SPEAKER_01 1:17

It's very sad. I I've been practicing for 22 years. Never in my wildest dreams I thought I would live a moment like this in American history. Not in America.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Welcome to Acting Smarter Now. My name is Lydia Nicole. I am your hostess, and today we have a returning guest who is most magnificent. She is an immigration lawyer, and she's going to be talking to us about stuff that if you are a foreign student who is here on a visa, you need to know this information. So I'd like to introduce to you again Katia Kiros Medina. Hello, Katia.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Lydia, thank you so much for inviting me again and for allowing me to participate in your PostCat I podcast. I love it. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Oh, thank you. So I want to jump in and ask you about the O1. Is it the O1 visa for students?

SPEAKER_01 2:18

No, the F1 visa for students has had a lot of changes lately. The O1, it's uh one that the government hasn't touched yet, uh, but um they have done several changes to the H1B, which is another visa that um it's used in the entertainment industry to bring in sound engineers and all kinds of engineers and um management professionals when they want to bring some foreigners that have a bachelor's degree. So a lot of things have happened in the F1H1B world uh in the past few months, and you guys should be aware. So tell us what it is. I think that the biggest damage has been done to F1 uh visas, which are the student visas. One, because the government is putting a lot of limitations into allowing this F1 visas to be approved. But then, when if you manage to come on an F1 and you study the four years, the government now wants for you to pay $75,000 for before you can do practical training. As of today, people who study a four-year degree in a university have one year or 18 months, depending on the type of career, to practice, to work for a company in the United States. And if the owner of the company decides that you are a good employee and they want you, then the normal route is to ask for an H1B visa, which is the work visa. Well, now they want for the student to pay $75,000 to be able to do the practical training, and they want the employer to pay an average of $100,000 to the government to be able to apply for that H 1B visa for that employee. So basically, they are destroying that H1B visa and they are telling the students not to come.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

It's criminal. That's that's uh I can't think of the word you you use it, but it's almost like a uh ransom. You gotta pay, you gotta pay a ransom if you wanna stay here, um, which is disgusting. Now, for the student visa, the 01 visa.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

The 01 visa is not a student visa. The 01 visa, it's a non-immigrant visa for people who are extraordinary in what they do. You can be Shakira and come on an O1 visa. You are an extraordinary singer and you are world-renowned. So then you ask for this non-immigrant visa, which means permission to live in the United States temporarily. Okay? O1 could be a super chef from Paris who has several Michelin stars. He wants to open a restaurant in the United States, he will ask for an O1. Lupita Nyongo, right? She can she came, she can come on an O1. Uh, she came on an F and then she is changed in stake, but she could come on an O1 because she is so famous right now. So that's what the O1 is for. And the O1, uh, so far, they haven't touched it, but who knows what's gonna happen right now. Right now, they're destroying it immigration right and left. They're trying to destroy it completely.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

So let's talk about those people that are here on visas, and specifically, I want to talk about actors because we use social media a lot, we we post a lot, part of it is so the industry knows who we are and what we're doing. What should these students know or uh foreign people who are here on visas to know they're here for acting? What should they know and what should they be careful of? Because sometimes you put up parodies, you put up, you know, funny things. Um, and I fear that all of that is in jeopardy. Our First Amendment rights are in jeopardy.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

It's it's a very good question because during the World Cup, the soccer world cup, the government started canceling tourist visas to influencers who would come and do reels and stories or shorts and would make money out of them because the government said tourists are not allowed to make money in the United States. So what you did is illegal, therefore we are canceling your tourist visa. Then the question is what happens with a student, someone who is here in a student visa, you cannot, you're not allowed to work in the United States, period. You are only allowed to work inside the university and up to 20 hours per week. But what happens if you make a post that goes viral and you end up making money with it? Then are you violating the terms of your student visa? Well, that the government says you are, but it's a very gray area of the law because you didn't you didn't do anything with the intention of making money. You just posted something funny, right? So it's gonna be litigated, but we know that the the point of view of the government is that people on student visas cannot make any money through social media. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Okay. So if you are here, you're an immigrant, you're here, you're on a visa, and you there's discord in your nation, and you are making funny reels about it on your social media. Are you in jeopardy for that as well?

