WEBVTT - It Could Happen Here Weekly 86 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.680 Hey, everybody, Robert Evans here and I wanted to let 0:00:02.759 --> 0:00:06.400 you know this is a compilation episode. So every episode 0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:09.440 of the week that just happened is here in one 0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:13.280 convenient and with somewhat less ads package for you to 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:15.800 listen to in a long stretch if you want. If 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:17.720 you've been listening to the episodes every day this week, 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:19.520 there's going to be nothing new here for you, But 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:22.200 you can make your own decisions. 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:35.400 You probably don't remember the passage of Title forty two, 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:38.640 let alone that of Title forty two, Chapter six A 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:42.960 sub chapter two, Part G Section two sixty four, but 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:45.320 it's a part of US federal law that gives the 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:47.839 government of the authority to take emergency action to keep 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:51.919 communical diseases out of the country. The portion, which allows 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:55.640 a sweeping disregard for asylum law passed in nineteen forty four, 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:59.200 reads in one giant run on paragraph sentence. 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:02.640 As follows, Whenever the Surgeon General determines that, by reason 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:06.039 of the existence of any communicable disease in a foreign country, 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:08.880 there is serious danger of the introduction of such disease 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:11.520 into the United States, and that this danger is so 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:14.479 increased by the introduction of persons or property from such 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:16.959 country that a suspension of the right to introduce such 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:19.640 persons and property is required in the interest of the 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:23.080 public health. The Surgeon General, in accordance with regulations approved 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:25.600 by the President, shall have the power to prohibit and 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:28.840 whole or in part, the introduction of persons and property 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:31.520 from such countries or places as he shall designate, in 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:34.240 order to avert such danger, and for such period of 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:36.480 time as he may deem necessary for such purpose. 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:40.679 Before President Donald Trump's administration used it on March twentieth, 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:44.000 twenty twenty, it had been used only in nineteen twenty 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:46.399 nine to keep ships from China and the Philippines from 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:50.200 entering US ports due to meningitis outbreak. But in March 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:52.840 of twenty twenty, when you probably weren't paying much attention 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:56.000 because the world was falling apart, when I just returned 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:58.480 from a work trip to Rwanda, where I was months 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:02.720 before any precautions appeared in the screened for a novel coronavirus. 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:07.120 The Trump administration cited this public health law in instructions 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:11.160 to the Department of Homeland Security on restrictions for migrants 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:14.960 entering the United States that very same day, Center for 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:19.560 Disease Control Director Robert R. Redfield relied on this regulation 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:23.320 to issue an order suspending the introduction into the United 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:27.160 States of certain individuals who had been in quote unquote 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:32.280 coronavirus impacted areas and quote who would be introduced into 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:35.600 a congregate setting at the port of entry or a 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:40.040 border station. This includes individuals coming from Canada or Mexico 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:43.200 who would normally be detained by CBP after arriving at 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:47.080 the border, people including asylum seekers and accompanied children, and 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:50.239 people attending to enter the United States between ports of entry. 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:54.760 Citing the new CDC order, that same day, the Border 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:59.000 Patrol began expelling individuals who arrived at the US Mexico 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:04.160 border without giving them the opportunity to seek asylum. Reports 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:07.480 indicate the CDC scientists expressed opposition to the invocation of 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:10.400 Title forty two, arguing that there was really no public 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:14.320 health rationale to support it. Ever since then, public health 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:18.160 experts outside the CDC have continued to agree, arguing that 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:21.639 while international borders largely remain open to other travelers, there 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:24.200 is no need to turn away refugees and expel them 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:27.520 to their home countries or send them to Mexico. Despite 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:31.840 this DHS has been applying Title forty two to migrants 0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:35.040 for three years since then, and people have been turned 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:37.360 away without getting a chance to plead their case for 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:39.320 asylum three million times. 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:40.720 Now. 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:43.960 Trump is no longer president, but Title forty two has persisted. 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:47.600 It's actually persisted for much longer under Biden's watch two 0:03:47.680 --> 0:03:51.040 years and four months than it did under Trump ten months. 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:54.600 But we'll get to that part later. First, let's look 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:57.400 at what this bureaucratic wrinkle does when it's applied for 0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:00.880 three years across a land border spanning three one hundred 0:04:00.880 --> 0:04:04.240 and forty five kilometers. That's one nine hundred and fifty 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:07.480 four miles for the Americans listening at a time when 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:12.120 climate change, economic decline, and state and nonstate violence are 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:15.440 driving more and more people towards the USA's southern border 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:19.240 in the hope of a better life. We're talking about 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:21.240 the Title forty two this week because it ended on 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:24.000 Mail eleventh. In a sense, this marks an important change 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:27.240 in immigration law. But in a sense it doesn't. Immigration 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:30.320 was complicated and cruel for migrants and profitable for people 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:33.279 on both sides of the border before March of twenty twenty, 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:36.400 and it's the same after Title forty two has gone, 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:39.760 but nonetheless Title forty two represented a distinct change in 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:43.279 how asylum works in the US, and especially when combined 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:47.160 with other Trump policies that Biden has continued, a distinct 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:49.760 change in how many people die when coming to this 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:52.240 country to try and have a better chance at a 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:57.360 save future. By April of twenty twenty, Title forty two 0:04:57.440 --> 0:05:00.839 expulsions at the border overtook the previous record for expulsions 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:04.600 under the so called Migrant Protection Protocol, which is better 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:07.440 known as Remain in Mexico, that was set in August 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:11.680 of twenty nineteen. Under an agreement reached with the Mexican government. 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:14.799 In late March of twenty twenty, the border Patrol began 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:19.800 sending quote unquote back to Mexico most Mexican but also 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:25.039 Guatemala and Honduran and Saldorean families and seeing adults encountered 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:29.080 at the border. This group of nationalities remained unchanged until 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:31.840 May of twenty twenty two, when the Biden administration came 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:35.640 to an agreement with Mexico to accept quote unquote thousands 0:05:35.760 --> 0:05:40.040 of Cubans and Nicaraguans sent from the United States to Mexico. 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:44.960 But this doesn't really matter. You'll see that alone these episodes. 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:48.320 Immigration law on the ground and immigration law in Washington, 0:05:48.440 --> 0:05:52.800 DC are two very different things. There has been extensive 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:56.240 documentation of individuals expelled to Mexico who do not fit 0:05:56.440 --> 0:06:00.240 within these nationalities, including Haitian asylum seekers, some of whom 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:05.040 I've spoken to myself. People who are expelled are often 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:07.760 driven by bus to the nearest port of entry that's 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:12.040 a land border crossing, and told to walk back to Mexico, 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:15.440 often without their luggage and other belongings. I found that 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:19.320 luggage in belongings, including ID cards, clothing, and even little 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:22.640 stuffed animals, all along the border in the three years 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:25.880 since Title forty two has been in place. I asked 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:28.200 my friend Paul to describe what we found in Texas 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:30.120 when we've been for a walk along the border wall 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:33.039 during our time reporting on the National Butterfly Center. 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:37.440 There you'd find drivers' licenses. I believe at one point 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:43.200 we found like an almost an information packet for like 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:45.839 it was for a teenager, a teenage girl. I remember 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:50.040 that because we got pictures of it. And then when 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:53.039 we took that long walk, remember we walked down the 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:55.800 border wall there's two two and a half mile walk 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:58.200 something like that. When we got to the very end 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:05.320 of the wall where the river was, there was just 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:09.320 a giant pile of people's stuff. And some of it 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:14.880 was obviously trash, you know, they were abandoning clothes after 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:17.960 they changed from crossing and stuff like that, but a 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:22.560 lot of it was full backpacks. A lot of ID 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:28.280 documents just in piles, just piles of them. Yeah, yeah, 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:30.840 just big piles of documents that proved who you were. 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:34.200 The other thing we found with ladders, tons of them. 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:38.280 Apparently someone built a gazebo out of them. The wall 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:41.080 varies in design a bit along the border depending on 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:43.440 when and by whom it was built, but the trund 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:45.880 design has a flat anti climb plate at the top. 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:48.400 I'll let Paul describe how that's going. 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:51.240 It was literally like somebody went to the hardware store 0:07:52.160 --> 0:07:54.640 bought two of the longest or actually sorry, three of 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:57.640 the longest two by four as you could put two 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:01.040 of them beside each other, and then just nailed steps 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:04.280 up them, so you know, they were like sixteen twenty 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:08.120 feet long, and which was enough to just climb over 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:13.720 the wall, like there weren't there weren't many places actually, 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:16.440 because most of the wall had that anti climb barrier 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:19.680 at the top. Whereas when you didn't have the anti 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:22.880 climb barrier, you didn't actually have something to set it against. 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:24.480 But once you put that on there, you could just 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:26.880 lean the ladder up against it. It's like self defeating. 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:32.040 Sometimes these expulsions are not as straightforward. It's a bus 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:35.240 to nearest port of entry. CVP has carried out what 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:39.040 are called lateral transfers by plane or bus, taking migrants 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:42.839 to another location along the border, to towns like San 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:45.720 Diego or El Paso, even if they entered in Arizona 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:49.880 or California. This leaves families stranded in the town where 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:54.240 they have no connections, no resources, and no community. Again, 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:57.400 these are people I've met. It won't have escaped the 0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:00.960 listener's attention that those planes and buses and other means 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:04.920 of detention and transport are indeed congregate settings, But that 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:08.679 doesn't seem to matter here. Title forty two didn't stop 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:12.520 people trying to come, but it made the journey more difficult. 0:09:13.240 --> 0:09:15.640 Instead of crossing and trying to turn themselves in for 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:19.480 asylum or approaching a port of entry, people began crossing 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:23.319 in more remote places, places without border walls or barriers, 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:28.480 with less frequent border patrols. In twenty twenty, the Border 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:31.320 Patrol found two hundred and forty seven dead bodies along 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:34.800 the border. This is unlikely to represent the full human 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.800 toll of border enforcement. Many deaths in the desert go 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:42.440 unreported and undiscovered, but it gives some kind of point 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:45.240 of comparison for the twenty twenty one number. After a 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:49.000 year of Title forty two, five hundred and forty six 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:52.839 people died that year. In twenty twenty two, third year 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:56.800 of Title forty two, eight hundred and fifty seven people died. 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:00.360 None of those people were guilty of any crime than 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:03.719 wanting a better life, but under Title forty two, they 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:06.160 lost their lives because the US didn't give them a 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:10.079 safe way to exercise the human right to claim asylum. 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:14.680 One local advocate, Hamira Yusefi from a group called PANA, 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:17.800 the Partnership for the Advance with New Americans, explain what 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:20.160 Title forty two have been like for her as an 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:21.720 advocate for asylum seekers. 0:10:21.960 --> 0:10:27.840 When the pandemic hit, we saw that Title forty two 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:32.600 heavily restricted those who were able to seek asylum in 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:36.760 this country. So while there was chaos happening and folks 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:39.040 around the world who were trying to come to the 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:41.920 United States for refuge, they were unable to do so. 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:45.440 And what this resulted in is people taking an even 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:49.520 more dangerous path right than before and going between the 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:52.800 ports of entries in order to try to seek refuge. 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:55.960 And so we have had hundreds of cases of individuals 0:10:56.000 --> 0:11:00.800 who have gotten themselves injured, who the hospitals calling us 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:03.800 because they tried to cross and got injured, and where 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:06.480 we're trying to help them with getting some basic legal 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:10.079 services and immediate shelter and those types of things. 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:14.640 Since Biden took office, Human Rights First says it's identified 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:19.760 more than thirteen thousand incidents of kidnapping, torture, rape, or 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:23.319 other violent attacks on people blocked or expelled to Mexico 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:26.240 on a title forty two. That's because it's easy for 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:28.719 violence to follow people who have no resources and no 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:32.120 community to protect them. It's for that reason that you 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:34.920 won't always see faces in my photographs at the border, 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:38.160 and that some of the names in this series have changed, 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:41.720 or perhaps we're just using someone's first name. It's also 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:44.160 for that reason that not everyone at the border always 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:46.720 wants to talk, but we do have some interviews coming 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:49.640 up for you tomorrow. Here's a clip from a discussion 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:51.520 about this which I recorded the border last week. 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:54.000 I'm trying to get people's faces, and that's what everybody's 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:55.080 doing our needs. 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:56.880 I can't speak to what they're doing. 0:11:56.920 --> 0:11:57.760 That's what I'm doing. 0:11:57.920 --> 0:11:59.040 I don't know about other people. 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:02.320 You should ask. You should if you think someone's taking 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:03.160 a photo of you. 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:03.760 It's okay. 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:08.080 I don't have a why you know? 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:09.719 I wish I could. Yeah, I could tell you. 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:12.520 People who are subject to Title forty two expulsion are 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:14.960 not given an opportunity to contest their expulsion on the 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:17.560 grounds it would face persecution in the country to which 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:20.640 they would be expelled. There's a very limited exceptions Title 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:24.280 forty two for people who quote unquote spontaneously inform CBP 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:27.240 officers that they fear being tortured in the country to 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:30.600 which they will be expelled. However, in order to receive 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:33.240 an official screening by an asylum officer for exemption under 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:36.520 that provision, the CBP officer must first determine that the 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:40.679 claim is reasonably believable. From March twenty twenty through September 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:43.440 twenty twenty one, just two hundred and seventy two people 0:12:43.480 --> 0:12:46.000 were granted the right to seek asylum under this exception. 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:49.520 The use of Title forty two has been despite the 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:52.480 relative lack of outrage and surbide. The administration took office 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:57.559 bipartisan in twenty twenty one. A few weeks before Biden's inauguration, 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:00.160 I spent some time talking to migrants at the other 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:02.920 border for Slate. Many of them had come to a 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:05.400 small tent city that popped up just feet from the 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:08.440 pedestrian border crossing and the country that they had traveled 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:11.120 thousands of miles to get to, but that they couldn't reach. 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:15.520 You can see America through the fence there, but you 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:19.320 can't get there. The camp was diverse in its composition. 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:23.920 On one trip, I interviewed folks from Haiti, Honduras, Salvador, Watemala, 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:26.520 and Ethiopia. Here's what one of them said to me 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:29.480 when he asked his message to President Biden. You recognize 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:32.520 their voices Daniald's. That's because I don't have his permission 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:33.160 to use his voice. 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:33.360 Here. 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:36.760 We are appealing to President Biden. We aren't bad people. 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:39.000 Our goal is to work and get ahead in the 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:41.439 world for our children. We don't want to go back. 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:43.680 They will kill us, so we are here. 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:47.000 Some of them wore Biden t shirts, which I suspect 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:49.360 righttually a plant by a right wing our Jean provocateur 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:53.400 looking to make the new administration look weak. They needn't 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:55.679 really have bothered with all the effort Biden would do 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:57.600 plenty in the next few months to make himself look 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:00.719 cruel and unkind. Before we'd talk about that, I want 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:03.560 to play you a clip from Biden's first press confidence President. 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:07.520 You just listed the reasons that people are coming talking 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:10.200 about in country problems, saying that it happens every year. 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:13.280 You blamed the last administration. Sir, I just got back 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:16.400 last night from a reporting trip to the border, where 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:20.320 I met nine year old Josel who walked here from 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:23.920 Honduras by himself, along with another little boy. He had 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:26.520 that whole numbe on him and we were able to 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:30.440 call his family. His mother says that she sent her 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:34.160 son to this country because she believes that you are 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:38.120 not deporting unaccompanied minors like her son. That's why she's 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:41.520 sent him alone from Honduras. So, Sir, you blamed the 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:45.080 last administration, But is your messaging and saying that these 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:47.640 children are and will be allowed to stay in this 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:51.359 country and work their way through this process, encouraging families 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:53.320 like Jose's to come. 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:55.040 Well, look. 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:04.240 The idea that I'm going to say, which I would 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:07.800 never do. If an unaccompanied child ends up at the border, 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:09.640 We're just gonna let him starve to death and stay 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:16.240 on the other side. No previous administrations dead either except Trump. 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:19.480 I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:23.320 do it. That's why I've asked the Vice President of 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:27.840 the United States yesterday to be the lead person I'm 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:34.240 dealing with focusing on the fundamental reasons why people leave Honduras, Guatemala, 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:36.000 or Salvadora in the first place. 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:38.760 In the coming months, some of which I covered for 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:42.560 an op ed and NBC about the Biden administration's cruel 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:45.360 treatment of Haitian migrants, things on the border didn't get 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:49.120 any better. Biden deported more Haitian people in a few 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:52.400 weeks than the Trump administration did in a year, eight 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:55.680 hundred and ninety five people reported in twenty twenty versus 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:58.680 more than one thy two hundred people from January twentieth 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:03.160 to March twenty second, twenty twenty one, while making declarations 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:07.280 about showing compassion to migrants, the Biden administration packed Haitians 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:10.320 onto crowded planes and buses and sent them back to 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:14.080 Haiti in the middle of a pandemic. In March, the 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:19.200 US sent another pointed disinvitation to Haitians. The US Embassy 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:22.280 in Haiti tweeted a picture President Joe Biden looking off 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:24.360 into the distance with a caption in both English and 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:31.160 Haitian Creole. In Creole, it read wing cardi sa bienk pavini. 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:33.400 The translation above it was. 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:36.640 I can say quite clearly, don't come over. 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:42.520 In July of that year, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Majorcas, 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:45.760 himself a child of parents who fled from Cuba, said 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:48.960 that Haitians and Cubans fleeing unrest in their countries will 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:51.480 not find safety in the US, even if they have 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:54.480 a credible claim for asylum, and especially if they flee 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:57.920 by sea. In doing so, he was echoing statements that 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:01.920 the US broadcast from planes flying over Haiti following the 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:06.000 devastating earthquake in twenty ten. Following these announcements, the US 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:08.960 diverted resources that it could have used to help people 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:11.199 from suffering in a country which have been destroyed by 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:15.000 a natural disaster, to stop them coming to this country. 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:20.320 He was also overlooking that under both international and domestic law, 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:23.320 asylum seekers are entitled to make claims no matter how 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:26.359 they enter the country. Here's what may Orcas said at 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:27.200 his press conference. 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:30.560 Allow me to be clear, if you take to the sea, 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:33.119 you will not come to the United States. 