The Immigration Line Myth

“Why don’t they just do it the right way?”

That question often arises in conversations about immigration, and this episode breaks it down. Because the truth is: there is no single immigration “line,” just a maze of inconsistent rules, long wait times, and constantly shifting policies that leave millions in limbo.

From family visas that take decades to asylum systems that have been digitally locked behind broken apps, this episode walks you through the hard truth of what “following the process” really looks like and who gets punished when the process gets erased.

What You’ll Learn

• Why the idea of a simple immigration “line” is a myth
• What happened to the CBP One app, and how it was turned into CBP Home
• Why current and former asylum seekers are receiving removal notices despite following the rules
• How the phrase “I did it the right way” can weaponize trauma instead of defending fairness
• Who benefits from a system built on confusion, bureaucracy, and apathy

Resources & Sources Mentioned

• CBP One App Official Update – CBP.gov
• Overview of CBP Home and Migrant Self-Reporting
• American Immigration Council – U.S. Immigration System Backlogs
• Cultish by Amanda Montell – understanding groupthink, language, and the myth of easy answers

Call to Action

• Share this episode with someone who’s repeated the “just get in line” myth
• Ask your local officials how many people in your district are in immigration backlogs
• Support legal aid groups helping migrants misled by app-based parole systems
• Follow, rate, and review Have a Cup of Johanny to help others find these conversations

Connect With Me

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Have a Cup of Johnny
• 1:30 The Myth of "Just Get in Line"
• 2:11 Immigration Pathways and Their Limitations
• 5:14 The CBP One App Failure
• 7:36 Constantly Changing Immigration Rules
• 9:35 Trauma in Immigrant Communities
• 11:55 Who Benefits from Immigration Confusion
• 14:13 Final Thoughts and Call to Action

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Oh we could, we could fly. Welcome back to have a Cup of Johnny. This season isn't about hustling harder. It's about coming home to yourself, to your voice, to your breath, to the quiet truth that you're still here and you're not starting over. You're starting again. This is your space to reflect, reset and remember who we tell you. So pour your cafecito and let's begin. Have you ever waited in line for something important License renewal, a passport, a school application? I know I have, and, as you just near the front, this has happened to me. They change the rules. Now imagine, the sign changes. Every time you blink, the people behind you jump ahead, the form you filled out last year is no longer valid and someone watching says why don't you just follow the process? Welcome back to have a Cup of Johnny.

Speaker 1: 1:14

This is episode four of our July series Debunking Immigration, and today we're taking a hard look at one of the most persistent myths why don't they just get in line? Let's talk about that line, because once you see how unstable, unequal and often non-existent it really is, you'll stop asking that question altogether. All right, when people say just get in line, they are picturing something like a deli ticket counter. Take a number, wait your turn, get your citizenship. But in reality there is a one line. There are dozens of processes, each with their own maze of restrictions. Maze of restrictions.

Speaker 1: 2:11

Let's break down just a few here. Just a few. This is not the be-all, know-all list. All right, family-based visas you must have a US citizen or legal resident relative. The wait time for some countries is 20 years or more. This is usually what people that don't know the facts say about the anchor baby. Right, that people are just having babies so that way they can get a family-based visa. But what they don't understand is that a brand new baby cannot sponsor anyone. I laugh because it's so ridiculous the things that people make up in their minds just so that way it can align with their misconstrued, erroneous views and values and what they think is a fact or truth. But these are for people 21 years or older who are US citizen or legal residents to be able to sponsor someone and say, hey, I want this family member to come and be with me. But here's the kicker the wait time for most countries is 20 years or more.

Speaker 1: 3:29

Then we have employment-based visas. These you need a job sponsor, not a relative sponsor. A job sponsor Often it's a high-income profession, and even then the number of visas is capped and preference is given by country of origin. There are some, and if you Google it you will see. Different years or different administrations or different policies bring in different preferences. Sometimes they take a look at what they think the economy in the United States may need and then they give preference to certain technologies, certain knowledge that people should have, as well as certain countries where they feel that that's where most of that knowledge or expertise reside. And once they give those preferences, those preferences are capped by a number and then those types of people that hold those specialties or expertise are able to come in.

Speaker 1: 4:24

Then we have asylum seekers. There's no pre-entry process when it comes to this. You have to physically arrive in the United States or at the border, and even then our chances of getting through depend on which administration is in office. This is when the line gets wonky and the backlog folks. As of 2024, more than 9 million people are waiting in immigration lines that may never move. That's not a line, that's a bottleneck. As we were saying, santo Domingo un tapón. That's people aging out, dying or being forced to wait decades to reunite with their families. Now let's talk about something that is recent and how a line can just completely disappear.

