You Are Not Alone
Our purpose is to help people of all ages navigate life. As a mother and son team, Debbie and Greg come together to talk about the realities and struggles all of us face in today’s world. They cover a wide array of topics from mental health to current events to teaching on topics that help us do life. As Christians, they know there is one thing that brings peace, hope, and encouragement to anything life throws at us, and that is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Come along on the ride to learn what this means and how to get it. Your heart and life will be changed forever!
You Are Not Alone
An Understanding of the US Border Crisis
What does it really mean to navigate the complexities of illegal immigration, and how does it ripple through the fabric of American life? We grapple with these questions, considering the impacts on public safety, job markets, and the economy. The stories shared reveal the human side of immigration, from the struggle for a new life to the shadow of undocumented work. This episode is not just a discussion but a journey through the intricacies of a nation grappling with its identity amidst the global movement of people. Join us as we dissect the multifaceted issue of immigration and its far-reaching effects on every American, from policy to personal experience.
Hello and welcome to another episode of the you Are Not Alone podcast. My name is Debbie Gold and I'm here with my co-host and son, greg, and we are so glad that you're here with us. Each week on this show, we will talk about informative issues, issues that will make you think and help you grow. It is our wish that you will find hope, encouragement and a little bit of Jesus in every episode. Hey y'all, and welcome back. Today we are going to be talking about the border crisis.
Speaker 1:So much going on with that these days. And do you know, greg, that 8 in 10 US Americans say the government is doing a very bad or somewhat bad job dealing with the large number of immigrants coming into the United States? That's 80%.
Speaker 2:Do you realize that Doesn't surprise me, yeah.
Speaker 1:So make sure to stick around everyone, because by the end of our show, you will have lots of information that will help you decide where you stand on one of the most hottest topics of today, and that's the border crisis or illegal immigration. So back in. So I want to just follow that up with. In November and I don't know if our listeners are aware or not, because we do focus on the Gen Z age group but in November of this year, in 2024, that's going to be our next presidential election and our next president will be elected, and that's less than eight months away, my friends. So two of the most important issues to Americans right now are economy and illegal immigration. So big year coming up for voting.
Speaker 2:Very important.
Speaker 1:And that's why we're doing this episode is to help educate you and inform and get you to start thinking about the stuff because it's coming down the line.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's important.
Speaker 1:So in a leave, let's define illegal immigrant and then we're going to talk about some facts, and then we're going to talk about the problems that we're facing today as a country because of what is going on with our border. So an illegal immigrant is someone who enters the US without inspection or has come to the US with a valid visa that has now expired. So like it could be a student that came across with a visa and they didn't actually take the course course that they were going to take and then they're they get expired or they get that's no longer valid.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Or someone comes with a visa but they don't do what they have to do to keep it up or someone comes with nothing at all, or someone comes with nothing at all, which is a lot of what's going on today.
Speaker 1:So just some facts about this in a little history. Back in January of 2017. Our president then, president Trump he signed executive order and executive order with the purpose of ensuring public safety within the borders of the US and specifically, his intent was to secure the borders, like with a wall, and to improve immigration enforcement. So you know his intentions were good and he really actually took action on that.
Speaker 1:You know, he started building the wall and he put things in place for immigration checkpoints yeah checkpoints and enforcing all that so that and then that was all halted in January or on January 20, 2021. What happened on that day, january 20 as 2021.?
Speaker 2:Well, Biden took office.
Speaker 1:Yeah, biden took office exactly.
Speaker 2:Didn't. That day he did 94 executive actions, or something like that.
Speaker 1:He did the border. Yeah, well, he did a lot of executive actions, which is typical to be fair. Presidents do that because they want. They want it to roll their way.
Speaker 2:But he reversed exactly what Trump was doing, like I'm almost immediately.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So let me read a release from the White House. On that particular day, january 20, 2021, president Biden sends immigration bill to Congress as part of his commitment to modernize our immigration system. And it goes on to say the US Citizen Act of 2021 establishes a new system to responsibly manage and secure our border, keep our families and our communities safe, and to better manage migration across the hemisphere.