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:35.840 Part of this hard line is because of a perceived 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:38.840 crisis at the border. You don't have to go far 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:40.760 on Twitter dot com before you run into people like 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:44.160 Fox Newses Bill Malogan. Yep, the tampon in the coffee 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:47.720 guy is now a border reporter, and he's shamelessly repeating 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:51.359 CBP statistics about apprehensions on the southern border. Here he 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:53.960 is talking to his buddy Tucker Carlson. Do you remember 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:54.359 that guy? 0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:57.800 Bill Maluchin has covered the border more closely than any 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:00.600 reporter in the United States for the last two years. Today, 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:05.320 in his estimation, the single largest caravan of illegal aliens 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:08.480 flowing into this country in his two years of watching crossed. 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:09.720 Today he broke the story. 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:11.760 He's got remarkable video for us. 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:12.639 He's lab at the border. 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:14.199 Now, Bill, great to see you. 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:14.680 What did you. 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:17.040 See, Tucker cad evening to you. You mentioned it right 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:19.480 off the top. This was easily the biggest group we 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:22.280 have ever seen during our nineteen months of covering this 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:25.600 border crisis, and they all crossed illegally into El Paso 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:28.240 last night, and we got some pretty wild camera footage 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:29.240 to show you. Take a look at this. 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:30.720 This was last night in El Paso. 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:36.240 A massive caravan, over one thousand illegal immigrants crossing into 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:38.720 El Paso last night. Local media they're reporting it was 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:41.280 potentially up to two thousand people and that it was 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:45.080 possibly the biggest mass crossing in the city's history. Now, 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:46.879 as you look at the video, you'll see just wave 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:50.440 after wave after wave of these people walking across the 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:52.480 river and then gathering on the US side of the 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:55.200 river where they kind of form a single file line. 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:58.280 But it's not just folks news doing this. You'll see 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:02.400 MPR and other more liberal outlets quoting these same statistics 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:07.800 without the necessary context. They're not lying. Apprehensions are higher, 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:11.280 but that is in some part because migrants are now 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:15.120 crossing more than once in twenty nineteen, before Title forty 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:18.040 two went into effect. Just seven percent of migrants apprehended 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:22.200 by the border patrol had previously been apprehended. The reapprehension 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:25.200 rate grew to twenty seven percent in fiscal year twenty 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:28.280 twenty two. This is because we're expelling people to places 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:30.359 where they have no hope of a better future, and 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:33.040 not leaving them with many options other than to try 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:38.480 again in more remote and risky settings. Meanwhile, there's much 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:42.080 less concern from the right and from Democrats at the 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:45.080 fact that Ukrainians are exempted from Title forty two and 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:49.480 Russians and Ukrainians generally experience expedited processing of the sort 0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:51.400 which one would hope this country could offer to other 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:55.280 people escaping conflicts around the world, including many that we started. 0:19:56.200 --> 0:19:59.560 I asked my friend Gustavo Solis, a border investigative reporter 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:02.639 at CAPE PBS in San Diego, to summarize it. By 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:04.639 the administration to take on Title forty. 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:07.200 Two now, on paper, the rationale is there's a pandemic 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:09.200 going on. We need to stop or slow the spread 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:13.679 of COVID nineteen. So because of this extraordinary circumstance, we 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:17.760 need Title forty two to shore up the border. That 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:21.159 was bullshit, and we know that now through reporting that 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:24.840 it was total bullshit. We know that from as early 0:20:24.840 --> 0:20:30.080 as twenty eighteen, Stephen Miller, Trump's White House aid wanted 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:34.240 to use Title forty two to stop this type of migration. 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:38.400 We know that Vice President Mike Pence pressured the top 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:42.679 doctors at the CDC into doing this, basically saying, if 0:20:42.720 --> 0:20:44.879 you don't do this, you might lose your job. Because 0:20:44.920 --> 0:20:48.240 even then in March twenty twenty, doctors at the CDC 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:51.120 knew that there was no real public health rationale for this. 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:52.760 I mean, if you look at the order, it's supposed 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:56.160 to stop COVID, but there weren't any exceptions for migrants 0:20:56.200 --> 0:20:59.520 who were vaccinated or there was no testing component to it. 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:04.520 So that's kind of the beginning of Title forty two. 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:07.120 By the time Biden came in office, Biden had promised 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:10.040 to end it along with Roman in Mexico and restore 0:21:10.080 --> 0:21:15.080 the humane asylum system, but he kept Title forty two 0:21:15.119 --> 0:21:16.840 in place. And he didn't just keep it in place, 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:21.040 he expanded it to include nationalities that weren't included when 0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:22.160 Trump first rolled it out. 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:25.119 Even as a legal battle went back and forth, another 0:21:25.160 --> 0:21:28.399 major bottle neck emerged in a migration system in the 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:32.560 form of never ending clusterfuck. That is the CBP one app. Again, 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:34.960 I let Gustavo explain his reporting here. 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:38.560 It actually kind of started with the Ukrainians. That was 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:42.520 kind of how they started using it for the asylum context. 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:49.320 But CBP one is essentially a phone app for asylum, 0:21:49.680 --> 0:21:52.560 and on paper it kind of makes sense, right instead 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:55.880 of like you know, Joe Biden and the Dems are 0:21:55.920 --> 0:21:58.560 really terrified of the optics of a lot of people 0:21:58.640 --> 0:22:02.919 at the border, and a lot of their policy is 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:06.480 revolved around stopping that right. They don't want masses of 0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:10.399 people at the border. The CVP one app aims to 0:22:10.440 --> 0:22:13.240 address that by telling micros, hey, instead of coming all 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:15.440 the way to Mexico and showing up the border, just 0:22:15.480 --> 0:22:19.280 download this app and schedule an appointment to come here, 0:22:20.040 --> 0:22:22.680 and we'll let you to see if you're eligible for 0:22:22.720 --> 0:22:29.080 asylum or not. Another example of a policy in Washington, 0:22:29.160 --> 0:22:32.680 DC that has like no reality in what's going on 0:22:32.840 --> 0:22:38.600 the border because migrants live in shelters with really bad 0:22:38.640 --> 0:22:44.520 Wi Fi access and they have crappy phones. So what 0:22:44.560 --> 0:22:47.720 I found in the reporting is that CBP one rewards 0:22:47.800 --> 0:22:50.320 people with the best phones, not necessarily people who are 0:22:50.359 --> 0:22:53.879 most vulnerable. And the story I came out with last 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:57.080 week was about how data from the Mexican government shows 0:22:57.119 --> 0:23:00.680 that at least in Tijuana, about forty four percent of 0:23:00.720 --> 0:23:03.560 every microt who has gotten a CBP one application to 0:23:03.680 --> 0:23:07.880 enter the country is a Russian national and Russian nationals 0:23:07.880 --> 0:23:12.200 makeup at most ten percent of the overall migroant population 0:23:12.440 --> 0:23:16.000 in Tijuana. So you have this situation where a relatively 0:23:17.040 --> 0:23:21.359 affluent ten percent of the population is getting almost half 0:23:21.720 --> 0:23:24.879 of these humanitarian protection appointments that are designed for the 0:23:24.920 --> 0:23:29.480 world's most vulnerable people. And that's what CEP one does. 0:23:29.600 --> 0:23:30.320 Like it. 0:23:30.680 --> 0:23:33.240 They call it the ticketmaster of asylum, and and that's 0:23:33.240 --> 0:23:36.959 not a compliment. That is like ticketmaster fucking sucks. Nobody 0:23:37.119 --> 0:23:37.480 likes it. 0:23:37.960 --> 0:23:40.760 I also spoke to Kiba, an activist who participated in 0:23:40.840 --> 0:23:43.439 mutual aid at the border. We talked about the app 0:23:43.640 --> 0:23:46.920 because CABA has some professional insight into the technologies used. 0:23:48.440 --> 0:23:54.960 Data science bench for a living and the problem building 0:23:55.000 --> 0:24:00.280 the systems trained entirely on databases of white faces than 0:24:00.359 --> 0:24:06.480 not working for people of other you know, ethnic backgrounds, 0:24:07.080 --> 0:24:10.560 is very well known in this field. That is a 0:24:10.680 --> 0:24:15.000 very well documented issue. For more than a decade, and 0:24:15.200 --> 0:24:17.560 anyone who could tell you that building a facial recognition 0:24:17.720 --> 0:24:20.280 or some kind of a camera app that does image 0:24:20.320 --> 0:24:23.879 processing and and only training it on my faces, it 0:24:23.920 --> 0:24:26.240 won't like that. This is a This is not something 0:24:26.600 --> 0:24:29.840 that I think any competent software development house who would 0:24:29.840 --> 0:24:34.200 have done and not expected. So I have a hard 0:24:34.240 --> 0:24:38.040 time believing that the whole chain of everyone that's had 0:24:38.040 --> 0:24:41.560 to go through, from the developers on up to you know, 0:24:41.640 --> 0:24:45.959 anyone who does it or you know has authority of 0:24:46.040 --> 0:24:51.080 these things at CBP or Homeland Security. This is just 0:24:51.200 --> 0:24:54.400 it's it's it's like, I don't know, it's it's, it's 0:24:54.920 --> 0:24:57.720 it's it's hard to believe that this was an accent. 0:24:58.840 --> 0:25:01.399 Anyway, before we get too far from discussing things that 0:25:01.480 --> 0:25:06.760 fucking suck, here's an advertising break. You might be wondering 0:25:06.760 --> 0:25:09.199 why Title forty two is ending now and how we 0:25:09.280 --> 0:25:11.360 got here, given that there seems to be a consensus 0:25:11.359 --> 0:25:13.440 in DC that the border is in crisis, and that 0:25:13.440 --> 0:25:15.600 that crisis is not that people were leaving to die 0:25:15.600 --> 0:25:17.159 on the streets on the other side or in the 0:25:17.200 --> 0:25:20.840 deserts of California and Arizona, but the people were allowing 0:25:20.880 --> 0:25:23.600 to come to the richest country that's ever existed, from 0:25:23.640 --> 0:25:26.720 countries that we've destabilized for decades to have a chance 0:25:26.760 --> 0:25:30.600 in a decent life. Well, the answer is complicated. Some 0:25:30.680 --> 0:25:32.720 of it's a bit too complicated for me to really 0:25:32.720 --> 0:25:35.399 spend the time explaining, and you don't really need to 0:25:35.440 --> 0:25:38.560 know the ins and outs of court cases to understand that. Essentially, 0:25:39.119 --> 0:25:42.240 the Biden administration had planned to end Title forty two 0:25:42.880 --> 0:25:46.399 in late twenty twenty two, right after the midterms. Title 0:25:46.400 --> 0:25:49.480 forty two actually became theoretically unenforceable in November of that 0:25:49.600 --> 0:25:52.280 year thanks to a court ruling, but the Supreme Court 0:25:52.320 --> 0:25:55.240 in December prevented the Biden administration from ending Title forty two. 0:25:55.800 --> 0:25:57.760 While the Justice is considered a request by a group 0:25:57.800 --> 0:26:01.000 of Republican led states that want to continue knew the expulsions, 0:26:01.320 --> 0:26:05.240 which had previously been declared unlawful by lower court. Biden's 0:26:05.280 --> 0:26:08.520 Department of Justice had previously defended Title forty two as 0:26:08.560 --> 0:26:11.400 necessary to public health, but by the end of twenty 0:26:11.440 --> 0:26:14.040 twenty two, they were ready to end enforcement a Title 0:26:14.080 --> 0:26:17.040 forty two politically, even if they were nowhere near prepared 0:26:17.040 --> 0:26:20.800 on the ground. A coalition of Republican led States, however, 0:26:20.960 --> 0:26:23.080 managed to get a federal judge in Louisiana to prevent 0:26:23.119 --> 0:26:26.560 officials fromending Title forty two, saying the Biden administration had 0:26:26.600 --> 0:26:30.600 not taken adequate steps required to terminate the policy. Then, 0:26:30.640 --> 0:26:33.399 on November fifteenth, another federal judge declared Title forty two 0:26:33.480 --> 0:26:36.080 un lawful, saying the CDC had not properly explained the 0:26:36.119 --> 0:26:39.919 policy's public health rational or considered its impact on asylum seekers. 0:26:40.240 --> 0:26:42.880 At the request of the Biden administration, The judge gave 0:26:42.920 --> 0:26:46.199 border officials five weeks until December the twenty first to 0:26:46.400 --> 0:26:50.520 end Title forty two. Nineteen Republican led States asked several 0:26:50.520 --> 0:26:54.480 courts to delay Title forty two's resision indefinitely, warning that 0:26:54.560 --> 0:26:58.199 chaos would otherwise ensue. After their request was denied by 0:26:58.240 --> 0:27:01.240 lower courts, the States asked to super Spreme Court to intervene. 0:27:01.440 --> 0:27:04.240 On December twenty seventh, the Supreme Court said it would 0:27:04.240 --> 0:27:06.679 suspend the lower court order that found Title forty two 0:27:06.760 --> 0:27:10.120 to be illegal until it decided whether the Republican Led 0:27:10.160 --> 0:27:12.680 States should be allowed to intervene in the case. That's 0:27:12.720 --> 0:27:16.080 some Christmas spirit for you. Eventually, with the end of 0:27:16.119 --> 0:27:19.359 the federal emergency over COVID nineteen. Title forty two just 0:27:19.480 --> 0:27:22.919 kind of went away. Customs and Border Protection, the federal 0:27:22.960 --> 0:27:26.040 agency which put up the most staunch resistance to vaccine mandates, 0:27:26.400 --> 0:27:29.560 would begin processing migrants under Title eight of US immigration 0:27:29.680 --> 0:27:32.720 law on the eleventh of May twenty twenty three. I'll 0:27:32.800 --> 0:27:36.600 let them summarize what they see this to mean. According 0:27:36.640 --> 0:27:41.280 to the USCIS website, individuals who unlawfully cross the Southwest 0:27:41.280 --> 0:27:45.679 border will generally be processed under Title eight expedited Removal 0:27:45.880 --> 0:27:49.480 authorities in a matter of days. They will be barred 0:27:49.520 --> 0:27:51.600 from re entry to the United States for at least 0:27:51.640 --> 0:27:54.960 five years if ordered removed, and they will be presumed 0:27:55.080 --> 0:27:59.480 ineligible for asylum under the proposed Circumvention of Lawful Pathways 0:27:59.520 --> 0:28:03.879 regulation an absent and applicable exception what this means and 0:28:04.080 --> 0:28:06.879 if you cross into the United States not at the 0:28:06.880 --> 0:28:10.800 port of entry, you will be assumed ineligible for asylum 0:28:11.000 --> 0:28:13.280 and the process to remove you from the United States 0:28:13.280 --> 0:28:16.040 will begin immediately. You have a chance to file a 0:28:16.080 --> 0:28:19.399 defensive asylum claim against that, but the process can be 0:28:19.480 --> 0:28:24.400 rushed and more difficult. Despite this, and having almost three 0:28:24.480 --> 0:28:28.120 years to repair, they were by no means ready, let's 0:28:28.119 --> 0:28:31.520 hear from Gustavo again. Gustavo, can you explain to us 0:28:32.160 --> 0:28:35.399 a little bit about what you found that by the 0:28:35.400 --> 0:28:38.520 administration has been planning for the end of Title forty two. 0:28:39.680 --> 0:28:42.520 Yeah, what I found is they haven't really been doing 0:28:42.600 --> 0:28:46.200 much planning, right. I mean they talk about I think 0:28:46.200 --> 0:28:50.240 with Title forty two, it's a clear example of immigration 0:28:50.320 --> 0:28:54.960 policy being decided in Washington and no one really from 0:28:55.000 --> 0:28:59.200 the border being involved or told what's going on. So, like, 0:28:59.240 --> 0:29:04.240 I think it was the last week DHS Secretary Majorca 0:29:04.840 --> 0:29:07.160 did this press release about what they're doing in terms 0:29:07.200 --> 0:29:12.280 of processing centers in Guatemala and Columbia so people can 0:29:12.360 --> 0:29:14.240 just go there instead of coming all the way to 0:29:14.320 --> 0:29:17.680 the border, which actually there have been timelines of when 0:29:17.720 --> 0:29:20.560 those will open. But they had asked all these things 0:29:20.640 --> 0:29:23.560 for like big picture things, right, to stop people from 0:29:23.560 --> 0:29:26.480 coming in the first place, expanding some legal pathways, like 0:29:26.640 --> 0:29:29.520 making it easier for people with families already here to 0:29:29.520 --> 0:29:34.240 get sponsors, fixing some of the little things with CVP one, 0:29:35.120 --> 0:29:39.160 But they don't talk about like on the ground logistics, right. 0:29:39.240 --> 0:29:42.480 So for example, I went to Tijuana to talk to 0:29:42.520 --> 0:29:46.040 the head of the Department of migrant affairs there who 0:29:46.120 --> 0:29:49.320 told me this and I checked with him yesterday morning, 0:29:49.360 --> 0:29:52.840 who said, still to this day, less than forty eight 0:29:52.840 --> 0:29:55.200 hours before Title forty two ends, he doesn't know how 0:29:55.200 --> 0:29:58.480 many migrants CBP will allow to cross through the ports 0:29:58.480 --> 0:30:03.600 of entry in Sandy Seero. His guess is that maybe 0:30:03.640 --> 0:30:05.400 two hundred, because that's kind of the number that they 0:30:05.480 --> 0:30:09.080 floated around in December when they originally wanted to get 0:30:09.120 --> 0:30:12.040 rid of Title forty two before their lawsuit. And if 0:30:12.040 --> 0:30:14.840 it's two hundred, he basically said, Tijuana's going to be 0:30:14.880 --> 0:30:18.240 screwed because two hundred doesn't even cover the number of 0:30:18.280 --> 0:30:21.840 new migrants coming in and deporties being sent to Tijuana. 0:30:21.880 --> 0:30:25.080 So it's gonna like we have this bottleneck of migration 0:30:25.240 --> 0:30:28.120 in Tijuana and all over the border because of Title 0:30:28.160 --> 0:30:30.040 forty two. For the last three years, no one's been 0:30:30.040 --> 0:30:33.760 able to move. And if they just open it up 0:30:33.800 --> 0:30:35.880 to two hundred people, that's not really going to address 0:30:35.920 --> 0:30:36.800 any of the bottleneck. 0:30:37.840 --> 0:30:41.200 Right There's like, I think, is it sixteen thousand people 0:30:41.600 --> 0:30:44.680 are waiting like an asylum application right now? 0:30:44.720 --> 0:30:48.560 Yeah? Yeah, I hear different numbers throwing around, like teny, fifteen, sixteen, 0:30:49.000 --> 0:30:51.120 and nobody really knows, because there's like a network of 0:30:51.120 --> 0:30:54.160 official shelters, and there's a bunch of unofficial shelters, and 0:30:54.200 --> 0:30:57.160 there's a bunch of Russian dudes staying in hotels in airbnbs. 0:30:57.360 --> 0:31:01.160 But I think, yeah, tens of thousands. I think sixteen 0:31:01.200 --> 0:31:02.760 is an accurate number. 0:31:03.280 --> 0:31:05.120 I think it's introdructive here to listen to the Fox 0:31:05.120 --> 0:31:08.160 News coverage of this and how much Secretary of Majorcas 0:31:08.240 --> 0:31:09.360 tries to panda to them. 0:31:09.760 --> 0:31:13.480 I want to be very clear, our borders are not open. 0:31:13.600 --> 0:31:17.120 Homeand Security Secretary Alejandro Majorcis says when Title forty two 0:31:17.240 --> 0:31:20.320 expires at midnight tonight, anyone who arrives at the southern 0:31:20.360 --> 0:31:24.360 border will be presumed ineligible for asylum and face consequences. 0:31:24.640 --> 0:31:28.560 But withholding facilities already overwhelmed, the administration is ratcheting up 0:31:28.600 --> 0:31:32.120 tough rhetoric while also clearing the way for mass releases 0:31:32.160 --> 0:31:35.680 into US communities with no way for authorities to track people. 0:31:35.880 --> 0:31:38.200 You said at the beginning that you've prepared for this 0:31:38.360 --> 0:31:41.640 moment for almost two years. So why is part of 0:31:41.640 --> 0:31:43.840 that plan and honor system? 0:31:44.200 --> 0:31:46.080 Oh, it is not an honor system. 0:31:46.160 --> 0:31:49.240 They are a subject of our apprehension. 0:31:48.680 --> 0:31:51.720 Efforts, but under parole release authorized by the US Border 0:31:51.760 --> 0:31:55.240 Patrol Chief last night, migrants do not receive an alien 0:31:55.280 --> 0:31:58.120 registration number for authorities to track them. They don't even 0:31:58.160 --> 0:32:00.760 get a court date. Instead, migrants are asked to turn 0:32:00.800 --> 0:32:04.640 themselves into ice within sixty days to start immigration proceedings 0:32:04.720 --> 0:32:05.480 on themselves. 0:32:05.560 --> 0:32:06.840 The American people are watching this. 0:32:07.000 --> 0:32:08.120 They know what they see. 0:32:08.200 --> 0:32:09.640 They see a wide open border. 0:32:09.720 --> 0:32:13.200 Florida's Attorney General is suing the administration, arguing the parole 0:32:13.240 --> 0:32:16.160 plan is identical to a policy a federal judge struck 0:32:16.240 --> 0:32:17.480 down earlier this year. 0:32:17.600 --> 0:32:19.840 You have confidence in the lawfulness of our actions. 0:32:19.960 --> 0:32:22.720 Plans to release migrants at bus stops, gas stations, and 0:32:22.800 --> 0:32:26.120 supermarkets was first detailed last year, according to a memo 0:32:26.240 --> 0:32:29.960 uncovered by the Florida Legal Proceedings. Today, Texas Governor Greg 0:32:29.960 --> 0:32:33.320 Abbott sent a busload of migrants to the Vice President's Residents. 0:32:33.840 --> 0:32:37.240 Greg Abbott's disgusting antics aside. There was a real attempt 0:32:37.320 --> 0:32:39.880 by the Biden deministration to come through a publican side 0:32:39.880 --> 0:32:43.080 on migration that we can see clearly here. In the 0:32:43.120 --> 0:32:46.959 hours before we expected Title forty two to die, Folks 0:32:47.040 --> 0:32:51.040 like me who cover the border made plans. The day before, 0:32:51.400 --> 0:32:54.400 on the tenth, MYOCAS announced the title forty two would 0:32:54.400 --> 0:32:57.960 be enforced up until eleven fifty nine pm Eastern time, 0:32:58.960 --> 0:33:02.400 and in San Diego, Border Patrol offices closed down the 0:33:02.440 --> 0:33:05.840 port of entry at Sanisedra, the border town just south 0:33:05.840 --> 0:33:08.880 of San Diego, for a training exercise in which they 0:33:08.920 --> 0:33:10.960 lined up in front of the cars waiting to cross 0:33:11.000 --> 0:33:17.320 the border with plexiglass shields and ryotgear. Meanwhile, in between 0:33:17.360 --> 0:33:21.320 the two thirty foot board offenses that divide Sanisedra from Tijuana, 0:33:21.840 --> 0:33:28.200 Border Patrol began corraling migrants. Afghans, Colombians, Vietnamese, Koreans and 0:33:28.280 --> 0:33:32.840 Golan Sudanese, Tagiks and Congolese people all shared little more 0:33:32.840 --> 0:33:35.959 than a few tarps and cardboard boxes for shelter as 0:33:36.000 --> 0:33:39.320 they waited for something to happen. Despite having months to 0:33:39.360 --> 0:33:42.520 repair and years to plan, it appears at Department of 0:33:42.520 --> 0:33:45.160 Homeland Security totally failed to create so much as a 0:33:45.200 --> 0:33:48.760 scrap of shade or shelter, and instead chose to house 0:33:48.760 --> 0:33:53.640 people detain pending processing in the open air. In tomorrow's episode, 0:33:53.920 --> 0:33:54.880 We'll Hear from some of. 0:33:54.840 --> 0:34:05.280 Them went on Meelli and gen by Molly it's going off, 0:34:05.320 --> 0:34:08.680 not going lengthy and elm see im for the sky 0:34:08.960 --> 0:34:12.120 not me. I'm pre and Mama says something push free 0:34:12.120 --> 0:34:14.840 and glo ree for them, say must smile them, No, no, 0:34:14.880 --> 0:34:18.600 I must do and re being Gannata can I watch me? 0:34:19.440 --> 0:34:23.960 Hey man, grateful man gradeful? I went not in on 0:34:24.160 --> 0:34:29.040 mana smile yeah. Once there is a live God. All 0:34:29.120 --> 0:34:33.319 want give me everything for some five Yeah, love sack 0:34:33.719 --> 0:34:36.359 fries pick up to jommy car, I got to eat 0:34:36.400 --> 0:34:39.520 and come back. I'm seeing yeah man, that's it one 0:34:39.640 --> 0:34:40.959 love ba out. 0:34:41.520 --> 0:34:44.000 On the eleventh of May this year, title forty two 0:34:44.080 --> 0:34:47.160 finally ended. I actually began to write this episode the 0:34:47.200 --> 0:34:49.640 day before on the tenth of May, but it was 0:34:49.640 --> 0:34:52.239 that day the DHS announced that Title forty two would 0:34:52.239 --> 0:34:55.840 be enforced until eight fifty nine pm Pacific or midnight Eastern. 0:34:56.360 --> 0:34:58.720 They kept Title forty two in place for every single 0:34:58.800 --> 0:35:02.120 minute they could, and that same day, five hundred active 0:35:02.200 --> 0:35:05.239 duty troops arrived in El Paso and one thousand more 0:35:05.320 --> 0:35:07.840 set off for the border towns to join the two thousand, 0:35:07.960 --> 0:35:11.640 five hundred troops already deployed to the border. According to 0:35:11.640 --> 0:35:14.360 oppress release from Apartment of Homeland Security. 0:35:14.360 --> 0:35:18.480 CBP and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement are further expanding 0:35:18.520 --> 0:35:22.360 detention capacity, ramping up removal flights, and shifting agents and 0:35:22.400 --> 0:35:26.839 officers to high priority regions along the southwest border. This week, 0:35:26.960 --> 0:35:30.040 CBP opened two new holding facilities, and the Department of 0:35:30.080 --> 0:35:33.319 Health and Human Services is increasing its bed capacity to 0:35:33.400 --> 0:35:37.520 prepare for a potential increase in unaccompanied children. DHS also 0:35:37.600 --> 0:35:41.560 launched targeted enforcement operations and high priority regions along the border, 0:35:41.760 --> 0:35:45.279 including El Paso, to quickly process migrants and place them 0:35:45.280 --> 0:35:49.279 in removal proceedings. DHS last week also announced over two 0:35:49.400 --> 0:35:53.120 hundred and fifty million dollars in additional assistance for communities 0:35:53.160 --> 0:35:54.879 receiving migrants. 0:35:54.840 --> 0:35:57.359 On the ground. This assistance and planning didn't exactly meet 0:35:57.360 --> 0:36:00.279 the task at hand, albeit the specific court all out 0:36:00.280 --> 0:36:02.480 of El Paso does suggest that they saw their task. 0:36:02.600 --> 0:36:05.600 It's not looking bad in the right wing media hits 0:36:05.600 --> 0:36:08.160 some audio recorded after a couple of hours walking around 0:36:08.200 --> 0:36:11.640 talking to people at Sanisedro, where Customs and Border Protection 0:36:11.680 --> 0:36:14.640 had detained around five hundred people in between the two 0:36:14.719 --> 0:36:17.440 thirty foot fences that make up the border between Sansedro 0:36:17.560 --> 0:36:21.480 and Tijuana. I'm just for people familiar with San Diego 0:36:21.560 --> 0:36:26.560 and the Tijuana River Valley park by International Hill, where 0:36:26.640 --> 0:36:31.719 border patrol are holding people in between the two border fences. 0:36:32.160 --> 0:36:35.680 For those who thought we didn't have a border wall 0:36:36.080 --> 0:36:38.040 or weren't having a border wall, we have at least two, 0:36:38.360 --> 0:36:42.440 sometimes three, But right here we have two. People are 0:36:42.480 --> 0:36:45.160 being put in between these fences by border patrols. So 0:36:45.280 --> 0:36:48.120 I just spoke to some young Colombian women who had 0:36:48.680 --> 0:36:52.839 crossed about fifteen miles east of here and then being 0:36:53.800 --> 0:36:56.040 relocated here and there in between these border walls. They 0:36:56.040 --> 0:36:58.759 don't have running water. What food and water they have 0:36:58.800 --> 0:37:00.560 appear to be in surplied by bottle tears. On the 0:37:00.600 --> 0:37:04.279 northern side, they've just been given space blankets, but a 0:37:04.280 --> 0:37:07.600 lot of people are literally sleeping under bin bags right now, blankets. 0:37:08.560 --> 0:37:11.319 It's pretty brief. There's one portra toilet sort of thing 0:37:11.320 --> 0:37:13.879 that we can see about five hundred people. So I'm 0:37:13.880 --> 0:37:16.760 going to give you an idea of the conditions. Obviously 0:37:16.840 --> 0:37:19.000 those don't live up to the detention conditions that border 0:37:19.040 --> 0:37:23.919 patrol are supposed to hold people under. But here we are. 0:37:24.080 --> 0:37:27.600 I guess border patrol have just said that they're calling 0:37:27.600 --> 0:37:29.680 an ambulance. There have been a number of medical emergencies 0:37:29.760 --> 0:37:32.920 that nearly always are in these situations because you're holding people. 0:37:33.920 --> 0:37:37.120 They're you know, old people, young people, sick people, and 0:37:37.160 --> 0:37:38.719 they're in the sun all day, they're in the cold 0:37:38.719 --> 0:37:41.040 all night. It rains, they get wet. If it's hot, 0:37:41.080 --> 0:37:43.600 they get hot. If it's cold, they get cold. Their 0:37:43.640 --> 0:37:46.960 little children were just asking me for a blanket a 0:37:47.000 --> 0:37:51.319 minute ago, which is always a pretty bleak thing. If 0:37:51.360 --> 0:37:53.560 you've not been here, you'd be forgiven for not knowing that. 0:37:53.600 --> 0:37:55.480 We have a double layer of wall separating us from 0:37:55.480 --> 0:37:58.560 our neighbors in Tijuana. Both sections are now the Trump 0:37:58.600 --> 0:38:01.080 period design, but we're standing in a place we're not 0:38:01.120 --> 0:38:03.799 so very long ago. Nancy Reagan stood and said she 0:38:03.880 --> 0:38:05.799 hoped that there wouldn't be a fence here for very long. 0:38:06.760 --> 0:38:09.800 Now there are two towering walls, and their little children 0:38:09.880 --> 0:38:13.239 stuck sleeping in the dust between them or the a 0:38:13.480 --> 0:38:15.520 to These people had to go through the wall, too, 0:38:15.640 --> 0:38:17.920 and that meant no hot meals. Because the gaps are 0:38:17.920 --> 0:38:20.920 smaller than a plate. Someone tried to bring tents, but 0:38:20.960 --> 0:38:24.720 they wouldn't fit. Everything from food to clothes to medical 0:38:24.760 --> 0:38:27.080 supplies had to go through the gaps. In the War 0:38:28.000 --> 0:38:31.240 Hamara Yusefie, a volunteer from the Partnership for the Advancement 0:38:31.239 --> 0:38:34.399 of New Americans, described to me what she saw that night. 0:38:34.880 --> 0:38:41.280 I see about five hundred beautiful, smiling faces of people 0:38:41.320 --> 0:38:47.719 who are desperately trying to get to safety, and they're confused. 0:38:48.000 --> 0:38:49.960 They don't know what's going on. They don't know how 0:38:50.040 --> 0:38:54.160 long it will take them. You know, they many of 0:38:54.200 --> 0:38:57.880 them are aware that something is happening today. Many of 0:38:57.920 --> 0:39:00.879 them are asking does this mean that be turned back? 0:39:01.320 --> 0:39:07.680 What is going on? I see, you know, people who 0:39:07.680 --> 0:39:11.960 don't even have many kids, don't have shoes, they don't 0:39:12.040 --> 0:39:16.200 have I talked to individuals who lost everything on them. 0:39:16.239 --> 0:39:19.360 They don't have jackets. They're trying to cover themselves with 0:39:19.400 --> 0:39:22.080 any kind of covering that they have. Some of them 0:39:22.160 --> 0:39:27.279 using trash bags, others using scarves and other types of 0:39:27.320 --> 0:39:29.759 things to cover themselves from the sun. We are in 0:39:29.800 --> 0:39:31.840 San Diego, so it's quite sunny here. 0:39:32.400 --> 0:39:35.319 The first thing I noticed on arrival was dozens of 0:39:35.320 --> 0:39:39.600 hands sticking through the wall holding phones and charges. That's 0:39:39.640 --> 0:39:41.840 because people need to use the CBP one app to 0:39:41.880 --> 0:39:45.200 interact with border enforcement, but they've been detained by the 0:39:45.239 --> 0:39:48.040 same border enforcement in between two walls in an open 0:39:48.040 --> 0:39:51.960 field where there obviously isn't any electricity. They also need 0:39:52.000 --> 0:39:54.160 their phones to stay in touch with their families to 0:39:54.239 --> 0:39:56.880 let them know they survived a difficult and dangerous journey 0:39:57.320 --> 0:40:00.880 and that they're now technically inside the USA. Here's the 0:40:00.920 --> 0:40:04.400 advet a CBP broadcast in Spanish to encourage asylum seekers 0:40:04.400 --> 0:40:06.560 to download the app before they put them in a 0:40:06.600 --> 0:40:08.120 place they couldn't charge their phones. 