May 5, 2022 • 41 mins
The bill that would be IRCA is proposed by a priest but the bill dies almost immediately setting up a battle between a no-nonsense senator named Alan Simpson and most of Congress. Meanwhile, ICE-style raids haunt immigrant communities.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi listeners, just a quick heads up out of the
shadows tell stories of people fleeing and living in sometimes
violent environments. M M. There are two old portraits that
(00:23):
I like to imagine are hanging in a home in Wyoming.
One is much older than the other. It's faded and
feathered at the edges, so that the man's suit in
the photo starts to disappear into the background. He's got
a nice soft phase, a square jaw that underlines his frown.
(00:45):
The man has sunken eyes that look like they've seen
some thing's. Eyes that saw a dangerous boat ride from
Holland across the North Atlantic Ocean to the United States
as a child, Eyes that saw both his parents die
trying to make it in America. Eyes that grew up
(01:05):
in an orphanage. Eyes that saw railroads being built to
the west. Eyes that struggled and fought and made their
own way. Eyes that fought for a better life for
his children, Which brings us to the second portrait. It's
(01:27):
of the man's daughter. She's a regal looking woman with
the same sunken eyes as her father, but she's not frowning.
She's actually smiling. She's vibrant, even in black and white.
Her eyes tell a different story. These are eyes that
(01:49):
learned to play the piano and the organ, eyes that
love to sing, eyes that studied art and loved to
travel all over the world. They are happy eyes of
an actress, of a mom, of a diplomat, Eyes that
are witnesses to the fact that the American dream for
(02:10):
immigrants like her father, reached new heights in their children.
The man with the sunken eyes so immigrated from Holland
is Peter Coy, and the woman and the other photo,
his bright eyed daughter, is Lorna Coy. And the house
in Wyoming where I imagine myself standing looking at these
(02:32):
two portraits belongs to a six ft seven giant named
Alan K. Simpson, Peter's grandkid and Lorna's youngest son, who
would go on to lead the fight to pass the
(02:52):
Immigration Reform and Control Act of better known as IRKA,
the amnesty bill that would give millions of children of immigrants,
a whole new generation of Americans the same shot his
own mother had to live a life out of the shadows.
(03:17):
I'm Patti Rodriguez, and I'm rid Glendo, and this is
out of the shadows. Children of eighty six. Immigrants and
their children have long lived in the shadows of America.
Their destinies aren't just shaped by where they come from,
but by their particular place in history. In the lives
of millions of immigrants and their children were changed by
one lucky stroke of a pen by an unlikely ally,
(03:39):
President Ronald Reagan. This podcast will examine the ripple effects
the bill had on first generation kids of immigrants, who
are navigating intergenerational mobility and transforming the cultural landscape. This
is an untold story of luck, timing, triumph, opportunity, survival,
and of course hope. So remember when I called you
(04:14):
Eric and I told you that Ellen Simpson just called
me back. Of course I do, Okay, the time you
go what happened? I said, hello, this is Putty and
yeah it was him, And I got nervous and excited
at the same time. Do you remember I probably was crying. Huh. Yeah,
I think you were like, I can't believe he called me.
(04:37):
And he's still very sharp, he still has he's ninety
years old and he's very very sharp. Yeah, he was
very charismatic, and I did not think I was going
to get emotional, you know, like they say that when
you're about to die, your life just flashes before your eyes.
Like that sort of happened to me when I heard
his voice and I was able to quickly reflect on
(05:00):
everything that my life has been up to this point.
I realized right there and then that because of this
man that just called me is why I'm here, And
that is really crazy to wrap your head around. When
we finally got to talk to him, Hello, hello, Mr Simpson. Yes,
(05:24):
now here we are, he definitely lived up to the
hype of like Allen Simpson is known as like a
tough ass, take no nonsense like guy from Wyoming, and
that is exactly who he is. But I should believe me,
I'm not here to listen to a bunch of ships
(05:47):
from a guy who haven't even been through the wars
that I have mumbling about retol And what I find
even more interesting, and because one bringing it up is
that he's a Republican. Yeah, it's funny to think now
like that it even matters to be like, oh he's
(06:08):
a Republican, of course she's not gonna like immigration, or
he's a Democrat, of course he's going to be pro immigration.
But there was a time when immigration wasn't really like
Democrat or Republican issue, but it was always like very hard.
It seemed like they just could not figure it out
for the longest time. Yeah, you know, in the past,
(06:30):
it seemed like both parties were able to come together
to find solutions to big issues, but immigration reform has
always been a huge fight. The story of immigration policies
really can be told through two signs. One says help wanted,
and the other says keep out. That's author Charles Kamasaki,
(06:51):
who wrote a book about Urka. There have been dozens
of attempts at immigration reform even before Urka, versions of
that legislation had been proposed and passed one House or another,
literally since nineteen seventy two. One of those bills was
pushed forward by Jimmy Carter, who was president right before
(07:12):
Ronald Reagan. The illegal immigration will increase, American job will
be lost, the Japanese and others will move in and
take over the market, said basically and rightly. That's President
Carter talking about the ramifications of a weekend Mexican economy.
Like most of US presidents, Carter had a conflicting view
on immigration. In the last episode, we told you that
(07:34):
President Carter was the first to quote weaponize our border,
but Carter was also the first president to try and
make something like Urica happened. Carter's plan had increased border patrol,
sanctions for businesses hiring undocumented workers, and a path to legalization.
But what it didn't have was any bipartisan support. When
(07:55):
most of those bills were first proposed, they were called
in the Washington vernacular, you know, dead on arrival, meaning
it had no chance. But the legacy of Carter's failed
plan was establishing a bipartisan committee of politicians. It wasn't
led by politicians, though, it was led by a priest,
(08:17):
the president of Notre Dame University, Father Ted Hasburg. First
of all, I only took jobs I felt I could
do well as a priest because there's some moral issue involved,
like forgiveness in the case of the Vietnam offenders, or
justice in the case of civil rights, or justice in
the case of immigration and refugee policy. Those are all
(08:38):
things I felt as both an educator and a priest,
I could do sincerely without compromising myself in any way
and without taking money for it. Father Hasburg and his
commission were asked to study the immigration issue and come
up with a solution, a solution to what Kamasaki says
was one of the most important issues at the center
of the American century. Immigration is one of those issues
(09:02):
that goes right to the heart of American identity. What
are our values to what do we owe other people
in the world with respect to what our interests are?
Who are we what do we stand for as a country?
What do we stand for? What are our values? Well,
it depends on who you ask, because immigration has always
(09:26):
divided this country, and in the eighties it was no different.
