P2P Radio- [Gaining perspective]

Welcome to another segment of P2P Radio. Today, we're going to talk about immigration and some of the changes that have been happening with the New Women's Fish coming in. The point of this segment is to gain perspective for someone who actually deals with the subject. A lot of times we hear of political analysts and political commentators who have nothing to do with the situation.

So it's good to actually hear from somebody who has some kind of connection to it, has some more knowledge about it than the political analysts and political commentators. And for that, we now go to someone who I think is all beyond qualified to talk about this, and that is Ms. Molly. So, ma'am, thank you for being a part of this segment.

How are you doing? I'm doing well. How about you? I'm fantastic.

So, before we get into really the details, can you just tell us a little bit of background about, you know, your personal connection with this immigration debate? I am married to Marcos Felix. He is an immigrant from Brazil, and he actually came here on a visa. The first time he came was back in 2014, and then he went back after six months of being here because that was a requirement of his visa is to go back every six months.

Then he returned again in around February or March of 2015, and we met in August of 2015, fell in love, and got married last year. So we've been married about a year now. Well, congratulations to that. Thank you.

So he's been in the visa process. So a lot of critiques that we hear in the immigration debate is that the United States is not probably vetting or straining people who come over here, if they're on, you know, refugee status or green card or visa status. Is that true? Can you give us a little bit of details about what their process is?

I don't think it's easy at all, especially for, you know, people from those seven countries that he's, you know, trying to ban from Syria, those sort of places in the Middle East. It's really hard for them. I believe their vetting process is about two years long. So as far as for my husband, it's hard to get a visa really for anyone.

He said that you kind of basically have to lie about why you're coming here in order to get a visa. You have to say, oh, I'm just going there for vacation. You know, I'm not going to stay there for a long time because otherwise they don't want to give you a visa. They think you're going to, you know, stay there illegally, stay there for a long time.

And basically the process is you have to pay a certain sum of money. I'm not sure how much it is in his currency, which is reais in Brazil. It's quite a bit of money from what I understand. And for people, you know, trying to come to the United States, a lot of the times the reason is because they don't have jobs in their home country and they don't have money.

So obviously that makes it difficult to come here when you're having to pay so much money to get here, but you don't have a good job where you're located currently. For example, my husband was working at a shoe store in Brazil, and he made about 1,000 reais a month. Well, he said just an apartment there itself is something like 900 reais a month. So there's not really a way to live on the salary that they have there.

You have to live with, you know, family members. He was living with his mother at the time. And he said, really, you know, no matter how hard you work, you're not going to have the opportunities that you have here in the United States. So I really disagree with the people who say it's easy to get here.

It's not easy at all. And even if you do get a visa to come here, they just want you to stay basically for vacation and then go back to your country. Gotcha. So I think that is what you just said captivates, you know, the struggle that we have because in America, you want to be welcoming to people who want a betterment of life, who may not be living in the best condition back in their home country and wanting to come over here so that they can chase that quote-unquote American dream.

But now people will say, well, we have to think about, you know, national security and to people who are already, you know, here, these citizens who are already here, who are struggling with jobs, with their economic status. So what do you fall on along with that? And what is your thinking between the balance of being welcoming yet balancing national security? Basically, even to get a visa, you have to go to the, I guess it's called the consular embassy in your country.

For example, he had to go and have an interview at the Brazilian, the American embassy in Brazil just to get a visa to come here. He is here on a vacation visa, and he's supposed to go back every six months, which is kind of a crazy thing. They give you the visa for 10 years for vacation, but you can only stay for six months, and then you have to go back to Brazil. So once you go to that interview at the embassy in your country, they ask you, you know, a series of questions about why you're coming here, how long you're going to stay.

You know, they do criminal background checks on you. It's not an easy process, and I think that they're doing a great job of screening people who are coming here. I don't see any issues with it personally. Okay.

So let's get a conversation to illegal immigration, which your husband does not fall into the category of. But first off, how do you feel about illegal immigrants who come here, you know, from Mexico or from other areas, who are not, who is not following the process that your husband is, who he's waiting on, he's trying to do the process. But these people are coming over here and, you know, wanting to stay here, and they're not following that process. So do you think it's unfair, or how do you think about that?

I actually don't think it's unfair at all. I know a lot of people, a lot of his friends even, who came here illegally from Brazil and they crossed the border. Unfortunately, if you're in your home country and you're starving or you're facing religious persecution or gangs, there's tons of gang violence in countries like Honduras and Mexico. You don't have a choice to wait, you know, around for years to get that interview at the embassy.

It's either you stay there and you die, or you don't have enough money to feed your children, or you cross the border illegally. And, you know, they've done many studies of crime statistics, and, you know, a lot of Trump supporters say that illegal immigrants are criminals, and even Trump himself, you know, insinuated that Mexican people are rapists and, you know, all criminals. But that's not the case. They've done studies on crime statistics, and a lot of illegal immigrants don't commit crimes because they just want to come here to work and make their life better.

They don't have time for crimes when they're working seven days a week. Yes, that's a valid point. So now that you've talked about President Trump, what is your take on, let me first ask you about the wall, that, you know, he was proposing one of his cornerstones during the campaign. I'm not the actual president.

He has signed executive orders to start a process of the wall. Congress has a lot of $25 million for it, and, you know, they're about to start a process of building that. Do you think that is an effective position to make to handle illegal immigration, or what do you think will be an ineffective process to begin? I think it's definitely going to be ineffective.

