WEBVTT - 9/11’s Immigration Legacy 0:00:00.920 --> 0:00:04.960 This is Latino USA, the radio journal of News and Kurturre. 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:07.440 Latino USC Latin Latino USA. 0:00:07.720 --> 0:00:11.320 I'm Maria Inojosa. We bring you stories that are underreported 0:00:11.640 --> 0:00:14.160 but that mattered to you, overlooked by the rest of 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:16.400 the media, and while the country is struggling to deal 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:18.480 with these, we listen to the stories of Black and 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:23.840 Latino Studios United, Latino Front, a cultural renaissance organizing at 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:27.840 the forefront of the movement. I'm Maria Ino Jossa, No 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:33.599 bayan or La Latino USA. Listener, Here's an episode from 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:40.519 our archives. I was so happy on that September eleventh, 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:44.479 twenty years ago. I remember it was a slow morning 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:49.440 that morning because that day for CNN, I was going 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:51.600 to have a day off. I was going to work 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:53.519 that night. I was going to be able to be 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:56.320 with my kids. I could take them to school on 0:00:56.400 --> 0:00:59.720 their first day. And I even woke up early enough 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:04.480 to go to the gym super early. I was walking 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:06.280 back from the gym that morning, and I had my 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:09.560 walkman on, Yes, a walkman. I was listening to the 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:13.240 radio El Vasilone La Manana. It's a raunchy kind of 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:18.720 morning show, shock jocks in Spanish, and a caller calls 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:24.040 into the radio show and she's totally freaked out. She's screaming. 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:27.560 She's saying that a plane has crashed into a tower 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:30.479 at the World Trade Center. And the jockeys, the DJs, 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:34.039 they're just like, yeah, yucking it up, like sure, uh huh. 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:41.040 And then they said, oh my god, it's true. They 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:45.600 heard the sirens in the background. I ran back to 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:49.200 my apartment, ran up five flights of stairs. CNN had 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:51.960 already called, and I was to go downtown to get 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:53.880 as close as I could to the World Trade Center. 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:58.840 I got on the subway and it was inside the 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:02.320 subway with a bunch of others, scared New Yorkers that 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:05.640 we realized that a second plane had hit. 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:09.880 Just moments ago, so maybe eighteen minutes after the first impact, 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:13.520 the second tower was impacted with what appeared to be 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:16.600 another passenger plane. 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:20.560 I got out of the subway or someplace around twenty 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:24.640 third Street, and I started walking downtown and waves of 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:30.000 people were already pushing their way uptown away from the 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:33.799 World Trade Center, and their faces were filled with trauma. 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:39.160 Cars basically had stopped. There was no movement, no traffic, 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:43.400 nowhere to go their doors were opened and their car 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:46.600 radios were tuned into the same radio station. It was 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:49.640 a news station echoing through the streets. 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:52.240 Ears, but they're obviously. 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:57.480 That's when suddenly I saw the tower fall, the first one. 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:02.679 I got the building, now I knew. 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:07.960 I started screaming. 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:09.400 Top Oh my god. 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:13.120 CNN had told me to get to Saint Vincent's Medical 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:18.040 Center that was just north of what would now be 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:22.880 known as Ground zero. I gathered outside of that hospital 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:26.240 with the New York Press Corps, and there was a 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:31.040 sea of green and white coming out of the hospital doors. 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:35.640 All of the nurses and doctors in their scrubs and 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:39.760 white sheets, put over chairs so that they were ready 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:44.160 to receive all of the wounded, all of the survivors. 