SPEAKER_01 8:10

Well, there is it's it's there is an argument that yes, you are. If you are on an F visa, you are violating the terms of the visa.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

Oh, wow. Okay. Okay. All right. This is good to know because I don't think a lot of people know that. You know, we we're so used to posting on social media that we don't know what we can and what we can't. So now I want to ask about if you get stopped and you are a foreigner, you are here on a visa, you're an immigrant, what do you have to do? How do you take care of yourself?

SPEAKER_01 8:49

The first thing you do is you calm down. And it's the hardest thing to do, but you cannot run away. You cannot try to defend yourself, you cannot fight back because any of those things will make things much, much, much worse. Even though you have a visa and you are legal or you have an employment authorization, the government can and will detain you. Just because you know you have an employment authorization or your visa, you are not gonna stop them from doing it. So do not fight back, do not run away, just sit, stay, and do not answer any more than your name. And let them take you because in the heat of the moment, they all they want to do is put you inside the car. Let them go to the go to the detention center, they're gonna process you. When they process you, it's when you bring your documents out and you say, I am here legally, this is my visa, uh, or this is these are my papers. And then the government is gonna ask you, what is your name, when did you arrive, and all kinds of things about your life. Don't answer, just answer your name and repeat, I want to see a judge. Or repeat, why are you, why, why did you detain me? Once they review your documents, they will allow you to that they will release you. Or if they have a reason to keep you in detention, they will they will detain you. So let's say you run away or you try to fight with them, they're gonna put criminal charges against you. So now, even though you have a visa, that you're gonna be detained because now they have a reason to detain you. You have violated the terms of your visa by by um uh attacking an officer or doing something like that, which is not true, but that's what they're gonna charge you for. So you have to be very careful. And when they process you and they want you to answer all these questions, you just repeat, I want to see a judge. I want to see a judge, I want to see a judge. They're gonna try to tell you that you will be detained for many, many months, and it's better for you to sign voluntary departure, which is a document that says, I don't want to see a judge, I just want to be deported. You don't sign that, you don't sign that never ever, at least until you talk to a lawyer. So if you keep repeating, I want to see a judge, they have to send you to whatever room you're gonna be sitting there, and they have to give you the chance to make a phone call. So nowadays it's hard for people to memorize phone numbers because they are not used to, but you must know a phone number by heart, the phone number of somebody who's gonna answer the phone. And as soon as they do, you tell them I'm detained and I need you to find me a lawyer. The lawyer is gonna find the person, the lawyer is gonna evaluate what is the real situation, and it's gonna tell the family if it's possible to bond that person out or not. If it's possible, then wonderful, the lawyer will work on going on asking a motion to go to see the judge for bond determination. If it's not possible, the lawyer will talk directly to the person who's detained to explain what are the options.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

We need to memorize uh at least one phone number that they're going to pick up. Not just a phone number, but that you know when you call, they're gonna pick up the phone. Yes. And we are asking for a judge, not a lawyer. We're not saying I want to see my I want to talk to my lawyer. We want a judge.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

In immigration in the immigration world, immigrants don't have the right to have a lawyer. So in criminal court, in criminal court, when you are accused of a crime, you have the right to be to a defense. So if you don't, if you have money, you hire your own lawyer. If you don't have money, you get a public defender, right? That's in criminal court. In immigration court, there is no public defender. Either you buy, you bring your own lawyer or you don't have any, and that's fine.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

I want to move on to the big thing is that Congresswoman Omar, they now want to deport her. Can you tell us what is going on with that? What is it that the government is bringing against her to try to get rid of her? I mean, I know all of this is political, but what is it that they're saying about her?

