Episode 94

full
Published on:

6th Aug 2025

From Scarcity to Abundance: The Immigration Fixes America Desperately Needs

It's 2025, and immigration lawyers are still mailing PDFs to government scanners. Melissa Harms and the hosts explore game-changing solutions: point-based visa systems, state-sponsored immigration programs, and AI-powered processing. The choice is clear—embrace an abundance mindset that built America's economic dominance, or watch our archaic 1946 system drive innovation overseas. From small business strategies to federal reform, this episode maps the pathway from medieval madness to modern immigration policy.

Timestamps:

  • (00:00) Potential Solutions and Final Thoughts
  • (01:46) Immigration Reform: Balancing Innovation and American Workers
  • (02:46) Student to Worker Transition: Reforming OPT and H-1B Systems
  • (04:58) State Programs: Why Local Solutions Matter
  • (10:31) Small Business Solutions for Hiring International Talent
  • (16:17) AI and Technology: Ending the PDF Mailing Madness
  • (21:37) Abundance vs. Scarcity: America's Immigration Crossroads
  • (24:59) What Did We Learn: The Path Forward


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Transcript
Alex:

We've exposed the mess—now let's fix it.

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From states sponsoring their own talent to

AI ending the PDF printing madness Melissa

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described, these aren't pipe dreams.

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They're real solutions for choosing

abundance over scarcity, exactly

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when America needs them most.

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Jerremy Newsome: So if you had to sum

this up, you can do it delicately or not.

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What is working, is

there a portion of this?

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You're like, man, we're crushing it here.

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We're doing really great.

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Melissa Harms: I think one of my

frustrations with H one Bs, and again,

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I keep coming back to those 'cause

it really is 70 to 80% of what we do.

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One of my frustrations with those has

been the way they change the adjudication

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standards without any sort of lawmaking.

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They just say, Nope, that doesn't

count as a specialty occupation.

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When they had more lax standards

about those H one Bs, it did work.

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And when we didn't have this lottery

system for H one Bs, it did work because

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like I said, when companies can hire a US

worker and not pay these fees, they will,

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and having those, even those inflated

salary surveys, just having some sort

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of salary protection on there, it works.

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What I think would work better is

some sort of point system where we

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can look at, and, other countries do

this, where we look at the individual's

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education, we look at, not if it's a.

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Bachelor's degree, but look

at a points, look at how long

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they've worked in the industry.

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Look at, how, what is their

impact gonna be on the US economy.

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Like some sort of point system where

we capture it in a different way.

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I think that could really work.

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I think the NIW, the streamlined MI

Ws for cases where people really are

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doing important work, we need that back.

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We need some sort of way to get these

cases approved for people who are

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generating money and jobs for Americans.

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So that was a really

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Jerremy Newsome: No,

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Brilliant.

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Melissa Harms: flaky response

because there's not too much

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that's working great right now.

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Jerremy Newsome: you gave me a good

segue because looking at Canada's point

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based immigration system, maybe you know,

Australia's regional programs where it's

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easier to immigrate to underpopulated

areas, you feel like that would be a

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very relevant thing to make a shift into.

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Melissa Harms: I do.

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And I'm definitely on the

moderate side of immigration.

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There are people who feel like

we should have open borders and

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I don't think we can do that.

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I want common sense immigration

reform, but it should make sense with

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balancing the needs of US workers

against what we need to remain relevant

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the world economy and innovative.

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I think that we're, especially, we

haven't really talked about this,

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but the recent crackdown on American

universities from the current

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administration we're gonna lose our best

and brightest of the university setting.

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And I think that's the

beginning of the end to me.

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Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.

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Valid.

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Talking about that.

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'cause I'm a huge educational guy.

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If you could the student to

worker transition process.

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What type of pathway would that look like?

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Or how would that kind of

be reformatted, Melissa?

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Melissa Harms: I think what would

be great is to have some of these

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workers work under this, like what

we call OPT and be required to do OPT

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before they transition to H but not

have them worry about the lottery.

