S1: Hey there , San Diego , it's time for KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. Immigration enforcement is a major focus for Trump's second term , with the administration employing new strategies and adding more federal resources to ramp deportation efforts. As immigration detention levels reach record highs. Our panel of immigration reporters breaks down what immigration enforcement looks like today and the tools the Trump administration are using to achieve its goal of mass deportation. That's all ahead on KPBS roundtable. Immigration enforcement is escalating here in San Diego and across the country. Over 60,000 people are now in immigration detention. That's a new high. Joining us live in studio are three reporters who've been on the ground reporting on all the change that's happening and helping San Diegans make better sense of it. I'm here with KPBS investigative border reporter Gustavo Solis , along with Elliot Padgett. He's U.S. immigration news editor at the Associated Press. And Kate Morrissey is also with us. She's immigration reporter and co-founder at Daylight San Diego. And she also has a Substack called Beyond the Border. Well , I want to thank you all for being here. It's great to have you. We've done this before. What will be the story was much different at that time , the way I remember it. Elliot , it's like the focus more was on border arrivals , the state of asylum seekers coming to the border. But now the focus is much more on the happenings inside the country. So I'm just wondering if we could get each of yours , you know , set the stage for us from a high level. How would you characterize the state of immigration enforcement in this moment. Elliott.
S2: Well , congratulations , Kate. On daylight , I. Yeah , a dramatic change. We knew this was coming under under Donald Trump. The border is extremely quiet right now. There were 4000 arrests. I want to say 4600 arrests in July. On some days in 2023 , there were 10,000 in a single day. So ? So the border is very quiet. There's in addition to all the Border Patrol agents that are there. There are , I think , about 8000 active duty troops. The the government has created what they call militarized zones on the border. So it's basically extensions of military bases , and it gives the military they arrest people on trespassing charges , you , my foreigners , as well as American citizens. So the border is quiet. The interior is anything but quiet. And that would include San Diego. Anything away from the border. I've been spending a lot of time in Los Angeles , but , you know , I don't have the numbers offhand , but you do sense. I mean , the white House was saying they wanted 3000 a day and they walked that back but are denied it. But you did notice , I think , around may a very sizable a change. They they went into Los Angeles with massive force. And what you're seeing is really , um , you know , I have done and I don't know if you two have done these ride alongs with ice in the past where you sit outside someone's house , they do surveillance for days. Uh , one official told me it was like watching paint dry , so that. And then they would wait for someone to come out and and quietly arrest them at a traffic stop or outside the house. They might do a so-called collateral arrest , but very low key , no violence. I was on a ride along with the Border Patrol in LA , and we've seen it all over the country where they they go fast. I mean , because they don't want to attract procrastinators and they want to rack up numbers. So they call it turn and burn. So they. They just it was a Home Depot and then a car wash. And they just go in and just start tackling people. They're wearing masks. Um , you know , they don't have any. You don't know who they are. They pull up and tinted , you know , in unmarked SUVs with tinted windows and and they're gone and with like , 3 or 4 minutes or five minutes , maybe they make the arrest and they're gone.
S1: So much more active than in the past. Much more. Yeah , yeah. And , Gustavo , I think you've been kind of following this and talking about it. We've heard so much about , you know , Trump's efforts at mass deportation. Right. He kind of obviously the campaign rhetoric , but then executive orders early in his new term. But but you're kind of like highlighting this time is kind of really seeing where the rubber meets the road with a lot of a lot of this talk. Right.
S3: Yeah , exactly. It's almost like we're cashing the checks from the election and the first round of executive orders , and we now have enough anecdotal and hard data to to show and paint the picture of what mass deportation looks like. A little bit of what Eliot described. Um , that difference between watching paint dry and turn and burn. It's pretty night and day difference , but you see it. It's a wide ranging effort with multiple fronts. Right ? You got arrest near schools , arrest at ice ice courthouses , immigration courts , uh , workplace raids. You got these roving ones in Los Angeles. Um , you have more people detained than ever before. Um , you had in the beginning. It's kind of slowed down now , but student students having their visa taken away , like that kind of thing. More recently , I think either today or yesterday , they eliminated TPS or they announced the elimination of TPS for Venezuelans. So you're removing temporary humanitarian protection and essentially creating a new class of undocumented immigrants. So you have more folks to arrest. And I think it kind of matches with with what we started , right ? The shift from enforcement at the border to interior enforcement. This is kind of what it looks like. I think for a lot of Americans , even during the election , you can particularly folks who don't live in border regions. Immigration enforcement has been kind of abstracted. It's something that happens at the border , but now we're seeing it in communities all over the country. So I think you're starting to see a more nuanced understanding from the general public about what immigration enforcement is and what it looks like , and it's not always necessarily going after , you know , convicted criminals , which I think most people would agree with. But you start targeting a broader population and you start seeing a little bit of support for , for that kind of policy dwindle.
