Over 50 students gathered at the Hinckley Institute on Wednesday afternoon for a debate between the College Republicans and College Democrats. Debaters responded to three topics, with a Q&A session at the end. For each section, teams had four-minute opening statements, six-minute rebuttal, and a two-minute closing statements.

Ian Jacobson and Tyson Guymon debated for the Democrats. Daylan Alzamora and Carsen Cooper represented the Republicans.

The full debate is available to view online.

Immigration policy

Republicans opened the topic discussion, defending the Trump administration’s approach to Immigration policy and enforcement. “We believe that the federal government must be able to enforce immigration law, prioritize the removal of those without legitimate legal claims, remove those who are on temporary visas, who use our social welfare and secure the border to ensure that future illegal entry does not occur,” said Alzamora, a sophomore studying political science and economics.

Alzamora claimed that illegal immigration costs are paid by taxpayers.

“You’re illegally entering this country, you shouldn’t be here. You’re leaching off billions of dollars of the American citizens. You are infinitely making us poor every single day, every single year. There’s no extent to which, how long you’ve been here, how much you’ve worked and how much you’ve contributed, that tells you you belong in this country and that you become an American citizen,” he said.

Democrats brought up the historical and cultural impact of immigrants. They argued for comprehensive immigration reform. That is a pathway to legal status for undocumented immigrants, and an increase in the number of immigration judges. They condemned the current administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.

“Functionally speaking, ICE has ignored immigrants’ right to due process in the pursuit of higher deportation numbers. There is virtually no accountability. ICE operates with an extraordinary power and minimal external oversight to create a system in which abuses are rarely punished, and they are only accountable to the Trump administration when ICE agents publicly murder peaceful protesters in Minnesota. There is no independent mechanism to ensure accountability in a system without consequences; the rule of law gives way to impunity,” said Jacobson.

Where did they agree? 

Both sides wanted to enforce tough border security, and said that undocumented immigrants should not be able to use social welfare benefits.

“I think if we are to debate the social welfare aspect of that, then I would say that obviously, if you are here illegally, you should not be receiving social welfare from the government. And I think we can agree on that,” said Jacobson. “So obviously, we can agree that that legal status is the problem, but I think we disagree on the implementation and the nuance of that policy position,” said Jacobson.

Democrats on healthcare  

Democrats opened the topic, arguing that the state should create opt-in healthcare programs to deal with losses in federal funding. Guymon argued that the “government has chosen not to negotiate, not to fight, and said to give in to the insurance companies so they can make massive amounts of money off the backs of the working citizens.”  

He also argued that the government needs to negotiate with health insurance companies to avoid inflated prices for the same drugs across state lines. “We are one of the few countries that does not negotiate with insurance companies. Under the Biden administration, multiple programs were set up to negotiate health care costs. Donald Trump’s executive order has ended many of these, and it shows right now,” Guymon said.  

Republicans on healthcare

Republican Carsen Cooper asked everyone in the audience to raise their hand if they thought health insurance companies were corrupt. The majority of the room raised their hands. “The problem is not cost, as they say, it’s the very structure of the healthcare system that we have now, this is a system from bottom to top that has been created by Democrats from Lyndon B Johnson to Barack Obama … Utah needs to deviate from this socialist system,” he said.

The U.S. has a mixed public and private system, where the majority of Americans use private healthcare. His strategies included establishing health savings accounts and expanding telehealth services. He argued that primary health care can become an employee benefit, similar to dental or vision insurance.

“We can instill free market competitive structures that force [insurance companies] to compete for quality and price, to innovate and make things better for all of us, all while making healthcare more accessible for every American,” said Cooper.

Both Democrats and Republicans argued that the current healthcare system is corrupt, and that healthcare costs are too expensive. Both sides claimed that the other side was responsible for creating and contributing to the corrupt system, at both the federal and state levels. 

Q & A

Debaters addressed questions from the moderators and the audience. Main topics included tax policy, affordability, and US foreign intervention. 

Tax policy and affordability

Republicans argued that overspending social services is what is making life unaffordable for Utahns. They argued that one of the state’s biggest expenditures is UTA, and it should be privatized. 

Cooper said higher education funding was going towards “woke indoctrination” like “Black trans lesbian Marxist class,” and a study abroad to Cuba to teach people socialism. The U currently has classes in Black feminist thought and a continuing education experience in Cuba.

Democrats argued that Republicans have been the ones to determine state tax policy, as they have had a supermajority in the state for the past 30 years. They maintained that social services and state education funding should continue, and more housing should be built.

“This isn’t just free money we’re giving you. It’s money that we’re redirecting from programs that help all of us in giving it to primarily the richest Utahns among us,” said Guymon. 

Foreign intervention 

“The U.S. should be allowed to intervene anywhere it wants, as long as it helps the people who live in that country as well, and it also helps the US dollar in ensuring that we can maintain our power,” Alzamora said. Republicans maintained that they liberated the people of Venezuela and are establishing democracy there.  

Democrats said that the goals for the capture of Maduro is only about controlling oil, similar to operations in Iraq under the Bush administration in 2003. “Oil should never be the reason for any foreign policy intervention ever,” said Jacobson. 

Outcomes

No winners were announced. Samantha Reagan, a junior sociology and psychology student who watched the debate, said the debate was insufficient in confronting real problems. She recommended grassroots organizations for students wanting to get involved instead of either political party. Reagan is a part of MECHA herself. She said the debate especially missed the point surrounding current ICE operations and affordability.

“I think, to be quite frank, most of this debate was hinged on a sense of mutual denial about how serious the situation in this country has become …We don’t have time to be having open forum debates like this while people are dying in our streets and our neighbors are being disappeared,” Reagan said. 

“If we were intellectually honest when we talked about affordability, we’d be talking about some much more fundamental solutions. We don’t just want slightly more subsidized welfare programs to somewhat ease the exploitation that we experience. We want an end to that exploitation,” she said.

Event organizer Nick Cockrell said having both sides sit down and have a conversation was the main achievement. “I think just this happening, in and of itself, is the biggest thing that I’m proud of and excited for. Just that everybody came together and we’re able to agree on rules, formats, time, date, etc. The dialogue happened, and that’s the first one we’ve done,” Cockrell said.

The Hinckley Institute plans on hosting another similar event next year.

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