Hello everyone. Welcome to the Focus Group podcast. I'm Sarah Longwell, publisher of the

bulwark, and this week we're covering the early days of Donald Trump's new immigration regime.

Now, obviously for the people who voted for Trump, immigration is up there

at the tippy top of the list of reasons why lots of folks wanted Trump back in power. In fact,

he built his entire political career on the back of immigration as an issue. But as with everything, Trump, we were all left to wonder just

how serious he was this time around about his proposed policies. So far, it all looks like he's

pretty serious. But I wanted to talk about what voters are seeing, as well as what the Trump

administration wants everybody to be seeing, as well as what the Trump administration wants everybody

to be seeing. My guest today is the Bull Works Immigration correspondent, Adrian Caraskeo,

and author of our excellent immigration newsletter, Huddled Masses. Adrian, thanks for being here.

Thanks for having me, Sarah. Do people say yo, Adrian, to you? Yeah, since I was little.

I'm sorry. I was so tempted to do it. I didn't do it. I just commented on my restraints.

Okay, so you wrote a newsletter a few weeks ago where you said, the border debate is over and Democrats lost. And it was really because of the meaningful

support that the Lake and Riley Act was getting from Democrats. Why don't you just explain

why you think Democrats have lost the immigration issue? Yeah. I mean, you know, we used to hear

for so many years about the DREAM Act and about

comprehensive immigration reform and about a broken immigration system. What Trump did in his first

term is he further broke the system. He took, you know, hatchets, hammers, whatever you want to say,

to the foundation of our immigration system around asylum and things

that are legal immigration pathways to enter this country. But the reason I'm saying that they

lost the border narrative is because Donald Trump has made it American U.S. policy decree that we

are being invaded in the southern border. There is an active invasion going on. So when he does that, that unlocks a

...