0:40:08.600 --> 0:40:10.760 Attencion migrante. 0:40:10.200 --> 0:40:15.000 Attention migrants in Mexico City or further north in the country. 0:40:15.480 --> 0:40:18.160 Why do you need to download CBP one. It's a 0:40:18.160 --> 0:40:20.920 free and legal way to get an appointment guaranteed at 0:40:20.920 --> 0:40:24.160 a port of entry. It's a clear way to solicit asylum, 0:40:24.280 --> 0:40:26.680 and you have the possibility to work while your case 0:40:26.760 --> 0:40:30.080 is being processed. If you present without an appointment, you 0:40:30.080 --> 0:40:33.200 can be prohibited from entering the US for five years. 0:40:33.560 --> 0:40:36.759 You will be subject to expedite a deportation unless you 0:40:36.800 --> 0:40:40.319 comply with the strict requirements of the asylum process. In 0:40:40.400 --> 0:40:43.359 the majority of cases, it is assumed that migrants do 0:40:43.440 --> 0:40:46.319 not comply with the requirements for asylum, and you won't 0:40:46.360 --> 0:40:48.680 have the right to work unless you comply with the 0:40:48.719 --> 0:40:51.960 strict requirements. Again, if you are now in Mexico City 0:40:52.080 --> 0:40:55.120 or further north, download CBP one. 0:40:56.640 --> 0:40:59.080 As we heard yesterday, CBP one has been an a 0:40:59.200 --> 0:41:02.400 mitigated design and has shown a very clear bias towards 0:41:02.400 --> 0:41:06.319 certain types of wealthy and white asylum seekers, despite that 0:41:06.520 --> 0:41:08.040 it seemed to have been the only plan in place 0:41:08.120 --> 0:41:11.000 the end of Title forty two. The hundreds of people 0:41:11.040 --> 0:41:14.719 detained in between defenses whomably didn't have appointments and with 0:41:14.800 --> 0:41:17.240 no way to charge their phones, they couldn't make them. 0:41:17.840 --> 0:41:20.000 It's not clear of making them would have helped, as 0:41:20.040 --> 0:41:22.440 it seems that they were already being detained and thus 0:41:22.480 --> 0:41:26.160 they would have to file defensive asylum claims, effectively stopping 0:41:26.160 --> 0:41:29.080 the repatriation process by claiming that they couldn't safely be 0:41:29.120 --> 0:41:31.880 sent back to their country of origin. This is opposed 0:41:31.920 --> 0:41:34.600 to making an affirmative asylum claim that people should have 0:41:34.640 --> 0:41:36.280 been able to make at the border. With a CBP 0:41:36.360 --> 0:41:39.440 one appointment, these would not have to be argued with 0:41:39.480 --> 0:41:43.919 the threat of repatriation hanging over the person making the claim. Volunteers, 0:41:44.120 --> 0:41:47.239 local people, a mosque group, and a church group all 0:41:47.280 --> 0:41:50.799 showed up soon after CBP began dumping more people in 0:41:50.840 --> 0:41:54.359 between the fences. An hour after my own arrival, I'd 0:41:54.400 --> 0:41:56.080 given away all the charge cables that I had in 0:41:56.080 --> 0:41:57.880 my truck, which is a lot more charge cables than 0:41:57.880 --> 0:42:00.279 I thought I had in my truck, and all my 0:42:00.360 --> 0:42:02.799 charge bricks accrued over six years of getting free shared 0:42:02.840 --> 0:42:06.080 at the consumer electronics show in Las Vegas. Later, I 0:42:06.080 --> 0:42:08.120 came back with a massive solar generator that I'd like 0:42:08.160 --> 0:42:09.799 to use when I'm living off grid. But I still 0:42:09.800 --> 0:42:13.360 need to write stuff. Even all my home electronics ephemera 0:42:13.719 --> 0:42:17.000 and the combined efforts of nonprofits, religious and mutual aid 0:42:17.000 --> 0:42:19.800 groups couldn't really make much difference to the five hundred 0:42:19.840 --> 0:42:23.439 people from around the world, mostly families with children being 0:42:23.480 --> 0:42:26.920 held between the two fences. When it got hot, they 0:42:26.960 --> 0:42:30.399 got hot. When it got cold, they got cold. When 0:42:30.440 --> 0:42:33.080 the wind blew, they got dust in their eyes, and 0:42:33.200 --> 0:42:37.160 everything was constantly dirty. The only hot food volunteers could 0:42:37.160 --> 0:42:39.840 get to them was pizza. Some of the detained people 0:42:39.920 --> 0:42:42.120 had cash and they were able to order door dash 0:42:42.120 --> 0:42:44.440 on the Tijuana side, but again the meals had to 0:42:44.440 --> 0:42:47.440 fit through a hole barely wider than my arm. The 0:42:47.480 --> 0:42:50.160 only way to get clean was with wet wipes and 0:42:50.200 --> 0:42:52.960 there was only one bathroom, There was no shade or 0:42:53.000 --> 0:42:55.920 shelter either, and the only way people could construct shelters 0:42:55.960 --> 0:42:59.200 were through tying tops to the border wall itself. I 0:42:59.360 --> 0:43:01.839 like Caber, one of the volunteers who came to help, 0:43:02.400 --> 0:43:05.160 describe what they saw when participating in Mutilated a couple 0:43:05.200 --> 0:43:06.879 of days after, but it was. 0:43:08.920 --> 0:43:11.800 Definitely was. I don't think it really struck me until, 0:43:12.520 --> 0:43:15.440 you know, after, after everything, and you know, after I 0:43:15.560 --> 0:43:19.960 left several hours later. But the kind of I mean, 0:43:20.239 --> 0:43:22.200 I am right about the situation at the border, but 0:43:22.239 --> 0:43:25.480 the kind of matter of fackness of there's just several 0:43:25.560 --> 0:43:30.600 hundred people, including children, just kind of between this fence 0:43:31.560 --> 0:43:35.960 and they're just stuck there with nothing, and the sort 0:43:36.000 --> 0:43:39.680 of a matter of fatness of it all was I think, 0:43:41.480 --> 0:43:45.359 I think that struck me the most, and it's been 0:43:45.360 --> 0:43:46.719 a much challenge in the process. 0:43:46.960 --> 0:43:48.759 In the days before the end of Title forty two, 0:43:48.960 --> 0:43:51.600 confusion had rained at the border. A lot of people 0:43:51.640 --> 0:43:53.680 I talked to mentioned that they thought they had to 0:43:53.719 --> 0:43:56.279 cross before the end of Title forty two or they 0:43:56.280 --> 0:43:58.840 would be ejected and not able to apply for five 0:43:58.920 --> 0:44:02.960 years at a Title eight. This misunderstanding might in part 0:44:03.160 --> 0:44:05.120 be due to some of the misleading rhetoric put out 0:44:05.120 --> 0:44:08.640 by Majorcas and others, which focused on the harsh penalties 0:44:08.640 --> 0:44:11.560 for crossing between ports of entry an attempt to appear 0:44:11.640 --> 0:44:15.120 strong on the border to their colleagues in DC, they 0:44:15.120 --> 0:44:17.320 didn't place as much emphasis on the right to present 0:44:17.400 --> 0:44:20.640 and claim asylum at a port of entry. But as 0:44:20.719 --> 0:44:23.279 we saw yesterday, it's virtually impossible to actually do that, 0:44:23.520 --> 0:44:26.040 and Tijuado is already full of thousands of people trying 0:44:26.080 --> 0:44:30.000 to do that exact thing. Given a set of circumstances, 0:44:30.280 --> 0:44:32.480 it makes sense that many people took the days before 0:44:32.520 --> 0:44:34.959 the end of Title forty two. At the final chance 0:44:35.000 --> 0:44:38.480 to cross before Title forty two ended, I spoke to 0:44:38.520 --> 0:44:42.040 Diana Rodriguez from Colombia about her understanding of what was 0:44:42.080 --> 0:44:42.640 going to happen. 0:44:42.719 --> 0:44:45.960 Later that night, Diana Rodriguez the Columbia. 0:44:46.680 --> 0:44:49.439 Diana was with two friends, all of them wearing little 0:44:49.520 --> 0:44:52.239 daisies in their hair and sharing a tarp shelter they'd 0:44:52.239 --> 0:44:55.000 made by tying a blue tarp against the wall so 0:44:55.000 --> 0:44:58.200 they could get some shade and privacy. I asked her 0:44:58.239 --> 0:45:01.000 where the flowers had come from. You hate a recidity 0:45:01.000 --> 0:45:02.000 into your voice by cherine. 0:45:03.800 --> 0:45:07.160 Oh, the flowers, the flowers. Ah, well, there are these 0:45:07.200 --> 0:45:10.640 little flowers, flowers that are growing here, like in the garden. 0:45:11.400 --> 0:45:13.200 So when we went and took a walk over there 0:45:13.239 --> 0:45:16.360 and we found them, we put them on and they're pretty. 0:45:17.160 --> 0:45:20.319 We call these the little yellow flowers of hope, and 0:45:20.360 --> 0:45:23.359 they match the color of our bracelets. We picked them 0:45:23.360 --> 0:45:25.440 on the day we arrived, and we knew that we 0:45:25.520 --> 0:45:29.120 needed a little bit of encouragement. We got the yellow bracelets. 0:45:29.160 --> 0:45:32.280 Because we arrived on Tuesday, everyone got the same bracelet. 0:45:32.880 --> 0:45:35.080 I asked, Diana, which you'd heard about Title forty two, 0:45:35.520 --> 0:45:37.560 which is ending a few hours after we talked. 0:45:39.520 --> 0:45:43.080 Yes, it's the end of Title forty two. Title forty 0:45:43.080 --> 0:45:46.920 two is the one that endorses mass deportations. Yes, and 0:45:47.000 --> 0:45:51.320 well it's a question of you not just getting deported, 0:45:51.520 --> 0:45:55.480 but being repatriated. In other words, after this they do 0:45:55.560 --> 0:45:59.600 a full repatriation. But right now you are not registered. 0:45:59.600 --> 0:46:02.239 And this is but what they do is that they 0:46:02.280 --> 0:46:06.200 only return you. They don't register you. But let's say, 0:46:06.280 --> 0:46:08.800 on the basis of Article eight, is that a few 0:46:09.000 --> 0:46:13.759 at least we are invading American territory, then we are 0:46:13.800 --> 0:46:17.640 in effect breaking a law. And what Article eight does 0:46:17.880 --> 0:46:19.799 is that they deport you and they put you in 0:46:19.840 --> 0:46:23.000 the registered database, saying that you broke the law, and 0:46:23.040 --> 0:46:25.719 they punish you for five years and you lose the 0:46:25.800 --> 0:46:30.280 right to request your asylum through legal channels. 0:46:30.480 --> 0:46:32.560 People at another camp in u Cumba heard the same 0:46:32.560 --> 0:46:35.480 thing from Colombians, and it seems like there are even 0:46:35.560 --> 0:46:38.480 news pieces run on domestic television explain that US plan 0:46:38.600 --> 0:46:41.480 to return many Colombians in the coming months, and this 0:46:41.560 --> 0:46:43.960 might be the last best chance to cross the border 0:46:44.200 --> 0:46:48.600 without permanent consequences. You got caught in the Cumba. Volunteers 0:46:48.680 --> 0:46:51.080 estimated that two thirds of the people corraled then the 0:46:51.080 --> 0:46:54.600 deasert son from Colombia. Of course, in recent years there 0:46:54.600 --> 0:46:57.760 has been instability and violence there, which also drives migration. 0:46:58.800 --> 0:47:00.960 One of my sources also meant a lot of Colombian 0:47:00.960 --> 0:47:04.280 people had seen misleading information about immigration lawa on TikTok. 0:47:05.600 --> 0:47:08.960 Two days had passed since Janna arrived. She came with 0:47:09.000 --> 0:47:10.799 one of the girls she was now sharing a top with. 0:47:11.000 --> 0:47:12.920 I met another when they were all dumped in the 0:47:12.920 --> 0:47:16.680 camp together. In the days before they were detained here. 0:47:17.200 --> 0:47:19.200 They crossed three countries on their way to what they 0:47:19.200 --> 0:47:21.040 hope was a better life for young women like them. 0:47:21.440 --> 0:47:23.200 I asked them to describe that journey for me. 0:47:24.160 --> 0:47:27.640 Yes, eight days, eight days more or less, walking from 0:47:27.640 --> 0:47:31.759 Colombia from El Salvador to Guatemala, the New Mexico. To 0:47:31.800 --> 0:47:36.439 hear all that time walking and taking the bus. There's 0:47:36.480 --> 0:47:39.840 apart fifteen or twenty minutes from here where the wall ends, 0:47:40.040 --> 0:47:43.000 and we crossed there there was a Mexican patrol and 0:47:43.040 --> 0:47:45.960 when they changed shifts, we ran and here we are 0:47:46.000 --> 0:47:49.640 on American soil. We arrived on foot and the police 0:47:49.680 --> 0:47:52.359 brought us here. They opened the gate and dropped us. 0:47:52.239 --> 0:47:55.440 Here along the way. She said, they've run into a 0:47:55.480 --> 0:47:58.080 lot of people. The Mico journey north is such a 0:47:58.080 --> 0:48:00.319 common trick that people living alone the way. I found 0:48:00.320 --> 0:48:02.480 a way to make a buck, but also a way 0:48:02.520 --> 0:48:05.640 to make a difference. It's not uncommon for migrants to 0:48:05.680 --> 0:48:08.920 be extorted, robbed, or threatened. It's also not uncommon for 0:48:08.960 --> 0:48:11.680 them to be fed by strangers, perhaps handing off bags 0:48:11.680 --> 0:48:14.239 with food in them, to passing trains or buses, or 0:48:14.239 --> 0:48:16.160 perhaps given a place to sleep for the night by 0:48:16.200 --> 0:48:17.600 someone they might never see again. 0:48:18.920 --> 0:48:21.440 There were parts where we were extorted. They took all 0:48:21.440 --> 0:48:24.839 the money we brought. They robbed us, They stole our passports, 0:48:24.880 --> 0:48:29.040 they stole our documents. So it's always quite dangerous. Let's 0:48:29.040 --> 0:48:32.799 say that it's dangerous to take this journey. Yes, just 0:48:32.880 --> 0:48:35.240 as we have met some bad people along the way, 0:48:35.360 --> 0:48:37.719 we have also met some very good people, people who 0:48:37.760 --> 0:48:40.080 have given us a hand, people who have helped us, 0:48:40.160 --> 0:48:43.640 people who have collaborated with us in ways you least expect. 0:48:44.480 --> 0:48:46.279 I asked Dianna what she hoped for now she was 0:48:46.320 --> 0:48:48.440 technically inside the USA. 0:48:49.600 --> 0:48:51.720 Yes, let's say the hope is that they will listen 0:48:51.760 --> 0:48:54.000 to our case, listen to our case, and let us 0:48:54.040 --> 0:48:57.360 fight the case inside. Yes, because we want to be 0:48:57.400 --> 0:49:00.600 able to explain the conditions we are in, reasons that 0:49:00.640 --> 0:49:05.120 those of us who are here came here things like extortion, kidnapping, 0:49:05.280 --> 0:49:08.960 and because our lives are in danger in Colombia. So 0:49:09.000 --> 0:49:11.360 we wish that they at least listen to our case 0:49:11.840 --> 0:49:13.440 and let us plead our cause. 0:49:14.360 --> 0:49:17.879 Before we started recording, Deanna asked what network I was with. 0:49:18.120 --> 0:49:21.160 I thought that was in astute question. Networks like Fox 0:49:21.160 --> 0:49:22.960 show up at the border, although I didn't see any 0:49:22.960 --> 0:49:26.720 Fox National reporters on my trip. Certainly local news channel kus. 0:49:26.760 --> 0:49:29.200 I was there, but they're reporting on the ground differed 0:49:29.200 --> 0:49:33.400 from their xenophobic and outright incorrect online coverage. I asked Diana, 0:49:33.520 --> 0:49:35.000 what you'd want to say to folks who might have 0:49:35.000 --> 0:49:37.960 had their perspective influence by the constant demonization of migrants 0:49:37.960 --> 0:49:38.840 by right wing media. 0:49:40.600 --> 0:49:43.120 There are many people who, let's say, are in a 0:49:43.160 --> 0:49:46.960 mindset of not wanting migrants, and they view them with contempt. 0:49:47.840 --> 0:49:52.040 Because where xenophobia exists, it's hard for us because we 0:49:52.080 --> 0:49:55.120 suffer along the way. We would like you to change 0:49:55.160 --> 0:49:57.520 your way of seeing things and your way of thinking 0:49:58.000 --> 0:49:59.880 so that you don't look at us with contempt. 0:50:00.560 --> 0:50:01.040 We have a. 0:50:01.000 --> 0:50:04.240 Saying in Columbia that says that he who was born 0:50:04.360 --> 0:50:08.080 in a golden cradle never suffers or never sees what 0:50:08.120 --> 0:50:11.320 he does not know. So it's hard when you're born 0:50:11.400 --> 0:50:14.040 in a golden cradle and you don't see beyond what 0:50:14.080 --> 0:50:16.920 you have. So there are people that in our case, 0:50:17.040 --> 0:50:20.040 in my case, I lived a very hard life where 0:50:20.040 --> 0:50:23.800 you see the war between armed groups. They exist outside 0:50:23.800 --> 0:50:26.440 the law and they can control an area, and you 0:50:26.480 --> 0:50:32.760 see the kidnapping, you see the rape of girls, recruitment, extortion, death. Yes, 0:50:32.960 --> 0:50:35.959 so it's hard when we experience that and people say 0:50:36.760 --> 0:50:40.080 things like these migrants are coming to invade our country, 0:50:40.920 --> 0:50:44.120 we also ask them to treat us as people, because 0:50:44.120 --> 0:50:46.520 if we are here, it is not because we want 0:50:46.560 --> 0:50:49.640 to invade a territory. It is because we want to 0:50:49.680 --> 0:50:52.719 come to fight for a better future for our children 0:50:53.120 --> 0:50:57.880 without stepping on anyone. Nobody wants this. But where we 0:50:58.000 --> 0:51:02.359 come from, we receive travelers with open arms. And it's 0:51:02.360 --> 0:51:05.560 hard when one is a migrant, when one lives the 0:51:05.600 --> 0:51:08.800 experience of being a migrant, it is a very hard 0:51:08.840 --> 0:51:14.320 thing to be a migrant, having to endure cold, hunger, rain, sun, 0:51:15.239 --> 0:51:18.759 that is, all these things, and then arriving here and 0:51:18.800 --> 0:51:23.680 seeing faces of contempt. It's hard. It is very hard. 0:51:24.320 --> 0:51:28.080 So yes, the important thing is that people must know 0:51:28.320 --> 0:51:32.759 that being an immigrant is not easy. Being an immigrant 0:51:33.080 --> 0:51:35.520 is not easy. 0:51:35.640 --> 0:51:37.440 One of her friends, who she was sharing a top with, 0:51:37.520 --> 0:51:38.880 leaned over to give an example. 0:51:39.640 --> 0:51:44.440 Everyone despairs because everyone wants to leave, so everyone sees 0:51:44.520 --> 0:51:49.640 each other as enemies. So let's say, for example, right now, 0:51:50.040 --> 0:51:52.920 when they are sending cars to collect people to process, 0:51:53.560 --> 0:51:57.480 so everyone there thinks, I hope they take me. Then 0:51:57.600 --> 0:52:00.600 when they don't, it gets to a point where, Yes, 0:52:00.840 --> 0:52:05.800 where you despair? I mean it's desperate, but well everyone, 0:52:06.320 --> 0:52:09.719 everyone is in the fight together, all in the fight. 0:52:16.480 --> 0:52:18.720 I have to get another dusting down from a CBP 0:52:18.840 --> 0:52:21.240 agent who really liked to RaSE his squad bike passing 0:52:21.280 --> 0:52:24.600 mutilaid tables. Spake to a man from Angola. I'll leave 0:52:24.640 --> 0:52:26.480 his name out, as he preferred for me not to 0:52:26.520 --> 0:52:29.320 share it. He'd been into Juana for three days, he said, 0:52:29.520 --> 0:52:32.160 I was waiting his chance to plead his case for asylum. 0:52:32.400 --> 0:52:37.680 No, it's just me and my sister. We suffered a lot. 0:52:37.920 --> 0:52:41.879 There were bandits. We came here to be safe. It's 0:52:41.880 --> 0:52:44.200 no way to live. People broke into our house to 0:52:44.280 --> 0:52:46.800 violate women, to look for people, and I was injured. 0:52:46.800 --> 0:52:50.279 Then yeah, why did I leave to come here? Over there? 0:52:50.680 --> 0:52:53.200 They're not They're not the means to live. 0:52:54.000 --> 0:52:55.640 We didn't get a chance to talk for long, and 0:52:55.800 --> 0:52:58.279 some of the recording I got wasn't very good. He 0:52:58.360 --> 0:52:59.880 was waiting in line for food and to be quite on, 0:53:00.200 --> 0:53:02.520 I don't like prodding people to share their trauma, but 0:53:02.640 --> 0:53:05.360 with so many journalists crowding the border asking them to 0:53:05.400 --> 0:53:07.800 do just that, it tends to be what people offer. 0:53:08.320 --> 0:53:10.480 Lots of African migrants can be quite cautious of the 0:53:10.520 --> 0:53:12.960 media because talking to the media at home could get 0:53:13.000 --> 0:53:15.759 them in trouble. I spoke to a friend of mine 0:53:15.800 --> 0:53:18.880 himself a migrant from Africa. He said that if migrants 0:53:18.920 --> 0:53:20.759 don't speak English or Spanish, it can be very hard 0:53:20.760 --> 0:53:23.200 for them to get information, and there aren't as many 0:53:23.200 --> 0:53:25.080 nonprofits set up to serve them as there are for 0:53:25.120 --> 0:53:28.399 Spanish speaking people, for example. They can often end up 0:53:28.440 --> 0:53:31.759 isolated and alone. I did get a better chance to 0:53:31.760 --> 0:53:34.720 talk to a Jamaican man called Joseph. It's his singing 0:53:34.719 --> 0:53:37.719 you've heard at the start of this episode. Mostly we 0:53:37.760 --> 0:53:40.400 talked about things in America, about how he lost his 0:53:40.440 --> 0:53:43.160 phone on his journey, we got him another one at Walmart, 0:53:43.800 --> 0:53:47.320 and about things like football and music. I didn't record 0:53:47.360 --> 0:53:49.040 all of that because sometimes it's nice to just talk 0:53:49.080 --> 0:53:51.480 to people. Hopefully it makes their deair a bit brighter 0:53:51.520 --> 0:53:54.400 and gives them some information maybe they could help. He 0:53:54.440 --> 0:53:56.719 did let me record a bit of an interview and 0:53:56.840 --> 0:53:59.960 some of him singing. He was pretty guarded on the recording, 0:54:00.040 --> 0:54:01.520 but as you can hear in this clip, we had 0:54:01.520 --> 0:54:02.840 a good time when we weren't recording. 0:54:03.960 --> 0:54:11.920 I am the best one, Yeah, it's gotta gimps up. 0:54:12.120 --> 0:54:15.320 He's gotta get man up. There we go get my 0:54:15.400 --> 0:54:16.000 man's up. 0:54:16.600 --> 0:54:16.920 Hey. 0:54:18.600 --> 0:54:22.200 You know it's like Jenny is it went on yelling 0:54:22.280 --> 0:54:25.440 gen length but Molly, it's going off, going lengthy and 0:54:25.640 --> 0:54:28.640 let me see Ian for the sky not me. I'm 0:54:28.680 --> 0:54:31.719 pre And Mama says something push free and glow and 0:54:31.800 --> 0:54:34.360 red for them, say, m I smile them, No normans 0:54:34.360 --> 0:54:39.520 do and red beIN gonna time. Can I watch me? Hey? Man, 0:54:39.680 --> 0:54:43.480 grateful man, grateful I went not and go on man, 0:54:43.480 --> 0:54:48.440 I smile. Yeah. Once there is life God, I want 0:54:48.440 --> 0:54:52.399 to give you everything for some fun. Yeah, love suck, 0:54:52.520 --> 0:54:55.040 grat fries, pick up to job me a car. I 0:54:55.040 --> 0:54:57.759 gotta to eat and come back. I'm seeing Yeah, man, 0:54:57.920 --> 0:55:03.160 that's it. One love. That was beautiful. Yeah, I'm I'm 0:55:03.200 --> 0:55:03.840 I'm Joseph. 0:55:04.120 --> 0:55:05.719 I asked him about some of the stuff we spoke 0:55:05.719 --> 0:55:07.560 about before, but he didn't want to share it. 0:55:08.080 --> 0:55:08.319 Yeah. 0:55:08.480 --> 0:55:11.040 That's the old testimony to me and you and God 0:55:11.120 --> 0:55:13.200 have to go into church for that. But I'm gonna 0:55:13.200 --> 0:55:14.200 give you that the next time. 0:55:14.320 --> 0:55:17.440 Okay, buddy, all right, just experienced a lot of personal 0:55:17.440 --> 0:55:20.080 harm from conflict back home in Jamaica. I had a 0:55:20.080 --> 0:55:22.080 difficult journey here with his five year old son. 0:55:22.360 --> 0:55:24.640 Yeah, it's rough. It's rough out there, man, you know, 0:55:24.719 --> 0:55:25.279 it's rough. 0:55:25.760 --> 0:55:28.120 How did you come like you come? I asked him 0:55:28.120 --> 0:55:30.319 how his young son a dealt with the journey. It's 0:55:30.360 --> 0:55:32.239 not a safe or easy one for an adult, let 0:55:32.280 --> 0:55:33.239 alone for a little child. 0:55:34.120 --> 0:55:39.359 It's like, it's just kind of scary, broll he pulled you. Yeah, 0:55:39.440 --> 0:55:43.760 that's good. You have my energy inside. That's good. Yeah? 0:55:43.800 --> 0:55:46.080 Are you how's he finding it here in the camp? 0:55:46.560 --> 0:55:50.319 Oh? Yeah, that camp. I don't know why. That guy 0:55:50.360 --> 0:55:54.160 is just like me. We just don't make anything better us. Yeah, 0:55:54.280 --> 0:55:57.040 what it's it's working here because you guys give it 0:55:57.080 --> 0:55:58.879 a strength and supporting us. You know. 0:55:59.080 --> 0:56:01.000 Joseph wanted me to know that he wasn't giving up 0:56:01.000 --> 0:56:04.120 his home. He loves Jamaica, but he also wants a 0:56:04.160 --> 0:56:05.120 better life for his son. 0:56:05.600 --> 0:56:09.840 Is that it's that? Isn't that like I'm giving away 0:56:09.880 --> 0:56:13.080 my home? My home is a good place. Yeah, yeah, 0:56:13.080 --> 0:56:14.920 it's a good island, nice place to be. 0:56:15.160 --> 0:56:17.520 Of course, this perspective is very common, and it's one 0:56:17.560 --> 0:56:20.480 that often gets left out of reporting. Coming to the 0:56:20.560 --> 0:56:23.719 USA is a very hopeful act. It's not abandoning your 0:56:23.719 --> 0:56:26.400 family or your home. It's trying to make their lives 0:56:26.400 --> 0:56:30.120 better in your life, Livabool. Joseph was quite guided with 0:56:30.160 --> 0:56:31.839 his story, and that's fine. It's his to share as 0:56:31.920 --> 0:56:34.520 much as little as he wants. I came to the 0:56:34.640 --> 0:56:37.319 USA without having to get persecuted or hurt, and people 0:56:37.360 --> 0:56:39.120 who don't look like me should have that same right 0:56:39.160 --> 0:56:43.960 as well. Sadly, coming to the USA is also scary 0:56:43.960 --> 0:56:46.719 and confusing, even for me with three university degrees and 0:56:46.800 --> 0:56:50.560 all the intersectional privilege I have and fifteen years living here, 0:56:50.960 --> 0:56:54.120 and I've recently minted US passport. Now, I worried for 0:56:54.239 --> 0:56:56.400 years that maybe I'd made a mistake on a form 0:56:56.560 --> 0:57:00.640 or missed some kind of deadline. Speaking of deadline, what 0:57:00.760 --> 0:57:02.919 none of the migrants could tell us, what they all 0:57:02.960 --> 0:57:05.160 wanted to ask about was exactly what was happening to 0:57:05.239 --> 0:57:09.479 them as Title forty two expired. A Congolese lady asked 0:57:09.520 --> 0:57:12.120 me if her passport would be confiscated. A lady from 0:57:12.160 --> 0:57:13.960 Senegal asked if she needed to pay a bribe like 0:57:14.000 --> 0:57:17.000 the one she'd paid in Mexico. It wasn't really clear 0:57:17.040 --> 0:57:19.120 at first if these people were being detained and under 0:57:19.120 --> 0:57:21.920 what process they were being received. Would they be sent 0:57:22.000 --> 0:57:26.480 back to Mexico and a Title forty two, repatriated under 0:57:26.480 --> 0:57:29.720 Biden's interpretation of Title eight, or given the right to 0:57:29.720 --> 0:57:32.360 plead their case as international and US law suggests should 0:57:32.360 --> 0:57:36.440 be able to. CBP made people sit in lines all 0:57:36.560 --> 0:57:38.560 day with no indication of when they would be taken 0:57:38.600 --> 0:57:41.600 to the port of entry for processing. Sometimes I heard 0:57:41.600 --> 0:57:43.800 people saying if everyone didn't sit down, there would be 0:57:43.800 --> 0:57:47.000 nobody processed that day. But the only food, water, and 0:57:47.040 --> 0:57:50.520 medical attention available to the migrants with ZA which could 0:57:50.520 --> 0:57:53.040 be passed through the wall, and they had to get 0:57:53.040 --> 0:57:55.760 out of their lines to receive this aid. I'll let 0:57:55.840 --> 0:57:57.160 Kaber describe what this looked like. 0:57:57.400 --> 0:58:00.720 And they had people made in their lines, sit in 0:58:00.840 --> 0:58:05.560 a line in a specific assigned spot, and but it 0:58:05.600 --> 0:58:08.479 wasn't always clear if those how those lines actually worked, 0:58:08.520 --> 0:58:12.120 because they would kind of take people from lots of places. 0:58:12.600 --> 0:58:14.720 I think they might have been prioritizing family for children, 0:58:15.000 --> 0:58:17.680 or people with some kind of medical needs or something 0:58:17.720 --> 0:58:21.400 like that. But well, you would never know when they 0:58:21.400 --> 0:58:23.600 were going to come, and we didn't seem to know 0:58:23.600 --> 0:58:25.880 also who they were going to choose to take. We 0:58:25.920 --> 0:58:27.600 assume We didn't know exactly where we were taking them, 0:58:27.600 --> 0:58:29.160 but we assume they were taking the port of entry 0:58:29.200 --> 0:58:32.640 in Sana Seat, which is about a mile away. And 0:58:32.920 --> 0:58:34.720 so what would always happen when they come and get 0:58:34.720 --> 0:58:36.560 a group is like three or four people from that 0:58:36.600 --> 0:58:39.360 group would sprint over to the world because we still 0:58:39.360 --> 0:58:43.240 had their phones and CBP wasn't going to wait for 0:58:43.360 --> 0:58:44.160 us to get the phones. 0:58:44.480 --> 0:58:46.400 One thing a lot of people we talked to shared 0:58:46.840 --> 0:58:49.320 was that there was another camp, which we later found 0:58:49.320 --> 0:58:52.360 how is as many as eight hundred single men. It's 0:58:52.360 --> 0:58:54.880 fairly usual to keep single men apart from families, but 0:58:55.000 --> 0:58:58.000 keeping them in an inaccessible place without adequate food or 0:58:58.000 --> 0:59:01.880 water is not usual. The camp was further west, and 0:59:01.920 --> 0:59:05.520 despite repeated requests from myself and others, including those delivering aid, 0:59:05.720 --> 0:59:08.600 we were not allowed to access it. One pair of 0:59:08.680 --> 0:59:12.480 Jamaican twins, both young men, told me they had walked 0:59:12.560 --> 0:59:15.320 up there and that things were very bad. People were 0:59:15.360 --> 0:59:17.800 only given one small water bottom the granola bar every day, 0:59:17.840 --> 0:59:22.280 they said. One person told me they'd heard people eating grass. 0:59:23.200 --> 0:59:25.560 I asked CBP's press office for information on this, but 0:59:25.600 --> 0:59:29.240 they didn't respond. Here's one clip of a man trying 0:59:29.280 --> 0:59:31.920 to explain how bad things were there. It's hard to 0:59:31.960 --> 0:59:34.880 communicate across language barriers, and with a war between you 0:59:34.920 --> 0:59:36.960 it is even harder. But I could tell he was 0:59:37.080 --> 0:59:39.320 very concerned for the folks that we couldn't get to, 0:59:40.280 --> 0:59:43.200 despite myself and others trying and me addressing this issue 0:59:43.240 --> 0:59:46.440 directly and emails to CBP, and never got any response 0:59:46.520 --> 0:59:48.480 on why people were not allowed to help the single 0:59:48.480 --> 0:59:50.840 men in the other camp, just not helping. 0:59:53.440 --> 0:59:55.800 What little water, chocolod. 0:59:58.400 --> 1:00:10.560 Nothing else, no food, no war water, blankets, nothing. I'll 1:00:10.600 --> 1:00:13.920 go try and go up there. Even with these camps 1:00:13.920 --> 1:00:18.160 being pretty desperate places, folks look after one another. We 1:00:18.200 --> 1:00:20.880 spoke a lot with one lady who spoke English. She 1:00:21.000 --> 1:00:23.360 was there with her own family, but she was also 1:00:23.440 --> 1:00:26.880 looking after two Tagi children who'd come alone. Their mother 1:00:26.920 --> 1:00:29.280 spoke a little English, so she relayed news to the 1:00:29.360 --> 1:00:32.480 children by calling their mother and having her translated for 1:00:32.520 --> 1:00:35.920 her children. Other folks took it upon themselves to try 1:00:35.960 --> 1:00:37.800 and walk to the camp for single men with water, 1:00:38.680 --> 1:00:41.200 and people constantly helped us find the owners of phone 1:00:41.280 --> 1:00:43.800 by wandering through the rows of people sheltering under taps 1:00:43.800 --> 1:00:46.000 and space blankets to look for people who had left 1:00:46.040 --> 1:00:53.200 us their devices to charge. In Noucumber, a town an 1:00:53.280 --> 1:00:55.880 hour or so east of San Diego, things were worse. 1:00:56.880 --> 1:00:59.680 Cumber's home to a cute hotel, a lovely lake, a 1:00:59.720 --> 1:01:03.160 hot and an awful lot of big rugs. When the 1:01:03.160 --> 1:01:05.400 border war was being built in earnest before the twenty 1:01:05.440 --> 1:01:08.840 twenty election, they skipped some of the harder areas. Perhaps 1:01:08.840 --> 1:01:10.439 they figured it would be too hard to cross there, 1:01:10.800 --> 1:01:14.040 it's not Perhaps they wanted to maximize the mileage before 1:01:14.080 --> 1:01:17.240 election day. Well it didn't help much, but either way, 1:01:17.440 --> 1:01:19.560 for some reason, the wall just takes a little break 1:01:19.560 --> 1:01:23.840 in Hucumber, and this makes crossing marginally easier there. However, 1:01:24.400 --> 1:01:27.600 the boulder fields, scorching hot days and cold nights make 1:01:27.640 --> 1:01:31.400 it anything but easy. On Thursday night, the eleventh of May, 1:01:31.680 --> 1:01:35.080 locals in Ucumber became aware that CBP were holding people 1:01:35.080 --> 1:01:36.920 on a dirt road in the open desert, just a 1:01:36.920 --> 1:01:39.320 few miles east of town and a few hundred feet 1:01:39.360 --> 1:01:42.000 from the wall. The people held they didn't have access 1:01:42.040 --> 1:01:45.120 to toilets, running water, or shelter. With every hour that 1:01:45.200 --> 1:01:48.880 went past, the number of people grew. The biggest camp 1:01:48.960 --> 1:01:51.960 soon held over a thousand people desperately trying to scratch 1:01:52.000 --> 1:01:55.080 out a little shade in the desert. Other smaller camps 1:01:55.120 --> 1:01:58.120 popped up, one was apparently in someone's yard, and the 1:01:58.160 --> 1:02:00.919 people of this tiny desert town about helping as best 1:02:00.960 --> 1:02:04.640 they could. Soon they were joined by volunteers from all 1:02:04.640 --> 1:02:08.240 over the county. Katie was one of those volunteers. She 1:02:08.280 --> 1:02:10.240 doesn't live in a Cumba, but her friends do and 1:02:10.280 --> 1:02:13.560 her family sometimes spends time there. Once she heard about 1:02:13.560 --> 1:02:16.320 what was happening, she knew she had to help. I 1:02:16.400 --> 1:02:19.560 let her describe her feelings after she saw the post online, 1:02:20.080 --> 1:02:21.760 and then drove out to cumber to see what she 1:02:21.800 --> 1:02:22.560 could do to help. 1:02:23.560 --> 1:02:27.760 At first, I was just super touched by the activation 1:02:28.680 --> 1:02:36.440 and the carrying, and my son was asleep, comfortable in 1:02:36.480 --> 1:02:42.080 his car seat, you know, in our Mercedes van. And 1:02:42.640 --> 1:02:48.400 my husband is still trying to get citizenship after being 1:02:48.480 --> 1:02:53.880 here since he was two years old. So and we're 1:02:53.880 --> 1:02:59.560 married and he pays taxes. And when I saw our 1:02:59.600 --> 1:03:04.080 friends activating, I just told him tomorrow's Mother's Day and 1:03:05.280 --> 1:03:09.520 I need to come back here, and it's not safe 1:03:09.520 --> 1:03:14.919 for you here. So when I first arrived, I thought 1:03:14.960 --> 1:03:20.640 it was kind of odd that everything was organized around 1:03:20.680 --> 1:03:25.439 a random road that has a gate, and there were 1:03:25.520 --> 1:03:35.720 five only five border patrol at the time, and about 1:03:36.960 --> 1:03:39.280 that was a larger camp, so I want to say 1:03:39.440 --> 1:03:44.400 at least eight hundred people, maybe a thousand. I didn't 1:03:44.440 --> 1:03:49.840 see them all because many of them would received their 1:03:50.000 --> 1:03:55.120 donations and the assistance and went back to their shelters. 