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:54.800 No one came. There are a lot of questions about 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:58.400 you know, so where were you on September eleventh? Where 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:02.880 were you when it happened? What do you remember? It's 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:07.640 been twenty years, but that time hasn't dulled my memory. 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:12.320 My home was under attack that day, and I'll never 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:21.040 ever forget. From Utro Media and RX It's Latino, USA. 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:25.360 I'm mariet Inojosa. Today nine to eleven, we look at 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:30.480 how one catastrophic day altered the US's stance towards immigration 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:38.440 that would affect it for decades to come. One thing 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:42.960 that we all immediately knew on September eleventh, twenty years 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:46.640 ago was that this event was going to resonate across 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:51.000 time and borders. Almost three thousand people from more than 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:56.440 ninety countries died on that day. Thousands more are dealing 0:04:56.480 --> 0:05:02.320 with lasting injuries, depression, and like me PTSD, including a 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:06.039 lot of first responders, the ground zero cleanup workers, many 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:09.599 of them who were undocumented, and people from the community. 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:16.880 But even before those physical and mental traumas really manifested 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:22.640 in full, very quickly, a new political reality emerged from fear. 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:27.359 In that moment, people found themselves willing to grant the 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:30.520 government control over just about anything that could be tied 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:33.880 back to national security, believing that was the way to 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:39.320 keep Americans safe from terrorism. And soon after that, the 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:44.440 panic over keeping the country safe evolved into an ugly 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:52.080 ongoing debate over yes immigration. Once again, politicians and journalists 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:55.640 call for the tightening of US orders, toughening up our 0:05:55.680 --> 0:06:00.320 immigration system large and keeping people out. 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:04.440 The public understands that strict enforcement of immigration laws is 0:06:04.440 --> 0:06:08.479 a very helpful way of stopping and reducing the terrorist threat. 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:11.839 And you cannot put those two things in the separate 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:14.840 boxes and deal with immigration over here in border security 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:15.400 over here. 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:17.360 I want the borders under our control. 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:22.479 And I don't see anything either peculiar about that or 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:24.680 unseemly are insensitive. 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:29.800 Newsrooms were under pressure to defer to pro US narratives, 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:33.240 and if you questioned any of this, well, that made 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:42.320 you an unpatriotic American. A total crackdown on refugees and 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:46.119 migrants would soon be underway, and this approach would inform 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:50.000 the US government's next major moves, including the creation of 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:54.080 the Department of Homeland Security, which did not exist before 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:57.600 September eleventh. It also led to the dismantling of the 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:02.960 ins the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and replacing it with 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:09.640 several new agencies, including ICE, immigration and Customs Enforcement. But 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:13.760 to really understand just how much nine to eleven changed 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:18.240 the entire narrative around immigration in the United States, we've 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:22.240 got to go back a bit further. Our producer Alejandra s. 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:23.880 Aasad is going to take it from here. 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:31.760 The first year of the New Millennium was one for 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:35.880 the history books after surviving the y two K computer scare, 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:38.320 we had the Sydney Summer Olympics. 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:41.600 More than ten thousand athletes with the Olympic Games have 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:42.960 come down under. 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:50.000 The premiere of the hit reality series Survivor, the first 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:54.320 crew to live on the International Space Station one lift 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:54.720 off of. 