Reality Show Offers Green Card as Incentive<!--EZCODE BOLD END-->
Thursday, August 05, 2004
LOS ANGELES — A Spanish-language reality TV show is offering contestants an unusual prize: the services of immigration lawyers to guide them toward a green card for U.S. residency.
"Gana la Verde" (search) — "Win the Green" — began airing daily last month on KRCA-TV Channel 62 in Los Angeles. Owner Liberman Broadcasting also airs the program on its San Diego, Houston and Dallas stations.
"People say that our show is like 'Fear Factor,' (search) but it's different because the climax of the show involves working," production manager Adrian Vallarino told the Los Angeles Times.
The show's winner receives a year's worth of help from attorneys to expedite the residency process, the Times reported Wednesday. There's no guarantee of a green card.
Contestants have performed stunts including gulping down live tequila worms, trapping a butter-drenched pig and jumping between two speeding 18-wheelers.
A U.S. immigration official warned against undue optimism for contestants.
"I don't think it's appropriate for me to comment on the premise of a television show except to say that they are holding out false hope to people," said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (search), adding that it "sounds very much like exploitation."