1:03:56.360 --> 1:03:58.840 A few days after the migrants arrived, I camped out 1:03:58.840 --> 1:04:01.600 in Ukumba. I was cold in my sleeping bag at 1:04:01.680 --> 1:04:04.480 night and dizzy in the sun in the day. It's 1:04:04.480 --> 1:04:06.200 not a place where you'd want to be stuck outside 1:04:06.240 --> 1:04:08.920 the long but it's a place where fifteen hundred or 1:04:08.960 --> 1:04:11.960 so people were held for days little more than the shelters. 1:04:11.960 --> 1:04:14.000 They were built out of creosota and mesquite to protect 1:04:14.000 --> 1:04:17.080 their families from the elements. They slept on the dirt 1:04:17.160 --> 1:04:19.640 or in cardboard boxes left over from the food Volunteers 1:04:19.680 --> 1:04:23.200 fed them and under whatever folks and tiny desert count 1:04:23.240 --> 1:04:26.520 could find to give them. By the time I arrived, 1:04:26.640 --> 1:04:29.720 the migrants were gone and volunteers were cleaning up. The 1:04:29.800 --> 1:04:34.400 landscape was dotted with impressively constructed brush shelters. Volunteers from 1:04:34.440 --> 1:04:38.040 her Cumba set up tables to distribute food, blankets, water, 1:04:38.080 --> 1:04:41.480 and clothing. Other volunteers stayed away from the camp itself 1:04:41.520 --> 1:04:45.280 and spent time packing things into individual sizes, perhaps combining 1:04:45.320 --> 1:04:47.320 hats and socks and maybe a toy for a child 1:04:47.400 --> 1:04:50.280 in one bag, or breaking down costco packages of snacks 1:04:50.280 --> 1:04:54.160 into individual portions. It's not necessarily the most rewarding task, 1:04:54.600 --> 1:04:58.680 but it's an important one. I asked Marissa, another volunteer 1:04:58.680 --> 1:05:01.160 who had previously worked in Sandy Go for the Forest Service, 1:05:01.640 --> 1:05:03.520 what she felt when we were cleaning out some of 1:05:03.520 --> 1:05:05.400 those shelters together a couple of days later. 1:05:05.800 --> 1:05:07.240 I don't know the best way to say this, but 1:05:10.760 --> 1:05:15.400 what hit me deeper was when this might seem strange, 1:05:15.440 --> 1:05:20.360 but when I saw women's sanitary napkins or the diapers 1:05:20.480 --> 1:05:24.440 or the babies, like it was kind of like a 1:05:24.480 --> 1:05:30.440 fabric padded crib basinet type thing that suddenly hit me 1:05:30.600 --> 1:05:34.200 on a deeper level. It would make me emotional because 1:05:34.240 --> 1:05:39.400 it's like then you start to realize, like, wow, what 1:05:39.560 --> 1:05:44.000 if that was me and my child or I'm not 1:05:44.080 --> 1:05:46.400 a mother, but I can only imagine what that must 1:05:46.400 --> 1:05:48.840 be like for them to be going through these things 1:05:48.880 --> 1:05:52.520 as a as a woman, being on your on your 1:05:52.520 --> 1:05:57.080 period and being out and not having anything, you know, 1:05:57.160 --> 1:05:59.640 going to the bathroom out there. What do you use 1:05:59.680 --> 1:06:01.640 when you don't have those supplies? 1:06:03.600 --> 1:06:06.160 So yeah, it just. 1:06:09.440 --> 1:06:14.520 That was when it hit me deeper, and I knew 1:06:14.560 --> 1:06:16.320 I was doing the right thing by being out there 1:06:16.360 --> 1:06:20.480 and helping in whatever way I could, because I don't 1:06:20.800 --> 1:06:22.800 when it comes to the politics side of it, when 1:06:22.840 --> 1:06:29.560 it comes to like legality and just different aspects of it. 1:06:29.640 --> 1:06:34.520 In that way, I don't have necessarily an opinion one 1:06:34.520 --> 1:06:36.800 way or another. I'm not educated enough to feel like 1:06:36.880 --> 1:06:40.240 I can argue one way or another or defend one 1:06:40.360 --> 1:06:45.400 position or another. I went out there purely for my 1:06:45.560 --> 1:06:49.680 love of humanity, and I think being able to support 1:06:50.600 --> 1:06:52.640 in whatever way I can that was the way that 1:06:52.680 --> 1:06:55.600 I felt like I could serve and be a support. 1:06:56.280 --> 1:06:58.480 Katie hadn't expected to meet migrants of the camp when 1:06:58.520 --> 1:07:01.160 you first showed up. She knew it was important not 1:07:01.200 --> 1:07:03.440 to flog the camp with volunteers, and their help was 1:07:03.440 --> 1:07:05.840 needed packaging and preparing aid drops, which she was happy 1:07:05.880 --> 1:07:08.600 to do. But in the end, she traveled up to 1:07:08.600 --> 1:07:10.840 the camp with a friend who spoke Portuguese so they 1:07:10.840 --> 1:07:14.680 could help translate and distribute supplies. I asked her what 1:07:14.720 --> 1:07:16.480 it was like to see the supplies she'd purchased a 1:07:16.520 --> 1:07:18.959 few hours before end up in the hands of people 1:07:18.960 --> 1:07:20.360 who desperately needed them. 1:07:20.640 --> 1:07:24.840 They don't even have a grocery store in her cumber. 1:07:25.680 --> 1:07:32.760 They have one mini mart with nothing in it, and 1:07:33.080 --> 1:07:41.160 that was sold out the first day. So these people 1:07:41.360 --> 1:07:44.640 who we would look at without a lot of resources, 1:07:45.800 --> 1:07:50.240 passing the abundance of what they actually have. Well, I 1:07:50.280 --> 1:07:54.000 saw a lot of families. I could tell that there 1:07:54.000 --> 1:07:58.240 were leaders within the group because they were helping organize 1:07:58.560 --> 1:08:04.600 as much as the volunteers were. And unfortunately there was 1:08:04.800 --> 1:08:09.640 language barriers, you know, And so those that could speak 1:08:10.400 --> 1:08:16.120 multiple languages, whether they were border crossers or volunteers, were 1:08:16.880 --> 1:08:19.960 together in it and or and that was part of 1:08:19.960 --> 1:08:26.360 that organization that I'm talking about, you know. And and 1:08:27.680 --> 1:08:32.759 it was actually a very calm scene when we first 1:08:32.800 --> 1:08:37.080 came up. I saw my son's hat that I donated 1:08:37.640 --> 1:08:42.160 and a little boy hugging this jaguar stuffed animal. And 1:08:42.240 --> 1:08:46.240 the jaguar was really significant to my friend and I 1:08:46.320 --> 1:08:50.840 when we found it. So it was really touching just 1:08:50.880 --> 1:08:55.839 to like see see the things that we were bringing 1:08:56.080 --> 1:09:01.120 being literally being distributed. Like sometimes when you think you're helping. 1:09:01.920 --> 1:09:05.000 I worked for a door to door campaign when I 1:09:05.160 --> 1:09:08.600 was in my teens and I got fifty percent of 1:09:08.640 --> 1:09:12.679 what I raised, and it was like disheartening, and you're like, oh, 1:09:12.760 --> 1:09:17.639 this is how it works. And in this case, money 1:09:17.760 --> 1:09:23.280 that I directly spent on resources that were needed was 1:09:23.360 --> 1:09:25.479 going directly to the people. 1:09:26.360 --> 1:09:29.559 In all likelihood, people crossed in a specific spot because 1:09:29.600 --> 1:09:32.080 someone dropped them there telling them it would be easy. 1:09:32.600 --> 1:09:36.160 In fact, it was anything but people die crossing around here. 1:09:37.080 --> 1:09:39.560 In the dirt around Cucumber, I found discarded fly to 1:09:39.560 --> 1:09:43.920 itineries and documents from Turkey, Nicaragua, Columbia, Mexico. There were 1:09:43.960 --> 1:09:47.720 also little children's toys, shoes, and hundreds of empty water 1:09:47.720 --> 1:09:50.519 bottles which we diligently picked up. But none of the 1:09:50.560 --> 1:09:52.880 more than one thousand people who the Board Patrol held 1:09:52.880 --> 1:09:55.840 in this camp have planned for what they got, which 1:09:55.920 --> 1:09:58.479 was several days being detained in the desert by CBP 1:09:58.680 --> 1:10:02.439 with intefficient water, no shelter, and very little food, and 1:10:02.479 --> 1:10:04.400 no information on what was happening or how long they 1:10:04.400 --> 1:10:07.880 could expect to be there. Sadly didn't get there in 1:10:08.000 --> 1:10:10.120 time to speak to any of them. I was in 1:10:10.200 --> 1:10:13.200 Arizona looking for border vigilantes and wondering what CBP had 1:10:13.200 --> 1:10:15.519 been doing to migrants there where they have the full 1:10:15.520 --> 1:10:18.320 support of local law enforcement and a large percentage of 1:10:18.320 --> 1:10:22.080 the aging population. To my surprise, he didn't find much. 1:10:22.920 --> 1:10:24.640 It seems like most people had crossed in the San 1:10:24.680 --> 1:10:27.960 Diego County area. Many had flown or walked to Tijuana. 1:10:28.800 --> 1:10:31.559 Of course, migrants, just like us, have accessed the news 1:10:31.560 --> 1:10:34.680 and to weather forecast and maps. Crossing in Arizona, a 1:10:34.680 --> 1:10:37.479 place known for cruelty and very hot weather doesn't make 1:10:37.520 --> 1:10:40.639 any sense when California offers a better political and weather climate, 1:10:40.920 --> 1:10:43.519 and with the mixed messages coming out about immigration law, 1:10:43.560 --> 1:10:46.519 these folks may not have been intending to evade border patrol, 1:10:46.920 --> 1:10:48.479 but to come to the USA and to take their 1:10:48.560 --> 1:10:52.400 legal right to claim asylum. I spoke to Sam, a 1:10:52.479 --> 1:10:55.800 volunteer with extensive on the ground experience in humanitarian crises, 1:10:56.280 --> 1:10:57.679 about what he'd seen at the camp. 1:10:58.240 --> 1:10:59.320 Oh my name is Sam. 1:10:59.320 --> 1:11:01.960 Sure, he said, many of the people who found themselves 1:11:02.000 --> 1:11:04.880 in a cumber had likely been told by people smokelers, 1:11:05.120 --> 1:11:07.640 but this was an easy way into the US. In 1:11:07.680 --> 1:11:08.960 the end, it was anything but. 1:11:09.280 --> 1:11:11.720 They I mean, I know they didn't expect that they 1:11:11.720 --> 1:11:14.840 were just waltz across the border at a normal check station, 1:11:15.080 --> 1:11:17.120 but they thought it was going to be they were 1:11:17.120 --> 1:11:18.040 sold in bill of goods. 1:11:18.120 --> 1:11:19.519 Let's put it back walking. 1:11:19.800 --> 1:11:23.719 Yes, that's it. And so I mean, I feel sorry 1:11:23.760 --> 1:11:25.760 for anybody who's take advantage of all like that. But 1:11:25.960 --> 1:11:28.120 most of the people that I met again who are 1:11:28.120 --> 1:11:32.280 not Colombians, were of the wealthier side of the on 1:11:32.400 --> 1:11:36.400 their countries. I met some of Becky's, some Kazakis, a 1:11:36.400 --> 1:11:40.000 bunch of people from India, a couple of Pakistani guys. Mindray, 1:11:40.080 --> 1:11:41.920 I mean they didn't get here cheap. 1:11:42.240 --> 1:11:44.800 The wall behind the people in Hookumba cost twenty five 1:11:44.880 --> 1:11:48.160 million dollars a mile on average. The border patrol agent 1:11:48.320 --> 1:11:50.920 drove around in f one fifty rapped to trucks that 1:11:51.040 --> 1:11:54.439 started eighty thousand dollars and each make a starting salary 1:11:54.479 --> 1:11:58.080 of over sixty thousand dollars in their first year. Surveillance 1:11:58.120 --> 1:12:01.200 towers that dot the desert only one which provided a 1:12:01.200 --> 1:12:04.240 tiny scrap of shade to migrants resting under its solar panels, 1:12:04.720 --> 1:12:07.519 can cost a million dollars apiece. But people in a 1:12:07.600 --> 1:12:11.040 cumber received only one small water bottle each day. Despite 1:12:11.040 --> 1:12:15.200 the punishing weather. Although Customs and Border Protection did not 1:12:15.280 --> 1:12:17.639 seem to make any plan to shelter migrants in Cucumber, 1:12:18.120 --> 1:12:21.240 they did plan to have contractors paid forty dollars an 1:12:21.280 --> 1:12:24.879 hour to take them away. I found a job advert 1:12:25.160 --> 1:12:29.360 for a Southwest Border Transportation and Security officer at ISS 1:12:29.479 --> 1:12:33.840 Action Security. The agency photograph transporting migrants in the Cumber. 1:12:34.640 --> 1:12:37.360 The job posting, which was posted two weeks before the 1:12:37.479 --> 1:12:40.599 end of Title forty two, has a description that includes 1:12:40.880 --> 1:12:44.479 patting down all detainees and applying appropriate restraints prior to 1:12:44.479 --> 1:12:50.040 boarding vehicles. The process through its migrants become detainees normally 1:12:50.040 --> 1:12:53.680 involves processing which had not been done in Nucumber. But 1:12:53.720 --> 1:12:56.559 it seems the presumption of ineligibility announced on the day 1:12:56.600 --> 1:12:59.680 Title forty two ended came into effect here. This might 1:12:59.720 --> 1:13:03.040 seem minor distinction, but it's important. It means that people 1:13:03.080 --> 1:13:05.160 have to file a defensive asylum claim and not an 1:13:05.160 --> 1:13:08.719 affirmative one. They have to plead why they shouldn't be deported, 1:13:08.880 --> 1:13:12.439 rather than why they have a right to stay. Many 1:13:12.479 --> 1:13:14.439 of the people who have been trying to cross before 1:13:14.439 --> 1:13:17.120 the end of Title forty two, like Diana, because they 1:13:17.160 --> 1:13:20.120 felt they would face a less serious penalty. Many of 1:13:20.120 --> 1:13:22.559 them flew to Tina, walked from further south in Mexico 1:13:22.680 --> 1:13:25.360 or even in Central America. I likely spent their entire 1:13:25.439 --> 1:13:27.320 savings on a trip to the gap in the wall 1:13:27.360 --> 1:13:29.960 near Cucumber that ended with them being held by border 1:13:29.960 --> 1:13:31.960 patrol in the open desert with next to nothing in 1:13:32.000 --> 1:13:35.840 the way of shelter, sanitation, or sustenance. As a way 1:13:35.880 --> 1:13:38.840 to quantify this, I want a reference to UCSD US 1:13:38.880 --> 1:13:43.560 Immigration Policy Center report apparently had some pretty problematic practices, 1:13:43.680 --> 1:13:48.360 but anyway, these are results from its survey. When asked 1:13:48.360 --> 1:13:50.719 whether border patrol gave them enough water for the day, 1:13:51.200 --> 1:13:54.000 over half of the asylum seekers that we interviewed, approximately 1:13:54.080 --> 1:13:58.080 fifty three percent said no. Border patrol distributed one water 1:13:58.120 --> 1:14:01.559 bottle to each migrant in the morning. When asked where 1:14:01.600 --> 1:14:03.639 the border patrol gave them enough food for the day, 1:14:04.000 --> 1:14:07.479 all of the asylum seekers said no. Border patrol did 1:14:07.479 --> 1:14:11.200 not distribute any food. When asked where the border patrol 1:14:11.240 --> 1:14:15.040 provided adequate sanitation such as toilets, all of the asylum 1:14:15.040 --> 1:14:18.360 seekers that we interviewed, meaning one hundred percent, said no. 1:14:18.800 --> 1:14:22.160 Border patrol provided one porter body for the entire encampment. 1:14:23.400 --> 1:14:26.639 When asked where the border patrol provided adepriate shelter, such 1:14:26.640 --> 1:14:28.960 as shade to protect them from the sun. All of 1:14:29.000 --> 1:14:32.479 the asylum seekers that we interviewed said no. Border patrol 1:14:32.520 --> 1:14:36.040 did not provide any shelter. When asked where the border 1:14:36.040 --> 1:14:39.160 patrol provided blankets to keep them warm at night, all 1:14:39.200 --> 1:14:41.880 but one of the asylum seekers we interviewed said no. 1:14:42.360 --> 1:14:46.519 Border patrol provided blankets. Some migrants, but the overwhelming majority, 1:14:46.520 --> 1:14:50.439 did not receive blankets. Altogether, two thirds of the asylum 1:14:50.520 --> 1:14:53.960 seekers we interviewed said that they agree or strongly agree 1:14:54.000 --> 1:14:56.760 with the statement if I did not receive food and 1:14:56.760 --> 1:14:59.439 water from volunteers, I would not get enough food and 1:14:59.520 --> 1:15:04.720 water from border patrol to survive. These aren't exaggerations, as 1:15:04.760 --> 1:15:08.040 we'll see, several migrants did come very close to losing 1:15:08.040 --> 1:15:10.160 their lives in the five or more days that CBP 1:15:10.280 --> 1:15:21.479 detained people out in the open along the border. Medical 1:15:21.479 --> 1:15:24.200 incidents in this kind of attention are far from uncommon. 1:15:25.040 --> 1:15:27.439 A lawsuit filed against Customs a Border Protection by the 1:15:27.479 --> 1:15:31.400 Southern Border Communities Coalition regarding their actions this week, stated 1:15:31.439 --> 1:15:34.679 that quote many migrants have fallen into medical distress because 1:15:34.680 --> 1:15:37.559 of the conditions and CBP has been slow to provide 1:15:37.560 --> 1:15:41.240 access to medical attention, often only responding at the insistence 1:15:41.280 --> 1:15:45.480 of advocates. As a result, one woman suffered life threatening allergies, 1:15:45.680 --> 1:15:48.639 a child suffered an epileptic seizure, and a man suffered 1:15:48.640 --> 1:15:52.599 an unattended infection on his leg. Medical attention was slow 1:15:52.600 --> 1:15:55.240 to arrive, and when it did arrive, it was often insufficient. 1:15:56.080 --> 1:15:58.360 Arlet Kayber described the conditions they saw a couple of 1:15:58.439 --> 1:15:59.960 days after the end of Title forty two. 1:16:00.520 --> 1:16:02.920 That's really the part that it is hard to interstate. 1:16:04.080 --> 1:16:09.280 The conditions there were not safe or sanitary. I guess 1:16:09.320 --> 1:16:11.320 this is sort of related to the medical issues, but 1:16:11.960 --> 1:16:15.439 there was it's been you know, to their credit, this 1:16:15.520 --> 1:16:19.080 aspect has been reported in the media. But there was 1:16:19.800 --> 1:16:23.679 a single portable toilet for anywhere from I guess there's 1:16:23.680 --> 1:16:27.559 probably twitered to four hundred people there. I heard a 1:16:27.560 --> 1:16:32.080 couple of different citations of how often this toilet is 1:16:32.560 --> 1:16:37.000 serviced and cleaned and the waste removed anywhere from once 1:16:37.080 --> 1:16:39.599 or twice a week to once every week or two weeks. 1:16:40.320 --> 1:16:43.799 Either way, that's not remotely sufficient for four hundred people 1:16:43.960 --> 1:16:47.040 using the bathroom multiple times a day in this single 1:16:47.240 --> 1:16:52.240 portable like just a construction site toilet. It was right 1:16:52.280 --> 1:16:54.240 next to the phone charging station on the other side 1:16:54.240 --> 1:16:58.720 of the wall, and I would just feel sick if 1:16:58.720 --> 1:17:00.080 I got if I sit too close to it. It 1:17:00.920 --> 1:17:05.320 was really vile. It was not safe. It is not 1:17:05.400 --> 1:17:07.840 a way for people to be helping. And I do know, 1:17:08.200 --> 1:17:11.439 I think a lot of thankfully people stop using it, 1:17:11.560 --> 1:17:16.560 but then they don't have any privacy or that's not 1:17:16.760 --> 1:17:19.160 you know, a sanitary in a situation to be in 1:17:19.400 --> 1:17:20.720 since I mean they don't have a feed in the 1:17:20.760 --> 1:17:24.760 space anywhere, so that's definitely right. The way is that 1:17:25.000 --> 1:17:27.640 people are intention of help and safety. 1:17:27.800 --> 1:17:30.479 He's Hamara, who will hear more from tomorrow describe being 1:17:30.560 --> 1:17:31.480 ano of the medical. 1:17:31.200 --> 1:17:33.479 Incident and the call that I got this morning was 1:17:33.479 --> 1:17:37.439 of a woman who was rushed out because she had 1:17:37.520 --> 1:17:41.479 an emergency situation, taken to the hospital. The hospital didn't 1:17:41.520 --> 1:17:43.519 know what to do with her, so they sat her 1:17:43.640 --> 1:17:45.680 right back here in the middle of the night, in 1:17:45.800 --> 1:17:48.200 the middle of the night, and they brought her here. 1:17:48.320 --> 1:17:51.240 She doesn't have any documents. CBP didn't get a chance 1:17:51.280 --> 1:17:54.120 to process her yet, so she doesn't even have any 1:17:54.160 --> 1:17:57.240 proof that she actually came to the port of entry 1:17:57.240 --> 1:17:59.879 and try to seek asylum. And she was just sleeping 1:18:00.080 --> 1:18:02.719 right here, and she has burns all over her body, 1:18:03.080 --> 1:18:04.000 has an infection. 1:18:04.160 --> 1:18:04.680 I read the. 1:18:06.479 --> 1:18:10.160 Seven medications that they gave her, and she speaks daddy. 1:18:10.240 --> 1:18:13.720 She's from Avonistan. Her husband got taken by the Taliban 1:18:13.760 --> 1:18:16.960 and she escaped, running for her life. And she's here 1:18:17.080 --> 1:18:20.360 and she has sunburns all over her face and she 1:18:20.400 --> 1:18:22.919 has nowhere to go. She thought she was still detained. 1:18:23.160 --> 1:18:25.400 She actually thought she was still detained. She was just 1:18:25.439 --> 1:18:27.599 trying to get back to the other side of the border. 1:18:27.880 --> 1:18:31.360 She thought she was still in Mexico. No one explained 1:18:31.400 --> 1:18:33.479 anything to her. They brought her back here in the 1:18:33.520 --> 1:18:37.560 middle of the night, and she was freezing and so wet. 1:18:37.720 --> 1:18:38.960 That's why I came out here. 1:18:39.080 --> 1:18:39.760 I talked to her. 1:18:39.960 --> 1:18:41.800 The other folks who were out here didn't know why 1:18:41.960 --> 1:18:45.320 she was just sleeping here, and I came out and 1:18:45.439 --> 1:18:47.760 tried to translate it. And now we have her at 1:18:47.800 --> 1:18:48.320 a hotel. 1:18:49.120 --> 1:18:51.759 Cable witness one of the emergencies described in the Southern 1:18:51.760 --> 1:18:55.040 Border Communities Coalition lawsuit when they visited the camp. Here's 1:18:55.080 --> 1:18:56.479 him describing it in. 1:18:56.479 --> 1:18:59.160 Terms of you know, medical player as well, Like I said, 1:18:59.160 --> 1:19:02.400 one of the parts of the aid operation that was 1:19:02.400 --> 1:19:05.400 going on was most people. I think there's a combination 1:19:05.600 --> 1:19:08.400 both of people who were were you know, and then 1:19:08.479 --> 1:19:11.519 street medicine as well as people who were like nurses 1:19:11.600 --> 1:19:15.200 volunteering their prime and things like that, and and mostly 1:19:15.280 --> 1:19:17.720 taking care of just kind of fortein first aid for 1:19:17.760 --> 1:19:22.439 the most part. There was a situation where someone was 1:19:22.520 --> 1:19:30.480 having an ellergic reaction, a fairly severe one, and and 1:19:30.680 --> 1:19:33.160 I happy to carry an EpiPen, so I simply give 1:19:33.240 --> 1:19:37.760 that to be one of one of the street medics. 1:19:38.040 --> 1:19:43.400 And then they eventually did call this person. The reaction 1:19:43.479 --> 1:19:46.320 bot severe enough that it was an an hour or 1:19:46.320 --> 1:19:50.479 so later that nine one was called I assumed by 1:19:50.520 --> 1:19:54.960 one of the volunteers, and uh amby Villaince and Border 1:19:55.000 --> 1:19:56.960 patrol came to open the gate and and bring this 1:19:57.000 --> 1:20:00.400 person in the country. They did eventually treat, but it 1:20:00.479 --> 1:20:03.440 was a very it was a long time an anti 1:20:03.560 --> 1:20:09.680 quatus someone as someone who has a flexis and actions, 1:20:10.160 --> 1:20:12.120 and something happened many times in her life that is 1:20:12.200 --> 1:20:15.280 absolutely terrifying. I cannot imagine how terrifying it would be 1:20:15.400 --> 1:20:21.000 to be experiencing a life priding situation when you worked 1:20:21.040 --> 1:20:25.160 for apps and and you know, there's no authority that 1:20:25.240 --> 1:20:28.200 really cares that you're there. And I don't know if 1:20:28.200 --> 1:20:30.200 she would have been able to get help if there 1:20:30.200 --> 1:20:33.519 have been volunteers in the second while, especially once. 1:20:33.320 --> 1:20:38.720 We're training where volunteers weren't. Things were worse in Texas 1:20:39.040 --> 1:20:42.360 and is out There is an eight year old girl 1:20:42.600 --> 1:20:45.640 born in Panama to or On Duran parents, died in 1:20:45.720 --> 1:20:51.759 CBP custody. Rosselleree Is, the girl's father, told NBC News 1:20:52.240 --> 1:20:55.520 that they gave authorities documents about the girl's medical conditions 1:20:55.800 --> 1:20:58.800 congenital heart disease and sickle cell anemia while they were 1:20:58.800 --> 1:21:02.879 in immigration customer. They said that a doctor there examined 1:21:02.920 --> 1:21:07.960 dan Adeath and that she had contracted the flu. Alvarez, 1:21:08.080 --> 1:21:11.200 her mother, said she spoke to both detention authorities and 1:21:11.320 --> 1:21:14.600 medical personnel at the station multiple times to explain her 1:21:14.680 --> 1:21:17.519 daughter was complaining of pain and shortness of breath and 1:21:17.600 --> 1:21:20.719 that she was getting worse. I'll quite the next part 1:21:20.720 --> 1:21:24.560 directly from the NBC story. They never listened to me, 1:21:24.840 --> 1:21:28.040 she said. Rayas said his daughter was in a lot 1:21:28.080 --> 1:21:31.479 of pain, a lot of pain. I begged them to 1:21:31.479 --> 1:21:35.479 call an ambulance. Alvarez said, adding the authorities told her 1:21:35.520 --> 1:21:38.679 the girl's condition wasn't serious enough to warrant calling an ambulance. 1:21:39.640 --> 1:21:43.519 Alvarez said her daughter begged authorities as well, telling them 1:21:43.560 --> 1:21:47.120 she could not breathe from her nose or mouth. Alvarez 1:21:47.160 --> 1:21:51.439 says that eventually her daughter lost consciousness and died in 1:21:51.479 --> 1:21:55.880 my arms. She said authorities took the girl from her 1:21:55.960 --> 1:21:58.800 arms and put her on the floor trying to revive her. 1:22:00.320 --> 1:22:04.920 My daughter died there in the station, she said. Ava 1:22:05.080 --> 1:22:07.360 said she feels authorities did not do enough to help 1:22:07.400 --> 1:22:11.800 her little girl. My daughter is a human being. They 1:22:11.840 --> 1:22:15.320 had to take care of her, she said. Despite what 1:22:15.360 --> 1:22:17.599 you might have heard on the network news, the asylum 1:22:17.640 --> 1:22:21.160 process is anything but easy. I've had several visas, a 1:22:21.200 --> 1:22:23.679 Green card, and a US passport, and I can completly 1:22:23.680 --> 1:22:25.720 tell you the only easy way I've ever seen to 1:22:25.720 --> 1:22:29.160 come here is to be very rich. But even among 1:22:29.160 --> 1:22:32.759 the convoluted bureaucratic mess that is US immigration, the asylum 1:22:32.840 --> 1:22:37.320 process stands out as both rigorous and complicated. Asylum is 1:22:37.360 --> 1:22:40.080 a process by which people unable or unwilling to return 1:22:40.080 --> 1:22:43.120 to their country because of persecution or a well founded 1:22:43.160 --> 1:22:48.680 fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, politics, 1:22:49.040 --> 1:22:52.280 or membership of a particular social group may remain in 1:22:52.320 --> 1:22:56.280 a safe country. From the eleventh of May onwards, migrants 1:22:56.280 --> 1:22:59.479 at the border were assumed ineligible for asylum. If they 1:22:59.520 --> 1:23:03.080 crosspitw Queen points of entry, they must enter the defensive 1:23:03.080 --> 1:23:06.680 asylum process to prevent themselves from being deported. What this 1:23:06.840 --> 1:23:09.040 means for people we heard from earlier is that they 1:23:09.040 --> 1:23:11.439 are now taken for whatever God for sake and holding area. 1:23:11.439 --> 1:23:14.880 They're in a bust to a processing facility where they're 1:23:14.920 --> 1:23:17.280 interviewed by an asylum officer to determine if they have 1:23:17.280 --> 1:23:20.360 a credible fear of persecution. They may need to provide 1:23:20.360 --> 1:23:22.880 a translator if there is an interviewing agent who speaks 1:23:22.920 --> 1:23:25.880 their language, and if they're determined to have a credible fear, 1:23:26.240 --> 1:23:28.000 they're told to check in with the US Customs and 1:23:28.040 --> 1:23:31.720 Immigration Office and sometimes given a notice which may or 1:23:31.720 --> 1:23:34.920 may not be dated to appear in court. My colleague 1:23:34.960 --> 1:23:36.800 Joe tried to get into one of these hotels to 1:23:36.840 --> 1:23:38.519 talk to one of the people we'd spoken to at 1:23:38.560 --> 1:23:40.800 the border, but he was pretty quickly shut down. 1:23:41.479 --> 1:23:45.960 Yeah, how you do either, I'm a freelance journalist I'm 1:23:46.040 --> 1:23:48.360 here reporting for my boss, James Stout. 1:23:48.400 --> 1:23:49.320 He's at iHeartMedia. 1:23:49.640 --> 1:23:51.639 I'm wondering if you're letting media in here to see 1:23:51.640 --> 1:23:54.840 the causability that okay, also be actelized. 1:23:54.880 --> 1:23:56.960 And I put the strict uny of this area here. 1:23:57.040 --> 1:23:58.840 Okay, you're going to set up it has to be 1:23:59.040 --> 1:24:01.519 on the side of the line, have a bland traffic. 1:24:01.640 --> 1:24:03.880 Yeah, and it's very dangerous for your k So like 1:24:04.160 --> 1:24:07.960 beyond here, past the yeah, from here over Okay, cool, I'll. 1:24:07.800 --> 1:24:08.400 Say how you're. 1:24:10.160 --> 1:24:12.000 One of the folks we'd met was able to stay 1:24:12.000 --> 1:24:14.240 in touch for our WhatsApp and share the hotel rules 1:24:14.240 --> 1:24:18.120 with us. They were pretty strict. Migrants are confined to 1:24:18.120 --> 1:24:20.360 their rooms, they can't have visitors, and they can't even 1:24:20.439 --> 1:24:24.479 order food delivery from the hotel where they're hosted by 1:24:24.479 --> 1:24:27.439 Catholic charities. Migrants need to get to their sponsor in 1:24:27.479 --> 1:24:29.720 the United States if they have one. If they don't 1:24:29.760 --> 1:24:31.840 have one, they can be sent just about anywhere. I've 1:24:31.840 --> 1:24:34.280 heard of East African folks having ended up in Alaska, 1:24:34.320 --> 1:24:37.720 for example. Once they get to where they're going to be, 1:24:38.120 --> 1:24:41.200 they check in with US Customs and Immigration Services in 1:24:41.240 --> 1:24:43.639 their new location and they're given a special phone which 1:24:43.680 --> 1:24:46.839 also tracks their movements. They may have a DNA sample 1:24:46.840 --> 1:24:51.200 taken in addition to fingerprints. Later, sometimes years later, they 1:24:51.240 --> 1:24:54.000 attend a court hearing or two to determine their eligibility 1:24:54.040 --> 1:24:57.519 to stay. I've heard of lawyers charging from five thousand 1:24:57.520 --> 1:25:01.160 dollars to twelve thousand dollars for these hearings, and nonprofit 1:25:01.200 --> 1:25:04.479 legalists and services are totally overwhelmed. At the moment, the 1:25:04.520 --> 1:25:07.679 system's massively backed up, and court dates are being given 1:25:07.720 --> 1:25:10.960 as far out as twenty twenty seven already. They may 1:25:11.040 --> 1:25:13.080 or may not be able to work during that period. 1:25:13.439 --> 1:25:15.960 Another the table work is getting harder and harder to find. 1:25:16.880 --> 1:25:19.800 Even if they do find work on less than minimum wage, 1:25:19.880 --> 1:25:21.840 it can be very hard to say about five thousand 1:25:21.880 --> 1:25:24.799 dollars for a lawyer A Migrants who can't find nonprofit 1:25:24.840 --> 1:25:27.200 help are at a significant disadvantage when it comes to 1:25:27.200 --> 1:25:32.000 their asylum hearings. Again, private security contractors, this time from Allied. 1:25:32.760 --> 1:25:36.839 We're transporting migrants to the hotel and guarding it. Like CBP. 1:25:37.080 --> 1:25:40.479 The private contractors you guard transport and incat rate migrants 1:25:40.520 --> 1:25:43.320 or rely on the broken in immigration system to make money. 1:25:43.960 --> 1:25:48.000 Unlike CBP. The agents themselves aren't well paid. Nineteen dollars 1:25:48.000 --> 1:25:50.400 an hours are going rate for Allied, not much higher 1:25:50.439 --> 1:25:53.679 than San Diego's sixteen dollars and thirty cents minimum wage. 1:25:54.360 --> 1:25:57.280 But the company itself is huge. It's the third last 1:25:57.320 --> 1:26:00.439 year as private employer in North America after Walmart Amazon. 1:26:01.360 --> 1:26:04.919 Allied guards are at prisons, airports, and shopping malls across America, 1:26:05.360 --> 1:26:08.600 and it's alleged that some are underpaid, insufficiently trained, and 1:26:08.640 --> 1:26:13.840 improperly vetted. The company grosses over twenty billion dollars, and 1:26:14.080 --> 1:26:18.080 it's affiliates are frequent political donors. All across this story 1:26:18.080 --> 1:26:23.800 you'll see this Allied security iss action, security people, smugglers, 1:26:23.800 --> 1:26:27.120 customs and border protection, contractors who build the war pieces, 1:26:27.120 --> 1:26:30.519 and contractors who install the war pieces, General Atomics who 1:26:30.560 --> 1:26:33.800 sell CBP drones, and the Israelian American companies who sell 1:26:33.840 --> 1:26:37.960 the surveillance technology to the government. All these people make money, 1:26:38.640 --> 1:26:40.280 but the poorest people in the world are the only 1:26:40.320 --> 1:26:43.439 ones losing money and sometimes their lives when they cross 1:26:43.479 --> 1:26:47.040 our southern border tomorrow. We're here from some of the 1:26:47.040 --> 1:26:49.959 people who made no money and looked after the migrants 1:26:50.080 --> 1:27:02.920 and will continue to support them through the asylum process. 1:27:05.240 --> 1:27:08.280 Try and carpool, try and shove into cars as best 1:27:08.320 --> 1:27:10.719 you can, just so that we don't have a mile long. 1:27:12.560 --> 1:27:14.080 Line of cars. 1:27:14.520 --> 1:27:18.240 We have trash bags, we have gloves, we have things 1:27:18.240 --> 1:27:21.040 that we're bringing up there, so what we. 1:27:21.040 --> 1:27:23.519 Have cars that you can get all of that out of. 1:27:25.200 --> 1:27:28.120 Once we pull over. We're also setting up a couple. 1:27:27.920 --> 1:27:28.559 Of pop ups. 1:27:28.680 --> 1:27:31.800 Ohcumba, California is a tiny town. You've probably never heard 1:27:31.840 --> 1:27:34.439 of it. It's actually really charming. There's a hot spring 1:27:34.800 --> 1:27:38.080 and a gorgeous hotel, a few stores selling our drinkets, 1:27:38.120 --> 1:27:40.360 that kind of thing. There's a lovely lake fed by 1:27:40.360 --> 1:27:42.719 the spring. And on this Sunday morning, there are about 1:27:42.720 --> 1:27:46.240 fifty people outside an old petrol station, nervously pounding bottles 1:27:46.280 --> 1:27:49.160 of water, applying sunscreen and getting ready to head out 1:27:49.160 --> 1:27:51.360 of the desert to clear up the ad hoc migrant 1:27:51.360 --> 1:27:54.200 camp that's held as many as fifteen hundred people out 1:27:54.240 --> 1:27:56.960 in the open when Title forty two ended and Border 1:27:56.960 --> 1:28:00.200 Patrol made no plans to keep them anywhere. It was 1:28:00.240 --> 1:28:03.200 a diverse bunch of people hidden beneath sun hats. There's 1:28:03.240 --> 1:28:05.200 an Australian film producer who was at a conference in 1:28:05.320 --> 1:28:07.880 Orlando and booked a fly over a grad student painter. 