Club member's new book explores immigration issues

Immigration,  a hot-button issue in the presidential election that President-elect Donald Trump said would be a priority in his second term, is the focus of National Press Club member Margaret (Peggy Sands) Orchowski’s new primer, "The 5 Basics Everyone Should Know About Immigration."

"I wrote the 68-page ‘note’ book to help people intelligently discuss—and help journalists accurately cover—one of the hottest topics in the Americas and Europe today,” said Orchowski, a journalist who has covered immigration on Capitol Hill since 2007.

In the wake of Trump’s re-election, “immigration policies, laws and politics in the U.S. must now be a topic of serious analysis and coverage," Orchowski said. "That includes how our laws are enforced and have evolved since the founding of our country."

Orchowski explains in the book how immigration policies, laws and enforcement evolved in the United States; how immigration differs from migration; who is an immigrant; the politics of immigration; and other related topics. It features a glossary of dozens of immigration acronyms and terms.

 “Immigration is a surprisingly emotional topic for Americans of all ages and stages,” Orchowski writes in the book’s introduction. “Yet the lack of even basic knowledge about immigration occupies a stupendous area of public ignorance. Immigration communications are rife with confusion and are highly vulnerable to political manipulation and disinformation.”