S1: And Kate , you know , Gustavo was kind of mentioning that that sort of just the flurry of change that comes with many of Trump's policies. I think , you know , you kind of refer to it as just being the volume of change , being head spinning , what's , you know , top of mind for you , though , like when looking at enforcement today.
S4: Well , I think there's a there's a few things and sort of starting with a little bit of a zoom out of sort of what we're talking about , I think in the first Trump administration , at the beginning of it , we saw some efforts at internal enforcement , and then we saw a real shift in focus to the border in like 2018 when the caravans were coming and all of that. And I think part of that was because , um , they were stymied in some ways with the interior enforcement because of the way that like laws and policies and things work. And so they realized that they could make more changes to what was happening to people arriving at the border. And so the whole first term really became about stopping asylum seekers , stopping border crossings. And then under Biden , some of those strategies remained normalized , and Biden actually contributed to further changes in the way things were happening at the border , so that by the time Trump came back , there wasn't that much that he needed to change in order to really put policies in place that would shut down what was accessible to people. People haven't had access to any kind of meaningful asylum since he came into office. And so now , with the knowledge from that first term , I think they've done a lot more to change the rules and change the policies , remove employees that they thought would be pushing back on these strategies so that they can really approach interior enforcement in a different way from the way they did under the first term. And I think it's a very deliberate and methodical thing that they're doing. Um , and so one of the things that's involved in that , one of the things that I've been really focusing my reporting on is this pressure to get people to give up and leave. And I think that's really at the crux of their strategy this time , because all of this cruelty , all of this violence , all of these human rights violations , civil rights violations. I think we can very plainly say that's some of what we're seeing when we're seeing these videos of the way that people are being arrested , the way that people are being racially profiled. Um , all of that is creating an atmosphere where immigrants do not feel safe and they're thinking , you know what ? Even though I didn't feel safe back home , this is worse. And I'm gonna leave. I've I've spent a lot of time inside the detention center watching court hearing proceedings. I've seen people give up asylum cases and go home. And the judge spends a lot of time asking them , are you sure ? Like you have a pending asylum application. Are you giving that up ? Are you saying that you're safe to go back to your country and they'll say things like , well , where I'm from is not safe. I can't go back to the city that I'm from. I can't go back to the town I'm from , but I'm going to try going somewhere else. And so it's not that they came here for illegitimate reasons , or they came here saying that they were afraid when they weren't. They were afraid to be at home when they came here. But the what has happened in our country has gotten so intense that it's worse. And I think that's something that we're not all necessarily sitting with enough yet. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. Gustavo , I mean you've been looking into detention. We mentioned these high kind of record highs now. What have you noticed. You know. What have you seen in the data in terms of detention. Kate obviously mentioned there of just this idea. You know people giving up.
S3: Yeah I mean I , I've heard the same thing from from lawyers and folks detained in immigration detention. Eliot , you maybe have heard a similar narrative. Yeah , folks , explain it like it's almost by design , right ? Um , periodically , if you're in detention , you'll get asked constantly. Hey , do you want to sign the voluntary departure form ? You know , if you don't sign it , you're going to be here a couple more months. You know , I think you have a weak case. You might as well just sign it. There's this constant , constant pressure coupled with the courthouse arrest. It creates this. Well , why would I go to immigration court if I'm just going to get arrested ? Maybe I don't go , but then if you don't go , you lose your case because you didn't show up to court. So it's almost like , designed like a lose lose. And , uh , lawyers have described the system as wearing people down to the point that they'll just give up. Like Kate mentioned. And they are saying that anecdotally , I don't know the numbers of how that breaks out yet , but I do know numbers of folks in detention and they don't always match with the national narrative. Right ? The national narrative coming out of the white House is still we are going after the worst of the worst. We're prioritizing the criminals. We are doing all of this. We are doing mass deportations for your public safety to keep America safe. If you kind of peel the curtain back a little bit and look at the data , at least for the Otay Mesa Detention Center , you will see that the overwhelming majority of people in there are classified as non-criminal and don't have a criminal record. Upwards of 80% of the folks in there in a given month. So you see this clash between the narrative and the facts on the ground. I think for me , that's the most interesting part of looking through the data over there. Okay.
