Jasmine Garsd

They found we have to become the most welcoming state to foreign-born residents in the country.

And they literally use the words, we don't have a choice.

Overwhelmingly, what I found among Trump voters in Nebraska was the belief that he's not really going to do it. That at the end of the day, President Donald Trump is a businessman and that he will look out for business interests and mass deportations are not business interests.

It was just like these empty streets. Going to the bars and the restaurants, I mean, I spent a fair amount of time there and it was very quiet. And the people who would speak to us told us that they just felt a sense of anguish. You know, I would have restaurant owners be like, people are going to work and home. People aren't risking it. And so what I found was these ghost towns.

We got the Dr. Phil.

I don't think we prevailed in communicating to the American people successfully the challenges of migration at an historic level since World War II.

Okay, so first of all, Queens has the best food in all of New York. And this park is excellent in terms of food. I'd say better than any park in New York.

And there's two guys selling ice cream here.

Luis is short. He's very handsome. He has a baby face, dimples, and some stubble. He's young, but I noticed there's some grays in there, too.

Exactly.

Yeah, I mean, cartel violence has driven a lot of the recent immigration out of Ecuador, and it's impacted almost every Ecuadorian I've met here in New York.

So Luis told us he did what so many people do in order to come to the U.S. He hired a coyote, which is sort of like a guide that brings you up through Central America and Mexico to the U.S. border. And he paid this guy about $20,000. Which is not an uncommon fee to get you all the way from South America to the U.S.,

But he got here.

And keep this in mind. When migrants like Luis arrive, they don't have permission to work here legally.

You know that morning city park smell? It's like the smell of dewy earth and fresh-cut grass and evaporating beer from the night before. I love that smell.

But he says there's this one additional hurdle.

It's very Americana meets Ecuadoriana. So when he heard about this Ecuadorian festival happening at the park today, he thought, be a businessman, challenge yourself, go sell some ice cream.

And then he thought about his aunt.

And he took a deep breath. And he yelled it.

Yeah, it's kind of the perfect day to do this. I'm really glad we got out here. I'm just so glad that we get to spend a day at the park. And I really, like, so I'm an immigration reporter. And I work a lot between... I spend time at the U.S.-Mexico border, and then I come back to New York. And this last trip to the U.S.-Mexico border was really hard.

Is it okay if I talk about something kind of heavy? I met a mom who I just crossed, and she had a toddler. They were actually from Ecuador. And he... He was passed out. They had been walking all night and he was passed out and something had stung him in the eye and he just looked like someone had beaten the shit out of him. And, you know, it's it's just she was like, please help me.

And I flagged down. Eventually, a border patrol car came by and I flagged it down. And I was like, hey, there's there's a minor. There's I think he's probably like five years old. He's passed out. And the guy just drove off. And eventually, like, an hour later, they came back. But we were... We were trying to, like, get this kid to, like, stay awake. This kid looked, like, rocky or something.

It was bad. And... And in the next couple of days, I like, I couldn't cry. I was like, why the fuck can't I cry? And I got back to New York and I get back to Queens. I take a day off. I go, I grab a coffee, you know, from those little carts. I'm like, I'm going to go to the park with a coffee. This person, the coffee stand person says, do you want cream or sugar? and I just started sobbing.

And I realized a couple of things. I realized what an important space a park is for me, like a safe space. And I also realized like that mom and that kid, I don't know, like I'll never, I don't know where they are. I don't know, they were heading to the Carolinas, I think, but you never know. And one day they will get to have a picnic in a park like this one. You know? Like, they will have a life.

I just met them on the worst day of their life. And they will get to be somewhere like this. It just really made me think about I don't want my reporting to just be the worst day of immigrants' lives. I also want it to be A normal day or a beautiful day. I'm sorry, did I ruin our day at the park? No, no. I didn't mean to ruin our day at the park.

That's why I wanted to do this so bad. And to hang out with you.

Do you want to walk a little more?