AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, “War, Peace and the Presidency: Breaking with Convention.” I’m Amy Goodman, here in Chicago with Juan González, as we wrap up our five days in the Windy City.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: In her speech formally accepting the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday night, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke about a number of topics, including immigration, which is shaping up to be one of the biggest issues of the 2024 race.

VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: And let me be clear: After decades in law enforcement, I know the importance of safety and security, especially at our border. Last year, Joe and I brought together Democrats and conservative Republicans to write the strongest border bill in decades. The Border Patrol endorsed it. But Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign, so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal.

Well, I refuse to play politics with our security, and here is my pledge to you. As president, I will bring back the bipartisan border security bill that he killed, and I will sign it into law. I know — I know we can live up to our proud heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system. We can create an earned pathway to citizenship and secure our border.

AMY GOODMAN: Kamala Harris, addressing the Democratic National Convention last night here in Chicago.

Hours before she spoke, Donald Trump traveled to the border in Arizona, where he promised to, quote, “seal the border,” if elected. At his convention in Milwaukee just a month ago, scores of delegates would continually hold up signs that said “Mass deportation now.”

For more, we’re joined by Democratic Congressmember Greg Casar of Texas. He’s the whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a labor organizer, the son of Mexican immigrants. He was the youngest member of the Austin City Council before he became a congressmember.

Welcome to Democracy Now! It’s great to have you with us. If you can talk about Kamala Harris’s plans for immigration, what you understand they are from her speech last night, and the overall Biden-Harris policy on the border?

REP. GREG CASAR: I think that the Democratic National Convention showed, especially hearing the vice president’s speech, some proof of progress on many issues and then a real pathway where we have to push. Proof of progress in that on economics and domestic policy, we’re seeing labor union leaders speak up. We’re hearing her talk about cracking down on corporate landlords and big corporations that are price gouging everyday people. Stuff that you used to just hear Senator Sanders say are now mainstream in the party. That’s proof of progress.

But on issues like immigration and foreign policy, we have to push, because her laying out that, quote-unquote, “bipartisan” border bill, to me, shows something that we have to be worried about, because she said that she’s committed to a pathway for citizenship for everyday people, and I would support a bill that actually had that in it, but, unfortunately, this current bill does not have something in it for everyday immigrant families that have been here 10, 20, 30 years. And so, we’re ready to compromise and push forward on something that can help people who are here, but, unfortunately, our politics have been pushed so far to the right on immigration by Donald Trump that we have to fight back against Trump and try to realign our politics on immigration back to where they were just a few years ago, so that we can actually send a bill to a President Harris’s desk that actually meets what it is that she’s laid out in her speech, which includes both security, but actually also taking care of the immigrant community and providing immigrants’ rights.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Greg, I mentioned in a segment earlier that it seems to me the Democratic Party, as you say, in shifting to the right on immigration, is really adopting a policy of a kinder, gentler form of mass deportation and militarization. You recently traveled to South America. Because I think what most Americans don’t realize, that the reductions in border crossings are largely a result of the U.S. pressuring Mexico and now Panama to basically shut down the transit routes of migrants coming up through Central America. I’m wondering your experience there and the sources of this continued flow of migrants.

REP. GREG CASAR: Well, you know, the mainstream media focuses on immigration as if it’s just a border issue. But immigration doesn’t start at the border. It starts in people’s home countries, economies that have been destabilized, democracies that have been destabilized.

And so, we’ve founded now in the Congress the Global Migration Caucus, where we’re going to start talking about those issues that people don’t want to talk about in Washington, D.C.: how the United States’ own policies contribute to mass displacement of people out of places like South America. And if we actually help people stay in their home countries, not force people out, then, actually, that would be a humane and thoughtful way of reducing mass migration.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And your sense of — there’s been a lot of emphasis, again, in the media, on the fact that many immigrants, even African Americans and Latinos, are shifting more and more into the MAGA camp. And what your sense of that, how accurate that is?

REP. GREG CASAR: The overwhelming majority of the Latino community, African American community continue to vote for the Democratic Party. But we are losing some number of those voters, especially working-class voters outside of our big cities, who want to see us actually deliver on the day-to-day economics. They’re working their tails off, and want to see a party that actually delivers for them. And if we don’t want them to be vulnerable to Trumpism or to a strongman, then we need to actually show that we can deliver the goods.

And that’s what I’ve been most excited about at this Democratic National Convention, is I think so many parts of the corporate parts of the Democratic Party are starting to lose. I mean, you didn’t see very much representation from them. You heard a much more clear message saying, “We’re going to speak to those working-class voters,” say, “We’re going to raise your wages. We’re going to take on the people that have been raising your rents and raising prices at the grocery store.” And I think that’s how we bring those voters back into the fold.

AMY GOODMAN: Congressmember Casar, I want to dig more deeply into this so-called bipartisan bill, that was really majorly crafted by the Republicans. So, rightly, Kamala Harris and others say, you know, here, the Republicans crafted it, and Donald Trump urged them then to go against their own bill. But she said, “We’re going to pass this.” For people who haven’t been following it more closely, the immigration bill, explain what you think the problems are with it. And are you concerned that if there is a — if Kamala Harris does become president, they’re just going to push forward on passing that bill, implementing that bill?

REP. GREG CASAR: Yeah, let me get into the weeds a little bit here for your viewers and listeners, because I know they care deeply about this, and we’re going to be talking a lot about it.

