cover of episode Kathleen Martinez on Immigration Law & Deportation Realities

Kathleen Martinez on Immigration Law & Deportation Realities

2025/2/13
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Bea Spear
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Kathleen Martinez
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@Kathleen Martinez :作为一名移民律师,我目前非常忙碌,因为许多移民朋友们都感到恐惧。他们希望能够尽快提交申请并得到处理,他们想要得到保护,并且了解自己的权利。这种忙碌和紧张的状态,我想可能也是所有移民律师的共同感受。

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Attorney Kathleen Martinez discusses the current immigration climate and her path to becoming an immigration lawyer. She highlights the fear among immigrants and the increased demand for legal services. She emphasizes the rewarding aspect of helping immigrants, despite the challenges of the profession.
  • Increased demand for immigration legal services due to fear among immigrants
  • Path to becoming an immigration lawyer: initial lack of exposure to immigration, exposure through college friends, experience in family law and CPS cases, and falling in love with the community

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Rise and shine, my friends. I'm Bea Spear, and this is American Fever Dream presented by Betches News. Today, we are joined by friend of the pod, Attorney Martinez. You may know her from her TikToks or from her iconically blonde, legally blonde-looking lawyer self that we love to watch on YouTube.

She has been an immigration lawyer for a number of years right now, and she is helping us sort fact from fiction, the bullshit from the actual stuff we need to be concerned about as it relates to Trump's chaos and immigration concepts of a plan, I guess I would call it. Really glad that she's here today to help us out. Welcome to the show, Attorney Martinez. How are you doing, girl? What's happening? Busy. Yeah. It's been a month or two months, but it feels like January lasted maybe a decade. Yeah.

Forever and ever. Yeah. I mean, just so busy, mainly because people are scared, right? Immigrants are scared. They want their applications to be filed now and processed quicker. They want to be protected. They want to know their rights. It's just been a, I think it's busy and crazy for every immigration lawyer, probably.

So tell us a little bit about how you decided to become an immigration lawyer, and then we'll get into questions from the audience about just like trying to sort fact from fiction here. Sure. Yeah. So, I mean, it was kind of crazy. I didn't always plan on immigration. I am in no way an immigrant. I think I'm like fourth generation immigrant.

So I wasn't really exposed to immigration at all growing up, unlike most immigration attorneys. So it wasn't really personal for me until I went to a college in Los Angeles where a lot of my friends were dreamers. And I kind of learned a lot more about DACA and their stories. And I learned about their culture, especially in Los Angeles. Yeah.

And then I went into, you know, I worked for different firms and I ended up like in family law randomly, which was which is very litigious and kind of toxic when you're doing like expensive divorces. But I also did a lot of CPS cases. And so a lot of my clients trusted me and they wanted me to help them with immigration. They said, you're already my lawyer. Can you help me with this?

And I didn't really know how, but I just kind of like, I got a mentor. I learned, I worked for a firm and I sort of fell in love with the clientele. Unlike family law, you know, when you're not necessarily called a happy lawyer where clients are not happy to pay you to divorce them, right? Immigrants are very happy. You know, you're getting them status. They're very hardworking people. They're very grateful. They make the best clients. And I sort of fell in love with the community and realized like, this is how I want, even though being a lawyer is,

is hard work. It's not fun. It's really stressful. Most people hate it. But if you do it for the right reasons, I mean, a.k.a. helping people, it's worth every hour of sleep that you miss. So leading up to the election, what were you starting to prepare for, worst case scenario, as a lawyer? Removal of defense, right? An ICE raid. So we called them bond, like bond hearings. So letting immigrants out on bond

is very, very quick. You have to have a hearing in like a day after they were detained. You have to find them. A lot of the times you can't find them. You have to search for them. ICE isn't great about providing their information so that you can find them. And then you have to, you have a hearing maybe like the next day. So you have to prepare like all nighter, a brief arguing why the judge should let your client out.

