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The official home of the big bold podcast finding the heartwarming, heartbreaking and sometimes hilarious stories of American refugees. People coming into America, people moving out of America, people getting displaced within the country. You’re about to hear remarkable stories rooted in the most pressing human rights challenges of our time. Get ready to be enchanted by the tenacity and beauty of the human spirit! This is American Refugee.
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They came here as young children, brought illegally into the country. They've since grown up here, been educated here, work here, the children of undocumented immigrants who are still considered illegal. They are the Dreamers, an estimated 750,000 of them, protected by deferred action stopping ICE from deporting them. But that deferral might come t…
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He's a black man with a pit bull. You're about to join Sam Reeves, a black man from Northside Minneapolis, walking his pit bull in Southside Minneapolis, where the white community lives. What could go wrong? Since the murder of George Floyd, a country of 330M has turned its collective eye to Minneapolis, specifically Northside Minneapolis, where th…
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During the Vietnam War, The CIA coopt the Hmong in Laos to fight communism. The American people aren't told. An estimated 300,000 Hmong die during the Secret War. The Hmong who survive escape genocide and become refugees, awaiting to come to America, to the country they fought for. As our country today struggles with being the world's shining knigh…
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Because invasive species are, right now, endangering our habitat, water and food systems on which we Americans depend to survive. To 'Stop The Spread' our incredible scientists have asked the general public to be on the lookout for such foreign invaders as the Asian Carp and Mexican Evil Weevil. But how does conditioning the public to find and remo…
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Minneapolis has become America. The murder of George Floyd. The killing of Daunte Wright. A country of 330M turns its collective eye to Minneapolis. This city has become the tinderbox of long hot summer streets exploding into a final reckoning with the dark winter nights of American racism. You're about to go on a journey through the injustice whic…
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This episode is about a different kind of displacement - rock musicians forcibly removed from doing the only thing they know how to do. Live rock is the nation within our nation, and the coronavirus pandemic stopped it cold. How have musicians survived in exile? What are the ways rockers have exercised their expressive spirit after physical connect…
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To circumvent the final and busiest immigration checkpoint in Texas, Central American migrants illegally crossing into the United States go on a 20-mile walk through backcountry brush. And every night at least one migrant dies attempting to make this 20-mile walk across the merciless terrain of Brooks County, Texas. They die of dehydration. They di…
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They come on temporary visas to do academic research at major U.S. universities. They're now responsible for creating more American patents than their U.S. student counterparts. But the problem is - there's a lot less of them here. They are America's immigrant scholars. And for the past several years America has erected barriers to keep them out. I…
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He came to the United States when he was 9 years old. He's now a U.S. Marine leading the most intense online fitness workouts. Today, he's known as the Iron Wolf. During the pandemic, everyone has been worried about their health. Maintaining it, supporting it with exercise, staying active. Everyone has a fitness story. Well get ready to hear a wild…
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A young mother from Guatemala, victim of domestic violence, takes her kids on a perilous journey to the US where Mom applies for asylum. Mom makes it here only during the coronavirus pandemic to be quarantined in a Minneapolis home where she again becomes physically assaulted at the hands of another man. One local woman goes to astonishing lengths …
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Gregorio Montejo, a Mexican immigrant, after 25 years of working in the United States is taken to Sherburne County Jail. Now his family is fighting to get him released. Because in this country, anything is possible. Or is it? You're going inside America's criminal justice system, as you follow one immigrant family's journey from central Minnesota t…
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In 2014 a young woman's murdered body was found on the side of the road in Warren, Ohio. The case went unsolved. Now, 6 years later, the mother for the first time is going to the very spot where her daughter's body was found. She's bringing along one of America's leading paranormal investigation teams to contact the spirit of her daughter, and to l…
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Minneapolis Police arrive at the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in response to a call about a counterfeit $20 bill… You're going into Minneapolis during the week following the murder of George Floyd. You're about to take a unique journey through the heart of a city on fire. You're going to hear anguished voices on the front lines of…
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Inside a small county jail in central Minnesota, 300 immigrants are caged up to 20 hours a day, never allowed outside, some detained by ICE up to a year. Some endure special treatment: solitary confinement, abuse, medical negligence, sexual assault. What if detained immigrants are being subjected to a kind of torture before they're deported? What i…
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Get ready to meet America's hardworking trucker drivers, the road refugees who today risk their lives not just delivering to the doorsteps of our homes but to grocery store shelves, and hospitals. But not only are you about to hear how hard it is to be a trucker, you'll be along for the ride with a big-hearted, big-muscled 18-wheel truck driving le…
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Detained immigration court is a place where lawyers aren't provided for the defense, where judges and prosecutors are on the same team, where guilty is presumed and the all-too-often verdict a different kind of death. Who are these immigration judges? What exactly is detained court? And how is it able to get away with operating outside of what we m…
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She escaped domestic assault, poverty, street crime, and a husband mixed up with a drug cartel. She took her five kids and ran, using every last cent she had to make the journey. When she arrived she was cold and afraid but never without hope, even as she still battled being homeless. Her name is Angel. And you're about to hear her story. In native…
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Los Algodones is the tiny Mexican border town called Molar City. Thousands of US citizens are going there each day to save on dental work that would have cost thousands of dollars more at home. Who are these American dental refugees? And how easy and safe is it to have implants, crowns and extractions done in Mexico? You're not only about to hear w…
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