It Could Happen Here - An Inside Look at the Asylum Process

Episode Date: September 22, 2025

James sits down with Frances to hear firsthand what it is like for families of people in the asylum system right now and how even U.S. citizens can have their families torn apart by the Trump administration’s anti-asylum policies.  Sources: https://x.com/ConsulMexCho/status/1966636249910738951   https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/12/dhs-statement-ice-officer-seriously-injured-line-duty-and-shooting-chicago-during   https://unraveledpress.com/what-happened-to-silverio-villegas-gonzalez/   https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.284773/gov.uscourts.dcd.284773.37.0_2.pdf   https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.284773/gov.uscourts.dcd.284773.41.0.pdf   https://calmatters.org/inside-the-newsroom/2025/04/calmatters-partners-with-evident-media-on-a-documentary-exposing-truth-behind-border-patrol-raid/  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/09/16/us/tyler-robinson-charges.html   https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/exclusive-leaked-messages-from-charlie   https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/business/media/abc-jimmy-kimmel.html See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. I'm Jorge Ramos. And I'm Paola Ramos. Together we're launching The Moment, a new podcast about what it means to live through a time as uncertain as this one. We sit down with politicians, artists, and activists

to bring you death and analysis from a unique Latino perspective. The moment is a space for the conversations we've been having us father and daughter for years. Listen to The Moment with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos. on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On a cold January day in 1995, 18-year-old Krista Pike killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in the woods of Knoxville, Tennessee. Since her conviction, Krista has been sitting on death row.

How does someone prove that they deserve to live? We are starting the recording now. Please state your first and last name. Krista Pike. Listen to Unrestorable Season 2, Proof of Life, on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The murder of an 18-year-old girl in Graves County, Kentucky, went unsolved for years, until a local housewife, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story. America, y'all better work the hell up. Bad things happens to good people in small towns. Listen to Graves County on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to binge the entire season ad free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy comedy. Club. Answer, a new podcast called Wisecrack, where a comedian finds himself at the center of a chilling true crime story. Does anyone know what show they've come to see? It's a story. It's about the scariest night of my life. This is Wisecrack. Available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. CoalZone Media.

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the podcast. It's me, James, today, and I'm very fortunate to be joined by Francis, whose husband Amos is facing a date in immigration court this week. We wanted to bring you a first-time perspective of what it's like going through immigration court right now. So, Francis, thank you for joining us. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, of course. We're very glad you're here. So to start with like, Would you like to explain your families, I know this is a lengthy topic, your family's immigration story? Yes. I met my husband Amos in Hollywood. We were both living in Hollywood and we dated a couple years there and then ended up moving to his home country of Tunisia because he had a big family there and I don't have much family here and we wanted to have children. It's much better cost of living there. And at the time, the government there was

doing pretty well. There had been an Arab Spring, which my husband was very much involved with over here in the States, like helping with that. And so he's an activist. And at the time, the government there was pretty good. So we lived there for eight years, had our children there, and a new presidency came in while we were living there. The current president, Caius Saeed, and things started to change. So my husband was doing all lot of organizing grassroots movement through local farmers unions and monitoring elections and doing pro-democracy activities for anti-corruption. And he's really an activist for free speech and things like that. So he started getting harassed. He was arrested. He was beaten up by the

police and things like that. So it started getting very uncomfortable also. I was getting harassed. I would get pulled over a lot by the police. They would impound our car. They would take us out. Yeah, the police there carry big guns, you know, as in most Arab countries. And so it was very frightening for me. Yeah. They carry big guns. They're either on their backs or even in their hands. And they would have me and the kids get out of the car. And it was very frightening. So the children and I, well, we were all planning on coming back to the States. I hadn't been home in a while. And so the children and I went ahead and came, assuming that my husband would be able to get at least a visa to, you know, see us. And while once we were here, he was not able

to get a visa. He tried and tried and tried. And I was begging the embassy to allow him to see us here. And they just would not. So we were separated for nine months. So him being away from our children, they were about four and six at the time, or maybe five and seven, it was devastating for all of us. So he ended up taking a very treacherous journey across South America and made his way through many countries and presented himself for asylum at the border, because, again, we did not feel safe living in Tunisia anymore. So he presented himself for asylum at the border, and they allowed him into this country with a court date. And at the time, and at the time, time Biden was president, so things are, you know, have changed a lot since then. Yeah.

