title: Illegal immigration

text: A 2013 study by Center for American Progress found that granting citizenship to people who immigrated illegally would boost the U.S. economy: doing so would raise the incomes of the illegal immigrants by a quarter (increasing U.S. GDP by approximately $1.4 trillion over a 10-year period); a 2016 study found that "legalization would increase the economic contribution of the unauthorized population by about 20%, to 3.6% of private-sector GDP;" and a 2019 working paper by the University of Cyprus found that "all types of immigrants generate larger surplus to US firms than natives do".


title: Illegal immigration

text: According to economist George Borjas, immigrants may have caused the decline of real wages of US workers without a high school degree by 9% between 1980 and 2000 due to increased competition. Other economists, such as Gordon Hanson, criticized these findings. Douglas Massey argues that developed countries need unskilled immigrant labor to fill undesirable jobs, which citizens do not seek regardless of wages. Massey argues that this may refute claims that undocumented immigrants are "lowering wages" or stealing jobs from native-born workers, and that it instead shows that undocumented immigrants "take jobs that no one else wants."


title: Illegal immigration

text: A paper by Spanish economists found that, upon granting work permits to the undocumented immigrant population in Spain, the fiscal revenues increased by around €4,189 per newly legalized immigrant. The paper found that the wages of the immigrants increased after receiving work permits. At the same time, some low-skilled natives had worse labor market outcomes and high-skilled natives had improved labor market outcomes.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Since the decline of working class blue-collar jobs in manufacturing and industry, younger native-born generations have acquired higher education. In the US, only 12% of the labor force has less than a high school education, but 70% of illegal workers from Mexico lack a high school degree. The majority of new blue-collar jobs qualify as Massey's "underclass" work, and suffer from unreliability, subservient roles and, critically, a lack of potential for advancement. These "underclass" jobs, which have a disproportionate number of undocumented immigrants, include harvesting crops, unskilled labor in landscaping and construction, house-cleaning, and maid and busboy work in hotels and restaurants. However, as even these "underclass" jobs have higher relative wages than those in home countries they are still attractive for undocumented immigrants and since many undocumented immigrants often anticipate working only temporarily in the destination country, the lack of opportunity for advancement is seen by many as less of a problem. Support for this claim can be seen in a Pew Hispanic Center poll of over 3,000 undocumented immigrants from Mexico in the US, which found that 79% would voluntarily join a temporary worker program that allowed them to work legally for several years but then required them to leave. From this, it is assumed that the willingness to take undesirable jobs is what gives undocumented immigrants their employment. Evidence for this may be seen in the average wages of illegal day laborers in California, which was between $10 and $12 per hour according to a 2005 study, and the fact that this was higher than many entry-level white collar or service jobs. Entry-level white collar and service jobs offer advancement opportunities only for people with work permits and citizenship.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Research indicates that the advantage to firms employing undocumented immigrants increases as more firms in the industry do so, further increases with the breadth of a firm's market, and also with the labor intensity of the firm's production process. However, the advantage decreases with the skill level of the firm's workers, meaning that illegal immigrants do not provide as much competitive advantage when a high-skilled workforce is required.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Illegal immigrants are not impoverished by the standards of their home countries. The poorest classes in a developing country may lack the resources needed to mount an attempt to cross illegally, or the connections to friends or family already in the destination country. Studies from the Pew Hispanic Center have shown that the education and wage levels of illegal Mexican immigrants in the US are around the median for Mexico and that they are not a suitable predictor of one's choice to immigrate.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Other examples do show that increases in poverty, especially when associated with immediate crises, can increase the likelihood of illegal migration. The 1994 economic crisis in Mexico, subsequent to the start of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), was associated with widespread poverty and a lower valuation for the peso relative to the dollar. It also marked the start of a massive swell in Mexican immigration, in which net illegal migration to the US increased every year from the mid-1990s until the mid-2000s.


title: Illegal immigration

text: There are also examples where natural disasters and population growth can amplify poverty-driven migration flows.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Population growth that exceeds the carrying capacity of an area or environment results in overpopulation.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Some illegal immigrants seek to live with loved ones who already live in a country that they are not allowed to enter, such as a spouse or other family members.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Having a family who have immigrated or being from a community with many immigrants is a much better predictor of one's choice to immigrate than poverty. Family reunification visas may be applied for by legal residents or naturalized citizens to bring their family members into a destination state legally, but these visas may be limited in number and subject to yearly quotas. This may result in family members entering illegally in order to reunify. From studying Mexican migration patterns, Douglas Massey finds that the likelihood that a Mexican national will emigrate illegally to the US increases dramatically if they have one or more family members already residing in the United States, legally or illegally.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Unauthorised arrival into another country may be prompted by the need to escape civil war or repression in the country of origin. However, somebody who flees such a situation is in most countries under no circumstances an undocumented immigrant. If victims of forced displacement apply for asylum in the country they fled to and are granted refugee status they have the right to remain permanently. If asylum seekers are not granted some kind of legal protection status, then they may have to leave the country, or stay as illegal immigrants.


title: Illegal immigration

text: According to the 1951 Refugee Convention refugees should be exempted from immigration laws and should expect protection from the country they entered. It is, however, up to the countries involved to decide if a particular immigrant is a refugee or not, and hence whether they are subject to the immigration controls. Furthermore, countries that did not sign the 1951 Refugee Convention or do not attempt to follow its guidelines are likely to consider refugees and asylum seekers as illegal immigrants.


title: Illegal immigration

text: In a 2012 news story, the "CSM" reported, "The estimated 750,000 Rohingya, one of the most miserable and oppressed minorities in the world, are deeply resentful of their almost complete absence of civil rights in Myanmar. In 1982, the military junta stripped the Rohingya of their Myanmar citizenship, classing them as illegal immigrants and rendering them stateless."


title: Illegal immigration

text: In some countries, people born on national territory (henceforth not "immigrants") do not automatically obtain the nationality of their birthplace, and may have no legal title of residency.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Families want to have better lives for their children and to succeed. In the article "Learning to be illegal" it discusses the safety the children have in K-12 schooling. The children are guaranteed education in a safe environment.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Aside from the possibility that they may be intercepted and deported, illegal immigrants also face other problems.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Illegal immigrants usually have no or very limited access to public health systems, proper housing, education and banks. Some immigrants may forge identity documents to have access to these services.


title: Illegal immigration

text: For example, research at San Diego State University estimates that there are 2.4 million victims of human trafficking among illegal Mexican immigrants in the United States. Some workers are smuggled into the United States and Canada by human traffickers.


title: Illegal immigration

text: People have been kidnapped or tricked into slavery to work as laborers, after entering the country, for example in factories. Those trafficked in this manner often face additional barriers to escaping slavery, since their status as undocumented immigrants makes it difficult for them to gain access to help or services. For example, Burmese women trafficked into Thailand and forced to work in factories or as prostitutes may not speak the language and may be vulnerable to abuse by police due to their undocumented immigrant status.


title: Illegal immigration

text: In some regions, people that are still en route to their destination country are also sometimes kidnapped, for example for ransom. In some instances, they are also tortured, raped, and killed if the requested ransom does not arrive. One case in point are the Eritrean migrants that are en route to Israel. A large number of them are captured in north Sinai (Egypt) and Eastern Sudan and held in the buildings in north Sinai.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Western Europe is being confronted with a serious problem related to the sexual exploitation of undocumented immigrants (especially from Eastern Europe), for the purpose of prostitution.


title: Illegal immigration

text: In the United States, human trafficking victims often pass through the porous border with Mexico. In an effort to curb the spread of sex slavery and other predation on unauthorized immigrants, California Attorney General Kamala Harris and Mexico Attorney General Marisela Morales Ibáñez signed an accord in 2012 to expand prosecutions of criminals typically members of transnational gangs who engage in the trafficking of human beings between the two countries.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Most countries have laws requiring workers to have proper documentation, often intended to prevent or minimize the employment of undocumented immigrants. However the penalties against employers are often small and the acceptable identification requirements vague, ill-defined and seldom checked or enforced, making it easy for employers to hire illegal labor. Where the minimum wage is several times the prevailing wage in the home country, employers sometimes pay less than the legal minimum wage or have unsafe working conditions, relying on the reluctance of illegal workers to report the violations to the authorities. Undocumented employees' ability to work legally no longer exists, which makes it easier for corporations to take advantage of their services. Unfair and unjust, the exploitation of undocumented immigrants' labor goes unpunished because they are not considered legal immigrants.


title: Illegal immigration

text: The search for employment is central to illegal international migration. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, undocumented immigrants in the United States often work in dangerous industries such as agriculture and construction. A recent study suggests that the complex web of consequences resulting from illegal immigrant status limits illegal workers' ability to stay safe at work. In addition to physical danger at work, the choice to immigrate for work often entails work-induced lifestyle factors which impact the physical, mental and social health of immigrants and their families.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Each year there are several hundred deaths along the U.S.–Mexico border of immigrants crossing the border illegally. Death by exposure occurs in the deserts of Southwestern United States during the hot summer season. In 2016 there were approximately 8,000 migrant deaths, with about 63% of deaths occurring within the Mediterranean.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Immigrants from countries that do not have automatic visa agreements, or who would not otherwise qualify for a visa, often cross the borders illegally in some areas like the United States–Mexico border, the Mona Channel between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, the Strait of Gibraltar, Fuerteventura, and the Strait of Otranto. Because these methods are illegal, they are often dangerous. Would-be immigrants have been known to suffocate in shipping containers, boxcars, and trucks, sink in shipwrecks caused by unseaworthy vessels, die of dehydration or exposure during long walks without water. An official estimate puts the number of people who died in illegal crossings across the U.S.–Mexican border between 1998 and 2004 at 1,954 (see immigrant deaths along the U.S.-Mexico border).