S1: Okay. You've been spending a lot of time , you know , at detention centers , as you mentioned , and following immigration courts. Can you talk a little bit ? I mean , you recently wrote a piece on the Trump bond rule. Like some of the changes , you know , in the courtroom , because that's an important piece of this , you know , enforcement , you know , process , right ? Absolutely.
S4: It used to be that if you were , um , arrested by immigration officials inside the United States , you had a right to a bond hearing in front of an immigration judge. And the immigration judge had the authority to set an amount that you would pay in order to be released for the rest of your proceedings. So you would continue to show up for your court hearings. But you could be at home with your family and your loved ones as you're going through that process. Um , that's different , um , in immigration law from people who are considered quote unquote arriving. So there's this , this weird it's sort of a weird , like in the legal weeds distinction between someone who's arriving and someone who's present in the country already. So people who are present have a right historically to a bond hearing people who are arriving think an asylum seeker who walks up to the port of entry and says , I'm afraid to go back to my home country. I want to request asylum. They're considered arriving. They don't have a right to a bond hearing in front of an immigration judge under immigration law. What this new decision from the Board of Immigration Appeals does. And it's worth noting that when Trump got into office , they immediately fired quite a number of people on the Board of Immigration Appeals so that. Who's left is the people that they want to be there. Um , the Board of Immigration Appeals put out this decision in May , broadening the definition of who sort of falls into this arriving category so that they cannot get a bond hearing. And so now you have people who have been living in the United States , uh , being arrested either at their court hearings or at their homes or in traffic stops or pumping gas at a gas station. In some cases that you hear all of these stories just sitting in court , um , and they're told that they can't get a bond hearing , so there's no way for them to be released from custody. So at that point , you're making a calculation of , like , I either have to stay in custody and fight this thing , or I'm going to leave. And the custody conditions , you know , all of us have been covering immigration for such a long time. And I'm over the years , we've all written stories about , um , Conditions in custody not being up to standard. Um , but I think moldy food.
S3: Moldy food.
S4: Medical care , racism from guards. And and I think across the board from reporting in multiple facilities , it's getting worse and worse and worse. And that's partially because of the overcrowding. You've got people sleeping on floors , you've got facilities that aren't staffed to feed folks properly. They're getting meals at , um , really late , like dinners being served at 10 p.m. because they're not getting to the folks to take them to dinner earlier. Um , so there's , there's being detained was never a great place to be , but it from all accounts , it's significantly worse now.
S1: And we're seeing that in the numbers. I think it's almost in Newsweek , self-deportation numbers have increased. February was 590 2nd July to over 4000. So we're seeing an increase. I mean , does that , um , Eliot , you know , what have you observed as far as , like , self-deportation or just this idea.
S2: Of I don't I don't have not seen good numbers. I'm not familiar with those. And it's a tough number to get. I mean , the administration says 1.6 million , but the way they got that number is , is pretty quite questionable. It's it's based on a a think tank report. Um , but I do think a lot of people have left , and it's really just more like what Kate and Gustavo are saying. I mean , it's just anecdotal , mostly , and but there are , you know , there are there is some data that the Pew Center said , you know , we were at record. The US was a record high immigrant population , 15.8% of the population is immigrants in , I want to say 2023. And that has dropped significantly by a million. So a lot of people out of the labor force , I think it's definitely happening. And , you know , it kind of makes sense. And just listening to Kate , I mean , would you would you want to be sitting in an Ice detention center ? Uh , you know , and the asylum denial rates are very high. It's not a good. It's not a good. It's much different than being at your home with your family. Getting work authorization , sending money home. Uh , night and day. Kate.
S1: Kate. Go ahead.