On one side, you have this bipartisan committee led by
a priest, and on the other hand, this narrative that
Mexican and Central American immigrants were stealing jobs from good
old blue color Americans and people like our parents were
being hunted. Because in the late seventies and eighties it
(09:47):
was open season for lamigra Here's immigrant rights active as
Larry Kleinman Amiga would shamelessly and recklessly racially profile anybody
who was brown. I'll cost them, ask them for their papers,
arrest them if they couldn't produce them or admitted they
(10:07):
were they didn't have any The raids were awful. They
weren't just going to people's homes knocking doors looking for
someone on a list. They would also barge into nightclubs
to prey on hundreds of people enjoying a night out
with friends. LAMGA began detaining anyone that appeared Mexican. It
didn't matter if you are US citizen living here legally.
(10:30):
If you looked Mexican, you could get kidnapped, arrested, and charged.
And the raids happened all across the country, in parks, warehouses,
the fields, anywhere you'd find Mexican and Central American communities.
La migra who just round them up. You can hear
(10:53):
the trauma they cost in the voices of the people
who witnessed them firsthand, like hote Erardo Lopez, I don't.
He says the raps were atrocious. Lopez was a reporter
based in Los Angeles for Opinion at that time, where
(11:13):
he wrote about immigration. He was living in a serino
in commuting to the newspaper's headquarters in downtown l A.
And on the way home after spending the day covering
the news writing about these exact issues, he witnessed things
that shook him to his cores and equal equal. He
(11:42):
saw the migra round up dozens of people from his
community that looked just like him, on their knees with
their hands tied behind their backs, humiliated. It is heartbreaking
and demoralizing, and Lopez says it happened all the time
(12:07):
SACas Alas. He says immigration agents would jump on busses
and demand to see people's papers. They also rated factories.
Here's Kleinman again. The raids really picked up around nineteen
(12:27):
seventy in the Nixon administration. I stepped into this space
V six, and they really accelerated through the Carter years
and UH and the Reagan years. Every district office seemed
to have a quota of arrests that they were directed
to make, and so their strategy was to try to
(12:49):
go where there was a concentration of people. According to
journalist Marie Lena Salinas, the fear was so strong that
it actually kept some people from even talking king about immigration.
They were afraid of lamiga, they were afraid of raids.
They happened mostly like in public gatherings, you know. Then
(13:10):
people were would run away and they would hide. It
was either embarrassment or fear of talking about their immigration status,
so it wasn't really an issue. It wasn't a subject
that people talked about. However, the rates became so common,
lopezs migrants developed a system to warn each other from
being targeted a latinos are you know? And back then
(13:39):
there was no Twitter or Facebook. They would alert one
another through word of mouth as soon as they detected
any hints of a raid. God, imagine living like that,
you know, strange enough. I have this really vague memory,
and I know it might sound crazy because I must
(14:00):
have been two years old at that time, but I
still remember that feeling, and I can't describe this feeling.
Is just a feeling of fear. When my dad came
home and told us that his warehouse had just been rated,
(14:21):
and talking to him, I told him that I remembered,
and we talked about it. He hid inside a large
garment box while the ian is rounded up all his coworkers.
(14:43):
Three busses full of men and women that did not
make it back home to their families that night. No,
this wasn't the first time it happened to my dad.
My mom actually told me about this one time. My
(15:04):
dad and my theos got caught in a raid at
the factory they were working at. This was before I
was born. The Isanis agents questioned them and they started
to pick up their relatives in the neighborhood. And my
mom she saw as my dad and my deals were
being taken away. I remember of us and came to
(15:24):
the apartments where we used to live and got a
pattista and the and the cousins, you know, the counsins,
you know, the kids were from here. But the Mira
got everybody in the family, you know. Thankfully for my mom,
she benefited from the warning system. And a lady told me, Hi,
go rue, He told me because the migras coming. So
(15:47):
somebody helped me. A friend. I had a friend and
the second Florida department, So she got me and uh
and hide me in her apartment. This is so heartbreaking
in and traumatic, and somehow many of our parents lived
(16:07):
to tell it. During all of this, Father Hesburg and
his commission were trying to come up with a solution,
and at this time, the country's leadership was evenly split
between the Democrats and Republicans. Here's Marie Lena Salina's again,
(16:28):
it was actually bipartisan Congress that gave us legalization. They
felt that theers were helping their communities. They were doing
the jobs that no one else wanted to do. They
were the you know, the owners, not only the workers,
but the owners of the restaurants that a lot of
people frequent. They were the farm workers. Thanks to them,
(16:50):
we were able to have you know, food on our table.
According to Dr Rica Figueroa, the Commission was created by
the Bipartisan Congress for a very cific reason. URKA was
supposed to control undocumented workers, and in fact, after KA,
the number of one document workers increased. The growers also said,
(17:11):
everybody is going to be eating tomatoes growing in Mexico
because we're not going to be able to grow tomatoes
or rapples or whatever in the US because we don't
have the labor. And so this incredible humanitarian crisis, combined
with the fear that the country was going to collapse
without immigrant labor, left the door wide open for someone
to step up and change everything into the straight shooting,
(17:39):
powerful Republican senator who just wasn't having it well. I should,
of course, ship I'm not preparing a Republican immigration bill.
It has to be an American immigration Bill. Out of
(17:59):
this Attos will be right back now back to the show.
Alan Kay Simpson was born in y one in Denver, Colorado,
the son of Millard Simpson, former Senator and governor of Wyoming,
(18:20):
and Laura coy He first generation Dutch American. Simpson had
a long career in politics, serving as a House member
and most notably the Senate Whip, a powerful position in
the Senate that's charged with getting senators to vote a
certain way. Here's author Charles Kumasaki, Senator from Wyoming, Republican Conservative.
(18:43):
He was a larger than life figure. In addition to
being six ft seven, he had a personality that's even
larger than you know his height. Ah. He's funny, profane, clever, smart, tough,
almost like the Central Casting version of you know what
(19:03):
a U. S. Senator from the West would be like.
But before he was a state senator, before he wrote
the amnesty bill, Simpson was a lawyer in Wyoming, and
that was when he first witnessed the struggles undocumented people
had getting even the smallest amount of justice. I was
(19:25):
a practicing lawyer in Cody, Wyoming, and down the valley
was for the sugar beet people. And a man came
into my office one day of His name was Ducio Villario,
remembering the well distinctly, and he said, I understand you
will help people like me. I said, well, what's up?
(19:46):
He said, well, I bought a car from Dick Saul
who was the president of the Chamber of Commerce and Cody,
and he said, I hadn't even driven a power which
twenty twenty one mile away when found out it was
that the transmission was filled with sawdust. And no one
(20:09):
will take this case because this fellow is the chair
president of the Chamber of Commerce. So I said, I'll
take it. I took it. I took it, and uh
present the Chamber of Commerce was piste, so beyond believe.
