Takis Vassos, owner of Pegasus Travel, a travel agency in Astoria

As Greek leaders work towards an austerity deal to prevent a default, here’s a look at the ripple effect of the economic crisis on Greek immigrants in New York.

With Greece’s economy reeling and its unemployment rate at about 18 percent, some Greeks are trying their luck in the U.S. — especially in the immigrant stronghold of Astoria, Queens, where Greek stores, restaurants and travel agencies dot Ditmars Boulevard and 31st Street. In this podcast, journalist Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska reports from Queens in a radio story originally broadcast on WNYC.

A dragon at the Chinese New Year parade in Chinatown.

It’s the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese calendar and on January 29, the annual Lunar New Year parade organized by the Better Chinatown Society took place in Manhattan’s Chinatown. The event was packed with thousands of New Yorkers and visitors ringing in the year of 4710. The Lunar New Year is the most important holiday on the Chinese calendar and is traditionally celebrated for two weeks. Reporter Larry Tung attended the parade in Chinatown and captured it in the following audio slideshow. Plus, listen to our Year of the Dragon Special Podcast – The Best Regional Chinese Restaurants in Flushing.

“Gong Shi Fa Tsai!”

That’s the standard New Year greeting in Mandarin. It means “best wishes and prosperity.”

Marine is sworn in as a U.S. Citizen. (NYC Marines/flickr)

Republican Rep. David Rivera proposed a bill late last week which would give undocumented youth a path to citizenship.

The Adjusted Residency for Military Service Act – the ARMS Act – is a pruned version of the DREAM Act. Immigrant youth who were brought into the United States illegally as children have the chance to change their status by attending college or joining the military under the DREAM Act. Rivera’s measure only allows undocumented youth the opportunity to legalize through enlisting in military service.

“If somebody is willing to die for America, then certainly they deserve a chance at life in America,” Rivera told the Miami Herald.

Both Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney support the ARMS Act.

“I think there is no opposition to that part of the DREAM Act,” Gingrich told a gathering of the Latin Builder’s Association Friday. “I think it should go through immediately.”

Undocumented youth, however, are not as enthusiastic about the ARMS Act.

Juan Escalante, a DREAM Act activist, says that “the ARMS Act is the GOP ‘dream’ of the Dream Act.”

“The ARMS Act is an opportunistic attempt, in my opinion, from the GOP trying to capitalize some DREAM Act momentum,” he said.

Escalante is not the only DREAMer who opposes the military-only version of the DREAM Act.

Colorlines reporter Julianne Hing wrote that undocumented youth ask, “why it is that the only way they can serve the country they’ve grown up in is by joining the military. Undocumented youth argue that they are fully capable of serving the country in many other ways.”

Escalante, who has no objections himself to the military component of the DREAM Act, said, “It seems foolish to me that you could only be granted relief by risking your life for this country. What are those doctors, lawyers, or politician scientists such as myself, going to do?”

“Better yet, is the United States ready to deport trained professionals or students who have benefited from the public education system funded by the taxpayers?” he asked.

Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum, released a statement characterizing the ARMS Act as “a distortion of the DREAM Act.” He argues that excluding legalization through higher education “would provide the wrong incentives for military enlistment during a time of war.” Some undocumented youth might sign up out of desperation and not because they are interested in military service.

Noorani also contends that “by denying immigrant students the right to higher education, America is losing out on their entrepreneurship, productivity and economic contributions.”

The ARMS Act does not make sense. It appears to be a thinly veiled GOP attempt to pander to military hawks while dangling a bittersweet fruit in front of Latino voters turned off by the immigration rhetoric spewed during the Republican presidential primaries.

There is something mercenary about the idea.

The fact of the matter is a majority of Americans support the full DREAM Act. In December 2010, the bill passed the House by a resounding vote of 216-198 but failed in the Senate by five votes.

There is nothing wrong with encouraging anyone to enlist with the military. If done voluntarily it is a noble act which should be applauded and held high as an example. But there is more than one way to serve your country.

Undocumented youth, if given the chance, would educate our children, heal our sick, strengthen our economy and yes, die for the country they consider their own.

You can follow Erwin de Leon on Twitter or read his blog.