S4: Just to sort of jump on that that data question and explain a little bit more about why it's so difficult to count , folks , um , if they're going through court proceedings. And so they're in the detention center and going before a judge. Um , they're oftentimes what I'm seeing in these court hearings is they go up to the judge and they say , I'd like to sign my voluntary departure , because that's the phrasing on the ice , flyers that are posted everywhere that say , get voluntary departure and we'll pay for your flights home and we'll give you $1,000. And Ice is literally like telling people to do that. The problem is , a lot of these folks don't actually qualify for voluntary departure. There's very specific requirements that you have to meet. Um , and so we could at the end of the , the fiscal year , look at , you know , whether voluntary departure orders from immigration judges went up. And that will give us a little bit of a sense of what's happening. But a lot of these folks are just getting regular deportation orders because they don't qualify for voluntary departure. So it's just going to look like another deportation from court. Even though this person is asking to leave. I don't think that's going to be tracked in any kind of meaningful way in the system.
S1: We'll continue our conversation with our Immigration Reporter roundtable right after the break. You're listening to KPBS roundtable. You're listening to KPBS roundtable , I'm Andrew Bracken. Today , we're taking a closer look into the state of immigration enforcement. Today , I'm speaking with immigration reporter Kate Morrissey. Elliot Padgett from the Associated Press and KPBS. Gustavo Solis , so before the break , you know , we were delving into a little bit , you know , how immigration courts have been impacted by some of the changes here. And , Gustavo , this week you reported on , you know , an effort from San Diego County Supervisor Tara Lawson Reamer. She announced a proposal to continue legal aid for unaccompanied migrant children. This is something that you've covered in the past several months in terms of representation in the immigration courts.
S3: It's a different court system with different rules. So unlike criminal court , where , you know , if you can't afford a lawyer , you get one presented to you. We've all seen , you know , true crime shows. That's pretty well established. But an immigration court , that's not a thing in immigration court. If you can't afford a lawyer , you , you , you know , good luck finding one to represent you pro bono. But definitely the government will not provide one for you. So San Diego and several other counties throughout the country have created these , um , you know , taxpayer funded legal representation programs in San Diego. It represents folks in the detained docket , either , you know , meaning people with deportation orders or deportation charges in the Otay Mesa Detention Center or they've been on some supervised release program. Um , what Terrell Lawson Reamer is trying to do , and the vote is on September 9th , next Tuesday. She's trying to expand that program so that unaccompanied children will also be eligible for legal representation. And she's doing this as a direct response to , um , the Trump administration's decision to cut federal funding for programs that specifically provided funding for legal aid for unaccompanied children minors. Some have been victims of human trafficking. So she's trying to , at least in San Diego , fill that gap over there. And I think it's interesting because it shows that while sometimes cities , counties and states can't really do anything about ice coming in here in your town and enforcing federal immigration law , right , your hands are tied. There are some things municipalities and different agencies can do. And this is an example of a county trying to do something to protect its residents in response to what the federal government is doing. I think there's more examples in other cities. I is in Fremont in LA. They have some money set aside for families of people who are detained , and they can get some , you know , monetary help if you lose the primary earner or something like that. San Diego doesn't have a program like that , but I think it's an interesting conversation about how different cities and states and counties respond to what is going on right now.
S1: Elliot , Gustavo there mentioned Los Angeles. I know you've been doing a lot of reporting recently in L.A. one of them profiled Gregory Bovino , who's , you know , a figure he was , you know , part of Border Patrol's. He ran Border Patrol's El Centro Sector , but then moved on to Los Angeles to kind of really implement some of this enforcement , you know , strategy changes you've been talking about. But tell us more about him and kind of how he plays a part in Trump's plans on enforcement going forward.
