Essential Politics: A Times reporter explores American divisions at the border

This is the May 19, 2021, edition of the Essential Politics newsletter. Like what you’re reading? Sign up to get it in your inbox three times a week.

Among the biggest lessons of the past year is that America is a country deeply divided.

In the presidential election, a record numbers of voters cast ballots, and most Republicans still refuse to accept that Joe Biden won, polls show. You may recall David Lauter’s work in this newsletter early this month, reporting on the latest polling showing how deep the divide among Americans has become.

What accounts for the nation’s polarization — and where it’s headed — is difficult to explain.

My colleague Tyrone Beason has one perspective: The United States promises ideals of justice and equality but remains weighed down by a dark past. The distance between America’s aspiration and reality is the subject of a project he’s taken on after covering the 2020 election — a series he calls “My Country.”

Tyrone’s stories from the road explore the hopes for the future among the people and communities at the center of some of this country’s biggest political debates, and relate his own experiences as well. Most recently, he visited the U.S.-Mexico border to learn more about the influx of migrants and the consequences of the Trump-era crackdowns and pandemic-related restrictions.

I sat down with Tyrone to talk about his latest piece and what’s next. Here is our conversation, condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

LB: Tell me how the border story came about. What inspired you?

TB: The border story was part of my ongoing “My Country” series looking at the issues that divide and unite Americans. But also it’s a way for me, as a journalist of color, to have my own reckoning, for the world to see, with this country’s history of racism and exclusion. I was inspired by the immigration issue because I was there in Tijuana a little over two years ago (as a reporter for another paper) when Trump’s Remain in Mexico program started. Looking into the eyes of so many mothers and fathers who’d traveled for hundreds and thousands of miles just to reach our border, it did something to me as a reporter. To be able to go back, now as a reporter at The Times, with the freedom to ask these bigger moral questions about how we as a country treat the most vulnerable, with the current migrant crisis as the focus, I just couldn’t pass up this opportunity.

LB: Let’s talk about “My Country.” You helped cover the 2020 election for The Times, talking to voters all over the U.S. about race and immigration. Those kinds of voter stories are a classic (and sometimes criticized) part of election coverage, but with “My Country,” you’re offering something fresher: bigger questions, different perspectives, your own voice. Can you talk about your approach and what you’re hoping to show readers?

TB: I think some of the criticism is fair, because we don’t always make the best of this approach. But if you as a journalist are willing to go deeper — spend a little more time asking about these broader issues of “What do you want your country to be?” and “How do you fit into it?” — then the results are likely to be different. I tried not to parachute into people’s lives with a set of questions [only] about elections and voting.

I was far more interested in how this country’s history and current divisions played out in people’s hearts and minds, and even at the spiritual level. These stories required a certain amount of emotional openness, I think, and I pushed myself to be present in that way, to use my own experience as a Black American as an icebreaker in some cases. My interviews on race, especially, often wound up as these intense, heart-to-heart conversations about the country itself. It makes sense to adopt this approach for a whole series of pieces and to be transparent about what I’m doing and why it matters to me, as a Black man, to do it that way.

LB: What was your process for reporting the border story? I imagine there’s a lot of trust-building involved and maybe some surprises when people open up about the parts of their lives that have been politicized.

TB: The border story is really a meditation on the meaning, the symbolism, of the barrier itself. So in a way, I was as much of an interview subject as the people I met. I visited San Diego twice for the story. And remember, we were still in the grip of pandemic restrictions. So I tried to be careful while still engaging with people.

What I wanted were impressions, snapshots that flashed before the readers’ eyes the way I experienced them. Lori Riis, the horse trainer, for example: That was a brief but lovely interview conducted on the side of the fence at her property, talking to her as she sat on her horse. It was totally unplanned and off-the-cuff. I didn’t know she felt so much compassion for migrants and didn’t ask; she volunteered this outpouring of understanding. It blew me away that someone would be so open and direct about questioning our values as a country when it came to migrants.

I walked a lot through the community garden by the border, just soaking up the dreamy atmosphere of this peaceful spot on the edge of a what is, politically speaking, a battle line. On a short visit across the border in Tijuana, I just watched and listened. I asked myself, “What does it mean for an American to witness the crisis from this side of our border?” No other huge agenda, only a desire to be as open as possible to the fear, confusion and hope people were expressing as I moved along.

