Inside the Dystopia of Congress Missing the Moment

As Republicans steamroll immigration policy and Democrats wait for collapse, a new reporter wonders who—if anyone—still believes in America?

WASHINGTON — There’s something deeply unnerving about sitting in the Senate gallery and realizing that nobody in the room—not the lawmakers, not the aides, not the press corps—actually seems to live in the America I know.

As a first-time reporter covering immigration and policy, I expected dysfunction. What I didn’t expect was the indifference. Not just to immigrants, but to everyone. Immigrants are merely the first sacrificial offering—easy targets in an era where rage is currency and dehumanization is part of the legislative toolkit.

Republicans, to their credit, are doing exactly what they said they would do. The Laken Riley Act, the Big Beautiful Bill Act, the slew of DHS rule rewrites—they’re passing immigration laws with breathtaking aggression.

These aren’t policy proposals as much as ideological sledgehammers. Where there is budget tightening and cuts across nearly every federal domain, immigration enforcement is not just spared?—it’s lavished. They’ve made sure that the one thi…