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So if they had.

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Three years of work experience

under OPT, then they didn't have

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to go into the lottery because then

you can have employers really try

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'em out and make sure that they're

really somebody they wanna invest in.

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Because if, and I have this happen

all the time, where somebody will

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say, the company will say we hired

this person, but they're just not

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cutting it, so we're gonna lay 'em off.

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So give them a chance to train them and

figure out if they are worth it before

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they sponsor them for H one B, but

don't have it be this fear-based system

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where I better sponsor them or they'll

never get a chance to work with me.

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Jerremy Newsome: I really enjoy kinda

like what you mentioned in the sense

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of there should be some type of system

approach where you have US based

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students, obviously international

based students obviously, but if the

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internationals do wanna stay here, get

visas, get working, visas working into

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a transition, like just having that be.

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Grade related, right?

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Like how do they do,

how do their scores do?

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What

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Do?

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What type of jobs are they trying to get?

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And then making the

employment so much easier.

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'cause that kind of blows my

mind a little bit, that a company

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can sponsor someone and they're

in India and it takes 12 years.

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That's like the fourth of someone's life.

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Melissa Harms: Yes.

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To get a green card.

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Jerremy Newsome: already

said, yes, let's do this.

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Melissa Harms: I think getting back

to the student I mean I think that's

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where the system is broken right now

is that you do have this connection

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between the schools and the employers.

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We bring in these foreign students

and we bring in a lot of them and we

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bring 'em in to get educated here.

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So when we're bringing 'em in to

get educated here, there needs to

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be a pathway for them to stay and

implement that education, right?

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So that's why the federal government, in

some ways does need to get involved in

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the students and how many they're bringing

over are they just bringing 'em over?

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'cause they can pay full tuition.

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'cause a lot of schools.

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The foreign students pay more, right?

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So they make a lot of money

off the foreign students.

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Bring 'em over but then there's

gonna be no pathway for them to stay.

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It creates this friction right there.

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So that's where there needs to be.

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If you are brought into a US school and

you are in that top percent to be at that

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institution, then I feel like there should

be a way for you to stay here and work in

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the us But let's not bring over, I don't

even know the numbers, but 10 million

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foreign students and only have a pathway

for 85,000 of them to stay, every year.

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That's where I feel like the breakdown

happens is that these students

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come in with the feeling that once

I graduate from here, I can stay.

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Jerremy Newsome: yeah.

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That's a topic of immigration that I.

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Definitely know that not a lot of people

are discussing right now, which I'm so

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happy to have you on this podcast for.

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Because again, right now, especially

with the Trump administration and it's

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all about alligator Alcatraz and the

undocumented and the asylum seekers.

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But to that point, is a huge

portion that's affected by

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totally different aspects.

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We're like, Hey, listen, I'm working.

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I pay taxes.

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I'm a student.

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I'm here.

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I'm spending money in this economy.

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I'm spending money in this country.

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I have a job, I work here,

and I can't even get it.

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I can't stay in.

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That is definitely a wild broach.

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So I don't think people are

even really truly discussing.

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Melissa Harms: And expanding on that

from the business students I talked to,

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there's some people, these individuals

with these amazing ideas and they

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say to me, I wanna start a business.

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I've got funding.

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Can I hire myself for H one B?

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We have some rules that are making

it a little easier on them, but

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not great.

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And it is hard.

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So let's have a way for them when they're

starting a new business after graduating

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from a top five business school for

them to be able to start it and try it.

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And let's see what happens.

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Maybe it's a short term, you get

a five-year visa at a tryout your

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business, but let's figure out a

way if we're gonna bring 'em in, and

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they're these amazing people to have

'em stay if they're gonna come here.

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Jerremy Newsome: yeah.

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'Cause you talked about, the

entrepreneurship route and potentially

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that having some different application

process or awareness process point system.

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It makes sense to me.

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be beyond federal reform, Melissa,

and we're talking about schools too.

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I was like, what can states and cities do?

