On Second Thought For Thursday, November 16, 2017

Dan Cox, DACA, Sanctuary Campuses, Isabel Allende,

U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore has been accused of sexual misconduct by five women. Many high ranking Republicans have called on him to drop out of the race. But one state poll says Moore enjoys support by many Alabama evangelicals. This could be part of a bigger picture. In 2011, the Public Religion Research Institute found only 30 percent of white evangelicals thought elected officials who commit an immoral act could still fulfill their public duties. In 2016, that number had more than doubled, to 72 percent. We talk with Dan Cox,  Director of Research for PRRI.

Atlanta is one of about a dozen communities across the U.S. providing free legal representation to immigrants facing deportation. This initiative is called the SAFE Cities Network, and it’s part of the Vera Institute of Justice. It’s the latest move to respond to heightened immigration restrictions by the Trump administration. The administration recently announced plans to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. This program grants legal protections to people who entered the United States illegally as children. We talk with DACA recipient Valentina Emilia Garcia Gonzalez, who moved to Georgia after growing up in Uruguay.

Nationwide, we have seen some college and universities be self-defined “sanctuary campuses” for students who are undocumented. This year, Gov. Nathan Deal signed a measure into law that strips state funding to Georgia colleges that declare themselves “sanctuary campuses.” Before the bill was approved by lawmakers, we looked at the legality of sanctuary campuses with Elissa Steglich of the University of Texas School of Law's Immigration Clinic.

Chilean-American novelist Isabel Allende has written a lot about the immigrant experience. Allende is a former journalist who fled Chile after the 1973 assassination of her uncle, who was that country’s president. She’s in Atlanta on Thursday, November 16, to promote her latest book, "In the Midst of Winter." We listen to a 2005 essay she recorded for the NPR series, "This I Believe." We talk with Isabel Allende about her love for writing, how she captures the immigrant experience, and why she writes a new book every year.