As an attorney, Simpson also fought for sanitation rights for
valsettos who would come to harvest beats. Then there were
(20:32):
people here and then oh, there's some of us who
insisted upon privacy in the fields toilets, and we said, well,
that's that's inappropriate. These moments helped shape Sinson's views on
the rights of immigrants in this country. But I also
(20:53):
like to think that his own personal connection influenced him too,
which brings us back to those two portraits we talked
about at the top of the show. Simpson was the
grandson of Peter Coey, the man in the photo, the
immigrant who came with nothing and rose to be a
prominent businessman, who gave his daughter Simpson's mom lorna generational
(21:17):
wealth and privilege that I believe was only possible because
Peter didn't have to live in the shadows. I asked
Centator Simpson about his motivations. I wanted to know why
he decided to write this bill that would give me,
Patty and millions of others the same shot his mom got,
(21:38):
to give a legal protected status to our parents, people
like his own grandfather. I wanted to know if it
was personal or if it was political. Did you feel
like this was just a good business idea or a
practical idea, or was there was there anything you thought
(22:00):
personally about, you know, what seemed fair at all. I
don't know how you cannot say that I didn't have
those feelings. What the hell are you talking about. Let's
just do an honest story and then the audience will
either pick it up or understand it, or they won't.
I don't question his motivations at all. That's Charles Komisaki again.
(22:21):
Senator Simpson was from a place with Wyoming with very
few immigrants, and uh he took on this role, he says,
and I have ever reason to believe him because he
thought it was important for the country and that he
felt like it was only somebody like him from a
(22:43):
state that didn't have a lot of immigration that that
could really take the political heat for moving um and
sponsoring this kind of legislation. I think for me, what
sort of seals my belief that Senator Alan Kay Simpson
never let go of his immigrant heritage is the K
(23:03):
in his name, the middle initial Alan Coey Simpson. It's
a small thing, to be sure, but my middle name
is my mom's maiden name too, And I don't know
that's enough for me, I guess, but the five for
IRKA wasn't easy, even for a hard ass like Simpson.
(23:23):
This is a bill that died multiple times before it
was enacted. In Father Headsburg of the Immigration Commission submitted
a plan which basically became IRKA. Reagan announced right away
that he will support the Commission's proposal, but he wasn't
really that involved. After that, President Reagan was, and the
(23:46):
administration more broadly was somewhat engaged in the bill, but
not nearly to the extent that that some other administrations
have been involved in in signature bill as you know,
think of the Obama administration and the Affordable Care Act.
While they were, you know, in every meeting, Simpson says,
(24:08):
he kept breaking updated, especially when people in his own
party began to oppost the bill. And one people begin
to tear my ass off a month of Republican Party.
I just call him, I say, Ron, where are you
on this one? Well, what's up? Oh? Yeah, I know
you're moving the bill. I said, well, they're objecting to
(24:28):
this or the funding or whatever it would be. And
he'd said, go right ahead, and I knew I had
him on the next year, the first draft of the
bill was introduced to Congress. Simpson and a Democrat from
Kentucky named Romano Massoli collaborated on the bill, and both
(24:50):
were the sponsors for their respective parts of Congress. Imagine
that a Democrat and a Republican putting inside their Twitter
beef and coming together. It's like Bernie Sanders and Mitch
McConnell agreeing on tax reform. The bill went by many
names Urka to the Simpson Massoli Bill S two. They
(25:15):
called it a three legged stool because it focused on
three things, increased border patrol, finds for businesses, hiring undocumented workers,
and a path to legal residency. Simpson introduced Urko in
the Senate and it actually passed, but it didn't make
it through the House. They had literally been voted down
(25:38):
on the House floor and most people gave it up
for dead, and Congressman Londren later described I think in
the New York Times what his view was, which was
it was a corpse. Simpson says, the first draft of
the bill died because it was too expensive. The following year,
Simpson tried again, reintroducing the bill as Urka. It went
(26:04):
to a vote in the Senate and passed seventy to eighteen.
And this time it did pass in the House, but
there was a bunch of amendments, and just like that
again it died. Complicated bills attracted opposition from a lot
of different places. Um and you know, Congress just wasn't
(26:27):
ready yet. Fast forward to Reagan is just starting his
second term, and so is Allan Simpson, and once again
here comes six ft Giant, the cowboy from Wyoming, Simpson
walking into the Senate hoping for a different result. Well,
when I came to the Senate, there was a discussion
(26:49):
of the fact we hadn't done anything for thirty years.
We're going to put it in the form of legislation,
and we're going to do it in a bipartisan ways.
You know, there's men never gave up. It's been already
what five years. Whether Congress was ready or not remained
(27:11):
to be seen. But for people living in the shadows,
time was ticking away. You could go to work in
the morning and not have any confidence that you'd come
back that evening. According to Kleinman, Lamigra's raids continued to
intensify as Congress debated the bill. Yeah, he was getting
(27:31):
even worse than what we heard about earlier in the show.
They had no compunctions about the places they went, uh schools,
daycare center, movie theaters, the fields, of course, apartment buildings.
The fear was palpable, and they also had the unbridled
(27:52):
assistant active assistance of most local police departments at the time.
UM That was one of our early struggles was to
pressure and bring legal actions against local police who illegally
enforced immigration laws. Madonado was undocumented and working long hours
in a tiny textile factory in l A's garment district,
(28:17):
ak Como. She says they would hear rumors, stories, reports
that the amnesty bill was being negotiated, that they may
have worked permits soon, that there was a lot of
pressure from interested groups to get this done, and then
(28:42):
one day the Migra descended in droves. She says that
because her factory was so small, the owner just locked
it up and they all sat quietly. The agents probably
(29:03):
didn't even guess that people could work in such a
small space, but the factory next door had a thousand workers.
The scene, she describes, is so fucked up. Miga rated
(29:25):
the place using every possible entryway. It's scary. They came
in through the front, the back, the roof, the emergency exits, helicopters,
police I n S vehicles. They rounded up every single
one of those people, and the bill that Maldonado and
(29:45):
her coworkers had hoped for was dying. Kamasaki says, there
was just too many people stacked against it. I think
the Latino organizations at the time LOLAC, I'm all death
the National Council of lear RASA all felt like what
was being sold as a as a moderate centrist bill
(30:06):
was actually to enforcement oriented a number of business and
kind of right leaning interests. The Chamber of Commerce supposed
the legislation. They thought, uh, the government shouldn't be involved
in their own hiring decisions. So it became a matter
of a bill that some said had very little constituency
(30:30):
in its favor, but a lot of constituencies lined up
against it. Out of the shadows will be right back now,
back to the show. Even Senators Simpson was ready to
(30:55):
give up until they got a little help from a
little known con risman from New York, Chuck Schumer. When
I put the bill shot, he was congressman, and he
came over and he said, you know, what do you
What are you gonna do? I don't know. I'm just
gonna just gonna show. But no, no, no, don't do that.