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Actually to help businesses

access global talent,

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Melissa Harms: Quite frankly,

there's not a lot they can do because

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immigration law is all federal.

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So to get these visas, they're

really working on the federal.

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I have a lot of great employers who are

doing things like helping the people on

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DACA transition from DACA into an H one B.

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Really trying to look at their

workforce with a holistic view of

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how can we help some of these people,

asylum seekers, and maybe helping

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with some of their fees or whatever.

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Because a lot of these people who are

in that other bucket I talked about

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are actually working at companies

in lawful status, but they're just

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in this very transitory phase.

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I do encourage employers to look

at sort of ways to be helpful to

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your foreign national workforce

other than just sponsorship.

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Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.

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And for the small businesses,

Melissa, like small business owners

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who needs international talent, but

fears the system, what are three

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practical steps that they could

take this week, in your opinion?

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Melissa Harms: That's

a really good question.

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I do work with a lot of

small employers who are very.

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They're so nervous about doing it about

sponsoring somebody for H one B, and I

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think the first thing I do is say that's

usually a student that they've hired

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that they wanna get an H one B for, and

I just lay out the costs and say, you

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just have to know these are the costs and

these are what you could be sacrificing.

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And as long as they're willing

to do that then we go forward.

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And it's just honestly, find a partner

who will, an immigration partner who will

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explain everything to you very clearly

and simply about what happens next.

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And it's hard to understand, but walk you

through the whole process because that's

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what we need with those smaller employers.

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I do encourage all my employers

to sign up for E-Verify.

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I know it's.

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It's not the best system, but it

does show a good faith approach

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to following the immigration laws.

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So I think E-Verify is definitely useful.

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Again, not perfect.

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And then I think another thing that you

would wanna look at are some of the,

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causes you can help in your community.

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There are a lot of different, there's a

group I work with called Talent Beyond

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Boundaries, and they help bring in

highly skilled workers who are working.

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You might have an engineer that's

in a Syrian basement that would

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like to do, electrical engineering

somewhere very qualified, so they try

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to match them up with us employers.

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Look at ways like that to find talent

where you can't find American workers.

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So being a little creative and

there are a lot of great ways

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you can help for nationals and

still help your business succeed.

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Jerremy Newsome: And then from a, let's

just say even bigger front, right?

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So we talked about the small guys.

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If American businesses unite

on one immigration, ask

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Congress, what should it be?

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Melissa Harms: I think it would be

to give us a workable work visa that

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captures like a point-based work visa.

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I think if they could, revisit the H

one B with today's economy, today's

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professions, like there are a lot of

professions now that do allow for a

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number of different bachelor's degrees.

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The bachelor's degree is a

antiquated requirement in my mind.

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Looking at your work visa and

look at it more of a point system.

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And then, the lottery, making

the lottery more equitable.

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People like the individual who's been

through nine times, there should be some

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sort of allowance given to people the more

times they've gone through the lottery.

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I don't know.

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I think we can just really revisit

the work visa at this point.

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Dave Conley: So I think it was in

previous episodes that we've had.

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We also know that, so much of

this is geared towards college

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yet where we need to be doing.

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Probably most of the hiring in the United

States is in blue collar professions.

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And by and large, the electricians,

the concrete workers, the people

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who are actually building.

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Are from outside of this country.

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So what does point-based system mean?

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How does that work?

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Does it say, oh, you

have a bachelor's degree?

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Yes.

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Or you have a, high skillset.

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Yes.

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What does point-based mean?

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Melissa Harms: I like those examples

because I do think that there's points

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for different occupations that we need.

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So part of that point system

could be based on what's the

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need for that occupation.

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And every year there could be some sort

of indexing of where are the occupations

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that are unfilled by US workers?

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And those get an extra point.

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So you could bring in people in,

because that's another complaint I

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have a lot, like maybe it's somebody

that's just an exceptional, very

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exceptional sales, for example.

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And this person's sales, like that's

probably my most common need is

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that a lot of these companies, this

guy's been selling for me from.