And so that's what I was most scared of because we didn't have a lot of there's no ICE raids under Biden. That didn't happen. Not even really under Trump 1.0. And what and we had a lot of clients in removal proceedings from the first time he was president because it actually takes that long to deport someone like we're still getting hearings from Trump 1.0. So I think I'm most prepared for a lot more of those hearings as well as ICE raids and bond hearings.

So hearing that a lot of the deportations are from Trump 1.0, this man is promising to put 30,000 people in Gitmo, deporting thousands of people a week. How much of that is him talking and scaring people? And how much of that is him actually finding folks to do this to?

Oh, he's so full of it. I think like 95% of it, he is just appealing to his base. He's doing what he said he would. But even Tom Homan has said that we don't have the finances or manpower to really deport. I mean, how many 11 million undocumented immigrants? I mean, that's just crazy.

I mean, so their criteria is they can only realistically find people with active removal orders. And those people already know that they're going to be kicked out, that they're, you know, they're buying time or people who have been arrested of deportable crimes. Not all crimes even make you deportable. A lot of misdemeanors don't. So, I mean, him telling people that we're going to do massive ice raids of people who are just undocumented, unrealistic. How are you going to find them? Most of them know their rights.

He knows that we depend on them for the economy. I've called him out on TikTok a lot, but I think he's full of it. I think the ICE raids right now are targeting criminals. But the unfortunate part is that if you go to a house with one of these criminals, anyone who's in that physical vicinity who is also undocumented is subject to a raid and detention. So that's the only loophole where they can possibly detain people who aren't criminals outside of the legal citizens that he's currently detaining.

Yeah. And when we say detaining, like where are these people being kept? Do they keep them in prison? Like, is there, is it like- Detention centers, apparently Cuba. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, he just made a deal with El Salvador and Guatemala because they need the money to deport them there. But they're releasing people. So they detained around, what, 8,000 immigrants last week. And they won't, like, exactly explain the amount of number that they've released. I think, like the press secretary said, at least 500. But that's because, like we predicted, they don't have the beds. There's not enough detention centers to even detain half these people that they're currently arresting.

Right. And how are they deciding like who goes to Gitmo versus who gets released versus like... Yeah. So apparently that's for the worst criminals. I'm thinking like gang members, like MS-13. So that would make the most sense for everybody because they're still detaining and deporting people who are not criminals and sending them back to their country. So I'm assuming it's going to be like

the worst kind of criminals. But then I just heard on TikTok last night that they detained and deported someone who wasn't a criminal to Guantanamo Bay. So I'm not sure. I just see a lot of error in this process. Yeah. A lot of folks are concerned because they might be undocumented, but it doesn't mean they're not on their way to documentation, that they could get scooped up in this. And I'm thinking a lot about folks who join the military so that they can eventually get documentation. Do you have any

advice or insight to what might happen to those folks? Yeah. So, I mean, a really good tactic that you could use if you get pulled over or detained by ICE is once you apply for a green card, I mean, it takes years. You're not going to get a green card automatically, but what the government does give you is something called a receipt notice. So it says you filed this application, it's pending. And ICE doesn't really understand what any of that is. So I tell my clients to just tell the ICE officer that

They have an application that's pending for a green card. And just to show the receipt notice as well as retainer for me, sometimes when they know that a lawyer is on file, they don't want to deal with that. They know that they're probably not going to be successful with a deportation. So they're probably going to leave you alone. Yeah.

And then what about the dreamers? So many of my friends also are dreamers. And I think folks hear dreamer and they think nine, 10, 11, 12 year old. And it's like, no, some of these people are 40 years old. They've been here since they were five and they are married and all kinds of things. Like, yeah, they're like millennials. They're like our age. Yeah. I mean, the crazy part about dreamers is like, they're, they're no different than like you and me. Like a lot of them entered as babies. They, they grew up going to school with us and,

knowing maybe only one language. They went to college, they have jobs, they've been paying taxes. All they know is the American life, which is just crazy to me is I don't understand any, like why anyone, including the state of Texas would want to take that away from them because they're doing everything that the Republicans are telling them to do. They're paying taxes. You cannot have a criminal record and keep DACA. It doesn't make any sense. But,

The whole point of DACA is that you are protected. So you are protected from deportation. So if you do get wrongfully detained, which it obviously could happen, you could just show them your papers and let them know that you're protected under DACA.

