Latest / Stuff You Should Know / SYSK Selects: How Immigration Works
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Hello there, it's me Josh and for this week's s
- 0:03Speaker 1: Y s K Selex, I've chosen our classic episode How
- 0:07Speaker 1: Immigration Works, because I feel like we could all brush
- 0:10Speaker 1: up on the nuts and bolts and the reasons why
- 0:13Speaker 1: of immigration. Enjoy. Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from
- 0:20Speaker 1: House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast.
- 0:29Speaker 1: I'm Josh Clark. Seated across from me as always as
- 0:33Speaker 1: it should be is Charles W. Chuck Bryant. And that
- 0:37Speaker 1: makes the stuff you should know the podcast the dream
- 0:40Speaker 1: of the Legend. Yeah, the classic podcast, classic audio. Yeah,
- 0:44Speaker 1: look at us. Yeah, we were. We were called pioneers
- 0:47Speaker 1: before on iTunes. Do you remember that? Then year one
- 0:50Speaker 1: we're like the Milton Barrel of podcast and now we're
- 0:52Speaker 1: already classics. I wonner. Next year will be on the
- 0:55Speaker 1: way out if you just die already, husbands, I think
- 0:58Speaker 1: that's what it will be. Come Well, you're referring to
- 1:01Speaker 1: we were We were named the number seven podcast of
- 1:04Speaker 1: the year in the classics category. We were ahead of
- 1:07Speaker 1: or behind our Glass. Well as always, you know, I've
- 1:12Speaker 1: I've said it before and I'll say it again. I
- 1:14Speaker 1: don't feel comfortable being ahead of Ira Glass, you know,
- 1:17Speaker 1: I just feel like I'm walking around with the big
- 1:18Speaker 1: target on my back or something. No, no one does,
- 1:21Speaker 1: No one is stands alone. Yeah, so Chuck, Yes, I
- 1:26Speaker 1: wishould probably mention um while we're at the top of
- 1:29Speaker 1: the podcast. Facebook stuff you should know and on Facebook,
- 1:32Speaker 1: come join us. It's a lot of fun. Yeah, give
- 1:34Speaker 1: yourself a little Christmas treat. Yeah, and uh on Twitter,
- 1:38Speaker 1: follow Josh's Twitter feed s y s K podcast. Yeah,
- 1:42Speaker 1: but you run the show there for the most part.
- 1:44Speaker 1: You do a good job of filling in the blanks. Buddy, rarely,
- 1:48Speaker 1: but thank you, Chuck. Josh. Hey, have you ever heard
- 1:51Speaker 1: of the Dream Act? I have as as of uh,
- 1:56Speaker 1: I mean not as of today, but today big news. Yes,
- 1:59Speaker 1: the Upment, Relief and Education for Alien Miners Act, which
- 2:03Speaker 1: is basically like s CHIP for illegal immigrant kids, but
- 2:08Speaker 1: without the health care right right, Yeah, yeah, um. It
- 2:11Speaker 1: was passed in the House today by a vote of
- 2:13Speaker 1: to sixteen. And uh, that's kind of a big deal.
- 2:17Speaker 1: It moves on to the Senate. Well, it's getting a
- 2:19Speaker 1: little hinky because the Senate may kill this thing. Oh yeah, Well,
- 2:22Speaker 1: I mean this is like breaking news, so who knows
- 2:24Speaker 1: what's going to happen. In the next hour after we record.
- 2:26Speaker 1: But that's the word on the street. Wow. But basically, this, uh,
- 2:30Speaker 1: this act provides a path to citizenship for kids who
- 2:34Speaker 1: were brought to the United States as illegal immigrants and
- 2:37Speaker 1: have grown up here. Well yeah, and who uh qualify
- 2:41Speaker 1: in certain ways, like they've been here five years, they've
- 2:43Speaker 1: attained obtained a high school diploma or a g e d.
- 2:47Speaker 1: And demonstrate a good moral character, so they're not just
- 2:51Speaker 1: willya neilly handed out citizenship. And if you're a little
- 2:54Speaker 1: kid right now and you were brought to the US
- 2:56Speaker 1: illegally as a child, go star volunteering at homes. That
- 3:01Speaker 1: can only help your case and the nursing home people
- 3:04Speaker 1: will enjoy it as well. Well. This one guy they
- 3:06Speaker 1: mentioned in here quickly, Caesar of Vargas, is of course
- 3:09Speaker 1: they pick out like the one shining star as their example.
- 3:13Speaker 1: But he's going to graduate law school with a three
- 3:16Speaker 1: point eight g p A and wants to serve in
- 3:17Speaker 1: the U. S military, And potentially this is blocked. He
- 3:20Speaker 1: won't be allowed to do so, no, which is you know,
- 3:23Speaker 1: it's kind of sad. We need willing and able bodies,
- 3:28Speaker 1: smart guys and gals, hard workers. We do need. I mean, actually,
- 3:33Speaker 1: most of our immigration laws, as I understand from researching
- 3:36Speaker 1: this article, um, are kind of structured around the economy. Yeah,
- 3:41Speaker 1: you know, like our are the order of preference for
- 3:44Speaker 1: the types of immigrants that we give visas to are
- 3:48Speaker 1: are kind of like how's your back right right? You know,
- 3:51Speaker 1: feel exactly strong? Well, come on it. Yeah, Well they
- 3:54Speaker 1: did say that the Dream Act UM, the Congressional Budget
- 3:58Speaker 1: Office said it would actually cut the federal deficit by
- 4:00Speaker 1: one point four billion dollars how and increased revenues. I
- 4:04Speaker 1: would guess by adding people taxes and people to the
- 4:07Speaker 1: workforce will increase revenues. That's what they say, at least
- 4:11Speaker 1: over a decade. And that's with offering them tuition in
- 4:15Speaker 1: state tuition to college. Right, Yeah, yeah, that's pretty big. Okay, Chuck,
- 4:19Speaker 1: let's talk immigration, shall we. Yeah? This is way more
- 4:22Speaker 1: dense than I thought it was gonna be. I knew
- 4:24Speaker 1: it was going to be sort of complicated, because becoming
- 4:26Speaker 1: a citizen is is sort of complicated, but I didn't
- 4:28Speaker 1: know there were so many ways to do that. We
- 4:31Speaker 1: should say spoiler alert here, naturalization isn't even in this podcast.
- 4:36Speaker 1: And it's that dense. Yeah, I wondered about that. There's
- 4:38Speaker 1: no citizenship classes, there's no nothing. The word green card
- 4:42Speaker 1: doesn't appear in here either. Just immigration. That is correct,
- 4:47Speaker 1: my friend. Remember Happiness, one of the characters was an
- 4:49Speaker 1: immigration naturalization teacher. That's your favorite movie. We'll chuck. Let's
- 4:55Speaker 1: start at the beginning. Okay, Back in the seventeen seventies,
- 5:00Speaker 1: there's a guy named Samuel Ellis, and he had a
- 5:02Speaker 1: little island in New York Harbor. Yeah, it was very important.
- 5:07Speaker 1: In eighteen twelve, it was an important defensive position. After
- 5:11Speaker 1: the British left, we said, you know what, let's just
- 5:15Speaker 1: use this to immigrant people. Let's just funnel them through here,
- 5:20Speaker 1: build up a nice little building and change everybody's names.
- 5:25Speaker 1: And that was Ellis Island. Yep and uh. From eight
- 5:29Speaker 1: to nineteen fifty four, dude, twelve million immigrants passed through
- 5:34Speaker 1: that tiny little island, and of our population in this
- 5:38Speaker 1: country can be traced back to an immigrant from Ellis Island. Yeah.
- 5:43Speaker 1: And I think, without slanting anything or um leaning one
- 5:47Speaker 1: way or the other, I think it behooves all of
- 5:50Speaker 1: us while we're listening to this podcast to kind of
- 5:52Speaker 1: bear that in mind, then maybe your relatives were immigrants
- 5:55Speaker 1: at one point. Yeah, so, Chuck, let's talk immigration. How
- 5:59Speaker 1: do you Let's talk legal immigration first. Yeah. Well, we
- 6:03Speaker 1: should point out beforehand though, when he said that we
- 6:05Speaker 1: should remember bear in mind that a lot of our
- 6:08Speaker 1: ancestors were immigrants. There are nativists that believe that, like,
- 6:11Speaker 1: you shouldn't let any people into the country anymore, right,
- 6:14Speaker 1: And those aren't to be confused with Native Americans, who
- 6:16Speaker 1: are actually the ones who were here originally. Big difference.