You know, the immigration system is broken. Everybody knows that. It's, it takes years and years and years and tons and tons of money for an immigrant to, you know, go through the process. You know, people who say, oh, just do it the right way. It's not that simple. It takes a lot of money and a lot of time and it's very complicated. And when you're fleeing a country or a situation where you're in danger, there is no other option. You know, there's nowhere to go back. Right. So that's what we're kind of facing now. So he had a court date. We've had five master hearings and we've gone through a few different lawyers because we have found, for one thing, it's extremely difficult to find a lawyer these days because they're very overbooked. Most of them are not taking new cases. People tell us,

oh, just get a pro bono lawyer. It is almost impossible to get a pro bono lawyer anymore. And, you know, who has thousands and thousands of extra dollars to pay for legal help with the situation? We do have a lawyer now, thanks to some fundraising that we've done. So since he's been here, we've had to check in at the ICE office. Like, it was on sort of a, a basis of after you have a court hearing the next day or within a couple days, you must go checking at ICE. And it's been very fine. Like there's a very nice officer there who knows us and tries to help answer our questions. So it was pretty calm when Biden was president. And then, now that Trump's administration has taken over, we knew that there would be a lot of changes and we

were very frightened. Yeah. So we went for a hearing earlier this year. You know, we're just a lot more nervous. And the hearing went fine, just kind of as normal. We went to the ice check-in. I think our guard was kind of down because we thought, since the hearing went fine, this will go fine. And the nice officer told us, you know, well, this is going to sound a little scary, but we need you to go check in at a different place this time. And so they sent us to a company called ISAP. They own, I think, migrant detention centers. So we went to this place, and he was there the whole day. They were interviewed. viewing him. They put an app in his phone so that now he has to do these weekly check-ins where his

phone makes this loud alarm sound. He must stop everything and take a picture of himself. There's a monthly home visit where they come to our house and take his picture and ask him questions. We have to go check-in at their office. And also he does virtual check-ins. So it's just a lot more. And everything was kind of going as planned. Our last hearing in July, that was really stressful because we didn't have a lawyer leading up to it. And at the last second, we were able to get a lawyer. And the reason it's so important to have a lawyer is because if you don't, you must appear in person. And that's very stressful and frightening. Again, we have small children. We don't even do babysitters. Like, we're always just together. We're a very tight family unit. And so we go to these things together. And we

really wanted this last one in July to be virtual because if it's virtual, you know, it just feels a lot safer. We're in the comfort of our own home and we've been hearing in the news, you know, how they're picking up people outside of their court hearings. So we got the attorney, we got a virtual hearing. It was a very short hearing. It was great because she just gave us the next hearing date was September of 2028. And the judge said, okay, see you in 2028. And we breathed. And we breathed a sigh of relief, crossed our fingers, did our necessary check-ins. And we were just, you know, hoping that everything would be fine. Yeah. Well, just here at the end of August, beginning of September, we get out of the blue a new notice. It was very interesting, too, because this ISAP

company calls us and says, good news, we're going to lessen the amount of check-ins you have to do. It's going to be a lot less now. So, you know, it was interesting because she's like, this is great news for you. It's like once a month. You'll still do the weekly ones, and then it's just going to be once a month. Okay. But then she says, and then we'll see you after your hearing in September, meaning this September. And we thought it was a mistake because we knew we had one in 2028. Yeah. Like, no, no, you got a new hearing notice. So that's how we found out. They didn't send it to us. Even our lawyer didn't know. So we find out that we have a new hearing out of the blue. There was a mix up about the dates. But anyway, it was September 11th.

or 15th, and then our attorney asked for an extension. Right. And the most they could give us was nine days. So now our hearing is this coming Wednesday, September 24th. And on, this has never happened before, but when, again, when you have an attorney, you can appear virtually. Right. And on this hearing notice, it said that the attorney can appear virtually, but the respondent

must appear in person. And that is highly unusual. It's in bold at the top. so our attorney agrees with us that it's pretty clear the plan is what they've been doing now is when you go to court they they drop your case so now it's dismissed and therefore you are just here without due process now you're you don't have a right to do process it's done so you're just here illegally and then they are sometimes waiting for you in the hallway or outside the building to take you to ICE detention right so obviously since we found this out I mean, we've just been sleepless nights, full panic mode of figuring out, like, what to do. And then our attorney doesn't even have answers for us. She does not know what to do. She says, this is all new to her. It's new to all the lawyers. She doesn't even know what to do or who to ask. Yeah.