SPEAKER_01 13:29

In immigration law, we have a law that says that if you are a legal permanent resident under 18, you are living in the physical or legal custody of your mom or your dad, and your mom or your dad become a U.S. citizen before you turn 18, you are automatically a U.S. citizen. So it's a derivation of citizen to your children. If you're an immigrant, the day you become a U.S. citizen. If you have kids who are minors who are legal permanent residents, they become a citizen with you automatically.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

And it's under 18, not under 21. It's under 18. Under 18. Okay. Under 18. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

So in this case, um, what happened is Elon received derived the citizenship from that from her dad. The day he became a U.S. citizen, she became a U.S. citizen because she claimed that she was under 18, she was 17, she was a legal permanent resident, her dad had physical and legal custody of her. Now, the government is saying that Elon was already over 18 when the father became a U.S. citizen. So now they're investigating and they are trying to find evidence that she knew and that she committed fraud and that she asked for the citizenship when she knew she wasn't eligible for it. We don't know what's gonna happen. Elon says I was under 18, I fulfilled all the requirements, and the government has to submit evidence to the country. It is the government's burden to find evidence that she was not under 18. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

So, in general, when children of parents who have received citizenship are now considered citizens, what kind of paperwork do they need to take care of?

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Well, birth certificates, uh, the green card, evidence that they, the parent and the kid are living together. So bills, school records, uh, school registrations, doctoral registrations, dentists, evidence that the kid and the parent are living together, and uh legal documents. For example, if it's if the kid is the kid of a marriage and the parents are together, then we know that the father or the mother has legal custody. But if they're divorced, for example, we need uh the divorce decree showing who has legal custody of the kid. If they have joint legal custody, then we're fine. But let's say we don't. There was never a marriage and they were just together and they had this kid. Now we need, you know, custody, legal custody documents from the court. So those are the types of documents we need to submit.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

Hey Hector, are you tired of being tired of being tired of being tired? Your pictures aren't working, you're not getting into auditions, your agents aren't calling you back, or worse off, you can't even get an agent. Well, if that sounds like you, if it sounds like you are at your wit's end, that you just feel like all is lost, you don't know what to do, come and join us at the Acting Smarter Circle, where we are a community of actors who help other actors. And I am your guide and your coach to help you with a plan, strategy, and your branding. So if you are interested and you're tired of being tired and ready for change, come and join us at ActingSmarterCircle.com. We're waiting for you now. Let's go to the dreamers because I haven't heard much about the dreamers, but I know that there's a lot going on with DACA and their uh citizenship.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

DACA is still alive. It's pending from a threat because there is a judge in Texas that it's supposed to issue a decision and hasn't done it by the grace of God. And in the meantime, the number of dreamers keeps decreasing. And we are under 500,000 in the United States, but still it's a considerable number. Um, right now, the biggest the biggest problem they have right now are dreamers, is that the government is taking forever in renewing their employment authorizations. It used to take three months, then it went to six months, and now we are in a year or more. And the government, uh, two days ago notified us that there are not, whenever you apply to renew your employment authorization, uh, you would get an automatic extension so that you would not be without an employment authorization and miss work. Well, now the government has cut that and has said that they are there are no longer automatic extensions. So the day your employment authorization ends, you can't it's your last date of work, and then you have to wait until the government decides whenever they feel like to issue your new employment authorization uh before you can start working again. So it's it's very sad. A year ago there were 25,000 pending re uh employment authorization renewals. Right now there is 125,000. So they are they just don't want to give the employment authorizations to the dreamers. They are collecting them and they're not doing anything on them. So I'm I that worries me a lot. That worries me a lot because I know that they're doing these because of the elections and because they don't wanna uh they wanna come out and say we have freeze immigration in the United States, we are we are not letting anybody in and we are not renewing employment authorizations. The problem is what happens after the elections, right? Um, because after the elections, they don't have to worry about upsetting anybody else anymore.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