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:58.160 The Soyer's rocket, beginning the first expedition to the International space. 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:02.280 And also in two thousand new US Census, the National 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:04.880 Survey determined that more than two hundred and eighty one 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:07.840 million people lived in this country, the largest number in 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:11.360 its history up to that point, and in November, following 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:14.120 a historically close and contentious election. 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:20.080 By stand by, CNN right now is moving our earlier 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:26.120 declaration of Florida back to the too close to cole column. Ah, 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:30.119 this no longer is a victory four or Vice President Gore. 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:32.800 Just moments ago, I spoke with George W. 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:36.480 Bush and congratulated him on becoming the forty third president 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:38.080 of the United States. 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:40.480 Thirty seven days after Americans went to the polls, and 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:41.439 now we have a winner. 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:45.599 Now it can be said President elect Bush. Bush was 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:49.079 elected with thirty five percent of the Latino vote, the 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:53.160 highest LATINX turnout for Republican since Ronald Reagan in nineteen 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:58.160 eighty four, and this was pretty significant. The Latino population 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:01.240 had expanded by more than fifty percent over the last 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:05.520 decade to more than thirty five million people. Latinos represented 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:10.120 a rapidly growing voter block that couldn't be easily ignored anymore. 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:16.600 Capitalizing on this political moment, the Bush administration introduced an 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:20.120 agenda that indicated pro immigration reform was in the works, 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:24.320 especially to help and benefit Mexicans. As the former governor 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:27.720 of Texas, Bush had developed a friendly relationship with then 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:31.800 Mexican President. We sent the fox that continued into his presidency. 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:38.160 President, I want you to know that we consider you 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:44.920 a friend of Mexico, a friend of Mexican people, in 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:47.000 a friend of mine. 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:50.000 In February two thousand and one, a joint US Mexico 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:54.800 panel released recommendations for future immigration policy, including streamlining the 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:58.040 process for Mexicans to attain visas and legal status in 0:09:58.080 --> 0:09:58.600 the US. 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:04.400 We exchanged ideas about safe and orderly migration, a policy 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:08.000 that respects individuals on both sides. 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:11.800 Of the border, and according to reports from July two 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:14.760 thousand and one, the White House was even considering offering 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:19.640 permanent residency to undocumented Mexicans in the US. This move 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:22.840 would have dramatically changed the lives of more than three 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:28.600 million people in this country. That summer, Congress was deliberating 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:32.600 several bills to offer protections and citizenship opportunities to immigrant 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:36.679 farm workers, but come fall the bills were shelved. Nine 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:39.520 to eleven had ushered in a new political atmosphere where 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:45.200 pro immigrant legislation just didn't stand a chance. Instead, issues 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:52.520 like securing borders and gathering intelligence became top priorities. For example, 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:57.559 the Transportation Security Administration was created TSA. It also came 0:10:57.600 --> 0:10:59.839 with the new airport screening rules. That's why you have 0:10:59.920 --> 0:11:02.560 to take off your shoes at security or X rayal 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:06.720 your electronics. The US Patriot Act was passed only forty 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:10.560 five days after the attacks. It gave the government power 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:13.560 to monitor your phone records and your Internet use, and 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:17.679 access your personal records like individual finances. This was all 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:23.160 done in the name of fighting terrorism. Nine to eleven 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:27.000 also normalized anti immigrant attitudes on a national scale. The 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:29.800 nineteen hijackers behind nine to eleven were all from Middle 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:33.040 Eastern countries, and several arrived in the US while before 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:36.560 the attacks, the idea that people born outside of this 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:39.880 country could become its biggest threat turned into a mainstream 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:42.120 policy priority almost overnight. 