title: Illegal immigration

text: Human smuggling is the practice of intermediaries aiding undocumented immigrants in crossing over international borders in financial gain, often in large groups. Human smuggling differs from, but is sometimes associated with, human trafficking. A human smuggler will facilitate illegal entry into a country for a fee, but on arrival at their destination, the smuggled person is usually free. Trafficking involves a process of using physical force, fraud, or deception to obtain and transport people.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Types of notorious human smugglers include Snakehead gangs present in mainland China (especially in Fujian) that smuggle laborers into Pacific Rim states (making Chinatowns frequent centers of illegal immigration) and "coyotes", who smuggle undocumented immigrants to the Southwestern United States and have been known to abuse or even kill their passengers. Sometimes undocumented immigrants are abandoned by their human traffickers if there are difficulties, often dying in the process. Others may be victims of intentional killing.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Many undocumented immigrants are migrants who originally arrive in a country lawfully but overstay their authorized residence (overstaying a visa). For example, most of the estimated 200,000 illegal immigrants in Canada (perhaps as high as 500,000) are refugee claimants whose refugee applications were rejected but who have not yet been expelled from the country.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Another example is formed by children of foreigners born in countries observing "jus soli" ("right of territory"), such as was the case in France until 1994 and in Ireland until 2005. In these countries, it was possible to obtain French or Irish nationality (respectively) solely by being born in France before 1994 or in Ireland before 2005 (respectively). At present, a French born child of foreign parents does not automatically obtain French nationality until residency duration conditions are met. Since 1 January 2005, a child born in Ireland does not automatically acquire Irish nationality unless certain conditions are met.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Some people enter into sham marriages, whereby marriage is contracted into for purely immigration advantage by a couple who are not in a genuine relationship. Common reasons for sham marriages are to gain immigration (i.e., immigration fraud), residency, work, or citizenship rights for one or both of the spouses, or for other benefits.


title: Illegal immigration

text: In the United Kingdom, those who arrange, participate in, or officiate over a sham marriage may be charged with a number of offenses, including assisting unlawful immigration and conspiracy to facilitate a breach of immigration law.


title: Illegal immigration

text: The United States has a penalty of a $250,000 fine and five-year prison sentence for such arrangements. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Justice Department say that they do not have accurate numbers on the rate of attempted marriage fraud. In the 2009 fiscal year, 506 (0.2%) of the 241,154 petitions filed were denied for suspected fraud; 7% were denied on other grounds.


title: Illegal immigration

text: In 2007 around 44,000 Congolese were forced to leave Angola. Since 2004, more than 400,000 illegal immigrants, almost all from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, have been expelled from Angola.


title: Illegal immigration

text: No accurate estimates of the number of illegal migrants living in South Africa exist. Estimates that have been published vary widely. A 1996 Human Sciences Research Council study estimated that there were between 2.5 million and 4.1 million illegal migrants in the country. In their 2008–09 annual report, the South African Police Service stated: "According to various estimates, the number of undocumented immigrants in South Africa may vary between three and six million people". Other estimates have put the figure as high as 10 million. , Statistics South Africa's official estimate is of between 500,000 and one million undocumented migrants. A large number of Zimbabweans have fled to South Africa as a result of instability in Zimbabwe, with many living as illegal migrants in South Africa. Sociologist Alice Bloch notes that migrants in South Africa have been the victims of xenophobia and violence, regardless of their immigration status.


title: Illegal immigration

text: There are about 1.2 million Indians living in Bangladesh illegally as of 2014. The illegal migrants are mainly from the poorest states in India including West Bengal, Meghalaya, Assam and Manipur, which surround Bangladesh. They illegally immigrate to Bangladesh in search of jobs in the metropolitan hubs and a better standard of living. Bangladesh is fifth among the nations sending highest remittances to India. Indians working in Bangladesh sent more than $3.7 billion back to India in 2012.


title: Illegal immigration

text: There is a significant number of Burmese illegal immigrants in Bangladesh. As of 2012, the Bangladesh government estimated about 500,000 illegal Burmese immigrants living across Bangladesh.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Immigration in Bhutan by Nepalese settlers (Lhotshampa) began slowly towards the end of the 19th century. The government passed the Bhutanese Citizenship Act 1985 to clarify and try to enforce the Bhutanese Citizenship Act 1958 to control the flood of illegal immigration. Those individuals who could not provide proof of residency prior to 1958 were adjudged to be undocumented immigrants. In 1991 and 1992, Bhutan expelled roughly 139,110 ethnic Nepalis, most of whom have been living in seven refugee camps in eastern Nepal ever since. The United States has offered to resettle 60,000 of the 107,000 Bhutanese refugees of Nepalese origin now living in U.N. refugee camps in Nepal. The Bhutanese government, even today, has not been able to sort the problem of giving citizenship to those people who are married to Bhutanese, even though they have been in the country for 40 years.


title: Illegal immigration

text: It is estimated that several tens of millions of illegal immigrants live in India. Precise figures are not available, but the numbers run in tens of millions, at least 10 million are from Bangladesh, others being from Pakistan, Afghanistan and others. According to the Government of India, there at least 20 million illegal immigrants from Bangladesh alone. This makes India the country with the largest number of illegal immigrants in the world. During the Bangladesh Liberation War at least 10 million Bangladeshis crossed into India illegally to seek refuge from widespread rape and genocide. According to Indian Home Ministry, at least 1.4 Million Bangladeshi crossed over into India in the last decade alone. Samir Guha Roy of the Indian Statistical Institute states that internal migration is sometimes falsely thought to be immigrants. An analysis of the numbers by Roy revealed that on average around 91000 Bangladeshi nationals might have crossed over to India every year during the years 1981–1991, thus, close to a million in a decade alone. How many of them were identified and pushed back is not known. It is possible that some of these illegal immigrants returned on their own.


title: Illegal immigration

text: According to a pro-Indian scholar, the trip to India from Bangladesh is one of the cheapest in the world, with a trip costing around Rs. 2000 (around $30 US), which includes the fee for the "Tour Operator". As Bangladeshis are cultural similar to the Bengali people in India, they are able to pass off as Indian citizens and settle down in any part of India to establish a future., for a very small price. This false identity can be bolstered with false documentation available for as little as Rs. 200 ($3 US) can even make them part of the vote bank.


title: Illegal immigration

text: India is constructing barriers on its eastern borders to combat the surge of migrants. The Indo-Bangladeshi barrier is 4,000 km (2,500 mi) long. Presently, India is constructing a fence along the border to restrict illegal traffic from Bangladesh. This obstruction will virtually isolate Bangladesh from India. The barrier's plan is based on the designs of the Israeli West Bank barrier and will be 3.6 m (11.8 ft) high. The stated aim of the fence is to stop infiltration of terrorists, prevent smuggling, and end illegal immigration from Bangladesh.


title: Illegal immigration

text: There are an estimated 800,000 illegal immigrants in Malaysia. In January 2009, Malaysia banned the hiring of foreign workers in factories, stores and restaurants to protect its citizens from mass unemployment amid the late 2000s recession. An ethnic Indian Malaysian was recently sentenced to whipping and 10 months in prison for hiring six illegal immigrants at his restaurant. "I think that after this, Malaysian employers will be afraid to take in foreign workers (without work permits). They will think twice", said immigration department prosecutor Azlan Abdul Latiff. "This is the first case where an employer is being sentenced to caning", he said. Illegal immigrants also face caning before being deported.


title: Illegal immigration

text: As of 2005, 2.1% of the population of Pakistan had foreign origins, however the number of immigrants population in Pakistan recently grew sharply. Immigrants from South Asia make up a growing proportion of immigrants in Pakistan. The five largest immigrant groups in Pakistan are in turn Afghans, Bangladeshi, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Turkmens, Iranians, Indians, Sri Lankan, Burmese and Britons including a sizeable number of those of Pakistani origin. Other significant expatriate communities in the country are Armenians, Australians, Turks, Chinese, Americans, Filipinos, Bosnians and many others. Migrants from different countries of Arab world specially Egypt, Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Kuwait, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen are in thousands. Nearly all illegal migrants in Pakistan are Muslim refugees and they are accepted by the local population. There is no political support or legislation to deport these refugees from Pakistan.


title: Illegal immigration

text: It was estimated by Teresita Ang-See, a prominent leader and activist of the Chinese Filipino community, that by 2007, as much as 100,000 illegal immigrants from mainland China are living in the Philippines, a tenth of the ethnic Chinese population. The latest influx has come in part because of Manila's move in 2005 to liberalise entry procedures for Chinese tourists and investors, a move that helped triple the number of Chinese visitors to 133,000 last year. Many of the new Chinese immigrants encounter hostility from many Filipinos, including Filipino-born Chinese, for being perceived as engaging in criminal activities and fraud.


title: Illegal immigration

text: According to the Republic of Korea Immigration Service, as of 31 December 2014, there were 208,778 illegal immigrants, which is 11.6% of 1,797,618 total foreign nationals who resided in South Korea. Most illegal immigrants in South Korea are Asian. The top 10 home countries of those illegal immigrants all came from other Asian countries with China at number 1 followed by Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Mongolia, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Cambodia.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Brazil has long been part of international migration routes. In 2009, the government estimated the number of illegal immigrants at about 200,000 people; a Catholic charity working with immigrants said there were 600,000 illegal immigrants (75,000 of whom were from Bolivia). That same year, the National Congress of Brazil approved an amnesty, opening a six-month window for all foreigners to seek legalization irrespective of their previous standing before the law. Brazil had last legalized all immigrants in 1998; bilateral deals, one of which promoted the legalization of all reciprocal immigrants with Bolivia to date, signed in 2005, are also common.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Illegal immigrants in Brazil enjoy the same legal privileges as native Brazilians regarding access to social services such as public education and the Brazilian public healthcare system. A Federal Police operation investigated Chinese immigrants who traveled through six countries before arriving in São Paulo to work under substandard conditions in the textile industry.