This was a scary thing when my wife was on tour with Hadestown. The guy who played the lead character of Orpheus was a DACA kid, and he didn't do the Texas shows because they were just scared. I just think there's so many people out there right now that are just scared that they're going to get caught up in something, even if it's not meant for them. What kind of advice do you have for those folks? Yeah, I mean, if like you're a dreamer or you have TPS or you have some kind of protected status, you are protected from getting deported. But honestly, I'm telling people like,

Not a good time to travel, right? Not a good time to fly. Let's maybe not travel within red states right now. And I'm telling my clients, like, if you can afford it, like move to a sanctuary city. Honestly, those people are much more protected. I think Newsom just spent 50 million on and Los Angeles spent money on protecting immigrants and not complying with ICE.

That's how you know they're not at least trying to go after you in cities like that. But I think most of the time, these people who are being detained, if they don't have a removal order or criminal history, they're not going to get deported. All ICE is doing is just wasting their time. Wasting their time.

A lot of folks are worried also, let's say, you know, you're white American, born here guy, and you married a woman from the Dominican Republic, and now you have a child. And maybe Trump is going to come after those families, right? Because is he going to denaturalize people? Will just being married to an American be enough for your status? What about your children? Trump has said crazy stuff like, well, if you have one American parent, then you're okay. But if not, then I don't know about that.

I mean, marriage is the best, fastest way to get a green card anyway. So I think if you haven't started your process, now is a great time to start. Get married. Yeah. And your children will likely be protected. A lot of them are grandfathered under the same petition. Definitely consult an immigration attorney. Now is a good time to start your application.

Now, deporting families together, I think what he was trying to do is like if you deport parents, then he's trying to also keep the families together by revoking birthright citizenship of children. But obviously that's not going to happen. I'm pretty sure he knows that. I mean, how many people immediately blocked his attempt to do that? So many states sued him. Two judges already blocked him. There's a preliminary injunction on file like it's he knows it's probably not going to happen. So I can.

100% say that he's not going to deport families, mixed families together. There's just no way he can realistically do that. So again, back to this idea that terrorism and chaos is kind of the point. He's just saying a bunch of stuff, seeing if you go for it, but there's folks like you out there telling people their rights are, no, he can't do this.

Exactly. He's just insane. I mean, I will give him props. He's a genius at marketing. He marketed to the right people to vote for him. He appealed to their hatred and their bigotry and he won for that reason, you know, but he's also not completely stupid. He knows that half of this is not going to work out. He's not going to amend birthright citizenship or redefine it.

There's a lot of things that I think he knows he realistically can't do. And a lot of it is BS. The greatest part that I'm actually seeing in like real time is all the federal judges that Biden appointed are stopping him, are quite literally stopping him from doing what he says he's going to do, especially when it comes to immigration, which is great. Now, when they say that they're going to deport American criminals to El Salvador's prisons, can they do that? Is that they can't do that?

I mean, it's weird because you can technically deport anyone to anywhere. You don't have to deport them to their home country. So the laws are weird because, you know, undocumented immigrants have certain rights as long as you are physically within the vicinity of the United States, but not if you leave, which is the whole problem with Guantanamo Bay, right? They don't have...

rights to lawyers there because they're not in the United States. So I think he's getting around the INA and he's getting around laws. So he can probably deport them there. But I think what's getting mixed up is that El Salvador also offered to accept criminal citizens, which he absolutely can't do. So I have no, yeah, I saw, I was like, yeah, that part of the agreement was accepting deportees from different nationalities,

and El Salvador as well as U.S. citizen criminals. But he can't send like American murderers to El Salvador or something. No, no. Yeah, that's what he was part of the agreement. But obviously that is not going to happen. It's like the birthright citizenship stick. It's so dumb. It's not really. It's just so a lot of this is just to get MAGA feeling like he's doing something, even though it can't be done. Even though he can't. And they're dumb enough to believe it, honestly. Yeah.