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:43.360 Donald J. 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:47.440 Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:52.360 Muslims entering the United States until our countries resent. 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:55.280 Remember Donald Trump's Muslim ban just four years ago? 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:56.720 What the hell is going on? 0:11:56.880 --> 0:11:59.200 One of the most obvious precedents for it was the 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:04.480 Bush administrations National Security Entree Exit Registration System end SEERS 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:07.080 for short. It was established within a year of nine 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:07.480 to eleven. 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:12.480 It was a special registration program for certain individuals that 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:16.000 came from countries that had a historic tie to terrorism. 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:20.280 We just had to give closer scrutiny to those individuals 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:23.160 to make sure they had legitimate travel to the United States. 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:27.800 For nearly a decade, non citizens entering the US had 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:31.840 to register with the federal government. That meant giving their fingerprints, photos, 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:35.600 and submitting to interrogation. They were monitored by immigration officials 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:38.200 and tracked to make sure they left the country as intended. 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:44.320 Overstaying their visas meant arrests, fines, and deportations. All men 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:46.960 sixteen years in older from a list of twenty five 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:50.840 countries were forced to participate in the nciers program. Twenty 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:56.360 four of those countries were a majority Muslim, including Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt, 0:12:56.720 --> 0:12:59.319 and the United Arab Emirates. The four countries that the 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:03.160 nine eleven high jackers were from, over eighty thousand men 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:06.040 and boys were registered and more than thirteen thousand were 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:11.760 put in the pipeline for deportation. Now, this endeavor ultimately failed. 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:15.959 The program didn't result in a single terrorism related conviction, 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:20.040 not one. En SEARS was suspended in twenty eleven and 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:22.800 ended in twenty sixteen under the Obama administration. 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:26.959 Obama's move comes only one day after Donald Trump appeared 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:30.800 to reiterate his pledge to reinstate this very registry when 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:32.839 answering a question from a For the. 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:37.320 Past twenty years, immigration and terrorism have been handled within 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:43.079 the same federal organization. Not even a month after nine 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:46.679 to eleven, the Bush administration created the Office of Homeland Security. 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:49.480 It became a cabinet level department a year later with 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:51.280 the passage of the Homeland Security Act. 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:54.520 The Homeland Security Act of two thousand and two takes 0:13:54.559 --> 0:14:00.760 the next critical steps in defending our country continuing threat 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:04.520 of terrorism. The threat of mass murder on our own 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:11.760 soil will be met with a unified, effective response. Dozens 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:16.280 of agencies charged with homeland security will now be located within. 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:19.920 One DHS is huge, with twenty two agencies under its purview, 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:24.480 and its responsibilities are vast. DHS is in charge of 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:29.760 national cybersecurity, the Coastguard, the Secret Service, and the Countering 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:32.880 Weapons of Mass Destruction Office, just to name a few. 