They can do whatever they want, yes. So we need to vote Democrat. I don't care what you are, I don't care if you're uh independent, if you're a Republican, you must vote Democrat. Must vote Democrat. It this has nothing to do with your political affiliation. It really has to do with bringing order back to this nation. And the only way we're gonna do it is to vote out all of these Republicans who are not doing their job. I was thinking about this when I was getting ready to interview you, and I was thinking about how we got here with this administration, how we got here between uh Harris and Trump when as a Latina he offended me the first time he was in office, putting babies in cages, what he did to the Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, just the disrespect that he has shown Latino people, and then he vote, you know, he ran for the second time. Thank God he didn't get in, but then he ran the third time, and he got over because a lot of Latinos believed in him. They believed that he was gonna do the right thing. And the first thing that he has done is to mess up uh immigration, to come after Latin people, no matter who you are, brown or black. And I was thinking that, you know, as a kid, I am an American citizen. I grew up here, and what I learned as a little kid was it was the white man who was gonna save us. I am wondering, from your perspective, if you see that same thing, because this man was running against a woman of color. First of all, she was a woman, and then she was of color. We in this country are so brainwashed to think that it has to be a white man in charge. I could be wrong. I would love to know your perspective because you know you came here from another country and you are a citizen, how you view it, especially because you're in the court system.

SPEAKER_01 23:37

It is so sad to see that in the United States of America, racism is so prevalent. It's what breaks my heart. Because, like you said, this is not about politics. I am a conservative, I am a woman of faith, I registered Republican because my ideals are similar to the ideals of a Ronald Reagan, right? And what we are living right now is not the the the foundation of the Republican Party. We are we are being led by someone who is telling us to hate, to fear, to to fight for no other reason than the color of your skin or how poor or how uneducated people are. And that's not what we as people of faith believe. That's not how we raise our children. This is this is a fight of of moral values. This is uh this this goes against the the the fundamental. Of American principles. And although we are seeing terrible things and the worst of humankindness, I think that at the end, the people's hearts are gonna prevail. Right now we are being led, and and and everything that is happening is because of these fascist people who believe they need to clean this country of everybody who is brown and black so that they can remain in power. But that's not possible. That's unconscionable. They can harm, they can hurt all these people, but at the end of the day, there's nothing they can do. We are already, we are already, you know, on the verge of becoming a majority as Latinos in the United States. There's no way they can stop it. So this is just about time.

SPEAKER_00 25:51

Yes. What um perplexes me is that you know this nation belonged to the Native Americans. The British people came here because they were running from persecution. They came here as guests, they came here as immigrants, and then they in turn were doing to the Native Americans what were done to them, but they decided they were gonna wipe out all the Native Americans and then they would be in charge. And we've we've continued to see this and the misinformation. We have so many people who, first of all, think that English is the first language of America, which is not. We we don't have an official language, but yet uh, you know, if you're on social media, you'll see uh some white person telling some anybody, not even Latinos, it could be an Indian person, somebody from India, or somebody who speaks another language, speak English, this is America, which is nonsense. We do not have an official language. We are we'll never have.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

We can't, because we are we're a melting pot. And you know, it's so sad that people think we should speak one language. I mean, that's why America is lowering and going down in the chart of dominant countries, because our education system sucks. People should be able to speak two, three, four languages like everybody in Europe, right? Uh because we are supposed to be the number one country in the world, the richest, and yet we cannot make our kids learn more than one language.