- 6:20Speaker 1: These are people who are descended from immigrants who are
- 6:23Speaker 1: saying that we shouldn't let anybody in the country. Yeah.
- 6:25Speaker 1: But I would encourage any nativists to attend a naturalization ceremony.
- 6:29Speaker 1: That's all I'm gonna say. I've been to one, have
- 6:32Speaker 1: you really? Yeah? I worked on a little documentary on
- 6:34Speaker 1: Jane Seymour's naturalization. What Dr Quinn medicine woman. Oh, she
- 6:41Speaker 1: was naturalized. Yeah, I thought she made a documentary called naturalization.
- 6:45Speaker 1: No, no no, no, she was naturalized And they hired a
- 6:47Speaker 1: camera crew to follow her around. And I worked on
- 6:49Speaker 1: that and I went to a ceremony in Los Angeles
- 6:51Speaker 1: and it was you know, it's easy to get down
- 6:53Speaker 1: in this country when you hear about dosing citizens with
- 6:56Speaker 1: LSD and other hinky science experiment human sperimentation and stuff.
- 7:01Speaker 1: But you go to one of these things and it's
- 7:02Speaker 1: a genuine reminder. And I don't get hokey like this much,
- 7:06Speaker 1: but I was misty eyed for sure. Yeah. I mean
- 7:09Speaker 1: an auditorium full of people at the Congress uh Congress Center,
- 7:14Speaker 1: what's it called? An l A Staples Center, the Staples Center,
- 7:17Speaker 1: the Hollywood Bowl, you know, the Hollywood Bowl, Jerry Sucker's house.
- 7:21Speaker 1: But all these kids and and uh and adults just uh,
- 7:24Speaker 1: you could just see it on their faces. They were
- 7:26Speaker 1: so happy to be citizens of the US and took,
- 7:29Speaker 1: you know, said the allegiance and it was really really cool. Yeah,
- 7:32Speaker 1: you're like, those people know more about civics than the
- 7:34Speaker 1: average person who was born here right now, darn straight. Alright,
- 7:37Speaker 1: so let's go ahead, Jane Seymour Class act, Chuck, And
- 7:40Speaker 1: before we move on, one of Dave Letterman's top ten
- 7:43Speaker 1: signs you're in a bad fraternity. Every Saturday night is
- 7:46Speaker 1: Dr Quinn Medicine woman Night. Is that for real? That's good?
- 7:50Speaker 1: So Chuck, um, you're done. You're ready to actually talk
- 7:53Speaker 1: about legal immagant. That's my mini rant against people that
- 7:56Speaker 1: say close up shop. I like your rants. They're very
- 7:58Speaker 1: non offensive, thank you. Yeah. Um. There are a few
- 8:04Speaker 1: agencies that are charged with um immigration, and let's make
- 8:08Speaker 1: the distinction, chuck. Um, you've heard of immigration and immigration
- 8:13Speaker 1: with an irony. So immigration with an eye means that
- 8:17Speaker 1: you are going into a country. Immigrating means that you
- 8:21Speaker 1: are leaving a country or exiting with an e. That's
- 8:24Speaker 1: how I would remember. That's a good one. Um, I
- 8:26Speaker 1: remember it like I am nauseous to you, Chuck, because
- 8:30Speaker 1: I make you feel nauseated. That's how I keep immigrant
- 8:34Speaker 1: and immigrant. That's an interestingnemonic device. Do you like that?
- 8:38Speaker 1: So it used to be I N S. Who is
- 8:40Speaker 1: in charge of immigration? And uh, these days it's Department
- 8:43Speaker 1: of Homeland Security. Right, pretty much ever since two thousand
- 8:45Speaker 1: one in the Department of Homeland Security was organized after that, UM,
- 8:50Speaker 1: I N. S is not. It's pretty much taken a
- 8:52Speaker 1: back seat, if they're even still around. And under the
- 8:56Speaker 1: Homeland Security is the obviously the Border Protection US cups
- 8:59Speaker 1: of Customs and Border Protection in the US Citizenship and
- 9:03Speaker 1: Immigration Service, they handle a lot of the paperwork, right,
- 9:07Speaker 1: Customs and Border Protection handles like the law enforcement aspect
- 9:10Speaker 1: of it. Yeah, right, that Congress passes the laws, right,
- 9:13Speaker 1: and Congress is up to there in charge of all
- 9:16Speaker 1: immigration policy. The president can have an agenda that he
- 9:19Speaker 1: tries to push through Congress, but it's up to Congress.
- 9:21Speaker 1: The one thing the president does have a direct hand
- 9:23Speaker 1: in is creating refugee policy. And we'll talk a little
- 9:26Speaker 1: bit about refugees. But I propose right here and now
- 9:29Speaker 1: that we do a podcast on refugees at some point
- 9:31Speaker 1: in time. Yeah, we'll handle immigration and we'll do refugees.
- 9:34Speaker 1: Later agreed to layoff ue. Um, chuck. Yes, there are
- 9:41Speaker 1: plenty of different aliens. Yeah, there's the illegal alien if
- 9:46Speaker 1: you've heard of there's the legal alien, the most famous
- 9:48Speaker 1: one being sting in Englishmen in New York. Um. And
- 9:53Speaker 1: there's a lot of other words that get bonied about.
- 9:55Speaker 1: I get the impression that alien is not quite um
- 9:58Speaker 1: acceptable once was. It's more it's just immigrant now. But
- 10:04Speaker 1: it's not an offensive word. It's actually still a very
- 10:06Speaker 1: um it's a it's a legitimate word to use. Yeah,
- 10:10Speaker 1: you have a resident alien who is your not assistant
- 10:13Speaker 1: or national, but you have the right to live and
- 10:14Speaker 1: work here. So um or nonresident alien is like if
- 10:18Speaker 1: you have a travel visa you're here for you know,
- 10:21Speaker 1: you're an Australian. You're allowed to live here for a
- 10:23Speaker 1: little while. You're an Australian. Let's face it. Um naturalized,
- 10:28Speaker 1: not to be confused with spiritualized, but naturalized means that
- 10:31Speaker 1: you are a citizen. But you you became a citizen
- 10:34Speaker 1: after birth. You weren't a born citizen like Jane Seymour
- 10:37Speaker 1: right class act. Yes, she's married to, by the way,
- 10:41Speaker 1: Stacy Keach's brother, Todd Keach. Or was it Stacy No,
- 10:47Speaker 1: Stacy Keach's brother Todd. No, it's not Todd. I can't remember.
- 10:50Speaker 1: But that's her husband who's a filmmaker and he made
- 10:52Speaker 1: the film about her becoming a citizen. It's awesome. Well
- 10:55Speaker 1: I started bring that up. So basically they rode off
- 10:57Speaker 1: about six months of their life. Yeah, and he is
- 11:00Speaker 1: he acted for a short time. He was in vacation.
- 11:02Speaker 1: Remember when the officer pulls him over for killing the dog,
- 11:05Speaker 1: dragging the dog. Yeah, he that's him. That's him, James Keach.
- 11:10Speaker 1: Really okay, full circle, Yeah, that's good stuff. Checking all right, Um,
- 11:15Speaker 1: there is the the end all be all of before
- 11:19Speaker 1: being naturalized, the lawful permanent resident, which is basically like
- 11:24Speaker 1: kick back, relax, get a job, have a drink out,
- 11:29Speaker 1: do whatever you want, just just start. Just apply something
- 11:32Speaker 1: here or there. But you're allowed to live here for
- 11:35Speaker 1: the rest of your life. You're not necessarily a citizen.
