an enormous tragedy. 15 million people in pakistan are suffering. and one thing that we could do as americans is to say, okay, rather than being exclusionary, rather than fighting over a piece of ground that as sacred and hallowed it might be in our national understanding, instead we reach out to the millions of muslims that are currently suffering through no fault of their own as a result of this horrifying natural disaster during a high holy moment. what that might say about us as americans instead of having this fight over this parcel of land. princeton university professor and colleague of mine at the nation, msnbc contributor melissa harris-lacewell, thanks so much for your time tonight. it s such a pleasure. always, chris. thanks. in this debate, conservatives find themselves wedged between newt gingrich who said, we shouldn t build a mosque here until there are churches in saudi arabia and their beloved first amendment which protects religion, no matter what. paradox. fr
through such a bender with respect to this community center in downtown manhattan. this story elevated again to a national issue on friday night when president obama appeared to endorse the project at the white house. you know when one of these moments of national madness when the president is able to make news by affirming his support for the first amendment. mr. obama then appeared to walk back walk that back the next day, which only served to further fan the flames of this invented controversy. we re going to talk a little bit about the actual arguments here, such as they exist, but before we even get into the substance, i want everyone watching this program just to take a deep breath and really think about what this is going to look like four years from now or five years from now or 20 years from now. which side of this debate will come out looking good when history renders its judgment? you don t want to be ton the sie of freedom fries. joining us now is princeton university pro
difficult we create life here in the united states for people who are undocumented. i think part of what we need to do is change the discussion around this 14th amendment anchor baby question. i mean, you want to change the 14th amendment, you got that to do. in the meantime, how are we going to create a community here in the united states for citizens and for those who are living here but not yet citizens, where everyone is safe, can work, will pay into the tax structure? i mean, these are real questions and we need to stop chasing the red herrings around anchor baby drama provided by the gop. melissa harris-lacewell, professor of politics and african-american studies at princeton university, thank you. stay where you are for a second, because i want to show you one of the answers to this. this florida candidate says treat illegal immigrants the way we treated them in the 40s, by putting them in internment camps because they snuck in. oh, boy. and when rachel joins you at the top
less likely to feel free to call the police when they are victimized by crime. women who are in domestic violence situations are lessรง likely to turn to community support or to the police. they re less likely to take their children to the doctor. the more that we create a kind of policed state, the more difficult we create life here in the united states for people who are undocumented. i think part of what we need to do is change the discussion around this 14th amendment anchor baby question. i mean, you want to change the 14th amendment, you got that to do. in the meantime, how are we going to create a community here in the united states for citizens and for those who are living here, but not yet citizens, where everyone is safe, can work, will pay into the tax structure. i mean, these are real questions and we need to stop chasing the red herrings around anchor baby drama, provided by the gop. melissa harris-lacewell, professor of politics and african-american studies at princeto
lawmakers call those children anchor babies because they supposedly pave the way for their undocumented parents. but under u.s. law, those children must be 21 years old before seeking permanent legal residency for their own parents. that is an incredibly slow path to citizenship. a far more efficient one would be simply to marry a u.s. citizen, so maybe they should be calling for the revocation of green card citizenship. let s turn to the professor of politics and african-american studies at princeton university, msnbc contributor, melissa harris-lacewell. professor, good evening. hi. good evening. another batch of information that will be readily abused? well, i mean, data can always be readily abused, as someone who does the empirical work, it s true that data tells us things. it rarely proves things one way or another. and we can read it with a jaundiced eye or we can read it with one that has sort of one ideological perspective or another. but i do think it s clear from this