WEBVTT - It's a Numbers Game Podcast: The Impact of Immigration on American Society 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:07.760 Welcome back to It's a Numbers Game with Ryan Gradusky. 0:00:07.960 --> 0:00:11.799 Thank you again for being here this week very special episodes. 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:14.600 So right before the end of the year, the New 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:19.599 York Times released a very important story about immigration, immigration 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:23.440 being the number of net migrants that came in during 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:27.680 Joe Biden's presidency. Net migration, of course, is the number 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:31.800 of new immigrants who come to a country subtracted by 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:34.160 those who have left, so that's where the net comes in. 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:37.760 And the number of the net migrants that came in 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:41.280 during Joe Biden's presidency from twenty twenty one to twenty 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:46.840 twenty three averaged two point four million per year two 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:52.240 point four million overall. During Biden's first three years with presidency, 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:55.640 it was about eight million total. That's the Esmen number. 0:00:56.560 --> 0:01:00.720 Eight million is larger than the population of thirty seven 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:04.160 US states. It's essentially like adding the state of Washington 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:07.520 to the overall population again, a new state of Washington. 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:11.480 All those people from diverse backgrounds into the country over 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:14.160 a four year period, it was, according to the New 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:17.560 York Times quote, the fastest pace of arrivals than during 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:20.880 any other period, including the peak years of the Ellis 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:24.160 Island it's the fastest rapid change of the country since 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:29.399 eighteen fifty when illegal immigration remains a large part of 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:33.040 the story. Legal immigration and executive actions like special programs 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:39.400 to bring thirty thousand migrants a month from places like Venezuela, Haiti, Colombia, 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:42.880 and Cuban Nicaragua are also added into it. It's a 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:48.720 mixture of legal immigration, executive action, and illegal immigration. No 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:52.080 doubt that this was a very big reason why Trump won. 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:56.360 No doubt that part of the backlash towards the Joe Biden, 0:01:56.440 --> 0:02:02.040 Kamala Harris presidency vice presidency, this was the surge of population. 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:06.160 Because with that many new people comes a drain on resources, 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:13.079 certain criminality, housing crisis, a lot of things followed all 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:17.920 this surge of people, both legal and illegal. So it 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:20.400 comes into question now that Donald Trump is approaching the 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:23.280 presidency in just a few days, what can he do 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:27.840 about it? What can he do to actually, you know, 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:32.480 govern with his presidential mandate on immigration. Part of that 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:35.640 is put into two different boxes, right, legal immigration versus 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:40.920 illegal immigration, and another box is Congress what their responsibility is, 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:44.000 what they have to do to help Trump achieve his agenda, 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:48.200 and what he could do on his own. Those are 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:51.160 the essential questions he will be looking at his administration 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:53.600 will be looking at going into the initial first few days, 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:57.960 going into the first month. That will be essential. And 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:01.320 my first guest on this podcast ever, knows a lot 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:03.639 about this because he was in the trenches the first 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:06.480 time around. Back during the first term of the Trump administration. 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:10.120 THEO Wolds served as the Deputy Assistant at the President 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:13.720 for Domestic Policy under Stephen Miller and Jared Kushner. He 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:16.760 currently serves as a Solicitor to General for the Graces 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:19.600 of Idaho, and he knows about more about this than 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:21.480 basically anyone in the world. So thank you for coming 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:24.440 on THEO. Thanks for adming Ryan so in an honor 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:26.480 to be your first guest. Thanks for you well with you. 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:29.040 You're a smart guy, and I know your time is valuable, 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:33.760 so I really appreciate it THEO. What are some executive 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:37.280 actions that the presidents oversaw during the first term of 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:40.640 the Trump White House when it comes to immigration. I mean, 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:43.520 we know the big ones like remain in Mexico and 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:46.680 the travel ban, but what would you say were like 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:48.920 some things that didn't make the cover of the New 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:52.200 York Times or at people on MSMB screaming MSNBC screaming 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:55.880 about that were essential for Trump to achieve any real 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:58.680 gains when it came to immigration, both illegal and legal, 0:03:58.680 --> 0:03:59.960 and you think we're notework. 