- 11:38Speaker 1: Don't try and vote, don't you dare try and serve
- 11:40Speaker 1: on a jury, right, right? Right? But pretty much everything
- 11:43Speaker 1: else right? So how do people get here? Well, you
- 12:14Speaker 1: have to apply for a visa. That's the first step
- 12:17Speaker 1: in all of these processes, is the old visa. Yeah,
- 12:20Speaker 1: and and it depends on where you are right where
- 12:23Speaker 1: you go apply uh yeah, or or where's what your
- 12:26Speaker 1: status is? Right? Well? Sure, if you well, if you
- 12:29Speaker 1: are in a country, let's say you're Swedish and you're like,
- 12:32Speaker 1: I am so sick of this minimalist furniture crap, right,
- 12:36Speaker 1: I want to get to the U S. And then
- 12:38Speaker 1: no crime and then in the gorgeous scenery and the
- 12:42Speaker 1: women that are blond and tall, I want to leave
- 12:45Speaker 1: all that, right, okay? Um, and moved to Detroit. Yes,
- 12:49Speaker 1: you want to move to Detroit. What you would do
- 12:51Speaker 1: is you would go to the U. S. Consulate in
- 12:54Speaker 1: Stockholm or wherever you find the closest one to you
- 12:57Speaker 1: in your country of origin and say I want to
- 13:00Speaker 1: move to Detroit. And after a few minutes of them
- 13:04Speaker 1: like thinking you're joking, finally convince them you're you're telling
- 13:07Speaker 1: the truth. They're going to start the process of applying
- 13:10Speaker 1: for a visa, right, yeah, and this has to become
- 13:12Speaker 1: a permanent resident. This isn't like a work visa or
- 13:14Speaker 1: a student visa. Those are all temporary, right, This is
- 13:17Speaker 1: if you want to stay here forever in Detroit. Uh.
- 13:20Speaker 1: And you but but this visa is not. This is
- 13:23Speaker 1: a This is basically your ticket to get from your
- 13:26Speaker 1: country to a port. Yeah, not even in the United States. No,
- 13:30Speaker 1: which is confusing to me. And you're setting yourself up
- 13:33Speaker 1: for an almost immediate um let down because the consular
- 13:37Speaker 1: officer who's going to eventually interview you after you fill
- 13:40Speaker 1: out your application can say sorry, we we don't want
- 13:44Speaker 1: your type in Detroit. Yeah, or they could interview and
- 13:47Speaker 1: say great, and then you could have another awkward encounter
- 13:49Speaker 1: when you get to the port of entry because they
- 13:51Speaker 1: don't have to let you in either know, the the
- 13:54Speaker 1: the the port authority agent can be like, no, no,
- 13:58Speaker 1: I don't really like the looks of you. Don't like
- 14:00Speaker 1: your mustache. I don't like that cable knit sweater. Go
- 14:03Speaker 1: back to sweeten. I hate Ikia. Yeah is that Swedish? Yes? Okay,
- 14:07Speaker 1: I always I think it's Swiss for some reason. Everything
- 14:10Speaker 1: over there that's over here Sweetish? Okay. So, uh, let's
- 14:15Speaker 1: say you do get here to the port of entry.
- 14:17Speaker 1: They will ask you a few questions when you get
- 14:19Speaker 1: to that port of entry, like where you're from, what
- 14:22Speaker 1: do you want to do here? Is anyone sponsoring you?
- 14:25Speaker 1: Do you have family here? Or that kind of thing? Right?
- 14:27Speaker 1: And um, there are different kinds of visas. I get
- 14:30Speaker 1: the impression that there's the like, wink wink, nudge, nudge,
- 14:33Speaker 1: let the Swede in, he wants to go to Detroit,
- 14:35Speaker 1: no criminal background, just let him in type of visa
- 14:38Speaker 1: down to the um, we're not entirely certain that this
- 14:43Speaker 1: guy is not a criminal visa so like really scrutinized him, right. Yeah.
- 14:48Speaker 1: They give out four hundred and eighty thousand permanent resident
- 14:52Speaker 1: visas every year. That's for family. Yeah, yeah, if you
- 14:56Speaker 1: want to join a family member that's in the country, right, sorry, right,
- 14:59Speaker 1: So you maybe you got married to an American Joe
- 15:03Speaker 1: or something like that during the war or Jane sure um,
- 15:07Speaker 1: or you're you have dual citizenship. You're because you're you
- 15:11Speaker 1: were born somewhere with two different parents, for parents from
- 15:15Speaker 1: two different countries, so you have dual citizenship. You chose
- 15:19Speaker 1: the other country. Now you want to move to the
- 15:21Speaker 1: US and your parent lives here, that's probably pretty easy,
- 15:24Speaker 1: especially again with the economics, if you're twenty one and unmarried, right,
- 15:29Speaker 1: because you're going to come over here, probably make babies
- 15:31Speaker 1: with an American girl, so you're gonna take care of her,
- 15:34Speaker 1: and you are going to get a good job, so
- 15:37Speaker 1: you're going to spend money raising your kid here and
- 15:40Speaker 1: you are going to do nothing but be an economic
- 15:42Speaker 1: driver rather than a drain. Yes. Well, put so if
- 15:46Speaker 1: you let's say you do have a family member here, Uh,
- 15:49Speaker 1: you need to prove your relationship. UM. I would guess
- 15:52Speaker 1: beyond just saying I promise you it's my father, and uh,
- 15:56Speaker 1: you need like you have to have an affida affidavit
- 15:58Speaker 1: of support UM that says that you can support this
- 16:03Speaker 1: person at a d above the poverty line, which is
- 16:07Speaker 1: like nineteen grand it's not much. Basically saying you're you're
- 16:11Speaker 1: not going to be a drain on the system. You'll
- 16:13Speaker 1: barely eat by if nothing else. But as long as
- 16:16Speaker 1: you can eat by, as long as you can EATU buy.
- 16:19Speaker 1: Then it's got to get approved by the U s
- 16:21Speaker 1: c I S. Yes, again, the kind of the bureaucratic
- 16:25Speaker 1: arm of immigration, right right, Then the Department of State
- 16:28Speaker 1: checks to see if a visa number is available, Uh,
- 16:32Speaker 1: if you might already be in the US, so you
- 16:34Speaker 1: can apply to have your status change to that that
- 16:37Speaker 1: awesome lawful permanent resident. After you get a number, or
- 16:40Speaker 1: if you're outside and you get a number, you go
- 16:44Speaker 1: to the US to where they tell you to go.
- 16:46Speaker 1: You go to the consulate and and finish the process
- 16:49Speaker 1: there in Detroit, right and and no in in your
- 16:52Speaker 1: country still or outside. So basically the whole key to
- 16:56Speaker 1: immigration is is down the middle. Whether you're doing this
- 17:00Speaker 1: outside the country or inside the country, there's basically two
- 17:03Speaker 1: different sets of you know, it's like a choose your
- 17:06Speaker 1: own adventure book. Right, If you're inside the US, you know,
- 17:09Speaker 1: turn to page thirty two, and then you know, apply
- 17:13Speaker 1: for lawful permanent resident status. If you're if you're still
- 17:16Speaker 1: in Sweden, go to page twelve and go to the consulate.
- 17:20Speaker 1: It really does get a little convoluted. And I don't
- 17:23Speaker 1: I don't think they make it hard on purpose, but
- 17:25Speaker 1: I think you just hit We should totally see o A.
- 17:28Speaker 1: This is in no way legal advice to anybody who
- 17:32Speaker 1: is listening to US in Australia or Sweden especially. Um.
- 17:35Speaker 1: We're just using you as an example. If you actually
- 17:38Speaker 1: do want to immigrate to the US, we hope this
- 17:40Speaker 1: inspires you to do it lawfully and to go contract
- 17:44Speaker 1: and immigration attorney, or at least do a lot of
- 17:47Speaker 1: heavy lifting research on you know, um, Department of State,
- 17:51Speaker 1: the Department of Homeland, securities websites or the very least
- 17:55Speaker 1: by immigration for dummies, right, or I just don't guarantee
- 17:59Speaker 1: is out. Just do something in addition to listening to
- 18:01Speaker 1: this show. Yes, that's what I say. Or if you do,
- 18:04Speaker 1: just listen to this show and you you become a
- 18:08Speaker 1: lawful citizen from it, we want an email from you
- 18:12Speaker 1: about that. Yeah, in firmness on Facebook. Yeah that's so cheap.