title: Illegal immigration

text: After signing the 2009 amnesty bill into law, President Lula da Silva said, in a speech, that "repression and intolerance against immigrants will not solve the problems caused by" the financial crisis of 2007–2008, thereby also harshly criticizing the "policy of discrimination and prejudice" against immigrants in developed nations.


title: Illegal immigration

text: An October 2009 piece from O Globo, quoting a UNDP study, estimates the number of illegal immigrants at 0.7 million, and points out to a recent wave of xenophobia among the general populace.


title: Illegal immigration

text: There is no credible information available on illegal immigration in Canada. Estimates range between 35,000 and 120,000 illegal immigrants in Canada. James Bissett, a former head of the Canadian Immigration Service, has suggested that the lack of any credible refugee screening process, combined with a high likelihood of ignoring any deportation orders, has resulted in tens of thousands of outstanding warrants for the arrest of rejected refugee claimants, with little attempt at enforcement. Refugee claimants in Canada do not have to attempt re-entry to learn the status of their claim. A 2008 report by the Auditor General Sheila Fraser stated that Canada has lost track of as many as 41,000 illegal immigrants. This number was predicted to increase drastically with the expiration of temporary employer work permits issued in 2007 and 2008, which were not renewed in many cases because of the shortage of work due to the recession.


title: Illegal immigration

text: In the first six months of 2005, more than 120,000 people from Central America were deported, as compared to 2002, when for the entire year, only 130,000 were deported. People of Han Chinese origin pay about $5,500 to smugglers to be taken to Mexico from Hong Kong. It is estimated that 2.4% of rejections for work permits in Mexico correspond to Chinese citizens. In a 2010 news story, "USA Today" reported, "... Mexico's Arizona-style law requires local police to check IDs. And Mexican police freely engage in racial profiling and routinely harass Central American migrants, say immigration activists."


title: Illegal immigration

text: Many women from Eastern Europe, Asia, and Central and South America take jobs at table dance establishments in large cities. The National Institute of Migration (INM) in Mexico raids strip clubs and deports foreigners who work without proper documentation. In 2004, the INM deported 188,000 people at a cost of US$10 million.


title: Illegal immigration

text: In September 2007, Mexican President Calderón harshly criticized the United States government for the crackdown on illegal immigrants, saying it has led to the persecution of immigrant workers without visas. "I have said that Mexico does not stop at its border, that wherever there is a Mexican, there is Mexico", he said. However, Mexico has also deported US citizens, deporting 2,000 cases in 2015 and 1,243 in 2014.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Illegal immigration of Cubans through Cancún tripled from 2004 to 2006. In October 2008, Mexico tightened its immigration rules and agreed to deport Cubans who use the country as an entry point to the US. It also criticized US policy that generally allows Cubans who reach US territory to stay. Cuban Foreign Minister said the Cuban-Mexican agreement would lead to "the immense majority of Cubans being repatriated."


title: Illegal immigration

text: Approximately 11 million illegal immigrants were estimated to be living in the United States in 2006. The Pew Hispanic Center estimated that this peaked at 12 million in March 2007 and declined to 11 million again in March 2009. The majority of the illegal immigrants are from Mexico.


title: Illegal immigration

text: The issue of illegal immigration has long been controversial in the United States. In 2007, President George W. Bush called for Congress to endorse his guest worker proposal, stating that illegal immigrants took jobs that Americans would not take.


title: Illegal immigration

text: The Pew Hispanic Center notes that while the number of legal immigrants arriving has not varied substantially since the 1980s, the number of illegal immigrants has increased dramatically and, since the mid-1990s, has surpassed the number of legal immigrants. Penalties for employers of illegal immigrants, of $2,000–$10,000 and up to six months' imprisonment, go largely unenforced.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Political groups like Americans for Legal Immigration have formed to demand enforcement of immigration laws and secure borders. ALIPAC has also called for "safe departure" border checkpoints, free of criminal checks.


title: Illegal immigration

text: In a 2011 news story, the "Los Angeles Times" reported, ...illegal immigrants in 2010 were parents of 5.5 million children, 4.5 million of whom were born in the U.S. and are citizens. Because illegal immigrants are younger and more likely to be married, they represented a disproportionate share of births—8% of the babies born in the U.S. between March 2009 and March 2010 were to at least one illegal immigrant parent.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Immigration from Mexico to the United States has slowed in recent years. This has been attributed to the slowing of the U.S. economy, the buildup in security along the border and increased violence on the Mexican side of the Mexico–United States border.


title: Illegal immigration

text: In 2016, the Library of Congress announced it would substitute "noncitizens" and "unauthorized immigration" for "illegal aliens" as a bibliographic retrieval term, saying the once common phrase had become offensive, and was not precise. However, the change was suspended and the heading "illegal aliens" remains in use.


title: Illegal immigration

text: In 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions instructed the US attorneys offices not to use the term "undocumented immigrants", but to instead refer to people as "illegal aliens".


title: Illegal immigration

text: Official government sources put the number of visa overstayers in Australia at approximately 50,000. This has been the official number of illegal immigrants for about 25 years and is considered to be low. Other sources have placed it at up to 100,000, but no detailed study has been completed to quantify this number, which could be significantly higher.


title: Illegal immigration

text: On 1 June 2013, the "Migration Amendment (Reform of Employer Sanctions) Act 2013" commenced. This new law puts the onus on businesses to ensure that their employees maintain the necessary work entitlements in Australia. The new legislation also enables the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship to levy infringement notices against business (AUD $15,300) and individual (AUD $3,060) employers on a strict liability basis – meaning that there is no requirement to prove fault, negligence or intention.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Russia experiences a constant flow of immigration. On average, 200,000 legal immigrants enter the country every year; about half are ethnic Russians from other republics of the former Soviet Union. There are an estimated 10–12 million foreigners working in the country without legal permission to be there. There has been a significant influx of ethnic Georgians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Tajiks, and Uzbeks into large Russian cities in recent years, which has been viewed very unfavorably by many citizens and contributed to nationalist sentiments.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Many immigrant ethnic groups have much higher birth rates than native Russians, further shifting the balance. Some Chinese flee the overpopulation and birth control regulations of their home country and settle in the Far East and in southern Siberia. Russia's main Pacific port and naval base of Vladivostok, once closed to foreigners, today is bristling with Chinese markets, restaurants and trade houses. This has been occurring a lot since the Soviet collapse.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Illegal border crossing is considered a crime, and captured illegal border crossers have been sentenced to prison terms. For example, "Rossiyskaya Gazeta" reported in October 2008 the case of a North Korean who was detained after illegally crossing the Amur River from China. Considered by Russian authorities an "economic migrant", he was sentenced to 6 months in prison and was to be deported to the country of his nationality after serving his sentence, even though he may now risk an even heavier penalty there. That was just one of the 26 cases year-to-date of illegal entrants, of various nationalities, receiving criminal punishment in Amur Oblast.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Turkey receives many economic migrants from nearby countries such as Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, but also from North Caucasus, Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Iraq War is thought to have increased the flow of illegal immigration into Turkey, and the global parties directly involved in the conflict have been accused of extending a less-helping hand than Turkey itself to resolve the precarious situation of immigrants stranded in passage.


title: Illegal immigration

text: The Schengen Area is a multilateral agreement between 26 states in which they in most cases abolish the border control among themselves. These states include most of the EU countries, as well as the EEC countries Norway, Switzerland and Iceland. Any person who is physically inside any of the Schengen states will usually be able to travel to any other Schengen state without hindrance from the law enforcement, even if he or she has no legal right to enter another Schengen Area member state. A person who wishes to immigrate illegally to a Schengen Area member state may therefore find it more practical to enter it through another member state. According to a BBC report from 2012, over 80% of illegal immigrants entering the European Union pass through Greece.


title: Illegal immigration

text: EU countries that are not members of the Schengen Agreement are still committed to allow lawful entry by citizens of EU countries; they may however exercise border control at their discretion. This typically presents a significant hindrance to persons who are trying to enter those countries illegally.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Citizens within The EU is an economic and political partnership between 28 European countries that together cover much of the European continent. A citizen of an EU member state has the right to seek employment within any other member state. The Schengen Agreement does not regulate treatment of persons who enter the Schengen Area illegally. This is therefore left to the individual states, and other applicable international treaties and European case law. Illegal immigration to Schengen and to Europe in general was increasing sharply since approximately early 2014. The main causes for this increase are the conflicts that followed the Arab Spring; in particular, the civil war in Syria has driven millions of people from their homes, and the disintegration of the Libyan government removed a major barrier for the African migrants.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Illegal immigration to some of the Schengen Area states might face different consideration depending on countries such as Bulgaria, France, Greece.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Children born to noncitizens in France are not immigrants themselves, but they are considered foreigners under French law, until they reach the age of 18, at which time they automatically become citizens. French citizenship is based in the idea of political unity; therefore, French citizenship may be more accessible than other EU countries, such as Germany and the UK. However, many French citizens feel that those who gain French citizenship should conform to the cultural aspects of French life. Foreigners can also become French citizens if they serve in the Foreign Legion.


title: Illegal immigration

text: French law prohibits anyone from assisting or trying to assist "the entry of a foreigner in France." (Except for a non-EU national, entering in metropolitan France illegally from the territory of a Schengen country)


title: Illegal immigration

text: In 2014, Hungary registered 43,000 asylum seekers and 80,000 up to July 2015. In the summer of 2015, Hungary started building a 4m high fence along its 175 km border to neighbouring Serbia to keep out the tens of thousands illegal immigrants from the Middle East and migrants trying to reach the European Union. The border was sealed on 15 September 2015 and the fence was the following day attacked by refugees and defended by riot police.


