>> Reporters Roundtable for David Cruise is reported by RW Jay Barnabas health, let's be healthy together.

Insurance group serving the insurance needs of New Jersey residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

Promotional support provided by New Jersey business magazine.

The magazine of the New Jersey business and industry Association, reporting to executive and legislative leaders in all 21 counties of the Garden State since 1954.

And by politicos New Jersey playbook, a topical newsletter on Garden State politics online at Politico.com.

♪ >> the president is sending troops to the southern border.

What is this, 2018?

Hi, everybody, it's Reporters Roundtable, I'm David Cruise.

Our panel today is health writer for NJ Spotlight News.

Sean Sullivan is a reporter with MJ advanced media Daniel Han covers health care for political NJ.

We will hear from the panel in just a few minutes, but we begin today with an intensification of the border situation.

The president and announcing that the U.S. will send 1500 troops to the border to help deal with an expected surge of asylum-seekers.

It seems Democrats and Republicans are united in their oppositions.

Let's get some thoughts on this from Amy Torres, the Executive Director of the New Jersey alliance for immigrant justice.

Always a pleasure to see you, thank you for coming on.

Amy: Thank you for having me.

David: you hear the president saying that he sending troops to the southern border, it really seems to represent an abject failure of U.S. policy, no/ ?

>> yes, President Biden is sending 1500 additional troops to the southern border and it's really important to remember this is on top of the existing 2500 troops that he has already sent.

I think it really demonstrates just what advocates have been saying all along is that when you restrict asylum it doesn't mean that there's a decrease in number of people coming, but it means is there's an increase in desperation.

This is not a response to new numbers of people attempting to cross the border and seek asylum, this is a result of us closing doors and tightening the bottleneck for people to arrive safely in the United States.

David: Ironically, comprehensive immigration reform was the first thing the new Biden administration announced back when they came in.

What's the rationale that we are hearing from the right house for the increase in the number of troops?

Amy: I don't think there really is a rationale, I don't think the Biden administration has done enough to right size just how far we went under the last administration.

This country hasn't had a serious conversation about comprehensive immigration reform since over 10 years ago.

And in the last lame-duck Congress in November and December of last year, we failed to pass even basic protections for dreamers and DACA recipients who are at risk of losing those protections under eventual Supreme Court.

So, to say that there's a rationale almost seems like the rationale is, let's just bury our head in the ground and hope that nothing happens.

We know that without providing comprehensive immigration reform, without providing pathways to relief and pathway to citizenship, it doesn't stop people from trying to seek safety, all it does is make the passage more dangerous.

David: A couple of weeks ago we talked to Senator Menendez and he had sent correspondence to the White House about some executive action that the president could take.

We haven't heard anything since, it seems like the administration is just kinda being guided by the politics of this, no?

Amy: It certainly seems that way, but if you look at national polling, the politics are that the majority of voters for the court immigration reform, the majority of new voters are from diverse backgrounds, our first generation new American voters themselves or children of immigrants.

So, yes, I thick the situation has become highly politicized, but I don't actually think the administration wore other lawmakers and policymakers are actually thinking about the politics of it.

Pro-immigrant policies, inclusive policies are very popular, but it has been weaponized by aviary small vocal majority who blow the issue out of proportion and demonize the same communities we are talking about who are seeking safety and are already cornerstones of our communities.

In his State of the Union address at the start of this year, President Biden did address the border and did talk about immigration, but he did so in the same breath that he said, smugglers and traffickers.

That some of the worst things we heard on the campaign trail in 2016.

This also made headlines will be said that immigrants are terrible people or that they are criminals, yet we have a current sitting president saying the very same thing in the seat of the union.

So the situation has become enormously politicized at great cost to communities who have family members that are seeking safety and want to establish their lives here.

David: That's a perfect example, when we spoke a couple weeks ago we were talking about those executive actions that the Senator recommended.

You pointed out that the Biden administration -- I'm quoting you -- "dangerous and regressive."

That's a prime example of the president kind of bowing to the loudness of the opposition, yeah?

Amy: Yeah, I think we need to talk about the loudness of that opposition.

