Becoming an American🗽
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Episode 102 Description
With the July 4th holiday around the corner, we take a look at how someone becomes a U.S. Citizen. 🇺🇸 Learn about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as DACA. 🗽 Meet teen activist Idalia Quinteros and hear about her life as a DREAMer (the Development, Relief, and Educations for Alien Minors Act), and how she is working to improve the lives of immigrant youth in the U.S. 🧳 From the headlines: 🏀 Paying college athletes and an abundance of cookies. ✅ How would you do on the U.S. citizenship exam? Test your knowledge in today’s Trivia on the Ten! 🧐
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TRANSCRIPT:
Sound Bit 0:00 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Bethany Van Delft 0:06 I'm Bethany Van Delft and this is the Ten News. Where we get the lowdown on what's up in the world. It's Tuesday, June 29th. With the Fourth of July coming up, we're seeing red, white, and blue. Whether you were born in the United States or emigrated here, Independence Day is a celebration for all people who live, work hard and make up these United States of America. Today we're talking about citizenship and we'll hear from a young activist Idalia Quinteros fighting for the rights of youths in the US. So let's dive in.
Bethany Van Delft 0:46
The US has a lot of candles to blow out. This July 4th marks 245 years since the original colonies declared their independence from England. Awesome. And their celebration went all out with patriotic parades and speeches like we still do these days. With the addition of awesome firework shows, and backyard barbecues. It's also a tradition in the United States to hold citizenship ceremonies on Independence Day. A citizenship or naturalization ceremony is the final step in becoming a citizen of the United States. It's where applicants take what's called the oath of allegiance to the country. So how do you become a US citizen? If you're born in the United States, you're automatically one yes, but since its founding, the US has been a nation of immigrants. Over the centuries, millions looking for new lives have come to the US many comfort job school or to be near family. And to stay people are issued a travel document called a visa, which allows them to remain in the country for a certain period of time. Some immigrants choose to become citizens. And to do that they need to go through an application process. Today, it's estimated that more than 40 million people living in the US were born in another country. That's incredible. Some are citizens while others are not. Three-quarters of the immigrants are in the US legally, while about 11 million are what's known as undocumented. Some undocumented people cross the border illegally, but the majority simply overstayed their visas. For years past presidents have tried to address undocumented immigrants. The Biden administration has pledged to make it a smoother and less costly process to legally immigrate and roll back a number of restrictions that were put in place over the last four years. So as we get ready to celebrate on the Fourth of July, wave your flags for the country as a whole and for all the people who contribute to this land of opportunity. June 15th was the ninth anniversary of an immigration program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA for short, DACA was established to protect people brought to the US as children from being deported, which means forced to leave the country. It's faced a lot of challenges since it was established, but it's currently protected thanks to an executive order signed by President Biden in the first few days of his presidency. But that doesn't mean this immigration issue is solved. Not every young person brought to the US qualifies for DACA. And it doesn't give participants a path to become United States citizens. These young people DACA or not, are often called DREAMers. The number in the millions. Our correspondent Pamela Kirkland got a chance to talk with Idalia Quinteros about her life as a DREAMer and her work to improve the lives of immigrant youth in the US.
Pamela Kirkland 3:53
The term dreamer comes from legislation called the DREAM Act. It was introduced in 2001. But every one of the 11 versions of the bill introduced in Congress would provide a legal pathway to citizenship for these young immigrants. The 2021 version, the dream and promise act could benefit up to 4.4 million people eligible for permanent status. Being a DACA recipient means you're able to get things like a work permit, a driver's license, but as a DREAMer who doesn't qualify for DACA it Dahlia isn't able to get any of those benefits. Now, she's on the frontlines of the fight to push Congress to act on immigration legislation. Tell me a little bit about yourself. I know you're a student. I think I read your family's from El Salvador. And obviously, you're working alongside United We Dream.
Idalia Quinteros 4:44
So yeah, I came here to the United States when I was about eight years old. So I do remember my home country of El Salvador just a little bit. I stayed with my grandparents and they were great. They were, you know, my second parents, and they treated me like their own. But, I was away from my parents for about four years.
Pamela Kirkland 5:05
When you were separated from your parents, you know, leaving El Salvador, what was the goal when you came to the US? Was it better education or more opportunities?
