In this episode of Inadmissible, we're joined by filmmakers Rae Cerreto and Kelly Scott, the creators of a new documentary called “Seeking Asylum.” The movie follows a Honduran woman, an asylum seeker named Kensy. Kensy made the incredibly hard decision to flee Honduras with her young children after relentless gang threats and violence made it clear that their lives were very much at risk in Honduras. When Rae and Kelly first met Kensy, she was living in a migrant camp on the U.S.-Mexico border with her children. She was trying to make it to the United States to seek asylum here..In this episo ..read more

In this episode, we're joined by VECINA’s own Project Director, Molly Chew. Molly directs all of VECINA’s projects, but specializes in our ReUnite Project, where we work to assist family members and loved ones of detained unaccompanied immigrant children in the reunification process. Prior to coming on board with VECINA, Molly spent nearly seven years working with unaccompanied refugee children and their families in an array of Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) contracted programs. This included ORR shelters, foster care, and home study/post-release services. She previously worked as the We ..read more

Vanessa Joseph is the daughter of immigrants, and an attorney at Catholic Charities Legal Services in Miami. In her work, Vanessa serves a wide variety of immigrants, including many black immigrants. She is also the City Clerk for the City of North Miami, and is the youngest as well as the first black female elected to the position. Vanessa joins us today for a focus on black migration, where we specifically dive into the many challenges faced by Haitian asylum seekers in the U.S ..read more

In our first episode of Season 2, we delved into the Biden Administration’s recent new immigration policies, which include “parole” programs for a limited number of people from 4 countries: Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Last season we talked about the administration’s other specialized parole program for Ukrainians, as well as humanitarian parole for Afghan. Since our last episode went live, a number of states filed a lawsuit taking aim at some of these parole programs. Here with us today to talk about the lawsuit is Victoria Neilson, Supervising Attorney at the National Immigration P ..read more

It's a new year, and recently, the Biden Administration announced sweeping border policy changes, including an expansion of Title 42, new parole programs for people from certain countries, and an upcoming rule that would bar thousands fleeing persecution from seeking asylum in our country. Joining us for this episode is Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, Policy Director for the American Immigration Council ..read more

We’ve talked on some episodes lately about how our immigration system often treats families and individuals seeking safety in our country differently based on where they are from. We spoke on our last episode, Left Behind, about how Afghans and Ukrainians seeking emergency entry into the U.S. have seen very different results. Since the publication of that episode, we have obtained even more information about the data behind those assertions. We now know that of all the requests filed by Ukrainians under a special U.S. program, about 70% of the applications have been approved. Compare that to r ..read more

Almost one year ago, the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan and the country fell to Taliban rule. While some were able to evacuate in the chaos, tens of thousands of Afghans remain in hiding, many of whom are specifically targeted due to the assistance they provided U.S. forces. On this episode, we're joined by Afghan-American immigration lawyer Spojmie Nasiri. Over the last year, Spojmie has heard harrowing stories from many families seeking safety in the U.S. She talks about her work and experience after the fall of Kabul, and the policy choices our government has made along the way ..read more

In 2020, the Center for Disease Control relied on an obscure law from 1944 to close our southern borders to asylum seekers, under the guise of protecting the public from COVID-19. Why do we use the term "under the guise"? Because top public health experts believe turning away asylum seekers under this law doesn't actually protect us from COVID. In this episode, we're joined by Nicole Ramos from Al Otro Lado. Nicole lives and works in Tijuana as a fearless advocate for thousands seeking asylum in the U.S. Nicole talks to us first-hand about the impact of this policy of on human lives ..read more

Yesterday, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a decision that said that the Biden Administration's termination of MPP was lawful. VECINA's CEO Lindsay Gray and Board President Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch discuss what this means, how this might play out, and why it's a huge win that this policy is ending ..read more

Throughout history and into today, our country has treated various groups of people fleeing violence, persecution, and death quite differently. But why? In this episode, we travel back to the Vietnam War, in the wake of which the United States finally enacts a law granting protection to refugees. We talk with Julian Saporiti, a Vietnamese-American ethnomusicologist and scholar, about his mom's experience fleeing Vietnam, his music about another refugee's experience, and his studies of other groups of refugees who have also sought safety in the U.S ..read more