1:28:08.360 --> 1:28:10.559 The folks who were in the Hookumber Hotel who organize 1:28:10.560 --> 1:28:13.560 this whole thing, they're friends from the hospitality industry in 1:28:13.600 --> 1:28:16.880 San Diego. There were students and mums and dads and 1:28:16.920 --> 1:28:20.479 about the entire population of this tiny desert town. There 1:28:20.479 --> 1:28:22.680 were also two former International Aid workers who are in 1:28:22.720 --> 1:28:24.679 a tower where you can look at the desert, which 1:28:24.680 --> 1:28:26.960 is actually a much cooler thing than it sounds. And 1:28:27.479 --> 1:28:29.280 there's also a museum of boulders right next to it. 1:28:29.320 --> 1:28:30.920 You should probably check them out. Dur in the area. 1:28:31.840 --> 1:28:34.680 I spent the day helping out in Neucumber after the refugees, 1:28:35.040 --> 1:28:37.599 some of them in handcuffs, had been taken by private 1:28:37.600 --> 1:28:41.720 contractors to be processed by CBP's Office of Field Operations. 1:28:42.320 --> 1:28:44.559 We met at a petrol station in the middle of town. 1:28:44.960 --> 1:28:47.519 The space where the pumps should be was filled with tons, 1:28:47.600 --> 1:28:50.400 and I do mean tons of bottled water, masks, hand 1:28:50.520 --> 1:28:54.439 sanitized and other necessary supplies. When I'd arrived the night before, 1:28:54.560 --> 1:28:58.000 around ten pm, the eerie green and yellow lights reflecting 1:28:58.040 --> 1:28:59.680 from the roof had lit up the palace of water 1:28:59.760 --> 1:29:02.759 like some kind of giant lava lamp, and driving across 1:29:02.760 --> 1:29:06.400 the desert, the town looked like it was glowing. The 1:29:06.439 --> 1:29:08.200 town certainly has had a bit of a glow up 1:29:08.200 --> 1:29:11.600 in the last few years. Three business partners purchased the 1:29:11.600 --> 1:29:13.920 cir Cumber hot Springs Hotel, a down in the mouth 1:29:13.920 --> 1:29:17.160 property that had once been a glamorous desert resort, and 1:29:17.200 --> 1:29:20.960 they've been restoring the place for nearly two years. Inadvertently, 1:29:20.960 --> 1:29:22.920 they also purchased a lot of land and a few 1:29:22.920 --> 1:29:25.040 other rundown buildings in a town that were sold as 1:29:25.040 --> 1:29:27.120 a lot with the hotel. It was in one of 1:29:27.160 --> 1:29:30.479 these buildings, the old gas station, that they set up 1:29:30.560 --> 1:29:34.320 a de facto mutual aid hubbo almost overnight. The hotel's 1:29:34.360 --> 1:29:36.439 not finished yet, and they probably didn't make much progress 1:29:36.439 --> 1:29:38.000 on it during the week when they were feeding more 1:29:38.000 --> 1:29:41.479 than a thousand people in the desert. The town's lake, 1:29:41.520 --> 1:29:44.479 fed by a natural spring an old bath house used 1:29:44.520 --> 1:29:47.760 to be attractions. Today the bathhouse of roof has fallen off, 1:29:47.800 --> 1:29:50.720 but it still makes a pretty cool concert venue, and 1:29:50.760 --> 1:29:53.400 the whole town offers commanding views of the border wall, 1:29:53.439 --> 1:29:55.720 which sadly is only a couple of hundred yards from 1:29:55.760 --> 1:29:59.639 the main street. When I arrived in Cucumber. Everything was close. 1:30:00.200 --> 1:30:02.439 The mini mark was sold out, the hotel was still 1:30:02.439 --> 1:30:05.000 being worked on, and the hotel kitchen was churning out 1:30:05.040 --> 1:30:08.920 food volunteers at the clean up effort. I asked Marissa, 1:30:09.080 --> 1:30:11.479 one of the volunteers I met that day, about her 1:30:11.479 --> 1:30:13.479 first impressions on arriving at a meeting point. 1:30:13.960 --> 1:30:17.559 I was incredibly impressed by what the people of hu 1:30:17.640 --> 1:30:22.479 Kumba and the hotel group of individuals that have organized this, 1:30:22.680 --> 1:30:26.559 Like I couldn't believe seeing their donation depot in that 1:30:26.960 --> 1:30:30.240 old car wash, just to how well organized everything was, 1:30:30.360 --> 1:30:34.000 and that they provided so much for the volunteers, and 1:30:34.520 --> 1:30:36.960 they just the level of love and. 1:30:36.800 --> 1:30:39.439 Compassion and was. 1:30:39.960 --> 1:30:42.439 Yeah, it was an amazing opportunity to be part of, 1:30:42.600 --> 1:30:43.160 very humbling. 1:30:43.760 --> 1:30:46.120 I've been there since late the night before after visiting 1:30:46.120 --> 1:30:49.400 border crossings in California and Arizona and Jeff, one of 1:30:49.439 --> 1:30:51.599 the co owners a hotel, can you let me put 1:30:51.640 --> 1:30:54.680 up my truck in some desert behind his house. Now, 1:30:54.720 --> 1:30:56.760 I'm a person who enjoys sleeping outside, and I do 1:30:56.760 --> 1:30:58.680 it as often as I can. I try and camp 1:30:58.680 --> 1:31:02.320 police once a month, But that night I was cold, 1:31:02.560 --> 1:31:05.320 even underneath my down blanket, and I couldn't help but 1:31:05.360 --> 1:31:07.479 think of how desperate it must have been to spend 1:31:07.520 --> 1:31:09.439 nearly a week out there with nothing but in my 1:31:09.560 --> 1:31:13.080 last base blanket and some thorny bushes to keep you warm. 1:31:13.280 --> 1:31:15.280 It's certainly not the welcome that one would expect from 1:31:15.280 --> 1:31:18.240 the richest nation on Earth, which had three years to repair. 1:31:18.360 --> 1:31:21.000 For the day, Title forty two ended to get a 1:31:21.000 --> 1:31:23.160 bit of background on the town, I spoke to Natalie. 1:31:23.439 --> 1:31:27.800 So the previous owner bought it at an auction, and 1:31:28.840 --> 1:31:31.080 I don't think that the previous owner didn't realize how 1:31:31.160 --> 1:31:33.680 much she was getting, and he kind of just like 1:31:33.800 --> 1:31:36.040 neglected a bunch of it, you know. And then he 1:31:36.479 --> 1:31:38.799 was older, and so he finally sold off the hotel. 1:31:38.880 --> 1:31:40.479 He thought he was just buying the hotel, but he 1:31:41.040 --> 1:31:43.320 buying all the land as well. So they when they 1:31:43.320 --> 1:31:45.960 bought the hotel, they acquired all their land, and they're 1:31:45.960 --> 1:31:48.200 actually putting money into it and fixing and everything up, 1:31:48.240 --> 1:31:49.560 which is really wonderful. 1:31:50.040 --> 1:31:52.200 The hotel in Lake and hot Spring really are wonderful. 1:31:52.200 --> 1:31:53.680 But the scene that had played out there on the 1:31:53.680 --> 1:31:56.519 eleventh of May, with anything but within a short period 1:31:56.560 --> 1:31:58.880 of time, more than a thousand people of all ages 1:31:58.920 --> 1:32:01.680 and nationalities will be held in the open desert and 1:32:01.760 --> 1:32:04.760 left defend large for themselves. I let Natalie describe the 1:32:04.800 --> 1:32:05.479 space there in. 1:32:06.360 --> 1:32:10.960 There's lots of cactuses everywhere, so there's environmental like a 1:32:11.080 --> 1:32:15.400 watch out where you're walking that it's hot. It's hot 1:32:15.439 --> 1:32:17.519 in the day and really cold at night. Because it's 1:32:17.520 --> 1:32:21.240 the high desert, there can be gusts of wind that 1:32:21.320 --> 1:32:26.240 can just take over, get dust in your eyes, your hair, 1:32:26.400 --> 1:32:27.879 everything's just you're just filthy. 1:32:28.600 --> 1:32:30.840 I don't lack of food. I mean there's no resources. 1:32:30.840 --> 1:32:32.000 You're in the middle of nowhere. 1:32:32.720 --> 1:32:34.360 I talked to a lot of the volunteers, many of 1:32:34.360 --> 1:32:36.000 whom have been in the desert for me at week. 1:32:36.680 --> 1:32:39.240 It'd first been made aware of the impending humanitarian crisis 1:32:39.320 --> 1:32:41.840 late on Thursday night, but one of the people working 1:32:41.840 --> 1:32:43.640 on the renovation of the Hot Springs Hotel got a 1:32:43.680 --> 1:32:46.439 call about it. Within a few hours. The hotel zonners 1:32:46.479 --> 1:32:49.000 and all this stuff running what became very nearly the 1:32:49.040 --> 1:32:51.320 only source of food, shelter, and water for more than 1:32:51.320 --> 1:32:54.920 a thousand people trapped and held in the desert by CBP. 1:32:56.360 --> 1:32:59.360 I spoke to Sam, another volunteer, to get a sense 1:32:59.400 --> 1:33:02.920 of response. Now, Sam is a kind of guy who 1:33:03.000 --> 1:33:05.120 just looks like he's a home in the desert. His 1:33:05.200 --> 1:33:07.719 Wi brim hat, boots, and long cleeved shirt and pants 1:33:07.760 --> 1:33:09.920 told me he spent plenty of days under the baking 1:33:09.960 --> 1:33:13.240 sun out here, and his redness with an isoproble alcohol 1:33:13.280 --> 1:33:16.240 spray disinfect people's boots after walking in an area that 1:33:16.360 --> 1:33:19.040 was likely covered in human shit told me he'd been 1:33:19.080 --> 1:33:21.439 around one or two situations like this in the past. 1:33:21.920 --> 1:33:24.160 I spent a great deal of my life as his 1:33:24.200 --> 1:33:28.880 second career working for in developmental relief logistics in Southeast Asia, 1:33:28.960 --> 1:33:34.200 mainly working with large age organizations, for example World Food Program, 1:33:34.360 --> 1:33:38.160 Doctors without Borders show unise many many there from their 1:33:38.160 --> 1:33:38.719 place things. 1:33:39.120 --> 1:33:41.040 In the context of that kind of experience, it's easy 1:33:41.040 --> 1:33:44.040 to understand why people come to the United States. But 1:33:44.400 --> 1:33:47.360 I asked Sam to put the situation here into perspective. 1:33:47.400 --> 1:33:50.280 For me, it's understandable that the folks came to the US, 1:33:50.320 --> 1:33:53.360 but why to a tiny desert town of five hundred people. 1:33:53.760 --> 1:33:56.200 These people were radically unprepared for what they were going 1:33:56.280 --> 1:33:58.240 to go through because they were sold a bill of 1:33:58.320 --> 1:34:01.559 goods by coyotes on the other side about what was 1:34:01.600 --> 1:34:04.479 going to happen to them, you understand. So they had 1:34:04.520 --> 1:34:06.920 really no idea what they were getting into at all, 1:34:07.760 --> 1:34:12.720 and so there was not anything in the way of 1:34:12.760 --> 1:34:16.559 life threatening situations for any of those people in any 1:34:16.600 --> 1:34:19.680 meaningful way, a great deal of discomfort. It could have 1:34:19.760 --> 1:34:22.920 turned very badly if these people here had not stepped up, 1:34:22.960 --> 1:34:28.880 because the border patrol was completely overwhelmed, and so there 1:34:28.960 --> 1:34:31.920 was never that bad of a situation here compared to 1:34:32.000 --> 1:34:34.160 what I have seen in other places in the past. 1:34:34.560 --> 1:34:36.559 A sound pointed out the migrants were now gone, but 1:34:36.600 --> 1:34:39.559 we were still surrounded by times of supplies. But at 1:34:39.560 --> 1:34:42.080 the time there was no way of knowing the scope 1:34:42.160 --> 1:34:45.120 or scale of the need. People reacted as best they could. 1:34:45.840 --> 1:34:49.280 Actually it was overkilled, but you had no way of 1:34:49.320 --> 1:34:51.599 knowing right at the time. There's just no way to know. 1:34:51.640 --> 1:34:53.400 How do you know ahead of time? You always ask 1:34:53.479 --> 1:34:55.840 for as much as you can get, because why would 1:34:55.840 --> 1:34:58.479 you not, I mean, you never know what. You don't 1:34:58.479 --> 1:35:00.160 know how many children with babies there are on the 1:35:00.160 --> 1:35:02.280 other side of the wall right now, might be zero, 1:35:02.439 --> 1:35:03.479 might be five hundred. 1:35:03.520 --> 1:35:06.280 You have no idea, you know, before anyone knew how 1:35:06.479 --> 1:35:08.439 if this was going to end or really what even 1:35:08.520 --> 1:35:11.439 was going on. Dozens of people across the county decided 1:35:11.439 --> 1:35:15.000 to help. One of them was Katie. Here she is 1:35:15.040 --> 1:35:17.200 describing some of the volunteers she worked alongside. 1:35:17.680 --> 1:35:21.720 There was a hard hodgepodge of people and as volunteers 1:35:21.840 --> 1:35:28.240 and leading it were some of the owners of a 1:35:28.320 --> 1:35:33.320 hotel out there, and that was the main organizers. But 1:35:33.439 --> 1:35:37.559 who showed up were people from the town, people that 1:35:37.640 --> 1:35:42.240 I knew and recognized. There were some really devout, like 1:35:42.320 --> 1:35:44.720 they're twenty four hours a day, and then there was 1:35:44.760 --> 1:35:49.439 some coming in and out. But I met people from 1:35:49.600 --> 1:35:55.240 all over the county and most of them answered the 1:35:55.320 --> 1:35:58.559 car through Instagram of the hotel. 1:35:59.360 --> 1:36:02.360 All those volunteers called their friends, who called their friends, 1:36:02.360 --> 1:36:06.320 who gradually coordinated response. Natalie first became aware of this, 1:36:06.439 --> 1:36:09.599 as many volunteers did, through an Instagram post by Melissa. 1:36:09.680 --> 1:36:11.800 Another were three co owners of the Combo Hotel. On 1:36:11.840 --> 1:36:15.280 Thursday night, just as title forty two was ending, Natalie 1:36:15.280 --> 1:36:18.000 saw the post and decided to help. At first, she 1:36:18.040 --> 1:36:20.200 wanted to leave right then at one am, as soon 1:36:20.200 --> 1:36:22.880 as she'd seen the post, but after consulting her family, 1:36:22.920 --> 1:36:25.559 she decided to make her own post. Asking for people 1:36:25.600 --> 1:36:28.959 to bring supplies that were needed soon. She was overwhelmed 1:36:28.960 --> 1:36:29.639 by the response. 1:36:30.080 --> 1:36:32.920 Yeah, I mean immediately, even at one in the morning, 1:36:32.960 --> 1:36:35.240 I was getting messages because I posted it. That's when 1:36:35.240 --> 1:36:40.360 I posted the story, I immediately got a messages from 1:36:40.479 --> 1:36:42.760 front say I'll bring a blanket over. 1:36:43.640 --> 1:36:44.600 What's your address. 1:36:45.720 --> 1:36:48.519 Yeah, everyone just kind of rallied and started bringing supplies over, 1:36:48.960 --> 1:36:52.800 collecting money as well. Some friends started collecting money and 1:36:52.800 --> 1:36:57.320 then bought stuff and brought loads of food and things 1:36:57.360 --> 1:36:58.080 to my house. 1:36:58.600 --> 1:37:01.519 Her husband ferried the supply eyes to Hakomba, where they 1:37:01.520 --> 1:37:03.960 were joined by their nations from all over the county 1:37:03.960 --> 1:37:07.679 in the old petrol station. Like Natalie, Katie also saw 1:37:07.680 --> 1:37:10.880 a post and immediately felt compelled to help. She called 1:37:10.920 --> 1:37:13.880 a friend and some members of her family instead about 1:37:13.960 --> 1:37:15.400 raising funds and buying supplies. 1:37:16.520 --> 1:37:19.599 So I met my friend at a cafe and in 1:37:19.640 --> 1:37:23.120 that in the meantime, and I don't know how much 1:37:23.160 --> 1:37:27.600 of this is really important. So in the meantime, I 1:37:27.800 --> 1:37:32.000 text my mother and my two sisters who live on 1:37:32.040 --> 1:37:34.840 the East coast, and just it was late at night 1:37:34.880 --> 1:37:39.040 for them, and I just said I would love for 1:37:39.200 --> 1:37:51.800 you to send prayers, because that's something that I believe in. 1:37:52.120 --> 1:38:01.000 I believe in prayer or intention and thought reality, and 1:38:01.120 --> 1:38:06.320 some of it was just because I felt so touched, 1:38:06.600 --> 1:38:11.280 like praying for the community that I love too. And 1:38:14.880 --> 1:38:18.200 the next thing I know, like my venmo was blowing 1:38:18.280 --> 1:38:20.559 up and there was one thousand dollars in my venmo 1:38:21.680 --> 1:38:25.840 sent from my family members. And so by the time 1:38:25.880 --> 1:38:28.880 my friend arrived, we were like, let's go and we 1:38:30.439 --> 1:38:37.360 filled our car with Amazingly, we found like organic, there's 1:38:37.520 --> 1:38:41.920 grocery outlet, right, so we found organic soup for you know, 1:38:42.120 --> 1:38:48.080 dollars something a can, and we spent a few hundred dollars. 1:38:48.160 --> 1:38:52.400 And the next morning we met early and we stopped 1:38:52.439 --> 1:38:54.599 in El Cone on the way and we spent all 1:38:54.640 --> 1:38:57.400 the rest on We went to three or four thrift 1:38:57.400 --> 1:39:01.040 stores and bought every blanket and hat and baby carrier. 1:39:02.000 --> 1:39:10.720 Because we have both focused on motherhood in our careers. 1:39:11.120 --> 1:39:13.000 I asked people I spoke to about a week later 1:39:13.040 --> 1:39:14.559 how the experience had impacted them. 1:39:15.000 --> 1:39:21.679 It was overwhelming, just the way the community really came 1:39:21.920 --> 1:39:23.759 around and supported. 1:39:24.680 --> 1:39:27.120 The people in Hukumba that were trying to help. 1:39:27.760 --> 1:39:32.960 You know, after we finished cleaning up, when we're back 1:39:32.960 --> 1:39:39.640 at the gas station, the Amazon driver was delivering, like 1:39:39.720 --> 1:39:43.840 I think he delivered three hundred and fifty boxes and 1:39:43.920 --> 1:39:46.280 so we had to open them up and sort them, 1:39:46.320 --> 1:39:51.720 and it was there was so much food. I think 1:39:51.720 --> 1:39:56.559 that it was insane amount of food, and it was awesome. 1:39:56.640 --> 1:39:59.439 It was really cool just to see how many people 1:40:00.520 --> 1:40:01.240 and donated. 1:40:01.840 --> 1:40:04.759 I like some of the people I saw in Santa Cedro, Natalie, Katie, 1:40:04.840 --> 1:40:07.439 Sam and Marissa are not part of an NGO or 1:40:07.439 --> 1:40:10.599 a mutual aid collective. They're just people who wanted to help, 1:40:11.320 --> 1:40:14.280 and that describes most of the people in Hucumber, although 1:40:14.320 --> 1:40:16.960 some of them did have previous and regular volunteer experience 1:40:16.960 --> 1:40:20.080 with excellent groups like Border Kindness. I asked Katy to 1:40:20.080 --> 1:40:22.960 reflect on the mutual aid approach and the absence of massive, 1:40:23.040 --> 1:40:26.600 multimillion dollar organizations. Yeah, wasn't their n. 1:40:26.960 --> 1:40:30.679 No, they weren't there. We were told that the Red 1:40:30.720 --> 1:40:34.080 Cross couldn't come unless Border Patrol called, and Border Patrol 1:40:34.360 --> 1:40:36.920 told us that they weren't allowed to call the Red Cross. 1:40:37.200 --> 1:40:38.599 Yeh, that's a pretty standard. 1:40:38.920 --> 1:40:41.240 The one institution that did show support to people in 1:40:41.320 --> 1:40:43.559 Hucumber was one that you might not expect given the 1:40:43.560 --> 1:40:46.000 support for this cruel immigration policy. By almost all the 1:40:46.000 --> 1:40:49.720 Democrats in DC. But things are different when you can 1:40:49.760 --> 1:40:52.000 see the results of these policies with your own eyes. 1:40:52.439 --> 1:40:54.439 Perhaps that's why I didn't see a single elected official 1:40:54.479 --> 1:40:57.759 in my entire week at the border. But one person 1:40:57.800 --> 1:41:01.280 I missed who everyone mentioned was a lady who worked 1:41:01.320 --> 1:41:05.360 for California Senator Steve Pidia. I wouldn't name her as 1:41:05.400 --> 1:41:07.760 I don't have her permission, but hopefully one days, soume, 1:41:07.760 --> 1:41:10.080 we'll be able to interview her. I'll let Katie describe 1:41:10.080 --> 1:41:11.040 the role this woman played. 1:41:11.439 --> 1:41:15.960 There was someone from Steve Padilla's team, and that's the 1:41:16.000 --> 1:41:22.519 woman I rode with, and she was incredible. Her brother 1:41:22.560 --> 1:41:26.719 in law is the chef at the hotel, so I think, 1:41:27.760 --> 1:41:31.920 I mean, she might have came anyway, but she came 1:41:32.000 --> 1:41:38.040 faster and there was true connection. And she stood up 1:41:38.080 --> 1:41:41.439 to the border patrol and said, you know, said we're allowed. 1:41:41.640 --> 1:41:45.960 We're here on behalf of this senator. So I mean 1:41:46.000 --> 1:41:50.960 I saw some like had had like arguments about our 1:41:51.040 --> 1:41:55.519 right to be there, and most of us didn't. Weren't 1:41:55.560 --> 1:41:58.160 paying attention to that. We were paying attention to the 1:41:58.200 --> 1:42:02.400 people that we were, you know, around, and no one 1:42:02.520 --> 1:42:08.160 that was out there. What didn't believe that we should 1:42:08.200 --> 1:42:12.200 be out there and that more help should be out there. 1:42:13.000 --> 1:42:16.559 Sadly, part of that familiarity with the system this woman 1:42:16.640 --> 1:42:19.400 brought to the team also meant a familiarity with the 1:42:19.439 --> 1:42:22.559 cruel and arbitrary nature of it. Katie says that they 1:42:22.600 --> 1:42:23.880 had to organize for that as well. 1:42:24.320 --> 1:42:28.400 So my friend and I we ended up writing in 1:42:28.439 --> 1:42:36.639 her truck, so in Steve Padia's Senator Padia's assistant truck. 1:42:36.840 --> 1:42:41.080 So we had the opportunity to ask some questions that 1:42:41.200 --> 1:42:45.840 probably everyone out there wanted to know, including the migrants, 1:42:46.920 --> 1:42:52.200 And it was like, what will happen in what's the 1:42:52.240 --> 1:42:55.400 process from here? And how do you know that these 1:42:55.439 --> 1:42:59.519 people are being tended to? And I literally heard her 1:42:59.560 --> 1:43:03.759 on the phone getting as many bodies on the ground 1:43:03.920 --> 1:43:07.120 to start going to those centers where they're being taken 1:43:07.600 --> 1:43:11.799 to make sure that they were that we would follow 1:43:11.880 --> 1:43:19.800 them through the entire process as best possible, monitoring their 1:43:19.840 --> 1:43:23.519 well well cared for, that they were well cared for, 1:43:23.760 --> 1:43:29.960 as well cared for as possible in a system and 1:43:30.080 --> 1:43:37.479 a process like that. Yeah, yeah, but she literally said 1:43:37.640 --> 1:43:42.480 they're going to be busted off and putt in cages, 1:43:43.240 --> 1:43:46.040 and that they would do their best to make sure 1:43:46.080 --> 1:43:51.360 that that no one was split up and that everyone 1:43:51.560 --> 1:43:58.439 was fed, showered, and they weren't allowed to bring anything 1:43:58.479 --> 1:44:03.080 with them, so a lot of the cleanup was all 1:44:03.120 --> 1:44:10.559 of the things that everyone donated that had to be 1:44:10.640 --> 1:44:15.440 left behind, including some of the stuffed animals. 1:44:16.160 --> 1:44:17.960 For all the volunteers I spoke to, the chance to 1:44:17.960 --> 1:44:22.040 be of service was empowering. Here's Natalie discussing that, Yeah. 1:44:21.840 --> 1:44:23.400 I mean, well, like and so many times do you 1:44:23.439 --> 1:44:27.200 like feel overwhelmed with like so much suffering in this world, 1:44:27.240 --> 1:44:29.160 and like what can one person do? 1:44:30.000 --> 1:44:30.240 You know? 1:44:30.640 --> 1:44:34.559 And so it did feel good that to actually see 1:44:34.600 --> 1:44:37.000 an immediate impact, like I'm doing this and this is 1:44:37.000 --> 1:44:41.200 a result, because sometimes you can just get discouraged, you know, 1:44:41.280 --> 1:44:42.519 like we're just one person. 1:44:42.640 --> 1:44:44.880 What can we really do and can we really make 1:44:44.920 --> 1:44:45.880 an impact? 1:44:46.160 --> 1:44:49.879 And just seeing that and being able to see directly 1:44:49.920 --> 1:44:53.960 how that one person can impact, you know, can rally. 1:44:54.080 --> 1:44:57.559 Like just seeing how my friends came together, you know, 1:44:57.640 --> 1:45:00.519 when shopping, bought things, gathered money money. 1:45:01.520 --> 1:45:04.840 You know, my really good friend Sam, she went. 1:45:04.720 --> 1:45:08.080 To her local bar after she collected a bunch of money, 1:45:08.640 --> 1:45:11.840 went and dropped stuff supplies off at my house, she 1:45:12.000 --> 1:45:15.519 was just down at her local bar and just chatting 1:45:15.600 --> 1:45:17.880 with them and like, oh, what did you do today, 1:45:17.920 --> 1:45:19.880 And so she told them, oh, I collected money and 1:45:19.920 --> 1:45:23.679 I bought supplies and the people. She ended up collecting 1:45:23.720 --> 1:45:26.040 about two hundred more dollars at the bar from people 1:45:26.360 --> 1:45:29.240 hearing her story. And so then the next day she 1:45:29.280 --> 1:45:31.760 went and bought more supplies and she actually ended up 1:45:31.840 --> 1:45:34.960 driving them out herself. She ended up doing like three 1:45:35.080 --> 1:45:38.280 trips just from her own talking to people and collecting. 1:45:38.720 --> 1:45:41.800 So just like the little impact that you know, everyone 1:45:41.960 --> 1:45:43.880 just kind of coming together and making a difference. 1:45:58.520 --> 1:46:08.519 Santa Sidro, a pretty diverse range of San Diegan's came 1:46:08.520 --> 1:46:11.280 to help. On the first night, I personally left at 1:46:11.280 --> 1:46:13.920 about one in the morning, after spending almost two hours 1:46:13.960 --> 1:46:16.639 trying to leave but needing to get charged phones back 1:46:16.640 --> 1:46:19.960 to their owners by loudly in Spanish and French, then 1:46:20.000 --> 1:46:23.599 English describing the backgrounds on the phone or the color 1:46:23.600 --> 1:46:24.240 of their case. 1:46:25.120 --> 1:46:37.240 How can we describe it? 1:46:37.240 --> 1:46:39.960 It wasn't a great system, and by the weekend, Caber 1:46:40.000 --> 1:46:42.840 and others had seen that more help an organization was needed, 1:46:43.200 --> 1:46:46.639 and they decided to plan a response. Here's cable describing 1:46:46.640 --> 1:46:47.479 how they prepared for. 1:46:47.439 --> 1:46:58.760 That are maybe I'll just grabbed some paying attention to 1:46:59.200 --> 1:47:01.360 people I know who the grenade and what supplies they 1:47:01.360 --> 1:47:05.120 were saying was needed. A particular store near me has 1:47:05.160 --> 1:47:08.479 like a wall of travel size like the Giant Times, 1:47:08.520 --> 1:47:11.360 where you can basically just scoop out one hundred deodorant, 1:47:11.720 --> 1:47:13.400 hands and to paste and things like that. 1:47:13.960 --> 1:47:15.639 CAPA met up with some other members of a local 1:47:15.720 --> 1:47:18.679 mutual aid group. I'll make sure to include donation links 1:47:18.680 --> 1:47:20.320 for all the groups I've mentioned at the end of 1:47:20.320 --> 1:47:22.320 this series, so please make sure to listen right through 1:47:22.320 --> 1:47:22.720 to the end. 1:47:22.960 --> 1:47:26.320 I met up with him and he had just received 1:47:26.479 --> 1:47:30.840 a bunch of donations through through mutually networks, so we 1:47:30.840 --> 1:47:33.240 were not even more of a travel size I got 1:47:33.280 --> 1:47:39.040 some truth hygiene kits and deodorant and and a bunch 1:47:39.040 --> 1:47:42.479 of friends and papers because because the kids that are 1:47:42.479 --> 1:47:48.720 between the walls don't really have actually do unfortunately, so 1:47:48.720 --> 1:47:51.760 so that those were those wereent really fast, and so 1:47:51.800 --> 1:47:54.519 we got a whole bunch of bags of all those 1:47:54.600 --> 1:47:56.479 kinds of supplies, and then we dropped down on the 1:47:56.479 --> 1:47:57.160 border from there. 1:47:57.479 --> 1:48:01.200 By the time they arrived, various organizations organized areas along 1:48:01.240 --> 1:48:03.439 the wall for different kinds of aid to be passed through. 1:48:03.960 --> 1:48:07.479 Everything from clothes to food to medical supplies and toilet 1:48:07.520 --> 1:48:09.519 paper was piled up given out. 1:48:09.720 --> 1:48:12.760 They help donations and you know, organizing toilet paper, food, 1:48:12.800 --> 1:48:14.880 everything like that, and people just come up to the 1:48:14.920 --> 1:48:17.000 wall and if their family needed something, they would just 1:48:17.120 --> 1:48:19.920 kind of pointing to it. Were asked us if we 1:48:19.960 --> 1:48:21.320 were a bit there, you know, if there was a 1:48:21.360 --> 1:48:24.439 common language there. So yeah, we just kind of you know, 1:48:24.640 --> 1:48:29.040 pay things as people needed them. I know that I 1:48:29.080 --> 1:48:31.200 helped him out some of the friends and pads of 1:48:31.240 --> 1:48:33.760 paper and those were those were a big hit. And 1:48:33.880 --> 1:48:37.240 tons of kids all came running over from the whole 1:48:37.439 --> 1:48:39.000 all the parts of the camp when they heard that 1:48:39.040 --> 1:48:42.760 there was there were toys being given out, so that 1:48:42.920 --> 1:48:46.000 was it was. It was heartbreaking, but it was also 1:48:47.200 --> 1:48:48.320 you know, it made me smile to. 1:48:48.680 --> 1:48:51.240 See them smile in this male Because of the need 1:48:51.280 --> 1:48:53.120 to use c BP one and of course they need 1:48:53.160 --> 1:48:55.600 to stay in touch with families back home, there was 1:48:55.640 --> 1:48:59.799 a constant and overwhelming demand for phone charging. News reporters 1:48:59.840 --> 1:49:02.439 took phones back to charge in their cars. Some people 1:49:02.479 --> 1:49:06.040 bought charge bricks and power strips, and mutual aid groups 1:49:06.080 --> 1:49:08.599 wrote names on the back of the phones using painter's 1:49:08.640 --> 1:49:11.720 tape and sharpie so they wouldn't get separated from their owners. 1:49:12.280 --> 1:49:14.519 But the second day it was a better system. But 1:49:14.680 --> 1:49:17.240 on the first day it was chaos. I'll let Kber, 1:49:17.240 --> 1:49:19.880 who spent a whole day charging phones described the system 1:49:19.920 --> 1:49:22.160 that volunteers came up with to mitigate that chaos a 1:49:22.160 --> 1:49:22.599 little bit. 1:49:23.200 --> 1:49:26.680 And obviously they couldn't charge their phones if they're just 1:49:26.760 --> 1:49:31.519 in this kind of desert gap between between these walls 1:49:31.560 --> 1:49:35.639 that doesn't have any kind of minimies or anything. So 1:49:35.800 --> 1:49:39.800 we had a system where they would pass the phone through, 1:49:39.960 --> 1:49:43.599 and we had we would we would put a piece 1:49:43.600 --> 1:49:46.360 of tape on it with their name and give their 1:49:46.400 --> 1:49:48.840 a piece of tape with their name the same name, 1:49:49.000 --> 1:49:51.000 and then they would give us that if they came 1:49:51.000 --> 1:49:53.479 back to give us the tape back, and we would 1:49:53.560 --> 1:49:57.080 match their names and in the phone, and and that 1:49:57.360 --> 1:50:01.320 was it worked well enough. I mean, it was still 1:50:01.760 --> 1:50:05.000 extraordinarily chaotic process. I mean we had we always had 1:50:05.000 --> 1:50:07.519 at least one hundred phones on our side of the 1:50:07.520 --> 1:50:12.120 wallet any given time, and and some people had, you know, 1:50:12.160 --> 1:50:14.200 some people like chargers, some people didn't. Some people had 1:50:14.240 --> 1:50:19.080 Android or Samsung or all the iPhones, and some people 1:50:19.160 --> 1:50:21.479 had well adaptors and some people didn't have the wallet 1:50:21.560 --> 1:50:24.320 ESA adapters, so we kind of had to every phone 1:50:24.320 --> 1:50:26.160 that came through was we had to find a way 1:50:26.200 --> 1:50:29.439 to get it, you know, basically chained into the set 1:50:29.479 --> 1:50:31.320 of generators that we had, which was do we have 1:50:31.320 --> 1:50:33.679 power strips? Do we have to write cables and and 1:50:33.680 --> 1:50:36.800 and we have space on those cables and and I 1:50:36.800 --> 1:50:38.839 think it was it was a bit of a puzzle 1:50:38.920 --> 1:50:41.200 the whole time. The only part of it that really 1:50:41.200 --> 1:50:46.080 overwhelmed me was we did overload. Someone brought a bunch 1:50:46.120 --> 1:50:51.559 of uh USBC power strips and we blew out one 1:50:51.560 --> 1:50:56.240 of them, and so there was now eight phones attached 1:50:56.240 --> 1:50:57.960 to it that I had to find new spaces for. 1:50:58.760 --> 1:51:02.240 And I was just like as long as I was 1:51:02.920 --> 1:51:16.559 just frustrated by the situation. In addition affair, I think 1:51:17.920 --> 1:51:18.680 whatever happened to. 1:51:18.640 --> 1:51:21.680 It, it was chaos, but it was a good nature chaos. 1:51:22.280 --> 1:51:24.679 Over several days that migrants were attained in the open 1:51:24.720 --> 1:51:27.599 with no shelter and inadequate sanitation, just about two miles 1:51:27.600 --> 1:51:30.200 from the discount mall where you can buy cheap ralpherend shirts. 1:51:30.200 --> 1:51:33.960 If that's your jam. People showed up in ever increasing numbers. 1:51:34.680 --> 1:51:38.120 The American Friends Service Committee helped organize volunteers into groups 1:51:38.200 --> 1:51:42.320 to distribute food, package up wet white snacks, medicines, give 1:51:42.320 --> 1:51:45.240 out tarps, and do just about anything else that they 1:51:45.280 --> 1:51:47.960 could or anything else that they could fit into ziploc 1:51:48.000 --> 1:51:49.559 bags that could be passed through gaps in the wall. 1:51:49.600 --> 1:51:50.040 At least. 1:51:50.880 --> 1:51:53.080 People who had been immigrants themselves or who were the 1:51:53.160 --> 1:51:57.720 children of immigrants were notably numerous among the volunteers. I 1:51:57.760 --> 1:51:58.879 spoke to one of them. 1:51:59.439 --> 1:52:00.519 My name is Launchai. 1:52:01.720 --> 1:52:05.439 I'm part of Asian Soliday Collective grass with organization here 1:52:05.479 --> 1:52:06.480 in San Diego. 1:52:07.120 --> 1:52:09.360 I've been I've been coming over here since yesterday. 1:52:09.880 --> 1:52:12.400 I came here around five six yesterday, and then I 1:52:12.439 --> 1:52:15.120 came back through here this morning and been here since. 1:52:15.280 --> 1:52:17.559 I got home at twelve last night and woke up, 1:52:17.640 --> 1:52:20.320 dropped my kid off, and came right back with more supplies. 1:52:20.360 --> 1:52:23.680 I've been reaching out to family, friends and community to 1:52:23.760 --> 1:52:25.760 help donate supplies and things like. 1:52:25.640 --> 1:52:27.519 That, food, whatever, whatever they may have. 1:52:28.120 --> 1:52:32.320 And I've pretty much been driving around city and collecting 1:52:32.360 --> 1:52:34.559 from folks that can't make it so I could bring 1:52:34.560 --> 1:52:35.400 it down here myself. 1:52:36.080 --> 1:52:37.040 So that's what I've been. 1:52:36.880 --> 1:52:39.639 Doing LUNCHA explained to me why it was so important 1:52:39.640 --> 1:52:41.600 to show up my community. 1:52:42.800 --> 1:52:45.960 I'm pretty sure they they they're sympathetic to this because 1:52:46.479 --> 1:52:49.920 I'm coming from I'm a first generation Camboden American here 1:52:49.960 --> 1:52:53.519 in the US, and when my parents and my family 1:52:53.560 --> 1:52:58.000 fled their country, they went through this as well. So 1:52:58.080 --> 1:53:01.960 somebody somewhere came man provided to supports, provided to aid 1:53:02.000 --> 1:53:04.559 the donations for them to be able to to make 1:53:04.600 --> 1:53:07.840 it to America to crossover, and and able to to 1:53:07.840 --> 1:53:11.000 to provide out here for for me growing up out here. 1:53:11.160 --> 1:53:11.360 You know. 1:53:11.479 --> 1:53:14.200 So it's just I just sympathize with it, with the 1:53:14.240 --> 1:53:15.799 whole thing. I mean, I mean. 1:53:15.640 --> 1:53:18.919 Everybody should should should feel the same way because somewhere 1:53:18.920 --> 1:53:22.040 down the line, our families went through similar situations. If 1:53:22.040 --> 1:53:25.080 you're not an indigenous, then then then your family somewhere 1:53:25.120 --> 1:53:26.840 down down to history went through the same thing. 