- 18:18Speaker 1: Uh So where are we here? The family sponsorship? Should
- 18:21Speaker 1: we go through that? The preference? Yeah, we talked about
- 18:23Speaker 1: the preferences, right, So let's let's spell them out. Um,
- 18:27Speaker 1: provided your at least twenty one parents, spouses and unmarried
- 18:30Speaker 1: children of U S citizens, you don't have to wait,
- 18:34Speaker 1: Like if they are citizens, you don't have to wait
- 18:36Speaker 1: for that visa number. No, you can if you're if
- 18:38Speaker 1: your visa is approved or if your petition for alien
- 18:41Speaker 1: relative is approved. Um, you can just come on over
- 18:45Speaker 1: and become a lawful permanent resident. Right. Yeah, and that's
- 18:47Speaker 1: if they're a citizen. If you're relative as a citizen. Right,
- 18:50Speaker 1: if one of your relatives has made it over and
- 18:52Speaker 1: has become a lawful permanent resident, Uh, then you can
- 18:57Speaker 1: start to come over to right. But there's there's different
- 19:01Speaker 1: preferences for that. It's a spouse or an unmarried center
- 19:04Speaker 1: daughter again probably of one of twenty one years of
- 19:07Speaker 1: age or older. Yeah, that's first preference, not too old, right.
- 19:13Speaker 1: The second preference is spouses of lawful permanent residents. Uh,
- 19:17Speaker 1: they're under one under twenty one, unmarried children and unmarried
- 19:21Speaker 1: children of lawful permanent residences I'm sorry, residents. Third preference
- 19:26Speaker 1: married children of citizens, and fourth preference siblings of adult citizens. Wow, yeah,
- 19:32Speaker 1: siblings of adult citizens. It's like, yes, you've got a
- 19:36Speaker 1: bunch of visas left over. You really need your brother
- 19:38Speaker 1: over here, I mean really, Yeah, you're thirty and you
- 19:41Speaker 1: gotta have your brother over here, right, or you're seventy, right,
- 19:45Speaker 1: you know. So, yeah, it gets a little convoluted for sure. Um, chuckers,
- 19:50Speaker 1: there have been There are other ways to do this.
- 19:52Speaker 1: If you were the first of your family and you
- 19:56Speaker 1: are starting on the path to citizenship, right, Um, there's
- 20:00Speaker 1: some other ways to get in the country to get
- 20:01Speaker 1: the ball rolling number one. One of the best ways
- 20:04Speaker 1: to do this is through a the diversity lottery program
- 20:08Speaker 1: hit the lottery. That means that you are living in
- 20:11Speaker 1: a country where immigration to the US is really not
- 20:15Speaker 1: that bulky. Not a lot of people are not not
- 20:19Speaker 1: a lot of Swedes coming over to the US. Necessarily
- 20:22Speaker 1: they probably get shot at it um. And so the
- 20:25Speaker 1: State Department sets aside fifty five thousand visas visa numbers
- 20:30Speaker 1: every year, and actually a hundred and ten thousand is
- 20:33Speaker 1: what they really set aside because a lot of people
- 20:34Speaker 1: don't complete the process. They basically say, hey, you want
- 20:37Speaker 1: to come to the US. Not too many people are
- 20:39Speaker 1: coming over from your country. We are the great melting
- 20:42Speaker 1: pot over here. We're missing a little bit of your spice.
- 20:45Speaker 1: So how about applying huh? And um, the Kentucky Consular
- 20:49Speaker 1: Bureau is responsible for this. And in two thousand eleven, Chuck,
- 20:52Speaker 1: did you know that nine New Caledonians and one Lichtenstinian
- 20:58Speaker 1: among the we're among the five thousand who came over
- 21:01Speaker 1: really one Lichtenstinian, Wow, and one person from the French
- 21:07Speaker 1: Arctic Lands, which I don't even know what that is. Uh.
- 21:11Speaker 1: And if you're if you're lucky enough to hit this lottery, Josh,
- 21:14Speaker 1: you can live here and work here forever. You can
- 21:16Speaker 1: bring your family. You can bring your family, you can
- 21:18Speaker 1: bring your unmarried children. They're under twenty one, they're one,
- 21:22Speaker 1: then they're on their own. Right, you become a lawful
- 21:25Speaker 1: permanent resident who who can become a citizen under that.
- 21:30Speaker 1: But it's like a huge not just like uh, it's
- 21:33Speaker 1: like the express lane. Yeah, you're in there. Another way
- 21:37Speaker 1: to do it is through employment, right. Yeah, I didn't
- 21:39Speaker 1: know about this one or the next one. No, this
- 21:41Speaker 1: is alem that this is how we got the Nazis
- 21:44Speaker 1: over here to start our rocket program through Operation paper Clip. Okay,
- 21:48Speaker 1: Immigration through employment yeah, so yeah, that's when the employer
- 21:52Speaker 1: kind of sponsors you and they submit a labor certification
- 21:56Speaker 1: requests certification like that. I like that. What was the
- 21:59Speaker 1: other when you said to the residences and I'm all
- 22:03Speaker 1: over the place, out of faded or besides a Yeah,
- 22:09Speaker 1: I'm all thick tongue today, UM an honor of you.
- 22:13Speaker 1: So you submit that to the Department of Labor. Uh.
- 22:15Speaker 1: If it's granted, then the employer then files for a
- 22:19Speaker 1: petition for alien worker considered by the U, S U
- 22:22Speaker 1: S S C I S. Again. Then if that's approved,
- 22:27Speaker 1: then you can get the immigrant of visa number from
- 22:30Speaker 1: the state department and basically say go to work. But
- 22:33Speaker 1: that's reading the little qualifications there. Uh, the the like
- 22:38Speaker 1: the types of workers, the preferences. Yeah, so you've got
- 22:41Speaker 1: UM e B one which is priority workers, which is
- 22:45Speaker 1: we need a rocket program to get to the moon fast.
- 22:48Speaker 1: UM e B two is professionals with advanced degrees or
- 22:51Speaker 1: persons with exceptional abilities. Basically, if you live in Bangalore,
- 22:54Speaker 1: India right now, that's you. Yeah, you're coming over here.
- 22:58Speaker 1: Problems UM EB three skilled or professional workers. I think
- 23:02Speaker 1: a lot of that strobably a lot of yes, a
- 23:05Speaker 1: lot of roofers UM made their way into Florida. I
- 23:09Speaker 1: imagine through that immigration status and there's EB four special immigrants.
- 23:14Speaker 1: You know what that is? I have no idea. I
- 23:16Speaker 1: can't even begin to think of what kind of job
- 23:19Speaker 1: that would be. We need someone on the inside, if
- 23:21Speaker 1: you know, if you work for the State Department, let
- 23:22Speaker 1: us know what a special immigrant is. Yes, and then
- 23:25Speaker 1: there is the what what you could call the yellow
- 23:28Speaker 1: brick road to citizenship. Yeah, this is the the cherry
- 23:31Speaker 1: on top. Basically, if you have if you have some
- 23:33Speaker 1: money you want to throw around and invest in in
- 23:36Speaker 1: the American dream, you can. You can buy your visa.
- 23:39Speaker 1: It's ten thousand investor visas every year made available. And uh,
- 23:45Speaker 1: you have to there's you know, a few different ways
- 23:47Speaker 1: to do it. You have to prove basically that you're
- 23:49Speaker 1: gonna make an investment in a commercial endeavor that's approved
- 23:54Speaker 1: and that you're going to create ten, ten or more
- 23:55Speaker 1: jobs through this endeavor. Right, and this is half of
- 23:58Speaker 1: those half of those tenths and investor visas are set
- 24:02Speaker 1: aside for this pilot project called um OH Regional Centers,
- 24:07Speaker 1: which is basically it's a rural area struggling business. It's
- 24:11Speaker 1: it's a part of the US that needs some investment.
- 24:13Speaker 1: Need some new businesses. Right, Detroit, here we go again. Uh.
- 24:18Speaker 1: You can also get that same visa, Josh, by starting
- 24:20Speaker 1: a business or purchasing a business that's not doing so hot. Uh.
- 24:25Speaker 1: You can also Yeah, if you purchase a business, you
- 24:28Speaker 1: can't just purchase that. You have to show that you
- 24:30Speaker 1: can inflate its revenues by and keep everybody on staff, right,
- 24:36Speaker 1: or the golden ticket. If you just have a lot
- 24:39Speaker 1: of money, if you have half a million dollars, you
- 24:42Speaker 1: can say I'm gonna invest that in a rural area.