Lori Riis, at her ranch near the U.S.-Mexico border, is a Republican but voted for Biden because of the Trump administration’s treatment of migrants.

(Tyrone Beason / Los Angeles Times)

LB: Do you feel like this experience has changed your perspective on politics?

TB: Covering the 2020 election through the lens of race and identity revealed to me that elections are about more than campaigns and vote totals. In the end, the last election was about democracy itself — and whether we had it in us to protect and show respect for our most sacred shared ritual. We saw with the insurrection on Jan. 6 how a crisis of confidence in democracy, in this case among those who failed to accept the election outcome, can lead to chaos.

The voters who seemed most keenly aware of this larger issue, though, were Black Americans, many of whom expressed to me that they were determined to vote — and potentially risk their health during the pandemic — to honor all of the people who came before them, who fought and died for their right to cast a ballot. Black people don’t have the luxury of taking their voting rights — or any of their other constitutional rights — for granted. The people I had the privilege of speaking to then, and post-election — they were voting to assert their place in America, not just for their favored candidates.

LB: American politics and its coverage have gone through a lot of changes in the past decade. Where do you think we’re headed, and what will that coverage look like?

TB: Hopefully more of my colleagues in journalism will see value is stepping aside from the enticing frenzy of campaigns, from time to time, anyway, to tell the story of the country and its people. We are not just voters. We are citizens, participants in an incredible experiment in freedom and equality that very often goes awry and leaves people on the margins.

To me, that’s the undercurrent in every election cycle. Working from that perspective will lead us to more engaging stories that people can appreciate years after the ballots have been cast, because we will have done something important. We will have helped them understand their country.

More from ‘My Country’

— A Black reporter’s road trip to the inauguration — and a search for America’s “soul” in the South.

— As immigrants seek refuge at the southern border, America struggles to live up to its image and reckon with the uncomfortable question of who stays and who goes.

The latest on the Supreme Court

— The Supreme Court said Monday that it would hear a major challenge from Mississippi to the reach of Roe vs. Wade, writes David G. Savage. The court would effectively decide whether states may bar nearly all abortions after 15 weeks of a pregnancy.

— The announcement comes as conservative state lawmakers push new abortion restrictions across the country. That’s no coincidence. Melanie Mason has the latest on the political landscape.

— Separately, the court ruled that police do not have a broad authority to enter a home to check on someone who may be suicidal and then search and seize evidence, Savage reports.

The view from Washington

— President Biden chose to continue a Trump-era policy that indefinitely closes U.S. borders to “nonessential” travel. The bar is now cracking after months of pressure from advocates, an easing pandemic and a lawsuit, Molly O’Toole reports.

— Four months into Biden’s term, his longevity — at 78 he’s the oldest president in history — may be proving to be one of his best assets, writes Eli Stokols. Mellowed by age and the hard experience of half a century in politics, Biden has modeled an elder’s calm that fits the moment.

— Amid increasing tension in Congress over the January insurrection, the House is expected to vote this week on whether to establish a commission to investigate what led to the violence, Jennifer Haberkorn reports. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are signaling that they will try to block — or at least slow down — the effort.

— The Justice Department dropped a Trump-era subpoena of Twitter that sought information about an account that parodies Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Tulare), a Trump ally, write Del Quentin Wilber and Sarah D. Wire. It’s not clear why federal officials were seeking information about the account.

— More from Wire: The House voted Tuesday to approve a bill aimed at addressing hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, responding to a massive surge in attacks against Asian Americans since the pandemic began.

— Biden is targeting housing rules that can keep low-income earners from home ownership, Erin B. Logan reports. But will the suburbs buy in?

— In two months, nearly 40 million American families with children will start seeing deposits from the federal government. The task is a huge logistical hurdle, writes David Lauter.

— The New York attorney general’s office said Tuesday that it is conducting a criminal investigation into former President Trump’s business empire, expanding what had previously been a civil probe.

The view from California

— Even as California expects a tax-revenue windfall, state government operations would still rely on $12 billion drawn from cash reserves and borrowing under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget, John Myers writes.

— Speaking of taxes: Newsom and his wife, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, released their tax returns, and his challengers may have to disclose theirs, too, Phil Willon reports.