Speaker 2:I don't feel like he's done a good job of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, those intentions sound. They sound good, right Right right Because he wants to provide pathways to citizenship.
Speaker 2:I mean with law.
Speaker 1:And he wants to. I get that. I love that.
Speaker 2:With politicians, you can talk to talk, but you got to walk to walk, you know.
Speaker 1:Of course, but what he was saying you know. I want people to come into our country. Great, I agree with that. We want to prioritize what he said. The second thing was prioritize smart border controls. So he wanted to like up the you know how things work better electronically. Be smart, you know, what do you call that? You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:Just better technology for managing the borders and then address root causes of migration. Why are people wanting to come here? We know it's a better world here, or better it's better people want to come to the United States. So what are the problems at home and how can we maybe effectively fix that or help with that? So I think those were his intentions or whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's what he said I was going to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that sounded really well and really good. However, I think there was no execution or lack of execution is probably what I feel as a citizen and watching everything that's going on.
Speaker 2:It's been neglected terribly. I got to say yeah. So I mean illegal immigration is not new now, so it's been going on for years, but it started increasing of March 2021. And 2023. It ended with the highest migrant encounter on record, reaching Holy cow 249,735 people a month at the US Mexico border in Eagle Pass.
Speaker 1:Yes, that was at the end.
Speaker 2:That's the end, yeah 2023. Yeah, so the breakdown with that would be unoccupied minors, which is either 5% of the population or 12,456 unoccupied minors.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's stop. I want to think about that.
Speaker 2:That's half as a mother, that's half an MBA stadium full of kids. Yes, for context. For coming across every month Half an NFL stadium yeah.
Speaker 1:Every month.
Speaker 2:I don't occupy them so yeah, they don't know where to go, they don't trust, they don't know what's gonna happen. I mean it's ridiculous.
Speaker 1:How scary is that. Yeah, I don't care if you're five. Yeah, that's where three, or a sister that's eight carrying a sibling that's Two or three, or if you're 14 or 15, that is scary and if you're a girl too, that's very scary.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't know who you're gonna meet there. You don't know who you're gonna see, what you're gonna go through or along the way, yeah. Yeah, it's terrifying to think about. And then families 41% or a hundred one thousand seven hundred ten families. That is a lot of families, and you know, not everyone makes it too so mm-hmm. Some family members pass away on the journey or they drown, you know they drown, come you know.
Speaker 1:We're, we're. Texas right yeah they're coming across the Rio Grande.
Speaker 2:And people drown, drowned. Yeah, texas DPS, they like flush out body, sometimes from the Rio Grande, because of all these people coming through. Yeah it's bad. And then single adults make it. This is the highest percentage scary 54%, or 135 thousand five hundred sixty nine single adults coming over.
Speaker 1:So these are the numbers at the end of 2023, folks, which is not so far away that makes 249 735,000 people a month. Yeah, in December that we're coming into our country. Mm-hmm or will across the US Mexico border, basically into Texas.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:I have to say. In one year, if we keep that number, you're good, yeah, so if we keep up with that.
Speaker 2:If we keep up with that number, in one year the amount of migrants that will come into the US border 2,996 and 820,000 migrants. In a year we already have 2 million, oh, almost 3 million 290. Yes, about 3 million yeah. Oh wow, we already have our own problems here, ladies and gentlemen. We already have our own problems here. So that is a lot of people.
Speaker 1:So a lot of people.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And keep listening because we are gonna talk. What are those people doing? Yeah who's supporting those people, and yeah, so there's. There's a lot more here, right?
Speaker 2:So yeah, president, biden's policies may have like seem well-intended like you were saying it like it sounded good at the start, yeah, but clearly the execution and putting plans in place, it's not it's not working at all. And what are the problems that these migrants are facing?