S2: Well , he is a character , but he is you know , he's very much in line with this administration very much. He loves the cameras. He loves he's got a lot of soundbites and a lot of stagecraft. You've seen him do. He showed up at a news conference that Gavin Newsom was holding on congressional redistricting. Just , you know , standing outside there on horseback at MacArthur Park. Very aggressive tactics that we've kind of talked about already. I mean , he he was there one morning in Huntington Park , Huntington Park , where they , you know , blew off the door or front door of of a home searching for a man , a U.S. citizen , who had been , they said , you know , causing problems at their arrest. So he's he is , you know , pushes the limits. Uh , he's what strikes me about him. And this was kind of the point of the story , at least how I entered into it is how his career has turned around. He's been consistent. But he was you know , he still is technically , uh , the chief of the El Centro sector. It's one of nine sectors along the border San Diego , El Centro , and it goes out to Rio Grande Valley , Texas. But he had been relieved of his command , uh , in August 2023. He says it was for a variety of things. He he has a Twitter or X photo profile photo of him carrying an M-4 assault rifle that apparently didn't sit well with the Biden administration. Some some other , you know , tweets and posts that did not sit well. He testified in Congress about the state of the border under Biden. And so he was relieved of his command and told , are you going to retire ? And he didn't retire. His profile photo was back up. And he's and he's , you know , in charge of all immigration enforcement in Los Angeles and maybe in Chicago. And it just to me says , like I said , he's he's been the same. I mean , but but the circuit really shows you how a circumstances have changed.
S3: What he.
S2: Did from Biden to Trump , that he was his career was basically over and now he's a star.
S3: Well , I was going to say the first time I heard his name was when Biden was still president , and he was in charge of that operation.
S2: The other thing I know you were going to want to , but but the the other thing about him is he's very much , uh , he's got two court orders against him for dealing with profiling. But , you know , of course he denies that or says that they're doing everything legally. But , um , one of them was in Kern County , right ? I think they made 78 arrests over several days in the San Joaquin Valley. And he , uh , I was talking with , you know , learning a little bit about him. He in 2010 , he was the Border Patrol chief in Blythe , California , the station there. And he raided the airports and bus stations in Las Vegas , which was just nearby. Wow. So he's someone who and I've asked him about that , and he's like , you know , the border patrol. You go back a hundred years. This is what we did. And it's only been kind of recent that ice has stepped in. Ice was just created in 2003 and taking a different , different approach than the Border Patrol. But he views these sort of large , you know , shows of force in the interior country of the country as part of the Border Patrol's mission.
S1: Well , and , Elliot , I mean , you just mentioned , you know , Ice being , you know , kind of relatively new compared to , you know , Border Patrol. Another recent story you did with your colleague , Valerie Gonzales. You kind of looked at ICE's , you know , expansion plans. They're hiring thousands of new officers over the next several years. But you went kind of back into the past and looked at CBP and an earlier effort. They did. You know , talk talk to us about that story.
S2: So Ice is what are they at 20,000. They're going to go to 30,000. And so 10,000 agents. And you know the Border Patrol was they doubled in size. And I want to say under the bush maybe I think it was a little bit into the Obama years and did it in five years. In that story you're talking about was Mike Fisher was the sector chief in San Diego at the time , and he was asked by headquarters , how long do you need to hire ? I think it was 3000 agents. And he did his research and came back and said , five years and they said , okay , you got two and a half. So there was a lot of cases of corruption during that period. um , the hiring standards were lowered. You know , and they already have been with Ice. They've taken Spanish out of the training syllabus. Uh , so the risk is with this , with this kind of massive expansion , not just for law enforcement , but any organization. When you hire that fast , you run the risk. If you don't have the safeguards in place , you don't. You run the risk of hiring people who are not good. They're not cut out for it. But , you know , high attrition. Um , you know , people that you've spent a lot of money training them and they start and say , this isn't for me. So , you know , we were we were trying to just raise the kind of a , I guess , a cautionary tale with the Border Patrol is like , things can go wrong if you don't do it right.
S3: There's a lot of vulnerability there. Like , I just this week I was reading a report from the Gao from 2012 looking at expansion of Border Patrol. And some of the things they mentioned was specifically , uh , Mexican drug cartels used it as an opportunity to install some of their people in border. Exactly.
S2: Exactly. Or a number of examples of that. Yeah. Yeah.
S3: Yeah. And the , the agency itself , they were worried about , you know , integrity falling down and impacting morale. And you could see after the big increase there was a big increase in hiring. There was also a big increase in complaints against Border Patrol officers. Um , and I think the , the they had some safeguards in place according to this report , but they just didn't follow the safeguards because there was so much pressure to hire as much as possible. So when you put that much pressure , the safeguards go by the wayside. But Ice has already eliminated some of the safeguards in anticipation of the hiring. So yeah , I think that's a really interesting story going forward to see how this agency moves and grows and what the impact on quality is after this rapid expansion.