title: Illegal immigration

text: With the Hungary-Serbia border closed, migrants then started heading to Croatia, but as Croatia led the migrants to the Hungary-Croatia border, Hungary then started the construction of a second fence along its border with Croatia on 18 September 2015.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Many try to cross the English Channel from Calais to seek asylum or refugee status in Great Britain. Truck drivers can be fined up to €2,500 if illegal immigrants are found on board. The Home Office has its agents working alongside French police and immigration agents, to prevent unauthorized people from entering the zone. An area of Calais known as "the Jungle" had a police raid in September 2009 to control illegal immigration. The French also try to stop illegal immigrants from entering France from the southern part of the country.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Non-governmental organizations, such as Secours Catholique and the Red Cross provide food, showers, and shelter to sans papiers who gather waiting to cross the Channel.


title: Illegal immigration

text: In 1986, an Iranian man was sent back to Paris, from London, as he was unable to present any ID to British immigration officers. He stayed at the airport for nearly twenty years and his story loosely inspired a film, "The Terminal".


title: Illegal immigration

text: A 2012 study carried out by the University of Oxford's Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) has estimated that there were 120,000 illegal migrant children in the UK, of whom 65,000 were born in the UK to parents without legal status. According to the study these children are at risk of destitution, exploitation and social exclusion because of contradictory and frequently changing rules and regulations which jeopardize their access to healthcare, education, protection by the police and other public services.


title: Illegal immigration

text: The Home Office estimated that 4,000 to 10,000 applications a year to stay in the UK are made on the basis of a sham marriage. Many undocumented immigrants or asylum seekers have tried to enter the UK from France, by hiding inside trucks or trains.


title: Illegal immigration

text: On 11 August 2020, the Government of Britain and France worked together on a single channel to finalize a new plan for blocking illegal migrant route. Many of the migrants who aimed to emigrate to Britain came from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria and countries in Africa, fleeing poverty, persecution or war.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Since late April 2007, the Iranian government has forcibly deported back Afghans living and working in Iran to Afghanistan at a rate between 250,000 and 300,000 per year. The forceful evictions of the refugees, who lived in Iran and Pakistan for nearly three decades, are part of the two countries' larger plans to repatriate all Afghan refugees within a few years. Iran said that it would send 1,000,000 by March 2008, and Pakistan announced that all 2,400,000 Afghan refugees, most living in camps, must return home by 2009. Aimal Khan, a political analyst at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Islamabad said it would be "disastrous" for Afghanistan.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Tens of thousands of migrants, mostly from Sudan and Eritrea, had crossed the Israeli border between 2009 and 2012. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that "This phenomenon is very grave and threatens the social fabric of society, our national security and our national identity." In May 2012, Israel introduced a law which would allow illegal immigrants to be detained for up to three years, a measure that the Interior Ministry intended to stem the flow of Africans entering Israel across the desert border with Egypt. As a result, completing a barrier along the border with Egypt, illegal immigration from Africa decreased by over 99%.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Israel faces substantial (estimated at 40,000 in 2009) illegal immigration of Arab workers from the Palestinian Authority territories, a migration that includes both workers seeking employment, and homosexuals escaping the social opprobrium of Arab society.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Thousands of foreign workers who entered the country on temporary visas have overstayed and live illegally in Israel. There is a debate within Israel as to whether the Israel-born children of foreign workers should be allowed to remain in the country.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Before the Libyan civil war, Libya was home to a large population of illegal immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa, numbering as much as 2,000,000. The mass expulsion plan to summarily deport all illegally residing foreigners was announced by then-current Libyan leader Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi in January 2008, "No resident without a legal visa will be excluded."


title: Illegal immigration

text: In 2004, Saudi Arabia began construction of a Saudi–Yemen barrier between its territory and Yemen to prevent the unauthorized movement of people and goods into and out of the Kingdom. Anthony H. Cordesman labeled it a "separation barrier". In February 2004, The Guardian reported that Yemeni opposition newspapers likened the barrier to the Israeli West Bank barrier, while The Independent wrote "Saudi Arabia, one of the most vocal critics in the Arab world of Israel's 'security fence' in the West Bank, is quietly emulating the Israeli example by erecting a barrier along its porous border with Yemen". Saudi officials rejected the comparison saying it was built to prevent infiltration and smuggling.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, there are more refugees from Iraq. The United Nations estimates that nearly 2,200,000 Iraqis have fled the country since 2003, with nearly 100,000 fleeing to Syria and Jordan each month. Most ventured to Jordan and Syria, creating demographic shifts that have worried both governments. Refugees are mired in poverty as they are generally barred from working in their host countries.


title: Illegal immigration

text: Syrian authorities worried that the new influx of refugees would limit the country's resources. Sources like oil, heat, water and electricity were said to be becoming scarcer as demand were rising. On 1 October 2007, news agencies reported that Syria reimposed restrictions on Iraqi refugees, as stated by a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Under Syria's new rules, only Iraqi merchants, businessmen and university professors with visas acquired from Syrian embassies may enter Syria.


title: Code talker

text: A code talker was a person employed by the military during wartime to use a little-known language as a means of secret communication. The term is now usually associated with United States service members during the world wars who used their knowledge of Native American languages as a basis to transmit coded messages. In particular, there were approximately 400 to 500 Native Americans in the United States Marine Corps whose primary job was to transmit secret tactical messages. Code talkers transmitted messages over military telephone or radio communications nets using formally or informally developed codes built upon their native languages. The code talkers improved the speed of encryption and decryption of communications in front line operations during World War II.


title: Code talker

text: There were two code types used during World War II. Type one codes were formally developed based on the languages of the Comanche, Hopi, Meskwaki, and Navajo peoples. They used words from their languages for each letter of the English alphabet. Messages could be encoded and decoded by using a simple substitution cipher where the ciphertext was the native language word. Type two code was informal and directly translated from English into the native language. If there was no word in the native language to describe a military word, code talkers used descriptive words. For example, the Navajo did not have a word for "submarine", so they translated it as "iron fish".


title: Code talker

text: The name "code talkers" is strongly associated with bilingual Navajo speakers specially recruited during World War II by the US Marine Corps to serve in their standard communications units of the Pacific theater. Code talking was pioneered by the Cherokee and Choctaw peoples during World War I.


title: Code talker

text: Other Native American code talkers were deployed by the United States Army during World War II, including Lakota, Meskwaki, Mohawk, Comanche, Tlingit, Hopi, Cree, and Crow soldiers; they served in the Pacific, North African, and European theaters.


title: Code talker

text: Native speakers of the Assiniboine language served as code talkers during World War II to encrypt communications. One of these code talkers was Gilbert Horn Sr., who grew up in the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation of Montana and became a tribal judge and politician.


title: Code talker

text: In November 1952, "Euzko Deya" magazine reported that in May of that year, upon meeting a large number of US Marines of Basque ancestry in a San Francisco camp, Captain Frank D. Carranza had thought of using the Basque language for codes. His superiors were concerned about risk, as there were known settlements of Basque people in the Pacific region, including: 35 Basque Jesuits in Hiroshima, led by Pedro Arrupe; a colony of Basque jai alai players in China and the Philippines; and Basque supporters of Falange in Asia. Consequently, the US Basque code talkers were not deployed in these theaters, instead being used initially in tests and in transmitting logistics information for Hawaii and Australia.


title: Code talker

text: According to "Euzko Deya", on August 1, 1942, Lieutenants Nemesio Aguirre, Fernández Bakaicoa, and Juanana received a Basque-coded message from San Diego for Admiral Chester Nimitz. The message warned Nimitz of Operation Apple to remove the Japanese from the Solomon Islands. They also translated the start date, August 7, for the attack on Guadalcanal. As the war extended over the Pacific, there was a shortage of Basque speakers, and the US military came to prefer the parallel program based on the use of Navajo speakers.


title: Code talker

text: In 2017, Pedro Oiarzabal and Guillermo Tabernilla published a paper refuting "Euzko Deya"s article. According to Oiarzabal and Tabernilla, they could not find Carranza, Aguirre, Fernández Bakaicoa, or Juanana in the National Archives and Records Administration or US Army archives. They did find a small number of US Marines with Basque surnames, but none of them worked in transmissions. They suggest that Carranza's story was an Office of Strategic Services operation to raise sympathy for US intelligence among Basque nationalists.


title: Code talker

text: The first known use of code talkers in the US military was during World War I. Cherokee soldiers of the US 30th Infantry Division fluent in the Cherokee language were assigned to transmit messages while under fire during the Second Battle of the Somme. According to the Division Signal Officer, this took place in September 1918 when their unit was under British command.


title: Code talker

text: During World War I, company commander Captain Lawrence of the US Army overheard Solomon Louis and Mitchell Bobb having a conversation in Choctaw. Upon further investigation, he found that eight Choctaw men served in the battalion. The Choctaw men in the Army's 36th Infantry Division were trained to use their language in code and helped the American Expeditionary Forces in several battles of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. On October 26, 1918, the code talkers were pressed into service and the "tide of battle turned within 24 hours ... and within 72 hours the Allies were on full attack."


title: Code talker

text: German authorities knew about the use of code talkers during World War I. Joseph Goebbels declared that Native Americans were fellow Aryans. In addition, the Germans sent a team of thirty anthropologists to the United States to learn Native American languages before the outbreak of World War II. However, the task proved too difficult because of the large array of native languages and dialects. Nonetheless, after learning of the Nazi effort, the US Army opted not to implement a large-scale code talker program in the European theater.


title: Code talker

text: Initially, 17 code talkers were enlisted but three were unable to make the trip across the Atlantic when the unit was finally deployed. A total of 14 code talkers using the Comanche language took part in the Invasion of Normandy and served in the 4th Infantry Division in Europe. Comanche soldiers of the 4th Signal Company compiled a vocabulary of 250 code terms using words and phrases in their own language. Using a substitution method similar to that of the Navajo, the code talkers used descriptive words from the Comanche language for things that did not have translations. For example, the Comanche language code term for "tank" was "turtle", "bomber" was "pregnant bird", "machine gun" was "sewing machine", and "Adolf Hitler" was "crazy white man".