The way this bill was crafted, it was not a comprehensive immigration reform bill. It was a bill about Ukraine. You might say, “Greg, what does this have to do with Ukraine?” Well, traditionally, the way this has worked is that Republicans have demanded some amount of anti-immigrant measures in exchange for Democrats saying, “Let’s finally win some immigrant rights.” And that’s the only way we’ve ever seen that we can maybe win immigrants in this country some of their rights back. But in this case, what ended up happening was Republicans held money hostage on the Ukraine front, so Democrats in the Senate. who were honest and transparent, said, “We’re negotiating for Ukraine money, and we’re going to give away immigrant rights in exchange.” So, this bill now no — the Ukraine money has been passed, so now all that’s left is the Republican parts of the bill.

And so, I think that if we actually want to bring a bill to the floor, we should actually negotiate for something for immigrants’ rights. We should negotiate the Democratic portion of the bill, because all that’s really left in the bill is the Republican portion. That’s where I see some chance of hope, is I think Vice President Harris says, “I will sign something into law that provides security and immigrants’ rights.” And I’m ready and willing to fight to make sure that immigrants’ rights are actually in the bill, because the current version just has the Republican stuff in it.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Now, you’re a congressman from Texas. Your governor has been much in the news on these issues of immigration in the last couple of years. Your sense of what is going on in Texas, especially given the huge portion of the Texas population that is of Latin American origin?

REP. GREG CASAR: There are immigrants throughout Texas, and there’s also people of Latin American origin where the border crossed them. We understand that immigration is a core part of how Texas works. What people have been concerned about is seeing disorder, is seeing all these images at the border. And people want there to be orderly and safe and legal pathways to migration.

But where Governor Abbott and Donald Trump’s allies have been doing their work has been trying to make the system as disorderly as possible, to their benefit. And that’s where I think the vice president was spot-on in her speech. She’s been pointing out that the arsonists in the situation, the right wing, are also trying to point the finger at any firefighters, anybody trying to fix the system. They try to blame us for the disorder they themselves have caused.

And so, immigration ultimately benefits us economically, culturally, in basically every way possible. We just have to figure out a better way to actually create legal pathways, get through this right-wing rhetoric. And if we can create legal pathways for migration, I think so many of these Abbott stunts just won’t stick.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And you also have an important Senate race in Texas. Can you talk about that —

REP. GREG CASAR: We sure do.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: — and the prospects of whether Ted Cruz will prevail?

REP. GREG CASAR: We’ve got a chance to send Ted Cruz packing. He abandons us everyday Texans during things like our winter storm, where he went to vacation on the beach while Texans were freezing and dying in their homes. Colin Allred gave a good speech last night and continues to present an alternative to probably one of the most unlikable people in politics in Ted Cruz.

I think something for folks to remember is my city, the city of Austin, voted for George W. Bush not that long ago for president. Barack Obama lost to Mitt Romney by about 17 points. Joe Biden only lost Texas by five points. Ted Cruz didn’t get 51% of the vote in his last election. So, Texas truly is the largest battleground state in this country, and the arc of history is long, but we’re getting over the hill, and we are closing in on becoming a truly purple state. But it’s going to take voter registration and inspiring voters. And I think what we learned from this swap at the top of the ticket is, if we actually listen to our voters and give them something to hope for, they’ll respond.

AMY GOODMAN: President Biden charged his vice president, Kamala Harris, with looking at the roots of why people come to the United States. She famously went to Guatemala in 2021, and she said, “Do not come here. Do not come here,” referring to the United States. If you can comment on what she had to say, and what you feel needs to be the message? And also talk about your recent trip to Colombia.

REP. GREG CASAR: I recently was in Colombia for the first-ever Pan-American Congress. We had legislators from about a dozen different countries come together and talk about this question of the root causes of migration.

And so, instead of just talking about it, I think people in places like Texas want to see the Democratic Party take steps that are effective. And some of these can be no-cost steps. The United States’ own sanctions and blockades on everyday working people in Cuba, the way that our sanctions have not actually changed the behavior of people like Maduro, but instead have contributed to the starvation and desperation of people in Venezuela, everyday people there, is part of what is driving people to migrate. And that’s the conversation that — I mean, everybody that was at that, from a dozen different countries, have said, “You don’t even have to spend money on this. Just stop punishing working people and poor people in Latin America, and that could make a huge difference.”

And so, I’m hopeful that we have now a presidential candidate that has had to work on these issues. And I think while investing in Latin America is important, I think we could also just take our foot off the gas off of punishing working people in those countries.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And you are one of the — the youngest member of the Austin City Council, then a young congressman. Your sense of the role of young people today in terms of changing politics in this country?

AMY GOODMAN: And we just have 20 seconds.

REP. GREG CASAR: Well, young people were the heart of the civil rights movement and the heart of the antiwar movement. And I think they’re the heart of what’s transforming the Democratic Party right now into something we can truly be proud of.

AMY GOODMAN: And, 10 seconds, you went out to the “uncommitted” news conference to show your support for those delegates who were there to say — calling for a U.S. arms embargo against Israel.

REP. GREG CASAR: There is really no reason for us to not use our full leverage to achieve that vision of ending bombing in Gaza. And we’ve got to keep fighting to protect those everyday lives.

AMY GOODMAN: Greg Casar, I want to thank you so much for being with us, congressman, a Democrat from Texas, whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, labor organizer, son of Mexican immigrants.

And that does it for our week of production here in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. We’ve been hosted here at CAN TV, Chicago’s public access television. A very special thanks to the CAN TV crew: Darrious Hilmon, David Tainer, Jason Bryant, Jeremy Frye, Jim Knightwright, Rocío Santos, Imani Payne, Kenny Nelson, Allen Voss, David Greenleaf, Leannet Rodriguez, Keith McDonald, Anita Torgus, Marisa Moffett. And our amazing crew here: Mike Burke, Renée Feltz, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Messiah Rhodes, Nermeen Shaikh, María Taracena, Sam Alcoff. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan Gonzalez.