Federal immigration reform has stalled and we haven't had an opportunity to have a serious conversation for over 10 years.

But who is being loud on the topic of immigration?

It's state legislators, its state governors that are holding the immigration conversation hostage through policies that they are passing -- passing through their state capitals.

Just this week Florida passed an incredibly disruptive and dangerous bill that would make it criminal simply to have someone who's undocumented in your car with you, even if it's a family member, even if it's a loved one.

And yet, states that are pro-immigrant states, states where the growing majorities of people claim immigrant heritage, are doing nothing on state level immigration policy and New Jersey as one of those states.

We have a lot of proposals before the legislator that are languishing simply because they believe that something for Washington, D.C. to do, not for us.

But, Governor DeSantis and Governor Abbott seem to think they have plenty of things that they are able to do, New Jersey should be able to do the same.

David: We hear a lot about the Title 42 policy, can you explain to viewers what Title 42 is and what it means to asylum-seekers.

Amy: Sure, Title 42 has existed for a long time but was activated under the Trump administration under then advisor Stephen Miller, to use the COVID-19 pandemic to justify a restriction of asylum.

So, for an amount of time borders were closed, Title 42, even after they became slightly more operable, I wouldn't say open, Title 42 was put in place to say that we can denies some of the principles of asylum because we claim it's a public health issue.

We can't let certain people in or people who don't check certain boxes will be denied asylum, but it's not really denying asylum because it's about public health.

At that time, when then candidate Biden was running for office, his team decried Title 42.

They called it racist, they called it xenophobic, they called it a farce.

As soon as he came into office, his administration litigated to defend it.

David: There seems to be no interest in comprehensive immigration reform from Federer real -- federally elected officials.

We have a presidential election coming in 2024, do we have to wait until that's over before anybody dares to take up the issue?

Amy: No, we don't, and that's where states have to step in.

Under the previous administration, when emigrants were vilified, where rights were being restricted, where there was this risk -- extreme threat of detention and deportation, New Jersey led the way by passing really wonderful, pro-inclusive policies.

We've seen the uptick of those policies slow considerably.

This year is an election year in New Jersey.

Despite new American voters taking up an increasing share of the electorate, immigrant issues have been deemed too toxic or too politicized to touch.

David: We will keep watching this.

Amy Dorris, Inc. you for coming on.

-- Amy Torres, thinks for coming on.

David: let's bring the panel in.

Day one of the Biden demonstration, big announcement of immigration reform.

Since then, pretty much nothing.

Troops to the border just seems like they are throwing their hands up in the air.

We give up?

>> I was struck by wet Amy was saying about putting trips on the border just increases the desperation and I wrote down death penalty because it makes me think of using the death penalty to deter crime.

It doesn't work that way.

People who are desperate for a new life and see this country has an opportunity are going to come here.

I do think this is one of those things where politics is really getting in the way of everybody's best interest, whether you are in the majority and if immigrants deserve a better opportunity to be part of this country or whether you are just frustrated by the fact that companies can't hire enough people, and you can't get fruit picked or you can't get houses built, or whatever it is we need immigrants in the country.

And it's just surprising to me that there can't be a path forward.

But then, politicizing the public health emergency to do this, I mean, to put troops on the border just seems like such an irony and a mistake anyway.

David: I guess the president can take some comfort in the fact that he is unified that she has unified Republicans and Democrats in opposition to the policy.

>> yeah, it certainly raises an interesting question.

You and Amy discussed the role that states have to play in this.

It used to be that during the Trump era it was a big issue in Trenton because it was in opposition to a very polarizing political figure.

Now it's a little bit different and Democrats are put in a tough position on immigration because, when the person at the top is the standard bearer for your party, it's a lot more difficult to criticize policy like what's going on at the border.

David: Dan, has New Jersey been on the cutting edge of immigration reform or lagging?

Dan: In many respects I think you can make the argument that the administration has been along the most immigrant friendly administrations in New Jersey's history, if not the country.

Some instances off the top of my head that I think of, I think of the New Jersey fund, which was a cash relief payment much to the benefit of undocumented folks.

There was a large political fight last year, two years ago over ice detention, which resulted in a new law that bars state and local governments from creating contracts with ice to hold immigrant detainees.