title: Code talker

text: Two Comanche code talkers were assigned to each regiment, and the remainder were assigned to the 4th Infantry Division headquarters. Shortly after landing on Utah Beach on June 6, 1944, the Comanche began transmitting messages. Some were wounded but none killed.


title: Code talker

text: In 1989, the French government awarded the Comanche code talkers the "Chevalier" of the National Order of Merit. On November 30, 1999, the United States Department of Defense presented Charles Chibitty with the Knowlton Award, in recognition of his outstanding intelligence work.


title: Code talker

text: In World War II, the Canadian Armed Forces employed First Nations soldiers who spoke the Cree language as code talkers. Owing to oaths of secrecy and official classification through 1963, the role of Cree code talkers were less well-known than their US counterparts and went unacknowledged by the Canadian government. A 2016 documentary, "Cree Code Talkers", tells the story of one such Métis individual, Charles "Checker" Tomkins. Tomkins died in 2003, but was interviewed shortly before his death by the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. While he identified some other Cree code talkers, "Tomkins may have been the last of his comrades to know anything of this secret operation."


title: Code talker

text: In 2022 during the Russo-Ukrainian War, Hungarian language is reported to be used by the Ukrainian army to relay operational military information and orders to circumvent being understood by the invading Russian army without the need to encrypt and decipher the messages.


title: Code talker

text: Ukraine has a sizeable Hungarian population of over 150,000 people, who live mainly in the Kárpátalja (in Hungarian) or Zakarpatska Oblast (in Ukrainian) division of the Ukraine, adjacent to Hungary. As Ukrainian nationals, men of enlistment age are also subject to military service, hence the Ukrainian army has a Hungarian-speaking capability. Hungarian language is one of the most spoken and official languages of this region in present-day Ukraine. Hungarian language is a non-Indo-European language unlike the Slavic Ukrainian or Russian, but a Ugric language. For this reason it is distinct and incomprehensible for Russian speakers.


title: Code talker

text: A group of 27 Meskwaki enlisted in the US Army together in January 1941; they comprised 16 percent of Iowa's Meskwaki population. During World War II, the US Army trained eight Meskwaki men to use their native Fox language as code talkers. They were assigned to North Africa. The eight were posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2013; the government gave the awards to representatives of the Meskwaki community.


title: Code talker

text: Mohawk language code talkers were used during World War II by the United States Army in the Pacific theater. Levi Oakes, a Mohawk code talker born in Canada, was deployed to protect messages being sent by Allied Forces using "Kanien'kéha", a Mohawk sub-set language. Oakes died in May 2019; he was the last of the Mohawk code talkers.


title: Code talker

text: The Muscogee language was used as type two code (informal) during World War II by enlisted Seminole and Creek people in the US Army. Tony Palmer, Leslie Richard, Edmund Harjo, and Thomas MacIntosh from the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and Muscogee (Creek) Nation were recognized under the Code Talkers Recognition Act of 2008. The last survivor of these code talkers, Edmond Harjo of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, died on March 31, 2014, at the age of 96. His biography was recounted at the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony honoring Harjo and other code talkers at the US Capitol on November 20, 2013.


title: Code talker

text: Philip Johnston, a civil engineer for the city of Los Angeles, proposed the use of the Navajo language to the United States Marine Corps at the beginning of World War II. Johnston, a World War I veteran, was raised on the Navajo reservation as the son of missionaries to the Navajo. He was among the few non-Navajo who spoke the language fluently. Many Navajo men enlisted shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor and eagerly contributed to the war effort.


title: Code talker

text: Because Navajo has a complex grammar, it is not mutually intelligible with even its closest relatives within the Na-Dene family to provide meaningful information. At the time, it was still an unwritten language, and Johnston believed Navajo could satisfy the military requirement for an undecipherable code. Its complex syntax and phonology, not to mention its numerous dialects, made it unintelligible to anyone without extensive exposure and training. One estimate indicates that at the outbreak of World War II, fewer than 30 non-Navajo could understand the language.


title: Code talker

text: In early 1942, Johnston met with the commanding general of the Amphibious Corps, Major General Clayton B. Vogel, and his staff. Johnston staged simulated combat conditions which demonstrated that Navajo men could transmit and decode a three-line message in 20 seconds, compared to the 30 minutes it took the machines of the time. The idea of using Navajo speakers as code talkers was accepted; Vogel recommended that the Marines recruit 200 Navajo. The first 29 Navajo recruits attended boot camp in May 1942. This first group created the Navajo code at Camp Pendleton.


title: Code talker

text: The Navajo code was formally developed and modeled on the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet that uses agreed-upon English words to represent letters. Since it was determined that phonetically spelling out all military terms letter by letter into words while in combat would be too time-consuming, some terms, concepts, tactics, and instruments of modern warfare were given uniquely formal descriptive nomenclatures in Navajo. For example, the word for "shark" referred to a destroyer, while "silver oak leaf" indicated the rank of lieutenant colonel.


title: Code talker

text: A codebook was developed to teach the many relevant words and concepts to new initiates. The text was for classroom purposes only and was never to be taken into the field. The code talkers memorized all these variations and practiced their rapid use under stressful conditions during training. Navajo speakers who had not been trained in the code work would have no idea what the code talkers' messages meant; they would hear only truncated and disjointed strings of individual, unrelated nouns and verbs.


title: Code talker

text: The Navajo code talkers were commended for the skill, speed, and accuracy they demonstrated throughout the war. At the Battle of Iwo Jima, Major Howard Connor, 5th Marine Division signal officer, had six Navajo code talkers working around the clock during the first two days of the battle. These six sent and received over 800 messages, all without error. Connor later said, "Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima."


title: Code talker

text: After incidents where Navajo code talkers were mistaken for ethnic Japanese and were captured by other American soldiers, several were assigned a personal bodyguard whose principal duty was to protect them from their own side. According to Bill Toledo, one of the second group after the original 29, they had a secret secondary duty: if their charge was at risk of being captured, they were to shoot him to protect the code. Fortunately, none was ever called upon to do so.


title: Code talker

text: To ensure a consistent use of code terminologies throughout the Pacific theater, representative code talkers of each of the US Marine divisions met in Hawaii to discuss shortcomings in the code, incorporate new terms into the system, and update their codebooks. These representatives, in turn, trained other code talkers who could not attend the meeting. As the war progressed, additional code words were added and incorporated program-wide. In other instances, informal shortcut code words were devised for a particular campaign and not disseminated beyond the area of operation. Examples of code words include the Navajo word for "buzzard", , which was used for "bomber", while the code word used for "submarine", , meant "iron fish" in Navajo. The last of the original 29 Navajo code talkers who developed the code, Chester Nez, died on June 4, 2014.


title: Code talker

text: Four of the last nine Navajo code talkers used in the military died in 2019: Alfred K. Newman died on January 13, 2019, at the age of 94. On May 10, 2019, Fleming Begaye Sr. died at the age of 97. New Mexico State Senator John Pinto, elected in 1977, died in office on May 24, 2019. William Tully Brown died in June 2019 aged 96. Joe Vandever Sr. died at 96 on January 31, 2020. Samuel Sandoval died on 29 July 2022, at the age of 98.


title: Code talker

text: Only three remaining members are still living as of 2022, John Kinsel Sr., Thomas H. Begay, and Peter MacDonald.


title: Code talker

text: The deployment of the Navajo code talkers continued through the Korean War and after, until it was ended early in the Vietnam War. The Navajo code is the only spoken military code never to have been deciphered.


title: Code talker

text: During World War Two, American soldiers used their native Tlingit as a code against Japanese forces. Their actions remained unknown, even after the declassification of code talkers and the publication of the Navajo code talkers. The memory of five deceased Tlingit code talkers was honored by the Alaska legislature in March 2019.


title: Code talker

text: A system employing the Welsh language was used by British forces during World War II, but not to any great extent. In 1942, the Royal Air Force developed a plan to use Welsh for secret communications, but it was never implemented. Welsh was used more recently in the Yugoslav Wars for non-vital messages.


title: Code talker

text: The Navajo code talkers received no recognition until 1968 when their operation was declassified. In 1982, the code talkers were given a Certificate of Recognition by US President Ronald Reagan, who also named August 14, 1982 as Navajo Code Talkers Day.


title: Code talker

text: On December 21, 2000, President Bill Clinton signed Public Law 106-554, 114 Statute 2763, which awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to the original 29 World War II Navajo code talkers and Silver Medals to each person who qualified as a Navajo code talker (approximately 300). In July 2001, President George W. Bush honored the code talkers by presenting the medals to four surviving original code talkers (the fifth living original code talker was unable to attend) at a ceremony held in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC. Gold medals were presented to the families of the deceased 24 original code talkers.


title: Code talker

text: Journalist Patty Talahongva directed and produced a documentary, "The Power of Words: Native Languages as Weapons of War", for the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in 2006, bringing to light the story of Hopi code talkers. In 2011, Arizona established April 23, as an annual recognition day for the Hopi code talkers. The Texas Medal of Valor was awarded posthumously to 18 Choctaw code talkers for their World War II service on September 17, 2007, by the Adjutant General of the State of Texas.


title: Code talker

text: The Code Talkers Recognition Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-420) was signed into law by President George W. Bush on November 15, 2008. The act recognized every Native American code talker who served in the United States military during WWI or WWII (with the exception of the already-awarded Navajo) with a Congressional Gold Medal. The act was designed to be distinct for each tribe, with silver duplicates awarded to the individual code talkers or their next-of-kin. As of 2013, 33 tribes have been identified and been honored at a ceremony at Emancipation Hall at the US Capitol Visitor Center. One surviving code talker was present, Edmond Harjo.