Feet in Two Worlds is supported by the New York Community Trust and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation with additional support from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and the Sirus Fund.

The Valle brothers. (Photo courtesy of endourpain.com)

In his State of the Union speech, President Obama gave a nod to undocumented young people, and indicated his administration is making pinpointed immigration fixes because Congress doesn’t have an appetite for comprehensive reform.

Speaking a few days later to a Latino audience on Univision, the Spanish-language TV network, he again touted his administration’s changes to deportation policy.

“Some of the changes that we’re making on immigration, we’re trying to make sure that we’re prioritizing criminals [for deportation],” Obama said.  Under the Obama administration, there have been a record number of deportations.

The president was referring to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy that recently affected Peruvian immigrants Michell and Yasser Valle. The brothers narrowly escaped the chilling prospect of deportation, enabling them to spend Thanksgiving with their family in New Jersey.

ICE revived the use of prosecutorial discretion this fall, citing that with limited resources, the federal government should apply “smart” immigration enforcement and focus on offenders who are serious criminals as opposed to undocumented students with no criminal history. Immigration judges had at times used prosecutorial discretion before, but under this new push 300,000 deportation cases went up for review.

Advocates argued the Valles were clearly eligible for a waiver under the policy: They have no criminal history, they have ties to the community (they entered the U.S. at the age of five and six), and have immediate family members who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents. The brothers are also pursuing a college education and meet other conditions that are spelled out in the Morton Memo, the June 17, 2011 letter issued by ICE Director John Morton to ICE field officers, agents and attorneys, laying out the new policy.

Even though the Valles met ICE requirements, Gaby Pacheco, coordinator of the End Our Pain campaign of the United We Dream organization, said it took several months of “advocacy, putting pressure and using media” to nudge ICE officials in New Jersey to reopen the case. Ultimately their petition was granted and the Valles were given a one-year stay from deportation. During this time they were able to return to school, get employment authorization documents and apply for driver’s licenses. They have the option to file for an extension of their deportation hold, but what’s important, Pacheco told Fi2W, is, “They are doing things the legal route.”

Two cities became pilot areas for a test of the new policy from November 2011 to January 2012. ICE officers, agents and lawyers in Denver and Baltimore underwent training on the use of the policy following the roadmap provided in the Morton Memo.

“In Denver, the courts were closed down so they had time to review how to handle the cases,” said Denver lawyer Laura Lichter, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

“They looked at every case, putting them in files — positive, negative, serious criminal history or bad immigration in one pile, positive factors like [immigrants] coming to school here, with ties to community, with family ties to people who are green card holders or members of the armed forces, or have young children in a different pile,” she said. “They were looking at 8,000 cases.”

Reports on Denver’s pilot program show that about 16 percent of the cases were recommended for closure. The results are preliminary, Lichter stressed. In some cases, prosecutorial discretion simply took cases out of court dockets for review but did not resolve or close them.

“They can be put back in the dockets,” according to a lawyer who spoke at an immigration briefing on the policy, voicing his concerns about accountability and transparency. “There is very little public information on what the DHS is doing with these cases.”

The new policy has not escaped backlash, even within ICE. Despite the Morton Memo, not all ICE officers have received training, because an ICE union leader opposes the policy.

It comes down to limited government resources for deportation, advocates say. “Let’s make sure we go after the truly dangerous ones,” Lichter said. “If you have 400,000 seats on the bus, who would you rather get a seat: a bank robber, a drug dealer, a gang member or would you be going after a college student who was brought here when he was 3 years old who doesn’t have a criminal record and whom we want to be part of our community?”

For the Valle brothers, it’s a relief to be out of detention. But they are still stuck in an immigration no-man’s land. Despite being granted a reprieve from immediate deportation, they do not have permanent legal status.

Feet in Two Worlds is supported by the New York Community Trust and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation with additional support from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and the Sirus Fund.

Columbia University's first Hindu chaplain, Gadadhara Pandit Dasa. (Photo: Ramaa Reddy Raghavan)

Ramaa Reddy Raghavan brings us an audio slideshow portrait of Indian American Gadadhara Pandit Dasa, who tends to the spiritual life of students at Columbia University.