SPEAKER_00 27:45

What's I mean, we have a problem. Well, it's not making them learn. We and we don't encourage, right? So we have a government, and this has been going on for a while. We have a government that covertly oppresses the people, you know, with book burning, and you don't need to know that, and that's not true, and and that's woke. That's woke. It's like they they put all these false words to make people go, no. And what upsets me is Christians, because I'm a Christian, is that they don't follow the tenets of the Bible, but yet they will follow the mandate of the administration of whatever the government says. It's like, you know, the one of the things the Bible says in the New Testament is study to show yourself approved. You have to study for yourself. Don't take anybody's word for it, not not your pastor, not your president, nobody. What is the truth? We right now we're fighting against truth. People keep giving us misinformation. You know, the devil will put 1% lie to make you confused, to go, well, I don't know if that's, but if you know the truth, the truth, what is the truth? If if you're treating your neighbor poorly, then you're not being a good Christian. Period. End of story. If you are judging somebody because they don't speak your language, you're not uh walking as a true Christian. We are supposed to love each other. I'm supposed to love my neighbor. I don't care who they are, what they do, the mandate is to love. But yet we have all these people that are so angry, feeling so entitled when that's not biblical. So I I had to I had to say that because we get so much into, you know, um, you know, we're Christians, this is a Christian nation. No, this isn't a Christian nation, it is not.

SPEAKER_01 29:49

No, this is a place where anybody can do whatever religion they want, or they can be atheists or agnostics or whatever. This is a place where we should all respect each other and we should value the contributions that everyone does. Because a doctor it's a does a great service to the community, but the landscaper does too. And the people who are, you know, cleaning your pool, and the people who are working the fields, and the engineers, and the lawyers, and the doctors, they do too. And nobody's better than anybody. Yet, yet, we desperately need unskilled labor, and we don't have the people willing to do the job because Americans are spoiled, and they figure out ways to make money from a desk or from easier jobs. They don't want to work in the fields, they don't want to do the hard construction jobs, they don't want to do the janitorial jobs. So, who is gonna do it? AI cannot do that.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

If you're enjoying this channel, I need you to do me a great favor. Yes, I do. I need you to subscribe to the channel. So if you can, just click the subscription button because it helps us to give you more great content. How's that? You hit the subscription button, I give you more great content. Deal? Deal. Listen, we beat up on immigrants. That's what politicians do all the time. It's like immigrants are taking your job. They are not. The fact is that we we cannot operate as a country without the immigrants. That is the truth. Because going back to what you say, uh Americans don't want to go in the fields. They don't want to work for a dollar a day to or or whatever the lowest wage is, and and and get um um and get abused. You know, I live in Los Angeles, and if you go up uh the 101 freeway, you see all the fields like going from um Camarillo up to Santa Barbara. You can see all these fields, and who's in the fields? It's that immigrant in the middle of the hottest day, picking your strawberries, picking your onions, your vegetables, your fruit. You're not gonna do that. You know, we don't want to do that. And so we need to do that.

SPEAKER_01 32:34

I personally did not raise my children to work on the fields. I worked like a beast so that my kids could have the best education, so I could have lawyers and doctors and engineers and entrepreneurs. I did not want my kids to do that job. So, and I am nothing but a good parent who wants the best for their children, right? So I understand every single American who is not raising their kids to work in the fields because I know that the work in the fields is hard. It's hard. And if I can do anything to avoid that type of job, I mean, I respect farmers and I respect agricultural workers like nobody because I mean I see the hard work it is. Do I think that my kids can handle that type of job? No, no, but who is gonna do that job? Because we are not willing, but there are people who are willing to do it, and we are treating them like they are trash when they we should we should say thank you, thank you very much. Please come. We'll give you the best of the best if you do this job that we don't want to do.

SPEAKER_00 33:50

That's right. Not only the people work in the fields, but also the fishermen, people who come here from other countries seasonally to get the lobsters or the crab or whatever, because they know how to do it. There are also many job descriptions that Americans don't know how to do. And that's why they bring over immigrants to do those jobs. And a lot of times they come, they it's seasonal, they do the jobs and then they leave, but yet we abuse them. Also, the busboys, you know, even before Trump, um, one of the things I used to do was if I went out with people and we went to a restaurant and they mistreated the bus boys, they taught me that they were not going to be my friends. It was like, nope, uh-uh. I you you already crossed the line. You didn't treat that person like they were a human being. You didn't talk right to them. But they, you know, it's that thing of how do you treat your neighbor? Going back to your neighbor, whether they are uh the owner of a bank or whether they are the janitor or the cleaning lady, right? The babysitter who's an immigrant, you know, that's another another job that Americans don't want to do, take care of other people's children, but then nursing homes are full of immigrant nurses and and nurse technicians.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