Speaker 1:You know, coming over here on the journey, yeah, we're just facing right and we've identified six, and, and there could be more, and this is just what you and I see together. This isn't like a small breakdown, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I mean people are dying on the trip. Water, lack of water, lack of food, people are Exhausted they don't have the right clothing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, troubles yeah where are the people coming from? Should we talk about that? That's another big issue. Oh so they, they start, you know we think Mexico, but no, that's a star, they come from Mexico, but a lot of countries have gone. Oh, we want to go to yeah, it's uh. There's Honduras. Well, so below Mexico, we've got the, the northern triangle, which is the Honduras, we've got Guatemala and then Elvis, el Salvador.
Speaker 2:We also got Haiti, we got Nicaragua, we got Venezuela.
Speaker 1:We have Cuba and China, china's another big China is actually huge right now.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of Chinese middle-aged males, military-aged males, coming over the border and that's very alarming. So but yeah, we have. I mean, a lot of these people are coming from third-world countries and they don't have the best education over there, right, and so when they're coming over here they don't know what to do. Let's say I Mean. Let's say you get, I mean you snake bites that can kill you on the trip over here, drowning.
Speaker 1:I mean there's so many people don't know how to swim.
Speaker 2:No, that too. Yeah, I've seen that on the news. That is so true, a good point. Yeah, you fall in the real grand and you, just you start freaking out.
Speaker 1:You start drowning.
Speaker 2:You have a backpack on with like all your clothes and stuff. You can't get backpack on, you start drowning. So I mean so it's dangerous.
Speaker 1:What it I think? What I'm hearing and Is you know, people, they're not prepared For this trip. They see the end goal. Which an end goal? This goal is amazing, but you have got to prepare. Yes, you've got to be prepared to make that journey and and it's really dangerous overall. I think it's very dangerous and and I don't feel that they should be encouraged to come under those circumstances but, that. I guess that's an opinion on mine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like we already said, miners travel alone. I mean 5% out of that, you know, 200,000 a month or whatever. I mean there's so many Risks of what could happen, what could go wrong, um women getting raped on the way. Yeah, I mean you. You could get grabbed by some guys and you know, you could, you know, get into a trafficking ring without you Even knowing what's happening.
Speaker 1:So you know you hear a lot about the cartels doing that or that and they have. I don't want to go there, but but then there could be you know, other just men along the journey that take advantage of women. It's just not a safe thing to do very dangerous. So and children being sex trafficked like that too yeah. You know, I don't even know how that all works, I just know the, the, the gangs and all of that are. They just really take advantage. They don't care about anybody but themselves and making a dollar.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's organized crime.
Speaker 1:So mm-hmm. Yeah and then we've talked about drugs being smuggled in. We talk. We've had two yeah episodes on fentanyl, the latest being fentanyl coming across the border border and being mixed with tranq, which is the horse tranquilizer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, most people want to say, oh, fentanyl isn't really coming over this other border.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm doing ignore.
Speaker 2:Ignore your feelings. Look at the facts. It is happening in record numbers. These people aren't being checked at the border. You know the people that you know run from the, the state troopers or DPS or the, the Rangers or whatever. They might have drugs on them. You know they have ways of getting these drugs into, you know, america or whatever they do, because their drug smugglers. That's their job, so they've gotten good at it.
Speaker 2:So, they could put in tires, backpacks, anything, so you know with how potent fentanyl it is. I Mean just that much. That could kill 200,000 people.
Speaker 1:It doesn't, yeah, it doesn't take much to be lethal yeah. And I'm sure, but at this point a lot of our listeners have heard the stories of the moms you know crying. They lost their child to fentanyl. They weren't a drug taker and a drug user, but they just did this one time because they were stressed out about a test and they got something online and you know, the whole thing just Took their lives and it changed the world of not only the child but the family and now and the friends and everyone around them.
Speaker 1:Oh it's these decisions don't affect just one person.
Speaker 2:It's a tsunami of changes and yeah effects that I can have. So, yeah, those stories are heartbreaking to hear yeah, they are they for sure. And the mob. Sometimes they get angry because this is preventable. This could be preventable. I mean, we could use a lot of the money that we're, you know, giving on migrants and all that and you know use For drug programs, for education about fentanyl and you know one pill kills and all that.
