Speaker 1: Native Landpod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with
Speaker 1: Reason Choice Media. Welcome Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome Home.
Speaker 1: Everybody is his Native Lampod. I'm your host, Angela Raie.
Speaker 1: I am with you all today to talk about some
Speaker 1: really important pressing issues. I want to just spend a
Speaker 1: little time talking to folks in my community about our
Speaker 1: posture around immigration. We are witnessing people being deported in
Speaker 1: public spectacles. People are being arrested and put on buses,
Speaker 1: put on planes, deported to places that they did not
Speaker 1: once call home. One of the most recent examples is
Speaker 1: about a man named kilmar Abrago Garcia. And this man
Speaker 1: was deported, uh. Nobody knew what happened or why he
Speaker 1: was said to have been a gang member, and the
Speaker 1: Trump A Minute stration is fighting to prevent him from
Speaker 1: being brought back from an Ol Salvador prison. And the
Speaker 1: kinds of things that they're saying in response to the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court ruling around kill mar Abrego Garcia's return to
Speaker 1: the United States is insane. There's a court document that
Speaker 1: was filed. This is the defendant's response to plaintiff's motion
Speaker 1: for additional relief and one of the things that is
Speaker 1: listed here is that as they say that the court
Speaker 1: should deny the plainiff's request, the planeff would be kill
Speaker 1: mar Abrego Garcia for further relief, because the relief is
Speaker 1: inconsistent with the Supreme Court's instruction requiring this court to
Speaker 1: respect the President's article to authority to manage foreign policy.
Speaker 1: So they are making the claim that you can deport
Speaker 1: someone on US soil who has not done any of
Speaker 1: the things that you alley, You wrongfully targeinated him, targeted him,
Speaker 1: you wrongfully deport him, but he should stay in custody
Speaker 1: in our Salvador and he should not be returned because
Speaker 1: it is an affront to the president's foreign policy powers.
Speaker 1: If there was ever a time to think back to
Speaker 1: the podcast where we talked about the constitutional crisis that
Speaker 1: is upon us, the constitutional crisis that we are now
Speaker 1: living in, this is now. That is what is happening
Speaker 1: right now. It's not a court decision away. They got
Speaker 1: to the Supreme Court and the president and his cronies
Speaker 1: are testing whether or not they could actually overrule the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court. They don't have to comply, and this is
Speaker 1: what happens when you put someone in the White House
Speaker 1: who was alleged to have ninety one felonies. When you
Speaker 1: get a crook, you get crooked behavior. So you're curious
Speaker 1: about why someone with all.
Speaker 2: Of these.
Speaker 1: We have to say alleged because they're litigious even though
Speaker 1: they don't follow core orders, but alleged felonies, why they
Speaker 1: would break the law. Why do you think a fela
Speaker 1: gonna break the law? Like, we have to buy into
Speaker 1: the fact that when someone shows us who they are,
Speaker 1: we've got to believe them. So that's the first thing
Speaker 1: I want to put on your radar. The second thing
Speaker 1: I want to put on your radar is Madawi most
Speaker 1: of Madawi is an organizer, a pro palac Citian organizer
Speaker 1: who supported demonstrations last year at Columbia University. According to
Speaker 1: The New York Times, he was detained on Monday. He
Speaker 1: was detained while at an immigration meeting to secure his citizenship.
Speaker 1: This man has been a resident of Vermont for ten years.
Speaker 1: While he was at his citizenship meaning meeting, he was
Speaker 1: arrested or detained by ice. Right, this is the kind
Speaker 1: of new world we're living in. This is most In
Speaker 1: Madawi Again, his mother's his lawyers, his sister nobody could
Speaker 1: find him. After he was detained in Colchester, Vermont, his
Speaker 1: lawyers requested a tro which is a temporary restraining order
Speaker 1: to prevent this government, if that's what we're gonna call
Speaker 1: this thing, this fascist regime, from sending him anywhere. And
Speaker 1: here's the thing. I want us to examine why this
Speaker 1: is so problematic. A lot of us in my community
Speaker 1: believe that an immigration problem is not our collective problem.