Now, one of the things I love from your TikToks is you talked about a way to get a green card if you've been harassed. There's like, can you tell folks about that? Yeah. So it's called a U visa. So when you've been a victim of a crime and you've been like a cooperative victim, meaning the police remember you giving a statement in court, being helpful, giving them evidence, they sort of want to reward you for helping them. So they give you something called a U visa, which then in turn has an independent pathway to citizenship. Now it's only for certain crimes. Um,

but you know, like for like extortion is one. So if this will happen, a lot of people will like threaten to call ICE on you if you don't give them money or they'll basically commit extortion against them and use their immigration status against them to do it. So if you file a police report and you have proof of that and you are an active cooperative victim, then you could possibly get a U visa out of that. So I do see that's kind of like the light in the tunnel in this situation as I see a lot of U visas coming out of this potentially. Yeah.

Because if somebody threatens your status, says, hey, if you don't do X, Y, Z thing or work for me for free or whatever thing, I'm going to tell ICE on you. You can get your green card from that because you're threatened. Possibly, yeah. Yeah. You just have to call the police and they have to take it seriously. So that's part of it. But if the case goes to trial, the DA's office is typically a lot more cooperative with you, Visa. So it's possible.

Are you worried about, like, states splitting justice for folks? You know, like the federal government is trying to do all this kooky stuff. Here in New York, Kathy Hochul has come out to say, like, no, that's not going to happen in my state. I'm not going to deport people even to other states if that's what they're asking for or whatever to be charged down there. What do you think the two-tier justice system could look like? Because you could be arrested in Texas, a very different experience than one in New York. Yeah.

Yeah. And that's the problem is the supremacy clause. Red states are using that to their advantage. Right. So immigration is falls in the responsibility of the federal government, not states. So it's technically not the state's job. So if they don't want to help ICE do their job, they don't have to. But now that, you know, Pam Bondi is turning around and saying that we're going to prosecute states for not helping us under probably the supremacy clause. Right.

So it's difficult, but the states have a good argument, especially the sanctuary cities. Like they don't have to require police to help ice do their job because it doesn't fall on the responsibility. It is not state law. Immigration state law is not a thing. So I can see the ACLU going up against Pam Bondi and like in the department of justice and this being like a massive litigation issue. Um,

But that's why I tell, you know, I tell my clients, like, if you live in a sanctuary city or sanctuary state, that's better because at least they're, you know, they're not requiring the police to help you. So if you get pulled over, you know, you're not going to be subject to like potentially ice raid or detention. But in states like Texas, where Greg Abbott has promised to utilize his resources to help ice. Yeah, I mean, it's really scary.

Because they're essentially doubling down. They could get you on a traffic stop and then call ICE over or something. They will do that down there. Yeah, especially under the Lake and Riley Act, right?

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Lake and Riley Act passed. Bipartisan support. I think it's terrible. It's bad legislation. I don't understand how any Democrat would vote for that. Tell folks what it is and why. Yeah, I mean, I was really disappointed in the Democrats who voted for that. Obviously, they couldn't comprehend the meaning behind it and what it would do, you know? But I think they might have looked at it as...

okay, like gang members in Venezuela will get deported, good, right? But what they're not looking at is like, what could this possibly do? Well, it's circumventing the constitution, right? So what it allows you to do is the Lake and Riley Act allows you to be just accused of committing a crime and then automatically detained and possibly immediately deported, but without due process, right? So you still have to go through the criminal system and...

outside of the immigration system. You still have to have your day in court. A judge still has to decide if you're actually guilty of that crime. So you could be falsely accused of some stupid misdemeanor like shoplifting and then deported and separated from your family for what? Like, what if they later found out that you were never guilty? So how did I have the Democratic like representatives

thought through this and decided it's fine, I don't understand. Like, I can't comprehend it. It's so dangerous. So the Lake and Riley Act really opens up for a lot of injustice. And I believe it's very unconstitutional. But, you know, Trump administration, they could care less about the Constitution. So at the same time, I'm not surprised. Well, they could care less that Lake and Riley's own parents, Lake and Riley was a 22-year-old girl from Georgia, I believe, who was killed by a Venezuelan

immigrant who was a criminal. Horrible story. Absolutely terrible. And then the Republicans continue to use her through the election cycle. Her parents have asked that they not do that. Her parents have been, from what I've seen, unsupportive of them politicizing her death and naming the act after her because they want to grieve their child and not have this be forever on Lake and Riley's name. And yet they don't care about any of that and name the act for her and everything.