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From abroad, and his sales

numbers are through the roof.

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I wanna bring him into the

US and I'm like, no, I can't

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get a visa for a sales guy.

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No way.

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No how so maybe past performance or

income or, there's just some allowance

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for a lot of different factors besides

that just being your educational degrees.

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Jerremy Newsome: I am sure AI could

track that somewhere, Dave, easily.

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It could be some relatively

simple database, but again, it'd

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be a good opportunity as well

about built out and tracked and

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measured because that'd be cool.

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Kinda like the credit system,

which is also totally broken,

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but it's the least trackable.

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People can log in and see what's going on.

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Melissa Harms: I, I'm at large.

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I'm not a fan of people from the

outside coming in to run the government.

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Thinking they know more

than everybody else.

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But that said, I do think there's ways you

could privatize some of this, to start a

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system using real world common sense about

how to make the immigration system work.

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Jerremy Newsome: Yeah, totally.

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That's that's a huge blue ocean

of opportunity in my opinion.

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Just especially, and the conversation

we had last podcast was about the forms

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and and helping, all the documentation

needs to happen for the undocumented

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immigrants who are trying to come in

and they just, they've already been here

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for sec seven years and they feel right.

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Just go through this whole process,

like, how can we speed up everything

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And give the ability for lawyers to, or.

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Judges to just see things so much faster,

articulate things, so much faster,

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document things so much faster, become

aware of the problem, the solutions so

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much quicker, turn days into minutes using

some AI scanning tools, logging tools,

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metric tools, things of that nature.

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Again, probably we privatize, but

ultimately is just still a product that

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right now would be extremely helpful.

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Melissa Harms: Yeah I mean with, so

my role with our National Lawyers

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Association was with I was head of the

government collaboration subcommittee

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of the technology innovation.

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And so I worked with U-S-C-I-S

and some of the stupid stuff

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that we're doing right now.

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So we, when I file an H one B petition,

I can file it online now, but if I

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file an H one B work thing online, I

can't use my private case management

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system that I use to get all the

information from these people securely.

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I can't use that data and hook it up

to U-S-C-I-S right now, there is no

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there's no way to connect those two.

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Jerremy Newsome: Crazy.

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Melissa Harms: I wanna file something

electronically, I have to input the

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data myself or my team does, right?

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So much data.

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So I don't file petitions electronically.

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Now, some firms have worked around this

and used done their own sort of API

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to make it work that USAS doesn't want

them doing, but they have done that.

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But USAS hasn't created APIs that

we can use with our private system.

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So then we have to input

everything manually.

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So that means I am still

sending paper applications

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into U-S-C-I-S, which is giant.

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And the way, my team is all, we all are.

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We work.

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In various places around the country.

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So we upload, we have PDFs, everything

stored securely, and then what we

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have to do is print that PDF, put

it in a FedEx mailer, mail it to

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USAS, and then U-S-C-I-S has a team

of people scanning in our paper.

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Okay?

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So my question was, why can't you

let us upload that PDF until you

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have an API where our databases

can talk, let us upload that you

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get to fire all your scanners.

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I get to save paper and,

environmental costs of the shipping.

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And they promise us that by the end

of fiscal year:

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Has not happened.

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We cannot upload an application yet.

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So that's tiny.

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That's a tiny idea of how bad

U-S-C-I-S is, they need to be.

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U-S-C-I-S could be completely

cleared out as far as I'm concerned

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and start it over again, but,

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Dave Conley: And it's an

extraordinarily simple change, right?

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Like a, a tech team could

put that together in no time.

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Even with archaic systems.

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I know this because I did government

computer work and I know how bad

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those systems are, but something

like accepting A PDF and then, but

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because they have to scan it back

into some system anyways is bonkers.

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We had a guest last week that, for his

wife they had to take physical photos

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down to an office of their wedding to

prove that they had gotten married.

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And it was like I don't even

know where to print photos.

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What would I do?

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What is this?