Speaker 1: That could not be further from the truth, because at
Speaker 1: some point or another, at some point or another, these
Speaker 1: folks are gonna come knocking at your door. Let's roll
Speaker 1: the clip of the immigration attorney. This happened to the.
Speaker 2: Really care who they're trying to deport or ask to
Speaker 2: leave the United States.
Speaker 3: When Massachusetts resident Nicole Mitcerroni received this email on Friday
Speaker 3: telling her to leave the country, she was baffled.
Speaker 2: At first. I thought it was for a clients, but
Speaker 2: I looked really closely and the only name on the
Speaker 2: email was mine. Said that my parole status had been
Speaker 2: terminated and I should leave the country within seven days.
Speaker 3: But the forty year old is a US citizen.
Speaker 2: I think it's most likely a mistake and they're just
Speaker 2: casting a really wide net, but it's a little concerning
Speaker 2: that these are going out to US citizens.
Speaker 3: Mitcarroni is an immigration attorney working with many clients facing
Speaker 3: possible deportation issues, so her name and email are on
Speaker 3: a lot of paperwork and a statement. A senior Department
Speaker 3: of Homeland Security official told US Customs and Border Protection
Speaker 3: is issuing notices terminating parole for individuals who do not
Speaker 3: have lawful status to remain. If a non personal email,
Speaker 3: such as an American citizen contact, was provided by the alien,
Speaker 3: notices may have been sent to un tended recipient.
Speaker 2: I think it's really scary that this is going on.
Speaker 2: It says that they're not being very careful. I think
Speaker 2: it's a scare tactic. I think they want people afraid
Speaker 2: of immigration.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so here's the thing, and Nicole, I want to
Speaker 1: just acknowledge you and thank you for your courageous work
Speaker 1: in this time. It's a really dangerous, challenging, overwhelming time
Speaker 1: to be an immigration law So Nicole, who is based
Speaker 1: in Boston, received an email that says it is time
Speaker 1: for you to leave the United States. If you do
Speaker 1: not depart the United States immediately, you will be subject
Speaker 1: to potential law enforcement actions that will result in your
Speaker 1: removal from the United States. Let me tell you all
Speaker 1: why this is a problem to me. I was recently
Speaker 1: on a television program and I said some things that
Speaker 1: people did not like. Their immediate response to me on
Speaker 1: social media platforms, particularly on Twitter, was if I hate
Speaker 1: it here so much, I should leave right. And so,
Speaker 1: anyone who is working to protect people's First Amendment rights,
Speaker 1: or their Fourteenth Amendment protections, or their their Second Amendment rights,
Speaker 1: or their Fifth Amendment rights. Anyone who is opposed to
Speaker 1: what this administration is putting forth is being threatened. Normally,
Speaker 1: those threats come from Twitter trolls. Now the Twitter trolls
Speaker 1: have taken residents in the Trump administration. That is what
Speaker 1: we're dealing with. So why I started where I started
Speaker 1: with the two people who have, for all intents and purposes,
Speaker 1: been disappeared. That many other folks who we've seen be detained,
Speaker 1: regardless of their background, Palestinian or Arab American, as someone
Speaker 1: who is a Latino. Right, at some point, black folks,
Speaker 1: white folks, it's going to come knocking at your door.
Speaker 1: Nicole is an example of that. Sure they can say
Speaker 1: it was a mistake, but you. We all would be
Speaker 1: foolish if we don't believe that this scare tactic is
Speaker 1: by design, and it's something that we've got to be
Speaker 1: paying attention to. When you get an email that says
Speaker 1: you should immediately leave the country, the country where the
Speaker 1: only country that you've known to call home, not only
Speaker 1: is that scary and intimidating, I don't think it's by
Speaker 1: mistake that they would have sent it to an immigration attorney.