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:04.400 Yeah, well so the first place I'd start is just 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:08.280 to say, one of the central thesis that we had 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:11.960 in the Trump administration on immigration policy in one point 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:15.640 zero in Trump forty five was really this simple question 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:20.080 that a mutual friend of ours, Ryan first gave to me. 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:22.960 And I would repeat this almost as a yoga mantra, 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:27.840 which is who decides who decides who's coming into the 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:30.440 United States and under what terms? And how long are 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:32.680 they going to stay for? And when you start to 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:35.839 ask that question as sort of like the governing principle 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:38.960 of any immigration action you want to take to expand 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:41.720 immigration as some people like Lindsay grant that proposed over 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:43.800 the years, or to contract it like some of our 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:47.480 friends at Center for Immigration Studies have often advocated for. 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:50.360 When you start to ask that question, then you really 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:53.720 get a view of how little the average American or 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:57.200 their elected representatives in Congress know or understand about the 0:04:57.279 --> 0:04:59.760 year to year immigration flows. And I think that's great 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:03.159 that you started with net migration, because again, it will 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:05.400 come as a shop And I do this experiment quite 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:08.640 often when I speak to to lay groups here in Idaho, 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:12.280 just you know, your local rotary club or a group 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:15.040 of Republican dentists or something, and I'll say, you know, 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:19.440 how many legal we're not talking illegal, but legal immigrants 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:22.359 came into the United States last year? And usually, you know, 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:24.320 they'll throw out a number of like five hundred thousand, 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:28.640 and it will come as an absolute shock to your 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:31.960 average American that legally we let in about one point 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:35.120 five million people every year, or as you said, you know, 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:37.400 to give another example of this, a city the size 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:40.520 of San Jose is added to the United States every 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.960 year and the composition of that one point five million. 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:47.239 Some of them come under the EB five EB three visas, 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:50.440 which are investor visas. They open a business or they're 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:52.039 willing to put up so much capital in the United 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:53.240 States so they get a greedy card. 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:58.320 Some are coming through family immigration status. The bulk is family. 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:01.520 That's change. The bulk is the bulk by far is 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:02.359 family migration. 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:05.760 Yes, but some come through means like the diversity of 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:08.239 the lottery, which is often talked about. You know inside 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:12.040 the Beltway, inside Washington, d C circles, But the average 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:16.159 American has no idea that fifty five thousand legal immigrants 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:18.520 come to the United States every year who have no 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:20.560 prior ties, they have no famine. 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:24.120 Why say, somebody for diversity vis the lottery explain that. 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:27.640 So the diversity thes The lottery was a concoction of 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:30.520 in large part Ted Kennedy and Chuck Schumer in the 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:31.640 early nineteen nineties. 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:34.640 It was meant to power brain trust that learned to 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:39.720 trust in Washington. Always, Chuck Schumer, go ahead, Yeah. 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:41.039 When they're gaining up, it's always going to be a 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:42.359 good result for the American people. 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:44.680 Yeah, so their view. 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:48.720 Ted Kennedy had a particular obsession with increasing immigration from 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:52.800 Ireland because of the way the immigration flows were structured 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:55.279 at that time under the Heart Seller Immigration Act in 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:58.800 the nineteen sixties, which essentially did away with some of 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:02.600 the migration caps, the ethnic or racial caps that were imposed. 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:05.680 In nineteen twenty, he bring some flows to the entire world. 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:10.400 Ted Kennedy thought that Ireland was really losing out on 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:15.160 its possibilities of increasing net migration into historic Irish American 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:18.320 cities like Boston, and so the Diversity Lottery was designed 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:22.760 to ensure that nation states that have low representation in 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:27.400 our overall immigration flows, either because of family chain migration 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:31.920 or the investor visas or the short term labor employment visas, 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:34.680 that the Diversity Lottery is meant to target those nation 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:39.360 states increase their overall representation almost if you will, DEI 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:42.120 for our nation's immigration system. 