1:53:27.000 --> 1:53:28.800 So you know that everybody should have a heart for 1:53:28.840 --> 1:53:29.519 this and be able. 1:53:29.360 --> 1:53:31.880 To come down here and and and and donate or 1:53:31.920 --> 1:53:34.120 donate their time or supplies whatever the case may be. 1:53:34.200 --> 1:53:35.120 You don't come out in help. 1:53:35.640 --> 1:53:38.879 He also explained why he feels it's important to encourage 1:53:38.880 --> 1:53:40.000 empathy for refugees. 1:53:40.520 --> 1:53:42.160 Well, it's it's you have to you have to, you 1:53:42.200 --> 1:53:44.040 have to be keep in mind, there's there's this families 1:53:44.040 --> 1:53:46.920 out here, there's this young children, there's babies. I mean, 1:53:46.960 --> 1:53:49.640 it takes a lot for for for a mother to 1:53:49.720 --> 1:53:52.120 pick up her infant child and to to leave where 1:53:52.160 --> 1:53:52.920 she's coming from. 1:53:53.080 --> 1:53:55.240 So that just says a lot about where. 1:53:55.000 --> 1:53:56.920 What's going on where she's coming for for her to 1:53:56.920 --> 1:53:59.479 to to trek and to go through this, to to 1:53:59.520 --> 1:54:00.920 sit out here and cold and stuff. 1:54:00.920 --> 1:54:03.720 Because if she would rather endure her endure. 1:54:03.520 --> 1:54:06.960 This and take the risk and the chances that means 1:54:06.960 --> 1:54:09.840 where she's coming from is not as you know, she's 1:54:09.880 --> 1:54:10.880 wanted to take that risk. 1:54:11.920 --> 1:54:14.040 Later that night, I saw an Afghan family come to 1:54:14.080 --> 1:54:17.200 help the other Afghan families. Their kids talk to other 1:54:17.280 --> 1:54:21.200 Afghan kids separated by the border war. They passed crayons 1:54:21.200 --> 1:54:24.040 through the wall and coloring books, and the little daughter 1:54:24.080 --> 1:54:25.800 asked her dad if she could give her watch to 1:54:25.840 --> 1:54:28.200 the Afghan girl being held in the camp. Her dad said, 1:54:28.200 --> 1:54:31.839 of course, I don't record or photograph people's children, certainly 1:54:32.320 --> 1:54:34.400 not without asking, And I wasn't about to interrupt them, 1:54:34.440 --> 1:54:37.200 but it was a very sweet moment. The father of 1:54:37.240 --> 1:54:39.600 the family had worked in the Army Corps of Engineers. 1:54:40.080 --> 1:54:42.800 He'd been to the border before to build this section 1:54:42.880 --> 1:54:45.680 of the wall. I didn't really need to ask him 1:54:45.760 --> 1:54:47.680 how it felt to see folks stuck behind it, but 1:54:48.200 --> 1:54:49.680 it said a lot that he and his family had 1:54:49.680 --> 1:54:52.880 taken the time to drive down, buy bags and supplies, 1:54:53.240 --> 1:54:54.920 and then come face to face with the people who 1:54:54.960 --> 1:54:58.400 needed them and hand them out. Like dozens of other folks, 1:54:58.600 --> 1:55:00.960 they tried to pass whatever they could to little gaps 1:55:01.000 --> 1:55:03.839 in the wall to make someone's day a little bit brighter. 1:55:04.720 --> 1:55:07.120 Another volunteer who we heard from yesterday came from a 1:55:07.160 --> 1:55:10.600 local group called Pana. Hermira had been at the wall 1:55:10.640 --> 1:55:12.280 since five in the morning, and it was getting on 1:55:12.280 --> 1:55:15.000 for five pm when we spoke. I normally ask people 1:55:15.000 --> 1:55:16.560 what they ate for breakfast, just to tune in the 1:55:16.640 --> 1:55:18.840 volume levels on my recorder a bit, but I'm going 1:55:18.880 --> 1:55:20.600 to include it this time, just so you can see 1:55:20.600 --> 1:55:22.120 how long her day had been and how hard she'd 1:55:22.160 --> 1:55:22.600 been working. 1:55:23.400 --> 1:55:25.600 Okay, do you know what do you want me to say? 1:55:25.800 --> 1:55:26.160 So that good? 1:55:26.240 --> 1:55:27.480 I mean, we have a breakfast vegan. 1:55:27.760 --> 1:55:31.960 I don't remember anymore French shast frend shosts. But my 1:55:32.040 --> 1:55:34.560 name is Harmaira Usafi, and I'm with a Partnership for 1:55:34.600 --> 1:55:38.120 the Advancement of New Americans PANA, or, an organization in 1:55:38.160 --> 1:55:41.720 San Diego that fights for the full incusion of refugees 1:55:42.160 --> 1:55:45.680 and those who come from refugee producing countries. 1:55:46.480 --> 1:55:48.800 We spoke about the emergency that had kept her here 1:55:48.840 --> 1:55:49.200 all day. 1:55:49.480 --> 1:55:52.160 So in terms of this morning, I mean I was, 1:55:52.240 --> 1:55:55.240 I was, you know, very concerned because there was an 1:55:55.320 --> 1:56:00.680 asylum seeker who had an emergency and was rushed out 1:56:00.720 --> 1:56:03.040 of this place. Where now, like for example, where we 1:56:03.080 --> 1:56:06.960 are at right now is people who are being detained 1:56:07.520 --> 1:56:10.800 and the most inhumane way possible. This is going against 1:56:10.840 --> 1:56:14.920 CBP's own protocols and policies as to how they're being 1:56:15.000 --> 1:56:18.200 detained with. No they're not giving them food, they're not 1:56:18.240 --> 1:56:21.160 giving them bathrooms, they're not giving them basic basic things 1:56:21.200 --> 1:56:23.160 that they need to survive. And so that's why the 1:56:23.160 --> 1:56:25.440 community is out here today to do that. 1:56:30.600 --> 1:56:33.400 Sadly, not everyone who showed up at the makeshift detention 1:56:33.480 --> 1:56:37.360 facility were showing up in solidarity. Local anti migrant activists 1:56:37.360 --> 1:56:39.920 and blogger Roger Ogden showed up. Now Ogden might be 1:56:39.920 --> 1:56:42.200 familiar to some listeners due to his attempts to host 1:56:42.280 --> 1:56:44.960 he called a Patriot picnic and his advocacy for the 1:56:45.040 --> 1:56:49.040 removal of the historic murals in Chicano Park. Ogden organized 1:56:49.080 --> 1:56:51.480 gatherings in the park in twenty seventeen and twenty eighteen, 1:56:51.800 --> 1:56:54.560 and they resulted in a huge and overwhelming community response 1:56:54.640 --> 1:56:58.040 to defend the park, and this time Olgden decided to 1:56:58.120 --> 1:57:01.440 keep to himself, but Natalie ran into some people who 1:57:01.840 --> 1:57:03.680 weren't quite as shy about their opinions. 1:57:04.000 --> 1:57:06.880 You know, a lot of the people in the community. 1:57:06.920 --> 1:57:10.640 Are you know, lower income, and you know, they are 1:57:10.800 --> 1:57:14.560 struggling in their own struggle on their and so I know, 1:57:16.880 --> 1:57:19.720 you know, maybe I don't know it like for those people, 1:57:19.760 --> 1:57:26.400 I don't know, like, yeah, it's hard, I don't know. 1:57:27.760 --> 1:57:30.000 I mean, towards the end, like when I was walking 1:57:30.040 --> 1:57:33.240 to my car, this man, this man in a car 1:57:33.320 --> 1:57:35.280 like pulled up and he's like, excuse me, what's going 1:57:35.320 --> 1:57:37.440 on over there? And I was like, Oh, we're gathering 1:57:37.480 --> 1:57:41.360 you know, supplies for the asylum seekers. And then I 1:57:41.800 --> 1:57:43.680 you know, like if you're from here, you kind of 1:57:43.840 --> 1:57:45.680 if you're in hookum, but you kind of already knew 1:57:45.720 --> 1:57:48.320 what was going on. And so him asking me that, 1:57:48.440 --> 1:57:50.440 I was kind of like mm, and then he just 1:57:50.480 --> 1:57:55.520 started laying into I've had illegals, you know, have broken 1:57:55.560 --> 1:57:58.280 into my house a few times. Why are you supporting illegals? 1:57:58.280 --> 1:58:01.480 And I'm like, we're trying to let like make sure 1:58:01.480 --> 1:58:04.680 that people don't die, and he just kept going off 1:58:04.720 --> 1:58:07.000 on me, and so he, you know, his the whole 1:58:09.240 --> 1:58:13.960 all the talking points that people have about not allowing 1:58:14.480 --> 1:58:17.880 people to seek asylum here, and so. 1:58:17.920 --> 1:58:18.800 I just walked away. 1:58:19.360 --> 1:58:21.960 Maurica didn't run into the same kind of vocal opposition, 1:58:22.160 --> 1:58:25.160 but she said in her conversations and attempts to process 1:58:25.160 --> 1:58:27.680 everything she'd seen, she ran into some of the sort 1:58:27.680 --> 1:58:29.960 of need yate responses. So people can only really make 1:58:30.000 --> 1:58:32.520 about immigration when they haven't looked the cruelty that they're 1:58:32.520 --> 1:58:33.680 advocating for in the face. 1:58:34.160 --> 1:58:37.840 It took me a little while to kind of work 1:58:37.880 --> 1:58:41.480 through just how I felt about it on an emotional, 1:58:43.840 --> 1:58:48.200 maybe a spiritual level. I you know, I spoke with 1:58:48.280 --> 1:58:53.880 family and friends about it, about my experience, and and 1:58:54.040 --> 1:58:58.600 it's it's difficult to I found it difficult to explain 1:58:59.080 --> 1:59:04.800 my experience because I don't know that somebody can really 1:59:04.840 --> 1:59:07.480 truly understand that unless they've actually been out there and 1:59:07.520 --> 1:59:13.800 done it themselves, because the arguments or or they're kind of. 1:59:15.760 --> 1:59:17.680 Debate, so to speak. 1:59:17.720 --> 1:59:20.600 What they would come back at me with when I 1:59:20.680 --> 1:59:25.360 was sharing that is, but we don't have enough food 1:59:25.640 --> 1:59:28.560 or housing to be able to support this that many 1:59:28.600 --> 1:59:31.760 people coming in, And I'm like, but we just had 1:59:32.560 --> 1:59:35.360 so many people and so much money put out there 1:59:35.440 --> 1:59:38.080 to help in a very short amount of time. Look 1:59:38.080 --> 1:59:41.400 how many donations were donated, how much money was contributed 1:59:41.440 --> 1:59:43.480 in a short amount of time from not that many people. 1:59:43.520 --> 1:59:46.600 I'm like, obviously we do have the money. Obviously we 1:59:46.680 --> 1:59:51.840 do have the food. So where's the where's the breakdown? Like, 1:59:51.920 --> 1:59:55.240 is it our system that just doesn't allow for that happened? 1:59:55.280 --> 1:59:57.080 I don't know, And that that's where I like, I 1:59:57.120 --> 1:59:59.040 don't I don't understand it enough. 1:59:59.120 --> 1:59:59.800 But I feel like. 2:00:01.920 --> 2:00:04.840 It just made me realize that I don't know that 2:00:05.120 --> 2:00:09.360 anybody that I spoke to afterward really understands it enough, 2:00:09.400 --> 2:00:13.800 either because their arguments or they're a defense and what 2:00:13.840 --> 2:00:17.000 they tried to share on the opposite side of me 2:00:17.160 --> 2:00:19.840 going out there and supporting just felt like it was 2:00:24.680 --> 2:00:27.160 just something to say, you know, and like what they 2:00:27.240 --> 2:00:31.120 what they hear from the general media out there, and 2:00:31.360 --> 2:00:34.920 they also don't really they can't quite grasp it, so 2:00:34.960 --> 2:00:36.960 they're just kind of throwing something out there, I guess 2:00:37.120 --> 2:00:38.560 is what it what it felt like. 2:00:39.280 --> 2:00:42.240 Kaiba also ran into some less in charitable San Diegans, 2:00:42.280 --> 2:00:43.600 this time down in sant Asedra. 2:00:44.320 --> 2:00:47.760 Yeah, so, I guess the first part is why they 2:00:47.840 --> 2:00:49.880 might have or why they might have found us there, 2:00:50.560 --> 2:00:56.960 which is theres a local news organization SANE, which is 2:00:58.360 --> 2:01:01.600 kind of I would describe as ayal equivalent of something 2:01:01.600 --> 2:01:03.680 like one American News, which is really unfortunate because we 2:01:03.720 --> 2:01:09.120 already have more American news here. But they are are 2:01:09.960 --> 2:01:15.760 pretty well known for kind of a lot of like misinformation, 2:01:16.840 --> 2:01:22.280 kind of scare mongering about and has people, immigrants, vaccines 2:01:22.320 --> 2:01:24.560 and and all that sort of sort of thing, but 2:01:24.640 --> 2:01:26.840 with kind of a local news sort of aesthetic to it. 2:01:27.440 --> 2:01:29.280 And they were, as far as I could tell, they 2:01:29.280 --> 2:01:32.080 were really the only identify the media that were there 2:01:32.520 --> 2:01:35.640 throughout the day. I read articles eventually made me realize 2:01:35.680 --> 2:01:40.640 there were other reporters there, but they were identifying themselves 2:01:40.640 --> 2:01:43.200 the way that has I was, but they had signed 2:01:43.320 --> 2:01:46.800 was one cameraman just shooting the rule. I guess and 2:01:46.840 --> 2:01:48.640 he was walking to all the different parts of the 2:01:48.640 --> 2:01:51.480 wall and like all the different sort of stations for 2:01:51.560 --> 2:01:54.480 aid and like trying to really trying to get as 2:01:54.480 --> 2:01:57.520 many faces as possible. You could kind of tell that 2:01:57.520 --> 2:02:01.480 that's like what he was doing. Every one was around 2:02:01.520 --> 2:02:03.600 I was, I was kind of oriented, and most of 2:02:03.640 --> 2:02:07.400 them with kind of their backband sort of analysts between people, 2:02:08.440 --> 2:02:10.680 and you know, when they saw the players trap, they're 2:02:10.760 --> 2:02:14.120 like a pappoints their masking, you know, and killing them 2:02:14.640 --> 2:02:18.839 in so where and I am don't you know, slightly 2:02:19.000 --> 2:02:23.400 identifying logo on my struct shirt which I take over 2:02:24.320 --> 2:02:27.480 so that you know that image wouldn't show up. 2:02:28.120 --> 2:02:28.320 Now. 2:02:28.520 --> 2:02:31.040 K us I have drifted further and further right since 2:02:31.040 --> 2:02:35.360 twenty twenty. Along with their relatively miniscule viewership. These days, 2:02:35.400 --> 2:02:37.879 they engage in fake news culture war stuff, like repeating 2:02:37.880 --> 2:02:40.840 the recent false accusations that Target was making tuckable swimming 2:02:40.880 --> 2:02:44.320 costumes for kids, or labeling everyone in the asylum process 2:02:44.320 --> 2:02:48.280 illegal immigrants. It's sadly pretty standard for writing news organizations now. 2:02:49.120 --> 2:02:50.960 Kaiba thinks that some of the people who saw footage 2:02:50.960 --> 2:02:53.480 on k USI, or perhaps found the location posted on 2:02:53.600 --> 2:02:56.000 Ogden's blog came down to the border. 2:02:56.320 --> 2:03:00.120 That's that's the one short in to see people know 2:03:01.520 --> 2:03:05.520 kind of go buy and and and we could tell 2:03:05.560 --> 2:03:08.160 that they weren't volunteers because like pop when people like playing, 2:03:08.200 --> 2:03:10.840 people who weren't even necessarily vounteer would are buy and 2:03:10.840 --> 2:03:12.280 say like hey, I just heard out going on. I 2:03:12.280 --> 2:03:14.240 brought a piece of water, and and they bring up 2:03:14.240 --> 2:03:16.600 the water and then they drive away. But the people 2:03:16.640 --> 2:03:18.760 who are doing who were like cute where I think, 2:03:18.840 --> 2:03:20.600 you know, kind of do some kind of intimidation where 2:03:21.400 --> 2:03:24.240 you know, they wouldn't approach directly. They would just kind 2:03:24.240 --> 2:03:28.880 of get out of their exceptionally large entivies and and 2:03:29.040 --> 2:03:32.560 just kind of just kind of watch, and they would 2:03:32.640 --> 2:03:34.120 kind of, you know, get a little bit closer at 2:03:34.120 --> 2:03:36.600 a time, and then you know a little bit closer 2:03:37.880 --> 2:03:39.840 and kind of whispered to each other and you know, 2:03:40.000 --> 2:03:41.880 point at things, and you know it's just kind of 2:03:42.040 --> 2:03:44.760 they were just watching, and you know, they got close 2:03:44.840 --> 2:03:47.280 enough that I could read their shirts and and the 2:03:47.600 --> 2:03:52.280 shirts had a slogan that's associated with a Christian nationalism slogan. 2:03:53.360 --> 2:03:55.040 So as this whole family is kind of kind of 2:03:55.040 --> 2:03:59.000 sad that the kids would wear the shirts too, and 2:03:59.000 --> 2:04:02.920 and so I kind of, yeah, I figured out that 2:04:03.000 --> 2:04:05.120 that's what was going on. And I never talked to them. 2:04:05.160 --> 2:04:08.240 I didn't approach them, but I stood when I was, 2:04:08.360 --> 2:04:10.120 you know, seeing they closer with this or I kind 2:04:10.120 --> 2:04:14.000 of positioned myself in between the rest of the volunteers and 2:04:14.000 --> 2:04:17.880 in this group, and and just kind of, you know, 2:04:18.400 --> 2:04:21.120 did never really stare at them, just kind of looked 2:04:21.120 --> 2:04:23.560 at them and and just made it clear with my 2:04:23.600 --> 2:04:26.640 body language that I, like I knew what they were doing, 2:04:26.640 --> 2:04:28.280 like they weren't you know, they weren't doing any kind 2:04:28.280 --> 2:04:31.040 of secret agent thing or whatever, like they were being 2:04:31.120 --> 2:04:34.240 really really obvious. And and I just you know, stood 2:04:34.520 --> 2:04:37.000 and positioned myself in a way that dicated that you know, 2:04:37.040 --> 2:04:38.440 I know what you're doing, and you're not going to 2:04:38.440 --> 2:04:41.520 get close. You're not going to interfere with you know, 2:04:41.600 --> 2:04:43.080 what we're doing here. You're not going to contact to 2:04:43.120 --> 2:04:46.040 anyone or you trill anyone or like what everyone did. 2:04:47.120 --> 2:04:50.680 And eventually one of the people who is either volunteer 2:04:50.840 --> 2:04:52.800 or work for like one of the mngos contesting tell 2:04:52.840 --> 2:04:55.600 there was something going on. So Sho went over and 2:04:56.040 --> 2:04:58.440 had a conversation with them that I could hear and 2:04:58.480 --> 2:05:02.400 eventually they decided to leave, and I think she was 2:05:02.440 --> 2:05:04.560 just kind of trying to be diplomatic, but just sort 2:05:04.560 --> 2:05:06.520 of like asked them if they wanted to help and 2:05:06.520 --> 2:05:11.240 if they don't want to help, you, yeah, somewhere else, 2:05:11.280 --> 2:05:17.280 I suppose. And it was I mean, the sort of 2:05:17.760 --> 2:05:21.879 one Amazon prior to people that was that they apparently 2:05:22.720 --> 2:05:26.120 complained to this person about me because they said that 2:05:27.240 --> 2:05:30.000 I had been watching them and I was I was 2:05:30.080 --> 2:05:34.600 racially profiling them because they were white. And I realized 2:05:34.600 --> 2:05:36.520 now that this is an around this interview, but just 2:05:36.560 --> 2:05:39.320 for the listeners, I am very very white myself. 2:05:39.960 --> 2:05:42.880 I think it's important when we discuss volunteering to honor 2:05:42.920 --> 2:05:46.440 how hard this kind of experience could be on people. Obviously, 2:05:46.520 --> 2:05:49.120 the trauma associated with seeing people brutalized by the state 2:05:49.120 --> 2:05:51.240 and capital is not the same as being brutalized by 2:05:51.280 --> 2:05:54.400 state and capital yourself. But that doesn't mean it's easy. 2:05:55.440 --> 2:05:57.720 I asked Natalie to reflect a little on children's toys 2:05:57.720 --> 2:05:59.480 we found in the shelter when we were cleaning up 2:05:59.520 --> 2:06:00.600 the camp, like. 2:06:00.560 --> 2:06:02.680 As a mom, like I have my own children, and 2:06:02.720 --> 2:06:06.720 it just really it was emotional. It's like it's just 2:06:08.400 --> 2:06:11.400 like I'm like, who's who? What child was playing with this? 2:06:12.160 --> 2:06:15.480 You know here in this space, and you know that 2:06:15.560 --> 2:06:19.440 no child should be ever in, you know, an encampment 2:06:19.560 --> 2:06:23.240 like that or it just no one should be living outside, 2:06:23.480 --> 2:06:25.960 no one should be doing that. But also it's like 2:06:26.040 --> 2:06:28.680 kind of like the humanity in a way like that. 2:06:29.080 --> 2:06:32.360 You know, even a child's going to play wherever child's 2:06:32.400 --> 2:06:35.440 going to play, and like that little toy of little 2:06:36.200 --> 2:06:39.600 hopefully it brought that kid some joy in that moment, 2:06:39.720 --> 2:06:41.760 you know, if it was there a little piece of 2:06:41.840 --> 2:06:45.320 home or someone gave it to him or what, you know, 2:06:46.640 --> 2:06:49.640 it was Yeah, the reality, it was like it was 2:06:49.720 --> 2:06:51.760 like a person, you know, like a little artifact of 2:06:51.800 --> 2:06:53.040 someone who was actually there. 2:06:53.560 --> 2:06:55.680 You know, like it was a little more tangible than 2:06:56.080 --> 2:06:58.520 you know, a sock. You know, that's not that's not 2:06:58.560 --> 2:07:00.200 I'm not the you know who wore that sock. But 2:07:00.600 --> 2:07:03.760 think of who who was playing with that joy? You know? 2:07:04.000 --> 2:07:05.800 Was it a little boy a little girl? At hold? 2:07:05.800 --> 2:07:08.680 Were they did they bring up home? Are they missing it? 2:07:09.440 --> 2:07:11.160 When they? When I saw they have that, she needed 2:07:11.160 --> 2:07:12.080 people to clean up. 2:07:12.600 --> 2:07:15.600 It was like Okay, I took a day off of 2:07:15.640 --> 2:07:21.400 work and went out there and just felt overwhelming almost. 2:07:21.600 --> 2:07:24.080 I mean, just one day of me working out there 2:07:25.000 --> 2:07:28.320 was really emotional. I can't imagine how you know, Melissa 2:07:28.320 --> 2:07:29.880 and all the people that were on the ground just 2:07:29.920 --> 2:07:32.600 dealing with it. I know they're just struggling a little 2:07:32.640 --> 2:07:37.000 bit and just processing it all has been really hard, 2:07:37.480 --> 2:07:42.000 you know, really hard. It's just just just how how 2:07:42.080 --> 2:07:44.520 privileged we are. You know, like no one leaves their 2:07:44.520 --> 2:07:47.800 country because they want to. They leave because they have to, 2:07:48.960 --> 2:07:51.600 but they feel like they have to. And you know, 2:07:52.240 --> 2:07:57.560 it's i mean, just respecting and honoring and understanding the 2:07:57.560 --> 2:07:58.400 privilege that you're. 2:07:58.280 --> 2:08:03.800 In and not taking for granted because it's very easy too. 2:08:05.120 --> 2:08:07.839 Both Katie Marisa said they don't really identify as political 2:08:07.840 --> 2:08:11.440 and that they wanted to be there as people. Sometimes 2:08:11.440 --> 2:08:15.240 often politics can become a complicated game of numbers and statistics, 2:08:15.640 --> 2:08:17.480 but it's important to remember that what this is really 2:08:17.520 --> 2:08:19.760 about is organizing in such a way that we can 2:08:19.800 --> 2:08:22.360 take care of one another, and that the most important 2:08:22.400 --> 2:08:24.960 politics of war is the politics of feeding hungry people 2:08:25.000 --> 2:08:29.040 and maybe bringing a sad child of stuffed animal. Here's 2:08:29.120 --> 2:08:30.800 Katie talking about the community response. 2:08:32.080 --> 2:08:36.120 I think I'm a really compassionate person and I'm not 2:08:36.520 --> 2:08:40.520 very political in the sense that like I don't really participate. 2:08:43.280 --> 2:08:49.120 My life in my community's life is solution oriented. So 2:08:51.480 --> 2:08:56.920 I saw like that on a large scale, like when 2:08:57.040 --> 2:09:03.720 people come together, we create solutions when and you don't 2:09:03.800 --> 2:09:08.680 wait for someone like the government to show up and 2:09:08.760 --> 2:09:14.760 fix it, because then people will die. Yeah, you know, 2:09:15.200 --> 2:09:19.840 I mean that's the reality is if that community didn't activate, 2:09:20.320 --> 2:09:22.120 there would have been a lot of dead people in 2:09:22.160 --> 2:09:22.680 the desert. 2:09:23.640 --> 2:09:25.800 Katie shared with me that she's been having a difficult time, 2:09:26.280 --> 2:09:28.600 feeling guilty for not having the language skills to do 2:09:28.680 --> 2:09:31.160 more and questing her own worthiness to be their helping 2:09:31.960 --> 2:09:34.360 But in the end, she said she felt that what 2:09:34.440 --> 2:09:37.600 she'd done was right and important. I'll leave you with 2:09:37.640 --> 2:09:40.120 her thoughts and tomorrow I'll be back to talk about 2:09:40.120 --> 2:09:42.200 the people who put everyone in this situation in the 2:09:42.200 --> 2:09:45.360 first place, the Department of Homeland Security. 2:09:46.640 --> 2:09:50.640 I think an important thing is like so many times 2:09:51.600 --> 2:09:55.240 we hear about things and we say, isn't that awful, 2:09:55.400 --> 2:09:59.400 and we kind of shut down because we don't feel 2:10:00.400 --> 2:10:06.839 empowered or we don't know how to help. And literally 2:10:07.000 --> 2:10:14.520 a smile makes a difference, a feeling of like I 2:10:14.640 --> 2:10:18.640 see you and you belong on this planet makes a difference. 2:10:19.520 --> 2:10:25.920 And you know, little kids packing up canned goods and 2:10:26.600 --> 2:10:31.240 fruit snacks for other little kids. They didn't see those kids, 2:10:31.240 --> 2:10:34.520 but when the adult said they're gonna be so happy 2:10:34.640 --> 2:10:38.800 to get that package, they felt like they made a difference. 2:10:39.480 --> 2:10:42.520 And those little girls are gonna grow up and not 2:10:42.720 --> 2:10:46.960 be afraid to step up and make a difference. I 2:10:47.000 --> 2:10:49.880 think a lot of people think like they can't do enough, 2:10:50.120 --> 2:10:53.680 so they don't do anything. And if we all just 2:10:53.880 --> 2:10:59.760 do a little bit or what you can, then I 2:10:59.760 --> 2:11:05.720 think we would see a very large impact. Kumba is 2:11:05.760 --> 2:11:09.760 a town of five hundred and they just fed thousands, 2:11:11.600 --> 2:11:21.640 house thousands, closed thousands, hugged and welcomed thousands of human beings. 2:11:21.680 --> 2:11:25.200 And those people in that town don't have much excess, 2:11:26.360 --> 2:11:28.760 and they made a difference. 2:11:29.360 --> 2:11:30.160 And I was. 2:11:32.560 --> 2:11:36.760 Proud to be a part of that community in a 2:11:36.800 --> 2:11:41.160 way that I'm on the fringe of it, and it 2:11:41.200 --> 2:11:44.000 made me want to be even more a part of it. 2:11:45.440 --> 2:11:51.880 My feelings and intuition about that town were confirmed by 2:11:52.240 --> 2:11:58.760 watching the simplest action make an incredible impact on real 2:11:58.920 --> 2:12:06.800 lives and real people, and that this isn't demographics, it's 2:12:10.200 --> 2:12:16.560 real bodies that have breating, hearts and breathe and we 2:12:16.720 --> 2:12:20.320 all share the same air, in the same water, and 2:12:21.680 --> 2:12:26.400 we're all connected. And when you make one little drip 2:12:26.560 --> 2:12:31.000 in the bucket, it actually does make a difference. And 2:12:31.040 --> 2:12:34.680 I think that stops us sometimes when we think what 2:12:34.760 --> 2:12:40.000 we have isn't enough to give, but when someone has nothing, 2:12:40.640 --> 2:12:43.840 what you have is more than what they can. 2:12:43.880 --> 2:12:59.960 Imagine the history of the Border and It's in four 2:13:00.520 --> 2:13:03.040 begins in fourteen ninety two with the colonization of what 2:13:03.080 --> 2:13:06.000 would become known as the Americas. It goes through the 2:13:06.000 --> 2:13:08.760 eighteen forty two Mexican American War and a curl of 2:13:08.760 --> 2:13:11.320 indigenous people's lands without their knowledge or consent in the 2:13:11.360 --> 2:13:14.560 eighteen fifty three Gasden Purchase, and of course, through the 2:13:14.600 --> 2:13:17.840 eighteen eighty two Chinese Exclusion Act and numerous other explicit 2:13:17.840 --> 2:13:20.800 attempts to prevent non white people from moving to the USA. 2:13:21.520 --> 2:13:24.320 From there, it weaves its way through the Mexican Revolution 2:13:24.560 --> 2:13:26.840 and the First World Wars GEMA proposal to ally with 2:13:26.920 --> 2:13:29.120 Mexico to reclaim those territories it had lost in the 2:13:29.160 --> 2:13:33.400 decades before then. The border patrol story itself begins in 2:13:33.440 --> 2:13:36.680 May nineteen twenty four and in the ninety nine years since, 2:13:36.720 --> 2:13:39.000 it has encompassed everything from David Duke to nine to 2:13:39.000 --> 2:13:42.200 eleven in its journey to becoming the biggest and least 2:13:42.200 --> 2:13:46.040 accountable law enforcement agency in the federal government. People from 2:13:46.040 --> 2:13:49.440 the colonial periphery have always migrated to the metropol. It's 2:13:49.480 --> 2:13:51.480 why a man called fat LEDs singing a song about 2:13:51.520 --> 2:13:54.640 vinderlou is basically my country's second national anthem, and why 2:13:54.960 --> 2:13:57.560 every four years France accepts black Frenchmen onto its football 2:13:57.560 --> 2:13:59.640 team before it returns to vilifying them in other forms 2:13:59.640 --> 2:14:03.200 of discos. Migration to the United States is no different. 2:14:03.680 --> 2:14:07.200 Climate change in US imperiodism have destabilized and impoverished nations 2:14:07.200 --> 2:14:10.440 from the Americas to Afghanistan and driven people to the 2:14:10.520 --> 2:14:13.920 US border looking for a better life. What's distinct about 2:14:13.920 --> 2:14:16.280 the US is how obsessed it has become with keeping 2:14:16.280 --> 2:14:19.320 these people out and enforcing the longest land borders in 2:14:19.360 --> 2:14:22.160 the world. But the US border is much bigger than 2:14:22.160 --> 2:14:24.280 the land boundary between the USA and Mexico to the 2:14:24.320 --> 2:14:27.040 south and Canada to the north. If you're listening to 2:14:27.120 --> 2:14:29.320 this in the United States, the chances are that you 2:14:29.360 --> 2:14:32.720 live in the border enforcement zone. This swath of territory 2:14:32.760 --> 2:14:36.040 outside the Constitution has been established since the Immigration and 2:14:36.120 --> 2:14:39.720 Nationality Act of nineteen fifty two. Established at a reasonable 2:14:39.800 --> 2:14:43.160 distance of the border would extend one hundred air miles 2:14:43.560 --> 2:14:46.560 around the outline of the country. Two thirds of the 2:14:46.640 --> 2:14:51.280 US's population live within this zone. Washington, d C. San Francisco, Chicago, 2:14:51.400 --> 2:14:54.080 New Orleans, and Boston are all within it, and that 2:14:54.160 --> 2:14:57.000 means that cbpagents can search vehicles and vessels to look 2:14:57.040 --> 2:14:59.240 for property that's in the country without the right documents. 2:14:59.640 --> 2:15:03.240 They can public transportation or set up interior checkpoints and stop, 2:15:03.520 --> 2:15:06.640 interrogate and search citizens and non citizens without the need 2:15:06.680 --> 2:15:09.720 for a warrant. Within twenty five miles of the border, 2:15:09.760 --> 2:15:12.080 they can enter your property provide it's not a domicile. 2:15:12.600 --> 2:15:15.440 The Fourth Amendment, part of a foundational bill of rights 2:15:15.440 --> 2:15:17.720 at US likes to tout as what makes it different from 2:15:17.720 --> 2:15:20.240 the rest of the world, doesn't apply when you're near 2:15:20.280 --> 2:15:23.480 the border, and all encompassing history of the border and 2:15:23.520 --> 2:15:26.360 its enforcement is beyond the scope of this podcast. Even 2:15:26.400 --> 2:15:28.240 a history of the Southwest border could take up a 2:15:28.280 --> 2:15:30.880 whole bookshelf, but we will try and skim the high 2:15:30.880 --> 2:15:34.320 points here. Let's start with a Gadsden Purchase when a 2:15:34.320 --> 2:15:37.040 party of military surveyors first bumped into horn Art and 2:15:37.400 --> 2:15:40.520 elders as they attempted to draw a line dividing to 2:15:40.560 --> 2:15:44.560 Horn Autumn People from to Horn Autum people. The southern 2:15:44.600 --> 2:15:47.120 border is no more obvious today than it was then, and, 2:15:47.160 --> 2:15:49.200 of course, to the Autumn it was and remains and 2:15:49.280 --> 2:15:51.800 aberration that divides them from much of their ancestral and 2:15:51.840 --> 2:15:56.440 current homelands. It has over the years seen violent enforcement 2:15:56.440 --> 2:15:59.200 on members of the nation and a growing encroachment of 2:15:59.200 --> 2:16:02.760 the Border Patrol into today's to Horn Autumn Reservation, which 2:16:02.800 --> 2:16:05.680 is the second largest in the USA. It only represents 2:16:05.760 --> 2:16:09.800 a fraction of the tribe's historical homeland. These surveyors were 2:16:09.800 --> 2:16:12.040 in the process of finalizing most of the California and 2:16:12.080 --> 2:16:14.920 Arizona border, a border I drove most of in the 2:16:14.960 --> 2:16:18.160 days after Title forty two. The southern border as it 2:16:18.200 --> 2:16:21.360 looks now, was largely shaped by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 2:16:21.920 --> 2:16:25.120 which Mexico lost fifty five percent of its territory, including 2:16:25.120 --> 2:16:28.880 all of what is today California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, 2:16:28.960 --> 2:16:32.959 and parts of what is today Colorado. Wyoming, Kansas, and Oklahoma. 2:16:33.760 --> 2:16:36.160 The Gaston purchase of eighteen fifty three added more of 2:16:36.200 --> 2:16:39.840 southern Arizona. In New Mexico, the specific border in Santa 2:16:39.879 --> 2:16:42.320 Ciedro withdrawal so that San Diego Bay would fall to 2:16:42.320 --> 2:16:45.039 the north of the line. The border in a cumba 2:16:45.200 --> 2:16:47.720 seems more arbitrary, a straight line in the desert that 2:16:47.800 --> 2:16:51.280 runs into a pile of rocks. Of course, long before 2:16:51.320 --> 2:16:54.440 the border divided San Asidra from Tijuana, this was Cuma land, 2:16:54.800 --> 2:16:58.080 and despite the border, it still is. The name Tijuana 2:16:58.240 --> 2:17:01.080 derives from Tijuan, which we by the sea in Kumiai. 2:17:02.120 --> 2:17:05.440 Despite this, the Kumii and many other indigenous peoples were 2:17:05.440 --> 2:17:08.320 ignored when the border crossed them, and it's becoming harder 2:17:08.320 --> 2:17:11.680 and harder for them to cross it. In parts of desert, 2:17:11.840 --> 2:17:13.640 it can be pretty hard to see the border at all. 2:17:14.240 --> 2:17:16.680 In twenty twenty, while out with a group of Kumi 2:17:16.879 --> 2:17:19.560 people who were in ceremony to honor their ancestors whose 2:17:19.560 --> 2:17:22.160 burial sites have been and continue to be desecrated by 2:17:22.160 --> 2:17:25.040 border war construction, I had to be worried of stepping 2:17:25.040 --> 2:17:28.240 over it to better frame my shots the emerging declaration. 2:17:28.320 --> 2:17:31.320 Donald Trump made allowed war construction to sidestep legislation in 2:17:31.360 --> 2:17:34.840 place to protect archaeological and sacred sites, but it didn't 2:17:34.840 --> 2:17:39.280 allow me to sidestep into Mexico to get a better shot. Luckily, Bortac, 2:17:39.800 --> 2:17:42.200 a team of armed border patrol agents who you might 2:17:42.240 --> 2:17:45.279 remember from Portland in twenty twenty, provided a guy addressed 2:17:45.320 --> 2:17:47.160 like he was in the Battle of Falluja to help me. 2:17:47.720 --> 2:17:49.400 I would say the border is a line in the sand, 2:17:49.400 --> 2:17:51.400 but at the time there wasn't a line that was 2:17:51.480 --> 2:17:54.280 visible at all in Valley the Moon, a few miles 2:17:54.320 --> 2:17:56.520 east to Wear that Bortec patrol guard shouted at people 2:17:56.600 --> 2:17:59.480 stepping too close in twenty twenty. The border wall is 2:17:59.520 --> 2:18:02.680 about waste, high, rusty, and essentially comprised of a single 2:18:02.680 --> 2:18:07.040 strand of barbed wire in cucumber. The thirty foot Trump 2:18:07.040 --> 2:18:09.280 wall pushes right up to a boulder pile and then 2:18:09.320 --> 2:18:12.720 stops the logic as much as there can be any logic, 2:18:12.720 --> 2:18:15.119 and spending twenty five million dollars a mile to desecrate 2:18:15.160 --> 2:18:18.320 sacred spaces and defile the landscape, is it. People will 2:18:18.320 --> 2:18:21.119 be deterred from crossing by the harsh landscape, brutally hot 2:18:21.200 --> 2:18:25.440 days and brutally cold nights. This logic, of course, fails 2:18:25.480 --> 2:18:29.120 to consider not just where people are going, why they're leaving, 2:18:29.120 --> 2:18:32.680 the places they've come from. Risking one's life crossing the 2:18:32.720 --> 2:18:36.120 border makes sense only when one considers the danger that 2:18:36.200 --> 2:18:38.520 many people in places around the world face every day. 2:18:39.320 --> 2:18:42.480 It hasn't always been this way, fear reference here in 2:18:42.680 --> 2:18:45.920 Reagan and Bush talking about migration in nineteen eighty. 