Why? Because we are not willing to do Americans are not willing to do those jobs. They're too hard, they're underpaid. So at some point in this country, the way we're going, at some point these these companies, these nursing homes, these takers, these fields are gonna start shutting down. And we are gonna feel it even worse than what we're feeling right now at the grocery stores, because we're gonna feel it at not only at the grocery stores, but our home. We're gonna have to quit our jobs to take care of our elder or our or our children. We're going to, I mean, we're not going to find some fruits, vegetables because they're not gonna be available, they're not, they're gonna be too expensive. I mean, people don't realize, and I understand they don't realize, they don't have the level of education to understand these types of economic things. But at some point, we all Americans have to realize that if they are following the advice of someone who tells them to be afraid, fearful, to because they cannot do something, it's because they don't have the level of education to understand uh the truth, right? Now, the truth in your eyes is different than the truth in my eyes is different than the truth that comes from them. The only difference is that because we are educated, because we went to these universities and we did all this studying, we are more analytical. We are able to read something that we like and something that is completely opposed to what we like and come up with a middle version of it, right? Most people who did not go to the university who do not have analytical skills just believe whatever someone tells them. And with social media telling, giving us more that of what we like, then we feed only on one side of the story. And so you you believe and you become obsessed with the ideas that they that that they give you, and you don't really know if they're right or wrong, but we are gonna leave them, we're going to feel them. We are feeling them right now when we go to the grocery store. We are feeling them right now when we put gas in our cars. We are feeling them when we cannot find the job that we want or how much they we want to get paid. We have to settle for less because nobody's paying what we expect to make. We are feeling it, and it's gonna get worse.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

Well, you you're talking about education, and I I would I'm gonna go back to Christianity because if you read your Bible, you would do the right thing. If if if you have a president who is stealing money, that goes contrary to what the Bible says. If you have a president who is constantly lying to you, you are going against the Bible. What does the Bible say? What does God say about certain things? Go back to the Ten Commandments, go back to what Jesus said when in the four gospels. Love, love, uh, embrace people, um, welcome, welcome the foreigner, take care of the widow, take care of the children, don't put children in cages, don't um uh take immigrants and leave the babies here. How many, how many immigrants have been deported and their children have been left alone here? We have to set a better example as Christians. For those of you who are listening who is a Christian, you need to know what is going on. Stop listening to just because someone has a uh, they have the title, are they doing the right work? You know, uh the Congress people, the senators, everybody in in office, I believe, has taken an oath. Are they following the oath? You took an oath. Are you doing what the oath says? Am I wrong that if you're in government, you take an oath?

SPEAKER_01 39:43

You do, but Lydia, in their heads, they are doing it. In their heads, they feel they're doing the right, the right work. Cleaning in their heads, cleaning this country of browns and blacks, it's fulfilling their oath. I mean, racism is so prevalent in this country nowadays, and it's open. It's open.

