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