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September 1, 2025 15 mins

After 100+ deep dives, Jerremy and Dave cut through the confusion: immigration adds $8.9 trillion to GDP yet the system is choked by bureaucracy, a 4-million-case backlog, and the whiplash of presidential power shifts. From Dave’s personal evolution on the issue to the story of a Florida accident shaped by four administrations’ conflicting rules, this episode shows how immigration policy is less about people—and more about broken governance.

Timestamps:

(00:00) 100+ Episodes Later: What We’ve Learned

(00:56) How Immigration Changed Our Minds

(02:01) The $8.9 Trillion Impact—Numbers That Matter

(04:03) Why Paperwork, Lawyers, and Waitlists Keep Failing

(06:07) Presidential Whiplash: Four Administrations, One Case

(12:03) Backlogs, Downturns, and the Scarcity Mindset


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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jerremy (00:00):
Dave, we're bringing the heat.
Oh my goodness.
You know what I'm excited about, man?
Mo.
Tons of things.
One of them being we're over 100episodes in and now we get to discuss
and talk about Immigration Nation.
What did we learn?
Which is so far beeneveryone's favorite, right?
Once we go through something, we deepdive, we have interviews, discussions,

(00:21):
chats, breakthroughs, monumentalawakenings, paradigm shifts, and then we
wrap it all together on what do we learn,and that's where we're at right now.

Dave (00:31):
This has also been our longest series.
Like I have learned all thedifferent topics we've done.
I mean, I've loved everysingle one of them.
And you were like, let's do immigration.
I went like, oh, okay.
How are we gonna approach this?
That's a hot topic.
Let's do it.
And in all the topics,
school shootings and

Jerremy (00:47):
Actually, I think you said, oh, no one's gonna get
offended by anything we discussed,then it's gonna be perfectly fine.

Dave (00:54):
this has been fun.
And I feel changed from it.
So I think this is, what did we learn?
I learned a lot.

Jerremy (01:00):
That's cool.
So for a moment, when yousay you felt change tell me
a little bit more about that.
What does that mean, or howdoes that resonate with you and
Where do you feel that shift?

Dave (01:08):
I think coming into this, I came in with a certain amount of, yeah.
Illegal immigration, bad.
Yeah.
I'm okay with deportations, but you know,how it's happening now is just barbaric.
And immigrants, youknow, is it really good?
You know, like, immigrationvery confused, right?
It's like, uh, immigration is good.

(01:29):
And I was sort of a mixed bag on it.
But also growing up in a very diverse,immigrant rich world, it's like, I
don't have anything against this.
I just saw it as a problem.
Yet another Americanproblem is immigration.
And then really hearing, well,it's a problem of our own
making like so many things.

(01:50):
It's a problem of our politicalclass, and how that's failing us.
It's.
A problem of perceptionmore than anything.
And I came out with a couple ofthings that I think really shifted me,
which was, this is such an economicproblem in so many different ways

(02:11):
and can be solved economically.
When we take the word illegal out ofthis discussion and put in economic
prosperity and drive this through whateverybody's doing, which is they're
coming here, they're working, they'recontributing to society, and let's take

(02:33):
the illegal legal thing out of this.
Let's simplify this.
Let's make this about greatjobs and great families.
English is really important.
That came up so many times.
It almost sounded a little bit, Idon't know if racist is the right word,
it sounded a little bit like Oggie.
But then when you talk to a bunchof immigrants and second and third

(02:54):
generation immigrants, they'relike, oh no, English was clutch.
And America is so good aboutimmigration integration.
Wow.
I'll say that five times.
And the big key thing foreveryone we talked to was like,
oh, English was the thing.
Like my parents, they wouldn't allowus to speak any other language.

(03:18):
And in a way I thoughtabout like, my father.
My father came from the south,and when he moved to Washington
DC he forced his accent out.
And because if you're from thesouth and you have an accent, you're
immediately thought of as stupid.
And I think same, same in this world,which is if you don't have command of the

(03:40):
English language, you're seen as foreign.
Even if you've been here 40 years,you know, even if you've lived here
longer than you have anywhere else, ifyou don't have command of the English
language, then you're seen as, as other,as less than or from somewhere else.
And no matter what you look like,where you come from, what you do, but
if you have command of the Englishlanguage, it's like, oh, welcome.

(04:01):
So that was a couple of things for me.
What was, what are some,some highlights for you?

Jerremy (04:07):
Highlights, number one, having just really good conversations with
people that, number one, really careabout the topic, but also number two,
they have a lot of information about it.
We
had tons of really unique characters inthis go around with different opinions.
We got a nice little fight.
We got left, we got right, we got someexcitement there, which I really enjoyed.

