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Speaker 1: There are calls to grant amnesty to New Zealand born

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Speaker 1: teenagers who are technically illegal overstayers. Birthright citizenship was outlawed

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Speaker 1: in two thousand and six, and kids who have been

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Speaker 1: born to overstays since that date are about to turn eighteen.

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Speaker 1: But the trouble is turning eighteen when you're an overstayer,

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Speaker 1: it means you can't study any further, means you can't work.

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Speaker 1: So what do they do. Aliston mcclimont is an immigration

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Speaker 1: immigration lawyer representing a bunch of these cases and is

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Speaker 1: with US now Alistair.

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Speaker 2: Hello, Hi Heather, how are you well?

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Speaker 1: Thanks mate? How many of these kids are there?

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Speaker 2: It's impossible to know because when kids are birth are registered,

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Speaker 2: you don't have to put down the parents' immigration status,

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Speaker 2: So there is absolutely no way statistically we can know

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Speaker 2: how many children are out there, apart from anecdotal reports

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Speaker 2: that there maybe in the hundreds.

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Speaker 1: Hundreds rather than thousands.

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Speaker 2: It's really difficult to say. You can really only estimate.

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Speaker 2: It's really difficult. There is no statistical way that we

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Speaker 2: can actually tell what.

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Speaker 1: Are their parents up to? Are their parents on the benefit?

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Speaker 1: Are they working? Are they paying taxes? Is it under

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Speaker 1: the table. What's going on.

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Speaker 2: They're all working. Some of them are actually just normal

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Speaker 2: tax paying you know, worker is like everybody else because

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Speaker 2: i ID doesn't share the information of immigration and zealance,

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Speaker 2: so there's no harm in getting a job and paying

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Speaker 2: a tax. So they're the ones who are picking our

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Speaker 2: fruits and vegetables and cleaning our offices and working their

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Speaker 2: butts off to try and provide for their families, just

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Speaker 2: like everyone else.

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Speaker 1: Now, if we give the kids amnesty, we have to

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Speaker 1: give the parents amnesty, don't they don't.

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Speaker 2: We Well, I'm advocating for the children and this one.

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Speaker 2: You know, sometimes the parents just want a future for

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Speaker 2: their children, and a lot of times that's you know,

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Speaker 2: that's the reason why a lot of people might grad

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Speaker 2: to this company, because they want to be at a

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Speaker 2: future for their kids.

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Speaker 1: Alistair, what child is going to come forward and say, hey, look,

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Speaker 1: I am an overstayer. Technically I need amnesty. If they

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Speaker 1: know that that risks their parents' status and the parents

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Speaker 1: might be deported.

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Speaker 2: Well, it doesn't necessarily mean that at all. I mean,

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Speaker 2: if you basically grant the kids residency, it doesn't mean

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Speaker 2: anything for the parents. The parents' cases will be considered

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Speaker 2: on a case by case basis. How do they become

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Speaker 2: an oversayer? What steps have they taken? Do they have

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Speaker 2: a criminal background, are they well settled in this country.

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Speaker 2: Everything's done on a case by case basis. It's just

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Speaker 2: for the kids. They are innocent victims and they are

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Speaker 2: extremely vulnerable, so they really need to be separated from

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Speaker 2: adults who make conscious decisions to remain in a country unlawfully.

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Speaker 2: These kids don't make those conscious decisions. They're just born.

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Speaker 2: That's it.

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Speaker 1: Are these people generally law abiding other than obviously being overstayers?

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Speaker 1: Are they generally law abiding or have they brushed up

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Speaker 1: against the law in other ways?

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Speaker 2: Immigration New Zealand prioritize the deportation of overstayers who criminally offend.

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Speaker 2: Quite often they'll go to the courts and sort of

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Speaker 2: deportation orders when they come up from the courts. The

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Speaker 2: fact that these the parents of these kids have been

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Speaker 2: here for twenty five years tells you that they do

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Speaker 2: not have any criminal offending.

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Speaker 1: Alistair, thank you for your time. I appreciate it. Alista mclemont,

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Speaker 1: the immigration lawyer. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive,

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