The influx of federal immigration agents and the threat of federal troops in Chicago has caught the attention of the nation's first Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate.

Former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun reflected on this moment as she discussed her new memoir, "Trailblazer: Perseverance in Life and Politics."

First ICE agents, then Border Patrol agents, and standing by the National Guard. The woman who once represented Illinois in the U.S Senate said "I feel really bad about" the convergence of forces in her hometown.

"I hope that our country finds a way to get back on track, because we were on track to a better world, and I think we've kind of slipped and regressed on that," she said.

Moseley Braun has been fighting for a better world for decades. It's a journey she details in her recent memoir.

"Mother's wisdom was do the best job you can where you're planted," she said.

The political seeds were planted in 1978, when Moseley Braun, a prosecutor in the U.S Attorney's office and mother of a 1-year-old son, ran for the Illinois House of Representatives on a dare.

"This guy said to me, 'Don't run, you can't possibly win. The Blacks won't vote for you, because you're not part of the machine. The Whites won't vote for you cause you're Black, and nobody's going vote for you cause you're a woman.' I was like 'What?' So, at that moment, I said, 'You know, that's it,'" she said.

She spent nearly 10 years in the Illinois House before serving as the Cook County Recorder of Deeds. Then, in 1992, the South Side girl, educated in the Chicago Public Schools, became the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate.

But when she got to Capitol Hill, she said, "They wouldn't let me in."

"They wouldn't let me in the Senate. The guards at the door said, 'Oh no, miss, you can't go there,' and happily his buddy on the other side of the door said, 'Oh no, that's the new senator from Illinois,'" she said.

Stories of the humorous and the painful fill the pages of Moseley Braun's book. She lost her reelection bid for the Senate seat in 1998. What would she go back and say to her younger self?

"Do a better job communicating," she said.

She thinks she should have held more town hall meetings and sent out monthly newsletters.

"I kind of put blinders on, and just focused you know on my job, which I saw as legislating, when in fact my job was getting re-elected, and I didn't pay that as much attention as I should have," she said.

Her legislative record is impressive.

"I passed my whole legislative agenda; everything from [federal funding to help states repair] crumbling schools to [funding preservation of] the Underground Railroad," she said.

And she never hesitated to fight for what she believed was right, like the time she persuaded the Senate to reject a Confederate symbol. In 1993, she successfully blocked the renewal of a patent for an insignia featuring the first official Confederate flag.

In her memoir, Moseley Braun also wrote about life after the Senate, including appointments to ambassadorships to New Zealand and Samoa.

Today, she serves on several boards and dotes on her grandchildren – the inspiration for sharing her life's story.

"I've got grandbabies now, as you know, and I'm hoping that the world they inherit will be better for my having been here," she said.