The Breakdown: Waco's NPR

Hear the stories behind the story. A special reporting initiative from 103.3 KWBU FM.

[kwbufm-blog]

When you listen to 103.3 KWBU FM, you hear stories ranging from just 30 seconds to a little over 6 minutes. Usually hours of audio have been recorded to produce those pieces. There are always those stories I wished could have been an hour long themselves (making editing pretty hard!) On this site, we'll be featuring the audio that didn't make the final cut but is still pretty compelling on its own. The first story we'll explore is No Guarantee which looks at the process the spouses of US citizens go through to become citizens themselves. For this story I spoke with:

Nick and Eloisa Haynes: A Mixed-Immigration-Status Couple

Kathleen Campbell Walker: An Immigration Attorney

Maria Elena Upson: A Spokeswoman for USCIS

Below you'll find the final story, extended interviews with all four of these people, and a related segment on mixed-status families from NPR's Talk of the Nation.

Happy scrolling! 

-Becky Fogel, Reporter at 103.3 KWBU FM 

[kwbufm-blog]

We really don't know what's going to happen. I mean, any day we could get a letter saying that we need to leave.

Eloisa Haynes

[kwbufm-blog]

Visit Original Link

This story was produced for 103.3 KWBU FM. It profiles Nick and Eloisa Haynes, a mixed-immigration-status couple, who have recently learned that Eloisa's application for naturalization was denied. Nick, her husband, is a US Citizen. KWBU's Becky Fogel spoke with them as well as Kathleen Campbell Walker (an immigration attorney), and Maria Elena Upson (a spokeswoman for USCIS.) 

[kwbufm-blog]

When Nick and Eloisa Haynes got married, Nick was a US Citizen and Eloisa was undocumented. Now Eloisa's a Legal Permanent Resident, but in February 2013 the couple learned that her application for naturalization was denied. In the story from KWBU News that profiled them, only about 4 minutes of an over 30 minute interview was used. Here you can listen to the couple describe how they met, get a more detailed account of the steps they've taken to try to adjust Eloisa's status, and also hear their thoughts on the current US immigration laws. Check it out!

[kwbufm-blog]

Less than 1 minute. That's the amount of audio from this interview with US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) spokeswoman, Maria Elena Upson, included in the final cut of No Guarantee. Here, you can listen to an extended version of the interview - which is about 10 minutes long. KWBU's Becky Fogel speaks with Upson about the requirements for US Citizenship, specifically the need to demonstrate 'good moral character.' 

[kwbufm-blog]

Just a short clip of Kathleen Campbell Walker's interview with KWBU's Becky Fogel made it into No Guarantee. Here, you'll find an extended interview featuring an over 20 minute conversation on requirements for citizenship and factors that may prevent immigrants from becoming US citizens. A little background on Walker: She's a former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and in 2012 she was named the "Go-To Lawyer" on immigration in the state by Texas Lawyer magazine. 

[kwbufm-blog]

Susan Ferriss (juvenile justice reporter, Center for public integrity) and Kamal Essaheb (immigration policy attorney, National Immigration Law Center) joined Neal Conan for a discussion on mixed-immigration-status families (You can listen HERE). The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that there are millions of people in the United States who are a part of 'mixed-status' families. Nick and Eloisa Haynes, featured in the story No Guarantee via KWBU News, are just one of these millions of families