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Melissa Harms: Yeah.

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Dave Conley: it, you've been

doing this for 25 years.

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25 years from now, what

would you say we got right?

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And what would you say we got wrong?

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Melissa Harms: You mean where do

I see it going the next 25 years

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Dave Conley: i.

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Melissa Harms: Yeah.

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I don't know.

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I'm scared to answer that question because

I think we're all very scared about the

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practice of immigration law in general.

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One thing, and this isn't really to

the government, but we're all very

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scared of what AI is gonna do to

immigration law because, there's,

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immigration is incredibly complex.

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People think I just fill out

a form and that's all I do.

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But there are so many

nuances to what we do.

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If what we see is that kind of the dumbing

down of immigration law where people are

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going to be getting in trouble 'cause

they're doing things through AI and

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not understanding all the implications.

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So that's one that's looking at more

the practice of immigration law.

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But then in terms of what I see,

our country right now is being fed

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so many, lies about immigration.

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And I think what my goal is for people

to get out of this is read the facts

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on what immigration does for our

economy, how they're not replacing us

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workers, the e the economic benefits,

the taxes that immigrants pay.

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All of these positives about

immigration, our country.

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Rich history with immigration.

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We are a nation of immigrants.

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And the last really big

amnesty program was by Ronald

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Reagan, a Republican, in 1986.

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And there were a lot of positives

out of that:

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best friend who's now a US citizen,

ause she was unlawful back in:

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No, but there's just the, for the

American people to get the truth

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because I think particularly in some

areas of the country people feel

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like immigrants are taking away their

jobs, and that's simply not the case.

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And so I think that is more what

I wanna shout from the rooftops

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is get the facts out there.

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Read about the economic benefits of

immigration and how can we do this right.

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Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.

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And again, I think we blend both

immigration challenges together in

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the same bucket far too often as

well, just from a media standpoint.

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If you go to a county fair and

start talking to people about

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immigration, they think it's just

people coming across the borders.

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They're not even thinking about the

area where you're in or the corporations

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you're in, their business you're in.

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We're like, Hey, we're hiring talent and

it's a large number of people and we need

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that talent 'cause we're growing, right?

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The country's growing.

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And to surmise it, for me, it really

comes down to almost an abundance versus

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:

scarcity mindset where you'll hear that

in books, you'll hear that in programs or

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like your random woowoo Instagram channel.

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But if we really think about

the abundance approach.

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We're saying is there's more than enough.

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There's more than enough to go around.

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There's plenty.

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:

And if we approach it from the

scarcity of there's not enough, we

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:

need to shrink, we need to close,

we need to be scared, we need to

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:

be worried, we need to be panicked.

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:

There's not enough jobs.

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:

AI's gonna take everything.

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:

Everyone's gonna fight tooth to nail.

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:

That's a scarcity mindset, right?

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:

There isn't a post abundance, post

scarcity world coming too, where

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:

everyone has more than enough.

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:

Everyone has opportunities like that

also exists, and it's gonna require

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:

some level of just bigger thinking.

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:

And I really like that approach.

384

:

So where it's like, Hey, listen,

this is adding to our economy

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:

and the best way is imaginable.

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:

That's what created this country after we

settled it, in the ginormous open gate of

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:

all the immigrations that we allowed in

the late 18 hundreds, early 19 hundreds.

388

:

And that's what caused this country

to become massive, incredible, just

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:

this generous, overflowing cornucopia

of the world's largest economy.

390

:

We brought everyone together and

we had that abundant mindset.

391

:

We didn't fall into the scarcity, into

the beliefs that there's not enough.

392

:

Melissa Harms: And that said I wouldn't

go so far to say open borders, but we need

393

:

a common sense approach and we do need to

think about the job market in particular,

394

:

as being, we just want it bigger.

395

:

We want it bigger and bigger.

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:

And the more opportunities we

create, the better off we are.

397

:

And so far, I would say over my 25

years, I feel like immigration has been

398

:

a limiting factor for economic growth.