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:44.120 And well, and then I asked you a question. Is 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:48.360 Ireland still represented in that number? Yeah? Oh cool, not 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:50.240 at all. Wait a minute, they have a long term 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:52.760 vision there, Teddy Kennedy. So who does come on the 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:53.679 diversity visa. 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:56.400 It at It's a great question. So just last week 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:58.480 I had an Uber driver who was from Sri Lanka 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:00.360 and I have some interesting tie to Srila. 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:02.840 Got my wife and I honeymoon there, for example. And 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:04.480 I said to him, I said, oh, Sri Lanka. 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:06.240 You know, when I was in Sri Lanka, not many 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:09.080 people actually knew much about America. But you know, they 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:12.800 thought we were British because of the traditional Commonwealth connections 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:15.040 to England. And he said, yeah, yeah, you know, I 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:17.920 came here kind of on luck. And I said, what 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:19.679 do you mean by luck? He said, I'm a winner 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:23.280 of the Diversity Lottery. Oh, how did you know to 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:27.080 apply for that? Well, my neighbor, he and his wife 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:29.360 had applied for it for years and they told us 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:32.000 about it. He never won, but I put my name 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:35.520 in and first time I got chosen. And that's what 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:38.199 the Diversity Lottery is doing, right. Fifty five thousand people 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:41.720 a year, no prioritized, no family connections here, don't necessarily 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:45.360 have to speak the language, have any understanding about our civics, 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:49.040 our form of government, the constitution. And that is by 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:52.480 design how the Diversity Lottery chooses these people. And by 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:56.360 and large, the Diversity Lottery will cap participation of nation 0:08:56.480 --> 0:09:00.000 states that are overrepresented. So you will not get any Mexican, 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:04.760 Mexican nationals, Chinese nationals, Indian nationals winning the Diversity Lottery. 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:11.440 You will see Kazakhstani's, Huzbaki's, Sri Lankan's, Bhutanese. Those are 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:13.600 the kinds of people. Nepalese are big winners in the 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:15.920 versus lottery. And then a lot of countries, Well I. 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:19.320 Did with that, our Appleleese nationals right, And the biggest 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:24.160 defenders of the Diversity Lottery today is the Congressional Black Caucus. 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:27.600 They see it as a non negotiable item because often 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:29.600 the versity lottery will come up in these discussions about 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:32.160 comprehensive immigration reform. Well, let's take those fifty five thousand, 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:35.040 you know, diversity latter of visa slots and turn those 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:38.160 green cards into more H one b's or something. And 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:40.760 the Congressional Black Caucus will say, absolutely not, because those 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.800 fifty five thousand year year really increased the overall share 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:46.400 of African immigration into the United States, and. 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:48.400 They feel like by bringing in more black people as 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:51.839 better representation for them, because most Black members represent black 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:57.080 majority districts overwhelming They did right, right, And this is 0:09:57.120 --> 0:10:00.000 the this is the feature that is so often overlooked. 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:03.800 And Ryan, I think you're you're very, very unique in 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:07.400 this respect, which is seeing the connection between immigration policy 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:11.959 and the raw brass tacks of electoral politics and Congressional 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:14.520 Black Caucus members, as you said, they want to see 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:17.520 the increase of the African diaspora because that will increase 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:21.000 their percentage share of seats and also the power of 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:25.600 their of their representation for their constituency in Congress. So 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:28.440 you know, the point about raising the diversity lottery is 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:31.800 here's this little rabbit ward of a visa class that 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:35.040 most Americans have no idea about, but fifty five thousand 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:38.320 over ten years starts to be pretty significant. 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:39.280 You know. 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:41.680 Let's just say, for example, let's just take a random 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:44.240 visa class here, you know, just just a random one, 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:47.000 and we say, oh, well, you know, look, the American 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:50.160 people have nothing to worry about because this random visa 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:52.520 class is capped eighty five. 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:53.360 Thousand a year. 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:56.400 And let's say this visa class is dedicated to improving 0:10:57.240 --> 0:10:58.440 high skilled. 