Latest / Stuff You Should Know / How Immigration Works

Transcript

How Immigration Works · Stuff You Should Know

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