title: Code talker

text: On November 27, 2017, three Navajo code talkers, joined by the President of the Navajo Nation, Russell Begaye, appeared with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office in an official White House ceremony. They were there to "pay tribute to the contributions of the young Native Americans recruited by the United States military to create top-secret coded messages used to communicate during World War II battles." The executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, Jacqueline Pata, noted that Native Americans have "a very high level of participation in the military and veterans' service." A statement by a Navajo Nation Council Delegate and comments by Pata and Begaye, among others, objected to Trump's remarks during the event, including his use "once again ... [of] the word "Pocahontas" in a negative way towards a political adversary Elizabeth Warren who claims 'Native American heritage'." The National Congress of American Indians objected to Trump's use of the name Pocahontas, a historical Native American figure, as a derogatory term.


title: Greek (TV series)

text: Greek (typographically stylized as GRΣΣK) is an American comedy-drama television series that aired on ABC Family from July 9, 2007, to March 7, 2011. The series follows students of the fictitious Cyprus-Rhodes University (CRU), located in Ohio, who participate in the school's Greek system.


title: Greek (TV series)

text: The show's plots often take place within the confines of the fictional fraternities Kappa Tau Gamma (ΚΤΓ) and Omega Chi Delta (ΩΧΔ), or the fictional sorority Zeta Beta Zeta (ΖΒΖ). Throughout the course of the series, other non-Greek characters and situations are introduced, but they all tie into larger relationships with the Greeks. The series follows Rusty and Casey Cartwright as they endure the events surrounding the Greek system at Cyprus-Rhodes. There are six chapters, arranged into four seasons. The series stars Jacob Zachar and Spencer Grammer as the lead characters.


title: Greek (TV series)

text: Filmed primarily in Los Angeles, the show was also filmed on location at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus in the Westwood district of Los Angeles. Some scenes were shot at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, California and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The exterior and some interior shots were filmed in the historic West Adams, Los Angeles. The house used in the pilot to establish the ZBZ residence is the same house used in the reality series "Beauty and the Geek".


title: Greek (TV series)

text: The first season was halted in September 2007 due to the Writers Guild of America strike and returned March 24, 2008, to a triple digit increase in ratings over the pilot's premiere. On May 1, 2008, ABC Family renewed "Greek" for a second season, premiering August 26, 2008. The series was moved from the Tuesday lineup to Monday nights. Twelve more episodes were ordered for late spring 2009 and aired beginning March 30. On January 31, 2009, it was announced that "Greek" would return for a third season, premiering on August 31, 2009. The midseason premiere of Greek was Monday, January 25, 2010, at 10/9c.


title: Greek (TV series)

text: On February 19, 2010, it was reported that the show had been renewed for a fourth, ten-episode season. Then, on March 13, 2010, creator Sean Smith announced his plans to end the series after the fourth season, saying, "We plan to end, that's the plan. We're all looking at this as an opportunity to come back, wrap up the show, and end strong. ABC Family could have ended it, but they gave us this opportunity and I don't want to squander it." On July 29, 2010, it was confirmed that the fourth and final season of Greek would air beginning in January 2011. The series finale aired on March 7, 2011.


title: Greek (TV series)

text: The following is a list of fraternities and sororities featured in more than one episode. (None of which are real fraternities or sororities, with the exception of Kappa Tau Gamma, a local sorority at The Catholic University of America.)


title: Greek (TV series)

text: The following is a list of fraternities and sororities featured in at least one episode. (None of which are real fraternities or sororities with the exception of Alpha Delta Pi and Alpha Sigma Rho, national sororities.)


title: Greek (TV series)

text: The pilot episode premiered on Monday, July 9, 2007, in the US on ABC Family. The series finale aired on Monday, March 7, 2011.


title: Greek (TV series)

text: Rusty Cartwright (Jacob Zachar) is a freshman at Cyprus-Rhodes University and in an effort to shed his nerdy image, goes through Greek recruitment to join a fraternity. His older sister Casey (Spencer Grammer) is an active member of the Zeta Beta Zeta sorority (the top sorority on campus), and is dating Omega Chi Delta (the top fraternity on campus) active Evan Chambers (Jake McDorman), who is wealthy and popular because of his father's company, Chambers International. Evan is the Pledge Educator of Omega Chi and offers Rusty a bid during rush. But Rusty declines after he spots Evan cheating on Casey with the Senator's daughter (and Zeta Beta Zeta pledge), Rebecca Logan (Dilshad Vadsaria). Rusty later accepts a bid from Kappa Tau Gamma by the fun and laid-back Cappie (Scott Michael Foster), Casey's ex-boyfriend and Evan's enemy. Additionally, Rusty's religious Baptist roommate, Dale (Clark Duke), is concerned by Rusty's involvement with the Greeks, but later accepts Rusty's new lifestyle, even befriending Rusty's gay friend Calvin (Paul James), an Omega Chi legacy and pledge. After Casey finds out about Evan and Rebecca, Frannie (Tiffany Dupont), ZBZ president and Casey's "big sister", convinces Casey to stay with Evan. Casey sleeps with her ex, Cappie, to get revenge on Evan, but it was just a "one time thing". Rusty and Jen K. (Jessica Rose), a ZBZ pledge, begin dating after they help the Kappa Taus save Vesuvius. Despite all the cheating and tension, Evan lavalieres Casey (gives her his Greek letters). Ashleigh (Amber Stevens), Casey's best friend and fellow ZBZ member, ends her long-distance relationship with boyfriend, Travis, and she attempts to move on to Calvin, who she finds out is gay. He gets accidentally outed by Ashleigh to all of Omega Chi, but Evan encourages him to stay in the fraternity. During the season, Calvin and Heath, a Kappa Tau, have an on-and-off relationship. When Frannie finds out she won't be graduating, she runs for Omega Chi sweetheart again, against Casey. Meanwhile, Cappie and Rebecca begin a flirtatious relationship after doing a psychology experiment together. A large scandal for the Greeks erupts after Jen K. writes a newspaper article based on the scandals and controversies of the Greeks and gets them in trouble with Dean Bowman, forcing the university to lay down strict rules and monitoring on the Greeks. Since Jen K. was a ZBZ pledge, the article centers on the Zeta Beta Zeta sorority and ZBZ National Board interferes and forces Frannie to step down as president and has Casey take her place as interim president. In retaliation, Frannie then tells Evan that the only reason Casey decided to stay with him after he cheated was because of his reputation. As a result, Evan and Casey break up. Rusty and Jen K. also break up because Rusty can no longer trust her.


title: Greek (TV series)

text: Cappie and Rebecca begin a secret romance while Casey and Rusty try to get over their respective exes. The university begins to impose severe restrictions on the Greek system in response to the newspaper article. A ZBZ alumna, Lizzie, comes to live with the sisters to ensure National's standards are enforced. The ZBZs pair up with the Kappa Taus to throw a Gatsby-themed Prohibition party. Rusty has some trouble accepting that he and Calvin are in rival fraternities, but they end up solving their differences in the season finale. Cappie and Rebecca go public about their relationship, which makes Casey uneasy. By accepting Frannie back into the sorority, Lizzie leaves Casey and the rest of the ZBZs. In light of the Greek Ball, there is a flashback to freshman year. Cappie and Evan used to be roommates and decided to rush together. Both were admitted to Kappa Tau, but Evan left after discovering he was only admitted because of Cappie. Cappie and Casey started dating, but Casey was stood up, waiting for Cappie to pick her up for the ball. Frannie confronted Cappie for standing up Casey. But Casey decided to go to the ball with Evan, and the two wound up together by the end of the night. Back in the present, Casey, Ashleigh and Frannie decide to go to the ball together, without dates, and Cappie goes with Rebecca. The season opens up with Greek Week, a competition among the sororities and fraternities. Rebecca decides to coach the Kappa Taus, who find her controlling and rude. Frannie coaches the Omega Chis and Casey coaches the Lambda Sigs. Casey tries to flirt with the Lambda Sig president, but Evan pays him to stay away from Casey. The Kappa Taus protest against the CRU board, with the help of Evan, and the Greeks retain their special treatment on campus. Rusty begins a "fun buddy" relationship with University Students Against Greeks ('USAG') member and Dale's friend, Tina, which ends because Rusty feels uncomfortable having casual sex. After breaking up with her via text message, Rusty learns she had crabs. Meanwhile, Casey attempts to move on from Evan multiple times, all of which were unsuccessful. However, Evan still isn't over Casey and enlists Calvin to prevent other suitors from talking to her. Calvin begins a relationship with Michael (Max Greenfield). Casey tries to become more serious about her future by seeking Evan for help with pre-law. Everyone goes to Myrtle Beach for spring break. There, Ashleigh encounters the "hotness monster" and becomes obsessed with finding him. Rebecca finds out her dad is involved with a prostitution ring and gets extremely drunk. She enters a wet T-shirt concert and ends up breaking up with Cappie since he is "beneath her". Cappie and Casey take a stroll down the beach and end up kissing. However, Cappie realizes what happened to Rebecca and decides to go back and comfort her. Evan and Frannie spark a relationship and Rusty and Calvin work out their differences.