(04:30):
And also we're coming up with just somegeneral Hey, this is what is working.
This is what can work.
This is what should work.
This is a problem.
AKA paperwork, lawyers fees,
lines, and here's some solutions.
And they were pretty fast.
Like we had a lot of really great, let'simplement this as quick as possible.

(04:52):
'cause it really wouldn't be thatchallenging, wouldn't be that hard.
And one of the things I never really sat
down and really looked at orstudied probably would be that how
immigration does drive us economic
growth, right?
Adding 8.9
trillion to the gross domesticproduct and filling vital labor gaps.

(05:12):
I think me just really seeing that froma, how much is the impact maybe, or
for whatever particular reason, I justdidn't notice or know how large it would
be or should be, or could be or was.
And to see a, 8.9
trillion if our annual grossdomestic has called 25,
so we're at 30%.

(05:34):
That's massive.
And then we had a lot of distinctionin different types of immigrants
and learning about their battlesand their choices, right?
We had people that do notlive here, that just work
here, that still can't get citizenshipthat really want to, but they live in the
us.
We have people that don't work hereat all that do wanna come here.

(05:56):
And they have a hard time.
We have people that come here illegallyand then they get a job, somehow get paid
in cash and can't get, become a citizen.
And then we have people that are like,oh, you have a bunch of money come on in.
I think all of our listeners know myultimate objective of this entire podcast
and this entire process is to justreally have a great grasp on not only
the problems, but most importantly thesolutions as I run for President 2032.

(06:18):
And I really believe that thereshould be and could be a more focused
approach on individual governmentsections articles, processes that
do not rely on one sole individual,which to date has been an old white
man dictating how immigration happens.

(06:39):
And that's what's been.
Forever obviously, right?
You have the deporter in chief, theone non-white old man, but still
everything rested on his shouldersand was kicking people out left
and right, and somehow the mediaportrayed him as the coolest guy ever.
Nicest, kindest human beingof all time, which is cool.
That's probably a whole other subject,but that's the thing I learned, man.

(07:01):
I do not believe in my heart of heartsthat the immigration decisions should
rest, which where they do now reallyin the lap of one person, which is the
president, and that just seems like alittle too much immediate divisive power
to
me.

Dave (07:16):
there is a news story that's making the rounds right now, actually,
and it came out of some tragedy herein Florida where I'll just, I'll use
the language of, the news people.
An illegal alien who was drivinga tractor trailer, made an illegal
U-turn and killed three people and

Jerremy (07:40):
And they are

Dave (07:41):
Losing their, losing their
minds.

Jerremy (07:43):
I'm trying to think of a good verb.
Losing their minds.

Dave (07:48):
Guy comes over from I think he's Indian national
uh, quote unquote illegally.
I don't even know how, hecame into the United States.
He got some sort of status underObama and in California he qualified
for a commercial driver's license.
Okay, fine.
And then Trump comes in changes, itputs him on deportation like quick

(08:11):
deportation started that process.
Biden comes in and this guy appliesfor amnesty and is granted it.
Except the deportationlaw was still in place.
And then the Trump administrationcomes back in and says, this

(08:33):
guy couldn't speak English.
We've already changed.
You know, we did an executiveorder on that, on English language.
And he can't even identify, road signs.
So I heard all of this and I went,okay, this actually typifies exactly,
I mean, this is exactly the issue,which is this guy for nine years has,

(08:55):
been wrapped around the axle from oneadministration to the next administration,
to the next administration, to thecurrent administration, four different
administrations, and in nine years.
And this guy has been told.
he got a commercial driver's license,and he killed a bunch of people.
Now, here's the thing, if we took thefact out of this that he was quote
unquote illegal, the real problemhere is the state of California.

(09:19):
Like, who is handing outcommercial driver's licenses?
Somebody you can't drive.
I mean, that's what it gets down to it.
The legal illegal thing is sort ofirrelevant, except it's telling me
that this cannot be with one person.
Like, we need to actually change the laws.
I don't understand any of this.
Right?
Like I, when it gets down to it,our political class has failed us.

(09:45):
My question is why, you know,like when we talk to Melissa.
She was like, look, this is bonkers.
You know, like I'm printing thingsout and they're scanning them in
and I'm faxing, you know, like itwas outta the eighties, and the
laws haven't changed much since 86.
And she said the laws that arethere are basically either special

(10:08):
interest or a patchwork of stuffthat was valid 50 years ago.
But you know, now in the 21stcentury, it makes zero sense.
So it's like, why is it in the bestinterest of our legislature to do nothing?
That's the part where I don't get it.
I dunno, is it the same thing withhealthcare and all the other things
that actually matter to people is like,ah, they're not getting paid to do it.