(31:16):
He said, I think part of it is the farm
labor program. I said, well, that is just one part
of it. He said, why don't I get an amendment
together and see what you think. That led to a
compromise between Simpson and a group of Democrats led by
Peter Rodino. The compromise gave agricultural workers an easier way
(31:39):
to get amnesty. It was called the Special Agricultural Worker
Provision or SAW. Here's author Dr Enrique figaroa explaining how
SAW changed everything. The SAW provision s a w seasonal
act workers. That's said that if you could document that
you worked ninety days in the seasonal at crop, then
(31:59):
you were eligible to apply for legal status under SAW.
And prior prior to Burka, the estimates were that somewhere
between three hundred and five hundred thousand workers would qualify
for sauce status. Okay, as it turned out there was
one point three million. The grower community wanted more sauce
(32:20):
because that meant that you would have a lot more
you know, legalized labor force, and obviously the farm workers
wanted to get legalized. It was a win win thing.
Republicans believe that SAW would undermine US workers and labor protections,
but Simpson was willing to make the deal with the Democrats.
If you can't compromise an issue without compromising yourself, if
(32:43):
you want to stay out of the Congress, and that's
just what's wrong with people. The word compromise is a
four letter word. You got the left wear and saying,
you know, compromise my ass, and then you got the
right war and saying, you know, compromise my ass for
we're in the high My lawyer is a highway. And
with the so amendment, URKA got considerable backing from the
(33:06):
powerful agricultural lobby, which Kamasaki points out was a big win,
especially when you consider they were big donors to Reagan's
political campaigns. There were some quite strong um agricultural interests
highly represented in in the Reagan administration. Right, Reagan was
a governor from California, after all, and um agricultural growers
(33:31):
had had long been important political players in that state.
But victory for URKA was not assured because after it
finally passed both chambers, it went to committee, where bills
have to survive a series of amendments that could kill it,
and Simpson says things got intense, and everything we talked
(33:54):
about was filled with emotion, fear, guilt, and racism. There
was one of men proposed by a Republican Senator from
Arkansas named Ronald Caldwell. He put in an amendment in
my bill at which damn near created it he said
he wanted to make English the official language of the
United States, and I had to take it out in
(34:15):
a conference. I said, you know that that can't stay
in here, because that's not what we're talking about. There
was an attempt to give it more funding for border enforcement.
Remember costs killed the bill back, and I said, well,
you have to be aware of this. That if you
if I raised that or suggested to the President, he
(34:35):
will veto this bill. Everything hangs about his thread. He hadn't.
I was. I was involved with immigration and so security
reform and nuclear high level radiation and veterans affairs from
many hell I never there was no open path for anything.
Nothing scraft, that's what you do. And on the last
(35:02):
night of the final vote, the part of the bill
that in Simpson's mind, would have kept businesses from exploiting
undocumented workers and kept the flow of undocumented immigrants down
was being tested. There was a sentence in there that
said that we were going to look or in more
(35:23):
secure identifier system, the identifier or I D card that
would have made it so anyone who got amnesty could
prove they were legally allowed to work in the US.
Was essentially seen by people as a national I d
and by others as an unfair tax and grow over
norkwist wanders of the hall in his white robes, getting
(35:48):
people to vote against any taxes of any kind. He
of the right said, this is a national id card,
and that night lay it. At night they took that
sentence out of the bill in the House, which took
the guts right out of the bill, because then they
(36:11):
the lawyers said, hell, we're not going to be the
police from the world. Everybody banker stabbed him. It's not
a pleasant it's not pleasant work. The next morning, the
bill went up for a final vote. No more willing
and dealing, no more arguing over the details of when
(36:32):
and who would get amnesty, and no more chances. If
the bill died this time, it was going to likely
fade away into history like that Carter bill we mentioned
at the top of the show. Simpson wasn't even sure
he had the votes, but he gave one last speech
paraphrasing the quote on the Statue of Liberty, give me
(36:54):
your attire. You're poor, you're huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
But instead of that, Simpson reportedly said, no fair. Quotes
from the statue a liberty because it does not say
on it send us everybody you got legally or illegally.
(37:16):
Then the vote came. After years of fighting, exhausting long
hours debating petty amendments, the bill passed sixty two. Senator
Simpson hadn't been sleeping much throughout the process, with the
(37:38):
occasional three hours sleep here and there, but after it
passed he described it as quote absolutely one of the
most extraordinary days of my life. I cannot really sleep.
I am high as a kite. Simpson's journey with the
bill is an inspiring tell that seems impossible and our
(38:00):
current political climates. But Simpson fought for those who couldn't
always fight for themselves, and in spite of all the
wards that Erica might have, it is proof that progress
wasn't always defined by a political party. For Simpson, it
all started from helping the bassetto with his car trouble.
(38:21):
Only a descendant of immigrants could have fought the way
Simpson fought to pass the biggest immigration reform law in
American history. And now, after years so fighting in Congress,
the bill was finally in the hands of the President.
Then I got a call from from Ed Mas who
(38:43):
was then with the Justice Department, and he said, I
think I'm going to recommend to the President of veto
this bill next time on Out of the Shadows, we'll
try and do what those people before have not been
able to do, trying unraveled the mystery of what President
(39:06):
Ronald Reagan was thinking in when the bill landed on
his desk. If you love this podcast, please help us
get the word out by following, rating, reviewing, and sharing
it with your friends. Out of the Shadows is written
(39:30):
by Caesar Hernandez. It's also written, edited, hosted, an executive
produced by Patti Rodriguez and Eric Galindo. It's produced by
Bett Cardanas, Karen Lopez and Gabby Watts. It's sound design,
mixed and mastered by Jesse nice Longer. Our studio engineer
is Clay Hillenburg. Karen Garcia That's Me is our announcer.
(39:55):
Out of the Shadows is the production of Seeing Me,
Other Productions, and School of Humans in partnership with My
Hearts Michael Dura Podcast Network. The podcast is also executive
produced by Giselle Banzes, Virginian Prescott, Brandon Barr, and Chad Crowley.
Our marketing and our team is led by Jasmine Meheia.
(40:17):
Original music by a Arenas and if you loved his
cover of Los Caminos a la viva this podcast theme song,
you can listen to it on all music platforms. Historical
audio for Out of the Shadows comes from the Reagan
Presidential Library and the National Archives. Special thanks to Ian Vargas,
(40:40):
Alex and Ali, Caitlin Becker, gob Chabran, Daisy Church, Angel
Lopez Galindo, Julianna Gamis, Ryan Gordon, Brian Matheson, Claudia Marti, Corena,
Oscar Ramirez, John Rodriguez, On Rodriguez, Joshua Sandoval, Eric Sclar,
(41:04):
Tony Sorrentino, and Megan tan
Hi listeners, just a quick heads up out of the
shadows tell stories of people fleeing and living in sometimes
violent environments. M M. There are two old portraits that
(00:23):
I like to imagine are hanging in a home in Wyoming.