399

:

Particularly, everything I've seen

when I started back in:

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:

like everything's gotten worse.

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:

There's nothing where I can say,

oh, this has gotten so much better.

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:

I feel like everything has gotten worse.

403

:

That's where you, when you ask me

to go 25 years in the future, I'm

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:

like, how much worse can I get?

405

:

Jerremy Newsome: Yeah.

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:

We need to make some changes now.

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:

We hope that this podcast

will at least inspire a few

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:

thousand people to do just that.

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:

Not only make that change,

make that shift, but be aware

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:

create maybe new policies.

411

:

As you mentioned, take something

from the private sector, bring

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:

into the governmental sector just

in case it can speed up processes.

413

:

We've used the word archaic way too much.

414

:

We shouldn't be using it this much.

415

:

It is 20, 25.

416

:

PDFs shouldn't be mailed into

anything, anywhere, ever again.

417

:

especially for someone's livelihood,

418

:

Melissa Harms: Yep.

419

:

Jerremy Newsome: right?

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:

For someone's life.

421

:

You mentioned families, children,

jobs, like that's really what this is.

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:

This is economy.

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:

This is growing.

424

:

It does not, should not need word

archaic shouldn't be here anymore.

425

:

And I just wanna motivate and encourage

everyone who's here and everyone who's

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:

listening, we have opportunities.

427

:

They're all around us.

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:

We just have to look for them.

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:

We have to find them.

430

:

And Melissa, thank you for sharing

your wealth of knowledge, your

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:

excitement, your details about this

topic, and giving us a glimmer of not

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:

only hope, but just also solutions.

433

:

Easy implications, easy applications

that can be upgraded, updated, and

434

:

changed to make this a better, faster,

quicker, more efficient process.

435

:

Melissa Harms: Thanks, Jerremy.

436

:

It was a pleasure to talk to you

and Dave and I look forward to

437

:

your resolution of this crisis.

438

:

Jerremy Newsome: Thank you, Melissa.

439

:

Awesome guest.

440

:

Very informative, very

smart, great talker.

441

:

Dave Conley: Yeah.

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:

Jerremy Newsome: A lot of good content.

443

:

Was able to carry a lot of stuff for us.

444

:

You asked amazing questions.

445

:

Dave Conley: this whole

thing has surprised me.

446

:

What did you learn?

447

:

Jerremy Newsome: You know

the part that intrigues me.

448

:

Is that as a country of this size, we

do just have such mundane processes

449

:

that I'm just trying to figure out why.

450

:

I know that's why Elon was like,

listen, I'm just gonna come in, throw

451

:

a couple hundred million dollars.

452

:

I'm gonna create the Department of

Government efficiency and poof, we'll

453

:

have a more effective government.

454

:

And that dude who freaking

blows up rockets and was

455

:

like, nah, that's too hard.

456

:

Let's make 'em sit.

457

:

Let's make 'em come back to the same

planet, the same launch launching pad.

458

:

Let's reuse a rocket over and over.

459

:

guy was like, nah, this is too tough.

460

:

Dave Conley: This,

461

:

Jerremy Newsome: Where is this?

462

:

Dave Conley: The guy who builds

all of these incredible businesses

463

:

launches things into space like an

actual rocket scientist built brand

464

:

new cars, tunnels under the ground.

465

:

The government broke him.

466

:

Jerremy Newsome: Yeah,

467

:

Dave Conley: yeah,

468

:

Jerremy Newsome: in three months.

469

:

And yeah, man, I'm just like that.

470

:

Why are we doing it in such a backend?

471

:

1947, our girl, Melissa's a 25-year-old

top tier attorney for huge, mega

472

:

businesses and is mailing in documentation

that her team is running down by hand

473

:

because she needs to get people's visas

so they can have jobs, so they can

474

:

support their family, so they can spend.

475

:

Thousands of dollars a year on these

stupid taxes that we're probably just

476

:

throwing away at people for no reason.

477

:

That's what I'm learning, man.