SPEAKER_00 40:10

It's not biblical. So I just I just want to say, for those of you who call yourself a Christian, what does the word say to you? That's all I'm saying. I uh, you know, you can have your feelings about anything, but if you say that you are a follower of Christ, how are you walking with Christ? You know, right now we we we've put labels on, you know, we we've allowed this administration to influence us to put labels, you know. Oh, you're this, you're that. If government is in about the people and for the people, they need to go. This country is built for the people, about the people, not of the few, not uh not for the oligarchs who are not even American. We have these oligarchs right now, like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel and God knows who else, who are not even from this country. They are foreigners and they are dictating what we can do and what we cannot do. And we need to take that power back. We need to take the power back. I don't mean to get on the soapbox, but I I love this country. I I grew up, you know, from Jim Crow, the Jim Crow into uh the civil rights. I saw my people fighting, I saw black people, I saw Latin people fighting for rights, and we got to get back to fighting for rights. We got to get back to doing what is right, not believing somebody because they said something that sounds good. The devil always says things that sound good, but that that doesn't make it good. You need to know, you need to educate yourself, you need to read your Bible, you know, uh uh AI, for those of you who are into AI, do a Bible study through AI. Put the scriptures in there. You know, if you see stuff happening in the news, put that in there and say, is this is this biblical? Is this right? Should people be doing this? If you're not sure, if you are not educated, if you think, well, I don't, that's too that that goes over my head. Everybody who has a computer, everybody who has a smartphone has access to AI. And you can get it for free. You can go into Google, you can go into Perplexity, you can go into Chat GPT, you can go into Claude. There's so many uh uh AI things that you can go into and just ask, pose questions that you hear. Is it right for immigrants to be treated the way they are in this nation? No, it's not, it's not. Um I so is there any other uh any other laws or or policies that have shown up lately that we need to be aware of?

SPEAKER_01 43:06

There is one, it's called the public charge, and it's a law that says that if you want to have a green card to live in the United States, you cannot come with the intention of uh being a public charge, of leaving off the government benefits. So, which is perfectly fine, right? If you if you want to immigrate to the United States, you have to have be self-sufficient. And for the past 30 years, the law has not changed. And uh the government has always asked the people um, have you ever used public benefits? And in this country, undocumented immigrants or immigrants in general are not allowed to receive any type of public benefits. Public benefits are for US citizens and for legal permanent residents after the first five years of living in the United States. Well, now things have changed. This government has decided that we're not gonna ask to immigrants, uh, to undocumented immigrants, uh, if they've received public benefits, we're gonna ask if anybody in their family has received them. So now we they are planning on denying green cards to people whose wife or kids are receiving medical insurance from the government or food stamps or any of or housing. And this is not right, right? Because when you're undocumented, you earn less money than than most people. You do the jobs that people don't want to do because they are underpaid, yet you have to, according to the government, your US citizen children and your US citizen wife are not allowed the benefits of their taxpaying dollars uh because they have an immigrant parent. So it's something that we're gonna litigate. Uh it's completely immoral to do this and to hurt US citizen children uh because their parents are immigrants. Uh, there should be no distinctions at when a kid needs medical insurance, when a kid needs food, when a kid needs uh hospitalization or or a house under their heads, or uh they there shouldn't be any distinctions. They shouldn't be penalized because their father or mother is an immigrant. That's wrong. And so that's the latest uh of the government. And um we'll see. I mean, we'll see what will happen. It's it's very sad. I I've been practicing for 22 years, never in my wildest dreams I thought I would live a moment like this in American history, not in America.

SPEAKER_00 45:59

I'm I'm speechless. I um I'm speechless. Hey actor, where are you gonna be in 90 days from now? Is it gonna be with that same old headshot that is not getting you anywhere? That same old story that it's everybody else's fault while you're not booking, or even worse, depression, because nothing is happening for your career. Well, let me help you. Because in 90 days from now, you can have a whole new set of pictures that are built on your brand. You can have a list of agents that actually would fit what it is that you sell, and a plan to have a more prosperous career. Listen. I cannot book you, but I can make you bookable. So if you are ready, willing, and excited to change your circumstances, come and join us at ActingSmarterCircle.com. Sign up and get started. We're a weekly community that helps actors get in gear and get the career that they deserve. I want to just do a quick recap. If you're here on any type of visa, what are three things you have to do to stay safe?