And that's frightening because that's why we have an attorney, you know. We're hoping for some support or someone who's knowledgeable about the law and what are our options. and it feels like we don't have any. We feel extremely helpless, and I've never thought I would see this in my country, my quote-unquote free country that I have lived in most of my life and grew up in. Also, about two weeks ago, they changed the law where now we are not entitled to a bond hearing. So if he is taken into detention, we can't even get him out,

because that was the first thing we thought was, well, let's just try to get some money together then we'll bail him out. Yeah. That's not even an option anymore. So again, more fear. So we're dealing with all of this and wondering what to do as far as, you know, again, we have small children. They're now seven and nine years old. We're extremely happy where we're living. We live in a small community that does lean on the conservative side. So we do feel a little uncomfortable with some of our neighbors and their flags and everything. They're very bold. So, you know, and you can't hide being brown so it's it's awkward and then our children because of the way that we left before

when we left tunisia it was pretty sudden um we kind of took them out of school and just came to america and left their dad behind so right they've been in therapy ever since they they each have a weekly therapist just to help with if they're you know if they're going to have any symptoms of trauma coming up for them and and they're doing great actually they're thriving here they are so happy they are in the best school. I actually work at their school. And my husband volunteers at the school and he's been their soccer coach for both of their teams, which is a lot to take on. He also volunteers in our community at a ranch, helping with horses and at a facility for senior citizens. And he does have a work permit. They granted him a work permit, which took a long time to get. That's good,

because that can take a long time. It took a long time over a year. but he does have it now. So we got excited because he only got the work permit a couple months ago. So we're very excited, you know, he can work. And now it's just out of the blue. Our world is turned upside down where there's a strong potential that he will be taken into ICE custody. And listen, I understand if that's how they want to do things now,

but if it was like a safer situation where maybe they just, I don't know. It's just there's so many unknowns about where are they taking him. Our lawyer does not think we will be informed about where they take him. That's one thing, which means we probably won't be able to communicate with him. We don't know how long he'll be there. They could keep him there the entire three years until 2028. They might just want to keep him in detention and wait for his next year. It doesn't make any sense to me. Because That costs money, and he's a taxpayer. Wouldn't it pay more if he's home working?

By the way, yes, he has no criminal record whatsoever. He has not broken any immigration laws, at least when he came over the border, it was legal to present yourself for asylum when you are coming from a country like he was, where he was, you know, being harassed, detained. Right. And his entire family, like we were being threatened

and feeling very unsafe there. Yeah, it's a textbook asylum case, right? Yeah, we have a valid asylum claim. We've submitted hundreds of documents of evidence to the court. You know, the judge actually complimented us on how well we did because at the time we didn't have an attorney. We were just trying to do it on our own because we couldn't afford an attorney. We were both college graduates, so we put together a really organized, you know, case.

And so I have filed to sponsor him as well, you know, my husband, we've been together 12 years, married 10, two kids, and they don't care about that. It does not matter if he has an American family. It does not matter. They are taking anybody. And that also is very, very frustrating. And that's the reason that we should have due process. They should be looking at every single case individually and have a judge make a decision. That's the whole point of it. I'm Jorge Ramos. And I'm Paola Ramos.

Together we're launching The Moment, a new podcast about what it means to live through a time, as uncertain as this one. We sit down with politicians. I would be the first immigrant mayor in generations, but 40% of New Yorkers were born outside of this country. Artists and activists, I mean, do you ever feel demoralized? I might personally lose home. this individual might lose the faith, but there's an institution that doesn't lose faith. And that's what I believe in. To bring you depth and analysis from a unique Latino perspective.

There's not a single day that Paola and I don't call or text each other, sharing news and thoughts about what's happening in the country. This new podcast will be a way to make that ongoing intergenerational conversation public. Listen to The Moment with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos as part of the My Cultural Doa Podcast Network on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is a tape recorder statement. The person being interviewed is Krista Gail Pike. This is in regards to the death of a Colleen slimmer.

She started going off on Eve and I hit her. I just hit her and hit her and hit her and hit her. On a cold January day in 1995, 18-year-old Krista Pike killed 9,000. 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, in the woods of Knoxville, Tennessee. Since her conviction, Krista has been sitting on death row. The state has asked for an execution date for Krista. We let people languish in prison for decades, raising questions about who we consider fundamentally unrestorable.

How does someone prove that they deserve to live? We are starting the recording now. Please state your first and last name. Krista Pike. Listen to Unrestorable Season 2, Proof of Life, on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Ed. Everyone say, hello, Ed.

I'm from a very rural background myself. My dad is a farmer, and my mom is a cousin, so, like, it's not, like... What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? I know it sounds like the start of a bad joke, but that really was my reality nine years ago. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. On stage stood a comedian with a story that no one expected to hear. On 22nd of July 2015, a 23-year-old man had killed his family. And then he came to my house.

So what do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? A new podcast called Wisecrack, where Stan up comedy and murder takes center stage available now listen to wisecrack on the iHeart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts all i know is what i've been told and that's a half-truth is a whole lie for almost a decade the murder of an 18-year-old girl from a small town in graves county Kentucky went unsolved, until a local homemaker, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story. I'm telling you, we know Quincy Kilder, we know.

