Journalist Anna Lekas Miller joins Allen Ruff to talk about her recent article in the Progressive “Iced Out” which examines the effects of the new ICE immigration policies, along with her book Love Across Borders, which explores the human stories and the consequences of couples with mixed citizenships falling in love.

Miller criticizes the current ICE raids occurring under the Trump administration, specifically the alliteration in the names of the detainment centers, like Alligator Alcatraz in Florida, Speedway Slammer, located near Indianapolis, and Cornhusker Clink in Nebraska. The nicknames seem to be attractive to American citizens, and may be part of the mental disconnect that allows people to participate in reporting undocumented immigrants.

Miller highlights the myth that you can easily get married to receive a green card and become an American citizen; in some cases, such as if a person was previously deported, they are ineligible to receive citizenship. She says that immigration laws affect the daily lives of many American families, those with immigrant parents, spouses, or children who fear their family will not be able to come home at the end of the day. There is additional anxiety about suddenly becoming a single parent household, and the economic impact on individual families. Miller’s work centers around humanizing the immigration debate, which boils down to people wanting the ordinary American dream and trying to keep families together.

Anna Lekas Miller is a writer and journalist who covers stories of the ways that conflict and migration shape the lives of people around the world. She is the author of the book Love Across Borders, which tells the stories of couples and families around the world who have stood up to unjust immigration policies to be together and won the 2024 Arab American Book Award. She is currently working on her first novel and you can keep up with her writing on her Substack, which is also called Love Across Borders.

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