut down the border if Congress passes a bipartisan

bill giving him that authority.

House Republicans aren't likely to pass the bill,

and President Biden knows it.

But this is a really dramatic change in tone.

If that bill was the law today, I'd shut down the border right now and fix it quickly.

For more than a decade, our staff writer Jonathan Blisser has been covering immigration,

talking to enforcement officers at the border, White House officials,

and of course to the people who risk it all, risking their lives very often to cross the border.

All of that has gone into John's new book, everyone who was gone is here.

I spoke with Jonathan Blitzer last week.

John, if I turn on Fox, the first thing I see and the second and the third is the chiron crisis at the border.

What is the crisis at the border,

...