478

:

I'm excited to fix and update a lot

of these challenges and problems

479

:

because I know it's possible.

480

:

I know it's doable and it's just

connecting with, I love that she

481

:

said the word, the private market.

482

:

I am on the exact opposite end of

that discussion where I think the

483

:

privatized sector is where we've

probably fixed most of the government.

484

:

And I don't believe that the

government shouldn't be people that

485

:

are not probably a double negative.

486

:

They should be filled with people

who did come from the private

487

:

sector, who just were citizens.

488

:

We're like, Hey, I've done

some really cool things.

489

:

Now my money's figured out.

490

:

For the most part, I'm not gonna

take a bunch of money from other

491

:

countries or corporations or

companies to make my lifestyle better.

492

:

'cause that's obviously illegal

and I shouldn't be doing that.

493

:

So I'm just gonna be a public

servant and just make this stuff

494

:

run better and quicker, efficient.

495

:

My job is to literally sit down and

figure how to solve this problem

496

:

within this domain that I'm focused on.

497

:

I do not think that immigration should

be as federally overwhelming as it is.

498

:

I think I've mentioned that before.

499

:

I think there should be other

departments, other governments, other

500

:

efficiencies that should also be handling

that where it's not the deporter in

501

:

chief, Obama, or it's not Trump who

are like, this is not the way it is.

502

:

And now I have the 16th largest

military in the world ICE all this.

503

:

And we're not spending time

to make it quicker, more

504

:

efficient and less militaristic.

505

:

And that just seems weird to me.

506

:

And this is a very fascinating topic.

507

:

And again, it is one of the ones to me

and many of them have been for sure.

508

:

But this is one where I'm like, wow.

509

:

Wow.

510

:

We wow.

511

:

It affects so many people, so

blatantly every single day.

512

:

yes, education and my main component

does affect people daily, but it's

513

:

also gonna be something that's

gonna be longer term effects, right?

514

:

Like when you study.

515

:

Taxes and we study the stock market.

516

:

When we study money and we study finance

and we study health, those are effects

517

:

that do prolong themselves, right?

518

:

They take weeks, months, maybe even years,

but this is one that's been affecting

519

:

people for decades and will continue to

affect people for decades, but affects

520

:

people in everyday life right now, on

a big scale, no one is seemingly doing

521

:

anything about it, and it's quite wild.

522

:

That's what I learned.

523

:

Hand it over.

524

:

Dave Conley: Okay.

525

:

What did I learn?

526

:

I learned that we spend all of

our time talking about illegal and

527

:

alligator alley and deportations

and all of the money goes to that.

528

:

Yet this topic, legal,

immigration, people wanting jobs.

529

:

This should be the number one discussion

point when it comes to immigration.

530

:

it's fear mongering.

531

:

in comparison to this.

532

:

These are people who are building the

economy, building the next stuff, building

533

:

the things that we need in this country.

534

:

Pathways to citizenship, pathways

to, blue collar jobs and the people

535

:

who we need to build this country.

536

:

I think that this legal immigration

thing needs to be the number one

537

:

thing that we're talking about.

538

:

And in a way, I think that

solves the undocumented

539

:

All of these people are here for

a lot of different reasons, but

540

:

primarily, we've learned that a

lot of it's economically driven.

541

:

you want to be in the United States.

542

:

These are the people who are

building our homes and building our

543

:

Jerremy Newsome: Yep.

544

:

Dave Conley: and harvesting

food and all those things.

545

:

And so the, this discussion

needs to be about.

546

:

Jobs and business and economics

and what's right for America.

547

:

And I think that solves the

illegal immigration part of this.

548

:

So I think that we are

focused on the wrong things.

549

:

the second thing I learned is I think

states should be pretty involved.

550

:

Jerremy Newsome: Yeah, dude.

551

:

Like

552

:

Over here.

553

:

So I asked a question and after I

asked, I was like, am I an idiot?

554

:

Dave Conley: I

555

:

Jerremy Newsome: for asking that question?

