Cracking down on birth tourism and marriage scams | Hour 1

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron. Go to thepeteclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so much for your support. My name is Pete Calener and if you would like to hit me up on the Twitter machine formerly known as x you can find me at Pete Calender. Very simple if you know how to spell the last name. That's K A L I N E R no d ain't no d in calendar. All right. I have talked in the last few weeks about this black pilling doomerism that all the party or both of the parties are the same, there's no difference, nothing ever changes, right, this doomerism, all is lost, We're doomed. And I don't agree with that. By the way, I think that would be a self fulfilling prophecy if you do believe that and then you engage in absolutely zero activities to try to stop the doom loop. Then yes, I guess you could be correct. Like whether you think you can or cannot, you are correct. So I prefer to think we can. Not to get all Obama on you, but yes we can a republic. If we can keep it, can we keep it? Well, that's on us to do. And if you're of the mindset that all is lost there's no difference between either of the parties, then what's the point. I'm just going to check out, and I guess wait for the tanks to roll in or something. Then you have surrendered. You've abdicated your birthright, the responsibility that you have that I have, We all have in preserving the American project that people died for. So I take that pretty seriously. Just personally, I'm going to do what I can to preserve the project. Your mileage may vary, which brings me to the latest example of why the parties are not the same. The Department of Justice has just indicted eleven people charged in connection with a decade long nationwide marriage fraud scheme involving more than one thousand sham marriages. The eleven defendants are primarily citizens of Do you want to take a guess, I'll get all right, I'll give you three guesses. In fact, why don't we play, asked the producer. Let's ask Nick first? Who would you guess? The defendants primarily are citizens. What country are they from? Sorry, Bernie doesn't even get to take a guess. It's China. Nick got it on the first guess, which you should have as well. China. Some individuals paid up to one hundred thousand dollars per sham marriage, which is crazy because I'd have done it for fifty Okay, I would have done it for half of that, but one hundred k for a sham marriage. All of the named defendants are residents of the state of Bernie. What state are the named defendants? All residents of Oh my gosh, of Bernie A state? A US state. Hong Kong is not a US That is not correct. It is not California. Nick, would you like to take a guess? No, it's not Florida. Bernie a chance at redemption. New York. You can make it there. That's what I've heard. All of them are from New York. Amazing. It's been about forty years since Congress passed the immigration marriage Fraud Amendments of nineteen eighty six, which added a new section, Section two sixteen to the Immigration and National Nationality Act or THENA, or as I call it, the INNA, as opposed to the AUTA. That's a different different section. Establishes a two year conditional permanent resident status for alien spouses and their children who become permanent residents through marriage or as immediate relatives. This was to try to deter this kind of shenanigan. Any individual who knowingly enters into a MA marriage for the purpose of evading any provision of the immigration laws shall be imprisoned for no more than five years or fined not more than a quarter million dollars or both. Those are the penalties. A two hundred and fifty thousand dollars fine, by the way, back in nineteen eighty six, would be over three quarters of a million dollars today thanks to inflation, thanks a lot Joe Biden. So. But that's how important and how essential this idea was to Congress in nineteen eighty six, right that they wanted to try to make it so onerous of a punishment that people would be dissuaded from engaging in the marriage scams. Then there is the birth tourism component you'll recall. Earlier this month, Trump issued Executive Order one four nine, which directed dhs in the Department of State to use their statutory authorities to quote ensure non immigrant visa classifications are used only for lawful and intended purposes and to prevent the exploitation of those classifications by persons engaging in birth tourism. Six days after that executive order was announced, they established what's formally called the Birth Tourism Prevention Task Force or the BTPTF or the bit of pitoph as I call it. The Department of State says it's already revoked more than six hundred visas. This is since. August twelfth, so as of five days ago, Okay State Department has revoked more than six hundred visas to curb abuses of the birthright citizenship laws, and State Department vows to do more to undermine what it describes as a pervasive and lucrative for profit birth tourism industry run by facilitators who sometimes market themselves as doulas, midwives, or wellness advocates while openly advertising birth in the US services. Along with visa coaching and hospital arrangements. See, the parties are not the same. Show me any Democrat that has been president recently, like all right, Obama Biden, because I think Bill Clinton may have done something like this, depending on what scandal he may have been embroiled in that he wanted to distract us from. So he may have done something like this in the past. You know, triangulation and all of that. But there isn't. A major candidate, an actual legitimate president candidate on the Democrat side, that would do any of this. And you know that I know that right they're talking about open borders, they're talking about abolishing ice. They are not interested in enforcing these kinds of laws. So when people tell me that there's no difference between the parties, I immediately know that I am dealing with somebody who is intellectually stunted, ignorant, or blackpilled. Just letting you know if you're going to make this argument to me that there's quote no difference between the parties. That's not to say that both parties don't engage in similar behaviors on occasion. They do, absolutely, But what excuse me when it comes to the