title: Greek (TV series)

text: A video of Rebecca's episode from Myrtle Beach goes viral and the ZBZs advise her to lay low. However, Rebecca begins to snap, and national ZBZ rep Tegan advises Casey to remove her. However, Casey and the other ZBZs stand by her side to support Rebecca through her troubling times. Meanwhile, Frannie tries to tell Casey about her and Evan, but Casey finds out after seeing them kissing during the Greek Week championship ceremony. Casey later begins crushing on Drew, who turns out to be Ashleigh's "hotness monster" from spring break. After fighting over him, neither of them end up with him since he seemed uninterested in Ashleigh and Casey is distracted by Frannie and Evan being together. After "processing" Frannie and Evan's relationship for a while, Casey ultimately decides that she and Frannie cannot be friends since she chose a boy over their friendship. When Rebecca realizes Cappie isn't serious enough to help her cope with her family issues and still isn't over Casey, the two decide to break up. Ashleigh suddenly realizes she has a spending problem and Rusty is in desperate need of a car. So, Casey and Ashleigh recruit Rusty's resident advisor, Max (Michael Rady) to help them count cards and win money at the Omega Chi's casino night. Casey becomes interested in Max, and the two begin dating shortly thereafter. Frannie, Ashleigh and Casey go to Florida for a ZBZ convention, and Frannie successfully overturns a rule concerning a removed officer being prohibited from ever seeking that office again (revealing her intentions to challenge Casey for president). Meanwhile, Calvin cheats on Michael with Heath, and the two break up since Calvin doesn't really know what he wants. Cappie and Rebecca briefly try to be friends with benefits, but she's not entirely over him and he's not entirely over Casey. Casey worries that her geeky boyfriend, Max may jeopardize her presidency campaign, but she later realizes that she cares more about Max than his reputation (unlike Evan). After some ugly politics between Frannie and Casey, Ashleigh unexpectedly wins the ZBZ presidency. Despite her election, Ashleigh has trouble performing her duties with Frannie and Casey both trying to influence her decisions. Meanwhile, Rusty runs into Jen K. and they try to rekindle their relationship, but he realizes he will never get over what she did to the Greeks. In the season finale, Rusty and Calvin both become actives in their respective fraternities, Kappa Tau and Omega Chi. Max gets accepted to Caltech and Casey gets an internship in Washington, D.C. The two seem to decide to split, seeing that a long-distance relationship would not work. And during ZBZ initiation, Frannie announces that she's starting her own sorority, with financial help from Evan, and Rebecca must make a choice between Frannie and the ZBZs.


title: Greek (TV series)

text: Max decided to stay at CRU for grad school to be with Casey. Rebecca becomes a spy for the ZBZs by "joining" Frannie's sorority, the Iota Kappa Iotas, but she gets caught and returns to the ZBZs. Evan becomes president of the Omega Chis and tries to recruit Calvin's high school friend Andy (Jesse McCartney), an all-state football star. New ZBZ president Ashleigh assumes full responsibility by taking over from interim president Casey; however, Casey remains a prominent figure in the house by becoming Rush Chair and Pledge Educator. During rush, Rusty takes a liking to Andy and convinces him to join the Kappa Tau house over the Omega Chi house. Rusty, Dale and Calvin also take an art history elective, and Rusty falls (literally) for a student named Jordan (Johanna Braddy). Jordan attends a Kappa Tau party on invite from Rusty, during which she makes out with Andy and decides to pledge ZBZ. Rusty's situation worsens when Cappie makes Rusty Andy's big brother and Andy and Jordan start dating. Later, Jordan and Rusty kiss, which Rusty admits to Andy, who leaves Kappa Tau. Rusty's betrayal of his little brother infuriates Cappie, who likens the situation to when Evan stole Casey from him. But when Cappie and Evan start reminiscing in their new secret group, the Amphora Society, they decide to put the past behind them and become friends, Cappie ultimately forgives Rusty, who starts dating Jordan after she chooses him over Andy. Meanwhile, Rebecca briefly questions her sexuality after kissing another girl and seeks advice from Calvin. Calvin has trouble resisting his new gay roommate, Grant, and adopts Dale's purity ways to avoid conflict. Frannie keeps taking advantage of Evan's financial support and he starts cheating on her. The two eventually end their relationship, and Evan gives up his trust fund, since it is only causing him issues with others. However, Evan does agree to help Rebecca save her laptop from the impound lot, which leaves viewers questioning whether they'll have a potential future relationship. While everyone else is having relationship issues, Ashleigh begins secretly seeing the ZBZ hasher, Fisher, and the two eventually go public about their relationship. Meanwhile, Casey gets anxious by how fast her relationship with Max is progressing, after finding out he turned down Caltech for her. Max tries to lavaliere her, but the two agree to take it slow. He leaves for an internship in Oxford and they try to maintain a long-distance relationship. But, Casey struggles with her feelings for Cappie, forcing Casey and Cappie to end their friendship. In the season finale, The Iota Kappa Iota house is disbanded by Frannie after she finally graduates from CRU. Inspired by the Kappa Tau's "End of the World" party, Dale and Calvin ditch their purity pledges and pursue their respective lovers. Unable to bury her feelings for Cappie, Casey tries to reconnect with Cappie, only for him to reject her. So, Casey breaks up with Max, because she realizes she'll never feel the same with him as she does with Cappie.


title: Greek (TV series)

text: The season begins shortly after homecoming of the academic year 2009–2010. Max leaves CRU after realizing that Casey was his main reason for staying. It is revealed that Cappie intended to get Casey back at the "End of the World Party", but Evan talked him out of it. Meanwhile, Casey discovers that Rebecca and Fisher made out at the party, which eventually leads to the end of Ashleigh and Fisher's relationship. Later in the season, the two get back together. Additionally, Dale loses his virginity to his landlady Sheila (Kristen O'Meara), causing him to doubt his religious faith. Casey takes an active role as the ZBZ rep for Panhellenic, where she is forced to interact with Evan and clashes with Katherine (Nora Kirkpatrick), the Panhellenic president. Rusty struggles academically, but he gets a professor to sponsor a special project. Calvin and his roommate/fellow Omega Chi brother Grant (Gregory Michael) quietly begin a relationship. Evan discovers their romance, but he helps them keep it a secret from the rest of the Omega Chis until Grant is ready to publicly come out as being gay. Rusty and Jordan become more serious; they finally have sex, and Rusty lavalieres her. However, they eventually break up when Jordan decides to leave CRU and move to New York City to pursue photography. Casey discovers Cappie and Evan's secret friendship when she intrudes upon a secret society meeting, and the three temporarily become friends again. Dale briefly gets back together with Sheila once they reunite at a Comic Con convention. Ashleigh and Evan, as Greek presidents, both have trouble controlling their houses. When Thanksgiving rolls around, Cappie confesses his feelings for Casey and the two finally get back together, which ruins the fragile friendship between Cappie, Casey, and Evan. Meanwhile, tension builds between Dale and Rusty when they compete for an academic grant, which Rusty ultimately wins. Rusty discovers that his nerdy classmate Dana (Martha MacIsaac) has a crush on him, but he blows his chance by acting too cocky and she refuses to go out with him. Later, she becomes his lab assistant. Cappie and Evan decide to bring their houses together for a major campus prank, but Evan betrays Cappie because he resents Cappie's relationship with Casey and hopes to regain control of his Omega Chi brothers. As a result of the prank, three Kappa Taus, including Wade (Derek Mio), are expelled. Evan seeks comfort from Rebecca after he and Cappie end their friendship, which sparks a relationship between them. After the drama with IKI, ZBZ is knocked down to being the fourth-best sorority, with Gamma Psi taking first. After the ZBZs suspiciously lose a Songfest competition, the ZBZ girls decide to investigate the Gamma Psi house for evidence of cheating. Rebecca accidentally leaves a candle burning, causing the Gamma Psi house to burn down. Although ZBZ tries to keep it a secret, Casey eventually breaks down and tells Katherine what happened, after finding out that Natalie, the Gamma Psi president, slept with one of the Songfest judges. The confession ends her new friendship with Katherine, but Casey gets a position on the Panhellenic Board as vice-president judicial ('VPJ'), inspiring Casey to seriously consider law school and a future in politics. Ashleigh discovers that Fisher cheated on her again, so they break up for good, and Dale is hired as the new ZBZ hasher. Rusty briefly dates Katherine, and she asks him to take her virginity, but Rusty turns her down and eventually breaks up with her in order to pursue a relationship with his lab assistant, Dana. Grant and Calvin also break up because Grant wants to experience what being single is like. Rebecca and Evan begin to get more serious, and he gives her an expensive necklace. When Calvin hints that Evan sees a future for them, Rebecca freaks out and sleeps with Beaver. During Mardi Gras, Evan sees Rebecca kiss another guy at a bar, and they break up. Rebecca introduces Casey to Joel (Samuel Page), who works in politics, and Casey begins to get some political experience and prepare for law school. After she takes the LSAT, Joel tries to kiss her, but she rebuffs him and says that she has a boyfriend. Casey begins to question her relationship with Cappie because he refuses to talk about the future and wants to stay at CRU forever, while Casey is starting to think seriously about the future. In the final episode of the season, Cappie breaks up with Casey for not having enough faith in their relationship.


title: Greek (TV series)

text: Casey, Ashleigh, and Evan graduate, while Calvin and Rebecca adjust to their new duties as presidents. After some investigation, Casey discovers the real reasons behind not getting into CRU Law, and with a successful appeal stays at CRU as a law student and the ZBZ housemother. Ashleigh returns to the ZBZ house saying she was fired from her job in New York, only to have it revealed later that she was sent on a coffee run one day and left, and came back to CRU because she was lonely and disliked her job. Meanwhile, Cappie tries to get back with Casey, and after telling him that maybe they can go back the way they were, Cappie promises that he will change so that someday he is worthy of being her boyfriend. Calvin deals with the ramifications of lying to become president of Omega Chi, as well as his relationship with Heath. After an inspiring talk with Evan, Dale rushes Omega Chi. The Kappa Tau brothers lose all of their pledges except one: Peter Parkes, a KT legacy whose father is Lasker Parkes, creator of the 'Joshua Whopper' software (named in episode 2x04). Since declaring a major, philosophy, Cappie decides to graduate that semester to be with Casey. Ashleigh has a brief relationship with Casey and Evan's law professor, but broke it off because they had different expectations of each other. Ashleigh then takes a marketing job with her past professor and began a relationship with Rusty. Rebecca and Evan break up and end up as friends. After discovering that Omega Chi was trying to use him to get to Kappa Tau, Dale is kicked out of the fraternity. He is later reinstated after Calvin and the pledges stand up to the new president on Dale's behalf. Dale gets back together with Laura, and Katherine and Beaver start dating. After it is revealed that Lasker Parkes wants to destroy Kappa Tau's house to build a sports facility, a protest takes place to save the house. Casey, Evan, and Cappie all make amends and Cappie announced Rusty as the new Kappa Tau president. The Kappa Tau house is torn down, but Rusty pledges to find a new better house. Casey quits CRU Law to go to Washington with Cappie, who graduated. In the final scene the group says goodbye to Casey and Cappie before they leave for Washington.