556

:

'cause she's right.

557

:

Dave Conley: bonkers.

558

:

Jerremy Newsome: federal, but there's

no one going into the federal government

559

:

from an immigration standpoint.

560

:

It's a hundred percent

states that get affected.

561

:

That's it.

562

:

Who else?

563

:

Dave Conley: And it's different for.

564

:

Jerremy Newsome: Each state.

565

:

Dave Conley: states like Arizona,

Texas Florida, California.

566

:

There's different needs,

different aspects to this.

567

:

Like why aren't states sponsoring these

H one visas or they have their own visa?

568

:

It's okay, yeah, but you

gotta work in California.

569

:

Oh, boohoo.

570

:

I think would be even more valuable

is rural, we've talked about this

571

:

with housing, like rural community

sponsoring people to be like,

572

:

come on in, we got plenty of land.

573

:

Jerremy Newsome: Yep.

574

:

Dave Conley: jobs to fill.

575

:

It's come on.

576

:

We welcome you, rather than the whole

eating our dogs, eating the cats thing.

577

:

It's no, come to America and work

in our rural hospitals and work in

578

:

our, I think states should be deeply

involved and there's a disproportionate

579

:

impact for states like Texas.

580

:

So they're gonna have different,

they're gonna have different.

581

:

Problems too.

582

:

And Texas has different problems

than Florida, even though we both

583

:

have a high immigrant population,

so states need to be involved.

584

:

And then the last part on the solution

thing is that this thing hasn't really

585

:

substantively been touched since 1965, and

then again in the eighties and a little

586

:

bit, under DACA with President Obama.

587

:

This thing is a patchwork of mess,

mainly designed by special interest,

588

:

probably, like being very protectionist

and they don't know what left

589

:

hand is affecting the right hand.

590

:

So that's created this Byzantine thing.

591

:

And politicians, which we've said over

and over again, know nothing about this.

592

:

And the people that do know it.

593

:

Need to be designing these systems.

594

:

Those are business people and those

are the immigrants themselves.

595

:

And we get those two groups together

in a public private partnership

596

:

with saying, okay, are the things

that we need to build in America.

597

:

These are the social aspects of

this, and these are the immigrants

598

:

and immigrant experiences.

599

:

We'd have a really sane immigration plan.

600

:

We talked about like

the points-based system.

601

:

Like I am sure that a sane immigration

plan that isn't open to all the borders

602

:

and isn't nobody comes in, come out of

this because what we have now is, again,

603

:

medieval, we're gonna keep saying that.

604

:

Jerremy Newsome: Team, if this is

firing you up as much as it is myself

605

:

and Dave Conley, let just promote this

episode, promote this entire podcast.

606

:

Do what you can, and hit us

with those five star reviews.

607

:

Listen, if you've got a 14-year-old

son that has a phone, take it from him.

608

:

up the podcast, click that five

star review, write a quick review.

609

:

The more reviews, the more stars that we

get, the more people that will listen.

610

:

The bigger the audience.

611

:

The bigger the audience, the more

solutions that we will not only

612

:

think about, know about, hear about,

but we will be able to create.

613

:

You can find us, solve USA

Pod on X or solving America's

614

:

Problems podcast Instagram.

615

:

We are gonna still be here.

616

:

We're gonna continue to pour into you.

617

:

Thank you so much for being a listener.

618

:

You rock.

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About the Podcast

Solving America's Problems
Solving America’s Problems isn’t just a podcast—it’s a journey. Co-host Jerremy Newsome, a successful entrepreneur and educator, is pursuing his lifelong dream of running for president. Along the way, he and co-host Dave Conley bring together experts, advocates, and everyday Americans to explore the real, actionable solutions our country needs.

With dynamic formats—one-on-one interviews, panel discussions, and more—we cut through the noise of divisive rhetoric to uncover practical ideas that unite instead of divide. If you’re ready to think differently, act boldly, and join a movement for meaningful change, subscribe now.