And the idea is that, yeah, you just have to be accused of a crime to be potentially deported, which, of course, like I mean, I don't trust people to not just accuse anybody they work with that you don't like anymore. You get in a fight with somebody or you get in a fight with your boyfriend or girlfriend. There was that story of the girl who drove her Mexican boyfriend across the border and he couldn't come back. I mean, people do kooky stuff like now they're now they're enabled to it.

Now they're unable to do it. I mean, and that's the problem is, is the issue, the issue was never, should he have been, you know, deported or not? Obviously, I'm pretty sure he was a gang member. Like no one wants people like that in the country. They shouldn't be here. And no one's advocating for open borders for people like that or open borders in general. No one's advocating for that. I think is what we're doing is, is, is,

a lot of people are thinking outside the box. They're thinking, what could this possibly happen? Why does the Lake and Riley Act have to circumvent due process and constitutional laws in order to do this? Why can't you just abide by the Constitution if you want criminals out?

Do it by the Constitution. Do it legally. This is literally not doing it legally, ironically. Right. They passed this law. And that's the thing a lot of folks will say, like you've said, oh, this is illegal or that's unconstitutional. When it gets to the Supreme Court, do we actually have faith that they'll do the right thing and interpret the Constitution properly? Or do you have concerns about SCOTUS?

I definitely have concerns considering who's on the state. But I mean, at the same time, I think it takes a crazy kind of person to like, especially birthright citizenship, birthright citizenship. Yeah. I really don't think that they would reinterpret it, but I don't know. Like, I mean, that's the constitution. Uh,

They're on there, you know, for a lot longer than Trump's president. I don't know if they want to be responsible for doing that. The problem is that the Constitution is very like the 14th Amendment is very black and white. It's very clear. It obviously doesn't leave room for a misinterpretation of it. So the fact that Trump is trying to reinterpret it to a completely different meaning is BS. I mean, I mean, any my two year old could understand what it means. So how how on earth the Supreme Court justice could reinterpret that and redefine it?

I don't know. I don't think that's actually very realistic.

Now, how do you think Trump's policies are going to affect my favorite show, The 90 Day Fiancé Show and the K-1 visa? Do you think he'll be limiting those more than prior? I mean, I don't think so. But, you know, the last time he was president, what he did is he did a lot of travel bans for certain countries. They were Muslim countries. Right. So if you are from those countries, you're probably not going to be allowed to come in on that visa. It's not a matter of whether you'll get it approved, but will you be allowed to come in on it? So that's the biggest issue I see with fiancé visas.

And then with the H-1B visa, he's gone kind of back and forth on that. We know that oftentimes folks on an H-1B visa here are very exploited. They're made to work longer hours, less money because they're sort of like indentured servants of whoever's sponsoring that H-1B visa. Do you think that there's a chance for H-1B visas to be further exploited or kind of stay the same? I'm not really sure.

I mean, with H-1B visas, I think some companies do it right, but a lot of companies exploit them. That's the problem. And I don't know if you can really control how, you know, companies can actually like get around exploitation because they're going to exploit, you know, it's America. Like they're going to exploit their employees, whether they're here legally or not. Right. Citizens get exploited. So I don't, you know, I think people who are natural born citizens have the same complaint about their companies, whether they're paid enough or not. So I don't know if that's like really a realistic argument. Right.

I did do a couple H-1Bs. I don't really specialize in it, but I remember we had to prove that they had to pay a certain minimum amount, right? So I don't know if it's a matter of them raising it, but I don't see Trump raising it. That's for sure. And then the other thing folks are concerned about are student visas and the ability to deport students who are pro-Palestine or what he considers anti-American, right?

