American Refugee Sam Graber

Los Algodones is the tiny Mexican border town called Molar City. Thousands of US citizens are going there each day to save on dental work that would have cost thousands of dollars more at home.
Who are these American dental refugees? And how easy and safe is it to have implants, crowns and extractions done in Mexico?
You're not only about to hear wild stories from dental refugees traveling to Los Algodones, you're about to go there, you'll be with me as I cross the border, get work done on my own teeth...
And discover in the end why everything isn't always what it seems.
This is American Refugee!
Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Music: Rare Medium, New Sound Underground
Recorded: Los Algodones, Minneapolis, MN

She escaped domestic assault, poverty, street crime, and a husband mixed up with a drug cartel. She took her five kids and ran, using every last cent she had to make the journey.
When she arrived she was cold and afraid but never without hope, even as she still battled being homeless.
Her name is Angel. And you're about to hear her story. In native English.
Because Angel's from Chicago. Angel's an American citizen, whose country has turned her into a refugee.
Not only are you about to HEAR what it's like to be homeless, you're about to BE homeless, as I take you with me while I try to make it through one winter night on the streets of Minneapolis where the temperature dropped below zero.
This is American Refugee!
Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Music: Rare Medium, New Sound Underground
Recorded: Minneapolis, MN
Original Release: February 2020

Detained immigration court is a place where lawyers aren't provided for the defense, where judges and prosecutors are on the same team, where guilty is presumed and the all-too-often verdict a different kind of death.
Who are these immigration judges? What exactly is detained court? And how is it able to get away with operating outside of what we might call normal law?
LISTEN to be shocked, enraged and stunned at what's been happening in your country.
This is American Refugee.
Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Music: Rare Medium, Purple Funk Metropolis, New Sound Underground
Recorded: Minneapolis, MN
Original Release: March 2020

Get ready to meet America's hardworking trucker drivers, the road refugees who today risk their lives not just delivering to the doorsteps of our homes but to grocery store shelves, and hospitals.
But not only are you about to hear how hard it is to be a trucker, you'll be along for the ride with a big-hearted, big-muscled 18-wheel truck driving legend named Jimmy.
You'll climb aboard and see firsthand the how the global supply chain disruption is shifting everything we thought we knew about our economy.
This is American Refugee!
Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Music: Rare Medium, Purple Funk Metropolis, New Sound Underground
Recorded: Minneapolis, MN
Original Release: April 2020

Inside a small county jail in central Minnesota, 300 immigrants are caged up to 20 hours a day, never allowed outside, some detained by ICE up to a year.
Some endure special treatment: solitary confinement, abuse, medical negligence, sexual assault.
What if detained immigrants are being subjected to a kind of torture before they're deported? What if entire families are destroyed by county jails profiting from a federal system criminalizing immigration? What if the lives of immigrants are being forfeited as the coronavirus spreads through those jails?
Well get ready, you're going inside to hear about it from the detained immigrants themselves, as well as the activists on the outside trying to free them, the resistance against the authority, all towards an emotional crescendo of love and loss, of family and freedom, and the soul of a nation, all from a place called Sherburne County Jail.
This is American Refugee.
Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Music: Rare Medium, Purple Funk Metropolis
Recorded: Minneapolis, MN
Original Release: May 2020

Minneapolis Police arrive at the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in response to a call about a counterfeit $20 bill…
You're going into Minneapolis during the week following the murder of George Floyd.
You're about to take a unique journey through the heart of a city on fire.
You're going to hear anguished voices on the front lines of the protests, voices from the riots as they happen, voices from those who've fought the system of racism, voices from businesses owners whose stores got burnt to the ground, and you'll get it straight from city leaders about their radical plans for ending the police.
And ultimately you're going to 38th & Chicago, where the voices say: this is the place that will change our country forever.
This is American Refugee.
Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Music: Rare Medium
Recorded: Minneapolis, MN
Original Release: June 2020