One is much older than the other. It's faded and
feathered at the edges, so that the man's suit in
the photo starts to disappear into the background. He's got
a nice soft phase, a square jaw that underlines his frown.
(00:45):
The man has sunken eyes that look like they've seen
some thing's. Eyes that saw a dangerous boat ride from
Holland across the North Atlantic Ocean to the United States
as a child, Eyes that saw both his parents die
trying to make it in America. Eyes that grew up
(01:05):
in an orphanage. Eyes that saw railroads being built to
the west. Eyes that struggled and fought and made their
own way. Eyes that fought for a better life for
his children, Which brings us to the second portrait. It's
(01:27):
of the man's daughter. She's a regal looking woman with
the same sunken eyes as her father, but she's not frowning.
She's actually smiling. She's vibrant, even in black and white.
Her eyes tell a different story. These are eyes that
(01:49):
learned to play the piano and the organ, eyes that
love to sing, eyes that studied art and loved to
travel all over the world. They are happy eyes of
an actress, of a mom, of a diplomat, Eyes that
are witnesses to the fact that the American dream for
(02:10):
immigrants like her father, reached new heights in their children.
The man with the sunken eyes so immigrated from Holland
is Peter Coy, and the woman and the other photo,
his bright eyed daughter, is Lorna Coy. And the house
in Wyoming where I imagine myself standing looking at these
(02:32):
two portraits belongs to a six ft seven giant named
Alan K. Simpson, Peter's grandkid and Lorna's youngest son, who
would go on to lead the fight to pass the
(02:52):
Immigration Reform and Control Act of better known as IRKA,
the amnesty bill that would give millions of children of immigrants,
a whole new generation of Americans the same shot his
own mother had to live a life out of the shadows.
(03:17):
I'm Patti Rodriguez, and I'm rid Glendo, and this is
out of the shadows. Children of eighty six. Immigrants and
their children have long lived in the shadows of America.
Their destinies aren't just shaped by where they come from,
but by their particular place in history. In the lives
of millions of immigrants and their children were changed by
one lucky stroke of a pen by an unlikely ally,
(03:39):
President Ronald Reagan. This podcast will examine the ripple effects
the bill had on first generation kids of immigrants, who
are navigating intergenerational mobility and transforming the cultural landscape. This
is an untold story of luck, timing, triumph, opportunity, survival,
and of course hope. So remember when I called you
(04:14):
Eric and I told you that Ellen Simpson just called
me back. Of course I do, Okay, the time you
go what happened? I said, hello, this is Putty and
yeah it was him, And I got nervous and excited
at the same time. Do you remember I probably was crying. Huh. Yeah,
I think you were like, I can't believe he called me.
(04:37):
And he's still very sharp, he still has he's ninety
years old and he's very very sharp. Yeah, he was
very charismatic, and I did not think I was going
to get emotional, you know, like they say that when
you're about to die, your life just flashes before your eyes.
Like that sort of happened to me when I heard
his voice and I was able to quickly reflect on
(05:00):
everything that my life has been up to this point.
I realized right there and then that because of this
man that just called me is why I'm here, And
that is really crazy to wrap your head around. When
we finally got to talk to him, Hello, hello, Mr Simpson. Yes,
(05:24):
now here we are, he definitely lived up to the
hype of like Allen Simpson is known as like a
tough ass, take no nonsense like guy from Wyoming, and
that is exactly who he is. But I should believe me,
I'm not here to listen to a bunch of ships
(05:47):
from a guy who haven't even been through the wars
that I have mumbling about retol And what I find
even more interesting, and because one bringing it up is
that he's a Republican. Yeah, it's funny to think now
like that it even matters to be like, oh he's
(06:08):
a Republican, of course she's not gonna like immigration, or
he's a Democrat, of course he's going to be pro immigration.
But there was a time when immigration wasn't really like
Democrat or Republican issue, but it was always like very hard.
It seemed like they just could not figure it out
for the longest time. Yeah, you know, in the past,
(06:30):
it seemed like both parties were able to come together
to find solutions to big issues, but immigration reform has
always been a huge fight. The story of immigration policies
really can be told through two signs. One says help wanted,
and the other says keep out. That's author Charles Kamasaki,
(06:51):
who wrote a book about Urka. There have been dozens
of attempts at immigration reform even before Urka, versions of
that legislation had been proposed and passed one House or another,
literally since nineteen seventy two. One of those bills was
pushed forward by Jimmy Carter, who was president right before
(07:12):
Ronald Reagan. The illegal immigration will increase, American job will
be lost, the Japanese and others will move in and
take over the market, said basically and rightly. That's President
Carter talking about the ramifications of a weekend Mexican economy.
Like most of US presidents, Carter had a conflicting view
on immigration. In the last episode, we told you that
(07:34):
President Carter was the first to quote weaponize our border,
but Carter was also the first president to try and
make something like Urica happened. Carter's plan had increased border patrol,
sanctions for businesses hiring undocumented workers, and a path to legalization.
But what it didn't have was any bipartisan support. When
(07:55):
most of those bills were first proposed, they were called
in the Washington vernacular, you know, dead on arrival, meaning
it had no chance. But the legacy of Carter's failed
plan was establishing a bipartisan committee of politicians. It wasn't
led by politicians, though, it was led by a priest,
(08:17):
the president of Notre Dame University, Father Ted Hasburg. First
of all, I only took jobs I felt I could
do well as a priest because there's some moral issue involved,
like forgiveness in the case of the Vietnam offenders, or
justice in the case of civil rights, or justice in
the case of immigration and refugee policy. Those are all
(08:38):
things I felt as both an educator and a priest,
I could do sincerely without compromising myself in any way
and without taking money for it. Father Hasburg and his
commission were asked to study the immigration issue and come
up with a solution, a solution to what Kamasaki says
was one of the most important issues at the center
of the American century. Immigration is one of those issues
(09:02):
that goes right to the heart of American identity. What
are our values to what do we owe other people
in the world with respect to what our interests are?
Who are we what do we stand for as a country?
What do we stand for? What are our values? Well,
it depends on who you ask, because immigration has always
(09:26):
divided this country, and in the eighties it was no different.