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:01.480 Workers in the visa first. 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:04.480 You know, yeah, we could say, hypothetically we called Bagman 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:08.120 b people say, well, there's there's nothing to worry about, Ryan, 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:10.800 because it's just eighty five thousand people a year. And 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:14.120 this is part of the game that the policy makers 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:17.360 and the immigration open borders lobby play with the American people, 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:21.079 which is it's eighty five thousand year, but one individual 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:25.560 visa in that eighty five thousand is good for six years. 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:28.600 And so the next greeneryard you can then switch from 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:31.560 from visa to green card, from green cartesses and then 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:35.400 through family migration, sponsor a whole village. Eventually. 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:38.680 That's exactly right, right, even staying within the terms of 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:41.800 those eighty five, it's eighty five this year, and eighty 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:44.200 five next year, and eighty five the year after that, 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:46.560 and so very quickly that eighty five thousand, they said, 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:49.360 don't worry, you're pretty little little head about because it's 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:53.480 just eighty five thousand quickly becomes six hundred thousand people, right, 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:56.160 or you know, very quickly becomes as you noted, net 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:59.439 migration two point two million a year, or a city 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:02.840 the size of Houston coming into the United States every year, 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:06.560 taking jobs, taking social services, crowding our schools, crowding our 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:09.720 emergency rooms. And look like where I live in Idaho, 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:12.000 you know, the second fastest grossing state in the country. 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:16.240 We don't have the infrastructure to support American citizens, let 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:19.520 alone the influx of assylies and refugees who are coming 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:22.120 into into the state, coming into the country. So on 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:26.880 the numbers alone and the pathway you just named, I mean, really, 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:29.839 this this sort of myopic focus that has happened on 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:32.199 the last two weeks on H one B, I've kind 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:36.520 of found amusing because the real pathogen in this whole 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:40.359 chain of displacing American workers starts with the student visas. 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:43.960 I mean, the pathway. Is no one avertars to the 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:46.320 student visas you're listening to. It's a numbers game with 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:52.319 Ryan Gerdsky. We'll be right back when you talk about 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:54.960 Idaho and how fast Idaho is growing, and many cities 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:58.160 have experienced this giant influx, especially during the Biden presidency 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:01.600 because he let the whole world in. Everyone talks about 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:07.080 housing primarily as a demands issue. We don't build enough houses, sorry, 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:09.080 as a supply issue. They don't talk about as a 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:12.320 demand issue that there were so many more new people 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:16.960 per year asking for housing that it's a course causing 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:20.120 prices to rise excemely high in some metro markets. It's 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:23.120 not just a supply issue. It is a demand issue 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:26.880 primarily driven by immigration. And there's other things that go 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:28.480 into this. I don't want to focus completely on that, 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:30.360 but yeah, that's a big part of it, as well 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:34.720 as the plethora of visas like the student music you mentioned, So. 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:37.439 That's exactly right on the demand side. And you know, 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:39.960 I don't want to wear the tinfoil hat here, but 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:43.800 I think it's reasonable at this juncture to say, well, 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:48.440 who are the biggest backers for expanding legal immigration? And 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:52.000 when you go through the numbers and the recipients either 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:54.200 of these short term labor visas or the people who 0:13:54.200 --> 0:13:58.360 expend the most resources in Washington lobbying for expanding the 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:02.080 visa carve outs. Remember this is another number here. There 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:04.760 are over one hundred and eighty five separate visa classes 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:07.520 and categories. One hundred and eighty five. I mean there's 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:10.880 a visa for ice dancers and cardival cruise ship performers, 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:13.920 right right, There's a visa nearly for everything. So the 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:16.720 people who are always looking to expand the nexus of 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:19.600 those visas and to expand the total numbers that are 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:22.160 issued year to year, they often turn out to be 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:25.680 the same people who are buying up residential neighborhoods, who 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:26.920 are speculating in the. 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:28.280 Creation of new apartment buildings. 