Only In America With Ali Noorani

For this week’s episode, Ali sits down with his mom, Najma, who tells him about her early days as a newcomer to the U.S. and opening a physical therapy practice — and how to properly cut a mango. The pair discuss Najma’s journey to the U.S., the difficulties of building a life in a new country and living thousands of miles away from family, and the neighbors who became like family.

Even before COVID-19, our nation was facing a shortage of health care workers, one that is projected to grow. This week, we see how immigrants in rural areas are stepping up to meet this critical need. Ali talks to Dr. Amit Vashist, Senior Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer at Ballad Health. Dr. Vashist talks about the challenges of ensuring health care access in rural areas – and why removing immigration barriers is a critical part of the solution.

Immigrants are essential to the health of Americans, representing a major part of our healthcare industry workforce in both medical and nonmedical professions. We’ve seen how their work has been essential for our aging and growing nation, and we will only continue to need their contributions even more as our nation faces the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Only In America” will speak to the health care professionals facing these challenges firsthand to hear from them how we can keep our communities healthy.

For this week’s episode, Ali talks to the Forum’s VP of Policy and Advocacy, Jacinta Ma, about the proclamation President Trump issued on Wednesday suspending some forms of immigration for at least 60 days. They discuss what this policy means for immigrants and Americans — and the kinds of solutions we should be pursuing instead.

We finish our latest series by continuing to examine how America needs a modernized visa process for the agriculture industry, this time through the perspective of a larger growing operation. Ali talks to Soren Bjorn, president of Driscoll’s of the Americas. An immigrant and a recently naturalized U.S. citizen, Soren talks about the essential work of immigrant farmworkers during the coronavirus pandemic and the importance of food security.

Farm work is essential — workers spend their days in the fields ensuring there’s no disruption to our food supply and that there’s food on our tables. Yet many farmworkers are undocumented, and our immigration policies lack adequate pathways to legally fill these jobs.  Ali talks to Teresa Romero, President of United Farm Workers, the largest farm workers’ union in the U.S. She talks about bridging the gap between consumers and fieldworkers, how COVID-19 is impacting workers, and finding solutions for growers and fieldworkers alike.

In the second episode of our series focused on the agriculture industry, we hear about the challenges that U.S. farms face due to a lack of workers. Ali talks to Fred Strathmeyer Jr., the Pennsylvania Deputy Secretary for Plant Industry and Consumer Protection. Fred talks about his department’s commitment to a sustainable and safe food supply and its connection to immigration.

In the first episode of our series focused on the agriculture industry, we hear about the often-invisible challenges that fieldworkers face. Ali talks to Judy Fisk Lucas, the founder and president of Friends of Fieldworkers, a non-profit providing support to immigrant fieldworkers in the major agricultural region of Ventura County, California. Judy and her husband Ted talk about working with farmworkers and the needs they and their families have.

U.S. farms feed millions of Americans, and they need roughly 2 million employees per year to do so. But we’re not meeting that need, and we’re seeing crops going unpicked and dying in fields. Our farms don’t have enough workers — and there aren’t adequate immigration pathways to allow more workers to do those jobs. Throughout this series, we’ll see how immigrants play an outsized role our agriculture industry and how we need a better system for farmworkers and growers alike. Because a stable agriculture workforce — and our nation’s food supply —  is at stake. We’ll hear about the experiences of growers, farmworkers and more about the challenges they face — and ways to create the stability and opportunities they need.

We finish our series, The Myth of the Immigrant Burden, by discussing immigrant contributions to less visible industries, which are some of the most important but often the least valued. Domestic work — including caretaking, housekeeping and nannying — will continue to be key as our nation ages. But it’s long been undervalued, and workers are even more at risk if their immigration status is uncertain. Ali talks to Ai-jen Poo, co-founder and executive director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, about recognizing the importance and dignity of domestic work.

Alejandro Flores-Muñoz is an entrepreneur and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient based in Denver. He started three businesses: Unum Sunglasses, Progressive Button, and, most recently, Stokes Poke. In addition to running his own businesses, he mentors, educates and empowers other DACA recipient and marginalized business owners. Alejandro talks to Ali about the companies he runs and how he’s helping other DACA recipients and marginalized business owners start and grow their own businesses.