Speaker 2:I mean our Texas governor, reg Abbot. He signed a bill one pill kills where it was um fentanyl dealers. Now they're being charged with Like poisoning or something which is like attempted murder, basically.
Speaker 1:Interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're gonna be charged with like attempted murder charges if they get caught. So yeah. Yeah, they're upping the punishment for that, so that's good.
Speaker 1:I have to say I'm really proud of our governor. I mean, we are a border state, so we are hugely impacted by this issue.
Speaker 2:He's held his ground.
Speaker 1:He has. He doesn't feel supported. He feels like he's. He's got immigration or immigrants coming in and overtaking and we don't know where to take it. He's the one that started. Let's put the, put them on buses and send them to. New York or Chicago or wherever you know he's like we gotta do something, um.
Speaker 1:So I hope you guys can appreciate if you're not from Texas, which I know a lot of our listeners aren't, and if you're not from a border state, that you can appreciate the dire situation situation and having a governor that's really taking some action on trying to make it different and to help protect us as citizens in our state, and so, um, we're, you know, pretty proud of him for all the actions. And what's the latest you want to talk about? That this is so big with the US Supreme Court oh yeah, yesterday.
Speaker 2:So the Supreme Court overruled um it was uh here we go they the Texas didn't have.
Speaker 1:We were. Our hands were tied.
Speaker 2:We didn't have the ability to to enforce the laws that we have in place, which is pretty stupid. So we're allowed to enforce SP for allowing state police to arrest and deport illegal aliens yeah seven of the nine justices sided with Texas over the body administration.
Speaker 1:So so basically we have now we have the control to arrest someone. That's um entered our country illegally right and they can arrest them, they can detain them or they can deport them so simplified down.
Speaker 2:We can arrest someone who now breaks the law, correct? Yes, basically yes how did we get to this? I know right, this is so out of hand. How do we?
Speaker 1:have to have the Supreme Court say it's okay to do that it's okay to to arrest. It's in arrest and enforce yeah the law.
Speaker 2:You know that's in the constitution. You know you break the law. You know usually you go to jail, you get arrested, some side of the punishment.
Speaker 1:But these guys, yeah, don't worry about them yeah, so it like it applies to us here, like us citizens, but it doesn't apply to people that come into the country illegally yeah and that's just not right. Okay, I don't care, whatever no, it's not right.
Speaker 2:So anyway, it's not a political thing at this point. No, it's really just a humanitarian issue it is.
Speaker 1:It's a moral and humanitarian issue.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so um it's much bigger than that, yeah and so the other problem too.
Speaker 1:With what we were talking about, we ended up with drugs, but the other is criminals being allowed in. And so what's our latest? What not latest? I'm sure it's not the latest, but do you want to talk about Lake and Riley?
Speaker 2:oh yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm sure some of you know about her and what happened to her yeah, she was a 22 year old college student, lake and Riley.
Speaker 2:She was murdered by an illegal alien who crossed the border under biden um this guy basically, yeah, let me see yeah, she was a university of Georgia nursing student. I'm sorry, but on a jog she was on a jog and he came up to her and just started beating her to death and just figured her school and she was 22 years old and this guy was from Venezuela and he was arrested earlier in 2023 on a sex crime against a minor and the judge let him back out somehow and didn't do anything.
Speaker 1:Didn't do anything, so we let this guy we let this guy back out on our streets.
Speaker 2:And now a mother is grieving her young daughter, who was a nursing student and again it goes back to. Kayla Hamilton is another girl that was killed by an illegal immigrant, and Elizabeth Modena was another girl. I was killed by an immigrant. She was a high schooler, so it's just going up you have so much passion behind this, I can tell it's no, it's ridiculous because I mean, we're putting so much money into these people and they're I mean, what about that? Four NYPD officers that were brutally attacked in the street um.
Speaker 2:Last week another cop was attacked by a machete in Times Square yeah, machete, yeah um and and it's scary, it's very scary, and and we have third world criminals coming over here and acting like criminals and doing third world activities and they're, they're being.