2:18:45.840 --> 2:18:47.440 Heit, I'm going to ask you what you would do 2:18:47.480 --> 2:18:48.120 about Cuba. 2:18:48.480 --> 2:18:49.920 But now I'm going to hold you. 2:18:50.720 --> 2:18:52.959 Now, we're going to have some questions from the audience. 2:18:54.400 --> 2:18:56.600 Yes, my name's David Grosberg, and I'd like to know 2:18:56.800 --> 2:18:58.880 do you think that children of illegal aliens should be 2:18:58.920 --> 2:19:01.200 allowed to attend Texas public schools free? 2:19:01.600 --> 2:19:03.200 Or do you think that their parents should pay for 2:19:03.200 --> 2:19:03.880 their education? 2:19:05.720 --> 2:19:06.760 Who you're addressing that too? 2:19:06.879 --> 2:19:09.240 I think he was looking right at you. 2:19:09.560 --> 2:19:12.959 I said he was, Well, I'd like. 2:19:12.959 --> 2:19:15.879 To see something done about the illegal alien problem that 2:19:15.879 --> 2:19:19.680 would be so sensitive, in so understanding about labor needs 2:19:20.000 --> 2:19:21.640 and human needs that. 2:19:21.480 --> 2:19:22.800 That problem wouldn't come up. 2:19:23.120 --> 2:19:24.039 But today, if. 2:19:23.920 --> 2:19:27.880 Those people are here, I would reluctantly say I think 2:19:27.920 --> 2:19:30.560 they would. They would get whatever it is that they're 2:19:30.959 --> 2:19:34.320 you know what the society is giving to their neighbors, 2:19:34.560 --> 2:19:37.120 but it has the problem has to be solved. The 2:19:37.240 --> 2:19:41.360 problem has to be solved because as we have kind 2:19:41.360 --> 2:19:44.640 of made illegal some kinds of labor that I'd like 2:19:44.680 --> 2:19:47.560 to see legal, we're doing two things. We're creating a 2:19:47.600 --> 2:19:52.400 whole society of really honorable, decent, family loving people that 2:19:52.440 --> 2:19:53.680 are in violation of the law. 2:19:53.920 --> 2:19:54.879 And secondly, we're. 2:19:54.760 --> 2:19:58.440 Exacerbating relations with Mexico. The change, the answer to your 2:19:58.520 --> 2:20:01.360 question is much more fun to metal then whether they 2:20:01.400 --> 2:20:04.280 attend Houston schools. It seems to me, I don't want 2:20:04.320 --> 2:20:06.000 to see a whole if they're living here, I don't 2:20:06.000 --> 2:20:08.280 want to see a whole. I think it's six and 2:20:08.400 --> 2:20:12.840 eight year old kids being made, you know, one totally 2:20:12.920 --> 2:20:14.720 uneducated and made. 2:20:14.560 --> 2:20:16.480 To feel that they're living with outside the law. 2:20:16.680 --> 2:20:18.640 Let's address ourselves to the fundamentals. 2:20:18.720 --> 2:20:20.960 These are good people, strong people. 2:20:21.120 --> 2:20:26.440 Part of my family is an Mexican. And I added 2:20:26.480 --> 2:20:29.760 that I think the time has come that the United 2:20:29.760 --> 2:20:32.520 States and our neighbors, particularly our neighbor to the south, 2:20:32.959 --> 2:20:35.400 should have a better understanding and a better relationship than 2:20:35.400 --> 2:20:36.120 we've ever had. 2:20:36.560 --> 2:20:38.119 And I think but we haven't. 2:20:38.080 --> 2:20:41.160 Been sensitive enough to our size and our power. They 2:20:41.200 --> 2:20:44.560 have a problem of forty to fifty percent unemployment. Now 2:20:44.840 --> 2:20:49.640 this cannot continue without the possibility arising with regard to 2:20:49.680 --> 2:20:52.120 that other country that we talked about of Cuba, and 2:20:52.120 --> 2:20:55.440 what it is stirring up of the possibility of trouble 2:20:55.480 --> 2:20:57.720 below the border, and we could have a very hostile 2:20:58.040 --> 2:21:01.320 and strange neighbor on our border. Rather than making them 2:21:01.760 --> 2:21:04.520 or talking about putting up a fence, why don't we 2:21:04.600 --> 2:21:08.200 work out some recognition of our mutual problems. Make it 2:21:08.280 --> 2:21:11.360 possible for them to come here legally with a work permit, and. 2:21:11.280 --> 2:21:14.119 Then while they're working and earning here, they pay. 2:21:13.920 --> 2:21:16.200 Taxes here, and when they go on to go back, 2:21:16.200 --> 2:21:17.960 they can go back, and they can cross and open 2:21:18.000 --> 2:21:22.119 the border both ways. By understanding their problems. 2:21:22.080 --> 2:21:24.600 The modern era of border enforcement began. As far as 2:21:24.600 --> 2:21:27.880 we can pinpoint a single date with Silvestre Reyes, that 2:21:28.040 --> 2:21:31.720 then Sector Chief of the Border Patrol in McAllen, Texas 2:21:32.240 --> 2:21:36.119 and his operation hold the line the community around McAllen, 2:21:36.120 --> 2:21:38.920 who got tired of border patrol snooping around businesses and 2:21:38.959 --> 2:21:42.920 even schools in a Rio Grand Valley, and instead Rayes 2:21:43.000 --> 2:21:45.800 deployed his agents forward in a sort of human fence 2:21:45.800 --> 2:21:49.240 along the Rio. Grand Rays would later become the chief 2:21:49.240 --> 2:21:52.360 of the Olpaso sector and a Democratic Congressman. He lost 2:21:52.360 --> 2:21:54.119 his seat to be to a rok in twenty thirteen, 2:21:54.920 --> 2:21:58.080 but this strategy would long outlive his career with border patrol. 2:21:58.840 --> 2:22:02.920 The following year, on September seventeenth, nineteen ninety four, US 2:22:03.000 --> 2:22:07.199 Attorney General Janet Reno announce the start of Operation Gatekeeper. 2:22:08.160 --> 2:22:10.280 The first phase of the operation focus on the first 2:22:10.360 --> 2:22:13.280 five miles of the western border, including the place where 2:22:13.320 --> 2:22:15.840 I recorded all those interviews you heard earlier this week. 2:22:16.959 --> 2:22:18.720 According to a piece written a quarter of a century 2:22:18.800 --> 2:22:21.320 later in the La Times, the strategy was to deter 2:22:21.520 --> 2:22:24.800 migrants from illegally crossing in the first place, and for 2:22:24.840 --> 2:22:27.920 those who remained undeterred, to encourage him to cross in 2:22:28.000 --> 2:22:30.680 more isolated wilderness areas to the east, where they could 2:22:30.680 --> 2:22:34.600 be more easily captured. There were already fences in nineteen 2:22:34.680 --> 2:22:37.760 ninety four, first a chain link fence and then one 2:22:37.760 --> 2:22:40.480 made of helicopter landing mats left over from Vietnam that 2:22:40.520 --> 2:22:44.040 had horizontal struts that closely resembled and were used as 2:22:44.120 --> 2:22:48.760 a ladder. Anti migrant rhetoric was already there too. California 2:22:48.800 --> 2:22:51.720 Governor Pete Wilson became an outspoken advocate for Prop One 2:22:51.800 --> 2:22:54.840 eighty seven, a ballot measure that cut off state services 2:22:54.879 --> 2:22:58.640 like healthcare and education to undocumented people. Here's a clip 2:22:58.640 --> 2:22:59.840 of Wilson's reelection ad. 2:23:00.320 --> 2:23:04.440 They keep coming two million illegal immigrants in California. The 2:23:04.440 --> 2:23:07.600 federal government won't stop them at the border, yet requires 2:23:07.680 --> 2:23:10.240 us to pay billions to take care of them, and 2:23:10.400 --> 2:23:13.200 Governor Pete Wilson sent the National Guard to help the 2:23:13.240 --> 2:23:13.959 border patrol. 2:23:14.320 --> 2:23:15.000 But that's not. 2:23:14.959 --> 2:23:18.360 All for Californias who work hard, pay taxes, and obey 2:23:18.400 --> 2:23:21.080 the laws. I am suing to force the federal government 2:23:21.120 --> 2:23:23.879 to control the border, and I'm working to deny state 2:23:23.959 --> 2:23:25.640 services to illegal amigrants. 2:23:26.160 --> 2:23:29.080 Enough is enough, Governor Pete Wilson. 2:23:29.520 --> 2:23:32.480 Under the operation, a much higher number of agents were 2:23:32.520 --> 2:23:36.440 deployed to the border. Apprehensions increase, and with them, so 2:23:36.520 --> 2:23:40.240 did funding for border enforcement. It was around this time 2:23:40.280 --> 2:23:43.080 that the narrative around the border began to change. It 2:23:43.160 --> 2:23:45.720 was also around this time, a few months earlier in fact, 2:23:45.800 --> 2:23:48.880 that the US, Mexico, and Canada entered into the North 2:23:48.920 --> 2:23:51.959 American Free Trade Agreement, which made it easier than ever 2:23:52.000 --> 2:23:54.560 for capital to move across the border and take advantage 2:23:54.600 --> 2:23:57.440 of low wages in Mexico. To learn a little bit 2:23:57.480 --> 2:23:59.840 more about Operation Gatekeeper, I spoke to one of the 2:23:59.879 --> 2:24:01.800 agents who was tossed with executing it. 2:24:03.000 --> 2:24:05.280 My name is Jen Budd and I'm a former senior 2:24:05.320 --> 2:24:08.920 Patrol agent with the United States Border Patrol. I was 2:24:08.959 --> 2:24:13.480 a senior intelligence agent as well as San Diego Sector Headquarters. 2:24:13.920 --> 2:24:16.600 Jennison's left the Border Patrol, but she realizes the impact 2:24:16.640 --> 2:24:20.240 of Operation Gatekeeper on migrants was anything but positive. Yeah. 2:24:20.400 --> 2:24:23.560 Operation Gatekeepers started in nineteen ninety four, in October of 2:24:23.640 --> 2:24:27.439 nineteen ninety four, and I got to Campo in November 2:24:27.600 --> 2:24:33.240 of nineteen ninety five, and so right afterwards, the fence 2:24:33.680 --> 2:24:35.760 was just getting to pick that day when. 2:24:35.560 --> 2:24:36.080 I got there. 2:24:36.160 --> 2:24:39.320 So most of my class, I think we had I 2:24:39.360 --> 2:24:41.840 don't know, forty people graduate or something. Most of them 2:24:41.879 --> 2:24:45.640 went down to Imperial Beach and they had a wall there. 2:24:45.680 --> 2:24:48.560 And so that was the idea, is to fill the 2:24:48.600 --> 2:24:51.560 San Diego City area with as many agents and weapons 2:24:51.560 --> 2:24:54.000 and all this, and then that would push the traffic 2:24:54.040 --> 2:24:56.160 for that to the mountains, making it more difficult for 2:24:56.240 --> 2:24:58.800 them to cross. And some of them get injured, and 2:24:58.840 --> 2:25:01.240 we knew some of them would die. It was intentional. 2:25:01.640 --> 2:25:05.199 The death and the injuries, according to management, would deter 2:25:05.560 --> 2:25:06.480 future crosses. 2:25:06.520 --> 2:25:08.240 But of course that that's. 2:25:08.040 --> 2:25:08.680 Not the case. 2:25:09.240 --> 2:25:12.879 Alan Berson, US attorney in San Diego, was named the 2:25:12.879 --> 2:25:15.680 so called Border Czar by President Bill Clinton a few 2:25:15.760 --> 2:25:19.280 years later to implement that same Gatekeeper strategy across the 2:25:19.280 --> 2:25:22.720 rest of the Southwest border. Burston saw things a little differently. 2:25:23.240 --> 2:25:26.600 Neither side claims it, but Gatekeeper was probably the most 2:25:26.640 --> 2:25:30.640 important domestic achievement accomplished in a purely bipartisan manner through 2:25:30.680 --> 2:25:34.800 three administrations, and the greatest accomplishment since President Eisenhower and 2:25:34.840 --> 2:25:37.200 the Democrats put together the state highway system in the 2:25:37.200 --> 2:25:38.320 mid nineteen fifties. 2:25:38.600 --> 2:25:41.760 But in fact, while apprehensions did drop in San Diego, 2:25:41.920 --> 2:25:44.280 they spiked by five hundred and ninety one percent in 2:25:44.320 --> 2:25:47.280 the Tucson sector between nineteen ninety two and two thousand 2:25:47.320 --> 2:25:51.199 and four. The La Times quotes a non partisan congressional 2:25:51.240 --> 2:25:56.240 research service as saying, one unintended consequence of this enforcement 2:25:56.280 --> 2:25:59.080 posture and the shift in migration patterns has been an 2:25:59.080 --> 2:26:02.760 increase in the number of migrant deaths each year. On average, 2:26:02.879 --> 2:26:06.080 two hundred migrants died each year in the early nineteen nineties, 2:26:06.560 --> 2:26:08.959 compared with four hundred and seventy two migrant deaths in 2:26:08.959 --> 2:26:12.320 two thousand and five. Many of those deaths are now 2:26:12.320 --> 2:26:15.880 in a sector that encompasses the Autumn Reservation. The desert 2:26:15.879 --> 2:26:18.760 there is particularly hard to cross, and the enforcement that 2:26:18.800 --> 2:26:22.040 began with Operation Gatekeeper pushes more and more people onto 2:26:22.080 --> 2:26:25.640 the reservation. Dahn or Autumn People used to travel between 2:26:25.640 --> 2:26:28.880 the United States and Mexico fairly easily on roads without 2:26:28.959 --> 2:26:32.120 checkpoints to visit family, go to school, visit a doctor, 2:26:32.280 --> 2:26:36.840 or perform their traditional ceremonial practices. But after nine to eleven, 2:26:37.000 --> 2:26:39.200 the United States and its Border Patrol began a more 2:26:39.280 --> 2:26:43.720 visible and violent occupation of the reservation. It started with 2:26:43.760 --> 2:26:46.240 a vehicle barrier in two thousand and seven, and it 2:26:46.280 --> 2:26:51.000 continued with CBP's quote unquote virtual wall of surveillance technology, 2:26:51.000 --> 2:26:55.240 cameras and drones. The Israeli company Elbit Systems has built 2:26:55.320 --> 2:26:58.680 fixed surveillance towers, which they pioneered in the West Bank 2:26:58.920 --> 2:27:03.160 on tribal land with the permission of tribal council. Meanwhile, 2:27:03.600 --> 2:27:06.280 other members of the nation strongly oppose the militarization of 2:27:06.320 --> 2:27:09.080 their homeland in the name of security of whatever homeland 2:27:09.080 --> 2:27:12.960 the Department of Homeland Security is securing. I'll quote here 2:27:13.040 --> 2:27:14.960 from Todd Miller, whose excellent work on the border has 2:27:15.000 --> 2:27:19.320 required reading for anyone interested in the subject. Amy Juan 2:27:19.520 --> 2:27:22.160 and Nellie Joe David, members of the Horn Autumn her 2:27:22.240 --> 2:27:26.920 Magicum writes Network Tohrn joined a delegation to the West 2:27:26.920 --> 2:27:30.920 Bank in October twenty seventeen, convened by the Palestinian Organization 2:27:30.959 --> 2:27:34.080 to Stop the War. It was a relief, one says, 2:27:34.600 --> 2:27:37.360 to talk with people who understand our fears, who are 2:27:37.400 --> 2:27:42.960 dealing with militarization and technology. In twenty seventeen, to Horn 2:27:43.040 --> 2:27:46.000 Autumn vice chairman Verlin Josse said that a war will 2:27:46.040 --> 2:27:49.400 be built quote over my dead body, and the tribe 2:27:49.400 --> 2:27:52.480 released a video saying there is no Autumn word for war. 2:27:52.959 --> 2:27:55.280 The sixty two miles of the border on their reservation 2:27:55.560 --> 2:27:59.240 would remain without one, they said. By twenty twenty, the 2:27:59.240 --> 2:28:01.440 Trump administrator had fought through a wall or much of 2:28:01.440 --> 2:28:03.879 the border, using what is known as the Roosevelt Reservation. 2:28:04.440 --> 2:28:06.520 This is a sixty foot wide strip of land that 2:28:06.560 --> 2:28:10.000 the federal government owns along the border in California, Arizona, 2:28:10.040 --> 2:28:13.880 and New Mexico. Although much of the Autumn Nation remains 2:28:13.879 --> 2:28:16.600 war free and somehows what's called a vehicle barrier or 2:28:16.600 --> 2:28:19.879 a normandy barrier. Approximately one third of the Roosevelt Reservation 2:28:19.920 --> 2:28:23.160 is on tribal land. Since two thousand and five realized 2:28:23.200 --> 2:28:26.120 the Act, environmental surveys and laws have been waived for 2:28:26.160 --> 2:28:29.160 border security, and this gave the Trump administration a way 2:28:29.200 --> 2:28:32.320 to justify the destruction of autumn and Kumi burial grounds, 2:28:32.520 --> 2:28:35.840 swad or cacti that the Autumn Seas relatives, and other 2:28:35.959 --> 2:28:39.360 sacred sites along the border. Despite efforts by tribal members 2:28:39.360 --> 2:28:43.160 and allies to stop the construction, members of the Tahana 2:28:43.200 --> 2:28:47.120 Autumn Nation have been pepper sprayed, beaten, tailed, and shot 2:28:47.160 --> 2:28:50.039 by border patrol. In two thousand and two, a border 2:28:50.080 --> 2:28:54.560 patrol agent ran over and killed an Arthumn teenager. Last week, 2:28:55.040 --> 2:28:56.959 the same night I was waiting down by the border 2:28:56.959 --> 2:28:59.720 for the end of Title forty two, border patrol agents 2:28:59.720 --> 2:29:02.960 shot and killed Raymond Mattia, an odd to man who 2:29:02.959 --> 2:29:05.680 had called and asked him for help. He was shot 2:29:05.800 --> 2:29:08.400 thirty eight times just two feet from his front door. 2:29:08.400 --> 2:29:12.440 According to his family, well, mister Mattia's death is still 2:29:12.440 --> 2:29:15.440 being investigated. The Border Patrol has a long tradition of 2:29:15.520 --> 2:29:18.959 literally getting away with murder. It is because they investigate 2:29:18.959 --> 2:29:22.960 themselves using so called critical Incident teams. I talked to 2:29:23.040 --> 2:29:25.520 Jen about what those teams do, and so. 2:29:25.600 --> 2:29:28.000 What they would do is they would get there first 2:29:28.040 --> 2:29:30.200 on the scene because we would call them first. We 2:29:30.200 --> 2:29:33.200 wouldn't call anybody else, We'd call them first, and then 2:29:33.240 --> 2:29:35.480 they come, They get rid of the witnesses, they set 2:29:35.520 --> 2:29:37.960 the scene up the way we want to be done, 2:29:38.000 --> 2:29:40.039 and they tell you the narrative that you're going to 2:29:40.040 --> 2:29:42.480 stick with. You talk to your union reps, and it's 2:29:42.480 --> 2:29:43.680 all this giant cover up. 2:29:44.120 --> 2:29:47.920 Here's John Carlos Free, a journalist who covered CIIT cover ups, 2:29:48.200 --> 2:29:50.920 talking to Democracy Now about how these teams work. 2:29:51.720 --> 2:29:55.360 Within the actual agency of the US Board Patrol, there 2:29:55.400 --> 2:29:58.879 is an investigative body called SIT, the Critical Incident Team. 2:29:59.480 --> 2:30:03.080 They are has with investigating incidents that involved Border Patrol, 2:30:03.080 --> 2:30:05.640 and it can be anything from a car accident to 2:30:05.760 --> 2:30:08.680 in this case, an individual who's killed at the hands 2:30:08.720 --> 2:30:11.720 of the US Border Patrol. In this particular case of 2:30:11.800 --> 2:30:16.560 Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, Border Patrol agents, deleted video, they collected 2:30:16.600 --> 2:30:19.600 evidence at the scene. They were present in the hospital 2:30:19.640 --> 2:30:23.640 when Anastasio was being treated, They were present at the autopsy. 2:30:24.400 --> 2:30:30.920 They fudged reports, they deleted reports, They coached their own 2:30:31.000 --> 2:30:33.959 agents on what kind of testimony they were to give. 2:30:34.040 --> 2:30:37.440 They were present at every one of the depositions. They 2:30:37.480 --> 2:30:40.119 made sure that they were the victims in this case. 2:30:40.120 --> 2:30:41.959 And when I say that, what I mean is that 2:30:42.080 --> 2:30:46.920 Border Patrol agents sit team agents make sure that Border 2:30:46.959 --> 2:30:50.680 Patrol agents are looked at as the victims in any 2:30:50.720 --> 2:30:53.200 sort of an incident, meaning that they are allowed then 2:30:53.240 --> 2:30:56.360 to use lethal force if a Border Patrol agent has 2:30:56.480 --> 2:30:58.760 rocks thrown at them or in the case of Anastasio, 2:30:58.840 --> 2:31:02.000 they alleged that Honosta was violent and that he was 2:31:02.080 --> 2:31:06.160 kicking and punching and he needed to be subdued. If 2:31:06.160 --> 2:31:08.800 we take a look at the videotape, that's not actually 2:31:08.800 --> 2:31:11.360 what happened. He's handcuffed, he's prone on the ground, his 2:31:11.480 --> 2:31:14.280 faces down, agents are on top of him. But if 2:31:14.280 --> 2:31:16.640 you read the reports in this case that were prepared 2:31:16.680 --> 2:31:19.600 by sid Anastasio was a violent man and needed to 2:31:19.640 --> 2:31:20.320 be subdued. 2:31:20.680 --> 2:31:23.480 In twenty twenty one, Border Patrol was ordered to disband 2:31:23.520 --> 2:31:26.400 these teams, but Jen says they simply moved them somewhere 2:31:26.440 --> 2:31:27.640 else and gave them a different name. 2:31:28.120 --> 2:31:30.800 So then they said that they disbanded them because we 2:31:30.879 --> 2:31:32.560 brought the truth out and how they did all this 2:31:33.120 --> 2:31:36.119 and we proved it. But what they actually did is 2:31:36.160 --> 2:31:38.600 they did a retention. So they had the Border Patrol 2:31:38.640 --> 2:31:42.280 agents resign from the Border Patrol and move over to 2:31:42.360 --> 2:31:45.959 cbp OPR and we hired them under there. So the 2:31:46.080 --> 2:31:50.680 team that likely went to go investigate the tahonum Otem killing, 2:31:51.400 --> 2:31:57.360 I believe his name is Matia Matia Raymond Matia is 2:31:57.600 --> 2:32:01.879 likely the Border Patrol fit teams. So if the Border 2:32:01.879 --> 2:32:04.240 Patrol agents, a lot of people don't understand it's like 2:32:04.240 --> 2:32:07.800 a cult, you know. They always say you blee green, 2:32:08.160 --> 2:32:10.119 you know, and you don't go back hung green, and 2:32:10.280 --> 2:32:12.879 probably one of the few that ever left, you know, 2:32:13.160 --> 2:32:14.640 and tells the truth about it. 2:32:15.000 --> 2:32:17.680 Of Course, the vast majority of people whose families will 2:32:17.680 --> 2:32:20.640 never find justice because of these cit teams are not white, 2:32:21.360 --> 2:32:23.720 and of course Border Patrol has long rooted links to 2:32:23.720 --> 2:32:27.800 white nationalism. In nineteen seventy seven, about forty five minutes 2:32:27.800 --> 2:32:30.360 from San Diego and another forty five minutes from Komba. 2:32:30.920 --> 2:32:33.400 David Duke, Grand Dragon of the Knights of the klu 2:32:33.480 --> 2:32:36.520 Klux Klan at the time, announced the official beginning of 2:32:36.600 --> 2:32:40.760 Clan Border Watch. You claim there were hundreds of Klansmen 2:32:40.760 --> 2:32:43.680 on the border, but local newspapers The Desert Sun reported 2:32:43.720 --> 2:32:47.119 that there were in reality at least ten are quote 2:32:47.120 --> 2:32:49.240 directly from the Desert Suns reporting at a time here, 2:32:50.320 --> 2:32:53.240 Duke said clansmen would refrain from direct contact with illegal 2:32:53.280 --> 2:32:56.400 aliens if any have found. He said klansmen would not 2:32:56.480 --> 2:33:00.000 talk to them or contact them, but if any illegal crossings, 2:33:00.440 --> 2:33:02.960 they're going to use CBE radios to relate the information 2:33:03.080 --> 2:33:07.879 to border patrol, Duke said. Duke of Metairie, Louisiana, claimed 2:33:07.879 --> 2:33:10.200 the clan has the support of the American people and 2:33:10.320 --> 2:33:12.959 helping the border patrol stem the influx of illegal aliens 2:33:12.959 --> 2:33:16.480 into this country. He claimed, the illegal aliens take jobs 2:33:16.480 --> 2:33:21.280 away from US citizens. We feel this rising tide washing 2:33:21.280 --> 2:33:23.520 over our border is going to affect our culture, he 2:33:23.560 --> 2:33:26.080 told reporters at the time, in a statement that wouldn't 2:33:26.080 --> 2:33:29.240 sound out of place on Fox News Today. In response, 2:33:29.280 --> 2:33:31.800 more than one thousand, five hundred brown Berries threatened to 2:33:31.879 --> 2:33:34.800 rally against Duke. A protest far out numbering his patrols, 2:33:34.800 --> 2:33:38.119 popped up along the border in the late nineteen seventies 2:33:38.120 --> 2:33:41.320 and early nineteen eighties. Texas Knights of the KKK leader 2:33:41.360 --> 2:33:43.879 Louis Beam, a Vietnam War veteran who had helped to 2:33:43.959 --> 2:33:47.960 organize and promote Duke's border stunt, established paramilitary camps around 2:33:48.000 --> 2:33:50.240 Texas and trained children as young as eight in the 2:33:50.280 --> 2:33:54.720 deadly guerrilla warfare tactics he learned overseas. He rallied white 2:33:54.760 --> 2:34:01.400 fishermen against Vietnamese migrants and burned their boats. In twenty nineteen, 2:34:01.959 --> 2:34:05.320 a border patrol agent from Logali's named Matthew Bowen was 2:34:05.320 --> 2:34:08.160 accused of knocking down Aguaatemela Maunt with his vehicle and 2:34:08.160 --> 2:34:12.000 then lying to a quarter about the incident. The prosecutors 2:34:12.000 --> 2:34:15.760 in the case showed the jury text Bowen sent, including 2:34:15.760 --> 2:34:19.760 one which called migrants quote disgusting sub human shit, unworthy 2:34:19.760 --> 2:34:23.480 of being kindling for a fire. In several text messages, 2:34:23.840 --> 2:34:27.800 Bowen references quote tonks. This is a derogatory term for 2:34:27.879 --> 2:34:31.120 border crossing migrants. The origins are determined a little bit unclear, 2:34:31.160 --> 2:34:33.360 but it seems to be derived from the sound of 2:34:33.360 --> 2:34:37.720 a flashlight hitting the back of someone's head. In argument 2:34:37.720 --> 2:34:41.160 against submitting the texts, defense lawyer Sean Chapman wrote that 2:34:41.200 --> 2:34:44.720 he would argue certain terms are quote commonplace throughout the 2:34:44.720 --> 2:34:48.080 Border Patrols tuson sector. This is part of the agency's 2:34:48.080 --> 2:34:52.640 culture and therefore it says nothing about mister Bowen's mindset. Genss' 2:34:52.760 --> 2:34:54.760 kind of language and attitude was not uncommon in her 2:34:54.760 --> 2:34:56.840 time in border patrol from the mid nineties to the 2:34:56.840 --> 2:34:59.240 early two thousands, but things have got worse since. 2:35:00.000 --> 2:35:02.720 There have been some definite changes in the Border Patrol, 2:35:02.840 --> 2:35:06.040 in the training from before nine to eleven to after 2:35:06.160 --> 2:35:11.760 nine to eleven, and what you also see so their 2:35:11.800 --> 2:35:15.959 vocabulary has changed. So like they refer to migrants and 2:35:16.000 --> 2:35:19.240 asylum seekercs invaders. We never use that term prior to 2:35:19.320 --> 2:35:23.920 nine to eleven, and we did have racist words that 2:35:23.959 --> 2:35:26.720 we used for them, and I use them as well. 2:35:26.800 --> 2:35:27.760 I'm not denying there. 2:35:28.440 --> 2:35:30.959 Of course, this kind of language isn't just restricted to 2:35:30.959 --> 2:35:31.600 border patrol. 2:35:32.400 --> 2:35:39.920 The US has become a dumping ground for everybody else's problems. 2:35:43.760 --> 2:35:49.800 I care, it's true, and these are the best and 2:35:49.879 --> 2:35:54.480 the finest. When Mexico sends its people they're not sending 2:35:54.520 --> 2:35:55.200 their best. 2:35:55.680 --> 2:35:58.080 They're not sending you. They're not sending you. 2:35:59.200 --> 2:36:03.280 They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're 2:36:03.320 --> 2:36:09.320 bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, 2:36:09.879 --> 2:36:13.400 their rapists, and some I assumer good people. 2:36:14.040 --> 2:36:16.440 There has been white supremacist violence at the border ever 2:36:16.480 --> 2:36:19.720 since Duke and long before. Often it's been at the 2:36:19.720 --> 2:36:22.080 hands of groups outside of the state. Sometimes it's been 2:36:22.120 --> 2:36:25.240 at the hands of the state. In Arizona, groups like 2:36:25.280 --> 2:36:28.600 Arizona Border Ricon and Minute Men American Defense have terrorized 2:36:28.640 --> 2:36:33.040 border communities for decades, engage renewed momentum from Trump's consistent 2:36:33.040 --> 2:36:36.160 demonization of migrants. I spent a bit of time looking 2:36:36.200 --> 2:36:38.040 for them in the desert in Arizona last week, but 2:36:38.080 --> 2:36:41.200 I didn't see much, not that I really wanted to. 2:36:42.240 --> 2:36:45.200 Interaction with these militias, probably far more often than we 2:36:45.200 --> 2:36:48.640 have documented evidence for, can be fatal, just like interaction 2:36:48.720 --> 2:36:53.080 with customs and border protection. Here's just one example, called 2:36:53.080 --> 2:36:56.040 from David Newitt's a excellent book, and help followed with her. 2:36:58.120 --> 2:37:01.880 On May thirtieth, two thousand and nine. Seana Ford, Jason 2:37:01.920 --> 2:37:06.360 Eugene Bush, and Albert Gacxiola. All members of Ford's vigilante 2:37:06.360 --> 2:37:09.360 group minu at Man American Defense, forced their way into 2:37:09.520 --> 2:37:13.560 Raoul Flores Junior's home in Alavika, Arizona, by pretending to 2:37:13.560 --> 2:37:16.600 be Border Patrol agents. The group planned to steal and 2:37:16.640 --> 2:37:19.400 sell drugs they thought Flores had in his house. The 2:37:19.440 --> 2:37:22.359 FBI knew about this, but did nothing to stop them. 2:37:22.600 --> 2:37:25.640 Finding no drugs in the house, c vigilantes murdered Flores 2:37:25.879 --> 2:37:30.080 and his nine year old daughter, Bricennia, Flora's wife and 2:37:30.160 --> 2:37:34.760 Briisenia's mother, Gina Marie Gonzalez, was shot three times. She 2:37:34.840 --> 2:37:38.400 played dead, but when attackers returned, she exchanged fire with them, 2:37:38.560 --> 2:37:42.119 using her husband's handgun. In doing so, she hit Bush. 2:37:42.640 --> 2:37:45.160 Bush had previously been charged with a September nineteen ninety 2:37:45.160 --> 2:37:48.440 seven execution of an Aryan Nation associate for the supposed 2:37:48.480 --> 2:37:53.039 crime of being a race traitor. Both Ford and Bush 2:37:53.200 --> 2:37:56.520 are currently on death row in Arizona. The k k 2:37:56.720 --> 2:37:59.920 K was not the only group recruiting children for border patrolling. 2:38:00.400 --> 2:38:03.680 Since the mid nineteen eighties, the Border Patrol's Explorer Program 2:38:03.800 --> 2:38:07.000 has recruited young men and women of high school age. 2:38:07.120 --> 2:38:09.520 The program is charted through learning for Life, which is 2:38:09.560 --> 2:38:13.400 a subsidiary of the Scouts from America for kids, often 2:38:13.440 --> 2:38:16.520 the children of immigrants living in border towns where industry 2:38:16.520 --> 2:38:18.160 has long since gone in a decent wag it is 2:38:18.200 --> 2:38:20.840 hard to come by. The program offers the chance at 2:38:20.840 --> 2:38:24.000 a starting salary of sixty two thousand dollars twice a 2:38:24.120 --> 2:38:27.760 median income in some of these towns. Young Explorers will 2:38:27.800 --> 2:38:31.680 learn tracking, survival, shooting, and how to detain and process 2:38:31.680 --> 2:38:35.000 on documented migrants, people who in some cases are walking 2:38:35.000 --> 2:38:38.240 in the footsteps of their own parents. According to an 2:38:38.320 --> 2:38:41.000 article by Moray Music in the Nation, young Explorers have 2:38:41.080 --> 2:38:43.240 to earn the writer to their uniform by participating in 2:38:43.320 --> 2:38:47.199 their sixty hour Basic Explorer Academy, of which they learned 2:38:47.240 --> 2:38:51.560 CPR drills and the methods of conducting vehicle stops. It 2:38:51.600 --> 2:38:55.480 also offers courses in radio communications, public speaking, report writing, 2:38:55.680 --> 2:38:59.080 and ethics and integrity, and introduces the youth to criminal 2:38:59.240 --> 2:39:03.160 juvenile immigration, a Fourth Amendment law. What I was writing 2:39:03.320 --> 2:39:05.640 so checked out the San Diego sector page. We seem 2:39:05.680 --> 2:39:08.080 to show young people running, shooting and one who looks 2:39:08.080 --> 2:39:10.200 like he's just been mased in the face. The next 2:39:10.240 --> 2:39:12.600 photo on the Facebook page dedicated to this Border Patrol 2:39:12.680 --> 2:39:15.600 sector shows a man in handcuffs above. This is a 2:39:15.680 --> 2:39:17.360 video of someone dropping a chilt from the top of 2:39:17.400 --> 2:39:20.920 the border fence. Without figures from the CVP. It's hard 2:39:20.920 --> 2:39:23.240 to tell if participation in the Explorers has dropped as 2:39:23.280 --> 2:39:26.880 public awareness of family separation assault now the behavior doesn't 2:39:26.879 --> 2:39:29.440 exactly fit with the Border Patrol's motto on a first 2:39:29.600 --> 2:39:32.480 has spread. I asked Jen for her take on the 2:39:32.520 --> 2:39:33.640 Explorer program. 2:39:33.840 --> 2:39:36.120 Well, I call it Border Patrol youth because it reminds 2:39:36.160 --> 2:39:37.680 me a lot of the hip Er youth, where we 2:39:37.720 --> 2:39:41.240 go into the high schools and we get the kids 2:39:41.320 --> 2:39:45.400 that are in trouble, and typically they are Latino dominant 2:39:45.480 --> 2:39:49.360 high schools, and we teach them how to be many 2:39:49.400 --> 2:39:51.800 Border Patrol agents, and we teach them to hate somebody 2:39:51.840 --> 2:39:55.320 else instead of themselves. So we indoctrinate them into the 2:39:55.400 --> 2:39:58.119 same stuff that I was indoctrinating too. But it's even 2:39:58.160 --> 2:40:00.320 gone so far now as to they do the dog 2:40:00.360 --> 2:40:02.800 and pony shows at the elementary school, so they're getting 2:40:02.800 --> 2:40:06.480 them when they're like six seven years old, and they 2:40:06.560 --> 2:40:09.600 go there with a little Border Patrol bulletproof fessed and 2:40:09.640 --> 2:40:11.480 put them on them and take pictures and put it 2:40:11.520 --> 2:40:14.080 on social media, and they have them sit in their 2:40:14.120 --> 2:40:16.600 trucks and turn the signs on and all this other stuff. 2:40:16.840 --> 2:40:19.840 That indoctrination is crucial to Border patrol culture, and to 2:40:19.879 --> 2:40:21.640 be honest, the reason I wanted to talk to Jen 2:40:21.760 --> 2:40:25.000 was to understand it better. In Occomber, i'd seen a 2:40:25.040 --> 2:40:30.160 young Border Patrol agent, a woman giving volunteers rights. I'm 2:40:30.200 --> 2:40:32.280 not about to get into a Border Patrol truck myself, 2:40:32.320 --> 2:40:34.199 and I wasn't going to get a responsive by asked 2:40:34.200 --> 2:40:35.960 the agent how she squared up her role in holding 2:40:35.959 --> 2:40:38.439 people in the desert with the fact that some volunteers 2:40:38.480 --> 2:40:41.840 said she'd spend her own money buying supplies. Jen said 2:40:41.879 --> 2:40:43.600 that this kind of behavior can be pretty common with 2:40:43.640 --> 2:40:44.320 young agents. 