S1: So , you know , we've talked about some of these pretty seem like sizable shifts from when Biden was in office to , you know , now Trump's second term. Um , you obviously all of , you know , each of you have covered multiple presidential administrations , you know , kind of different Democratic presidencies , Republicans. I'm just curious , you know , what impact has this Trump administration have on on the job you all do as border and immigration reporters ? Kate.
S4: Oh , man. Um.
S1:
S4: And so now I think they're doing that same thing with the interior. So there's there's a pretty intense fact checking that has to happen. And it's hard to get some of that information. But I think , you know , just in a , in a larger way and sort of talking again about this administration's Strategy in general. Of of doing so many things at once that we don't know where to look. And , and people keep asking me like , how are how are you doing , Kate and I ? This is the metaphor that I use. And so forgive me if you've heard this before for me , but , um , sometimes you can think of like , our job is like there's a field and there's like a couple things on fire in the field. And so , like , our job is to figure out which fire we need to go to , to go find out the information about the fire and come back and tell you about it. Right now , it feels like the field is covered in fires. And as I go running to the fire , that seems the most important. Six more fires pop up on my way there. And so there's an incredible amount of mental energy just in like , which thing do I need to be doing ? And I think that's a purposeful strategy , because if we're all struggling with that , less journalism is able to get done because of just the mental weight of deciding which journalism to do. Um , and so I think there are , you know , plenty of things that we're not even noticing because we're all human. And , you know , that's why I'm so grateful that there are , as many of us as there are , and that the San Diego region in particular has so many people on this topic , because we need as many eyes and ears as we can to try to get to this stuff. So , um , that's what it's like for me. I don't know how you guys feel. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. I mean , it's , you know , they've used the term flood the zone shock and or it's all of that. Um , and it is encouraging to see we the AP for our members. We did , um , like a training for local immigration reporters. I don't know if they I mean , they did exist at the San Diego Union-Tribune and KPBS , but there were places like Colorado Springs and , you know , places like that that , uh , maybe they weren't full time immigration , but they were really sinking their teeth into the subject. So that was encouraging , especially with all the dismal news we see in our industry. But I think it's gotten definitely tougher. I mean , you know , this administration is keeps a tighter lid on the information. Number one. There are some bright spots. I mean , Gustavo's did a really excellent tutorial on Ice detention numbers , which are pretty complete , but , you know , a lot of statistics that are that used to come out are on hold. So yeah , it's um , you know , one thing I will say about this administration is , well , they're they're they're not as cautious as they were in the last when there was there was more internal dissent , more debate. Now they just go , they just do it and they are running roughshod sometimes even over the judges. And they're very the state right now , the relationship between the administration and the judges is pretty tense. There was a crazy standoff last weekend involving Guatemala children stuck on the tarmac for three hours.
S3:
S2: There was earlier this year when the Venezuelans were sent to El Salvador. They just they worked around him. And that judge was called in on Saturday night. So I guess the only other point I would make a lot of showmanship with this administration. You know , these detention centers are called alligator , Alcatraz , Speedway , slammer , Cornhusker , clink. And and that is part of the strategy , I think , to encourage people to leave is just , you know , painting this really frightening picture. Um , so that's been kind of a difficult thing to navigate. It's like , you know , what is actually happening on the ground and what is , you know , is just like sort of bluster or messaging. But I think both , both. And they have the money right now. They have $170 billion to spend on immigration enforcement. So it's it's it's not just it's not just words.
S1: Gustavo , earlier you kind of mentioned some of the efforts from cities and local , you know , state levels to kind of push back. But I want to , you know , as we kind of kind of turn towards sort of wrapping up this conversation , I want to turn towards , you know , the response from communities.
S3: Um , especially coming out of Covid , I think there's a there's a demand for a community right now. So it's been interesting seeing that , seeing how different folks respond and unite in their own different ways. I mean , we see it with folks going to immigration court. Kate , I'm sure you can talk about that. Elliott. You can talk about the response in Los Angeles. Uh , some of it is just angry. You can you can feel.
S2: The people who were not involved before , you know , people who were they weren't they're not lifelong advocates. Yeah.