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:36.560 But this is also the same department that processes and 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:42.160 police's new immigrants to the United States. Immigration and Customs 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:46.600 Enforcement aka ICE didn't exist until two thousand and two. 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:52.800 It's also a part of DHS. The agency's responsibilities include 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:59.680 enforcing border security, regulating immigration, and removing quote criminal non 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:05.200 city from the United States. In the name of national security. 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:11.280 Immigrants would be formally recorded, fetted, tracked, detained, held in 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:15.560 legal limbo for decades, and subject to brutality and mistreatment 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:19.960 at the hands of enforcement officers. This isn't to say 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:24.120 that immigration enforcement wasn't happening before nine to eleven, but 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:28.280 with all these new security policies and agencies, immigrants became 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:30.120 obvious mainstream targets. 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:35.360 ICE will attack thousands of families, separating children from parents. 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:39.880 Passionate protesters today in Chicago joined those in cities around 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:40.320 the nation. 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:53.000 ICE has only become more powerful over the years, with 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:56.680 record level detainments and deportations over the past decade under 0:15:56.720 --> 0:15:58.600 the Obama and Trump administrations. 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:01.720 You know, let's just remember that the largest deportation happened 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:04.200 under President Obama. There are many critics called them the 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:06.640 deporter in Chief, and that was something like four hundred thousand. 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:10.040 So when you're talking about millions here, it is unprecedented. 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:13.240 Several loud and angry protests were held across the country 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:17.880 today of a President Trump's decision to start immigration raids tomorrow. 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:21.240 And the entire reason for its existence is based on 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:25.040 a single idea that immigrants pose an ongoing threat to 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:28.880 this country, an idea that was crystallized after nine to 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:36.720 eleven and that we're still grappling with to this day. 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:40.320 Coming up on Latino USA, more on the repercussions of 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:43.320 the nine to eleven attacks on immigrant communities, and we 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:48.400 learn about real ID, a seemingly innocuous federal legislation that 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:52.960 risks pushing hundreds of thousands of undocumented drivers into a 0:16:53.040 --> 0:17:51.320 colliding path with ICE. Stay with US. Yes, hey, we're back. 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:55.040 Before the break, we heard about the creation of the 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:58.680 Department of Homeland Security, but that was just the beginning. 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:03.359 The police which followed, under the guise of securing the nation, 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:08.720 would infiltrate numerous aspects of local and federal governance, including 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:13.240 states departments of motor vehicles. But at the other end 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:18.040 of the new quote unquote anti terrorism policies, the people 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:23.880 most affected would once again be immigrant families. So how 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:27.280 did September eleventh pave the way for something known as 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:31.800 the Real id? Latino USA producer Julieta Martinelli is going 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:33.399 to pick up the story from here. 0:18:34.720 --> 0:18:38.400 In August two thousand and eight, Sulema, my mom received 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:40.760 a letter in the mail. I was living a few 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:43.600 blocks away at the time, and she called me immediately. 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:48.920 My friend Chui had got a letter before me, so 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:51.159 I knew that it might happen. 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:51.600 To me too. 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:55.520 The letter came from the Department of Drivers Services in Georgia, 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:58.840 where we had lived since nineteen ninety seven, when my mom, 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:02.919 my older brother, and I immigrated from Argentina. We knew 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:06.240 immediately it was bad news. The letter said that her 0:19:06.280 --> 0:19:09.800 license was about to expire. Georgia at the time granted 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:13.200 driver's licenses for ten years. My mom had gotten hers 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:15.760 in ninety eight when she still had a tourist visa. 