(10:31):
Nobody's paying our legislatures.
Like they, they don't.
They're not being paid enoughmoney by some weird special
interest to do something.
If this actually had something todo with national security and just
being sponsored by some other country,it'd probably be done in 15 minutes.
Right?

Jerremy (10:45):
It would be, that's exactly correct.
And that could be a solution right there.
Hey, if you would've come here in thiscountry your country needs to pay for it.

Dave (10:56):
All

Jerremy (10:57):
All you need
to do is have a check written by yourcountry and you can come right on
over.
But I think
that's

Dave (11:02):
Let's talk a little bit about the economic stuff.
Like you mentioned trillions of dollars.
I still can't even imaginewhat a trillion dollars is.
It's a lot, and then I also thinkabout how gummed up this process
is 4 million pending court cases.
Is it, what's the phrase?
It's, uh, justice delayed Isjustice denied 4 million cases.

(11:23):
That's ridiculous.
people are going to be in thesesituations for decades, and in the
meantime, they're gonna have families,they're gonna establish themselves,
and then at the end of this process,they're gonna actually show up to
some sort of court case and somebody'sgonna throw 'em outta the country.
I think what I'm, I.
Our big, fight that we had, a lot ofit was economic based, you know, like
immigrants are taking our jobs and we'vedispelled that in fact, one of the things

(11:47):
that we talked about with Melissa wasit's like, we also need to change the Visa
program where, yeah, you can get a PhD inmathematics here, but if you need somebody
to turn a wrench or to sell somethingor to start a business, good luck.
They're never gonna get into the country.
I think my question to you is, whathappens when there's an economic

(12:09):
downturn in the United States?
Because there is going to be,like it's not always up, but what
happens when things go down and whenpeople get into a scarcity mindset,
when there is competition forjobs, do you think that will turn.
Even uglier for immigrants,

Jerremy (12:28):
Oh yeah.
I can't have someone say they took ourjobs without thinking about the South
Park episode because they did that
two decades ago.
They took her and they just keptgoing and going and it's really
this fallacy I shouldn't sayit's a fallacy, it's a mindset.
It's a belief.
My opinion, I live more and whatI think is an abundance mindset.

(12:52):
And then you have other people that aregonna live in more of a scarcity mindset.
And the scarcity mindset isthere'll never be enough jobs.
And we have a limited amount and we're
gonna run out.
But the thought process thereis if you study more history and
you talk about the industrialrevolution changes all jobs, right?
Like in the 1890s, 99% ofevery job that existed was

(13:13):
agrarian.
Meaning it had something to do with foodor land, or growing something, right?
It was agricultural based, 99%.
And so now today, it's less
than 1%.
So no one's growing
shit, no one cares, right?
We got seven

(13:34):
farmers on
this

Dave (13:35):
I think one of 'em is Bill Gates, right?
Doesn't he own like a
Yeah.
Tons of

Jerremy (13:40):
Bill Gates is the best farmer, and you're correct.
So less than 1% is agrarian,and now we're all doing
it stuff.
Okay?
So AI comes, immigrants come,all these jobs get displaced,
taken, removed, and changed.
What is the entire world gonna do?
And the answer is we're going to have toadapt to something we always will, right?

(14:02):
Necessity is the mother of invention.
When humans sit around withlike, how do I make money?
And that thought comes inyour mind every single day,
you're gonna come up with ways.
And that's one of the reasonsthat podcasts blew up.
And I would say in the two thousandsfor sure, but definitely 2000
20 like COVID started happening.

(14:22):
Everyone's oh yeah, let's do podcasts.
And I know seven people personally.
I'm one of them that had a podcast duringthat time that exploded because it just
happened to be everyone was listeningto podcasts and the good ones took off.
Alright, that's an example of, hey, let'spick a random person that I know named
Greg was making $8,000 a year start apodcast, and because of podcasting and

(14:46):
three businesses that he could spendmore time, energy, and effort on, took
his income from 80,000 to 300,000.
Now he's employing more people.
He's paying more taxes.
All the things happened, all becauseof podcasting he literally quit his
job as a police officer and startedpodcasting and building a business.
Now he transformed what he did.

(15:07):
Humans will do that.

Alex (15:09):
Personal shifts unpacked, economic truths revealed—but
what if scarcity’s just a myth?
Next, we dive into the math provingAmerica’s limitless potential.
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