How do you see the student visas being affected by his new policies? Yeah, I mean, when you're on a visa, you're protected from... You're here legally, right? So, okay. Until you're a citizen, you're technically deportable if you violate the terms of your green card or your visa or whatever protection that you have, right? So if someone's here on a student visa and they do something that is...

what Trump would qualify as a deportable crime. Maybe he calls it like an act of terrorism. That is definitely a deportable crime. So if he redefines that to make you deportable, then yeah, you could always be deportable, but not without a fight because you are here legally. Do you think he'll limit how many student visas we even give out? Is that like a concern at all?

I don't know. I don't know if he's really concerned about student visas right now. I don't think he can realistically, because a lot of them do transition into H-1B as an employment base, and he has publicly advocated for H-1B as an employment-based visa. So I don't know if he'd realistically touch student visas.

I know. It's like crazy every day, right? I'm like, this is... Yeah, he's so on and off. What are we going to do? Did you see what he said about dreamers last month? No. Like in the interview? Well, he said that he feels for dreamers and he thinks that they deserve the right to be here.

So he advocated for them. But in 2017, he tried to take away the program altogether. Right. Unsuccessfully. Right. He goes back and forth so much. I mean, even with the Venezuelans, he tried to take away the temporary protective status of Venezuelans. Right. Oh, yeah. They turned around. They felt a little betrayed. But I was like, I don't I don't know what you were thinking ever supporting him. He was never here for you.

So that's something he can do. Yeah. So like Venezuelans, like, you know, they had TPS. So they came here legally. They had worked for permits. They were paying taxes. They were working legally. So if it wasn't like obviously it was never about doing it legally. Why take away their ability to work? They're not going to leave. Right.

So now they're undocumented. Now you only further prevented their ability to pay taxes and contribute to the economy. Good job. You're doing exactly what you said you wouldn't do. It doesn't make any sense. But yeah, for Dreamers, what he did is he was on TV. I think it was ABC where he said, I feel for them. They deserve a pathway to citizenship. But in 2017, he tried to sue to take away the program. Supreme Court didn't allow it to happen. They said, absolutely not. And so I don't understand, like, why are you suddenly advocating for Dreamers?

What I suspect is he might advocate for them in a bill or encourage people to advocate for them for a pathway to citizenship in a bill, but also compromise. There's going to be a compromise to possibly like construct border wall or do something that would be adversary to immigrant population. Like he's not he's not just going to help them without something in return. Is the wall effective?

No. Nobody's coming in. Not a lot of people are just walking across where the wall would be, right? The wall is so stupid. I think anyone who advocates for a literal wall between countries just lacks intellect. Like, I...

I think it is so stupid. And this is, I mean, you build a wall, people will figure out how to either get under it or over it. We've watched all the shows. There's tunnels for a reason. Hello, El Chapo. Like, did he not do his research? Like the wall is so dumb. It's like, and that's why, you know, I've always said immigration is not political because, you

You can't stop it. You will never stop immigration and people will continue to come here. You either figure out how to make it easier for them and make us more money as a country by allowing them to pay taxes and work or you keep ignoring it and the border gets worse and then you deport people who shouldn't be deported and you waste money. Literally, that's all we're doing is wasting the government's time and money.

Now, in your practice or in the broader world, I think when we think of immigration, folks are often thinking about immigration from the southern border up. But I had read something that a lot of the new immigration is Chinese folks who are coming through Mexico up. Why is that happening? I don't really know. I mean, I don't get a lot of Chinese clients. I get...

mainly Hispanic clients, but it's interesting. But yeah, they are the majority of undocumented immigrants at the border claiming asylum. Really? So I don't have personal experience, but yeah, I've read about that. It's not really Latinos, but Latinos, like Mexican immigrants, have been here the longest, right? So they're sort of the target of ICE. Right.

But it's interesting because, I mean, I don't think Chinese have the removal orders of the criminal history compared to the Latino population. So Latinos are probably easier to target for ICE because they already have that removal order on there, right? Or they already have, like, they've been here longer, so they have a longer immigration history at the court, so they're just easier to target. But the Chinese, I don't know what will happen with them, right? But it is interesting that there is more of a population with them as an undocumented community versus anybody else lately. Right.