underlying ideology of the majority of the people and the actions that this administration has been taking, for example, they are not the same. And again that's not a defense of everything that this administration is doing. I'm very troubled by the fact that the administration is taking ownership steak in businesses. That makes it really difficult to argue that Republicans are against socialism right when you're taking ownership stakes and businesses' that's counter two free markets. The government should not be doing that, but it is, and a lot of people are excusing it, and they shouldn't be. I'm not now. I did see an interesting take from a fellow by the name of Pat Smith talking about immigration over in the UK. I'll tell you what he said, or let you listen to what he said in mere moments. All right. For over a year now you've heard me talking about Create a Video. Great local company in mint Hill that has helped more than two million families preserve their memories by turning old photos, VHS, tapes, film reels and slides into lasting keepsakes. 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Then after the trip we're gathering, they'll professionally turn your shared moments into a beautiful storytelling video that your whole group can stream and download and treasure for years. Check out Group travel Videos dot com. That's Group Travel Videos dot com. Or call seven O four eight four six seventy eight seventy extension two O six. And when you do that, ask for Katie. But Pete, can I just email? Well, yes you can. You can email Katie Katie at group travel Videos dot Com group travel videos from old memories to new adventures, preserving life's moments for a lifetime. So this fellow is out of the UK. His name is Pat Smith, and he posted a video onto the social media's about immigration and uh this was an interview apparently that he was doing as he was attempting to immigrate or migrate or immigrate whatever to China, and it did not go as he thought it would. Okay, Patsmith here, Okay, I think we can all agree. Everything here is a little bit too Chinese. All the restaurants and cafes and that for a start, way too many noodles. I don't eat noodles. You know we're going to need pine mash hammeg and chips. I mean you need the cater to me. Yeah. No, I don't think you understand. I'm not from here. Okay. I left the UK because I didn't like it, all. Right, so I need you to change everything to make it feel like it's the UK. Yeah, still know, is it right? Okay? Well? Also I can't really work at the minute anxiety. Yeah, so when do I get my money? Obviously, got a few kids at home and also there they're going to need to come here. That's a no brainer. Why do you keep saying no. I've noticed as well there's a lot of Chinese people here as well. So I was thinking we could get loads of me. Over here and we have our own little area and then you lock and just puff. Does that sound good? It doesn't? Well, no, hear me out, because I was thinking, if we get loads of me over here, then we can vote in one of me to be in charge, and then we can all start telling you a lot out to live. And after that I was going to organize some marches where we go through the streets chanting anti Chinese sentiments. So obviously you'll need to protect us while we do that. Death and know as well? Is it? Oh and finally I am here illegally. Yeah, didn't respect the rules on that one. So do I just choose any hotel? Or have you got certain prison right? So Pat's patsbe there's a comedian and you get the jest. Do you understand how insane that sounds? And that is the system that the UK is using, and to a lesser degree, but very very similarly here in the US as well. And it's nuts, by the way, everybody talking about affordability and crashing out over. Housing prices? Did you happen to care the report that came out from the Federal Reserve, they had a working paper that the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Was working on. Because it's a working paper and as opposed to like the bourgeois papers, that's different. But the working paper found that the record surge in illegal immigration during the Biden administration triggered higher home prices and rents, no way increasing the supply of people looking for housing that would have an impact on the housing stock prices. Really, so, what you're telling me is. That when the demand surges and there is not enough supply to meet demand, then the prices of the product or service go up because demand is outstripping supply. That's interesting. Somebody should write this down. This seems like some sort of i don't know, like a principle, maybe a theory. If we could only prove it somehow, you know, I mean, if we could prove it, then you could even call it like a law of something, a law of demand, maybe demand and supply. We could call it that, just alphabetically, law of demand and supply. Right now, the author's caution that the study is a preliminary draft and it does not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas or the Federal Reserve System. These are just a working paper put together by some researchers inside the Federal Reserve System who are relying on a potential theory or law of demand and supply. Researchers found that the influx of illegal immigrants boosted employment with literal little measurable effect on wages, but significantly increased housing demand. So it boosted employment but had no impact on wages, so it didn't drive them down, but it did not allow them to grow. So once again, I feel like this would be a job for the law of demand and supply. Right, you have a lot of new people coming in, and whereas without them coming in, without this new supply of workers, you may have seen increases in the wages. But because we had all of these workers coming in, we had this massive supply. Like unlike in the housing sector where you did not have enough supply to meet demand, here you had supply that could meet demand, in fact was more than the demand, and so that kept all of the wages or the price of labor kept it from growing It's interesting that sounds like it's the same law. Huh. I think the Federal Reserve may have just stumbled upon something in seriousness. This is why I pointed out when people complain about housing prices, like I got a pretty good way to like open up about ten to twenty million housing units pretty