And of course, the very famous Inc. Shuri state promised the governor made early on in his first term even on his first campaign for governor.

There are still immigrant groups argue there are is a lot of work to be done.

Another example that comes to mind is a codification of the immigrant trust directive, which is the sanctuary state policy.

Right now it exists only in the Attorney General's directive, but some groups, like the ACLU and Amy's group, think it should be codified into law.

Certainly, there could be more done, but I think it's fair to say that New Jersey has done a lot in the space.

>> also, the pretty bold step to expand Medicaid to cover children regardless of their immigration status.

But as with many administration policies, like the fund that Daniel mentioned, there has been some sort of issue in getting it operational, but the content is certainly strong with pro immigrants.

David: Tangentially related, you've all heard about the prospect park mayor, invited, then disinvited to the White House.

Nobody seems to know how or why Mohammed got on the no-fly list.

>> the majority of the names on the list are Arabs and Muslims.

In the troubling part here is there is no due process.

It does make me feel like a per -- it does make me feel like a criminal.

MIA considered a threat to be placed on a list that's called a terrorist watch list?

That is absolutely crazy.

David: Dan, he's a Democrat, why did they do this guy this way?

Dan: I think that is a very good question that we haven't gotten a clear answer to.

The mayor has been the mayor since 2005.

He was within minutes of entering the White House when the White House official told him the Secret Service had to clear him.

If you asked the Secret Service why, they will say they cannot comment on security policies.

But if you asked the White House, they will do for you to Secret Service.

So, from those two parties, we haven't really gotten a clear answer as to why the mayor was disinvited from this event.

As the tape just showed, he says it's because he's allegedly on this watchlist, which, both the mayor and Muslim civil rights groups say unfairly targets Muslim Americans, which is racial profiling.

David: I guess a perfect resolution here would be tea with the president at the White House, but if the guy is on a watchlist, that sets a bad precedent.

I would imagine Republican strategists are licking their chops now to say, Biden sat with a Muslim mayor who was on a terrorist watchlist.

Do they need to screen their guests better or do they need to clean up the watchlist?

>> I think the evidence points more towards the latter these watchlist are contravening to everything that we think of when we think about the rights in the Constitution.

The fact that this is a secret list to which versions have leaked.

The mayor mentioned the due process part.

That's the biggest thing.

It reminds you of what goes on in Guantánamo Bay.

Obviously not as dramatic as that, but this extrajudicial process by which people are excluded from society.

And it can happen to anybody, even a fairly powerful politician, somebody who has the ear of Governor Murphy.

David: Let me.

To -- let me pivot to another consequential matter.

We have a nursing shortage crisis in the state, 13 thousand vacancies.

How did we get here and how do we fix it?

>> I feel like I've been writing this story for as long as I've been covering health care.

So, like we should've seen this coming, yes, but I think the short answer is, there is a systemic problem.

A lot of people will point to the fact that it starts with nursing education.

There are not enough professors to train nurses, so that's one problem, there is also COVID, which made it really hard.

These were the people who went to work every day, but their lives on the line, didn't spend nights with their spouses.

I interviewed one woman who hadn't slept in the same bed with her spouse for four months or something.

That's the kind of sacrifice they took in order to continue to treat people.

And I think they are fed up.

Retirement packages are probably good.

Some people have been in a wild.

Enough is enough.

Maybe a few shifts to a grocery store, a bookstore, if they still exist, whatever is better than working at a hospital coming to deal with people who deny basic science.

I can understand the frustration, sorry, going on a rant.

David: I know a lot of nurses, I have some in my family.

It's not a job that you can leave when you go home.

That's a good segue into mental health awareness month.

We've been talking about it here and, Sean, I know you tweeted about this and you were open about your experiences.

>> yeah.

In October of 2021I went on short-term disability because of mental health issues.

I had been covering the pandemic and I had been covering prisons in particular and really awful things going on behind bars in New Jersey and I had challenges in my personal life and I got to the point where I couldn't cope.

I was diagnosed with panic disorder.

I was having daily panic attacks and I couldn't leave the house.

