ADRIAN MA, HOST:
Now for a story that shows just how differently two countries can approach the very same issue. While the U.S. is spending billions of dollars to detain and deport immigrants without legal status, Spain is kind of taking the opposite approach. Spain wants to grant those immigrants amnesty. And to learn why, reporter Alexis Marshall takes us to Seville, Spain.
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ALEXIS MARSHALL, BYLINE: Xiomara Ramirez Bernal's (ph) phone app makes a sound that tells the 20-year-old it's time to start pedaling.
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MARSHALL: She works for Glovo, a food delivery service, crisscrossing Seville on her bike with a big, yellow cube-shaped backpack. She sends me voice memos from her shift.
XIOMARA RAMIREZ BERNAI: (Speaking Spanish).
MARSHALL: She gets an order around 8 p.m. from a burrito restaurant about five minutes away.
RAMIREZ BERNAI: (Speaking Spanish).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).
RAMIREZ BERNAI: (Speaking Spanish).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).
RAMIREZ BERNAI: (Speaking Spanish).
MARSHALL: She gets there, waits for the order...
RAMIREZ BERNAI: (Speaking Spanish).
MARSHALL: ...And then bikes the food over to the customer. She has to work on a borrowed account making about $7 an hour because she is undocumented. Ramirez is originally from Colombia. She and her family lost their Spanish legal status last year. But soon they'll apply for regularization, which will bring them into the formal economy and let them live legally in the country. Ramirez says that would allow her to finish her education, find a decent job and remove a lot of worry and uncertainty from her life.
RAMIREZ BERNAI: (Speaking Spanish).
MARSHALL: "Without papers, you don't rest," she says. "You're always working, working, working. And you don't take a moment to breathe."
SILVANA CABRERA: (Speaking Spanish).
MARSHALL: "It's like being in an invisible jail," says Silvana Cabrera. She's part of Regularization Now, the grassroots movement that pushed for this measure. She says being undocumented can make it harder to access medical care, open a bank account, find housing. And she says it creates exploitative work conditions. For all these reasons, the group organized to change Spain's law, gathering about 700,000 signatures for a popular legislative initiative in favor of regularization. Now the Socialist-led government is making it happen, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is drawing a direct contrast to America's immigration policies, calling them unlawful and cruel. He wrote in The New York Times last month, my government has chosen a different way. And to that, Cabrera says...
CABRERA: (Speaking Spanish).
MARSHALL: ..."It's a triumph for democracy and social rights, having taken this measure and listened to their population." She says it's critical that the government took this step now because the country's far right, which tends to align with U.S. President Donald Trump, is gaining popularity. Just last month, the far-right political party, Vox, doubled the number of seats it holds in the regional Parliament of Aragon, which is seen as a bellwether for all of Spain. Vox's leader, Santiago Abascal, refers to immigration as an invasion and says regularizing the estimated half-million migrants already living in Spain will invite millions more...
SANTIAGO ABASCAL: (Speaking Spanish).
MARSHALL: ...Which he says will worsen Spain's public health systems, housing and safety. But immigration lawyer Felix Duque (ph) doesn't think that opinion is widespread.
FELIX DUQUE: As a professional, I feel hopeful because I think that's a very interesting tool that is going to help a lot of people.
MARSHALL: And not just immigrants - Duque says getting more people in the country's Social Security system will help support Spain's aging population. Immigration has been a major component of the country's booming economy in recent years. Duque says we're still waiting for the final details on how to apply for regularization.
DUQUE: We have been receiving a lot of calls from the last seven days about this.
MARSHALL: What we do know is applicants must have arrived before December 31 last year and lived in the country at least five months. They also need to present an authenticated criminal background check from their home country. Ramirez and her family have already started preparing their documents.
RAMIREZ BERNAI: (Speaking Spanish).
MARSHALL: "It would be a bit more peace of mind," she says. She and her sister want to start enjoying their youth, traveling and feeling a sense of safety and stability. For NPR News, I'm Alexis Marshall in Seville. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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