On one side, you have this bipartisan committee led by
a priest, and on the other hand, this narrative that
Mexican and Central American immigrants were stealing jobs from good
old blue color Americans and people like our parents were
being hunted. Because in the late seventies and eighties it
(09:47):
was open season for lamigra Here's immigrant rights active as
Larry Kleinman Amiga would shamelessly and recklessly racially profile anybody
who was brown. I'll cost them, ask them for their papers,
arrest them if they couldn't produce them or admitted they
(10:07):
were they didn't have any The raids were awful. They
weren't just going to people's homes knocking doors looking for
someone on a list. They would also barge into nightclubs
to prey on hundreds of people enjoying a night out
with friends. LAMGA began detaining anyone that appeared Mexican. It
didn't matter if you are US citizen living here legally.
(10:30):
If you looked Mexican, you could get kidnapped, arrested, and charged.
And the raids happened all across the country, in parks, warehouses,
the fields, anywhere you'd find Mexican and Central American communities.
La migra who just round them up. You can hear
(10:53):
the trauma they cost in the voices of the people
who witnessed them firsthand, like hote Erardo Lopez, I don't.
He says the raps were atrocious. Lopez was a reporter
based in Los Angeles for Opinion at that time, where
(11:13):
he wrote about immigration. He was living in a serino
in commuting to the newspaper's headquarters in downtown l A.
And on the way home after spending the day covering
the news writing about these exact issues, he witnessed things
that shook him to his cores and equal equal. He
(11:42):
saw the migra round up dozens of people from his
community that looked just like him, on their knees with
their hands tied behind their backs, humiliated. It is heartbreaking
and demoralizing, and Lopez says it happened all the time
(12:07):
SACas Alas. He says immigration agents would jump on busses
and demand to see people's papers. They also rated factories.
Here's Kleinman again. The raids really picked up around nineteen
(12:27):
seventy in the Nixon administration. I stepped into this space
V six, and they really accelerated through the Carter years
and UH and the Reagan years. Every district office seemed
to have a quota of arrests that they were directed
to make, and so their strategy was to try to
(12:49):
go where there was a concentration of people. According to
journalist Marie Lena Salinas, the fear was so strong that
it actually kept some people from even talking king about immigration.
They were afraid of lamiga, they were afraid of raids.
They happened mostly like in public gatherings, you know. Then
(13:10):
people were would run away and they would hide. It
was either embarrassment or fear of talking about their immigration status,
so it wasn't really an issue. It wasn't a subject
that people talked about. However, the rates became so common,
lopezs migrants developed a system to warn each other from
being targeted a latinos are you know? And back then
(13:39):
there was no Twitter or Facebook. They would alert one
another through word of mouth as soon as they detected
any hints of a raid. God, imagine living like that,
you know, strange enough. I have this really vague memory,
and I know it might sound crazy because I must
(14:00):
have been two years old at that time, but I
still remember that feeling, and I can't describe this feeling.
Is just a feeling of fear. When my dad came
home and told us that his warehouse had just been rated,
(14:21):
and talking to him, I told him that I remembered,
and we talked about it. He hid inside a large
garment box while the ian is rounded up all his coworkers.
(14:43):
Three busses full of men and women that did not
make it back home to their families that night. No,
this wasn't the first time it happened to my dad.
My mom actually told me about this one time. My
(15:04):
dad and my theos got caught in a raid at
the factory they were working at. This was before I
was born. The Isanis agents questioned them and they started
to pick up their relatives in the neighborhood. And my
mom she saw as my dad and my deals were
being taken away. I remember of us and came to
(15:24):
the apartments where we used to live and got a
pattista and the and the cousins, you know, the counsins,
you know, the kids were from here. But the Mira
got everybody in the family, you know. Thankfully for my mom,
she benefited from the warning system. And a lady told me, Hi,
go rue, He told me because the migras coming. So
(15:47):
somebody helped me. A friend. I had a friend and
the second Florida department, So she got me and uh
and hide me in her apartment. This is so heartbreaking
in and traumatic, and somehow many of our parents lived
(16:07):
to tell it. During all of this, Father Hesburg and
his commission were trying to come up with a solution,
and at this time, the country's leadership was evenly split
between the Democrats and Republicans. Here's Marie Lena Salina's again,
(16:28):
it was actually bipartisan Congress that gave us legalization. They
felt that theers were helping their communities. They were doing
the jobs that no one else wanted to do. They
were the you know, the owners, not only the workers,
but the owners of the restaurants that a lot of
people frequent. They were the farm workers. Thanks to them,
(16:50):
we were able to have you know, food on our table.
According to Dr Rica Figueroa, the Commission was created by
the Bipartisan Congress for a very cific reason. URKA was
supposed to control undocumented workers, and in fact, after KA,
the number of one document workers increased. The growers also said,
(17:11):
everybody is going to be eating tomatoes growing in Mexico
because we're not going to be able to grow tomatoes
or rapples or whatever in the US because we don't
have the labor. And so this incredible humanitarian crisis, combined
with the fear that the country was going to collapse
without immigrant labor, left the door wide open for someone
to step up and change everything into the straight shooting,
(17:39):
powerful Republican senator who just wasn't having it well. I should,
of course, ship I'm not preparing a Republican immigration bill.
It has to be an American immigration Bill. Out of
(17:59):
this Attos will be right back now back to the show.
Alan Kay Simpson was born in y one in Denver, Colorado,
the son of Millard Simpson, former Senator and governor of Wyoming,
(18:20):
and Laura coy He first generation Dutch American. Simpson had
a long career in politics, serving as a House member
and most notably the Senate Whip, a powerful position in
the Senate that's charged with getting senators to vote a
certain way. Here's author Charles Kumasaki, Senator from Wyoming, Republican Conservative.
(18:43):
He was a larger than life figure. In addition to
being six ft seven, he had a personality that's even
larger than you know his height. Ah. He's funny, profane, clever, smart, tough,
almost like the Central Casting version of you know what
(19:03):
a U. S. Senator from the West would be like.
But before he was a state senator, before he wrote
the amnesty bill, Simpson was a lawyer in Wyoming, and
that was when he first witnessed the struggles undocumented people
had getting even the smallest amount of justice. I was
(19:25):
a practicing lawyer in Cody, Wyoming, and down the valley
was for the sugar beet people. And a man came
into my office one day of His name was Ducio Villario,
remembering the well distinctly, and he said, I understand you
will help people like me. I said, well, what's up?
(19:46):
He said, well, I bought a car from Dick Saul
who was the president of the Chamber of Commerce and Cody,
and he said, I hadn't even driven a power which
twenty twenty one mile away when found out it was
that the transmission was filled with sawdust. And no one
(20:09):
will take this case because this fellow is the chair
president of the Chamber of Commerce. So I said, I'll
take it. I took it. I took it, and uh
present the Chamber of Commerce was piste, so beyond believe.
