joining us live now is tomas jimenez, stanford sociology professor and co-director of the stanford institute for advancing just societies. professor jimenez, nice to have you with us today. >> great to be with you. >> so immigration as an election issue is certainly not new, at least a century old, right? during which time we've had bans, we've had quotas. but focus on it seems to have really been peaking the last few election cycles. why is that? i mean, is the pace of border crossings increasing dramatically? why do you think it's, you know, the focus? >> well, it's a big deal that it is a big deal. as you pointed out, uh- immigration has not been a huge focus of election year politics. and it was really 2016 when donald trump introduced the topic as something that's prominent. now, part of what people are reacting to is certainly the change in immigration patterns in the last 30 years, people going to new locations that had not previously seen large numbers of immigrants in the u.s. south and in the midwest. but immigration is really an issue that is top of mind for voters when politician