Trump Could Have Tough Time Meeting His Deportation Threat

Speaker 1: 00:00 I stand before you to officially launch my campaign for a second Speaker 2: 00:04 can term as president of the United States. Speaker 1: 00:09 That was at a rally in Orlando last night. One day after he announced on Twitter that starting next week, immigration customs enforcement will begin deporting millions of immigrants living in the US illegally in San Diego. Immigrant communities are bracing for stepped up enforcement. Kate Morrissey covers immigration for the San Diego Union Tribune. She's been following the latest developments and joins us now. Kate, welcome. Thanks for having me. So what is your understanding of who would be affected by these mass deportations? Speaker 3: 00:39 So what we know from other recent reporting separate from this tweet is that immigration and customs enforcement has been planning an operation that would specifically target families or people who have already received, um, final removal orders. So a judge has already said this person should be deported from the u s um, but for some reason they're still here. And so, um, immigration officers are, are planning something that would target that specific group? How many immigrants could be affected? That's a good question. We know that different numbers have been, have been cited over the course of the week up to, you know, a million Trump's tweets said millions with an s. Um, but what's, what's not totally clear is how many of these people would actually be, um, immediately removable if they were, if they were found by an immigration officer. So someone who has a final removal order might move to appeal that case or might say, you know, I didn't receive the court notice about when my hearing was. And so yes, I was ordered, deported, but it wasn't fair. And so there might be more legal proceedings that need to happen before that person can be removed. Um, another factor is what country they would be removed to and how long it takes to get the travel documents together, um, from that person's government in order to actually send them back to that country. And what is it, Speaker 1: 02:10 the White House saying about why they're specifically targeting, uh, immigrants who skipped their court dates? What is the administration hoping to accomplish here? Speaker 3: 02:18 From their perspective, it's been a priority since president Trump came into office. Actually one of his first executive orders, uh, reprioritizing who immigration officials would be targeting included people with final removal orders. And the thinking is that this group should be easier to move through the process more quickly because they have already been ordered removed by a judge. And so unless they make that move for some kind of appeal, they should be able to go ahead and get into the process of removing that person. Whereas somebody who doesn't already have one of those orders would, would have the opportunity to go before a judge before they are removed from the country. Does ice actually have Speaker 1: 03:04 the resources to target millions of people living in cities? Far from the border? Speaker 3: 03:09 Ice As far as we know is already well past its capacity in terms of detention space and while many of these people, if they're being removed from the country, wouldn't necessarily need to be in detention for long amounts of time. If they're not being returned to a contiguous country, which would be Mexico or Canada, we would expect them to spend some time in detention. Again, while those travel documents are sorted, while they're playing, arrangements are sorted before they're actually sent back to their country of origin. And so ice will need some amount of detention space in order to do this enforcement operation. Ice is also been saying that it does not have the resources to do, it's part of processing everyone who is arriving at the southwest border. And so it's not clear what resources they have to put into this other interior enforcement action sort of while they're already trying to balance resources and another part of their work. Is it clear to you whether this Speaker 1: 04:11 Lolitas deportation threat is actually a change in US immigration policy? Speaker 3: 04:16 That is not totally clear to me. Um, we have seen over the past two years a number of different increased enforcement moments in San Diego. We had one quarter of where we had specifically quite a number of arrests of people who did not have criminal records. I think we had the highest of any field office in the country. I'm in one particular quarter or early in the administration. And so, you know, we have seen ramped up enforcement at different points already. Um, and this sounds like another moment maybe maybe heading our way. Speaker 1: 04:50 I've been speaking with Kate Morrissey who covers immigration with the San Diego Union Tribune. Kate, thank you. Thank you. Joining us now is Lillian Serrano, chair of the San Diego immigrant rights consortium. Lilian, welcome. Thanks for having me. First, what's been the reaction in the immigrant community here in San Diego so far to the president's deportation thread? We are talking about community that has formed for many years, even before the Trump administration came into office, has been living in fear, right? So as the new administration has been ruling now new, uh, enforcement methods, uh, we have been seen an increase on the anxiety and increase on, on the fear. So with this last announcement, um, rarely a day ago, we're starting to see people really worried, really trying to figure out what does that mean for them and their families. If it's, once again, the questions about whether it's it's worth staying here. If it's a time for, for them to start making plans or separating to prepare their families for possible separation. Speaker 1: 05:58 Um, those are the conversations that we're having all over again. And have you already started receiving calls from people in the community concerned about possible raids? Yes, there has been already a lot of communication, not just with me but other immigrant advocates were all getting the calls, the emails, the texts of people being a concern. And like I mentioned, there has been fear in this community already so we will have already been doing a lot of um, educating the public around a know your rights. So we will continue doing that. Um, I know that some organizations might be start doing more community forums, um, social media, you know, just different ways in which we are able to reach out, um, community members so they can be prepared. You know, a former ice director who worked in the Obama administration has said, really any effort to deport more than a million people is a fantasy and it's still unclear if this is actually even set policy. Speaker 1: 06:58 So how seriously are you and others here considering this thread? I think anyone that has a basic understanding of our immigration system will, will they agree that uh, the pouring millions of people within a matter of weeks will be nearly impossible. But I think that even if what we're, we'll be seeing is an increase on the amount of people who are being separated from their families. Even if one more family separated, uh, that should be a concern for all of us. What kind of impact do you think this announcement will have impact in San Diego as a whole, as a region? I mean, we are a very diverse, uh, county. You know, obviously we have a high number of Mexican immigrants given how close we are to the border. All of us know at least one immigrant in our lives, whether that is our neighbor or friend, our teacher, our cashiers at the grocery store, all of us will be affected. Speaker 1: 07:51 The culture of our region will be affected. The economy of our region will be affect that the target population in an attempt to protect themselves. My goal farther in the shadows. What do you tell people who say, look, you know, there's, there's a significant increase in the number of immigrant families coming to the border of the highest numbers in the past decade. The US can't take everyone in and something needs to be done to address the issue. How do you respond to those kinds of concerns? I think we need to really take a step back. Migration has been a human phenomena for it for many years throughout history. So when we stopped looking at immigration as a problem, as, uh, something that we need to enforce our way out, right? Um, I think that will be the starting of a different conversation that will actually lead us to better solutions and solutions that are actually in the better interests of all of us as people, and that will protect people's human rights. I've been speaking with Lillian Sureno, chair of the San Diego immigrant rights consortium. Thank you.