- 24:45Speaker 1: Or if you have a million dollars, you can just
- 24:48Speaker 1: invest in some other venture anything. And and the best
- 24:51Speaker 1: part is if you invest that million dollars correctly, not
- 24:54Speaker 1: only do you buy your visa, you might make a
- 24:57Speaker 1: substantial amount of money back on your investment. Yeah. So
- 25:00Speaker 1: that Yeah, if you've got a lot of dough, then
- 25:02Speaker 1: you can become an American citizen. A come on in,
- 25:05Speaker 1: it'spend your money, right. Yeah. And I have to say,
- 25:08Speaker 1: I know you don't print out the pictures. You're missing
- 25:11Speaker 1: out on this one. There are some cool maps that
- 25:13Speaker 1: are like inflated and and exaggerated and anemic and colorful.
- 25:18Speaker 1: The United States based on based on immigration to countries. Interesting,
- 25:24Speaker 1: and then there's also one where refugees are it's really neat.
- 25:28Speaker 1: I recommend going and checking. The South and Central America
- 25:30Speaker 1: are skinny. America is bloated. Yeah, that is cool. Yeah,
- 25:34Speaker 1: and so so is the Middle East? Very very big,
- 25:37Speaker 1: now is it? Uh? So let's talk about asylum. This
- 25:58Speaker 1: is pretty convoluted as well. Actually, yeah, if you remember
- 26:02Speaker 1: one thing from this podcast, a person seeking asylum is
- 26:07Speaker 1: called in ASSAILI that's it. Can we just stop there, yes,
- 26:11Speaker 1: let's go to sleep. You know what asylum is, Josh,
- 26:14Speaker 1: it's obviously it's when you're protected, um from if you're
- 26:17Speaker 1: fleeing persecution from your country. You can come here and
- 26:20Speaker 1: say I need asylum because I live in Sudan. Do
- 26:23Speaker 1: you remember in the Rules of War podcast we were
- 26:25Speaker 1: talking about World War two changed everything basically brought the
- 26:28Speaker 1: whole world together, uh, to say we need to come
- 26:32Speaker 1: up with some like rules not just for war, but
- 26:36Speaker 1: for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was pastor
- 26:40Speaker 1: ratified UM. Countries of the world said, as a human being, uh,
- 26:47Speaker 1: people have the right to seek and enjoy in other
- 26:52Speaker 1: countries asylum for persecution, which is basically like it's some
- 26:56Speaker 1: horrible stuff going on over here. You have to take
- 26:59Speaker 1: these people if they come to your country. That's a
- 27:02Speaker 1: basic human right to be free from that. Because there's
- 27:05Speaker 1: other parts of the world. Yeah, yeah, or at the
- 27:07Speaker 1: very least in the case of the United States, you
- 27:10Speaker 1: you can go to another country that we have a
- 27:13Speaker 1: deal with an asylum deal, like, hey, you might like Canada, right.
- 27:16Speaker 1: Not only that, if they yeah, if they come to
- 27:18Speaker 1: the U. S and they're like, we I'm seeking asylum,
- 27:21Speaker 1: we can be like, you are approved for Canada, and
- 27:26Speaker 1: we can just take you there, like we'll give you
- 27:28Speaker 1: a bus ticket even But yeah, it's it's kind of
- 27:30Speaker 1: funny because we have asylum treaties with other countries. It's interesting. Yeah,
- 27:34Speaker 1: there are no quotas or limits on on this kind
- 27:36Speaker 1: of visa. You just have to demonstrate a well founded
- 27:40Speaker 1: fear for your life basically, yeah, of persecution in his
- 27:44Speaker 1: or her home country, right, and you make that case
- 27:47Speaker 1: um at a point of entry. So basically, if you're
- 27:50Speaker 1: seeking asylum, here's the difference between in assyli and a
- 27:52Speaker 1: refugee again inside or outside of the country. Right. So
- 27:57Speaker 1: let's say that you are fleeting fleeing Sudan and you've
- 28:02Speaker 1: made it to Egypt, right, You're like, I don't really
- 28:06Speaker 1: want to stay in Africa any longer. I really want
- 28:09Speaker 1: to seek I want to I want to seek asylum
- 28:11Speaker 1: in the US, but I'm doing it from Egypt, your refugee.
- 28:14Speaker 1: If you leave Egypt and come to the Port of
- 28:17Speaker 1: Savannah and say I want asylum, you're in Asia. It's
- 28:22Speaker 1: just where you're doing that. But it's the same thing
- 28:24Speaker 1: for the same reasons. You're being persecuting your home country
- 28:27Speaker 1: and you're seeking comfort and freedom from persecution in another country.
- 28:32Speaker 1: Gotta you know you've heard of the Is it the
- 28:34Speaker 1: Lost Boys of Sudan? The Child Soldiers? Why am I thinking?
- 28:40Speaker 1: Is that the Lost Boys of Sudan? Right? It sounds right. Yeah.
- 28:43Speaker 1: One of those guys works at Twains Indicator. He's a
- 28:46Speaker 1: former child soldier I think so, that's and he was
- 28:51Speaker 1: just very happy to be bussing tables at Twains. I'm sure.
- 28:55Speaker 1: I mean, everyone loved this guy. I don't know if
- 28:57Speaker 1: he's still there, there has been a couple of years
- 28:59Speaker 1: since I've been there, but uh, yeah, it was really neat.
- 29:01Speaker 1: I mean he was you know, the news stories all
- 29:03Speaker 1: over the place about these guys, and he worked there
- 29:05Speaker 1: and was one of the U was the word I'm
- 29:09Speaker 1: looking for. People loved him. He wasn't a mascot, but
- 29:13Speaker 1: he was. He was almost like people would come to
- 29:15Speaker 1: Twains and like everyone said hi to him and and
- 29:18Speaker 1: he was he's very nice guy. Mascot's not the right word.
- 29:22Speaker 1: Save it for the refugee podcast. Um, because we're talking
- 29:26Speaker 1: about asylum here. Yes, so, Chuck, if you're fleeing persecution,
- 29:30Speaker 1: that's kind of specific. You can't be like, no one
- 29:32Speaker 1: in my home country likes me, right, that's not persecution, right, No, no, No,
- 29:37Speaker 1: it's um persecution based on race, politics, nationality, religion, membership
- 29:43Speaker 1: in a social group. So if like the US turned
- 29:46Speaker 1: on the nights of Columbus, they could go to like
- 29:49Speaker 1: Europe and seek asylum. Or if you're in a book club. Yeah,
- 29:55Speaker 1: I'm not sure what that means group. Okay. Um. There
- 29:59Speaker 1: are two apes of asylum gestures affirmative and defensive asylum.
- 30:03Speaker 1: And from what I get, affirmative is when you arrive
- 30:07Speaker 1: here at a portive entry. You within a year of
- 30:10Speaker 1: being here, you submit your application, it's filed, and you
- 30:14Speaker 1: have an interview. They call it non adversarial. It basically
- 30:17Speaker 1: means doesn't take place in court, right, It's gonna take
- 30:21Speaker 1: place in a friendly office and everybody's gonna be smiling,
- 30:24Speaker 1: and uh, they're not detained. You can live here while
- 30:27Speaker 1: your case is being considered. Um, but you can't work.
- 30:32Speaker 1: Isn't that right? I believe that is right. And actually,
- 30:34Speaker 1: if you do this the right way, like the US
- 30:37Speaker 1: is set up, we actually have an act from night
- 30:40Speaker 1: called the Refugee Act, and if anybody can ask for
- 30:43Speaker 1: asylum no matter what your alien status is, and we
- 30:45Speaker 1: actually have mechanations, mechanization mechanisms will go with that one
- 30:51Speaker 1: in place, um to kind of hasten this process. So
- 30:55Speaker 1: if you do this correctly, you can have this whole
- 30:58Speaker 1: thing buttoned up in sixty days and be kicking back
- 31:01Speaker 1: in Detroit. Yeah. If it never goes to uh before
- 31:04Speaker 1: a judge and it just stays nice and affirmative and
- 31:07Speaker 1: non adversarial, yeah, then you're you're in like flint in
- 31:10Speaker 1: no time. Right. So basically what you want to do
- 31:12Speaker 1: is within a year of landing in the US, you
- 31:14Speaker 1: want to go to a port and ask for asylum. Yeah.