That made it very difficult to do my job, obviously.

But because of the resources that I had available to me, my newsroom is very supportive of me, I was able to get to a point where I could cope and I decided that I wasn't going to be secret about that.

For selfish reasons.

For one, I didn't want people to think I had done something that got me canceled, and for the other, I wanted people to know this is what was going on because when I did open up about it I heard privately from a flood of people who had gone through very similar things.

Therapy is out there, there's resources for journalists.

This isn't something that's only for journalists.

Its lawyers, doctors, first responders, a lot of people have been through a lot the past few years.

Help is out there and things to get better.

David: I have to agree with you on that.

I had some losses in my family last year, and I incredibly had a great support group around me, still do, but even now, it's still difficult sometimes to just try to focus, and then you are covering stuff that's so unpleasant often.

Dan, I'm going to guess that you are the youngest one in the group, I've seen you in the statehouse, you've got that youthful hustle about you and you make it look easy.

Does this job ever stress you out?

Dan: It is more stressful than not.

I'm still trying to figure out how to do it.

David: I hear you.

>> I would totally agree.

I think the pandemic was really hard.

It took me a wild to realize how much it was affecting me.

I remember one day, just starting to cry.

Listening to Murphy talk -- remember he used to do the eulogies -- I was writing a lot about the disparity in death rates and it was yet another African-American man, who was a leader in his community, NAACP leader, history teacher, this is a man who -- I just kept thinking -- we are taking somebody away from this community.

For some reason that struck me.

I was a mess.

But long before that I just -- to add to what Sean said -- antidepressants probably saved my life several decades ago.

So help is out there, you know, plenty of people have been through it, ask, get help.

It's not easy to do, but there is definitely a greater side.

David: Definitely for all of us.

I appreciate that and you being open.

Let's move to our only in Jersey moments, headlines and notes that are quintessentially Jersey.

Dan, you got one for us?

Dan: Yeah, I wrote a story about how there were some workers in the state Department of Health on paid leave for months.

In one instance, over a year, because they are required to do what's called a fitness for duty exam to determine whether they are fit to continue working.

But in these instances, the vendor either had delays, problem scheduling, was never responsive to the inquiries and only in New Jersey can you get paid $8,000 a year.

David: Nice work if you can get it.

>> I just wanted to shout out my colleague for stories about the bamboozled Festival.

This is a real Jersey story because you have a combination of the music scene.

Here you have a festival where a bunch of paying customers are now saying that they were deceived in the lineup and they want their money back.

The festival ended up being canceled.

The tickets were sold as NFTs, nonfunctional tokens, which just reads scam up and down.

So my proposal is to revive bamboozle at a place that's familiar with all of us, American dream lands and we can rename it.

I think that that's the way to bring this back into the future.

David: Bamboozled doggy.

Mine comes from D.C. where New Jersey's Senator Cory Booker marked world press freedom date with this, that's worth hearing and repeating.

>> I know there's no coincidence that you are holding this hearing on world press freedom day and it's probably been mentioned already, you cannot have a democracy without the Free Press.

It's essential, it's not a luxury and it's vital not just for democracy but also for human rights.

David: Absolutely.

Booker generally gets good press, but he always stands there for the tough questions.

In this era of some politicians choosing to try to bypass the press, it's important for all of you watching to demand that your elected officials open themselves to questions from journalists because without us, they are counting on you buying whatever BS there selling, no questions asked.

And that's roundtable for this week, good to see you all, thank you.

Thanks also to Amy Torres for joining us.

You can follow the show on Twitter at roundtable and get fresh content every day when you subscribe to the YouTube channel.

Thanks for watching everybody, I'm David Cruz.

From all here at Gateway Center, we will see you next week.

>> Major funding for Reporters Roundtable with David Cruz is provided by RW J Barnabas health, let's be healthy together.

MJ M insurance group, serving the insurance needs for New Jersey residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

Promotional support provided by New Jersey business magazine, the magazine of the New Jersey business and industry Association, reporting to executive and legislative readers in all 21 counties of the Garden State since 1954.

And by politicos New Jersey playbook, a topical newsletter on Garden State politics, online at Politico.com.

♪