Speaker 1: So now I want to just tell you about why
Speaker 1: I think we have to tap into our humanity in
Speaker 1: this moment. I'm sure there are people at home who
Speaker 1: are watching, who are saying, you know, I would love
Speaker 1: to care about what's happening in immigration, but I'm just
Speaker 1: trying to make ends me. I just am trying to
Speaker 1: make sure I have enough money to pay my light bill.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to make sure I can afford these
Speaker 1: expensive ass eggs. I'm just trying to make sure I
Speaker 1: can buy gas from my car. I'm just trying to
Speaker 1: make sure I can buy clothes for my kids. I'm
Speaker 1: just trying to make sure I can pay my ties
Speaker 1: at my church. Whatever your set of circumstances are, there
Speaker 1: is something that binds us all together. There's blood that
Speaker 1: runs through our veins. Right we wake up in the morning,
Speaker 1: we blink, hopefully, we can move our fingers if we
Speaker 1: have the activity of our limbs. We can hear, if
Speaker 1: we have the ability to hear, smell, see taste, if
Speaker 1: we have those abilities. But if we are breathing, whether
Speaker 1: it's buy an assisted device or not, humanity, that is
Speaker 1: the common thing that binds us all together in this
Speaker 1: moment where people are feeling attacked on every side, We've
Speaker 1: got to lead with our humanity. We've got to lead
Speaker 1: with our humanity because the moment we prefer ourselves over
Speaker 1: someone else, the moment their struggle, their trial, their issue
Speaker 1: doesn't matter to us. We are essentially doing the same
Speaker 1: thing that I don't know if you all have ever
Speaker 1: seen someone trip and fall, right, just so, say you're
Speaker 1: outside and you see someone trip and fall. Imagine the
Speaker 1: number of people that stop to say, hey, are you okay?
Speaker 1: Can I help you up? Is there anything you need?
Speaker 1: Versus the person that just walks by. And I'm thinking
Speaker 1: about the parable in the Bible of the Good Samaritan, right,
Speaker 1: the person that just walks by. And then finally there's
Speaker 1: that one person that stops to say, are you okay?
Speaker 1: We have to be in an era, even with fascism
Speaker 1: in the White House, We've got to be in an
Speaker 1: arrow where we stop to say, but are you okay?
Speaker 1: What do you need? How can I help? If you're
Speaker 1: too busy, if you're too overwhelmed to just say are
Speaker 1: you okay? We've got some we got to redoce some
Speaker 1: things because we cannot leave our humanity at the door
Speaker 1: when people are suffering like this, because how would we
Speaker 1: want someone to show up for us? I think my
Speaker 1: trauma response in this life is often overperforming and doing
Speaker 1: because I just want somebody to do that for me.
Speaker 1: I want to make sure that in my darkest moment,
Speaker 1: in my most challenging time, I'm not by myself, else
Speaker 1: that I can stand together with other human beings who
Speaker 1: have the same need or a different one, to pitch
Speaker 1: in and say are you okay? Or how can I help?
Speaker 1: So I'm telling you all this, I'm starting to tear
Speaker 1: up because I'm thinking about these images. I want to
Speaker 1: put up the images from the El Salvador in prison
Speaker 1: so we can look at something that looks very familiar
Speaker 1: to that in history. We can put that image up
Speaker 1: there's an image of men being brought into prison, being tied,
Speaker 1: their hands being tied behind their backs, their legs overlapping
Speaker 1: with one another, their faces in mass in masks, with
Speaker 1: their faces buried into the small of the back of
Speaker 1: their neighbor. And there are rows and rows and rows
Speaker 1: of these men whose heads have been shaved. And it
Speaker 1: reminds me of something very very traumatic in my own ancestry,
Speaker 1: and that is the image of people who were forced
Speaker 1: out of their homes, snatched from their loved ones, from
Speaker 1: the continent, the motherland, Africa. And so when you look
Speaker 1: at this image of the belly of a slave ship
Speaker 1: and you think about the image of these men who
Speaker 1: are shackled together the same way our ancestors were shackled together.