Right. Yeah. Because I was like, Trump is all, you know, doing his tariff wars and everything. Yeah. I'm like, how is this going to shake out with folks? I can't put my my family came here from Albania and Ireland, and it wasn't even that long ago. And now I'm like, do I have to leave? Should I go back? Like Albania is post fascism. And now we're getting a little fascism here. Should I go back? My husband in Mexico, because he's from there. He's an immigrant. And we're just like looking around. I was like, why'd you leave? Right. It looks

pretty good over there. Yeah. And I'm just like, I don't really get it now. And I'm an immigration attorney. And sometimes I'm like, are you sure? You know, are you sure you want to do this? Is this still the American dream? I know. It's a spooky time. Well, I don't know if this is in your wheelhouse, but there are a lot of Americans who are considering expatriating or immigrating to somewhere else. Is there any advice you have for them? Do you think...

I don't know. I don't know. That's the other side of the coin. That's the other side. I mean, you're you depending on what country you move to, if you apply for citizenship, you might denounce your own citizenship. Oh, revoking your own citizenship. That's that's going to be hard to come back. So I don't know if they want to do that. Like on the off chance that, you know, we get a better president and we turn it around, I would say probably don't do that. Don't denounce your U.S. passport. Is the U.S. passport still really powerful out there?

How do you think it's shaking out? It's still pretty powerful. Yeah. It's one of the most powerful passports other than like the ESTA program in Europe that allows you to go pretty much anywhere. But yeah, my experience is I've seen some people leave and denounce citizenship and regret it. Yeah. I feel like that would be tough. I know why. I can understand the need to want to leave, but maybe just wait it out until he's no longer president. Yeah, true. Yeah.

Kathleen, you give so many people hope on TikTok and you're so fun in helping present information. What kind of message of hope do you have for people out there who are just really scared right now?

I mean, we just won a removal case last week and I just couldn't believe it because I was thinking like this is such a win because what it means is that there are still lawyers, judges and elected officials who are on our side, who are ethical, who abide by the laws and the Constitution, like fight the laws with the law, fight it legally, do it right, because there's still a process. There's still a judicial system with some somewhat some integrity, right?

As long as like how many judges, I think 250 judges that Biden appointed himself who are making sure that the legal system is still intact and we're still abiding by the constitution. I love that. I appreciate that. Thank you for spending time with us, answering all of our questions. Where can people find you out in the world for more?

My website, martinezimmigration.net or any of my socials. You can just book a consultation from anywhere in the country virtually. Immigration is federal, so I can help you in immigration services all over the country. And any immigration lawyer, though, good time to talk to one. And maybe a good time to get into immigration law. I mean, we're going to need more helpers out there, certainly. Yes, yes, we absolutely need the help. I think every firm is hiring like crazy. So there will always be a job. That's for sure. Thank you so much for being with us. No problem. Thank you. Thanks.

Okay, fever dreamers, I hope that you learned as much as I did. I hope that you even had a couple laughs, in particular, recognizing that Donald Trump is going to throw a bunch of stuff at the wall. Not all of it is true constitutional or possible. And like she said, a lot of what's happening here is meant to scare us. It's meant to break us down. And like Sammy tells us,

He is softening the ground for future submission to his evil, industrially planned. So the more he says things that are untrue and unconstitutional, the more we start to become used to it. We can never become used to it. And that's what we need to do. There's lots of great people out there fighting for immigrants, for DACA folks, for a better America, and for birthright citizenship. I mean, I don't know. Maybe I want to have kids someday. I want to make sure that they're USA, made in USA, stamped and approved.

And nothing could ever happen to them. So you can find Attorney Martinez on all the social channels. And also for more resources, you can check out the National Immigration Law Center. That is www.nilc.org for more resources. And check out your local state resources, too. There's lots of folks out there that are just trying to make this world a better place.

and a safer and more fair place for immigrants and the people that honestly keep this country running. Until next time, I'm Bea Spear, and this is American Fever Dream.