Alum Launches Podcast to Humanize Immigration Debate.

In one episode of the new podcast Only in America, hosted by Ali Noorani (SPH’99), Idaho dairy farmer Tony Schwartz says his employees, most of them Latinx immigrants, are like family. “You’re out there with these guys every day, you’re vaccinating your cows, you’re moving cows around with them … and you just build up a camaraderie with them,” he says.

“They’re our buddies. To see a buddy—whether they’re legal or not—or one of their friends get deported, it just breaks your heart.” The sentiment is not unique to Schwartz, Noorani says: The Idaho dairymen he spoke to, the vast majority white conservatives who had voted for Donald Trump, care about the immigrants who have worked with them for decades, and want a more constructive and positive approach to immigration than the current administration’s.

Launched in December 2017, Only in America is produced by the National Immigration Forum, where Noorani is executive director. “When you break through the policy, push aside the ugly politics, you realize immigration is about something really simple: people,” he says.

The podcast follows the trajectory of Noorani’s recent book, There Goes the Neighborhood: How Communities Overcome Prejudice and Meet the Challenge of American Immigration. Both go behind the fiercely partisan rhetoric of the immigration debate, focusing instead on communities grappling with the reality of new immigrants and the changing nature of American identity.

In both the book and the podcast, Noorani delves into faith, law enforcement, and the positions of business leaders across the country. “For the most part, conservatives come to immigration through their faith, through their belief in the rule of law, or their belief in economic prosperity,” Noorani says, explaining this is the thinking behind the Bibles, Badges, and Businesses for Immigration Reform network working with the National Immigration Forum.

The episode with Schwartz the dairy farmer also includes ministry leader and Bibles, Badges, and Businesses member Meghan Smith from Spartanburg, South Carolina. “Immigrants matter to me because I think that each person is made in the image of God and everyone has a God-given dignity,” she says. “Regardless of your country of origin or your language or what your document status is, I believe that you matter to God, and therefore you matter to me.”

In another episode, Noorani talks with Mark Curran, three-time sheriff of suburban Lake County, Illinois. Curran explains he has always believed in the rule of law, but his views on immigration changed when he looked at recent history. “We desperately needed the labor, and that was why we didn’t enforce the laws at the borders,” he says. “I realized that it’s not fair to talk about a ‘rule of law’ when there had not been a rule of law for so long. It’s like somebody violated a law that was never enforced for 20 years, and they did so for essentially moral reasons, and now you want to talk about ‘rule of law’ because the economy went south. It’s not right.”

Curran says he wants the US to have more secure borders and well-enforced immigration laws, but he also wants fairness for undocumented immigrants already in the country. He agrees with Noorani’s thesis, that for most Americans immigration is much more complex than the partisan political debate suggests. “Trump … doesn’t represent a very large portion of the country,” he says. “Most people still recognize that you can’t just deport people that have been here for 20 years. That’s not fair. I think they’re open enough to coherent, logical arguments as to why we need a reform bill and why it must include some kind of permanent status for people that have been here a long time.”

Those are the arguments the podcast shares. Alongside the “bibles, badges, and businesses,” Only in America includes researchers, high school principals, Mexico’s undersecretary for North America, and other voices. Each episode also provides updated views and explainers on immigration news.

“I hope Only in America provides listeners the opportunity to hear from a different set of perspectives on the question of immigrants and immigration to America,” Noorani says. “The immigration debate is less about Republicans and Democrats, and more about how people relate to each other every day.”

—Michelle Samuels

Listen to the Only in America podcast here.