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:19.480 Just months after arriving. The letter said in order to 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:21.560 renew it she would need to go to the DMB 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:25.040 and provide documents proving that she was living legally in 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:26.040 the US. 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:31.879 It was like the end of the world because I 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:35.040 knew that there was no way I could provide that number. 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:38.520 The problem was, for nearly eleven years we've lived in 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:39.879 the US undocumented. 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:46.720 You feel like the will is opening on your feet 0:19:48.760 --> 0:19:53.120 because you know sheen there on since we are going 0:19:53.200 --> 0:20:05.600 to be different, and it felt really very bad now. 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:09.720 Being undocumented affected our daily lives in endless ways. We 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:13.080 couldn't travel, we hadn't seen our family in years, and 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:15.440 just a couple of years earlier, my mom had gotten 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:18.240 laid off. I couldn't even go to college at the time, 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:20.960 but I had managed to get hired as an intern 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:24.120 at a Spanish language newspaper, and there I had been 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:27.480 trained to be a reporter. I was actually working two 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:30.280 jobs at the newspaper during the day, and when I 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:32.480 got off, I would work until four am as a 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:36.760 shift manager. At a nearby taco bill. Working with questionable 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:40.320 paperwork meant you had to take what was available. Often 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:44.320 your bosses knew that too, and your wages reflected that. 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:47.680 But my mom being able to drive in suburban Georgia 0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:51.560 was huge and necessary. There was just one train line 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:54.280 to Atlanta, which required a twenty minute drive to the 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:58.119 station from our house, and the spotty at best public 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:01.400 bus system. A driver license meant that she could drive 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:04.200 to clean houses daily, that she wouldn't need to work 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:07.080 for someone else, that she could go and get groceries 0:21:07.400 --> 0:21:10.880 to the park on the weekends. Think of how often 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:13.840 you show your ID and your daily life to travel, 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:17.000 to walk into a bar, even to buy cough syrup 0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:20.480 at the pharmacy. But more importantly, it meant she could 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:24.080 register her car, she could get insurance. She was a 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:25.520 lifeline for our family. 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:30.080 It was a risk that we had to run. There 0:21:30.119 --> 0:21:33.040 was no other way. If it was like put your 0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:37.040 life in a permanent stop if you couldn't drive. We 0:21:37.119 --> 0:21:41.280 decided to go on because we came to this country 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:43.200 to work to improve. 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:46.760 Like my mom, non citizen drivers all over the state 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:50.960 with licenses set to expire that year received similar letters 0:21:51.359 --> 0:21:53.959 in two thousand and three, Georgia had started to verify 0:21:54.000 --> 0:21:58.240 the legal status of all applicants by requiring immigration paperwork 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:01.840 and running it through various data. That's why my brother 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:04.320 and I had never been able to apply for a license. 0:22:04.720 --> 0:22:07.919 We were just too young before the cutoff. But my 0:22:08.000 --> 0:22:10.560 mom was one of the last holdouts, people who had 0:22:10.600 --> 0:22:14.920 received their driver's licenses before the state's more stringent policies. 0:22:15.560 --> 0:22:19.760 Plus Georgia was streamlining. On January first, two thousand and eight, 0:22:19.920 --> 0:22:23.199 the Georgia Department of Driver's Services officially began using a 0:22:23.240 --> 0:22:27.159 program called Safe. It was used to confirm people's identities 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:30.040 and lawful presence in the country in order to grant 0:22:30.119 --> 0:22:35.200 driver's licenses. Save was a program created by USCIS. That's 0:22:35.240 --> 0:22:39.640 the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that administers 0:22:39.680 --> 0:22:44.160 the country's naturalization and immigration system. It too, lives under 0:22:44.160 --> 0:22:48.040 the purview of the overreaching Department of Homeland Security. That 0:22:48.160 --> 0:22:51.840 was supposed to make things faster and more accurate instead 0:22:51.880 --> 0:22:55.760 of running names and socials through several databases. This was 0:22:55.800 --> 0:23:02.600 the future all in one. Around the same time, the 0:23:02.640 --> 0:23:05.800 Georgia legislature began considering a bill to make driving while 0:23:05.920 --> 0:23:10.399 unlicensed a felony. A felony, any felony would later need 0:23:10.480 --> 0:23:14.000 to be disclosed to USCIS if an opportunity ever arose 0:23:14.080 --> 0:23:15.280 to legalize status. 