This week, Ali speaks to Nafy Flatley, a Senegal-born chef and entrepreneur who founded the food and beverage company Teranga. In a conversation at San Francisco’s La Cocina, Ali spoke to Nafy about her journey to the U.S., the challenges of starting a business,  and how her idea of the American Dream has evolved. La Cocina is a test kitchen that supports immigrant and women food entrepreneurs formalize and grow their business. This year, La Cocina plans to open the nation’s first women-led food hall.

We begin our series, “The Myth of the Immigrant Burden,” by learning about the contributions of immigrants in the trucking industry through the lens of the growth of the Punjabi trucking community in California. Ali talks with Raman Dhillon, head of the North American Punjabi Trucking Association about how the trucking industry is changing and how Punjabi immigrants are stemming its labor shortage. In an industry that historically has been associated with white men, new drivers are bringing new music, food and culture.

Americans’ perceptions of immigrants and refugees often boil down to a key question: Are immigrants givers or takers to our communities? When you take a deeper dive, it’s clear that immigrants are contributing. Across a variety of industries, they’re starting businesses, creating jobs, paying taxes, and, in many cases, revitalizing entire towns and cities. “Only in America” is taking a closer look at some of these immigrants and their stories, whether they’re innovators, entrepreneurs or people who work in areas that are typically viewed as lower-skilled. We’ll see that these “givers” aren’t the exception to the rule; they’re highly representative of the broader immigrant community.

We wrap up our border series, Between a Wall and a Hard Place, by taking a step back and looking at the region as a whole. Ali talks to Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Martha Bárcena Coqui about practical solutions to meet border challenges and what an ideal future for the U.S.-Mexico border would look like. Americans often think we’re stuck between choosing an open-borders or a closed-off approach, but ultimately we’ll see how that’s a false choice.

In the third episode of our journey along the U.S.-Mexico border, we take a look at the chaos that migrants face when they arrive in the U.S. due to new border policies from the Trump administration. Rules such as the Migrant Protection Protocols — implemented one year ago — are creating more disorder rather than deterring people from seeking safety here. Ali hears from policy experts Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, and Christian Penichet-Paul, policy and advocacy manager at the National Immigration Forum. They discuss the immediate risks migrants face as a result of the policy, as well as what a more effective system could look like.

We continue our series, Between a Wall and a Hard Place, by hearing about migrant shelters in the border region, how the faith community is helping, and the challenges they face in doing so. Ali talks to Sami DiPasquale, a faith leader in El Paso, Texas, who leads two organizations that help recent immigrants: Ciudad Nueva Community Outreach, a faith-based non-profit that supports families – many of them recent immigrants – throughout the city, and Abara, an organization focused on borderland connections and supporting migrant shelters along the U.S.-Mexico border.

For the first episode of our new border series, Ali talks to Jason De León, a MacArthur Genius Fellow and author of The Land of Open Graves. Jason has explored the human consequences of deterrence policies through an in-depth anthropological study of crossings through the Sonoran desert — and how deterrence has failed to turn away border-crossers for two decades. His current project, Hostile Terrain 94, is a global exhibition that displays thousands of toe tags of people who have died or gone missing while traveling through the desert. Jason tells Ali about the journeys of people who unsuccessfully made dozens of attempts to cross the border — and the objects and bodies left behind.

“Only in America” is taking a journey across the U.S.-Mexico border to see what attempting to enter the U.S. is like, what happens when migrants arrive, and how current border policies only create more disorder for migrants and Americans. We’ll take a look at the how migrants often find themselves fleeing desperation and crossing into chaos — and how policies intended to incite fear are only making the situation worse. By focusing on enforcement-only policies, policymakers think it will deter migrants from crossing. But we’ll hear from guests about the human consequences of disorderly policies, the chaos it’s creating on both sides of the border as asylum-seekers wait in Mexico, and what an ideal future for the U.S.-Mexico border could look like.

Ali talks with Leith Anderson, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, an association of 40 evangelical denominations, as well as organizations, schools, churches and individuals. During his tenure, Leith has led efforts to engage American evangelicals around shared values related to poverty relief, prison reform, immigration, and more. Plus, how thousands of evangelical Christians are urging their state governors to accept refugees and welcome them into their communities.