As an attorney, Simpson also fought for sanitation rights for
valsettos who would come to harvest beats. Then there were
(20:32):
people here and then oh, there's some of us who
insisted upon privacy in the fields toilets, and we said, well,
that's that's inappropriate. These moments helped shape Sinson's views on
the rights of immigrants in this country. But I also
(20:53):
like to think that his own personal connection influenced him too,
which brings us back to those two portraits we talked
about at the top of the show. Simpson was the
grandson of Peter Coey, the man in the photo, the
immigrant who came with nothing and rose to be a
prominent businessman, who gave his daughter Simpson's mom lorna generational
(21:17):
wealth and privilege that I believe was only possible because
Peter didn't have to live in the shadows. I asked
Centator Simpson about his motivations. I wanted to know why
he decided to write this bill that would give me,
Patty and millions of others the same shot his mom got,
(21:38):
to give a legal protected status to our parents, people
like his own grandfather. I wanted to know if it
was personal or if it was political. Did you feel
like this was just a good business idea or a
practical idea, or was there was there anything you thought
(22:00):
personally about, you know, what seemed fair at all. I
don't know how you cannot say that I didn't have
those feelings. What the hell are you talking about. Let's
just do an honest story and then the audience will
either pick it up or understand it, or they won't.
I don't question his motivations at all. That's Charles Komisaki again.
(22:21):
Senator Simpson was from a place with Wyoming with very
few immigrants, and uh he took on this role, he says,
and I have ever reason to believe him because he
thought it was important for the country and that he
felt like it was only somebody like him from a
(22:43):
state that didn't have a lot of immigration that that
could really take the political heat for moving um and
sponsoring this kind of legislation. I think for me, what
sort of seals my belief that Senator Alan Kay Simpson
never let go of his immigrant heritage is the K
(23:03):
in his name, the middle initial Alan Coey Simpson. It's
a small thing, to be sure, but my middle name
is my mom's maiden name too, And I don't know
that's enough for me, I guess, but the five for
IRKA wasn't easy, even for a hard ass like Simpson.
(23:23):
This is a bill that died multiple times before it
was enacted. In Father Headsburg of the Immigration Commission submitted
a plan which basically became IRKA. Reagan announced right away
that he will support the Commission's proposal, but he wasn't
really that involved. After that, President Reagan was, and the
(23:46):
administration more broadly was somewhat engaged in the bill, but
not nearly to the extent that that some other administrations
have been involved in in signature bill as you know,
think of the Obama administration and the Affordable Care Act.
While they were, you know, in every meeting, Simpson says,
(24:08):
he kept breaking updated, especially when people in his own
party began to oppost the bill. And one people begin
to tear my ass off a month of Republican Party.
I just call him, I say, Ron, where are you
on this one? Well, what's up? Oh? Yeah, I know
you're moving the bill. I said, well, they're objecting to
(24:28):
this or the funding or whatever it would be. And
he'd said, go right ahead, and I knew I had
him on the next year, the first draft of the
bill was introduced to Congress. Simpson and a Democrat from
Kentucky named Romano Massoli collaborated on the bill, and both
(24:50):
were the sponsors for their respective parts of Congress. Imagine
that a Democrat and a Republican putting inside their Twitter
beef and coming together. It's like Bernie Sanders and Mitch
McConnell agreeing on tax reform. The bill went by many
names Urka to the Simpson Massoli Bill S two. They
(25:15):
called it a three legged stool because it focused on
three things, increased border patrol, finds for businesses, hiring undocumented workers,
and a path to legal residency. Simpson introduced Urko in
the Senate and it actually passed, but it didn't make
it through the House. They had literally been voted down
(25:38):
on the House floor and most people gave it up
for dead, and Congressman Londren later described I think in
the New York Times what his view was, which was
it was a corpse. Simpson says, the first draft of
the bill died because it was too expensive. The following year,
Simpson tried again, reintroducing the bill as Urka. It went
(26:04):
to a vote in the Senate and passed seventy to eighteen.
And this time it did pass in the House, but
there was a bunch of amendments, and just like that
again it died. Complicated bills attracted opposition from a lot
of different places. Um and you know, Congress just wasn't
(26:27):
ready yet. Fast forward to Reagan is just starting his
second term, and so is Allan Simpson, and once again
here comes six ft Giant, the cowboy from Wyoming, Simpson
walking into the Senate hoping for a different result. Well,
when I came to the Senate, there was a discussion
(26:49):
of the fact we hadn't done anything for thirty years.
We're going to put it in the form of legislation,
and we're going to do it in a bipartisan ways.
You know, there's men never gave up. It's been already
what five years. Whether Congress was ready or not remained
(27:11):
to be seen. But for people living in the shadows,
time was ticking away. You could go to work in
the morning and not have any confidence that you'd come
back that evening. According to Kleinman, Lamigra's raids continued to
intensify as Congress debated the bill. Yeah, he was getting
(27:31):
even worse than what we heard about earlier in the show.
They had no compunctions about the places they went, uh schools,
daycare center, movie theaters, the fields, of course, apartment buildings.
The fear was palpable, and they also had the unbridled
(27:52):
assistant active assistance of most local police departments at the time.
UM That was one of our early struggles was to
pressure and bring legal actions against local police who illegally
enforced immigration laws. Madonado was undocumented and working long hours
in a tiny textile factory in l A's garment district,
(28:17):
ak Como. She says they would hear rumors, stories, reports
that the amnesty bill was being negotiated, that they may
have worked permits soon, that there was a lot of
pressure from interested groups to get this done, and then
(28:42):
one day the Migra descended in droves. She says that
because her factory was so small, the owner just locked
it up and they all sat quietly. The agents probably
(29:03):
didn't even guess that people could work in such a
small space, but the factory next door had a thousand workers.
The scene, she describes, is so fucked up. Miga rated
(29:25):
the place using every possible entryway. It's scary. They came
in through the front, the back, the roof, the emergency exits, helicopters,
police I n S vehicles. They rounded up every single
one of those people, and the bill that Maldonado and
(29:45):
her coworkers had hoped for was dying. Kamasaki says, there
was just too many people stacked against it. I think
the Latino organizations at the time LOLAC, I'm all death
the National Council of lear RASA all felt like what
was being sold as a as a moderate centrist bill
(30:06):
was actually to enforcement oriented a number of business and
kind of right leaning interests. The Chamber of Commerce supposed
the legislation. They thought, uh, the government shouldn't be involved
in their own hiring decisions. So it became a matter
of a bill that some said had very little constituency
(30:30):
in its favor, but a lot of constituencies lined up
against it. Out of the shadows will be right back now,
back to the show. Even Senators Simpson was ready to
(30:55):
give up until they got a little help from a
little known con risman from New York, Chuck Schumer. When
I put the bill shot, he was congressman, and he
came over and he said, you know, what do you
What are you gonna do? I don't know. I'm just
gonna just gonna show. But no, no, no, don't do that.
