Immigration is often framed in terms of crisis management, rather than by addressing underlying economic, political and cultural contributing factors. In the US context in particular, political rhetoric has often masked complicity, abetted human rights violations and betrayed the nation’s founding principles. The lenses that shape the (quickly shifting) immigration debate in the US can distort the realities that migrants face and become surrogates for other cultural and political concerns. Focusing solely on economics or fear-based approaches too often de-humanizes newcomers.