Watch My Conversation about the Immigration Court Backlog with Pedro Echevarria on C-SPAN

I spoke with Pedro Echevarria on The Washington Journal this morning about the record backlog of pending cases in immigration courts and the asylum process in the U.S. Video below.

The good folks at C-SPAN invited me to join Pedro Echevarria on The Washington Journal this morning from one of their studios in Baltimore.

They planned a full segment of the show to talk about the immigration court backlog and the U.S. asylum process more generally—a topic that rarely gets that much prime-time attention.

Pedro had excellent questions that focused on understanding and explaining the system to people who may not be familiar with it. It was, in my view, a serious conversation.

Much of the show was also devoted to taking caller questions, which I have to say was my favorite part. My readers here know that I hold public officials to a fair standard of being transparent and honest about immigration regardless of their political position. But for people calling into a show like this one, I feel tremendous sympathy and respect for how confusing the immigration system must be.

This is why, as I hope I demonstrated in my responses on the show, I try to interpret their questions in the best possible light and provide a response that is fair, respectful, and, most importantly, informed by research rather than politics.

The questions and comments section of the program begins about ten minutes into the show. I think you’ll find the Q&A to be interesting!

I can’t post the entire video here, but I’ll share a clip of one Republican caller who is an immigrant himself and shares his complex perspective on the current immigration system.

If you DO watch the whole thing, let me know what you think about my answers. What did I miss? What did I get wrong? How would you have answered some of these tough questions?

Here’s a link to the full interview:

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