S3: Yeah. So I'm curious to see where it goes. Right. You're getting folks kind of activated now. We'll see if it lasts a couple of years , or if they go into politics or organizing or policy or anything like that. But I think in like , it can be this beat can be doom and gloom. A lot of the times , and I think that is a sort of source of light and inspiration for some people.
S1: We're going to have to leave it there. I want to thank you all , our border reporter crew here. It's great to have you all in the same room. Elliott Baggett is the U.S. immigration news editor with the Associated Press. Gustavo Solis is KPBS investigative reporter reporter , and Kate Morrissey has defined her work on daylight , San Diego and the Beyond the Border. Substack. Thanks again to you all.
S2: Thank you.
S3: Thank you. Thanks.
S1: Coming up , we check in on other stories we've been following this week on the Roundup. This is roundtable on KPBS. Welcome back to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. It's time now for our weekly roundup , where we chat about some other stories from the week , and I'm joined by KPBS producer Juliana Domingo.
S5: Throughline actually just came out with an entire episode yesterday on the history of ice. So it basically looks into what it was initially created to do and what's changed in the year 2025. I'm still listening through it , but if you're looking for a deeper dive , it could be a really great source for just those wanting to learn more about the history of immigration and politics in our country.
S1: So great. Yeah , and I mean , throughline does such a great job of adding context. So kind of given that deep dive into Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Yeah , definitely something to dig into. Totally.
S5: Totally. Um , and onto the first story I wanted to highlight this week. Um , Cal Matters actually just came out with a new report about how Newsom's care court is doing almost two years later since its launch. And for some context , the program allows people think family members and first responders to petition on behalf of a person experiencing severe psychosis who can't take care of themselves. So if it's approved , that person can then agree to voluntary treatment. Or if that person refuses , the court can then order a treatment plan. So kind matters. Basically requested care court data from every county in California , and found that it's only reached about a few hundred people , and not the thousands that Newsom had initially promised that the launch of care court. So , for instance , here in San Diego , the city is expected about 1000 1000 petitions , but it's only received 384 so far. So overall , it just seems to be going much slower than people expected. And a variety of factors are at play here , from eligibility requirements to the difficulty of outreach and so on. So not to mention that the stakes are pretty high for the governor himself , because he's really made this two pronged approach of tackling homelessness and mental health , mental health services as a part of his legacy. So we'll see what comes of it. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. And I think , you know , one thing that stands out to me because we've had conversations over the couple of years , because San Diego was kind of on the leading edge here of the character. It was like one of the first counties to to , to start it. And I think expectations for the impact it would have were always like higher than the reality. And earlier you mentioned this idea of , you know , voluntary treatment. And I think that came to be like a kind of defining sort of debate of , of , of like how can it be voluntary and achieve what some families , like family members were kind of asking for ? We talked to former , now former San Diego County behavioral health director Luke Bergman. You know , I think a couple times about it on Midday Edition and Roundtable , and I always felt like they were kind of trying to temper expectations of it. So this it's interesting , this kind of deep dive , kind of see all the numbers. But that was kind of always I don't know. I'm not surprised by that. Right.
S5: Right. And this is also a big point of contention for disability rights organizations who are also , you know , focusing on that involuntary treatment aspect of it. Right. So I think there's currently a bill going through the legislature to potentially expand the eligibility requirements for care caught. But but again , disability rights organizations are sort of criticizing criticizing this bill. And we'll just have to follow the development of care court for the next few years to come.
S1: You know , and you mentioned this idea of Newsom's legacy here. And that's I want to turn to the next story. And this is from Cal Matters. Cal matters. Alexis Kossoff , who we've had on roundtable just recently talking about Governor Newsom. But he published a story looking into the lack of transparency to Governor Newsom's calendar in his role as governor. And we've been hearing so much about Newsom lately. You know , a lot of it. It's from his responses to President Trump. He's gotten a lot of attention. He has the social media , you know , all caps , social media. That's kind of like mocking Trump , right ? He's been doing all these sorts of , you know , a lot of media and a lot of attention to that. But , um , and , you know , for that , he's getting kind of national recognition was in Newsweek. They have a poll from Yahoo YouGov that shows Newsom is basically leading to the front of a potential , um , Democratic Party presidential primary pick. He's like 21% support there. So this piece , though , Alexi , goes back to like , well , how is he doing as governor ? And looking at his calendar. And the governor's office has not made his schedule available in 2025 at all. And Cal Matters has , you know , made a request for that calendar under the California Public Records Act to which the governor has not responded. Um , and , you know , Alexi kind of talks about just this is something that governors have done over the last two decades or so. He talked with one , you know , the legal director of the First Amendment Coalition , David Loy , who , you know , said , quote , it's deeply problematic , basically , that , you know , the governor's office hasn't quickly just what he says is like , it's not a difficult task to do this just to release your calendar. So it is sort of an interesting challenge as he's kind of you're starting to hear more of these rumblings of like running for president. And that turned more nationally , but still trying to get , you know , transparency and information on what he's actually doing as governor. I thought that was an interesting article.