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:30.160 And the question I get asked all the time here 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:33.880 in the Boise metro area with the construction of new 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:37.840 apartment facilities and the building of all these new suburb 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:41.520 you know, sort of flop, you know, suburban homes. Is 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:44.520 who's coming to live in these? And you look and 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:47.360 see who the financiers and who the constructors are, and 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:51.120 it's black Rock, It's Vanguard. I mean, just as people 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:54.120 have long started to figure out, and who are those 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:56.760 people advocating for not the American worker, those are some 0:14:56.800 --> 0:14:59.600 of the people, the biggest fish advocating for expanded short 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:02.360 term visas and expanding the F one, the M one, 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:05.080 the J one, the H one, B and so they're 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:09.280 filling the apartments with short term and seeking immigrants. Well, 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:12.560 and it's it's sort of an unbreakable cycle, if you will. 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:15.560 Now going back to the original question, is there anything 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:17.520 a lot of those things are done by Congress. Is 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:20.440 there anything the executive branch can do on its own, 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:22.800 the press can do on its own when it comes 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:27.240 to immigration, when it comes to maybe making the threshold 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:31.120 to qualify for those visas much harder. Yeah, here, here's 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:33.360 like a couple of basic things. So at the very 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:37.520 end of the administration the last year and a half, 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:42.240 the President asked me to essentially rewrite the Immigration and 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:45.320 Naturalization Act, you know, all several thousand pages of it, 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:50.240 and typical Trump fashion, he said, dude, in two weeks. 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:52.640 But you can hire, but you can hire. 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:55.200 Whoever you want to help you to you, okay, And 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:57.480 so you know what I asked around, We've got some 0:15:57.520 --> 0:15:59.800 of the best people on on sort of our side, 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:02.600 if you will, work in Congress, on the Committees of 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:05.680 Judiciary and Senate and the House, some of the folks 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:10.200 who are embedding the civil Service at DHS, and we 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:13.040 really did do a significant rewrite. I mean, we took 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:16.080 the text from the beginning to the end, and look, 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:19.920 I mean the inventory of the oddities, you know, the 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:24.160 vast discrepancies in the actual text, the statutory text of 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:26.400 the Immigration and Naturalization I mean, it would make a 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:29.240 lot of your listener's eyes glaze over. But for policy 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:31.960 and legal wanks, it would shock people to know how 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:35.280 porous and how indefensible a lot of what we think 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:40.040 are ironclad statutes statutory text in that in the overall Act, 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:42.760 how really broken they are. But a couple of the 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:44.760 things that we really worked on to give you an 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:48.640 example in this this answers your question. Ryan. Back in 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:52.760 the nine to eleventh Commission report, which seems like ancient history, now, 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:54.840 there were a number of do outs that the nine 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:58.280 to eleven Commission asked Congress to pursue, and a lot 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:02.680 of them, no surprise, had to do with legal immigration, because, 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:05.159 as it's often sort of bandied about on x and 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:05.840 social media. 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:07.159 You know, the nine to eleven. 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:10.680 Hijackers were all legal immigrants to United States. They were 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:14.280 given visas and came into this country, uh, totally legally, 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:18.199 and so ronos do outdate pass the visa? Which is 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:20.679 which is which is honestly, fifty three percent of our 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:23.920 illegal immigration population used to be around sixty two percent prior. 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:25.959 To people who are legally allowed to come and then 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:28.640 oversaw their visas and they get it and never lost Yeah, 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:31.720 and you ever leave, and then Democrats will later beg 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:34.800 that we give them some kind of legal status even 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:37.680 though they violated the terms under which the American people 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:39.399 originally allowed them to come into the country in a 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:41.359 first place. Right, that's right? So what are the do 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:43.200 outs from the nine to eleven Commission? 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:46.199 Was very simple and it was modeled after what a 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:48.919 lot of our peers do around the world, which is 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:52.600 the concept is called to push the boundaries, the borders 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:55.640 of the United States out And what does that mean, Well, 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:58.800 you know in Australia, and Australia is really not, you know, 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:02.360 the poster boy for great immigration policy anymore. 