It’s a challenging moment to be an immigrant in the United States. Some elected officials run on anti-immigration platforms, and new policies are targeting undocumented workers. With their very existence up for debate, immigrants have a lot at stake. In this episode, we discuss how immigrants participate in democracy as part of Chicago Public Media’s Democracy Solutions Project, in partnership with The Chicago Sun-Times and the University of Chicago’s Center for Effective Government. 

Naturalized citizens are able to take part in formal ways, like voting. But permanent residents and the undocumented population have many informal pathways open to them. Northwestern University political science professor Jaime Dominguez breaks it all down.