A story that law enforcement used to convict six people, and that got the citizen investigator on national TV. Through sheer persistence and nerve, this Kentucky housewife helped give justice to Jessica Curran. My name is Maggie Freeling. I'm a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, producer, and I wouldn't be here if the truth were that easy to find. I did not know her and I did not kill her, or rape or burn or any of that other stuff that y'all said. They literally made me say that I took a match and struck and threw it on her.

They made me say that I poured gas on her. From Lava for Good, this is Graves County, a show about just how far our legal system will go in order to find someone to blame. America, y'all better work the hell up. Bad things happens to good people in small towns. Listen to Graves County in the Bone Valley feed on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to binge the entire season ad-free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Obviously, if we had hindsight, if we had known that this, you know, could have happened, we had no idea that this could have happened in our country. We would have started this sponsorship process a long time ago. The reason we didn't is because he was married before, and he went through this process with USCIS to try to get sponsorship with his first wife. And it was extremely complicated and frustrating and cost a lot of money. And he went through a bunch of lawyers. And he was so traumatized by the experience

that literally we had big legal files in our house that I had to hide because he couldn't even see them or he would get triggered. So he didn't want to put me through that. And we were living in Tunisia anyway. And so we just figured we were just kind of kicking the can down the road thinking, oh, we'll deal with it at some point. Unfortunately, we waited way too long. And, you know, didn't start dealing with it until he got here. And so USCIS, which is where we, you know, file for this sponsorship. Yeah. U.S. Customs Immigration Service, people are no familiar. Yes. Thank you. After we filed that they gave us a time period on when we would get the decision, it was 15 months that we would have to wait. And we've been checking the site, checking the site,

checking the site, checking the site, has been counting down, counting down. And about a month ago, we were down to a week. Oh, well, okay. That we would be getting a decision. And after the past, it changed. The message on the app now, or the website now says indefinitely, you'll have to wait indefinitely for this decision. So we've been trying to ask our lawyer, please push for this, because if that gets, you know, an answer, that would be great. But the answer could be no on that as well. They could just say, no, come on in. And they can take them straight from there as well. So the whole thing is so incredibly stressful and frightening the fact that my government, I'm in America, I'm an American citizen with two American kids, and my government is threatening to tear our family

apart and take my husband away, the father of my children, and traumatize my children again to have their dad not with us. And Lord knows where they're going to send him. it is absolutely infuriating and it feels like agony too because like every day I wake up and I'm counting down the days to this hearing and we have no idea what's going to happen. It feels very, very threatening to our safety and our livelihood and that it's coming from our government does not make me feel like this is a great country to live in and I do not feel safe living here. Yeah. Thanks for sharing all that. That's a lot to, to have to put out there. So thank you for sharing it. I guess we should just explain for people

like there's a lot of stuff that maybe people who haven't been through the system might not grasp within that, right? So what the government has, if I just break down like the dismissal of cases, as I understand it, what the government has been doing has been dismissing people's asylum case, right, which they got under Title 8 when they entered and under the Biden administration and then placing them in expedited removal proceedings, which is a mandatory detention, as you said, right, it's not a bailout situation. And then, as you say, forcing them to fight from detention, right,

which in this case would obviously stop your husband from working, stop your husband from paying taxes, and instead make him a burden on the American taxpayer while he's detained in conditions which can often be very poor. In that situation, your only sort of claim is a credible fear of torture, right, which is something that in your case it sounds like would be very real. But nonetheless, that is a very high bar. And we've seen the United States do all kinds of things to get around that.

We report on that all the time. So I can understand that fear and where it comes from. I think people will be shocked, but they perhaps shouldn't be to hear that, like, yes, you can be a U.S. citizen married to a non-U.S. citizen. This can still happen to you. It can happen to anyone who is not a citizen in this country right now. I wonder, like, it must have been pretty heartbreaking to see the election, to see the rhetoric. Like, how does that line up with your lives in your community?

Because I see this often, even from really conservative people, right? Like, I know people who voted for Trump who have also shown up to, like, cook for asylum seekers in the desert or to help refugees living in our community. community. Like, it's a very strange thing. Have you felt alienated from your community since the beginning of this year? Like, I'm interested in, like, how your lives have changed because of that change in rhetoric. Yes. Like I said, we have neighbors on our streets. So there was a block party for Fourth of July, which I didn't even feel like celebrating. But we had just moved into this house, so we felt, you know, like we should go at least meet the neighbors. And there's a lot of Trump flags on our street. And it was

very awkward, but my husband is very charming and charismatic and outgoing, and he just goes right up and introduces himself. And there was one gentleman wearing a t-shirt that said, they hate us because they ain't us. And it's got a big old, you know, Trump face on it. And it was just so, so awkward. So yeah, we feel uncomfortable. Also, like I said, it leans conservative in this community. And our school, even, like, as we're doing this fundraiser, we were very careful not to share it with anyone that we live near just in case, you know, because we have been hearing reports of people like neighbors calling ice on their neighbors to, you know, report them and, you know, go pick up this person, you know, he looks brown or I don't know what they're,

