Immigration Reform Sidelined; Protests at Interior Department; Facebook Rebranding

Juan José Gutiérrez, immigration lawyer and executive director of the Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition, joins us to talk about how immigration reform may be put in the back burner again as the infrastructure bill keeps getting pared down, and the Senate parliamentarian is recommending not including it in the reconciliation bill. We talk about how the promises by the Biden administration have been broken, with increasing numbers of arrests at the border and stalled policies, and how Latinos in the US are gearing up to mobilize and make it known that they will not be a sure vote for the Democrats in the next election.

John Kane, Mohawk activist and educator, producer and host of the Let's Talk Native Podcast and co-host of Resistance Radio on WBAI Pacifica Radio NY, joins us to talk about the indigenous-led protests that took place last week at the Capitol and the Department of the Interior against fossil fuel industries after long-standing actions against Line 3. We talk about how detrimental policies are continuing despite the Department being led now by Secretary Deb Haaland, and the limits of politics of representation.

Tina Desiree Berg, host of the podcast District 34 and reporter for Status Coup, joins hosts Michelle Witte and Bob Schlehuber to talk about the city of San Diego not disclosing the identity of a suspect who allegedly threw an incendiary device at anti-Trump demonstrators at a Pacific Beach “Patriot March” on January 9, the deal between IATSE and the movie studios and the ensuing division among members, and the approval of COVID-19 vaccines for kids ages 5 to 11 and the anti-vaxxer backlash.

Chris Garaffa, web developer, technologist, security and privacy consultant, talks to us about whether Mark Zuckerberg should be held personally liable for giving third-party apps access to user data, how Facebook’s own oversight board is being sidelined, and how no corporation should be in charge of policing itself. We also talk about how the company is being rebranded, including changing its name, to focus on what Zuckerberg has called “the metaverse.”