What is happening with immigration policy and enforcement? Are we witnessing an unprecedented level of surveillance and violence? Or does social media just make people more aware of what’s always been happening? 

Sociologist Shannon Gleason helps us untangle the knot of immigration policy and modern day tactics to reveal the bipartisan roots of strategies designed to snarl legal migration; what $40,000 gets if you’re navigating possible deportation; and the unlikely allies in this fight. 

Jorge Torres, national organizing director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), shares on-the-ground experiences confronting day laborers, along with the interventions you don’t always see in viral clips online. And Maria describes just how much the quintessential immigrant story of her childhood has changed in America. 

Shannon Gleeson: Legalized Inequalities: Immigration and Race in the Low-Wage Workplace

Jorge Torres: National Day Laborer Organizing Network

Executive Producers: Rachel Rybaczuk and Amanda Cowper

Audio Mixing: Tina Tobey Mack