what they're doing or their logic, but, you know, yeah, it feels very threatening. And even, oh, my daughter even said, can't data just cover, cover up his skin? You know, like she was just thinking like, yeah, was he going to wear a perka? Yeah, yeah, right. I mean, you can't really hide who you are. No. And you shouldn't have to. Right. And it's very hard for the kids to be saying that yeah, that dad should be hiding who he is. Yeah. And they've asked me, how can we make Trump just forget about data, you know? And I said, well, he doesn't really know, they don't, you know, he doesn't know exactly your dad. He's just, they're doing this to a lot of people, you know? Right. We just happen to be in that group.

But I will say we have some close friends that we really adore, and they are Trumpers. You know, we see it on their Facebook page, but then when we're in their presence, they don't bring it up. And it's just kind of an elephant in the room. And honestly, as our core data is getting closer, we plan on having them over to talk about it because it feels very awkward. And I just think they're just the kindest people. They're extremely religious, which we are not. we're more on the spiritual side. But, you know, I think they're just, they're just on a team. They've chosen a team. And I don't think they're necessarily paying a lot of attention to what's

actually happening to people. So we're hoping that just a conversation will just let them know. We want to be honest with the people that are close to us and that mean a lot to us, you know, because we don't know what's about to happen. And even there's members of my family that I feel very awkward talking to as well, where I've kind of distanced my. myself because people who are still supporting this regime at this point to me are too far gone to even kind of get them to come around. I guess. I mean, I just don't understand. I can't understand support of Trump from the first place. So again, if people are still on that boat, I really don't relate to them. And it's very awkward, especially, yeah, people in my family

who supposedly love me and my children, you know, are still supporting that regime. And despite seeing all the things, maybe they don't see it. I mean, I know they, if they are exclusively watching Fox News, then they are only receiving that information, which is not telling the whole story. Right. And it's definitely completely skewed to make them look like the good guys. And anyone that's liberal is a bad guy. And they're very much targeting, you know, Democrats now as the enemy, the enemy of the state, they have even said. So it's, I mean, it's, so now I'm starting to feel even unsafe for myself because I'm, I'm not super active on Facebook, but I am outspoken because I can't resist. I mean, it's, there is freedom of speech in this country, or at least there was and there should be. And it's hard to be quiet at this time. And I, we would be a lot.

more outspoken if we weren't feeling unsafe. Yeah, but you have that fear. Yes, yes, especially my husband because he's always been an activist and a, you know, fighter for free speech and equal rights. And so it's, that's one of the things that's really crushing him and his soul and his spirit through all this is that he cannot even speak out. Yeah. So, you know, for people like him, it's not even for himself, but just for people like him, I know he wants to help, you know, and it's really challenging. I know. It's so sad to see the whole point of the asylum system and, like, at least the sort

of stated purpose of American foreign policy is to spread democracy throughout the world and allow people that have stood up for democracy and been persecuted to come here and be safe. And evidently, the United States doesn't even believe in saying that anymore in so much as it said it, didn't always do it in the past. Yeah, it is really sad to think. think that even that it's gone. Yeah. For so many people, I think the idea of migrants is like an abstract one, right? For your Fox News viewer, migrants are just like an abstract brown-skinned, bad person.

And I often think that if those people had known migrants in their community, they would either not vote that way or they would at least not like that policy. Even if there were other things they liked about Trump, which I go, that's not something I can find much understanding of. And those people do exist. But it's just so sad to see, like, people turned against anyone who wasn't born in this country. Yeah. And it's simply because they weren't, not because of any other character trait they have.

Particularly the brown skin, though, because you have to admit the Canadians, they're, I mean, even though there's been a little tension with the Canadians at first in this regime, you know, they're pretty much under the radar. And anyone from Europe or anyone, he's even said, like, send the Nordic people, that's fine. You know, I mean, he's being, he's very clear. Right. Yeah, the South Africans refugees are welcome. Come on. Yeah, right. It's just so blatant, you know. And I remember when I was growing up, my mom in particular would complain when we started to have to press one for English. I remember my mom complaining about that or thinking, you know, if you're here, you should learn the language. Well, I got to say, I lived in Tunisia for eight years and I did not learn the language. I tried to teach myself. It's a dialect that, you know, at the time, they didn't have. have lessons that you could get on on YouTube or duolingo or anything, you know, if I learned French and Arabic, maybe I could piece something together, but I, you know, it's not as easy as people say. And yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not. And then, just to speak of my mother, I guess I'll say, she prides herself on making friends with people at the grocery store who are of another