- 31:16Speaker 1: I would do that on day two. Why not after
- 31:19Speaker 1: I've gone out and like, I seen what nightlife has
- 31:22Speaker 1: to offer America. And then there's defensive asylum, and that
- 31:28Speaker 1: is when you are you were in danger of being
- 31:31Speaker 1: deported and you're trying to get asylum. Yes, so that's
- 31:35Speaker 1: not like you came here and you filed all the
- 31:37Speaker 1: correct paperwork. That means they're saying, now you need to
- 31:39Speaker 1: go home, and you're like, no, I don't want to go. Right.
- 31:42Speaker 1: That means like if you waited two years, yeah, and
- 31:44Speaker 1: you go, they're going to be like, oh, well now
- 31:47Speaker 1: you're now you're in defensive asylum, dummy, Why didn't you
- 31:49Speaker 1: do this a year ago? Right? Or if you weren't
- 31:51Speaker 1: granted asylum, you can still try and get in through
- 31:54Speaker 1: defensive asylum, right if you've gone through If you went
- 31:58Speaker 1: through affirmative asylum and we're didn't ide, your next step
- 32:01Speaker 1: would be going through defensive asylum, which is adversarial, meaning
- 32:05Speaker 1: it's in a court. Everybody's a little stern talking to you,
- 32:08Speaker 1: a little mean, there's lawyers and all that stuff. Um,
- 32:12Speaker 1: and we should say here, if you were caught without
- 32:16Speaker 1: correct documentation, if you um forfeited your alien status anything
- 32:22Speaker 1: like that. Uh, it doesn't just apply to illegal immigrants.
- 32:26Speaker 1: It applies to illegal immigrants who can again demonstrate a
- 32:30Speaker 1: quote credible fear of persecution or torture. This is asylum.
- 32:34Speaker 1: It just applies to those people. Yes, right, yes, and
- 32:37Speaker 1: then there's expedited removal Chuck. Yeah, that's if you're busted
- 32:40Speaker 1: basically with no documentation coming in coming in and you're
- 32:44Speaker 1: just like, oh, I just thought you needed a plane ticket.
- 32:50Speaker 1: Is that not good enough? Here's my luggage receipt? And
- 32:53Speaker 1: actually this is pretty cool. The immigration officials, which I
- 32:58Speaker 1: imagine include the customs um Agency, right, yeah? Uh, which
- 33:05Speaker 1: we did a podcast something, didn't we Yeah? Okay, um,
- 33:09Speaker 1: they have to ask four questions of anyone they catch,
- 33:14Speaker 1: uh trying to make it into the US illegally, right.
- 33:18Speaker 1: They have to ask, oh, why did you leave your
- 33:20Speaker 1: home country? Uh? Why? Or do you have any fear
- 33:24Speaker 1: concerned about being returned to your home country? Uh? Would
- 33:28Speaker 1: you be harmed if you were returned to your home country?
- 33:30Speaker 1: Do you have any questions? Anything else you'd like to add?
- 33:34Speaker 1: It's actually in here. Uh so it basically anybody who
- 33:37Speaker 1: wants to seek asylum can say I'm seeking asylum, and
- 33:40Speaker 1: that's gonna start off this process. You're they're not gonna
- 33:42Speaker 1: be like no, yeah, anyone. If you come here and
- 33:47Speaker 1: you want asylum, you're at least going to be able
- 33:49Speaker 1: to speak with someone about that. You're not just gonna
- 33:52Speaker 1: be turned away at the door. But if you're busted
- 33:54Speaker 1: getting in, you're going straight to defensive asylum. If you
- 33:58Speaker 1: make it through and they can go to a port
- 34:01Speaker 1: right and say I'm seeking asylum, they'll that'll be affirmative asylum. Yeah,
- 34:06Speaker 1: people like I was are probably like, what so confusing? Yeah,
- 34:11Speaker 1: just go to the port and say asylum and that'll
- 34:14Speaker 1: that'll kick start something interesting, that will start the process
- 34:17Speaker 1: for sure. Uh. So we're not gonna talk too much
- 34:20Speaker 1: about refugees, but um, the two thousand nine World Refugee
- 34:24Speaker 1: Survey puts that number at about thirteen point six million
- 34:28Speaker 1: worldwide refugees. And in uh last year, God, that's up
- 34:33Speaker 1: a lot because this article was written I think in
- 34:35Speaker 1: like two thousand seven Silverman. Did you notice Jacob Silverman
- 34:39Speaker 1: made a Bruneo reference. Um, he said that in two
- 34:44Speaker 1: thousand and five there were nine point five million UM
- 34:48Speaker 1: refugees at the beginning of that year. We're up to
- 34:51Speaker 1: thirteen million. That's what it said, and uh, last year,
- 34:55Speaker 1: the US admitted sixty thousand refugees and the next closest
- 35:01Speaker 1: was Canada at about eleven thousand, and then the assees
- 35:04Speaker 1: said about nine thousand. Wow, there's refugees from Canada. No
- 35:09Speaker 1: refugees that Canada said, once you come on here to
- 35:12Speaker 1: the great right North, we'll let you know. They admitted
- 35:15Speaker 1: the refugee. And that's you know, refugees are looking for
- 35:18Speaker 1: at the very least temporary protected status. And that's when
- 35:22Speaker 1: you're like, all right, we'll take care of you for
- 35:23Speaker 1: now and then we'll work this whole thing out in
- 35:26Speaker 1: a minute. But you're safe. Is that all on refugees?
- 35:31Speaker 1: And listen, do you do you want to do a podcast? Lot? Yeah, yeah,
- 35:34Speaker 1: let's do one later. All right, Well, let's let's move
- 35:36Speaker 1: on to the the sexiest business of all of this, Yeah, controversy,
- 35:41Speaker 1: illegal immigration. Yeah, it's hard to say, obviously how many
- 35:45Speaker 1: there are. The numbers are kind of all over, but
- 35:48Speaker 1: the Department of Homeland Homeland Security said that, uh, there
- 35:51Speaker 1: were ten point eight million last year, which is down
- 35:55Speaker 1: a full million from oh eight and that's the largest
- 35:57Speaker 1: drop in thirty years. Yeah, well, of a pretty big
- 36:01Speaker 1: recession times are tough here. I don't really think about that.
- 36:04Speaker 1: That's exactly why I would still think that it would
- 36:06Speaker 1: be better than being in Warez. Well, I'm glad you
- 36:10Speaker 1: brought up Warez because I had a question about that
- 36:14Speaker 1: about se you, Dodd Warez. Do you like my Spanish? Yeah?
- 36:18Speaker 1: But I was talking about war as the place. But
- 36:20Speaker 1: go ahead, that's what I'm talking about that too. Oh
- 36:22Speaker 1: is that the full name of it? Yeah, it means
- 36:23Speaker 1: Warrez City. Like I wasn't talking about see you, Dodd Warez.
- 36:29Speaker 1: I was talking about Warez City. I don't know who
- 36:31Speaker 1: that dude is. But think about it, Like, I think
- 36:34Speaker 1: more than six thousand people have died in July. This
- 36:38Speaker 1: past July hit the six thousand mark. Not have died,
- 36:41Speaker 1: we're killed right, Okay, we're killed in war Is alone
- 36:46Speaker 1: since January two because of the real deal drug war. Right.
- 36:51Speaker 1: So if you're fleeing that across the US border, what's
- 36:57Speaker 1: how is how can you not seek asylum? Is it
- 37:00Speaker 1: that you could conceivably go south and deeper into your
- 37:04Speaker 1: home country and be relatively safe? Yeah, I don't know.
- 37:10Speaker 1: I was hoping you would. Yeah, I don't know if
- 37:12Speaker 1: asylum is just for Yeah, I mean that would definitely
- 37:16Speaker 1: constitute a fear of fearing for your life, for sure,
- 37:19Speaker 1: your persecution for sure. That's a good point. But that
- 37:22Speaker 1: is that does kind of pose a problem for people
- 37:24Speaker 1: in Warez fleeing north, you know, because the US is
- 37:28Speaker 1: right there. Warez is in the middle of a real
- 37:33Speaker 1: drug war and it's a very dangerous place right now,
- 37:35Speaker 1: maybe they don't think asylum, They just think, you know,
- 37:38Speaker 1: across yeahs illegally and uh so, m I should clue
- 37:41Speaker 1: him in. Yeah, And before we were you were talking
- 37:44Speaker 1: about the controversy with illegal immigration, and we mentioned the recession.