quickly. Yeah, Like, there's a there's a way that you could just make available ten to twenty million housing units. You just have to. You just have to get rid of the people that aren't here legally. Then you'd have a lot more housing stock, and then prices would come down because there'd be more housing units, you know. But again, what do I know? Just a little old radio host here speaking of housing. In order to help combat the housing lack of supply, there's a I've never heard of this before. It's called pad split, Pad split. Have you ever heard of this? It's basically like a boarding house. And oh my goodness, people are mad. How dare you open rooms for rent in my neighborhood. Here in Charlotte. All right, I'll give you details in a minute. Kevin on the text line warns me to be careful with the sarcastic confusion. Never I shall never be careful with sarcasm. I am flew it. Tony says Pete. I have been thinking about this supply thing that you're talking about. I think instead of demand and supply, I think supply and demand rolls off the tongue a little better. Give it a shot, supply and demand, demand and supply. I think you are right, Tony, because if I say demand end supply, you've got the sound of the D at the end of and right up against the s of supply, and that's just linguistically more difficult to say. It's so and I know this very well. Here's a great example of it, Pete calendar. Yeah, because if you if you, if you don't emphasize the sound at the end of pete, then it just sounds like like pete calendar. It's it does you lose the Yeah, you lose the pronunciation at the end of pete and at the beginning of calendar. So I think you may be onto something supply and demand this way. If the d's connect there, it doesn't matter. Supply and demand. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I like that better. That sounds good, Tony. Thanks for the advice. That's favorite. Russ says, Oh, look at he's already using it. That supply and demand stuff sounds like nonsense used by capitalists. Everyone knows housing is a right and government price controls and free rent are the answer. Yes, that's it, obviously. That's why it's called rent control. It controls the rents, hello, and then the rents will never get so high, you know, and then everybody can have you know, low rents, and low rent is the way to be. I hear everybody wants to be low rent. You know. Greg says it is not illegal to rent separate rooms in Charlotte, not in my twenty two years as a landlord. Well, no, I didn't say it was illegal. I am saying that there are some homeowners who are upset. And for all of the bashing that people do about Hoa's, this is what Hoa's helped protect against. So there's a company called pad Split. Once again, the D and E s right next to each other makes it difficult. So that's why I give a pause between pad and split, pad split, pad split, which almost sounds like the sound of like running over a frog in the driveway, doesn't it a little bit? Anyway? Pad split is an online co living rental marketplace. Where users can rent rooms in shared living spaces. Okay, and apparently Wesley Heights neighborhood is the scene of the outrage nimbiism on display in Wesley Heights. Now, for people who are not aware of where Wesley Heights is located, I can see it from the studio window. Okay, Wesley Heights is just down the hill. It's bounded by Moorhead I seventy seven tuck a cig Right, those are the roads. It's like this little wedge shape right off a Moorhead to the It's sort of to the west of Bank of America Stadium. If you go under the Interstate on Moorhead Street, you'll be in the Wesley Heights area, which when I first came over here to work at WBT, this area was I mean like it was like downtown Bagdad, Okay, like there wasn't a lot of economic activity going on except for like hookers and drug dealers. Right. It has now been going through revitalization. You've got people that are buying homes, fixing them up, renovating them, blown them up into McMansions and stuff, and so Wesley Heights has been undergoing that kind of renaissance. For a good fifteen twenty years now. And you know cute craftsman style homes, a lot of them are. And so apparently there are two homes that have been identified by the neighbors as being fixed up, and they're being fixed up to add more rooms for the pad Split. And so now they got all these signs in their yards over there, No pads Split, no room buy room rentals, protect our community, no single room rentals. We are not fooled. Pad split is not single family, okay. According to the Charlotte Observer article, think of pad Split, which was started in twenty seventeen in Atlanta. Think of it as a as a boarding house meets Airbnb, which I think is probably a good way to describe it. From what I understand. It's a boarding house. You rent rooms and owners can list individual furnished rooms in their properties on the platform. Tenants pay a one time fee provide some background information to become a member, after which they are then able to book pad Splits listings. The platform touts itself as an affordable alternative to traditional renting models and advertises its relatively low weekly cost, lack of required minimum credit score, and flexibility in least terms. So this seems like a market solution to a demand. No right, You, Like, people are complaining about the high cost of living and how are people supposed to afford a place and the furnishings, and you know, putting up first months last month's rent and security deposits and like, all of this seems like this is a way for the market to meet that demand. Unlike vacation rental platforms, pad split is a twelve week minimum commitment with the option to pay to leave early, after which the agreement switches to a week by week basis. Okay. Company highlights the median annual income of its members, so the people who sign up for the app and then they can get access to the units. The median how armenian annual in is about thirty two five hundred, So these are working class people and they build their app as a way for tenants to gain financial and personal stability. One would think that this would be celebrated by the proponents of affordable housing. No right, Like, people who are complaining about unaffordability. We need to have more affordability. We need more affordable housing. People don't