ethnicity or like really, you know, getting to know a doctor or she has a housekeeper who's been working for her for like 30 years. And so I know she doesn't think of that person as being someone that shouldn't be here. Right. So, you know, so I think even if you do know a family or two who's who's an immigrant, you might think, oh, well, not them. I don't mean them. I mean all the other ones. I mean all the bad guys. Yeah, the bad ones. Yeah. And if Trump was serious, about getting the bad ones, go to the gang neighborhoods. Like, we do know where the dangerous gang neighborhoods are, but they're not sending the tanks there. They're sending them to MacArthur Park, you know? Yeah. Home Depot. It's like, if you want to get the gangs,

get the gangs. But I think they're too scared of that because these are really just regular people that they're hiring to do this work for them, to pick up people. And that's why they're hiding their faces because they are regular people who would like to probably have a normal life outside of this new job that they've been so well paid for. Right. Yeah. And certainly they're recruiting a lot more people to do that right now, which is going to only see a step up in enforcement. Yeah. I'm Jorge Ramos. And I'm Paula Ramos. Together we're launching The Moment, a new podcast about what it means

to live through a time as uncertain as this one. We sit down with politicians. I would be the first immigrant mayor in generations, but 40% of New Yorkers were born outside of this country. Artists and activists, I mean, do you ever feel demoralized? I might personally lose hope. This individual might lose the faith. But there's an institution that doesn't lose faith.

And that's what I believe in. To bring you death and analysis from a unique Latino perspective. There's not a single day that Paola and I don't call or text each other, sharing news and thoughts about what's happening in the country. This new podcast will be a way to make that ongoing intergenerational conversation public. Listen to The Moment with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos as part of the MyCultura podcast network on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is a tape recorder statement. The person being interviewed is Krista Gail. on Pike, this is in regards to the death of Colleen Slimmer.

She just started going off on me, and I hit her. I just hit her and hit her and hit her and hit her. On a cold January day in 1995, 18-year-old Krista Pike killed 19-year-old Colleen Slimmer in the woods of Knoxville, Tennessee. Since her conviction, Krista has been sitting on death row. The state has asked for an execution date for Krista. We let people languish in prison for decades, raising questions about who we consider fundamentally unrestorable. How does someone prove that they deserve to live?

We are starting the recording now. Please state your first and last name. Krista Pike. Listen to Unrestorable Season 2, Proof of Life, on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Ed. Everyone say, hello Ed. Hello, Ed. I'm from a very rural background myself. My dad is a farmer and my mom is a cousin.

So, like, it's not like... What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? I know it sounds like the start of a bad joke, but that really was my reality nine years ago. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. On stage stood a comedian with a story that no one expected to hear. Well, 22nd of July 2015. A 23-year-old man had killed his family.

And then he came to my house. So what do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? A new podcast called Wisecrack, where stand-up comedy and murder takes center stage. Available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All I know is what I've been told, and that's a half-truth is a whole lie. For almost a decade, the murder of an 18-year-old girl from a small town in Graves County, Kentucky, went unsolved, until a local homemaker, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story.

I'm telling you, we know Quincy killed her. We know. A story that law enforcement used. to convict six people, and that got the citizen investigator on national TV. Through sheer persistence and nerve, this Kentucky housewife helped give justice to Jessica Curran. My name is Maggie Freeling. I'm a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, producer, and I wouldn't be here if the truth were that easy to find. I did not know her and I did not kill her, or rape or burn, or any of that other stuff that y'all said. They literally made me say that I'd say that I'd.

took a match and struck and threw it on her. They made me say that I poured gas on her. From Lava for Good, this is Graves County, a show about just how far our legal system will go in order to find someone to blame. America, y'all better work the hell up. Bad things happens to good people in small towns. Listen to Graves County in the Bone Valley Feed

on the IHeart Radio. app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to binge the entire season ad-free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I wonder, like, in so much anything has helped, because people will want to help, right? Like, I think people will listen. They will understand your situation. they will see the possibility of your family being torn apart and want to help. But it's hard to help right now, unless you're an immigration lawyer.

