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Study Up For 'Think': Immigration And The Border Crisis

Gordon Hyde
/
Wikimedia CC
The U.S.-Mexico Border at Nogales

Tens of thousands of unaccompanied children have entered the U.S. in recent months illegally - and it's being declared a humanitarian crisis. Today at noon on 'Think' we'll be speaking with Aviva Chomsky, author of Undocumented: How Immigration Became Illegal.

Over 52,000 immigrant children have crossed the southern border in the past few months. Most of them are fleeing violence and the drug cartels in Central America. 

And with a estimated total  of 70,000 immigrants entering the country by the end of this year, the debate over what to do with the children heats up across the country.

On the local level, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins announced plans at the Democratic State convention on Saturday to house at least 2,000 of the immigrant children in empty hospitals and schools with help from the federal government.

Along with discussing the crisis today, Chomsky will go over the history of immigration policy in the United States over the past 150 years. She found "illegality" and "undocumented" are relatively new concepts, and claims they're racialized ideas created to take advantage of immigrant populations.

Chomsky is an activist who's been working on immigration issues for over 15 years and also wrote "They Take Our Jobs!": And 20 Other Myths About Immigration.

Listen to Think at noon and 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday on KERA 90.1 or stream live.