Gadadhara Pandit Dasa begins his day when most people are enjoying their best REM sleep.  A practicing Hindu monk at the East village ISKON temple (International Society of Krishna Consciousness), Gadadhara, 39, also known as Pandit, awakens daily at 4 a.m.  to begin his prayers and to meditate. He says this early hour free of distractions helps one contemplate on the Divine.

At 9 a.m., the 13 monks that live at ISKON, who come from a variety of countries and backgrounds, eat a simple breakfast of milk, fruit, granola and peanut butter. Gadadhara, who is vegan, enjoys his granola with almond milk. After breakfast the monks study scriptures, attend to chores or prepare for their weekly presentations. At 2 p.m., the monks share a communal lunch of Indian cuisine cooked at the temple.  “Usually there will be rice, soup or dal (lentils), shabji (vegetables) and salad. Sometimes there is bread,” said Gadadhara. The monks gather together and preface eating with a religious song. Then they sit on the floor to partake in a delicious vegetarian meal.

“The primary focus of their life is to achieve a spiritual practice that’s beyond material acquisitions. [The monks] don’t want to be part of the rat race, working 14 hour days, making little money and creating more anxiety,” Gadadhara said.

But Gadadhara has not always been a monk with that mindset. Raised in India, he immigrated to this country with his parents when he was eight years old and says he “grew up in an environment charged with materialism.” He worked in a mortgage company for a number of years, but when his parents’ jewelry business took a turn for the worse it prompted him to become introspective and read the Bhagavad Gita, the famous Indian religious and philosophical text. In 1999, Gadadhara’s curiosity let him to India and a spiritual practice. He says he did not plan to become a monk but one month led to two and now he’s been a practicing monk for 12 years.

About a decade ago the Bhakti Club at Columbia University, formed to introduce students to the culture and spirituality of India through food and discussion, invited Gadadhara to teach vegetarian cooking classes on campus. This led to weekly discussions on the Bhagavad Gita. In 2004,  Gadadhara became the first Hindu Chaplain of Columbia University where he provides weekly spiritual guidance and support to students. Originally his talks were to support Hindu students from South Asia, but today his audience is a mixed group of Americans as well as students from other countries like Mexico, Guyana, and Columbia. He also became New York University’s Hindu Chaplain in 2007. His residual time is spent lecturing to colleges and schools on spirituality and hosting interfaith groups that visit the ISKON temple.

The temple is available to the public for meditation and space is rented out to organizations involved in Eastern spirituality. Plans are in motion to open a yoga studio as well as a vegetarian cafe that will serve ‘wholesome karma-free food.’

“We want to live a simple life focused on body, mind and soul that elevates our consciousness through meditation and prayer while simultaneously spending time helping and guiding others,” Gadadhara said.

A Chicano studies teach-in after the shut-down of the Mexican American Studies program in the TUSD. (Photo: Valeria Fernandez)

TUCSON, Arizona—Instead of going to class at Tucson Magnet High School last Tuesday, high school senior Juan Quevedo,  entered a different type of classroom, protesting with hundred of others the cancellation of his Mexican-American studies program (MAS) by the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD).

Inside the Casino Ballroom, organizers from Unidos, a youth group that opposes the ban, held an all day teach-in on culture, critical thinking and Chicano studies with round tables where the students could engage in dialogue.

“It would be illegal now for the teachers to teach us [Mexican-American studies] so we are coming here to learn all the things they don’t want us to,” said the 18-year-old Quevedo.

The students went back to school on Wednesday, but Unidos will continue to hold teach-ins on Saturdays. A representative from Unidos said that independent student groups may also choose to walk out again.

The controversy over MAS entered a new phase on Dec. 27 when an Arizona administrative judge ruled the classes were in violation of a 2010 state law that bans ethnic studies when they promote the “overthrow of the U.S. government.”  As a result, this January, the Tucson School Board and school administrators proceeded to suspend the MAS classes and remove books that were considered inappropriate from classrooms.

In his ruling, Judge Lewis Kowal sided with findings presented by the Superintendent of Education John Huppenthal who argued that “students were being indoctrinated to develop resentment on a racial basis.”

Some of the books that were taken from classrooms include Rethinking Columbus: The next 500 Years and Occupied America. There are reports that teachers were also advised against teaching Shakespeare’s The Tempest, because of its racial themes.