2:40:44.720 --> 2:40:47.039 I had intended to go to law school to be 2:40:47.040 --> 2:40:49.279 a civil rights attorney when I joined the Border Patrol, 2:40:49.480 --> 2:40:55.480 and for me, I ignored my core values and ignored that 2:40:55.760 --> 2:40:58.800 I was enforcing laws that sent thousands of human beings 2:40:58.800 --> 2:41:02.280 to their death because I felt like I was trying 2:41:02.640 --> 2:41:05.240 to survive. I was raped in the academy by a 2:41:05.280 --> 2:41:09.440 fellow agent, and they covered that up, and I was 2:41:09.560 --> 2:41:12.120 really trying to get out of the South and start 2:41:12.160 --> 2:41:15.760 my life. I oft would say, like, especially with female agents, 2:41:15.800 --> 2:41:18.320 they calls it's five percent, because there's never been more 2:41:18.360 --> 2:41:21.680 than five percent of women in the Border Patrol rings. 2:41:21.920 --> 2:41:23.600 And they say, oh, it's because it's very hard. It's 2:41:23.600 --> 2:41:25.400 not because it's very hard. I mean, it is very 2:41:25.440 --> 2:41:28.400 hard to get through, but it's also it's because they're 2:41:28.440 --> 2:41:31.039 actually assaulting us all the time in the academy and 2:41:31.240 --> 2:41:35.400 lansing us. So I go back and forth in my mind, 2:41:35.440 --> 2:41:37.520 and I would imagine this young woman, you know, she 2:41:37.640 --> 2:41:41.920 has days where she arrests some pretty decent criminals every 2:41:41.959 --> 2:41:43.560 now and then once in a blue moon, but the 2:41:43.560 --> 2:41:48.680 majority of them, if she's paying attention and not completely 2:41:48.680 --> 2:41:51.879 self absorbed, she'll realize that that they're not criminals and 2:41:51.879 --> 2:41:54.960 their families just simply seeking a sound. So she at 2:41:54.959 --> 2:41:58.920 some point has to decide in her mind, is this 2:41:59.080 --> 2:42:01.320 what I got in two? Is this what I want 2:42:01.400 --> 2:42:02.879 to do with my life? 2:42:03.520 --> 2:42:05.720 In the wake of nine to eleven, and quite tellingly, 2:42:06.160 --> 2:42:08.840 the Border Patrol moved from oversight by the Department of 2:42:08.959 --> 2:42:12.199 Justice to the new Department of Homeland Security. This move 2:42:12.600 --> 2:42:15.760 from Justice as Security has been echoed in its recruiting, 2:42:16.280 --> 2:42:19.039 which once drew heavily on those of humanitarian aid experience, 2:42:19.600 --> 2:42:21.360 and now tries to appeal to veterans of the two 2:42:21.400 --> 2:42:23.920 decades of war that have accompanied the growth of DHS 2:42:23.959 --> 2:42:28.600 Since two thousand and one. When the DHS was first established, 2:42:28.680 --> 2:42:31.560 the name struck many as problematic. In the two thousand 2:42:31.560 --> 2:42:34.200 and two article in The New York Times, Elizabeth Becker 2:42:34.440 --> 2:42:36.600 wrote that the name had worrying similarities to the way 2:42:36.600 --> 2:42:39.560 the Nazis talked about their fatherland, and it didn't really 2:42:39.600 --> 2:42:42.920 fit with the way Americans spoke. Nobody in two thousand 2:42:42.920 --> 2:42:45.560 and one was talking about the homeland. But two decades 2:42:45.600 --> 2:42:47.840 and billions of dollars later, it's hard to find much 2:42:47.879 --> 2:42:49.680 in the way of criticism of the agency in DC 2:42:50.320 --> 2:42:52.360 despite the fact that the twenty twenty two budgets of 2:42:52.400 --> 2:42:55.959 CBP and ICE was sixteen and eight billion, respectively, and 2:42:56.120 --> 2:42:59.080 every year since two thousand and one, DHS has obtained 2:42:59.120 --> 2:43:02.840 more guns, more drones, a more surveillance technology that is 2:43:02.879 --> 2:43:05.920 inevitably used to spy on citizens as well as non citizens. 2:43:07.840 --> 2:43:11.320 In nineteen ninety five, there are about four thousand CBP agents. 2:43:11.760 --> 2:43:15.160 By twenty twenty there were twenty thousand, with seventeen thousand 2:43:15.240 --> 2:43:18.119 station on the southern border. This is a slight drop 2:43:18.160 --> 2:43:20.800 from a peak of just over twenty one thousand. Under Obama, 2:43:21.160 --> 2:43:23.440 who is often called the deporter in Chief, is fondness 2:43:23.480 --> 2:43:26.440 for expelling people from the United States for crimes like 2:43:26.640 --> 2:43:30.560 having a PieP or financial misconduct, the so called aggravated 2:43:30.600 --> 2:43:34.480 felonies and crimes of moral turpitude that only exist for 2:43:34.520 --> 2:43:38.040 non citizens. These agents today have the ability to operate 2:43:38.080 --> 2:43:41.640 in what the ACLU calls a constitution free zone and 2:43:41.720 --> 2:43:45.760 can conduct suspicion free searches of electronic devices, use cell 2:43:45.800 --> 2:43:48.920 site simulators, and sweep up data about thousands of people 2:43:49.000 --> 2:43:51.760 never accused of any crime. One of the more notable 2:43:51.760 --> 2:43:54.080 examples of this happened only a few yards from whereas 2:43:54.080 --> 2:43:57.440 recording last week in Santasidro. It's a story worth recounting 2:43:57.440 --> 2:44:00.360 in detail because it brings together the themes we've spoken 2:44:00.360 --> 2:44:04.520 about so far, demonization of migrants, government overreach, and a 2:44:04.560 --> 2:44:08.920 frank disregard for international and national law. In late twenty eighteen, 2:44:09.400 --> 2:44:11.199 I was enjoying a break from work in a caravan 2:44:11.200 --> 2:44:13.680 near in Sonata. If you think back to that time, 2:44:13.920 --> 2:44:16.160 right before the mid terms, you might remember some of 2:44:16.160 --> 2:44:18.760 the rhetorics was circulated around large group of migrants making 2:44:18.760 --> 2:44:21.200 their way to the southern border. I'll play some of 2:44:21.200 --> 2:44:23.480 the clips from Fox that MPR cut together in their 2:44:23.480 --> 2:44:24.520 coverage of the issue. 2:44:24.800 --> 2:44:30.880 The sympathetic, overwrought coverage of this invading horde is calling 2:44:30.920 --> 2:44:33.840 it a caravan is a misnomer in a frankly. 2:44:33.560 --> 2:44:36.560 Sickness or sample that Chipper Morning Show, Fox and Friends. 2:44:36.600 --> 2:44:39.080 I've gotten so many email from people who said, don't 2:44:39.080 --> 2:44:42.080 call it a caravan, call it an invasion. 2:44:42.320 --> 2:44:42.560 Yes? 2:44:42.720 --> 2:44:43.320 Is that fair? 2:44:43.440 --> 2:44:46.640 Host Steve Doocy put the question to conservative pundit Michelle Malkin. 2:44:46.879 --> 2:44:47.560 Of course it is. 2:44:47.640 --> 2:44:50.640 It is a full scale invasion by a hostile force, 2:44:50.920 --> 2:44:53.760 and it requires our president and our commander in chief 2:44:53.800 --> 2:44:56.720 to use any means necessary to protect our sovereignty. 2:44:56.800 --> 2:44:59.960 CNN's Brian Stelter found that Fox News featured segments using 2:45:00.080 --> 2:45:02.879 the phrase invasion more than sixty times this month about 2:45:02.920 --> 2:45:06.720 the migrants. On Fox Business Network, lou Dobbs's program invoked 2:45:06.720 --> 2:45:10.039 it dozens of times. Trump ordered five thousand troops to 2:45:10.040 --> 2:45:12.760 the border. He tweeted yesterday, quote, this is an invasion 2:45:12.879 --> 2:45:15.760 of our country, and Trump has, without evidence, claimed gang 2:45:15.800 --> 2:45:19.440 members and criminals and Middle Easterners are among them. Over 2:45:19.480 --> 2:45:23.400 On Fox, guests have similarly, without supporting facts, suggested people 2:45:23.400 --> 2:45:26.080 from Isis and the Taliban might be among those migrants. 2:45:26.640 --> 2:45:29.840 Even so, the network's chief news anchor, Shepherd Smith, tried 2:45:29.840 --> 2:45:31.199 to put on the brakes yesterday. 2:45:31.360 --> 2:45:36.440 Tomorrow is one week before the midterm election, which is 2:45:36.480 --> 2:45:39.920 what all of this is about. There is no invasion, 2:45:40.959 --> 2:45:44.000 no one's coming to get you. There's nothing at all 2:45:44.040 --> 2:45:44.680 to worry about. 2:45:44.800 --> 2:45:47.760 This month, Fox hosts and guests have repeatedly questions whether 2:45:47.760 --> 2:45:51.480 the migrants might bring in infectious diseases, again without evidence. 2:45:51.879 --> 2:45:53.480 Laura Ingram, we don't. 2:45:53.280 --> 2:45:56.120 Know what people have coming in here. We have diseases 2:45:56.120 --> 2:45:58.160 in this country we haven't had for decades. 2:45:58.680 --> 2:46:00.760 I'll leave you to price. I seeing credible arroony of 2:46:00.760 --> 2:46:03.000 the network that killed the decent percentage of its viewers 2:46:03.040 --> 2:46:06.320 by denying that COVID was serious or a disease, or 2:46:06.360 --> 2:46:10.080 the vaccines and masks are useful panicking about infectious diseases. 2:46:10.200 --> 2:46:13.360 Just two years before the pandemic began, the Tree of 2:46:13.360 --> 2:46:15.520 Life shooter who we won't name here, who is currently 2:46:15.560 --> 2:46:17.800 facing a death penalty trial for murdering eleven people in 2:46:17.840 --> 2:46:21.160 a Pittsburgh synagogue was obsessed with the caravan. The victims 2:46:21.160 --> 2:46:23.560 of the largest anti Semitic mass murder in US history 2:46:23.920 --> 2:46:27.480 included a beloved community doctor, a great grandmother, and a 2:46:27.520 --> 2:46:29.720 couple who'd gotten married at the same synagogue more than 2:46:29.760 --> 2:46:33.480 sixty years earlier. The shooter's last post on hate speech 2:46:33.560 --> 2:46:36.959 social media site gab, posted just minutes before the synagogue 2:46:37.000 --> 2:46:40.320 massacre began, spells it out with a reference to the 2:46:40.360 --> 2:46:44.560 Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the Jewish nonprofit that resettles refugees 2:46:44.600 --> 2:46:47.680 in the United States. HIAS liked to bring invaders to 2:46:47.760 --> 2:46:50.080 kill our people. I can't sit by and watch my 2:46:50.120 --> 2:46:53.920 people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in. The 2:46:53.920 --> 2:46:56.200 shooter was obsessed with the idea that a caravan of 2:46:56.200 --> 2:46:58.120 migrants with not a group of people trying to save 2:46:58.160 --> 2:47:01.360 their own lives, but a coordinate and somehow you led 2:47:01.400 --> 2:47:05.560 invasion an attempt to demographically restructure the United States. If 2:47:05.600 --> 2:47:07.800 you're ending where he got that idea from, he is 2:47:07.800 --> 2:47:10.440 America's favorite jobs, you get Tucker Calson on the caravan. 2:47:10.920 --> 2:47:14.320 Over the past month, a caravan of Central American migrants 2:47:14.320 --> 2:47:16.959 has gradually made its way up from Honduras through Mexico 2:47:17.400 --> 2:47:20.720 all the way to Tijuana opposite San Diego. At one point, 2:47:20.760 --> 2:47:24.440 Mexican authorities claimed they broke up the group, and American media, 2:47:24.480 --> 2:47:27.760 of course, dutifully reported that they did, but they didn't. 2:47:27.840 --> 2:47:30.440 That was just a pr gesture and a temporary one. 2:47:30.480 --> 2:47:34.199 In fact, during parts of the trip, Mexican police escorted 2:47:34.240 --> 2:47:37.640 the migrants northwards. In other words, the Mexican government abedded 2:47:37.640 --> 2:47:40.440 illegal immigration into this country, as it has done for 2:47:40.520 --> 2:47:44.000 many years. Well tonight, the caravan is on our southern border. 2:47:44.200 --> 2:47:46.760 Rather than wait for the crossing station a Sanya Sidro 2:47:46.879 --> 2:47:49.800 to open, many of them just jumped the fence. Some 2:47:50.080 --> 2:47:53.280 waved Honduran flags when they got to the top, And 2:47:53.320 --> 2:47:56.040 that tells you everything. When you arrive in a country 2:47:56.080 --> 2:47:59.240 to contribute to it and to assimilate into its culture, 2:47:59.640 --> 2:48:02.400 you don't waive the flag of a foreign nation. That's 2:48:02.400 --> 2:48:05.280 what you do in triumph, when you invader country. 2:48:05.640 --> 2:48:07.760 On my way home from Ensnado in twenty eighteen, I 2:48:07.800 --> 2:48:10.920 saw that quote invading Horde in the Benito Quada's sports 2:48:10.959 --> 2:48:14.480 complex and probably turned around and went back. My instinct 2:48:14.520 --> 2:48:17.280 as a journalist is to cover things like this, but 2:48:17.280 --> 2:48:20.039 my instinct is the person is to help first. On 2:48:20.120 --> 2:48:21.959 the first day, I was there with two friends I 2:48:22.000 --> 2:48:24.360 know from the weird world of pro cycling. Things were 2:48:24.360 --> 2:48:27.440 pretty bad. We'd obtained a backpack full of stroop waffles 2:48:27.440 --> 2:48:29.280 that a friend who makes stroop waffles had given us. 2:48:29.760 --> 2:48:31.600 Once we gave those out, I talked to a few 2:48:31.600 --> 2:48:34.440 people about what they needed. We coordinated with mutual ad 2:48:34.440 --> 2:48:36.800 groups in Tijuana and offered support her for wee could. 2:48:37.959 --> 2:48:39.560 In the next few weeks, my friends and I spent 2:48:39.600 --> 2:48:42.480 tens of thousands of dollars at a Tijuana costco, received 2:48:42.560 --> 2:48:44.760 thousands of dollars in donations from people we hadn't seen 2:48:44.800 --> 2:48:47.640 in years, and in one memorable instance, rigged up and 2:48:47.680 --> 2:48:50.120 projected as someone had tactically obtained from an office to 2:48:50.160 --> 2:48:52.240 a DVD player which we'd installed in the roof of 2:48:52.200 --> 2:48:55.520 a dilapidated nightclub for little children and their mothers so 2:48:55.560 --> 2:48:58.000 they could watch Beverly Hills, Chihuahua and forget about the 2:48:58.000 --> 2:49:00.560 fact that the country they were traveling to, portraying the 2:49:00.720 --> 2:49:04.039 little infants as invaders. Have a lot of very complicated 2:49:04.120 --> 2:49:07.160 memories of those few weeks. Little girls braiding my hair, 2:49:08.000 --> 2:49:10.600 little boys and girls trying to comprehend exactly how I 2:49:10.600 --> 2:49:13.200 could be this bad at football, and people from San 2:49:13.200 --> 2:49:16.600 Diego churches, tijuan anarchist kitchens and mutual a groups around 2:49:16.640 --> 2:49:18.920 the region coming together to look after a group of 2:49:18.920 --> 2:49:21.320 people who've been so heavily demonized by folks who had 2:49:21.320 --> 2:49:24.520 never met them or even been here. His Trump defending 2:49:24.560 --> 2:49:28.000 calling the caravan an invasion and simultaneously explaining why migrants 2:49:28.040 --> 2:49:30.359 low wage to labor it is desirable for people like him. 2:49:30.680 --> 2:49:33.760 Thank you, miss President. I challenge you on on one 2:49:33.760 --> 2:49:35.720 of the statements that you made in the tail end 2:49:35.720 --> 2:49:40.080 of the campaign in the midterms that here we go that, well, 2:49:40.400 --> 2:49:43.120 if you don't mind, miss president, that this caravan was 2:49:43.160 --> 2:49:46.320 an invasion, as you know, as you know, miss President, 2:49:46.400 --> 2:49:48.959 the caravan was not an invasion. It's a it's a 2:49:48.959 --> 2:49:52.160 a group of migrants moving up from Central America towards 2:49:52.200 --> 2:49:56.080 the border with the US. And why why did you 2:49:56.160 --> 2:49:58.480 why did you characterize it as such. 2:49:59.440 --> 2:50:01.119 As I can an invasion? 2:50:01.160 --> 2:50:02.600 You and I have a difference of a button. 2:50:02.640 --> 2:50:06.840 Do you think that you demonized immigrants to try. 2:50:06.600 --> 2:50:08.800 I want them, I want them to come into the country, 2:50:08.800 --> 2:50:09.959 but they have to come in legally. 2:50:09.959 --> 2:50:11.959 You know they have to come in Jim through a process. 2:50:12.280 --> 2:50:14.760 I wanted to be a process and I want people 2:50:14.760 --> 2:50:15.200 to come in. 2:50:15.240 --> 2:50:16.040 And we need the people. 2:50:16.120 --> 2:50:17.920 Your campaign, your campaign. 2:50:18.120 --> 2:50:20.400 You know why we need the people does because we 2:50:20.440 --> 2:50:22.160 have hundreds of companies moving in. 2:50:22.280 --> 2:50:23.200 We need the people. 2:50:23.760 --> 2:50:26.040 Trump, as you heard in the clip, used a migrant 2:50:26.080 --> 2:50:28.720 caravan and to prop for its racist and bigoted midterm campaign. 2:50:29.360 --> 2:50:31.760 It didn't work and he lost control of the House, 2:50:31.879 --> 2:50:33.880 but he did succeed in forcing these people to spend 2:50:33.879 --> 2:50:37.039 months in the cold, first in a sports stadium and 2:50:37.080 --> 2:50:40.120 then in an old nightclub. Even as a migrant gradually 2:50:40.160 --> 2:50:42.600 reduced in number, with many finding work and new life 2:50:42.600 --> 2:50:46.320 in Mexico, some finding their way north. The long legacy 2:50:46.320 --> 2:50:49.240 of that caravan was only just starting. In the months 2:50:49.240 --> 2:50:51.960 have followed journalists who'd cover the caravan, as well as 2:50:51.959 --> 2:50:54.960 those who offered assistant to caravan members, so they felt 2:50:54.920 --> 2:50:58.360 they've become targets of intense inspections of scrutiny by border officials. 2:50:59.480 --> 2:51:01.800 I got pulled into secondarily once during this time, and 2:51:01.800 --> 2:51:04.120 that was entering Mexaco. The worst I got was a 2:51:04.200 --> 2:51:06.560 chance to inspect my nineteen eighty pickup truck oil pen. 2:51:07.120 --> 2:51:11.119 But for others, things weren't so easy. Homeland Security Investigation 2:51:11.240 --> 2:51:15.960 special agent turned whistleblower Wesley Peternac helped NBC to document that, 2:51:16.800 --> 2:51:19.039 under the umbrella of what was called Operation Secure Line, 2:51:19.040 --> 2:51:22.720 the Department of Homeland Security created a database of activists, journalists, 2:51:22.720 --> 2:51:26.240 and social media influences tied to the migrant caraban When 2:51:26.280 --> 2:51:29.080 they crossed the border. Individuals in that database were often 2:51:29.120 --> 2:51:32.040 subjected to hours long screenings and in some cases had 2:51:32.080 --> 2:51:36.080 flags placed on their passports. A PowerPoint slideshow which Petanac 2:51:36.120 --> 2:51:40.039 leaked to NBC seven lists some of the people, some 2:51:40.080 --> 2:51:42.959 of them have been guests on this show. They include 2:51:43.000 --> 2:51:46.800 ten journalists, seven of whom were US citizens, a US attorney, 2:51:47.360 --> 2:51:49.680 forty eight people from the US and other countries who 2:51:49.680 --> 2:51:55.000 were labeled as organizers, instigators, or having unknown roles. The 2:51:55.040 --> 2:51:58.600 target lists also includes organizers from groups like Border Angels 2:51:58.640 --> 2:52:02.080 and Pueblos in Frontellas I asked journalist brook Ben Cowsey 2:52:02.120 --> 2:52:05.119 to describe her experience of increased border scrutiny in twenty eighteen. 2:52:05.560 --> 2:52:07.760 If you don't have a pre approved card, you have 2:52:07.800 --> 2:52:09.440 to like go through wait and line, wait in this 2:52:09.640 --> 2:52:12.600 long ass line, and then you know you go and 2:52:12.640 --> 2:52:15.760 get vetted by CDP. They ask you some questions or 2:52:15.800 --> 2:52:17.320 they just wave you through, depending on what kind of 2:52:17.400 --> 2:52:20.600 day they're having or whatever. So in my case, I 2:52:20.600 --> 2:52:23.720 started getting pulled into secondary inspection more and more. So 2:52:23.760 --> 2:52:26.200 they would wave my car over and then take me 2:52:26.240 --> 2:52:29.039 into this secondary place where it's sort of like this 2:52:29.240 --> 2:52:33.120 back it's like a Quonsett pet sort of, and in 2:52:33.200 --> 2:52:35.000 it like all these cars drive in and out, and 2:52:35.000 --> 2:52:38.119 they'll they'll go through your things, they'll get in your face, 2:52:38.400 --> 2:52:41.920 you know, they'll do all kinds of stuff. And I 2:52:42.240 --> 2:52:44.440 don't there have to be cameras in there somewhere, but 2:52:44.440 --> 2:52:47.520 I've never seen any. So I just kept getting pulled 2:52:47.520 --> 2:52:49.400 into secondary more and more, as though I was this 2:52:49.600 --> 2:52:52.400 suspicious person, as though I was suspected of something, and 2:52:52.440 --> 2:52:53.920 every time I asked, they'd be like, I don't know, 2:52:54.160 --> 2:52:56.560 it's just random, ma'am, and ma'am, it's just random. So 2:52:56.600 --> 2:52:59.600 actually this started about twenty fourteen for me, but it 2:52:59.640 --> 2:53:02.680 started to escalate in twenty eighteen. Twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen 2:53:02.720 --> 2:53:04.560 started to escalate, and I was like, a fucking Trump 2:53:04.560 --> 2:53:06.599 administration of course going to escalate. 2:53:06.320 --> 2:53:09.000 Right under Trump. She said, things got worse. 2:53:09.480 --> 2:53:11.760 From twenty seventeen through twenty eighteen. It kind of worked 2:53:11.760 --> 2:53:13.320 where you pushed back and I'd be like, you need 2:53:13.360 --> 2:53:16.400 to let me fucking go. You know, I'm century, I'm 2:53:16.400 --> 2:53:19.240 already pre checked. If you think that there's something wrong 2:53:19.240 --> 2:53:21.440 that I'm doing, and take my fucking century away, and 2:53:21.520 --> 2:53:23.360 I want to talk to your manager type stuff, right, 2:53:23.400 --> 2:53:26.440 So I was doing that. That worked until twenty eighteen, 2:53:26.480 --> 2:53:27.800 and then it started to get really gnarly. 2:53:28.280 --> 2:53:30.480 Eventually things came to a head the day before the 2:53:30.480 --> 2:53:32.840 migrants of the caravan were tear gassed. And I've seen 2:53:32.879 --> 2:53:34.920 most people remember from twenty eighteen. 2:53:35.160 --> 2:53:39.000 So but on that night, as I was coming back, 2:53:39.920 --> 2:53:42.520 I drove through and I did the Century thing, you know, 2:53:42.600 --> 2:53:45.440 the usual stuff, and got pulled into secondary. And this 2:53:45.600 --> 2:53:49.360 time it was really like gnarly. The time before that 2:53:49.360 --> 2:53:51.920 had also been really gnarly, like nobody hurt me, nobody 2:53:51.959 --> 2:53:54.320 did anything, but they got really close to my face, 2:53:54.640 --> 2:53:57.440 like right in my face, you know, and started screaming 2:53:57.440 --> 2:53:59.640 at me, like screaming over me. And I kept going, 2:54:00.440 --> 2:54:02.760 I'd like to speak to your manager, you know, sir, 2:54:03.280 --> 2:54:06.440 like please please get out of my face, sir. And 2:54:07.879 --> 2:54:10.879 it was it was gross, and they were going through 2:54:10.879 --> 2:54:13.119 my shit and that was gross, Like they didn't find anything, 2:54:13.320 --> 2:54:17.040 but it was just an invasive, hostile, disgusting thing. And 2:54:17.080 --> 2:54:19.120 that was when so I said, can I speak to 2:54:19.120 --> 2:54:24.080 your manager? Which is a magic phrase when you're a middle. 2:54:23.879 --> 2:54:24.480 Aged white woman. 2:54:24.959 --> 2:54:27.800 So I say this, and they bring over some guy 2:54:28.480 --> 2:54:30.880 and he goes, ma'am, can I help you? I'm like, yeah, 2:54:30.920 --> 2:54:31.600 what the fuck? 2:54:31.920 --> 2:54:32.120 You know? 2:54:32.200 --> 2:54:35.400 Why are you treating me this way? Why did any 2:54:35.400 --> 2:54:37.680 of this happen? And he goes, oh, yeah, I'm sorry. 2:54:37.680 --> 2:54:38.760 Your name's on a list somewhere. 2:54:38.800 --> 2:54:39.480 You've been flagged. 2:54:39.680 --> 2:54:42.640 And I'm like, so every time I've crossed, I've been 2:54:42.680 --> 2:54:45.200 flagged and he's like, yeah, and yeah, you've been. There's 2:54:45.200 --> 2:54:47.640 a flag on your passport or against your name and 2:54:47.640 --> 2:54:50.640 that's why. And I said, well, why is there a 2:54:50.680 --> 2:54:53.240 flag against my name? And he goes, I don't know, 2:54:53.240 --> 2:54:55.360 You're gonna have to do a Freedom of Information Act 2:54:55.400 --> 2:54:57.240 request or something. I don't even know if he knew 2:54:57.280 --> 2:54:57.960 I was a journalist. 2:54:58.280 --> 2:55:01.879 Sadly broke last crossing twenty and since I photographed those 2:55:01.920 --> 2:55:04.640 CUMEI folks in ceremony near Campo, the border wall has 2:55:04.680 --> 2:55:07.600 only got longer every mile it stretches out means another 2:55:07.640 --> 2:55:09.800 mile into the desert people have to walk, and that 2:55:09.879 --> 2:55:12.320 means that more people won't walk out of that desert, 2:55:12.720 --> 2:55:15.480 those people who lost their lives. An attempt to save them, 2:55:15.800 --> 2:55:18.120 a mark with little red dots on the various maps, 2:55:18.120 --> 2:55:21.800 an attempt to put the humanitarian crisis into a visual form. 2:55:22.320 --> 2:55:25.320 Those dots begin in South America's people die traveling north, 2:55:25.840 --> 2:55:29.280 but they're sparse and isolated. Where that changes is the 2:55:29.320 --> 2:55:33.600 places I've been driving all week, Eastern California, southern Arizona. 2:55:34.280 --> 2:55:37.000 Places I know from years of hiking, climbing, and cycling, 2:55:37.640 --> 2:55:40.879 places when one mistake can be fatal. I know from 2:55:40.879 --> 2:55:43.440 my friends who spend time resupplying water caches and searching 2:55:43.440 --> 2:55:45.760 for missing people, that you don't have to make any 2:55:45.800 --> 2:55:48.520 mistakes to die in the desert, especially if you're young 2:55:48.840 --> 2:55:51.720 or old, or sick or afraid to ask for help. 2:55:53.400 --> 2:55:55.520 These are the places we force people to travel through 2:55:55.680 --> 2:55:58.080 on foot to come here and create a better future 2:55:58.080 --> 2:56:03.160 for themselves. Hydration, exposure and drowning or rank highly as 2:56:03.160 --> 2:56:06.360 caused a death along the border. Last year saw a 2:56:06.400 --> 2:56:09.040 record for border deaths, and with Biden attempting to take 2:56:09.080 --> 2:56:12.080 a hard line going into twenty twenty four, and climate 2:56:12.160 --> 2:56:15.320 change and instability continuing to drive migrants north to the 2:56:15.360 --> 2:56:18.199 place that causes so much of that climate change and instability, 2:56:18.600 --> 2:56:22.000 there's no reason to believe things will get better. I 2:56:22.040 --> 2:56:24.960 want to point to one tragic loss, one of thousands, 2:56:25.120 --> 2:56:27.800 that happened not far from where I live. In February 2:56:27.800 --> 2:56:32.160 of twenty twenty, Juana Margarita and Paula Santosar were traveling 2:56:32.160 --> 2:56:34.680 by foot from Wahaka to their future in the United 2:56:34.680 --> 2:56:37.760 States along a trail sometimes known as the Shrine Trail. 2:56:38.480 --> 2:56:40.760 Their family told media back home that they were searching 2:56:40.760 --> 2:56:44.800 for a Senor Americano the American Dream. Along their route 2:56:45.000 --> 2:56:47.959 is a small religious shrine which marks the last point 2:56:48.000 --> 2:56:51.119 from which you can see in Mexico. It's well inside 2:56:51.160 --> 2:56:55.240 the US along a dry creek bed in the Laguna Mountains. 2:56:56.000 --> 2:56:57.720 It can be hot in the summer and cold in 2:56:57.720 --> 2:57:01.240 the winter. Last November I can out there, and even 2:57:01.240 --> 2:57:03.760 with thousands of dollars in gear, I was dangerously close 2:57:03.800 --> 2:57:07.880 to cold injury. I've also rescued hikers with dehydration symptoms 2:57:07.879 --> 2:57:11.800 near here. The desert and the weather might be part 2:57:11.840 --> 2:57:14.440 of the story, but the desert doesn't kill people on 2:57:14.480 --> 2:57:17.480 its own. It's the border that forces people deep into 2:57:17.480 --> 2:57:20.240 the desert that kills them. The desert is just a 2:57:20.280 --> 2:57:22.600 tool for a system that uses death of the current. 2:57:23.760 --> 2:57:25.520 When the girls crossed the border near Campo on the 2:57:25.600 --> 2:57:28.880 ninth of February, it was raining. As they climbed the 2:57:28.959 --> 2:57:32.120 Laguna Mountains, it started to snow. They huddled under a 2:57:32.160 --> 2:57:34.520 bolder for warmth, and the two men smuggling them across 2:57:34.520 --> 2:57:36.280 struck out to get Star reception and call nine to 2:57:36.320 --> 2:57:40.680 one one. By the time bor Star Border Patrol Search 2:57:40.760 --> 2:57:43.640 Trauma and Rescue team arrived, two of the girls had 2:57:43.680 --> 2:57:46.840 died as they tried to save Juana. Their request for 2:57:46.879 --> 2:57:49.240 air support was declined, and she died with one of 2:57:49.240 --> 2:57:52.280 the agent's jackkits wrapped around her and another agent's beanie 2:57:52.320 --> 2:57:56.440 on her head. For some reason, the girl's remains were 2:57:56.440 --> 2:57:59.720 not recovered right away, and they were not rewarmed, and 2:57:59.800 --> 2:58:01.959 so they last their last chance at the American dream 2:58:02.320 --> 2:58:06.520 and not life. Today, their final resting place is marked 2:58:06.520 --> 2:58:09.480 by three crosses and a cache of supplies placed there 2:58:09.560 --> 2:58:13.360 by volunteers. At the time I'm recording this, we don't 2:58:13.400 --> 2:58:14.920 know where all the folks we met at the border 2:58:14.959 --> 2:58:18.400 around now then we might never know. Not being able 2:58:18.440 --> 2:58:21.000 to follow stories is a sad part of this reporting. 2:58:21.080 --> 2:58:23.920 Sometimes knows people all have my phone number, but they 2:58:24.000 --> 2:58:26.880 might not. Only more have their phones or this scrap 2:58:26.920 --> 2:58:29.640 of paper are wroted on. Often these things can be 2:58:29.640 --> 2:58:32.720 taken for them in custody. What we do know is 2:58:32.760 --> 2:58:35.360 that on May eighteenth, exactly one week after Title forty 2:58:35.360 --> 2:58:39.280 two ended, Immigration and Customs Enforcement also known as ICE, 2:58:39.640 --> 2:58:42.840 tweeted a video of Customs Enforcement and Removal Operations agents 2:58:43.320 --> 2:58:45.959 walking down the corridor of a flight full of mass people. 2:58:47.120 --> 2:58:52.280 The caption read ICE conducted multiple removal flights including Ecuador, Guatemala, 2:58:52.360 --> 2:58:55.320 and Honduras as part of dozens flights conducted each week. 2:58:56.160 --> 2:58:57.640 On the wall of my office as I write this, 2:58:58.080 --> 2:59:02.840 there are several propaganda posters Second Republic. One is as 2:59:02.840 --> 2:59:06.120 simple as it is heartbreaking. The poster depicts a squadron 2:59:06.120 --> 2:59:08.879 of fascist bombers and the dead body of a child. 2:59:09.879 --> 2:59:13.080 The slogan underneath reads, if you tolerate this, then your 2:59:13.120 --> 2:59:16.840 children will be next. The poster was, of course correct. 2:59:17.440 --> 2:59:19.200 It was the inspiration for songs by the Clash and 2:59:19.240 --> 2:59:21.760 the Mansrud preachers, which are what in turn made me 2:59:21.800 --> 2:59:24.640 want to learn about the Spanish Civil War. The slogan 2:59:25.000 --> 2:59:27.880 coined in nineteen thirty seven feels as relevant today as 2:59:27.879 --> 2:59:30.560 it does then. It was one that folks on the 2:59:30.600 --> 2:59:33.360 border might as well have been screaming by twenty eighteen, 2:59:34.280 --> 2:59:36.360 but one that went ignored, just as it did in 2:59:36.440 --> 2:59:40.440 nineteen thirty seven. In twenty twenty, folks began to realize 2:59:40.440 --> 2:59:43.039 what it meant when border patrol drones circled the skies 2:59:43.040 --> 2:59:46.440 around Minneapolis and cell phone signal interceptors track citizens all 2:59:46.480 --> 2:59:48.960 over the US when they came together to demand that 2:59:48.959 --> 2:59:52.200 the police stopped murdering people. It became more real in 2:59:52.200 --> 2:59:55.760 twenty twenty three when under DeSantis, Florida began the process 2:59:55.800 --> 2:59:58.720 of legalizing state kidnapping of trans and gender non performing 2:59:58.800 --> 3:00:02.640 kids from their loving families. But that all began when 3:00:02.640 --> 3:00:04.880 the state ripped Indigenous children for their families in the 3:00:04.959 --> 3:00:07.760 nineteenth and twentieth centuries, who tried to destroy their culture 3:00:07.840 --> 3:00:10.279 by punishing them for wearing their clothes, speaking their languages, 3:00:10.360 --> 3:00:13.440 or using their names. Wasn't a big leap from there 3:00:13.440 --> 3:00:16.240 to Trump's family separation policy, which detained kids on their 3:00:16.280 --> 3:00:18.880 own away from their families as a means of punishing 3:00:18.879 --> 3:00:22.200 a deterring migrants, and it's reached its obvious endpoint in 3:00:22.240 --> 3:00:25.720 Florida because despite all the people chanting about kids in 3:00:25.720 --> 3:00:29.600 courages in twenty twenty, there's almost universal bipartisan agreement on 3:00:29.640 --> 3:00:32.560 treating people of our southern border like humans without rights. 3:00:33.280 --> 3:00:35.920 And because for two decades we've allowed the border surveillance 3:00:35.920 --> 3:00:39.280 industrial complex to grow to an unprecedented and uncontrollable scale, 3:00:39.280 --> 3:00:44.040 the watches us all changing things now will be very difficult. 3:00:44.360 --> 3:00:48.240 DHS aren't numbers many nations armies, and it's considerably better equipped. 3:00:49.080 --> 3:00:51.320 But unless people show up and take action, things are 3:00:51.320 --> 3:00:54.760 going to get considerably worse, regardless of who you vote 3:00:54.760 --> 3:00:56.200 for or what they say in order to get you 3:00:56.240 --> 3:00:59.680 to vote for them. As Katie said, little things can 3:00:59.720 --> 3:01:02.640 make it difference, And if you listen this far, I 3:01:02.680 --> 3:01:04.240 hope you'll take the time to try and do those 3:01:04.280 --> 3:01:07.320 little things. Before we go, I want to update you 3:01:07.360 --> 3:01:09.240 on what's happened in the week we've been publishing this. 3:01:10.640 --> 3:01:12.360 Although there are no longer people held out in the 3:01:12.400 --> 3:01:15.080 open in ho Goomba and San Asedro, there are still 3:01:15.120 --> 3:01:17.440 many people trying to present themselves at the sant Asedra 3:01:17.520 --> 3:01:20.000 border to claim asylum. Today, I was told they are 3:01:20.000 --> 3:01:23.279 about one hundred of them. They're waiting there, often for days. 3:01:23.640 --> 3:01:26.640 Most of them are getting turned away. They're all frustrated 3:01:26.680 --> 3:01:30.000 with CVP one which continues to be buggy, offer no appointments, 3:01:30.120 --> 3:01:33.440 and struggle to photograph black faces. I also wanted to 3:01:33.440 --> 3:01:36.000 mention some of the organizations you can find and donate 3:01:36.040 --> 3:01:38.840 to if you'd like to support their efforts. They are 3:01:39.360 --> 3:01:45.240 the Asian Solidarity Collective, Alo Trollao, the American Friends Service Committee, 3:01:45.680 --> 3:01:50.800 Border Kindness, border Lands Relief Collective, the Haitian Bridge Alliance, 3:01:51.760 --> 3:01:56.279 the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans, and PREVENKASA 3:01:56.560 --> 3:02:02.320 pre ev e ncas A. I'd also like to thank 3:02:02.480 --> 3:02:07.160 Joe Oriana his Twitter is at Joe or Photo for 3:02:07.280 --> 3:02:09.880 his reporting which very much contributed to this series. 3:02:11.240 --> 3:02:14.400 Hey, We'll be back Monday with more episodes every week 3:02:14.480 --> 3:02:17.039 from now until the heat death of the Universe. It 3:02:17.080 --> 3:02:19.480 could happen here as a production of cool Zone Media. 3:02:19.560 --> 3:02:22.200 For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website 3:02:22.280 --> 3:02:24.480 cool Zonemedia dot com, or check us out on the 3:02:24.520 --> 3:02:28.080 iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts, 3:02:28.360 --> 3:02:30.440 you can find sources for It could happen here, Updated 3:02:30.560 --> 3:02:34.600 monthly at cool zonemedia dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.