Idalia Quinteros 5:15
Yeah, so for my parents, it was obviously a better life, also away from crime, because at that moment, where we were living was very, crime was like getting worse. And me, you know, as a kid, honestly, all I wanted was to be with my parents. So I wasn't really thinking, you know, education or money or any of that at that moment. I just wanted, you know, to be with my family again. But then now, you know, I realized, yeah, like my parents, you know, if they hadn't come here like I wouldn't, I don't know where I would be at.
Pamela Kirkland 5:48
Kind of along that same line, you've been really involved in protesting and, you know, basically lobbying Congress to protect DREAMers, to protect people who are here under DACA.
Idalia Quinteros 6:00
Well, I started volunteering with the United We Dream, like my senior year of high school, when I learned about them, they did a workshop on my high school when I was trying to apply for college. Right. So it was really, that's one of the most difficult things to do as an undocumented student, to apply for college. So, that's when I became you know, like, interested in and invested in their mission, which is to, you know, like, advance those types of policies that protect immigrants.
Pamela Kirkland 6:29
Why is it important for young people like you to be so vocal in shaping this legislation and explaining what's necessary I think a lot of people just don't understand how difficult, simple everyday things can be simply because you're listed as an undocumented status.
Idalia Quinteros 6:47
So I think for young people, sometimes it's easier to come out and, you know, express ourselves. I know that a lot of older families, older immigrant families a lot of the time are scared to, you know, say that they're undocumented. If we don't do anything, right now, like, what's, what's gonna happen in the future? Nothing's gonna change. Right. So yeah, like we're doing this for us right now. But we're also setting it for the people that are to come. So yeah, I think that's important.
Bethany Van Delft 7:19
To hear more of our conversation with Idalia, check out this Saturday's episode of the Ten News. And to learn more about her work, visit unitedwedream.org. Now, let's check in on some headlines.
Bethany Van Delft 7:40
The Supreme Court ruled last week that college athletes can now receive some educational payments for things like academic awards and tutoring. This money is something that the NCAA, the organization that manages student-athletes, has blocked in the past. It's a big win for student-athlete advocates who want to see more money from an industry that makes billions of dollars in the hands of students. In pandemic, news officials are closely watching the status of the Delta virus variant. It was first identified in India but has spread and experts warn that it could become the world's top strain. Officials in the US are particularly concerned about states with lower vaccination rates since the variant is causing surges in some hospitals. Okay, that's bad. The pandemic has also caused the Girl Scouts to overflow with cookies. Scouts have been selling the tasty treats for over a century, and normally about 200 million boxes go really quickly. But with door-to-door sales are limited because of the pandemic. They have a few million extra cookie boxes on hand. The scouts plan to keep selling even through online ordering until the snacks are sold. And while there may be too many cookies, there are too few wings. The latest shortage brought on by the pandemic is chicken wings. The shortage was caused by an uptick in takeout orders when restaurants closed down plus trying to meet the demand. Lucky you, it's...
Sound Bit 9:22
What, what, what's the big idea?
Bethany Van Delft 9:25
Trivia on the Ten. One of the steps to becoming a US citizen is to take a citizenship exam. So today, we are going to see if you can answer a real question from the test. Are you ready? How many amendments does the Constitution have? Is it a) 12 b) 23, or c) 27?
Bethany Van Delft 9:57
Did you guess it? The answer is c) 27. A study actually determined that this was one of the hardest out of 100 possible questions that can be on the exam. But throughout the United States history, the Constitution has only been amended or changed 27 times. The first was adding the Bill of Rights. And the last was in 1992 and it addressed compensation to members of Congress. All the questions for the citizenship exam are available to study online. To pass, you have to be able to answer six out of 10 questions that are picked. Can you get them all right? Help. I know I can't. Time's up. But before we go, here's a quick note for the grownups. Thanks for listening to the Ten News. Look out for new episodes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and extras on Saturdays. You can go deeper into today's stories by visiting thetennews.com. The Ten News is a coproduction of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts and is distributed by iHeartRadio. The Ten News creative team is busy ordering Thin Mints and includes Kate Hale, Tracey Crooks, Pete Musto, Jenner Pasqua, and Sarah Olenser. Pamela Kirkland contributed to this episode. Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle and our executive producers are Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan. I'm Bethany Van Delft, and thanks for listening to the Ten News. And may the fourth be with you. Oh, wait, is that the wrong holiday?
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https://www.britannica.com/topic/Independence-Day-United-States-holiday
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