Speaker 2:There's no consequence, there's no consequence they get let out on bond or whatever and then they just go back to their hotel. I mean, they're getting cell phones, they're getting, you know, hotel rooms and stuff. Meanwhile we have a veteran uh crisis in our country. We still have a shitload of homeless people in our country.
Speaker 1:It's we're giving money all the wrong issues, so it sucks right, um, so you know I kind of want to just wrap this up Greg um was doing some research and I know immigrant, or you know people coming into this country has been going on for years and years and years and that's how we've become our country the melting pot right, you're an immigrant, probably, right. Greg, you're an immigrant. Um Well, let's explain that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, he said that.
Speaker 1:So we always like to share a little bit of our lives and our you know, our lives and our things that are going on in our podcast. But yeah, holy cow.
Speaker 2:I am an immigrant, you are an immigrant, that's cool.
Speaker 1:So we adopted Greg from Russia when he was a baby in 2003. So, but we had, you know, to put it in perspective, we jumped through hoops and did so much paperwork and we paid money and we did all these things to get Greg.
Speaker 2:The right way.
Speaker 1:The right way.
Speaker 2:Not to mention the travel fees and like how long were those flights?
Speaker 1:Oh, it was 24 hours. Oh my gosh. We had two trips, but the whole adoption process was I'm just going to throw the number out because I want you to realize it was $40,000 from agency fees to fees that we gave to Russia, money we gave to Russia for you and it was a whole process.
Speaker 2:It was a whole process.
Speaker 1:A lovely process.
Speaker 2:But a stressful process, stressful.
Speaker 1:But we did it.
Speaker 2:The right way.
Speaker 1:Because we did it the right way and we didn't think of doing it. We weren't going to go over there and, like, steal a baby, you know, or do something illegal. We just thought we were doing it the right way. But so good example.
Speaker 2:Right you just do it the right way, and it can even continue to, even after I was in the United States. Right, that way I was a complete US citizen. That way I didn't have like the Russia in the US.
Speaker 1:We readopted you in the state of Texas so that you would have a Texas birth certificate. There we go yeah, so that you wouldn't have a Russian birth certificate, so that when you had to go to college or you applied for a driver's license, there would be no question about your validity. So we even did that after the fact we paid a little more extra money.
Speaker 1:We met with an attorney in San Antonio and it was a big celebration day and we had the judge at the court and we had pictures you might remember. You were sitting on the lap of the judge and you had the gavel. What did they call it? Gavel?
Speaker 2:The gavel yeah. And you got to bang it on the thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you were probably five or six, I think I might. Yeah, we got to that point to revalid, just to you already are. We just wanted you to have the paperwork to show it here in the US.
Speaker 2:There we go yeah.
Speaker 1:But you know.
Speaker 2:You would go through. I went back to get me.
Speaker 1:We did. Yeah, it worth it. Worth every penny in every second.
Speaker 2:So immigration's always been yeah, like you were saying, though yeah, it's fine to do it.
Speaker 1:I want people to come here, I want them to have the goodness of this, but do it the right way.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah.
Speaker 1:And we need our leaders to set that up for people.
Speaker 2:When we interviewed she was like come in the front door, don't come in through my windows or my back door. Yes, Thank you yeah come in the right way. So yeah, and like, present to us that you're willing to work, you're willing to make something out of nothing. And you're a hard worker and you have values. You know.
Speaker 1:Because don't we do that as Americans?
Speaker 2:We try. Yeah, I mean we have values. We have to provide for ourselves.
Speaker 1:We show that we're going to make something out of nothing. You're a college student right now. You are going to make something out of nothing.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You're determined, you're a hard worker and that is how you've been brought up. You're going to become something that you want to become and provide.