title: Greek (TV series)

text: "Greek" has received a score of 62 out of 100 from review aggregator Metacritic. In a review released soon after the premiere of the show, the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" called the show "light-hearted fun" and "authentic" while "The New York Times" claimed that "Greek" "captures the spirit of the hedge-fund age like nothing else." Other critics did not find the drama as authentic, with Elizabeth Fox of "The Philadelphia Inquirer" criticizing the show's predictability and lack of originality as another "teenage soap opera." Other reviews were middling, calling the writing of the show acceptable and praising the strength of the cast.


title: Greek (TV series)

text: Members of the real life Greek community have claimed that "Greek"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s depiction of fraternity and sorority life is stereotypical. USC banned the show from filming on their campus, in reaction to the promotional poster featuring the "Greek" logo over a red cup, since the cup is often used to symbolize alcoholic consumption during parties. However, upon viewing the pilot episode they held off on sending a letter to ABC Family, complaining about the depiction of the Greek System, when they realized there was more to the show than just parties. Others recognize it as a hyperbolic representation of "tamer, more modest" Greek life.


title: Greek (TV series)

text: The show has been noted by LGBT activists for the character of Calvin, a gay fraternity brother, who struggles with the stereotyping and homophobia that coming out of the closet entails. Critics have praised the character's "three dimensionality."


title: Greek (TV series)

text: In 2008, GLAAD nominated "Greek" for an Outstanding Drama Series award, and in 2009 they nominated the show in the Outstanding Comedy Series category. Actor Paul James was nominated for a 2009 Image Award as Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series. In 2010, it was again nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for "Outstanding Comedy Series" during the 21st GLAAD Media Awards.


title: Greek (TV series)

text: The viewership for "Greek's" pilot episode was 1.1 million, and Chapter Two ended with 1.3 million viewers.


title: Greek (TV series)

text: Chapter Three saw a ratings spike, premiering to 1.6 million viewers, a 78% increase, doubling and tripling their ratings in all demographics, marked a network high for male viewers, and was the second most watched cable show with females age 12–34. "Greek" also appeared on the list of top ten downloads on iTunes. Chapter Four premiered much lower, with 0.99 million viewers, and ended with 0.745 million.


title: Greek (TV series)

text: The third-season premiere (Chapter Five) had a total of 1.21 million viewers, down almost two million from its lead in, "The Secret Life of the American Teenager". The second episode pulled in 1.31 million viewers. Chapter Five ended with 0.66 million viewers and Chapter Six premiered with 1.033 million.


title: Greek (TV series)

text: In the United Kingdom, episodes were followed by special behind-the-scenes features entitled "Greek Uncovered", which were available on BBC iPlayer and aired on BBC Three. In the Australian iTunes Store, each week, a new episode (to Australia) will appear, after it is aired on Fox8.


title: Greek (TV series)

text: In 2008, ABC/Disney released Season One on DVD in two volumes, titled Chapter One and Chapter Two. In 2009, Season Two was also released on DVD in two volumes, titled Chapter Three and Chapter Four.


title: Greek (TV series)

text: In 2010, Shout! Factory secured the rights for the rest of the series and released Season Three on DVD as a complete set, titled Chapter Five: The Complete Third Season. On October 18, 2011, Shout! Factory released "Greek: Chapter Six – The Complete Fourth Season" as a Shout! Select title, available exclusively on their website.


The 2020 United States presidential election in Minnesota was held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, as part of the 2020 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Minnesota voters chose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote, pitting the Republican Party's nominee, incumbent President Donald Trump, and running mate Vice President Mike Pence against Democratic Party nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his running mate California Senator Kamala Harris. Minnesota has ten electoral votes in the Electoral College.


title: 2020 United States presidential election in Minnesota

text: After narrowly losing the state in 2016, the Trump campaign targeted Minnesota believing it to be in play and seeing it as a chance to expand the political map. This did not pay off as polls of Minnesota voters throughout the campaign showed a clear Biden lead. Prior to the election, 15 out of 16 news organizations projected Minnesota as leaning towards Biden. Minnesota was ultimately carried by Biden by a 7.12% margin, significantly improving over Hillary Clinton's narrow 1.52% margin in 2016. Biden's win marked the twelfth consecutive Democratic presidential win in the state, which has not voted for a Republican since Richard Nixon in 1972, making it the state with the longest Democratic streak still in effect today.


text: Biden flipped four counties Trump carried in 2016: Clay (Moorhead), Nicollet (North Mankato and St. Peter), Blue Earth (Mankato), and Winona (anchored by the city of the same name), all of which were won by Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. The key to Biden's success was his performance in the Twin Cities metro area; he outperformed both Clinton and Obama (in either 2008 or 2012) there. His vote share in Hennepin was the highest of any nominee's since Theodore Roosevelt's in 1904. He also improved on Clinton's performance in the Iron Range, although his performance in St Louis, Lake, and Carlton Counties was still well below what Democrats had historically been getting since the New Deal realignment up through 2012. In fact, this was the first time a Republican received greater than 70% of the vote in a Northern Minnesota county since Herbert Hoover in 1928. In addition, Biden managed to flip Minnesota's 2nd congressional district, which houses some of the Twin Cities' southern suburbs, by 6.8 points, after Trump narrowly won it by 1.2 points in the last election.


text: Throughout the summer leading up to the election, the Twin Cities metro was the epicenter of the summer 2020 BLM protests, given that the murder of George Floyd had taken place in Minneapolis. Trump attempted to court White suburban Minnesotans by using images of rioting and looting in some of his campaign ads and claiming that Biden would "destroy suburbia". These efforts failed, as Biden massively improved in the Twin Cities suburbs, leading to his solid statewide margin of victory. Biden became the first Democrat to win over 70% of the vote in any Minnesota county since former Senator from Minnesota and contemporary Vice President Hubert Humphrey in 1968.


text: Per exit polls by the Associated Press, Biden carried 51% of White Minnesotans; as well as 58% of college educated voters, and 55% of union households. Trump's areas of strength were in the more rural areas, while Biden performed better in urban and suburban areas. Biden became the first Democrat to win the White House without carrying Koochiching County and Mahnomen County since those counties were formed in 1906, the first Democrat to win without Traverse County since Grover Cleveland in 1892, the first to win without Kittson, Norman, Itasca, and Beltrami Counties since Woodrow Wilson in 1912, and the first to win without Swift County since Wilson in 1916. This is the first time since 1964 in which Minnesota would vote to the right of New Hampshire, another state that has almost always voted Democratic in presidential elections since 1992, albeit usually only by single digit margins of victory.


text: The Republican primary took place on March 3, 2020. Donald Trump and Bill Weld were among the declared Republican candidates.


text: The Democratic primary took place on March 3, 2020. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and former Vice President Joe Biden were among the major declared candidates. Amy Klobuchar, U.S. Senator from Minnesota since 2007, expressed interest in running, and formally declared her candidacy in February 2019, but then withdrew prior to Minnesota's race.


text: The Libertarian Party of Minnesota used ranked-choice voting to tabulate the results of their caucus. After 7 rounds, Jacob Hornberger was declared the winner.


title: Ira Glass

text: Ira Jeffrey Glass (; born March 3, 1959) is an American public radio personality. He is the host and producer of the radio and television series "This American Life" and has participated in other NPR programs, including "Morning Edition", "All Things Considered", and "Talk of the Nation". His work in radio and television has won him awards, such as the Edward R. Murrow Award for Outstanding Contributions to Public Radio and the George Polk Award in Radio Reporting.


title: Ira Glass

text: Originally from Baltimore, Glass began working in radio as a teenager. While attending Brown University, he worked alongside Keith Talbot at NPR during his summer breaks. He worked as a story editor and interviewer for years before he began to cover his own stories in his late twenties. After he moved to Chicago, he continued to work on the public radio programs "All Things Considered" and "The Wild Room", the latter of which he co-hosted. After Glass received a grant from the MacArthur Foundation, he and Torey Malatia developed "This American Life", which won a Peabody Award within its first six months and became nationally syndicated a year later. The show was formulated into a television program of the same name on Showtime that ran for two seasons. Glass also performs a live show, and has contributed to or written articles, books, and a comic book related to the radio show.


title: Ira Glass

text: Glass was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 3, 1959, to Jewish parents Barry and Shirley Glass, and grew up with two sisters, one younger and one older. Barry started out as a radio announcer, but eventually became a CPA and businessman who founded the Glass Jacobson Financial Group, while Shirley Glass was a clinical psychologist, whose work prompted "The New York Times" to call her "the godmother of infidelity research".


title: Ira Glass

text: As a child, Glass wanted to be an astronaut, while his parents hoped he would become a doctor. From a young age, he loved comedy and his family frequented the theater. By the time he was 11, he and his sister put on shows in their house's basement and invited neighborhood children to watch. As a teen, he moonlighted as a magician.


title: Ira Glass

text: Glass attended Milford Mill High School in Baltimore County where he held editorial roles as a member of the school's yearbook staff and as co-editor of the student literary magazine. His involvement in yearbook started in tenth grade and continued until his graduation in 1977. As a member of the Milford drama club, Glass was cast in several stage productions: his roles include Captain George Brackett in Milford's 1975 production of "South Pacific", Lowe in the school's 1976 production of "Damn Yankees", and Bud Frump in its 1977 production of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying". Glass was also a member of the International Thespian Society. Glass has remarked that his style of journalism is heavily influenced by the musicals he enjoyed when he was younger, especially "Fiddler on the Roof". He was involved in student government during his junior and senior years as a member of the executive board, made Milford's morning announcements, and was a member of the Milford Mill Honor Society in 1977. While in high school, he wrote jokes for Baltimore radio personality Johnny Walker.