S5: So a local story that I wanted to highlight , and this one's a really sad one for me , is that the San Diego Public Library is cutting down on their Monday hours. So the union , the Union Tribune , reported that starting September 15th , at least 20 branches are slashing their Monday hours because of budget cuts. And city officials are calling it to the Great Reshuffling. And that means a lot of key staff members are also jumping from branch to branch amid all these cuts. And this is happening sort of across the entire city. And official officials are also saying it's to close a budget deficit of more than $300 million. So , again , very disappointing news because I love the library and they obviously provide so many different resources beyond just lending books. And I think a lot of library patrons , they're saying it's pretty sudden. It's forcing a lot of libraries to reschedule activities. Think storytimes author talks. So I wonder what else this means for how , you know , families will be adapting to. I imagine a lot of families really rely on some of these activities. And , you know , just the structure that the library provides. Um , 17 branches at least will keep their normal hours from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.. So if you're looking to see if your local branch might be slashing their hours. Yeah , exactly. Then I suggest looking on the library's website or that Union-Tribune article that will be linking on our website as well.
S1: Well , and I know this is probably particularly troubling to you because you are one of the most book obsessed people that I know.
S5:
S1:
S5: Than just. Writing.
S1: Writing. Books.
S5: Books. Exactly. It's really a community oriented space where people can just , you know , hang out. And it's one of the few accessible spaces we have now that are free. Right to the to the public. So I think that's also , you know , a major reason that so many people across , you know , the region have really advocated for the libraries , for libraries , maintaining their budgets and maintaining their hours. But again , that budget deficit of more than $300 million the city is trying to make up for. So that's the big reason they're attributing these cuts to.
S1: So I want to turn , you know , to some events happening this weekend. And it's pretty much all around one person , and that's Alex Morgan. She's a legendary soccer player. She retired last season. She played with the San Diego Wave FC. But her , you know , her impact is is well known and goes far beyond that. She played with the US women's national team for for many years and had just like unparalleled success. The team is is retiring her number 13 this weekend. And there's basically just kind of a whole weekend of events celebrating her , celebrating her career. Later today , there's a mural unveiling happening in North Park. Um , and the actual , you know , retirement number retiring is going to happen on Sunday during the The Wave game. And the team itself is kind of cool. You know , they were playing this game on Sunday and the team's having a pretty good season. They're in third place in the league. And it's a season where again with losing Alex Morgan last season , some other changes a lot of people weren't sure you know how much success they'd find. But it's cool that , you know the the team's doing well on the field too. But really this weekend is going to be a chance to honor a very important figure. And she's become more even cemented to San Diego. I think her husband's San Diegan , but also she's kind of set roots here. Um , you know , she's still involved with teams as well as , you know , various , you know , her foundation work and some other important work in San Diego. But , I don't know , just a really nice time to honor somebody , you know , career. And that's really going to have a lasting legacy in San Diego. So that does it for the Round-Up. This week. I've been speaking with KPBS producer Juliana Domingo. Juliana. Thanks.
S6: Thank you.
S1: That's our show for today. Thanks so much for listening. If you missed any of today's show , you can listen to the show anytime as a podcast. KPBS roundtable airs on KPBS FM at noon on Fridays and again Sundays at 6 a.m.. If you have any thoughts on today's show or ideas for a future one , you can always email us at roundtable at KPBS or leave us a message at (619) 452-0228. Roundtables. Technical producer this week was Brandon Truffaut. The show was produced by Giuliana Domingo. Brooke Ruth is roundtable senior producer. I'm your host , Andrew Bracken. Thanks again for listening and have a great weekend.