Speaker 1: When we say never again, that never again can't just
Speaker 1: be about black people, That never again has to be
Speaker 1: about all people. Nobody deserves to be treated like that nobody.
Speaker 1: And so I would ask us to dig deep, to
Speaker 1: think about what we need to be able to lean
Speaker 1: into these moments, to stretch ourselves to be there for
Speaker 1: our neighbors. The one who helps us to check out
Speaker 1: our groceries at the grocery store, the one who sits
Speaker 1: next to us in our places of worship, the one
Speaker 1: who teaches in our classrooms for our K through twelve students,
Speaker 1: or the ones who might be the teacher's assistant at
Speaker 1: our college was our favorite professor. I want us to
Speaker 1: think about the elder who's taking care of his aging life.
Speaker 1: I want us to think about the cancer patient that
Speaker 1: wouldn't have access to resources if we don't lean into
Speaker 1: our humanity. Y'all, we got to do different. We know better.
Speaker 1: We cannot turn a blind eye to this crisis. I
Speaker 1: don't care who you voted for. You know this is
Speaker 1: not right. And for the church leaders who continue to
Speaker 1: amplify this man and pray for this man and lift
Speaker 1: him up, I'm noting not saying pray for his mental
Speaker 1: health and his state of mind, like, please pray for
Speaker 1: that right. Please pray that God visits him in his
Speaker 1: sleep and does not let him rest until he does
Speaker 1: right by humanity. That should be the prayer. But I
Speaker 1: just would ask our church leaders to think about the
Speaker 1: Bible you read and the God you serve, and if
Speaker 1: this is really it right when you think about for
Speaker 1: those who are read letter Christians, you got the red
Speaker 1: letter Bible, the King James version or the New King
Speaker 1: James version, whatever you have, the red letters, because you
Speaker 1: need to know for a fact what Jesus said in
Speaker 1: the New Testament. I want you to find the places
Speaker 1: where Jesus ever recommended it behavior like this, or do
Speaker 1: you think about the prayer, the beatitudes, where the beattitudes
Speaker 1: where he talks about how we should treat our neighbor,
Speaker 1: how we should love our neighbor, how we should visit
Speaker 1: the sick and feed the hungry. Right, that is the
Speaker 1: God I know. And so this version of God I
Speaker 1: don't recognize. If you're telling me that this is Christianity
Speaker 1: embodied in the federal government, I don't know that Christiananity.
Speaker 1: That's not the Christianity that I'm a part of. That's
Speaker 1: the Christianity of overseers and plantation owners and enslavers. But
Speaker 1: that's not the Christianity that I ascribe to. So with that,
Speaker 1: I want to just show you what happens when you
Speaker 1: elect someone who is an aspiring dictator and how they
Speaker 1: talk to someone who is an abusive dictator. This is
Speaker 1: what happened just the other day when Donald Trump met
Speaker 1: with the Al Salvador's president Naive Bikela, and they met
Speaker 1: in the Oval office, and I want you to hear
Speaker 1: what Donald Trump has to say about homegrowns. I'd like
Speaker 1: to go a step further. I mean, I say I
Speaker 1: said it to Pam. I don't know what the laws are.
Speaker 1: We always have to obey the laws. But we also
Speaker 1: have homegrown.
Speaker 3: Criminals that push people into subways, that hit elderly ladies
Speaker 3: on the back of the head with a baseball bat
Speaker 3: when they're not looking.
Speaker 1: That are absolute monsters.
Speaker 3: I'd like to include them in the group of people
Speaker 3: to get them out of the country.
