The Podcast About Immigration in America
Nicholas Sarwark is Chairman of the Libertarian National Party Committee. He discusses his thoughts on how Donald Trump's language and policies will affect immigrant and Muslim communities, as well as the Libertarian Party's positions on immigration in general. As a former public defense attorney, Mr. Sarwark also talks about whether immigrants should be guaranteed attorneys if the U.S. government attempts to deport them.
Nigel Duara is the Phoenix, Arizona correspondent for The Los Angeles Times, covering issues related to the U.S./Mexico border. In a post-election discussion of Donald Trump, Mr. Duara discusses how immigration issues affected the vote in Arizona – a closely contested state – and elsewhere. He also discusses his recent work investigating migrant deaths on the border, as well as shootings involving Border Patrol officers. Finally, Mr. Duara talks about his own family’s journey to America.
Rabbi Faith Joy Dantowitz is a rabbi at Temple B’nai Abraham in Livingston, New Jersey. She discusses how she and her congregation have recently assisted a Syrian refugee family, fleeing civil war, that has resettled in Elizabeth, New Jersey. She also talks about the ties that bind people of different faiths, the place of religion in our understanding of immigration, and whether she believes the United States can heal after an election that has been so fervently divided on immigration and religion.
Kate Morissey is a reporter on immigration for the San Diego Union Tribune in San Diego, California. She discusses several issues affecting Southern California, including Haitians facing deportation despite the devastation from the recent hurricane, a rise in Islamophobia in California schools, the reluctance of Filipinos in San Diego to discuss their immigration status, and what immigration officials patrolling the California/Mexico border think about their job.
Aviva Chomsky is Professor of History and the Coordinator of Latin American Studies at Salem State University. She discusses her recent article in The Nation magazine, “America Wanted to Keep Immigrants Out Long Before Donald Trump Was Even Born,” explaining how American immigration laws have long denied rights to non-white people, and provides her take on how Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump would approach immigration policies. Ms. Chomsky is also the daughter of noted professor and political commentator Noam Chomsky.
Patrick Jean Jerome is a detective for the Mount Vernon Police Department in Upstate New York. He is of Haitian descent and grew up in Haiti before moving to the United States. He discusses his own experience with police bias based upon race and nationality, current prejudices among police officers, and how he and his department are trying to ease tensions between the police and immigrant communities.
Yenny, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, talks about how she struggled to work, live, and obtain an education in New York City without any lawful documentation. However, her hardest struggle occurred when her husband was imprisoned for more than two years, and she had to support her three children on her own while fighting to get her husband out of jail, help him avoid deportation, and bring their family back together.
Lori Nessel is the Director of the Center for Social Justice at the Seton Hall University Law School in Newark, New Jersey. Ms. Nessel discusses her humanitarian work in Central America, the benefits and failures of asylum law in the United States, and how American hospitals are quietly deporting immigrants seeking medical care, occasionally even sending people back to their home country while still unconscious.
A former translator for the U.S. Marines and NATO Forces in Afghanistan discusses growing up in Afghanistan, his dangerous life as a translator, how his family suffered as a result of the work he did with the United States and European nations, and how he has built a life in the United States.