So for the past weeks Quevedo and other students have protested what they believe is an arbitrary ban to their education via walkouts.

“It is very impressive, because students have come together from high schools to middle schools to protest against this,” said Jesus Romero a former MAS student and member of Unidos.

“We want to plant a seed, to keep learning about our history and culture,” Romero said.  Sixty percent of the over 55,000 students in the Tucson school district are Latino.

Like Quevedo, another 800 students enrolled in the MAS classes in Tucson found themselves having to switch gears mid-semester.

“We’re teaching the traditional curriculum, if a student was in the Mexican American history perspective classes they defaulted to a traditional history class,” said Sean Arce, co-founder and director of MAS.

Nicolas Dominguez, an 18-year-old student that attended the Unidos teach-in said he was disheartened and stressed when he discovered his classes had changed from one day to the next.

“It slows us all down,” he said. “Our teachers want to do something but they’re stepping on glass, they don’t know where to go.”

Dominguez was taking classes on Latino literature, Mexican-American  history and the Social Justice Education Program.

He especially liked his literature class when they were analyzing hip-hop songs, and reading magazines to look at how women are portrayed in society.

HB 2281 was introduced by Republican Representative Steve Montenegro in 2010 after he was approached by then-Superintendent of Education Tom Horne—now the state attorney general— specifically to be applied at TUSD.

“One of the reasons we brought this bill forward was because of the curriculum, the text books they were using, some of them had violent material aimed at inciting violence against another race or class of people,” said Montenegro.

Supporters of the MAS program deny Montenegro’s and Huppenthal’s assertions.

The school district was faced with loosing 10 percent of its funding, about $15 million, for not being in compliance with the law. Four members of the board, with the exception of Adelita Grijalva voted to eliminate the classes.

“The law is unjust, it’s racist and it’s discriminatory,” said Grijalva. “Our classes aren’t designed to overthrow the government or for ethnic solidarity.”

Teachers and students that filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of HB 2281 contend that an audit commissioned by Huppenthal himself found “no observable evidence” that MAS violated the law.

“He didn’t like the findings of his own commissioned audit, which spoke of higher graduation rates,”  said Arce, about the documented academic success of the program. “He came up with his own findings, which are not factually based. Misinterpretations of historical text and historical pictures, based on fear and hate mongering for the Latino community,” added the teacher, who is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

Arce maintains that the findings and even the the judge’s ruling were subjective and are tied to a hostile climate for Mexican immigrants in the state and linked  to passage of SB 1070, a law that made it a state crime for an immigrant to not carry documents authorizing their presence in the U.S.

Backers of the ethnic studies law said that it is doing what it was intended to do.

Montenegro emphasized that the law “doesn’t prohibit the teaching of ethnic studies in its true nature.”

“It prohibits the teaching of resentment against other people,” he said.

Students from Unidos disagree with Montenegro’s assertion and plan to hold more of their own classes in the future.

“They’re operating like the Nazis did in the 1940s, when they were banning books, were censoring. Even the politics behinds this have sort of a Nazist, fascist, racist orientation,” said Augustin Romero, a founder of the MAS program and director for student equity in TUSD.

“We are going to be here, and we’re going to learn,” said Daniel Montoya, a 19-year-old former MAS student that founded Unidos. “It doesn’t matter if they create laws to stop our education, we’ll get our education anyway.”

Feet in Two Worlds is supported by the New York Community Trust and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation with additional support from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and the Sirus Fund.

Republican contender Mitt Romney. (Photo: Gage Skidmore/flickr)

The Florida Primary could be a turning point in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, and Latino voters are in the middle of the fight.

It will be the year’s first primary in a state with a large Latino population. Florida also has a significant bloc of conservative Republican Latino voters. Will they vote for Newt Gingrich, a social conservative who says he’s open to some type of immigration reform? Or will they heed the endorsements of powerful Cuban American leaders in the state and support Mitt Romney?

Host Aswini Anburajan is joined on this podcast by Dan Judy, a Republican strategist and pollster at Ayres, McHenry & Associates, Inc., and Mark Lopez, associate director of the Pew Hispanic Center.

Listen to the podcast

Take a look at the recent Latino Decisions/Univision/ABC Poll about Latino voters in Florida.