(31:16):
He said, I think part of it is the farm
labor program. I said, well, that is just one part
of it. He said, why don't I get an amendment
together and see what you think. That led to a
compromise between Simpson and a group of Democrats led by
Peter Rodino. The compromise gave agricultural workers an easier way
(31:39):
to get amnesty. It was called the Special Agricultural Worker
Provision or SAW. Here's author Dr Enrique figaroa explaining how
SAW changed everything. The SAW provision s a w seasonal
act workers. That's said that if you could document that
you worked ninety days in the seasonal at crop, then
(31:59):
you were eligible to apply for legal status under SAW.
And prior prior to Burka, the estimates were that somewhere
between three hundred and five hundred thousand workers would qualify
for sauce status. Okay, as it turned out there was
one point three million. The grower community wanted more sauce
(32:20):
because that meant that you would have a lot more
you know, legalized labor force, and obviously the farm workers
wanted to get legalized. It was a win win thing.
Republicans believe that SAW would undermine US workers and labor protections,
but Simpson was willing to make the deal with the Democrats.
If you can't compromise an issue without compromising yourself, if
(32:43):
you want to stay out of the Congress, and that's
just what's wrong with people. The word compromise is a
four letter word. You got the left wear and saying,
you know, compromise my ass, and then you got the
right war and saying, you know, compromise my ass for
we're in the high My lawyer is a highway. And
with the so amendment, URKA got considerable backing from the
(33:06):
powerful agricultural lobby, which Kamasaki points out was a big win,
especially when you consider they were big donors to Reagan's
political campaigns. There were some quite strong um agricultural interests
highly represented in in the Reagan administration. Right, Reagan was
a governor from California, after all, and um agricultural growers
(33:31):
had had long been important political players in that state.
But victory for URKA was not assured because after it
finally passed both chambers, it went to committee, where bills
have to survive a series of amendments that could kill it,
and Simpson says things got intense, and everything we talked
(33:54):
about was filled with emotion, fear, guilt, and racism. There
was one of men proposed by a Republican Senator from
Arkansas named Ronald Caldwell. He put in an amendment in
my bill at which damn near created it he said
he wanted to make English the official language of the
United States, and I had to take it out in
(34:15):
a conference. I said, you know that that can't stay
in here, because that's not what we're talking about. There
was an attempt to give it more funding for border enforcement.
Remember costs killed the bill back, and I said, well,
you have to be aware of this. That if you
if I raised that or suggested to the President, he
(34:35):
will veto this bill. Everything hangs about his thread. He hadn't.
I was. I was involved with immigration and so security
reform and nuclear high level radiation and veterans affairs from
many hell I never there was no open path for anything.
Nothing scraft, that's what you do. And on the last
(35:02):
night of the final vote, the part of the bill
that in Simpson's mind, would have kept businesses from exploiting
undocumented workers and kept the flow of undocumented immigrants down
was being tested. There was a sentence in there that
said that we were going to look or in more
(35:23):
secure identifier system, the identifier or I D card that
would have made it so anyone who got amnesty could
prove they were legally allowed to work in the US.
Was essentially seen by people as a national I d
and by others as an unfair tax and grow over
norkwist wanders of the hall in his white robes, getting
(35:48):
people to vote against any taxes of any kind. He
of the right said, this is a national id card,
and that night lay it. At night they took that
sentence out of the bill in the House, which took
the guts right out of the bill, because then they
(36:11):
the lawyers said, hell, we're not going to be the
police from the world. Everybody banker stabbed him. It's not
a pleasant it's not pleasant work. The next morning, the
bill went up for a final vote. No more willing
and dealing, no more arguing over the details of when
(36:32):
and who would get amnesty, and no more chances. If
the bill died this time, it was going to likely
fade away into history like that Carter bill we mentioned
at the top of the show. Simpson wasn't even sure
he had the votes, but he gave one last speech
paraphrasing the quote on the Statue of Liberty, give me
(36:54):
your attire. You're poor, you're huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
But instead of that, Simpson reportedly said, no fair. Quotes
from the statue a liberty because it does not say
on it send us everybody you got legally or illegally.
(37:16):
Then the vote came. After years of fighting, exhausting long
hours debating petty amendments, the bill passed sixty two. Senator
Simpson hadn't been sleeping much throughout the process, with the
(37:38):
occasional three hours sleep here and there, but after it
passed he described it as quote absolutely one of the
most extraordinary days of my life. I cannot really sleep.
I am high as a kite. Simpson's journey with the
bill is an inspiring tell that seems impossible and our
(38:00):
current political climates. But Simpson fought for those who couldn't
always fight for themselves, and in spite of all the
wards that Erica might have, it is proof that progress
wasn't always defined by a political party. For Simpson, it
all started from helping the bassetto with his car trouble.
(38:21):
Only a descendant of immigrants could have fought the way
Simpson fought to pass the biggest immigration reform law in
American history. And now, after years so fighting in Congress,
the bill was finally in the hands of the President.
Then I got a call from from Ed Mas who
(38:43):
was then with the Justice Department, and he said, I
think I'm going to recommend to the President of veto
this bill next time on Out of the Shadows, we'll
try and do what those people before have not been
able to do, trying unraveled the mystery of what President
(39:06):
Ronald Reagan was thinking in when the bill landed on
his desk. If you love this podcast, please help us
get the word out by following, rating, reviewing, and sharing
it with your friends. Out of the Shadows is written
(39:30):
by Caesar Hernandez. It's also written, edited, hosted, an executive
produced by Patti Rodriguez and Eric Galindo. It's produced by
Bett Cardanas, Karen Lopez and Gabby Watts. It's sound design,
mixed and mastered by Jesse nice Longer. Our studio engineer
is Clay Hillenburg. Karen Garcia That's Me is our announcer.
(39:55):
Out of the Shadows is the production of Seeing Me,
Other Productions, and School of Humans in partnership with My
Hearts Michael Dura Podcast Network. The podcast is also executive
produced by Giselle Banzes, Virginian Prescott, Brandon Barr, and Chad Crowley.
Our marketing and our team is led by Jasmine Meheia.
(40:17):
Original music by a Arenas and if you loved his
cover of Los Caminos a la viva this podcast theme song,
you can listen to it on all music platforms. Historical
audio for Out of the Shadows comes from the Reagan
Presidential Library and the National Archives. Special thanks to Ian Vargas,
(40:40):
Alex and Ali, Caitlin Becker, gob Chabran, Daisy Church, Angel
Lopez Galindo, Julianna Gamis, Ryan Gordon, Brian Matheson, Claudia Marti, Corena,
Oscar Ramirez, John Rodriguez, On Rodriguez, Joshua Sandoval, Eric Sclar,
(41:04):
Tony Sorrentino, and Megan tan
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