[speaker001:] so do you think we have an immigration problem right now
[speaker002:] well it's hard to say there is certainly uh some discussion about that with the uh people trying to come in from Haiti and uh the government wanting to send them back if there is no clear evidence of uh political uh repression
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] uh the country has set itself for so long as the uh the haven for people from other places uh giving them an opportunity for a new start but uh was back in the days when there was a lot of a lot of land and a lot of opportunities that uh just don't seem to be available now
[speaker001:] um-hum well I think I think there's still is a lot of land it's just not particularly desirable land yeah I think I think you know the plains were never completely settled
[speaker002:] that's true
[speaker001:] uh you know uh you know I'm I'm sure we I'm I'm I'm sure that you know there's plenty of room for room for immigrants in North and South Dakota but I just don't think that most immigrants want to move to North or South Dakota
[speaker002:] that uh that's true the uh I I think the fact though that there is not a standard uh or or an equitable policy in place is causing a lot of trouble
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] uh there was a essentially essentially an immigration lottery a few months back
[speaker001:] yeah I've been hearing about that it seemed like the silliest thing I'd ever heard you know the
[speaker002:] it
[speaker001:] you you can immigrate totally without merit
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] but um because you know you you get the lucky number
[speaker002:] right and one of the things that uh that everyone was up and arms about was that uh there was a certain preference given to uh to people coming over from Ireland
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and how how a decision like that is made uh oh we don't have enough Irish in this country just just seems to be be fairly strange uh uh either you know oh if we feel that we've been wrong in in keeping the Irish out or whatever it is I I don't understand
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] how this is all working and I'm not sure the people who are running it understand it either
[speaker001:] um-hum I probably agree well what what do you think we could do to make it better
[speaker002:] that's that's the hard question that that always seems to be the hard question I don't know that there's there's a lot we can do short of either uh not allowing any immigration whatsoever or opening the flood gates I think that any middle ground is going to uh have its it it it's going to have uh people complaining about discrimination and uh and other problems like that
[speaker001:] uh
[speaker002:] it's interesting to me to see the uh the current administration welcome people from one country and then people who are who are battling to get here from Haiti uh are are rounded up thrown on a military base and shipped back at the earliest possible moment
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] uh given the fact that uh a democracy was overthrown in Haiti it it's uh contradictory to the the policy of supporting democracy throughout the world that now we want to turn around and send them back because they don't like the uh the government the current government that overthrew the democracy
[speaker001:] um-hum it it it seems you know it seems almost as absurd as a few years ago when um and we uh you know we'd welcome uh refugees from Nicaragua for political reasons but you know if they're from El Salvador then
[speaker002:] um-hum right
[speaker001:] then they couldn't be fleeing to for political reasons because you know we we were friends with that government
[speaker002:] right right and I I think that maybe that selectivity is is a bigger problem than just the problem of immigration
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] is that when it is selective like that is fairly visible and people realize that uh oh yes we'll let these people in because uh we we don't like their government
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] uh it it it's an odd situation of course we haven't touched on at all what happens when these people with no visible means of support come to this country without any contacts or any uh
[speaker001:] were this skills that you know that are really marketable in our country
[speaker002:] or any right
[speaker001:] because you know you know of the yeah the the see especially hard to