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The latest episode of our podcast, “A is for America”, features an interview with Bruce Elfant, the Tax Assessor-Collector and Voter Registrar for Travis County, Texas. Listen below or tune in via iTunes, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app.
In the news this week were more stories from the front lines of Trump’s war on immigrants, from a man denied prescribed pain medication for three weeks while in detention to a workplace raid in Tennessee which led to 500 children missing school. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan announced that he’s retiring, after years of promises to take action for immigrants and Dreamers — and zero follow-through. As our Executive Director, Frank Sharry, said:
He could have been a leader who put his party on the right side of history. Instead, the non-racist, pro-immigration libertarian of yore yielded to the party hack intent on kissing Trump’s ring and advancing a radical restrictionist agenda.
2018 is an election year, and Texas is — as always — apparently determined to have as few people of color vote as possible. Our Texas State Director, Mario Carrillo, spoke with Travis County official Bruce Elfant about why it’s so hard to register a voter in Texas, why Texas is 50th in the country in terms of voter participation, and why an under-emphasized law requiring Texas high schools to help students register to vote is so important. (Bruce’s interview begins at 10:20.)
“A is for America” is a podcast which tells stories from the front lines of a changing America. Each week, we’ll be talking to advocates and experts working in immigration reform, immigrants’ rights, immigration politics, and the forefront of what it means to be a new American. Tune in next week for more.
