For more than two years, the immigration debate has revolved around one issue: “the border.”

Despite the fact that issues related to the border are vast and complex, the entire U.S. immigration system – flaws and all – has been boiled down to grainy images of barbed wire atop a border wall and videos of families and others seeking safety waiting for a chance to make their asylum claims.

Our current election cycle has only magnified and intensified the problem. At the ACLU, we examined three ways the media is shaping unfair narratives about the immigration system:

Candidates across the political spectrum have spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the last year doing everything in their power to distill the immigration debate down to the lowest common denominator—making people afraid of what’s happening at the southern border—facts and truth be damned.

We evaluated the entire $247 million spend on immigration ads and found that:

1. More than a third of the 745 ads included depictions of Border Patrol agents, soldiers or the military, which contribute to the false idea of a militarized “battle zone” at the border.
2. Around 20 percent of the ads referred to migrants as “illegals” or “aliens,” with around seven percent choosing harsher words like “trafficker,” “rapist,” or “murderer.”
3. Around 10 percent of the 745 ads referenced migrants as invaders or the influx of migrants as an invasion.

Mainstream media willingly or unwittingly plays into this obsession with the border by accompanying any media reporting on immigration, no matter how tenuous or absent the connection, with scenes from our southern border. As Media Matter chronicles in a recent piece, multiple mainstream media companies when discussing President Joe Biden’s new program, Keep Families Together, which allows the spouses of U.S. citizens a path to legalization, didn’t show images of the American families that would actually be helped by the policy, but instead showed images and videos of cars and people lined up at the border.

Mainstream media organizations often ignore larger immigration stories in favor of hyper-focusing on the border. We saw this most prominently during the September 10th presidential debate. Although ABC’s David Muir did fact check atrocious false claims made about community members in Springfield, Ohio, this was a surprising shift in efforts to hold candidates accountable for falsehoods, and Muir still used his one question about immigration as a smoke screen to only discuss border security.

While border security is but one part of our immigration system, the larger parts are too often ignored by the media. While the U.S. continues to receive new migrants, millions of immigrants already here have become our friends, family members, and integral contributors to our communities and economy. In fact, earlier this year, three separate nonpartisan research groups released studies making the case that immigration played a significant role in preventing a recession last year. Unfortunately, these stories are nowhere to be seen on the nightly news.

Today, even as voters are bombarded from all sides with chaotic images from the border, misleading ads with scary videos and deceptive messages and a media landscape that is seemingly obsessed with the border their views remain nuanced, a majority of Americans still see immigration as a good thing for the country. That aligns with recent polling from the ACLU that shows that what American voters actually want is to hear about balanced and humane approaches to immigration that both manage challenges at the border and include a pathway to citizenship for our longtime neighbors.

For six months, the ACLU has met with actors on both sides of the political spectrum to make the case that voters are hungry for their leaders to talk about real solutions and that appealing to the lowest possible denominator will only exacerbate the problem. Imagine where public opinion might be today if instead of hundreds of millions of dollars spent to make people afraid of immigrants, we had seen hundreds of millions of dollars spent uplifting the stories of the six immigrant workers who lost their lives while working to repair our bridges in Baltimore? Or of all the small businesses employing thousands of workers opened by immigrants? Or of the immigrants taking on essential care in nursing homes, daycares, and hospitals?

The ACLU has consistently advocated for common-sense solutions that will help modernize our immigration system without sacrificing our nation’s laws and moral obligation to protect people seeking a better life. That includes policies that would improve processing at ports of entry and hire more personnel to reduce the immigration case backlog. It also means passing solutions that will protect our immigrant neighbors who have built businesses and families in the U.S., such as by providing a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and other longtime residents. Above all, we need politicians to show some political courage and willingness to lead based on their values rather than through fearmongering.

Greeted by the newly constructed “Detroit” sign, my colleagues and I arrived in the Motor City for the final stop on the ACLU’s Know Your Rights bus tour. We didn’t actually ride our Know Your Rights bus to Detroit. Instead, we arrived to find the bus in all its glory parked outside the Garden Theater, just off the bustling Woodward Avenue. While Detroit is the last stop on our tour, the KYR bus has crisscrossed the country helping voters know their rights and feel empowered and excited to show up to the polls this November.

In Detroit, the ACLU KYR tour was hosting a live taping of our podcast, At Liberty, as well as a rap concert with the famed Danny Brown. As we entered the theater, well over an hour before the event started, the energy was already palpable. The venue was buzzing. Lights were flashing and enthusiastic volunteers prepped tables with free ACLU Know Your Rights swag, which included cans of La Colombe cold brew and Tony’s chocolates. As it approached time for the doors to open, people began to gather, many talking about the evening’s headliner, the rapper Danny Brown. One fan mentioned that this would be his 15th time seeing the Detroit legend perform.

Danny was closing our event. To kick us off was the comedian W. Kamau Bell hosting a live-taping of our At Liberty podcast. Loren Khogali, the executive director at the ACLU of Michigan, and Razi Jafri, a Detroit-based documentary filmmaker and producer joined Kamau in conversation on stage. Kamau’s lively energy quickly won over the crowd as he made lighthearted conversation about Detroit’s best food spots before diving into deeper topics, like Michigan’s long history of political organizing and the importance of voting.

Razi shared his insight on the mobilization of Muslim and Arab communities in southeast Michigan, emphasizing that such activism mirrored a growing power and movement across America, especially on college campuses. Loren and Kamau expanded the discussion, highlighting the intersectional history of Michigan’s activism. In particular, civil liberties and civil rights in Michigan improved when powerful coalitions of Black, Arab, and other diverse communities across the state worked together.

Kamau, Razi and Loren urged audiences to vote this election season, stressing the importance of understanding how voting intersects with all levels of government — from the president to the state Supreme Court. Loren’s parting words left a lasting impression: "Be curious and be critical. Get out and make a plan to vote!"

ACLU

The energy in the room continued to build as beatboxer Stevie Soul took the stage, warming up the crowd with his rhythmic skills. Soon, he was joined by Comic Rapper, improvising rhymes and getting the audience involved, fueling the anticipation for what was to come.Finally, the headline moment arrived. Detroit’s own Danny Brown hit the stage. The crowd erupted.

The Garden Theater pulsed with energy as the bass boomed and lights flashed. Fans crowded toward the stage, singing along word for word to hits like “Grown Up” and “Really Doe.” With his unique voice and flow, the performance was electric, and the connection between Danny and the Detroit community was undeniable.

As the night wound down and we stepped back out into the cool evening air, one fan’s voice carried over the crowd: “Know your rights!” It echoed down the street. It was a reminder that tonight was about more than just a show; it was about empowerment and democracy.

If you weren’t able to catch us on tour, you can still pledge to vote.