Only In America With Ali Noorani

Ali chats with Rafed Alsaad, who had to flee his home in Baghdad  after helping the American forces in Iraq. Now living in South Bend, Indiana, he talks about saving his wife and children, but having to leave his wider family behind, and the welcome he received from the neighbors in his new community.  And later, why France's immigrants are now the country's top bakers.   Mahmoud M'seddi, winner of the Parisian Baguette section of the French annual Festival of Bread, with President Emmanuel Macron. 

Ali talks with Cecillia Wang, a deputy legal director at the national ACLU about the court battles against the Trump Administration's anti-immigration campaign.  She also directs the Center for Democracy, which encompasses the ACLU’s work on immigrants’ rights, voting rights, national security, human rights, and speech, privacy and technology. Cecillia believes the collective will of America's communities to protect the Constitution will prevail.  

This week, the fear in America's immigrant communities as ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) continues to expand  arrests and deportations.   And Ali talks to Rondell Treviño, from Memphis,TN, who founded The Immigration Project to demonstrate how the Bible teaches us to reach out and embrace immigrants. He’s also a Pastor at the Woodland Presbyterian Church in Memphis.   Rondell received a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies from Belhaven University, and a Master of Divinity from Capital Seminary. He’s advocated in Washington for positive immigration reform, and is devoted not just to his wife, Laura, and daughter Sofia, but also to the Dallas Cowboys. We chatted about his efforts to encourage communities to embrace immigrants, and about his strange encounter with law enforcement in his home town.

This week, Ali chats with Catholic Priest and award-winning author and film producer Father Dan Groody.   He’s Associate Professor of Theology and Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame, and the Director of the Global Leadership Program at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. He draws on years of work helping migrants and refugees both internationally, and in the US. His work began in Central and Latin America, but was inspired by a story from his high school days.  (Additional sound courtesy of NPR, NBC News and KETV Omaha, Nebraska)

This week, Dr. Russell Moore, President of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, America’s largest Protestant denomination. He talks to Ali about how to heal the divides on immigration among the Evangelical Christian churches of America. "There are two signs at the border" he says, quoting a former Southern Baptist leader. "One says 'Keep Out' , the other says 'Help Wanted'." And later, ICE deportations gather pace, leading to fear in America's immigrant communities.   

A leading international journalist says President Trump's immigration policies have changed America's relationships with the world. Mindy Belz of World magazine tells Ali that some of today's unwelcome refugees fleeing war, poverty and oppression could become the Jihadis of the future.     

In this Special Edition of Only in America, Alex Mensing, Project Coordinator for Pueblos Sin Fronteras, talked to Ali from the Mexican side of the Guatemalan border, where a caravan of migrants were  preparing for another leg of their desperate journey northwards towards Mexico City. Alex says the contingent, mostly of women and children, is fleeing poverty, violence and oppression by the regime in Honduras. He says the migrants feel like everyone - from Mexico, to Trump's United States - is "hell-bent against them".    

"Get back to Univision" yelled Presidential candidate Trump as he ejected journalist Jorge Ramos from a news conference in 2015.  In this episode Jorge, known as Mexico's Walter Cronkite to millions of viewers, tells Ali that Trump has created a hostile and dangerous country for immigrants.  And he chats about his new book, "Stranger: The Challenge of a Latino Immigrant in the Trump Era."   

Ali meets with Jarrett Barrios, the CEO of the Red Cross Los Angeles, who tells of the mission to Houston, Texas, after Hurricane Harvey.  Many undocumented immigrants whose homes were wrecked still refused to go to the shelters, for fear of deportation.    And, later, why the citizenship question on the 2020 census will under-count key populations, leaving some states short of funding and political representation. 

Karen Tumlin, Legal Director of the National Immigration Law Center, is in the heat of the battle over the Trump Administration's immigration reforms on several fronts. She gives Ali an update on migrant detentions, the "Muslim Ban", and the outlook for the Dreamers.  And later, Dreamer Gaby Pacheco on her experiences on the DACA campaign trail.  

Sheriff Michael Chitwood of Volusia County, Florida - an area the size of Rhode Island - speaks with our host Ali Noorani about how he polices his immigrant population. He tells Ali many farms and businesses are dependent on low-wage migrants, and explains why the Trump Administration's edict to arrest the "undocumented" is beyond his financial and human resources, and his remit as a state law-enforcement leader.   

At the National Immigration Forum's Spring Event, Ali's guests are Geronimo Gutierrez, Mexican Ambassador to the U.S., and Tim Dixon, Co-Founder of "More in Common". They talk about the immigration challenges facing America, and the polarization of opinions.     

This week, as President Trump speaks of snakes, a couple from South Carolina help students and immigrants climb ladders. Meghan and Derrick Smith, from Spartanburg, help disadvantaged young people get into college, and speak of their optimism that multi-cultural worship will save America's white churches.  

What does the Bible say about welcoming immigrants? Twenty Christian leaders read the words of Matthew 25, when Jesus tells his followers, "I was a stranger and you welcomed me." And, and Ali's Interview of the Week, how does the child of a single mother, living out of her car, become the President of a top American University? Watch the video and download a free study guide  And in Ali's Interview of the Week, how does the child of a single mother, living out of her car, become the President of a top American University? A conversation with Beck A. Taylor.   

Ali dissects the critical Senate immigration debate, which threatens to leave the Dreamers in further limbo. And the leader of the Wesleyan Church, Jo Anne Lyon, talks about her awakening, her life, and the Church's work to help immigrants.

Sayu Bhojwani, Founder and President of New American Leaders, tells Ali that American democracy will be stronger when our elected officials mirror the nation's diversity. And, with the March 5 deadline for DACA looming, who among the Republicans in Congress is going to "give a little" as President Trump says?   

Ali speaks with Sandro Galea -  the Dean of Boston University's School of Public Health - a European immigrant who now leads one of America's top university colleges, about health and immigration, and about Blind Willy Johnson - the blues singer who inspired him, and his new book.  And after the State of the Union speech Ali gives his take on the prospects for the Dreamers, and how the deadlocked Congress might just find a way out, despite their divisions and the ambiguous input from the White House.   

This week, Ali ponders how Congress - with it's competing and ever-divisive stances on immigration, will manage to safeguard the Dreamers. And he chats with Jer Swigart, from Bend, Oregon, the co-author of "Mending the Divides" and leader of the Global Immersion Project, on faith-based peacemaking and healing between communities.

This week, Ali picks apart the twisted deadlock over DACA and the Government funding bill in Congress. And he talks to Gaby Pacheco - a prominent Dreamer - about her life, and her quest to find funding for college scholarships for thousands of immigrants.    

This week, host Ali Noorani examines the challenges ahead as Congress wrestles with the future of DACA, with the deadline looming.  And the CEO of Arizona's Chamber of Commerce, Glenn Hamer, tells him about the indispensable role played by immigrants in the state's booming economy; why Dreamers must be allowed to stay, and how NAFTA can be a long-term success.