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Indefensible podcast series

Indefensible is a limited podcast series brought to you by the Immigrant Defense Project. Over five episodes, we'll bring you stories from people who are standing up and holding out; fighting to be with their families. They say they’re here to stay.

Production team: <a href="http://aquifermedia.com/" target="_blank">Will Coley (producer)</a>, <a href="https://www.silentbeautyfilm.com/" target="_blank">Jasmin Lopez</a> (producer), Bryan Parras (audio producer), <a href="http://www.kalalea.com/" target="_blank">Kalalea</a> (series editor), <a href="http://annepope.com/" target="_blank">Anne Pope</a> (audio engineer), <a href="http://www.ingkavet.org/about/" target="_blank">Andrew Ingkavet</a> (composer)

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Indefensible: Stories of People Resisting Deportation (trailer)

Eddy Arias remembers the night he was pulled over by the Houston Texas police. It was first time he had ever interacted with law enforcement since he’d moved to the U.S. from Mexico as a child. He still remembers every moment. When Eddy realized he’d been racially profiled, he stood up for his Constitutional rights. But what happened next drew him into a much larger debate about police enforcing immigration laws. 

Houston is home to thousands of immigrant families. On paper, police don’t enforce immigration laws on the streets. There are policies against this. Yet several successive mayors have refused to call Houston a “sanctuary city” for immigrants. For many years, the Harris county jail in Houston has collaborated with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (or ICE). That means if someone is arrested, they can ultimately be transferred to ICE for deportation. This is called a “287g” agreement.

Eddy Arias learned firsthand about the way it works. And he decided to do something about it. Thanks in part to his activism, Houston now has a new sheriff.

Production team:
Producer: <a href="http://aquifermedia.com" target="_blank">Will Coley</a>
Producer: <a href="https://linkedin.com/in/hightechaztec" target="_blank">Bryan Parras</a>
Series Editor: <a href="http://kalalea.com" target="_blank">Kalalea</a>
Audio Engineer: <a href="http://annepope.com" target="_blank">Anne Pope</a>
Composer: <a href="http://ingkavet.org" target="_blank">Andrew Ingkavet</a>

Episode 1: Land of the Free, But Only for Some

In 2016, William Diaz Castro was arrested at his home in New Orleans by ICE agents who were looking for someone else. He was charged with “illegal reentry” because he had been deported to Guatemala before. But this time, William’s wife Linda and their son witnessed the traumatic arrest. William is a leader with the Congreso de Jornaleros/Congress of Day Laborers, an organization of immigrant workers founded by day laborers who helped rebuild the city after Hurricane Katrina, and drove a grassroots campaign for his release from inside the detention center.

Episode 3: Fighting to Be With the People You Love

Lundy and Linda Khoy are sisters who both got in trouble with the law. They were arrested separately for ecstasy when they were in their teens. Both say they were rebelling against their strict immigrant parents in Virginia. But the similarities end there. The fork in their destinies can be traced back to where they were born.

Production team:
Producer: Will Coley: aquifermedia.com
Series Editor: Kalalea: kalalea.com
Audio Engineer: Anne Pope: annepope.com
Composer: Andrew Ingkavet: ingkavet.org

Episode 2: Sisters, Separated by Birth

“What happened to Patrick and his family happened not just because he’s an immigrant but also because he’s black and because he is working class,” says Carl Lipscombe of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), who co-authored the landmark study on Black migrants in the U.S.

Patrick’s story is emblematic of the particular struggles of Black people caught between our discriminatory criminal legal and immigration systems -- from policing to punishment. It speaks to the ways in which multiple forms of injustice intersect to criminalize and funnel Black immigrants, in particular, into the detention and deportation machine. Like Patrick, roughly 7% of non-citizens in the U.S. are Black immigrants -- and yet Black immigrants comprise 21% of those in deportation proceedings as a result of criminal convictions.

Episode 4: Cooking Up Resistance

Long-time resident, community activist, father, and husband, Ravi Ragbir, has fought against permanent exile from life in the U.S. for over 11 years. For Ravi and his family, it’s been a fight to take back control over their life

Episode 5: Let My People Stay

To conclude the podcast series “Indefensible”, we created this podcast extra for listeners. It’s a conversation between Will Coley, the independent radio producer who created the series, and Mizue Aizeki, the Immigrant Defense Project’s Deputy Director. Will and Mizue talk about the larger context for the series. It’s been twenty years since the U.S. Congress made changes to the nation’s immigration system with the Illegal Immigration and Immigrant Responsibility Act and and how you as a listener can get involved. To get the most out of the discussion, we recommend listening to the previous episodes.

Podcast Extra: A Lot of Fire and Hope and Struggle

A lot of happened since the series was released this past summer--in particular there's been a lot of talk about DACA: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. The program has protected thousands of undocumented people from deportation. But recently the Trump Administration announced it would phase out DACA in March 2018. I wanted to see what the recent news means for Eddy Arias, the subject of Episode 1.

Podcast Extra: The Only Weapon I Have Is My Voice

Indefensible is a podcast series brought to you by the Immigrant Defense Project. Over five episodes, we'll bring you stories from people who are standing up and holding out; fighting to be with their families. They say they’re here to stay.

Production team:
Producer: <a href="http://aquifermedia.com" target="_blank">Will Coley</a>
Producer: <a href="https://silentbeautyfilm.com" target="_blank">Jasmin Lopez</a>
Producer: <a href="https://linkedin.com/in/hightechaztec" target="_blank">Bryan Parras</a>
Series Editor: <a href="http://kalalea.com" target="_blank">Kalalea</a>
Audio Engineer: <a href="http://annepope.com" target="_blank">Anne Pope</a>
Composer: <a href="http://ingkavet.org" target="_blank">Andrew Ingkavet</a>