First of all, you know, we already have hundreds of miles of fence along the border. People just hop over the fence. They use ladders. They cut through the fence if it's a chain link.

There's ways to get around the fence. I mean, people are going to come. If your choice is to stay in your home country and get killed by gangs or find some way to get over a wall, you're going to find a way to get over the wall. And the other issue with the wall is it doesn't stop all illegal immigration.

Something like 40% of people who are in the United States illegally actually came on visas originally. I had a family member who was married to someone from Honduras, and he came over here on a visa and ended up overstaying his visa, and he technically became illegal because the visas eventually expire. So even if people do come here the right way legally, the visas expire eventually, and it's very hard to become a citizen and a green card holder. So really, he's only going to keep out maybe 50% of the people with that wall if it's 100% effective, but the other 40% or 50% are coming here on planes and in boats.

Yeah, so that's a great point to bring up, that a majority of new immigration first come over here legally. Then, as you said, they overstayed a visa, and they fly over here, so a wall will kind of be effective on that altogether. So let me ask you about two more things. How do you feel about, you know, he was trying to implement this travel ban, so I call it a Muslim ban, or a Muslim ban, banning, you know, people from seven different countries.

Brazil is not one of those, but it's affected green card holders, it's also affected visa holders, and even some dual citizens. So even if it affects you at this moment, is that a fear that, you know, your family has? I do have that fear. We're currently going through the immigration process.

My husband has already had his medical exam for immigration done the fingerprinting and background check, and now we're just waiting on his interview at the consulate, the Brazilian consulate in Atlanta. That should be in the next few months, and I'm afraid that when we go to that interview, he could be detained because Donald Trump just doesn't care if someone's here on a visa or if they're a green card holder to him. They're not citizens. He was stopping, you know, with the Muslim ban, he was stopping people at airports who had valid visas, and, you know, luckily the court struck that down recently, but they're still, you know, fighting it out because Donald Trump still wants that executive order to stay in place.

But I think it's completely wrong, and once again, the facts don't back up his beliefs. Many of the recent terrorist attacks in, I believe it was San Bernardino, and the gay nightclub in Orlando last summer were carried out by people who have lived in America for the majority of their life. Yes, that's correct, and like I said, this list also excluded countries that have actually had terrorist groups, you know, like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, those are among those that were excluded from this ban and actually had terrorists come from that country. The last point, and I'm glad that you brought this up, is your husband had, you know, went through the process, he submitted his fingerprints, the federal government knows where he lives, and that story can be shared with a whole lot of illegal immigrants who, you know, either were trying to seek protection, so there were stories about a woman who is an illegal immigrant who is trying to seek protection from a, I think, an abusive boyfriend, and while she was in court, ICE came in and took her away.

There was another one that a lady is currently in the church right now because her request was denied, and so ICE is at least giving a presentation that they are ramping up their deportation process. The last one is that I think even in Congress this week, a bunch of Democrats tried to ask ICE about what's going on, and the Hispanic Caucus on the Hispanic Democrats actually disinvited from this meeting, but from what they gathered was that all 11 million illegal immigrants are essentially possible that they could be wound up at any moment regardless of if they're really hardcore violent criminals or not. So what do you think about that, and what would be your message to anyone that is having that fear of having, you know, their mom, their sister, their brother, their father, son, or daughter be wound up and sent back to that country? I think it's completely wrong.

I know that they came here illegally, but as I said, you know, before, they had to come here for a better life, and, you know, they're trying to work and do the right thing. Of course, I think that criminals, you know, murderers and robbers and rinkers should be deported because, you know, they're not contributing to America, but I would say the majority of illegal immigrants do not commit those sort of crimes, and they're just trying to live a good life here. Another major issue with that is the DACA order from President Obama, which is, you know, offered protection to illegal immigrants that were brought here as children, those brought here, you know, by their parents. Those kids couldn't help it.

You know, they're two or three years old. They can't tell their mom, hey, leave me here in our country, and you go off to America. Of course, you know, their parents were the ones who made the decision to come here, and Obama offered them protection. But President Trump is starting to, you know, repeal that action and really is considering supporting even those people brought here illegally as children, which I think is completely wrong because if you were taken from your country to America when you're two years old, you might not know the language of your home country.

You really don't know anything about the culture. So to send someone back to a country when they've lived the majority of their life in America does not make sense. And I feel for those people who are brought here as children especially because now they're not being accepted as Americans, even though they've lived here their whole lives. They usually speak English.

They've been going to school in America. And, you know, they also would likely not be accepted in their home country of Mexico, for example. If they don't speak Spanish, they don't know the culture there. They would have no clue how to survive in the country because they don't remember it.

Yes, and I think that is a good point. And it's a discussion I think we need to have to make sure that we just don't elope ourselves with the notion of we have to protect, you know, our borders and national security. Remember that these are human beings and that they have emotional ties not only to their community but to this country and that, you know, when they become an integral part of our society, they contribute back to it. I think that discussion is sometimes lost when we just, you know, wrap the conversation up in patriotism and also border security and national security.

So thank you for, you know, bringing in this conversation. I think that hopefully the people who view this video will learn more about immigration and taking it, you know, not just not only your side or their side, but look at both sides and then come up with a more informed opinion. So thank you again for being part of the show. All right.

You're very welcome.