Immigration MIC

Welcome newly elected New York State Senator Alessandra Biaggi to the Immigration MIC podcast!

🔵Alessandra calls it the “honor of a lifetime” to represent New York’s District 34 and is looking to represent young women everywhere.

🔴Her Italian roots in the U.S. go back four generations, her great-grandparents coming through Ellis Island and her grandparents’ humble influences on her.

⚫️She tells us the story of the discrimination her great grandparents experienced at the Democratic club in East Harlem how she uses their story to connect with other people that experience racism/ discrimination.

🔵The ultimate underdog: Alessandra talks about all of the roadblocks she faced, from having ADHD, to transferring colleges, to being rejected from every law school to making $13 an hour as a legal fellow.

🔴 Her luck changing when she went to work for the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery - reflecting on the importance of “failing up”, and being honest about her feelings of hopelessness through defeat, and how exercise and meditation helped her.

⚫️At 29 she was the Deputy National Operations Director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign; she tells us how she learned “grace under fire”, how it taught her about infrastructure for her own campaign, and wanting to break barriers for people to work in future campaigns.

🔵She talks about the “tragedy” that was the 2016 elections, she is known for releasing a toolkit for engagement to increase civic participation right after.

🔴Her decision to run for office; progressive legislation wasn’t being passed because of 8 senators (IDC), and called the campaign the “hardest experience of my entire life”, also being outspent by 11:1 by her opponent.

⚫️As a senator, she has used her vote this past month for voting reform, the Reproductive Health Act, the NY DREAM Act, and the Child Victims Act (which she shared her personal story being a survivor when voting)

Lynda Nguyen's mission is to 'make racial equity sexy' -- and she's my guest on The@HendelMedia Project!

We talk about her family's Vietnamese refugee heritage, her awesome chalkboard paint, how 'intersectionality' has been a big part of her schooling/ career; she curses the 'model minority myth', and how she's the worst person to approach to ask what type of Asian she is while she's buying donuts!

On the Immigration MIC this week we have Alyssa who is an immigration paralegal and aspiring attorney, who actually contacted me about an important story she needed to share.

Alyssa an immigrant herself of Cuban and Tunisian descent, born in Tunisia and arrived in the US at a year old, but she identifies strongest as Cuban from Queens. Though she wasn’t able to be a part of the island because of the strict travel laws, she experienced her culture through music and food.

“I was born an American citizen, away” - Alyssa’s mother came to the US as a political refugee and as a result, Alyssa became an automatic citizen, and growing up, she absorbed Latin culture from all the different people around her.

While in college and majoring in Latin American studies and communications, and through volunteer work, Alyssa’s world began to take shape as she began seeing demographic patters through a national and international lens. Since college, she’s travelled all over; she cites Morocco as the most eye opening experience - she recounts children having their eyes sewn shut to encourage tourists to give more.

During one of her last semesters, Alyssa worked directly with unaccompanied minors who had recently been detained at the border, and how the work as an advocate can be traumatizing - relaying an anecdote as to why they are discouraged from having close content with the children they see. We discuss the disconnect between the work in the legal sector and the actual human face on immigration - which is wide according to her. We talk about the end of Wet Foot, Dry Foot, the reactions of Latinos, and how some Cubans try to be as disconnected as possible from the immigration conversation.

So here’s the story. Alyssa was walking outside one morning, and saw a woman having a seizure. The woman woke up and started freaking out about the ambulance coming. Alyssa asked the hard question: are you undocumented. And the lady said yes, I’m scared they’re going to deport me. “She’s scared in this era of Trump.” Alyssa wanted to do everything possible to help, but by the legal system, she wasn’t able to do anything.

"THE WHOLE THING, THE WHOLE SYSTEM” - when I asked her what it is about the immigration legal world that needs more of a voice. Because of these experiences, Alyssa is one hundred percent committed to becoming a paralegal, to help, to fight for justice, to advocate for people that are suffering because of the nation’s broken immigration system - her goal is to go down to the border and “see the wall that is costing people their lives”.

An outstanding athlete, driven by an intensity to succeed both on the wrestling mat and a passion for his community, Carlos represents the heart of the fight of the immigrant rights movement.

Brought to the US from Mexico at 1, his parents looking for better opportunities after experiencing mistreatment working for wealthy families, Carlos grew up in a part of Colorado where he experienced growing up in an anglo community which he credits for being able to communicate with people from diverse backgrounds - yet he says he’s missed out on experiences from his culture. He also credits his friends’ ambition to go to college as having inspired him to always be driven to receive a college education.

A technician on the wrestling mat, we share stories about our experiences - the thrill of finding the moment to dominate an opponent. From there, we talk about the limitations Carlos began experiencing in high school, when the rest of his friends were preparing to go to Mexico for Spring Break and he was unable to join in.

The rhetoric leading up to the election inspired Carlos to be open with people around him that were considering voting for the current president - hear the fascinating story of how he helped shift a few people’s perception by sitting with them and having an honest conversation.

He’s a business major, and is part of the Inspired Dreamers club at University Of Colorado working to create spaces, policies for undocumented students on campus — hear about the growth of the club, and also an important story about why he wasn’t included in a video for the university (the university didn’t want to be used as a political football in the immigration debate ... what?)

Fascinating conversation on how a data analysis class he was in predicted the election win in November, how deflated he was once it actually happened, and the nightmare he had about the worst case scenario. He’s looking towards the future now: having Inspired Dreamers become a respected student organization and to create more moments like the former “president supporter” who apologized for being an uneducated voter after interviewing him for a class, and stimulating dialogue beyond “you’re a Mexican/ you’re a racist”.

Maribel is in the process of the post-production phase of her upcoming film, but she takes the time to let us get to know her road to deciding to put her life on screen!

Ambitious, and resilient, Mexican born, LA- raised Maribel once envisioned herself climbing the ranks of corporate America, but has decided to use her story’s strength to help others in the same position of struggle she finds herself in. She relates the story of how her family decided that they would stay in the U.S - and the ‘magical’ sights she saw when she arrived.

We dive into some heavy topics, including how through experiences in middle school and high school brought on shame of being referred to as not having ideal status, how she planned to move to Washington State to obtain a license, how she wasn’t excited about the announcement about deferred action and how she’s been on ‘survival mode’ since high school.

More topics we cover include real-time bullying of immigrants, her activism for immigration reform since she was 18, even arriving at the office of-then Senator Obama. Also, the anxiety from this past weekend regarding the potential repeal of President Obama's legislation is discussed.

She’s currently working on her second film, a full length look into her recent journey back to Mexico, which she emotionally recounts to me, and describes her ambitions for using her upcoming film to teach in schools and universities!