A local TV station held a town hall forum on undocumented immigration & the border wall which is a ten minute drive for most of us. Three of the four panelists were white, senior, affluent US citizens. One was a rancher who didn’t like refugees crossing his land, associated them with drug smuggling, didn’t like Pakistanis & other nationalities coming here, & referred to immigrants as “illegal aliens.” The fourth panelist was a retired sheriff of Mexican ancestry whose family has probably been here 100 years; he was the better of the four of them.

Generally at events here, both Spanish & English are spoken (necessarily) but when a woman got up & asked a question in Spanish, there was shouting that this was America & English should be spoken.

It is absolutely astonishing & appalling that a forum on immigration would be held on the US-Mexican border without an immigrant or immigrant advocate & with a mostly gringo panel. Yesterday was “Day Without Immigrants” so there were thousands of immigrants available to speak. Someone needed to say loud & clear that they are undocumented immigrants, not illegal aliens. No human is illegal.