have any options. Housing is too expensive. Right, All of these arguments that we keep hearing like where are the working class going to live? And we're pushing them all out of the city as the property values go up, like all of these arguments, and then you have a market response, which is to say, it's basically a boarding house through an app, and you've got neighbors now in Wesley Heights that are like, not in our neighborhood, bucco, you can't be. Pad split is a social impact company. They say, we believe that the people who serve our communities should also have an opportunity to. Live in them. Wesley Heights says no, I mean, you can live in some other neighborhood, just not ours, because we care. On the text line, Greg says, does this thing have anything to do with that whole Vision twenty forty four thing with the zoning that Braxton Winston pushed. I mean kind of yes, but not really so pad Split, this concept has been around. Pad split has been in Charlotte for a couple of years now. They've already got about five hundred rooms in the Charlotte metro area listed on the site. So this isn't brand new, it's brand new in the Wesley Heights neighborhood because there are these two homes that are right next to each other that apparently somebody purchased and they're fixing up, and people believe and that I'm not sure if it's true, but they believe that these homes are being renovated into pad split homes, so they're adding in more bedrooms and bathrooms. I think they call it a six six or something like that. Six bedrooms, six baths and this is what has people upset. So here from the story, the model is not without its limits and controversies. It falls in a gray area of zoning regulations. Although pad Split CEO Atticus LeBlanc maintains pad Split adheres to all federal, state, and local laws, prospective tenants are not allowed to tour the place before renting, and residents have long reported dicey roommate situations, as well as ambiguous policy surrounding tenant rights and eviction, which tells me read between the lines. There sounds like pad split allows for easier eviction, which kind of makes sense if these are furnished places, right, If you're just moving in and you do a bunch of stuff that gets you thrown out, it's easier to change the locks on the door because you're not going to have like all of your furniture and everything else and it's not your property or whatever. I don't know, so like whatever fights are occurring, sounds like ten. You know. The tenants rights activist crowd opposed this idea. The average monthly rent of a one betroom apartment in Charlotte is over thirteen hundred dollars. That's according to Zillo. In comparison, the average pad split room with a shared bathroom runs about two hundred and forty three dollars a week, or one tho forty dollars per month, and that includes furniture and utilities, so one thousand dollars a month. Like again, I keep hearing that people are complaining about there not being enough affordable housing in Charlotte, and this seems to be filling that gap, which to people like me, free marketeers, we have said that if you build more housing, then you will alleviate the housing affordability crunch. And that means that I've gone over this data as well. People complain about all the luxury apartment buildings and all of this, what about workforce housing and all that, But when you build more luxury units the people, and that's like class A. Units. Then you have older units that may be Class A but maybe they've slipped into a class B standing. You have people who are in those older units that will move up into the nicer units when they become a bailable. That then frees up the older class A the class B, and then people who are in B and C will start moving up into nicer units. And then what does that say for the. Class C, the lowest class, Well, they can't really afford because the rents are so low, the buildings are so old, right, they can't really afford to fix them up to the extent to elevate them into a class B status. So what happens is they start lowering rents. When you have more supply, then demand you drop your prices because now you're competing for fewer people. Right, that's how that works. That sounds like trickle down. Okay, you can call it whatever you want to call it, but that's how that works. Pad Split spokesperson denies that the house in this video that the Wesley Heights people are sighting. They say that is not ours. They say, we're not affiliated with the construction taking place. At these two units. We do not currently have any homes in Wesley Heights on our marketplace. Later on in the Peace, Wesley Heights residents have steadily raised concerns about two properties, questioning their adherence to Charlotte's Unified Development Ordinance. And this is I think really the thing, the impact on the fabric of the community, which, by the way, these types of living arrangements, like boarding houses and such, these were very common throughout American history. Renting a room at a place was very common. There is one neighbor over there who's an architect by trade, Wesley Heights representative to the Historic District Commission, and he says he's concerned about the prospect of six unrelated strangers living in the same house, especially in a residential community where people have their kids raising their kids next door. Okay, but why why would the number of why would six strangers live in a house together? Like why? Like what automatically makes that sus as the kids might say. While a rooming house is technically permitted in Wesley Heights zoning district, this resident says that the owner is required to live on the property of a rooming house under the udo the Unified Development Ordinance. So under Charlotte's zoning code, up to six unrelated people can live together in a single family home. So you're allowed to have six strangers sharing a home. But according to this person, this neighbor stretching the definition of family to include six individuals who don't know each other, having chosen to live together and aren't under a single lease agreement, that doesn't qualify as a family. See, so there you go. You're gonna have Nimbi's oppose it. They're probably gonna try to redo the ordin in order to ban yet another kind of housing option. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.