The Pew Hispanic Center also has a new poll about Florida Latinos.

Subscribe to the Fi2W podcast using iTunes or Podbean

Feet in Two Worlds is supported by the New York Community Trust and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation with additional support from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation. Fi2W podcasts are supported in part by WNYC Radio and the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

President Obama giving his 2012 State of the Union Address

President Obama once again called for comprehensive immigration reform during his State of the Union address Tuesday, stressing that his administration has done more on border enforcement than previous administrations.

I believe as strongly as ever that we should take on illegal immigration.  That’s why my administration has put more boots on the border than ever before.  That’s why there are fewer illegal crossings than when I took office.  The opponents of action are out of excuses.  We should be working on comprehensive immigration reform right now.

We should, but we’re not.

Obama recognizes, like most Americans, that “nothing will get done in Washington this year, or next year, or maybe even the year after that, because Washington is broken.” He knows that Congress will not pass an expansive bill which tackles all problems afflicting the country’s immigration system, especially one that includes a path to citizenship for millions of unauthorized immigrants. Not in this current Congress or the next.

He therefore proposed smaller steps, alluding to the DREAM Act which passed the House but failed in the Senate a little over a year ago.

But if election-year politics keeps Congress from acting on a comprehensive plan, let’s at least agree to stop expelling responsible young people who want to staff our labs, start new businesses, defend this country.  Send me a law that gives them the chance to earn their citizenship.  I will sign it right away.

There is, after all, some sympathy for undocumented youth who were brought to the United States as children without their consent. Gallup reports that Americans generally favor rather than oppose the DREAM Act.

Obama’s State of the Union was largely a “dream” speech. The chances of comprehensive immigration reform happening is practically nil. Less ambitious bills that favor undocumented youth, high-skilled foreign workers, and agricultural laborers are a little more likely to pass, and the President would sign them.

Everyone agrees that the immigration system is broken but there is and will be no stomach for a major overhaul. Smaller pieces are more palatable and feasible.

The immigration system will change but true to its history and the messy reality of legislation, it will be through patchwork efforts.

You can follow Erwin de Leon on Twitter or read his blog.

Feet in Two Worlds is supported by the New York Community Trust and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation with additional support from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and the Sirus Fund.

Three Cup Chicken at Ku-Shiang in Flushng, Queens. (Photo: Sarah Kate Kramer)

Dinner at a Chinese restaurant was a Sunday night ritual in my family.  We always ordered our favorites,  Cantonese-inspired dishes like chicken with crunchy water chestnuts and bamboo shoots, wonton soup, and lobster Cantonese —a delicious combination of roughly chopped Maine lobster still in the shell, ground pork, scrambled egg and scallions.  Then in the late ’60s Szechuan restaurants started popping up in the city, and we learned that there was actually more than one type of Chinese food.  Dishes featuring hot chiles, finely diced meats, and silky-smooth tofu opened our eyes and our taste buds.

Listen to this Food in Two Worlds podcast:

Subscribe to the Fi2W podcast using iTunes or Podbean 

In later years, Hunan, Yunnan, and Shanghai-style restaurants entered the scene, giving restaurant-goers many more choices, as well as a comprehension of the incredible variety in Chinese regional cooking.

As someone who has spent decades exploring Chinese cuisine in New York, as well as in China, Hong Kong, and San Francisco, I thought I had a pretty good sense of the depth and breadth of China’s culinary offerings.   But on a recent visit to Chinatown in Flushing, New York, with Chef Kian Lam Kho, I learned that there still are worlds of regional Chinese food waiting to be discovered and enjoyed.

Shaved Ice

Smash Ice Device at Snopo

Pot at New World Mall

Hand Pulled Noodles

Food Court at New World Mall

New World Mall

Waitress at Fu Run Restaurant

Cumin Encrusted Ribs at Fu Run Restaurant

Salad at Fu Run Restaurant

Stir Fried Sea Intestine at Fu Run Restaurant

Customers at Nan Xiang Dumpling House

Steamed Soup Dumplings at Nan Xiang Dumpling House

Ku-Shiang Taiwanese Restaurant

Our Guide Kian Lam Kho at Ku-Shiang Taiwanese Restaurant

Our Guide Kian Lam Kho at Ku-Shiang Taiwanese Restaurant

Three Cup Chicken at Ku-Shiang Taiwanese Restaurant

Stinky Tofu at Ku-Shiang Taiwanese Restaurant

Oyster Omelet at Ku-Shiang Taiwanese Restaurant

(Photographs by Sarah Kate Kramer)

Kian is a chef and blogger who runs a company called Red Cook.  His tour of Chinatown, Flushing, is the first segment in this month’s Food in Two Worlds podcast.