And every pro bono immigration lawyer I know is mental health damaging levels have overworked and stressed and traumatized. I think so. What can people do either for you or in their communities to, like, show up for people who are in your situation? I would say donate. You could donate to the ACLU, donate to individual families. like ours. I'm sure I think there's a lot of GoFundMe's out there that people are trying to raise

money for. That's the way, you know, everything is kind of done these days when people are desperate and speak out. And I think the most important thing is have conversations and get to know people. And even like I sometimes I see, you know, a Hispanic person in a grocery store, I just want to tell them, thank you for being here. I'm glad you're here because I think they must be feeling so scared right now and so unwanted and so unappreciated when they're doing some of the hardest jobs that nobody else wants to do for very little money. Yeah, these are essential workers. They should be paid the most. Everything is backwards. You know, the people who are doing the hardest, you know, cleaning the toilets and picking the fields, they should be paid the most. It doesn't

make any sense regardless of where they're from. They're willing to do the work. And Lord knows, their background of where they came from and how the struggles that they've been through to leave their home country. Nobody wants to leave their home country. You do that because it's so bad that you must, you know, especially if you have children, you're trying to make a better life for yourself. And we've been sold on this American dream prospect, you know, that we've heard our whole lives and the whole world has heard about. Yeah. So they come and now we're just punishing them brutally. It's not even like, oh, no, sorry, we're full. You know, we're going to have to send you back. It's like, no, we're going to punish you. We're going to treat you like dogs. Call you animals and

vermin and call you horrible things. Send you to places where you're unsafe and untaken care of. And maybe if you're lucky, you'll get sent back to your home country. Or you'll get sent to a random country or even a prison, like a horrible prison in another country where who knows what's good. It's just, this is what frightens me. Yeah. You know, again, if he was sent to somewhere to a place where I could, you know, we could have visits or calls or, you know, and he waits it out, I guess that would be more tolerable than the unknown of his safety. He's not going to be well taken care of. That's a fact.

They don't care about these people. And my husband, unfortunately, he's always been extremely strong, extremely brave, a fighter. And I feel like his fight is gone. He's physically and mentally at the end of his rope. And I'm extremely frightened. I mean, he just feels like he's tired of fighting. He's just exhausted from this, you know, again, he, I mean, we've been together 12 years. And again, he was going through this process with his first wife, who he was with for eight years.

And he never got an answer. He was never denied, but he just never got an answer. And that was enough for them for our case just to, you know, it's going to be really, really difficult. to get a yes from from for a green card yeah yeah i mean it still happens i've heard of it happening even in the last few months um but it is increasingly harder and less common and that is brutal yeah like it's horrible and the way of course as you're saying the system is designed to make you feel hopeless and just to uh as they call it self-deport yes and even our our lawyer doesn't know what to do and i feel the judge seems like a nice

person. And I would imagine it must be very frustrating, too, to be a judge at this time, where they have to be the ones that are just kind of their hands are tied. They will lose their job if they don't do what the regime wants them to do. So, you know, this is what happens in third world countries. This is why America has been great because we weren't like this before with us, you know, cutting out free speech and things like that. It's changing rapidly. And if people don't stand up more, and I'm sorry, but it's going to have to take more than these peaceful protests, unfortunately, because they're not doing anything. We are being laughed at by the MAGA Republicans.

They do not care about our peaceful protests. They're just like, okay, there's a protest on this day. Next day, they're just going to keep doing it harder, you know? Sure, yeah. It's not changing anything. So something has to change. I'm hoping more celebrities come out and start speaking up. I think that would help because people tend to back the celebrities that they love.

And I'm kind of alarmed that more people, like especially the most powerful celebrities, like Oprah, for example, why aren't they out there every day? Yeah. You know, saying this is what I support and this is what I don't support. I think they're scared, I'm assuming. It would imagine so. Yeah, like, that's quite a sad thought. I do think that the Maga Republicans are outnumbered.

And I think that they're continuously going. to be outnumbered as things get more and more, you know, shocking as we're seeing our freedoms being stripped, the constitutional freedoms that we've always known being stripped. I think it's going to get worse. And I don't know how bad it has to get before change happens. Yeah, I don't think any of us do. I do think you're right, the more and more people are not happy with how this is happening, but there's, there doesn't even seem to be a well among Democrats to oppose this in a meaningful way. Yeah.

Which is very sad. And like... Yeah, even the Democrats in power don't know what to do. I mean... Yeah. And they seem to think that it's electoral suicide

to just to be basically decent and say we need to be decent people and kind to people who come here asking us to help them. And there seems to be something that is just inadmissible in electoral politics,

which is really sad right now. Yeah. So you guys have your court date we will obviously continue covering this. Thank you so much. Yeah, we're going to continue updating people. We will continue talking about this and uncovering this.

And yeah, we'll try and get an update out. This is coming out. You'll be hearing this on Monday. We will try and get an update out within a week or so just to let everyone know how things have gone and what they can do to help. Is there anything else you'd like to say to people before we go? Yeah. So as we found out, you know, that there's a good possibility that he will be taken into

iced attention on Wednesday. We ask our lawyer, okay, so what are the next steps if that happens? What, you know, he has a constitutional right to do process of law habeas corpus. And she doesn't know what to do. She's never done it before. So, therefore, we need to find a different lawyer that can help us with that. It's not in immigration court. It's federal court.

