consumer education

Congress hasn’t passed meaningful immigration policy reform in decades. And the fate of the border deal the Senate has been weighing is looking bleak. But immigrants are an important part of the U.S. economy, and the status quo is not working. So what do we do? On the show today, César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, an immigration law professor at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law and author of the new book “Welcome the Wretched: In Defense of the ‘Criminal Alien,'” explains why our current immigration policies don’t match the country’s economic needs, what a realistic approach to immigration would look like, and why states and cities might have to take the lead on the issue if Congress continues to stagnate.

Then, we’ll break down the betting forecast for this year’s Super Bowl by the numbers. And, Big Tech’s AI crutch. Plus, we’ll get smarter about cicadas!

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• • “The Senate border deal is dead” from The Washington Post

• • “Detention and that border ‘shutdown’: What’s really in Biden’s bipartisan immigration deal” from Politico

• • “Before Title 42, Congress Failed to Overhaul Immigration Policy” from The New York Times

• • “Biden weighs a “shocking” revival of Trump’s immigration agenda” from Vox

• • “Texas’ Standoff With the Border Patrol Is a Constitutional Powder Keg” from Mother Jones

• • “Immigration has returned to pre-pandemic numbers. How does that affect the economy?” from Marketplace

• • “Tech Layoffs Just Keep Coming as Sector Resets for AI” from The Wall Street Journal

• • “The Super Bowl is expected to smash betting records. Nearly 68M US adults plan to wager” from AP News

• • “Cicada brood map 2024: When and where billions of the bugs will emerge” from Vox

We want to hear your answer to the Make Me Smart question. You can reach us at makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

When New York legalized recreational cannabis for adults, it didn't just want to fling the gates wide open for anyone to take part. Instead it specifically aimed to help out and give priority to individuals who were previously harmed by the war on drugs. However, more than two years after the law was signed, there are just a handful of legal, licensed shops. Meanwhile, there are thousands of un-licensed shops that proliferate across New York City. At the same time, red tape and legal challenges have hampered the efforts of those going down the legal, regulated path. On this episode, we speak with two entrepreneurs who are trying to go down the regulated path: Coss Marte and Alfredo Angueira of Conbud. They've spent over a million dollars getting ready to launch their dispensary in Manhattan's Lower East Side, but have been unable to actually open it on schedule due to various last minute glitches and legal challenges. We discuss what they've encountered in their efforts, and what it's been costing them to go down the legal path. 

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