We also visit the city’s oldest dim sum restaurant, Nom Wah Tea Parlor on Doyers Street in Manhattan,  and one of the newer, trendy restaurants serving dim sum,  Red Egg on Centre Street with journalist Larry Tung.  Both are run by second-generation Chinese-American restauranteurs who are redefining the dim sum experience.  Finally, in celebration of Chinese New Year, journalist Richard Yeh brings us to his family dinner table to reflect on the connection between food and home.

Kian Lam Kho’s recipe for Egg Dumplings (鮮肉蛋餃)

These tiny omelets filled with pork are eaten during Chinese New Year to symbolize prosperity, since the yellow dumplings resemble gold ingots.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Slow cooking time: 30 minutes

Meat Filling

1/2 lb. ground pork

1 tablespoon minced scallion

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

Egg Wrapper

6 eggs

2 tablespoons tapioca starch (木薯粉)

3 tablespoons water

1/4 teaspoon salt

Vegetable oil for coating the skillet

Mix all the filling ingredients together in a small (1 cup) bowl and set aside. Beat the eggs in a medium (1.5 quart) bowl for about one minute. In a separate small (1 cup) bowl mix the water and the tapioca starch into a thin slurry. Then add the slurry and salt into the beaten egg. Continue to beat the egg mixture until evenly combined, or about three minutes.

Heat a skillet on low heat and spread a thin layer of vegetable oil using a kitchen brush. Measure one tablespoon full of the egg batter and pour in the middle of the skillet. Use the measuring spoon to spread the batter into a thin round layer of about three inches in diameter. Form a teaspoon of filling into an oval shape and put it in the center. Use a spatula to flip one side of the wrapper over until the ends meet and press down to close. Remove from heat when the edges are sealed and arrange on a plate. The meat filling should not be completely cooked.

You can use these dumplings in soup or as one of many ingredients for hot pot meal. You can also serve them with oyster sauce gravy. Boil the dumplings over medium heat in about one cup of chicken stock in a wok for about ten minutes. Drain the dumplings and arrange them on a plate leaving the chicken stock in the wok. Add about two tablespoons of oyster sauce to the chicken stock and reduce to about one-quarter cup of gravy. Pour the gravy over the dumplings and garnish with chopped cilantro before serving.

Restaurants and places we visited on our tour of Flushing’s Chinatown

Ku-Shiang, 135-40 39th Ave., Flushing, NY 11354,  phone 718-888-8798.   Also called Gu-Shine Taiwanese Restaurant.

Don’t miss the Three Cup Chicken, listed on the menu as Chicken with Basil in Casserole.

Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao (Dumpling House), 38-12 Prince Street, Flushing, NY 11354, phone 718-321-3838

A Shanghainese dumpling house with superb soup dumplings.

Fu Run Restaurant, 40-09 Prince Street, Flushing, NY 11354, phone 718-321-1363

The barbecued lamb ribs are a must.

The New World Mall Food Court 136-20 Roosvelt Ave, Flushing, NY 11354, phone: (718) 353-055,1 info@newworldmallny.com

You can eat your way from one end of Asia to the other, and back again in this glittering food court that features 32 food stalls.

Lastly, a great source for Asian ingredients is the nearby Chang Jiang Supermarket,  41-41 Kissena Blvd., Flushing, NY 11354, phone 718-359-3399

Feet in Two Worlds is supported by the New York Community Trust and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation with additional support from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation. Fi2W podcasts are supported in part by WNYC Radio and the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

Sen. Marco Rubio from Florida. (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

As eyes turn from South Carolina to Florida for the GOP primaries, one Republican Senator who isn’t even running for president is sharing the spotlight with the Republican presidential candidates.