- 37:49Speaker 1: It seems like they're there. That's pretty much. I don't
- 37:52Speaker 1: think too many people have problems with peaceful refugees seeking
- 37:56Speaker 1: asylum in the US. It's when economics are brought into it.
- 37:59Speaker 1: There go nuts, right, Um, that always goes back to money, right,
- 38:04Speaker 1: it does. But I think first we should kind of
- 38:07Speaker 1: we're we're up here, like, oh, well, they're coming in
- 38:10Speaker 1: down south and the border, right, Um, we should probably
- 38:13Speaker 1: point out that for a lot of people who are
- 38:16Speaker 1: making these border crossings illegally, it's extremely dangerous, right. Silverman
- 38:21Speaker 1: who wrote this um This article cited three thousand people
- 38:26Speaker 1: who have died since trying to make the trek between
- 38:30Speaker 1: the Mexico California border. Just Mexico California. Yeah, since we
- 38:34Speaker 1: since we erected the fence. They're interesting. Yeah. Um. Also
- 38:39Speaker 1: coyotes who you pay to get you across the border,
- 38:42Speaker 1: especially if you're coming out of warez Um. They basically
- 38:46Speaker 1: double as drug transporters. They use illegal immigrants as mules,
- 38:51Speaker 1: basically like, well, here, carry some drugs and I won't
- 38:54Speaker 1: charge you. And the person will say, well, now, I'll
- 38:56Speaker 1: just pay you, and the guy pulled out a gun
- 38:58Speaker 1: and goes, no, you're going to carry these drugs. So
- 39:01Speaker 1: these people are not just getting busted coming into the country.
- 39:04Speaker 1: They're getting busted with tons of dope on them and
- 39:07Speaker 1: they're going to prison. Well, and then that gives the
- 39:11Speaker 1: argument to the native of sand See, they're just coming
- 39:13Speaker 1: in here bringing drugs. When it may be traced back
- 39:16Speaker 1: to this one drug runner. It is making these hundreds
- 39:19Speaker 1: of people smuggle in their drugs. And I think there's
- 39:23Speaker 1: a lot of confusion going on. But yes, it's it's
- 39:25Speaker 1: not good down there right now. No, it's not so uh.
- 39:29Speaker 1: Illegal immigrants as most people know a lot of times
- 39:31Speaker 1: will come to this country, join up with some of
- 39:33Speaker 1: their family who may be here already legally, and do
- 39:36Speaker 1: jobs that Americans don't want to do for low wages.
- 39:41Speaker 1: That happens a lot of times. It's not legal, You're
- 39:43Speaker 1: not supposed to hire these people, but it happens. Yeah,
- 39:46Speaker 1: it wasn't there. Um, I think Colbert did it. There's
- 39:49Speaker 1: a a group in New York State who were offering
- 39:55Speaker 1: this farm hand like I think fruit harvesting job to
- 39:59Speaker 1: anybody who wanted it, any American born American you wanted it,
- 40:03Speaker 1: and no one took him up on it. Yeah, Well
- 40:06Speaker 1: that kind of goes, uh to the guest worker program,
- 40:08Speaker 1: which is something George w was in favor of and
- 40:12Speaker 1: that has not been approved, but it's been bandied about
- 40:15Speaker 1: a lot. And basically that means if you can't find
- 40:18Speaker 1: any American to do a job that you want, you know,
- 40:21Speaker 1: to hire someone for, then hire a foreigner for about
- 40:26Speaker 1: you know, to be a term limit like three years. Um,
- 40:29Speaker 1: track them through the system, make them pay some taxes
- 40:31Speaker 1: while they're here, and then give them an incentive to
- 40:34Speaker 1: return home, like hey, we'll even give you retirement benefits
- 40:38Speaker 1: which you can collect in Warrez after your term is done,
- 40:43Speaker 1: after you've worked for three years. And I didn't know
- 40:45Speaker 1: this had a little digging. There was actually a program
- 40:48Speaker 1: from ninety two to nineteen sixty four called called the
- 40:51Speaker 1: Bracero Program that Roosevelt put in and it was basically
- 40:54Speaker 1: that it was we need a lot of labor, so
- 40:56Speaker 1: let's get some of the Mexican people up here to
- 40:59Speaker 1: do this work. And it was a nice exchange. But
- 41:02Speaker 1: in the middle of this and then we were like
- 41:04Speaker 1: everybody get out. Well it was still nineteen sixty four.
- 41:07Speaker 1: But in nineteen fifty four, in the middle of this program,
- 41:09Speaker 1: the I n S ran a program no lie called
- 41:12Speaker 1: Operation wet Back What that was the name of it what?
- 41:16Speaker 1: And their goal was to round up one thousand aliens
- 41:21Speaker 1: per day and get them out and in the end
- 41:24Speaker 1: more than one million Mexican nationals. We're taken back to
- 41:28Speaker 1: Mexico courtesy the US, and not just taken back to Mexico,
- 41:31Speaker 1: but like eight hundreds to a thousand miles deep into
- 41:34Speaker 1: Mexico to discourage them coming back to the US. Was
- 41:39Speaker 1: this program headed up by Don Johnson, So no man,
- 41:42Speaker 1: but that was the name of it. I mean, you
- 41:43Speaker 1: can google it so anyway, that's part of our our
- 41:45Speaker 1: lovely history too here. Wow. But um, until the guest
- 41:49Speaker 1: worker program is for real, then it's just an idea
- 41:52Speaker 1: that some people say might not be a bad one. Yeah, Like,
- 41:56Speaker 1: if they're here working, why not see if we can
- 41:59Speaker 1: Because the reason a lot of people get mad, we
- 42:01Speaker 1: should explain it's like this is fun, I'm watching you
- 42:03Speaker 1: tap dance is a They're not paying taxes, is what
- 42:06Speaker 1: the people against us say, and be they most times
- 42:10Speaker 1: are sending money straight back to their homes. Yeah, so
- 42:13Speaker 1: they're not even putting money into the economy. Remember when
- 42:16Speaker 1: we were in Guatemala, we found out that tourism number two,
- 42:21Speaker 1: agriculture number three, remittances was the number one driver of
- 42:25Speaker 1: their economy while we were there. Unbelievable. That takes a
- 42:28Speaker 1: lot of people off, right, But I think that that's
- 42:32Speaker 1: kind of a flash point, um for I don't think
- 42:37Speaker 1: it encapsulates the whole thing. Is something the beginning and
- 42:39Speaker 1: the end of the problem with immigration, No, of course
- 42:42Speaker 1: not right. Yeah, um, chuck. A lot of people say,
- 42:46Speaker 1: you want a guess worker program path to citizenship, that
- 42:50Speaker 1: is amnesty, and we don't do that in the US, right, yeah,
- 42:54Speaker 1: actually we do. We've given amnesty to it a lot
- 42:59Speaker 1: of people. Uh. In nineteen eighty Uh, Fidel Castro opened
- 43:05Speaker 1: up the Merrielle Port Havannah and a hundred and twenty
- 43:08Speaker 1: five thousand Cubans said see you later and showed up
- 43:11Speaker 1: on mass in Miami. Amnesty seems to have gone in
- 43:15Speaker 1: big waves here. Yeah, which is what a lot of
- 43:18Speaker 1: people say. That's why we shouldn't do it, because it
- 43:20Speaker 1: just encourages people to come here illegally in hopes that
- 43:23Speaker 1: there will be another big amnesty. Right. It rewards illegal behavior,
- 43:27Speaker 1: It's federally mandated rewards for illegal behavior. I totally understand
- 43:31Speaker 1: that argument. Um, it's a slap in the face to
- 43:34Speaker 1: all the people who came here legally and went through
- 43:36Speaker 1: this hard kind of grueling process legally. Um. And you
- 43:42Speaker 1: know all the other problems as well. Um. But I
- 43:46Speaker 1: guess my point is we have given amnesty to people
- 43:49Speaker 1: before and hasn't been the end of the country. Yeah,
- 43:52Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. Um. And by the way,
- 43:55Speaker 1: that that Cuban migration in that's what Scarface starts out.