SPEAKER_01 47:23

Well, uh, you have to, if you are in the United States legally, uh, this is not the time to travel outside the United States unless you are certain that you'll be you'll you'll be able to come back. This is not the time to go partying and driving and uh drunk or being involved in any type of fight. We don't want any interaction with the police under any circumstance. Because once we are arrested, then the chances of Ice detaining us are extremely high. If you have a visa like an F1, H1B, E, O, you can travel inside the United States. But if you are a dreamer or if you have any type of employment authorization, because you have an asylum pending, because you have some case pending, you are not allowed to go into any airport, you cannot come close to any border because you may be detained at the airport and your your employment authorization may be terminated, your parole may be terminated. So beware and do not expose yourself.

SPEAKER_00 48:35

Does that mean that let's say uh you're a dreamer, you want to go from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, you cannot?

SPEAKER_01 48:45

No.

SPEAKER_00 48:46

Oh, okay. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 48:50

Airports are a very dangerous place for any undocumented immigrant and any immigrant who does not have full status, who has some type of case pending.

SPEAKER_00 49:00

And for those people who have to go to court, I heard you say something about you have to show up in court, you can't do it virtually.

SPEAKER_01 49:09

Well, the government has to stop uh virtual interviews, and uh the courts are also expediting cases. So if you have if you are in deportation proceedings and your next interview was in 2028 or 2029, suddenly they decide that they're gonna do it next month and they notify you to your the address that you provided. And it may be that that that is no longer your address. You have to be certain, you have to be very careful to change your address every time you move, and you have to check online in the website of the court to make sure that your interview date remains the one that you think it is. Otherwise, you're gonna miss your appointment. If you do, you're gonna receive a deportation order in absentia, which will be terrible because it'll make you a fugitive at that very moment. And and that's for anybody who has a visa who has to. No, that's for someone who is in deportation proceedings. Oh, okay. That's much more complicated. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:18

Oh my goodness. Okay. All right. Uh, there's so much more to cover, but I think we'll leave it here because this is this is depressing, and I don't get depressed. People, you got to vote. You got to vote. You can't sit this out. You got to vote. If you are an American citizen and you heard this, you need to go out there and vote Democrat this time. Not not next time, but right now, we need to vote Democrat. We need to reset the balances. And the only way we're going to do that is to clear the House, the Congress and the Senate to bring balance back. Because right now we have no balance, and and we're just letting them run shotgun over us. We're letting them do whatever they want. And that's not the way of America. We cannot let them do that. We cannot. People died so we could have rights that they are just willy-nilly taking back. Oh, we don't want that. We no, we have rights, and your voice is heard when you vote and when you hold elected officials accountable. You know, and for those of you who are Republican, get out there and tell those Republican um uh lawmakers that you don't like what they're doing. And if they continue, you are going to not vote for them. I personally, this is just my personal thing. I think no matter who you are, you need to vote Democrat right now in this midterm election, so we can start to put the scales back in order a little bit. And nothing is impossible. We can take back what was stolen, but we have to stand up. We have to do what is right. Uh, Katia, I'm gonna give you the last word.

SPEAKER_01 52:12

You're brave and strong, and you you have your you can say what you say with authority. I don't want people to vote any other way than to their own consciousness. What is right? We need we definitely don't need any representative, the Democrat or Republican, who is a racist. We definitely don't need somebody who does not respect the constitution or respect the laws of this country. And so please, when you vote, vote for someone who you believe that it's it's not going to betray American values. And we we are a nation of immigrants, we were created by immigrants, for immigrants, and we will no matter what they do, we will remain being the United States of America.

SPEAKER_00 53:10

Well said. Listen, people, I want you to be active in this um midterm election. I want you to be active just as a citizen, somebody who loves America. Do what is right in the sight of your creator. That's that's that's what I would want to end with. And if you're an actor and you're watching this, please don't go anywhere. We have another great interview coming up for you. It won't be as as explosive as this one was, I promise. But check out this next interview. Thanks for watching. And if you want to get in touch with Katya, her information is in the description below. Thank you.