So we have inquiries. We actually have a consult today with someone who maybe help us with that. We sent emails out last night, kind of telling our story to another lawyer, hoping that we can get some support. And on that front, because basically that's your next step. Once you're in detention, you raise your constitutional rights of due process of law. But then, again, it's another fight. And again, it could be from detention, which is, yeah, more money. I'm going to be at that point a single mother, you know, trying to support bills here in California, which is already, you know, difficult. And,

you know, on my own, and also paying lawyers and trying to fight to either find my husband or get him out of there. You know, we don't want to leave the country if we don't have to. We love it here. I don't know where else to go. We can't go to Tunisia. I'm American. Where are we supposed to go? Yeah. And that's what people don't understand too with immigrants. You know, if they can't return to their home country because of safety reasons, which is most of the cases, that's why we have asylum cases, then what are they supposed to do? You know? Yeah, and I don't think a lot of people seem to care, right? They think people, they just want people to go away somewhere. Yeah, go figure it out. Yeah, it's not our problem. Yeah. Yeah. Which, like, in this case, it very much is,

and in every case, like, and like, it is our problem that, like, we should take responsibility for one another's well-being, right? Yes, as human. We should care. about each other. Yes, have empathy, at least. That's the least we could do. Yeah, I know. A society that says it's not my problem, it's not one that any of us should want to live in.

Yeah, yeah. And in our case, my husband's particularly worried because if he does get sent back to Tunisia, most definitely he would be in jail there as well, which is also not a pleasant experience. Yeah, to put it mildly. And it would be, yeah, where they torture people in jail. So, yeah, again, we don't really know what to do

we're where to go, but these are the thoughts that we're having. Yeah, they're not unreasonable. Yeah, if we do self-deport, when do we, like, we're trying to push it as long as we can, stay, stay, stay, stay, stay, stay, stay, stay, you know, and then when do we let them know, okay, okay, I guess we'll self-deport, like, at the last second before they take them into detention, like, you know, I don't know the safe way to do that. Right. And then if we do, can they give us time to get our affairs in order?

like leaving the country is no small task and we don't even have money to do that. So, you know, these are our options. These are literally our options. And again, small children, second grade, fourth grade, you know, and they're thriving here. Like, they don't deserve this. And my husband even said, you know, he said this the other day, like, our children don't deserve this. And I said, no children deserve the horrors of this planet, you know, that, I mean, we're actually a lot luckier than a lot of other children. So, um, but at the same time, there are children and this is a problem that we're dealing with. And unfortunately, they have to deal with it too. You know, that's just what a family is. Yeah. Our goal is to stay together no matter what. We want to keep

my husband's safe. And, um, we want to keep us together. That's our number one goal. So, unfortunately, that may mean that we need to leave. And I will be very, very sad if that's the case, because I have always loved this country. It's always stood for greatness. And ironically, the group that thinks they're going to make America great again is failing miserably. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's incredibly sad.

And like you say, you've already upped and left with your children once to come to a safe place to be safe. And then to have to do it again from that safe place, I'm sure we'll be, and the older they get more than they realize what's happening. Yeah, it's only two years later, you know, the poor kids. Yeah. Exactly. Well, I'm so sorry you're going through this. Yeah. Thank you. This sucks. We'll all be thanking of you.

Thank you very much. And, yeah, if you're listening, I will try and keep you updated over the next few weeks. Thank you so much, James. All right. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you. It could happen here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com. or check us out on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

You can now find sources for it could happen here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening. I'm Jorge Ramos. And I'm Paola Ramos. Together we're launching The Moment, a new podcast about what it means to live through a time, as uncertain as this one. We sit down with politicians, artists, and activists to bring you death and analysis from a unique Latino perspective. The moment is a space for the conversations we've been having. us father and daughter for years.

Listen to The Moment with Jorge Ramos and Paola Ramos on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On a cold January day in 1995, 18-year-old Krista Pike killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in the woods of Knoxville, Tennessee. Since her conviction, Krista has been sitting on death row. How does someone prove that they deserve to live? We are starting the recording now. Please state your first and last name.

Krista Pike. Listen to Unrestorable Season 2, Proof of Life, on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The murder of an 18-year-old girl in Graves County, Kentucky, went unsolved for years, until a local housewife, a journalist, and a handful of girls, came forward with a story. America, y'all better work the hell up. Bad things happens to good people in small towns.

Listen to Graves County on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And to binge the entire season, ad free, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I just normally do straight standards. but this is a bit different. What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? Answer, a new podcast called Wisecrack, where a comedian finds himself

at the center of a chilling true crime story. Does anyone know what show they've come to see? It's a story. It's about the scariest night of my life. This is Wisecrack, available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.

podcast.