- 44:00Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah yeah. And the Delta Force came to
- 44:03Speaker 1: Atlanta actually because a lot of the immigrants were moved
- 44:07Speaker 1: to federal prisons just to hold for a while until
- 44:10Speaker 1: the government figured out what to do with them. There
- 44:13Speaker 1: was an uprising in the Atlanta Federal pen attention and
- 44:16Speaker 1: the Delta Force showed up to quell it. Wow, well
- 44:18Speaker 1: that's kind of what happened in Scarface, right when there
- 44:19Speaker 1: are a big uprising in there in tournament camp. Yes, yes,
- 44:22Speaker 1: great movie. So obviously we well we didn't really talk
- 44:26Speaker 1: about the border patrol. We could do a whole podcast
- 44:28Speaker 1: on that, but yeah, we did with customs, Yeah, we
- 44:32Speaker 1: talked about that. We can say that that that virtual
- 44:34Speaker 1: border fence that was u controversial and full of issues,
- 44:39Speaker 1: technical issues and delays. Obama put it into that in
- 44:43Speaker 1: March and said this thing is we could use our
- 44:47Speaker 1: money better than this. It's not working. But there is
- 44:49Speaker 1: a fence. There's five and eighty miles of twenty one
- 44:53Speaker 1: ft fence along the border, pedestrian and vehicle fencing. So
- 44:57Speaker 1: I mean they're they're working on it. I don't know.
- 45:00Speaker 1: I mean, they can clearly never build a fence along
- 45:02Speaker 1: the entire border, but the Minutemen Civil Defent Defense Corps
- 45:07Speaker 1: is trying to do it on their own, not very
- 45:09Speaker 1: successfully though. They talk a lot. But apparently they did
- 45:13Speaker 1: a report on their fence and they basically said it's
- 45:16Speaker 1: a cattle fence. I once interviewed the guy, the guy
- 45:19Speaker 1: who founded that. I can't remember his name right now,
- 45:22Speaker 1: but I talked to him on the phone. And you
- 45:25Speaker 1: just start him talking and he'll talk. It was very interesting,
- 45:29Speaker 1: interesting conversation to just basically sit there and take notes
- 45:32Speaker 1: on Well, I mean, I guess I see what they're
- 45:33Speaker 1: trying to prove. But they were, you know, their goal
- 45:36Speaker 1: was a ten mile stretch of fence, and come on,
- 45:39Speaker 1: ten miles. I mean, you can walk that in an
- 45:40Speaker 1: hour and go around it ten miles an hour. You're
- 45:44Speaker 1: gonna have to be jogging running okay, two hours? Okay?
- 45:48Speaker 1: What do you walk about? Four miles an I walk
- 45:50Speaker 1: about a mile and a half an hour because I
- 45:52Speaker 1: stop a lot and lay down. Well you're a stroller?
- 45:55Speaker 1: What else, dude? Um? Well, that's it. An amnesty you
- 45:58Speaker 1: want to talk about some more high it's to amnassy.
- 46:01Speaker 1: About a million Nicaraguans were given amnesty through the Central
- 46:05Speaker 1: American Relief Act. UH hundred and twenty thousand Haitian refugees
- 46:12Speaker 1: were granted amnesty on mass and all of that is
- 46:15Speaker 1: because of the Night six Immigration Reform and Control Act,
- 46:19Speaker 1: which gave amnesty to about two point eight million illegal immigrants.
- 46:24Speaker 1: And the president who did that, one Ronald Reagan. Looky there. Yeah,
- 46:28Speaker 1: it's funny how things work. He was such a dichotomous president. Man. Yeah, okay,
- 46:35Speaker 1: I got nothing else. I don't either. I think that's
- 46:38Speaker 1: the end of immigration. We don't ever have to talk
- 46:40Speaker 1: about it again. Yeah, we can do refugees, We can
- 46:42Speaker 1: do naturalization at some point, Yeah we could. Well just
- 46:47Speaker 1: how about this, We'll just play selected clips from Jane
- 46:50Speaker 1: Seymour's naturalization documentary and just be like, oh wow, alright,
- 46:55Speaker 1: got that's something, and then we'll, uh, we'll make sure
- 46:59Speaker 1: to get a out of you crying. Okay, so chuck.
- 47:03Speaker 1: If anybody wants to learn more about immigration, very dense article,
- 47:06Speaker 1: well written by one Jacob Silverman who used to work here.
- 47:09Speaker 1: You can type in immigration that's two MS in the
- 47:13Speaker 1: handy search bar at how stuff works dot com, which
- 47:15Speaker 1: means it's time now, or listener mail Josh. I'm gonna
- 47:22Speaker 1: call this, uh shout out requests that we don't grant often,
- 47:26Speaker 1: but we are in this case. Oh, this is a
- 47:28Speaker 1: big one. Don't we get pay for these now? No,
- 47:31Speaker 1: in Karmen, we do, guys. My name is Eric Ericson,
- 47:34Speaker 1: and I've been listening to your show for some time now.
- 47:37Speaker 1: I was actually shown them by my friend. Uh, how
- 47:40Speaker 1: would you pronounce I l O in a Elona? Alona? Elona?
- 47:44Speaker 1: It's like Alona, which is why I'm actually emailing you
- 47:48Speaker 1: guys for her birthday this year. I'm trying to do
- 47:50Speaker 1: something really, really special. I've been emailing her favorite actors
- 47:53Speaker 1: and musicians to see if they could send an autograph
- 47:55Speaker 1: or a short message. So far, I've gotten messages back
- 47:58Speaker 1: from Andrew Bird and of and Priscilla On who was
- 48:02Speaker 1: another singer who I don't know, and they both got back.
- 48:05Speaker 1: So I felt that's the only reason I did this.
- 48:07Speaker 1: I thought, well, we can't be the jerks who don't
- 48:09Speaker 1: do it. Do you know how many of these we're
- 48:11Speaker 1: going to get? Now? No, don't bother. We're gonna do
- 48:14Speaker 1: like a happy birthday segment. I figured it'd be really
- 48:17Speaker 1: awesome if you two can maybe give a shout out
- 48:19Speaker 1: to her and the listener mail sections. So that's what
- 48:21Speaker 1: we're doing here, Eric. It would mean a lot to
- 48:23Speaker 1: me if you could do this. It doesn't matter when
- 48:25Speaker 1: he didn't tell us when her birthday was. I'm just
- 48:27Speaker 1: hoping she doesn't listen to it before I get for
- 48:29Speaker 1: the rest of the things. And he still doesn't tell
- 48:32Speaker 1: me when her birthday is. Huh, So we're ruining this
- 48:34Speaker 1: for you, Elona that I'm very sorry. If you get
- 48:38Speaker 1: back to me sometime, it would be super awesome. And
- 48:41Speaker 1: uh yeah, I just want to tell you U why
- 48:45Speaker 1: Alona means so much to me. So that is very sweet.
- 48:49Speaker 1: Eric with a c K and I hope, I hope
- 48:52Speaker 1: this gets and whatever you're seekings then Eric with the
- 48:55Speaker 1: c K. You can't trust Eric who spell her names
- 48:57Speaker 1: of the C and A kay, it's one of the other.
- 49:00Speaker 1: You should just throw a T on the end of that.
- 49:01Speaker 1: Just today, he's very middle of the road, I'll bet yeah,
- 49:04Speaker 1: so you can see your side, but I can also
- 49:06Speaker 1: see your side. I'll bet this immigration podcast just made
- 49:09Speaker 1: his head exploit well. He can clearly neither one of
- 49:12Speaker 1: them are going to get through this, so I'll just
- 49:14Speaker 1: think that we blew them off. Well, thanks a lot, um.
- 49:17Speaker 1: If you want to say happy birthday to somebody, apparently,
- 49:20Speaker 1: it's the the border is open, everybody's streaming through. It's
- 49:24Speaker 1: not let us know why we should say happy birthday
- 49:26Speaker 1: to somebody. Wrap it up in an email and send
- 49:30Speaker 1: it to stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com.
- 49:38Speaker 1: For moral on this and thousands of other topics, visit
- 49:40Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. To learn more about the podcast,
- 49:43Speaker 1: Click on the podcast icon in the upper right corner
- 49:46Speaker 1: of our homepage. The how stuff Works iPhone app has arrived.
- 49:49Speaker 1: Download it today on iTunes.