The United States is home to more immigrants than any other country in the world. It is a truism that everyone who lives here at some point came from somewhere else. At the same time, debates about who and how many people to let in have roiled the nation since our very founding.
And in the past few years, things have heated up to a new level.
That’s no surprise, considering that unlawful attempts to cross the southern border hit a record high of about 2.5 million last year. In the past four years, nearly 5 million attempts to cross the border illegally occurred in Texas alone.
We’ve all seen the videos of mothers with babies shimmying under barbed wire, of migrant caravans marching toward Texas, of young men charging Border Patrol agents.
It’s why immigration is the top issue for voters in the 2024 election. Indeed, the influx has made even progressive cities, which previously declared themselves immigration sanctuaries, sound the alarm. Last May, former Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot said “we’ve reached a breaking point,” while declaring a state of emergency in her city. In September, New York mayor Eric Adams said the influx of migrants “will destroy New York City.”
All of this is the subject of our first live debate of 2024, which took place in Dallas, and that we wanted to share with you on Honestly today. The proposition: Should the United States shut its borders?
Arguing in the affirmative are Ann Coulter and Sohrab Ahmari. On the opposing side, arguing that no, the United States should not shut its borders, are Nick Gillespie and Cenk Uygur.
They also cover questions like: Is mass immigration is a net gain or a net loss for America? How do we balance our humanitarian impulse with our practical and economic needs? Do migrants suppress wages of the already strained working class? Do they stretch community resources impossibly thin? Does a porous border impact our national security? And what does a sensible border policy really look like?
We hope you listen, share, and discuss.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Our Favorite Passover Conversation
New York City Mayor Eric Adams
Rick Rubin Says Trust Your Gut, Not Your Audience
Bank Runs, Crypto Scams and World-Transforming AI with Tyler Cowen
Why Men Seek Danger
Honestly Presents: The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling
Why Nikki Haley Is Running for President
A Gen Z Religious Revival: 250 Hours of Worship in Kentucky
Will Ozempic Solve Obesity in America? A Debate
Why 65% of Fourth Graders Can't Really Read
A Golden Age of Gurus
America's Role in the Holocaust: Ken Burns on The Most Important Film He Will Ever Make
America’s Broken Immigration System: An Honest Debate
Raw & Unclassified: A Friday Roundtable
Bad Moms with Emily Oster
A Holiday Treat with David Sedaris!
The Twitter Files and the Future of the Democratic Party With Silicon Valley's Congressman
The State of the Black-Jewish Relationship in America: A Roundtable
Bibi Netanyahu: Israel's New Prime Minister. Again.
A Better Way to Disagree
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Call Me Back - with Dan Senor
The Times of Israel Daily Briefing
Blocked and Reported
Morning Wire
WSJ What’s News