Speaker 1: 5:13

Under the last administration, the CBP1 app was introduced as a way to organize the border by scheduling appointments for asylum seekers to present themselves at official ports of entry. I know some of you may have heard of this in the news. Sounds fair in theory, right, but here's what really happened. The app was glitchy, unreliable and inaccessible for many, especially Black and Indigenous migrants or those in areas with no signal or phone access. Appointments were extremely limited and some people waited months just to get a slot. So, while we have something here that can potentially help and people may be like, well, there's your line, you know something was done, but you got to understand the population that this so-called app or resource is trying to help, and then you have to go further with that question to really ascertain whether this is the best method to help that population. If you really want to help, right, how can you say I want to help this population but give them a resource that is mostly inaccessible to them because of technology or money? You see, and this is some of the limiting factors when it comes to the CBP One app, still a good try, but then, in January 2025, the app scheduling feature was removed. Then CBP One was rebranded as CBP Home and, instead of helping people enter the US, is now being used to tell them how to self-deport. That's right. So now we have this line of people who did follow the rules, who used the app that they were told by legal agencies to use, who entered with permission, they enter with permission and now getting notices to leave the country and use the app to report when they're already gone. So when someone says they should just follow the process, that statement is very short-sighted and erroneous, because the only honest response is they did and then the process disappeared.

Speaker 1: 7:36

So the thing about immigration law is it changes all the time. You can ask this to anyone who's been through it, who works in organizations that have to do with immigration, who are immigration officers, who are enforcers of immigration, and they will tell you. They'll be the first ones to tell you. It changes all the time. What's legal today can be criminalized tomorrow, and what was a pathway five years ago might now be blocked by a court decision, a precedential order or a budget cut, and then those people that were following the rules as they knew it before it gets changed before the rug gets swept underneath. Their feet are stuck in the middle. And let's not forget, daca is still in limbo. That's another example. After more than a decade, refugee caps changed with each new administration. Title 42 allowed mass expulsions at the border, then ended and created a new mess of rules. The Remain in Mexico policy literally forced people to wait in dangerous camps, and now the CBP whole map is removing people who came in through the previous administration's process.

Speaker 1: 8:58

So the line isn't just unfair, it's unstable. It's written in pencil, not in ink. Now I want to talk directly to people in my community, latinos and immigrants, who say I did it the right way, so should they get here. I know, stay here, prove yourself here, but that statement, I did it the right way, so should they. It's not justice. Like I said before, that's trauma talking.

Speaker 1: 9:41

Not everyone gets the same entry points. Some people are born into easier routes Citizenship through marriage, family sponsors, refugee programs that existed before they were shut down. Others, they're running from violence, from famine, from persecution. And when we say I suffered, so should they. We're not defending fairness here. We are defending our wounds, our trauma, and we're defending that these traumas and wounds should be passed down to another one who is under our umbrellas, under our culture, is under our group. But the wounds don't get smaller by turning others away. They get smaller when we say no one should have to suffer like me. This should not happen again. Because, let's be real this confusion doesn't exist by accident.

Speaker 1: 10:41

Listen to my previous episode. The system is what it is. The system is working as it should be. The messiness, the shifting rules, the multiple lines and categories they're all deliberate, because the more confused we are, the more likely we are to blame the immigrant instead of the system. And while we argue with one another about who deserves to be here, who's a criminal and who is not, you know who is profiting Private corporations with detention contracts, politicians scoring points on border security campaigns so they can stay in office and profit from the free health care that they don't give their constituents. And wealth continues to flow upward. I know people don't still believe trickle-down economy, right? I hope not. Wealth continues to flow upward while the rest of us are still fighting over scraps and arguing with one another. So confusion keeps people distracted and that distraction helps the system to continue to run.

Speaker 1: 11:55

So here's the truth. There's no single immigration line. There never was. What we call a line is really a maze. The way I see it, it's almost like playing double dutch and hoping that the ropes don't smack you at the ankles, you know. But like I said, it's a maze, with blocked doors, rigged checkpoints and moving finishing lines. And if you've never had to navigate it, it will be easy for you to believe the myth because you don't have the experience. And if you have an experience of an easy, lucky way of doing it, then that's what you're holding on to, as if that's the only way to do it, as if everybody experiences the same way.

Speaker 1: 12:46

But you can ask any mother out there and they will all have different experiences of their childbirth. But we all gave birth to a child. But everyone will have very different experiences. Some will choose to never do it again. Others will continue on to have like 10 babies. Some will say it sucked. Others will be I felt so great, that was the best thing. Others will say I felt so great, that was the best thing. Others will say I remember the pain. That's me. Some will say I forgot the pain as soon as I held the baby. Same thing happened. We all had babies. Every single one of us had different experience.

Speaker 1: 13:29

Think about that when it comes to immigration and how people got here. Same action, different way of doing it, different experience due to different resources, different environment. So, when it comes to this, let's stop asking why don't they just do it the right way and start asking who made the rules, who keeps changing them and who benefits when others get left out. This episode, open your Eyes. Please share it with someone who still believes in the myth of the line ask your community what does doing it the right way even mean anymore? Ask your community what does doing it the right way even mean anymore? Support organizations helping migrants who are misled by the CBP One app and current parole rollbacks. In the show notes I've linked stats from Pew updates on CBP Home and resources for asylum seekers and advocates.

Speaker 1: 14:26

Next week we're going in deep on the good immigrant versus bad immigrant narrative and how it's killing us softly. Until then, stay curious, stay compassionate and thank you for having this cup with me. See you next Wednesday. Bye, if today's episode spoke to you, share with somebody who's finding their way back, too to you. Share with somebody who's finding their way back too. And if you haven't yet, visit haveacupofjoanniecom for more stories, blog posts and the books that started it all. Thank you for being here. Until next time, be soft, be bold and always have a cup of joannie.