Speaker 1: I'd like to include them in getting them out of
Speaker 1: the country. There's another clip where Donald Trump is on
Speaker 1: a hot mic. If we have time to pull it,
Speaker 1: I think would be good. A hot mic talking to
Speaker 1: Naive Bikela and he says that he needs to build
Speaker 1: more prisons. He Trump tells Bukel he needs to build
Speaker 1: more prisons in El Salvador because they have more people,
Speaker 1: the home growns, who they want to deport. Now, I
Speaker 1: want to tell you all that that troubles me. I
Speaker 1: don't know if any of you all at home have
Speaker 1: people who are in your family or loved ones or
Speaker 1: friends who are incarcerated, but I do. And when I
Speaker 1: think about who he could be calling the home growns
Speaker 1: with as broad and umbrella as that might be, as
Speaker 1: big of a tent as that might be, our people
Speaker 1: are in direct time's way. So while you turn a
Speaker 1: blind eye to this because immigration isn't your problem, or
Speaker 1: they're taking your jobs, or they're creating all this violent
Speaker 1: upheaval in your community, where you really can't point to
Speaker 1: that as a fact completely. I'm not saying there aren't
Speaker 1: micro levels of examples of that, but as state governments
Speaker 1: are impacted because they no longer have those tax pay
Speaker 1: dollars to rely upon, or the federal government is impacted
Speaker 1: because they no longer have those dollars to rely upon.
Speaker 1: As your homes may not be cleaned anymore, your hotel
Speaker 1: rooms may not be cleaned anymore. There's no one to
Speaker 1: pick ripe fruit or vegetables, or there's no one to
Speaker 1: help finish a construction project, or there's no one to
Speaker 1: help finish computer code for the latest AI development. I
Speaker 1: want you to think about this moment. I want you
Speaker 1: to think about the times where you turned a blind
Speaker 1: eye because your low was heavy, or because you don't care,
Speaker 1: or because there's somebody you've got to be mad at.
Speaker 1: This is the moment where we have to call up
Speaker 1: on our humanity and do the right thing, even if
Speaker 1: it's hard. That is what is required of us. So
Speaker 1: I'm asking you all to lean into your heart space
Speaker 1: and to learn about these people. Kill maar Abrego Garcia,
Speaker 1: who the Trump administration is blatantly defying the Supreme Court
Speaker 1: order for to leave him in ol Salvador. I want
Speaker 1: you to think about most Senma Madawi, who was getting
Speaker 1: his citizen citizenship, actively sitting there right in that moment
Speaker 1: to get his citizenship. I want you to think about
Speaker 1: everybody else who White America might be afraid of and
Speaker 1: call them homegrowns, and decide that that's reason enough to
Speaker 1: deport him, to port him or her. For these folks, right,
Speaker 1: I want you to think about Trayvon Martin who was
Speaker 1: shot and killed by a vigilante George Zimmerman because he
Speaker 1: would have been deemed a homegrown or Alton Sterling, or
Speaker 1: a George Floyd, or a Breonna Taylor, because they would
Speaker 1: have been deemed inadequately, inappropriately and wrongfully as homegrowns. These
Speaker 1: are the people who if they were alive to tell it,
Speaker 1: or am nott Arbury if they were alive to tell it,
Speaker 1: because they're relying relying on citizen tips, not fact checking
Speaker 1: these things, not ensuring that they have the right person
Speaker 1: before they deport them. If they look like a criminal,
Speaker 1: if they look like an immigrant, if they have a
Speaker 1: bad tattoo or some a tattoo they decide is bad,
Speaker 1: then these are the people that have to go. Is
Speaker 1: that what you want to be associated with? Not for me.
Speaker 1: I want this country to turn a page. It's time
Speaker 1: to turn the page on history and stop being so
Speaker 1: proud of and endorsing this country's racist, evil, treacherous past.
Speaker 1: And by not embracing it, I'm not talking about erasing
Speaker 1: history books or getting rid of museums or banning books.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about not repeating the same mistakes. And so
Speaker 1: when you look at this picture of these men in
Speaker 1: an El Salvadoran prison, and when you look at this
Speaker 1: picture of these people on a slave ship and it
Speaker 1: doesn't look any different, challenge yourself to say, this cat
Speaker 1: happened in the United States and it can't happen anywhere else.
Speaker 1: Challenge yourself to say, even if I don't know this person.
Speaker 1: I know they don't deserve this challenge us to do
Speaker 1: and be better. That's what time we're on right now,
Speaker 1: we come home now. Native Lampard is a production of
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