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:03.119 They used to be. 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:07.320 But Australia doesn't allow anyone to board a Quantus or 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:11.280 British Airways airplane headed for Sydney unless you have a 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:15.239 verifiable proof of visa or documentation that you have been 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:18.400 granted asylum. The United States doesn't do that. Anyone could 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:21.120 get on an airplane coming to JFK or LAX, show 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:23.560 up and then say, oops, I claim asylum or OPSI 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:26.119 I bought this ticket, but I don't actually have a 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:28.320 visa to be here. And so the idea pushing the 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:31.080 borders out is to say the State Department, in conjunction 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:36.000 with EHS, when folks come for their visa adjudication, for 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:40.199 their appointment, to argue or to pursue the paperwork to 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:44.000 get a visa, they need to provide us with biometric 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:48.840 information upfront, collect the biometric information and ryan. It sounds 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:51.600 so simple, but if you do this, the number of 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:54.880 people who will drop out of the process because they 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:58.359 know they're coming to gain the United States. They know 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:01.720 our system is incredibly permial. So just saying you know what, 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:04.160 if you show up at a consulate or an embassy 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:07.040 requesting a student visa or travel visa, We're going to 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:10.480 take all of your biometric information here, and now we're 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:12.720 going to know who you are. The amount of fraud 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:16.119 that occurs in our system when Ryan Gurdusky, uh, you know, 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:18.920 makes an appligation at the state department at a consulate 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:22.040 let's say Poland or Slovakia and is not the actual 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:25.400 Ryan Graduski who shows up an lax. So verifying the 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:28.520 online identity of the applicant with the person who actually 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:31.560 arrives in you as another big f exit. And then 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:33.159 you know, look, here's another one that we can do 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:35.760 very quickly, which is to say no status adjustments. 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:37.520 And this is right, this is a part part of 0:19:37.560 --> 0:19:41.320 the innovation. Just explain what status adjustment is, right. 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:44.000 So status adjustment, let's say, you know, back to that 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:46.360 H one B pipeline we were discussing a moment ago. 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:51.040 A lot of the H one B population actually comes 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:54.199 into the country originally on an F one or an 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:57.560 M one student visa, and they're attending you know, we 0:19:58.040 --> 0:19:59.720 like to think that all these people are BRAINI acts 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:02.560 at Harvard, but in many cases they're at fake diploma mills. 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:04.720 I mean, there was a great bust under the Trump 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:09.960 administration in Virginia. It was a Virginia Polytechnic Institute for 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:13.119 Computer Science, and it was a diploma mill in the 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:14.960 basement of a seven eleven in a and though it 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:16.160 was a totally fake institution. 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:18.880 That's the question. How some of these universes go bankrupt 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:21.240 Like Bernie Sanders's wife friend of college, they ran bankrupt, 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:23.880 Like how did you manage to bankrupt the college? They 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:26.600 give you free money, and you can bribe visa holders 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:30.040 across the world really and they'll pay full freight full 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:34.639 really horrendous business model. You got there, uh, missus Sanders? Yeah, no, 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:36.800 So that's and once they get there. 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:38.680 They so they come in on their their F one, 0:20:38.720 --> 0:20:41.479 on their student visa, and then their employer, let's say, 0:20:41.520 --> 0:20:43.760 you know, they're they're sponsored for a summer internship or something, 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:45.720 and says, you know, it'd be really great if you 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:49.359 could make this application for the OPT program, the Optional 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:52.480 Practical Training Program, which was originally designed to help America 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:56.359 provide agricultural sciences like it basically like a subsidization and 0:20:56.440 --> 0:20:59.520 augmentation to the Peace Corps and is really now part 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:02.080 of this the tech worker pipeline. And so they have 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:05.080 to adjust their status. They're here on an F one, 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:07.840 they have to apply to DHS in the State Department 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:10.199 and say I would like now to be considered for 0:21:10.240 --> 0:21:13.480 one of the openings in this optional practical training program. 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:16.399 And from optional practical training, then they'll make a status 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:18.919 adjustment application to say I'd like to now apply for 0:21:19.000 --> 0:21:21.520