0:23:15.480 --> 0:23:19.040 It was scary, It was really scary, and we were 0:23:19.520 --> 0:23:25.879 running like playing hide and seek. That was it with 0:23:25.960 --> 0:23:30.000 the police, with the immigration things. It was very hard time. 0:23:30.840 --> 0:23:32.880 By the end of two thousand and eight, my mom 0:23:32.960 --> 0:23:36.240 was on her first of many years driving unlicensed, and 0:23:36.320 --> 0:23:39.600 so was I but neither of us realized just how 0:23:39.720 --> 0:23:42.719 tired what was happening in our present was to an 0:23:42.720 --> 0:23:46.600 event that had shaken the whole nation nearly a decade earlier. 0:23:47.320 --> 0:23:51.680 This wasn't just Georgia being Georgia. It was happening across 0:23:51.720 --> 0:24:06.479 the nation. But how was life before ninety eleven changed 0:24:06.520 --> 0:24:10.520 it completely? Things weren't all that better. There were thousands 0:24:10.520 --> 0:24:13.280 of undocumented people like me and my family who were 0:24:13.280 --> 0:24:17.000 living in states that did not grant driver's licenses. Some 0:24:17.040 --> 0:24:21.080 of them traveled to states like Washington, North Carolina, or Tennessee, 0:24:21.520 --> 0:24:24.840 where proof of legal status was not necessary. There you 0:24:24.880 --> 0:24:27.760 could get a driver's license and register your vehicle so 0:24:27.800 --> 0:24:31.200 you had a valid tag. In other states, undocumented people 0:24:31.280 --> 0:24:35.240 had been able to access driver's licenses using other documents, 0:24:35.320 --> 0:24:39.720 sometimes borrowing a friend's address. In other places, like Virginia, 0:24:40.080 --> 0:24:43.560 the state allowed waivers that identified residant drivers as non 0:24:43.640 --> 0:24:47.680 citizens but still allow them to legally drive. The American 0:24:47.680 --> 0:24:52.119 Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, which represents the state agencies 0:24:52.119 --> 0:24:56.080 that issue licenses, had even begun urging Congress to issue 0:24:56.160 --> 0:24:59.960 uniform rules regarding the granting of licenses to undocumented people 0:25:00.400 --> 0:25:03.240 instead of leaving it to each state, and there were 0:25:03.280 --> 0:25:05.120 a lot of good reasons to do it. 0:25:05.560 --> 0:25:08.040 More than ten other states already allow it, and advocates 0:25:08.040 --> 0:25:10.320 say it would make the road safer and raise millions 0:25:10.320 --> 0:25:11.400 of dollars in revenue. 0:25:11.520 --> 0:25:14.000 It would be good for the state, good for the 0:25:14.080 --> 0:25:17.520 undocumented individuals who could get the licenses, good for safety, 0:25:17.680 --> 0:25:19.439 good for revenue, which is in a way those leaves. 0:25:19.600 --> 0:25:22.720 And some states were making progress. In the summer of 0:25:22.760 --> 0:25:25.679 two thousand and one, The New York Times reported that 0:25:25.760 --> 0:25:28.960 the Hispanic liaison to the New York County government had 0:25:29.000 --> 0:25:33.160 asked the DMB to accept the individual Taxpayer Identification Number, 0:25:33.400 --> 0:25:36.920 which is issued by the IRS on applications for licenses. 0:25:37.640 --> 0:25:40.760 While undocumented people in places like New York City were 0:25:40.800 --> 0:25:43.439 close to finally being able to get legal IDs and 0:25:43.520 --> 0:25:49.919 driver's licenses. September eleven ended those conversations completely. Immediately after 0:25:50.000 --> 0:25:54.240 the terrorist attacks, as information trickled out slowly, the twenty 0:25:54.240 --> 0:25:57.320 four hour news cycle was dominated by stories of the 0:25:57.480 --> 0:25:59.920 terrorists who had been able to do what they did 0:26:00.080 --> 0:26:03.800 because they had been able to obtain legal identifications. 0:26:03.600 --> 0:26:08.639 This terrorist attack did fly to Boston from Portland, Maine, 0:26:08.800 --> 0:26:14.960 and interestingly enough, they used New Jersey driver's license as identification. 0:26:15.400 --> 0:26:19.520 Sixteen of the nineteen terrorists held ballid driver's licenses or 0:26:19.600 --> 0:26:24.440 identification cars from states including Virginia and Florida. These documents 0:26:24.480 --> 0:26:27.520 had enabled them to board planes, open bank accounts, and 0:26:27.600 --> 0:26:31.399 rent apartments. The federal government was under mounting pressure to 0:26:31.480 --> 0:26:34.920 publicly address this quote vulnerability in the system. 0:26:35.040 --> 0:26:38.080 The nine to eleven Commission noted all but one of 0:26:38.119 --> 0:26:40.760 the nine to eleven Commission hijackers acquired some form of 0:26:40.880 --> 0:26:45.560 US identification document, some by fraud. Acquisition of these forms 0:26:45.560 --> 0:26:49.320 of identification would have assisted them in boarding commercial flights, 0:26:49.359 --> 0:26:51.320 renting cars, and other necessary activities. 0:26:51.320 --> 0:26:52.399 That's the commission report. 0:26:52.560 --> 0:26:55.920 In the following two years, nearly every state with potential 0:26:55.960 --> 0:26:59.960 gaps took measures to toughen its roles. A traumatized nation 0:27:00.320 --> 0:27:04.679 needed some semblance of security of control, and this was 0:27:04.720 --> 0:27:07.399 one of the things the government could actually tell citizens 0:27:07.400 --> 0:27:11.080 that they were trying to reign in. Initially, politicians began 0:27:11.160 --> 0:27:14.959 calling out for a national database so that policies mirrored 0:27:15.000 --> 0:27:18.879