Speaker 2:But if we show people that they can just be dependent on the taxpayer and all those coming in, that's no motivation to do anything besides lay around and steal, and I mean it's crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So it kind of reminds me of well, you know, I'm thinking about this whole thing. So what's important to me, and this is what I want our listeners to think about, what do you think about this issue? We're trying to educate you. I'm not saying close it off, but anyways, I want, I am concerned about our public safety in this day and age. You know what would happen. We're letting criminals in here, we're letting drugs in here, and that's not safe for our people.
Speaker 2:They caught a suspected terrorist four days ago at the border, so that's good. Yeah, they caught him at least.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:But what about the ones that weren't caught? You know, what about the ones that are blending into all these other immigrants actually coming here for a better life or something, right?
Speaker 1:So but you know, there's also things like, like I said, those are kind of important to me. You know, I don't want disease. I don't want people coming over bringing COVID or some other disease that we don't even have here. I think there should be some controls around that. But there's also things like you know, how are these people going to support themselves when they get here?
Speaker 2:How are we going to support these people?
Speaker 1:Well, but that's the thing, yes, that's what it boils down to, because when you come into our country, you have to be legal. And when you get a job, there's employers can't hire you unless you have proper documentation that you are a legal citizen.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's an I-9 that you have to prove, you have to show I have an ID or I have a valid passport, or you know the I9 form is used to verify the identity, the identity and the employment authorization of individuals hired for employment in the United States.
Speaker 2:So it's basically you know, showing that you're a US citizen or you know you're authorized to work in the US, right? So if you're an illegal immigrant, how are you going to work like that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, employers can't hire you, so what is that telling me? So people are coming here, they're working for cash, or they're getting aid from the government, or they're getting a place to stay at a hotel or they're working black market jobs or weird jobs, or you know. Right, and so that none of that is safe, or it's, you know.
Speaker 2:What about all these other people that are coming over here and getting jobs and taking the money away from the actual Americans that are out of jobs? Because we know there are a lot of people out of jobs right now, right? Who's going to fill those positions with jobs that nobody wants? So I mean, let's say, in two years, right? We have four million plus people that came into the border since 2024. It's now 2026.
Speaker 2:If we have a four million population increase, what are those four million people are going to do for a living? You know, yeah, and we already have people out of jobs right now that are trying to find work, that are, you know, just trying to make a living for themselves. I mean it's going to boil down to an ugly situation, so, and they're trying to give more rights to illegals than well, americans have, frankly, right now. I mean, in Illinois the other day a judge passed that illegals can carry firearms. How does that make sense? To buy a firearm, you have to do a full background check, you have to scan your ID, you have to prove that you're not, you know, a felon, all that. You have to pass a gun safety ownership thing.
Speaker 1:Sure like we do.
Speaker 2:Yeah Right, it's a complicated process, just like adoption, so it's crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just. It doesn't make sense about following rules and and how are you know why are some people exempt from those rules?
Speaker 2:Right, and why do we have to follow them? But they don't.
Speaker 1:Right. So, so I think we need to wrap up. We've gone over our usual time, but it's been a really awesome conversation and it's a really important topic, and so we would like to ask you all to think about. You know how you feel about immigration. You know, based on what we've said, do some more research on your own and then, most importantly, or even more equally important it's all good, it's all equal Register to vote for this next upcoming presidential election, which is happening in November.
Speaker 2:Don't vote online.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would just go to the get your register and then you just go. They'll show your ID and you're good to go. Yeah, but it's important, and get going on the current topics and what's going on with the presidential race. It's really important.
Speaker 2:And also do your own research. Don't go to sites like Fox News or CNN, where they just pet old people with bias against the other time.
Speaker 1:Well, you can, but you get a watch. You could watch both. You can watch both too.
Speaker 2:but you know, do some independent journalism, look it up for yourself. What really happened in Illinois, you know? Look up the article and stuff. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Anyway.
Speaker 2:Yeah, get out there and vote, vote, vote because it's important.
Speaker 1:Yes, all right. Well, we appreciate you all listening in and hope we were able to inform you all, yeah inform you all at least some impressions, and we will be back soon again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right, sounds good.
Speaker 1:All right, take care, see you soon.
Speaker 2:And remember you are not alone.