Immigration Nation (2020) s01e01 Episode Script

1
Raids in sanctuary
cities have shot up across the country.
Fear is rising among immigrants,
even in a city like New York.
In New York City,
the ultimate city of immigrants,
there are half a million New Yorkers
who happen to be undocumented,
another half a million New Yorkers
who happen to be permanent residents,
who are all part of the lifeblood
of this city.
There have been such deep fears
and concerns in recent weeks
about ICE agents appearing out of nowhere
and disrupting their lives
and their families
and potentially tearing
their families apart.
Who is it?
Police. Open the door.
I didn't call you.
Yeah, please open the door.
We got it open?
Policia.
Who are you looking for?
We're not gonna yell
through a closed door, ma'am.
That's not how we do business.
Please open the door so I can talk to you.
How you doing? Sorry to bother you.
We need to come in and talk to you.
We don't all have to come in,
just a couple of us.
I wanna show you some pictures.
Somebody we're looking for
has been using this address.
- Oh, okay.
- All right?
- You wanna come in?
- Yeah, if you don't mind.
- What's your name, ma'am?
- Anna.
Anna. Okay, you mind if we come in?
How many people are in here?
Three adults and one baby.
- She's in the bathroom right there?
- Yeah.
Can somebody speak Spanish?
Do you guys speak Spanish?
Yeah, one of my one of my partners
speaks better Spanish than me.
Mom, calm down! Wait!
Come here. Come here.
Mom, come out! Calm down!
Tango positive in the back.
Need more officers?
No, they're not telling me nothing.
Can you go in the living room?
I'll tell you everything that's going on.
Mom, stay calm. It's okay.
I'm gonna explain
to the daughter what's going on.
He has a criminal warrant.
He was deported before.
It's actually a federal offense
to come back in the country.
- I have a warrant for his arrest.
- Can I see the warrant?
I'm not obligated to show it to anybody,
but I have a warrant. Trust me.
I'm not in here without it.
I have a warrant for his arrest.
I gotta take him to the Southern District
of New York. He's gonna be remanded today.
- Okay, but can I see any paperwork?
- Yeah, I'll give you a card.
No, I mean paperwork saying
that you guys have permission
to come in here or something.
No, I have a warrant for him,
and I know he lives here.
That's why I'm in here.
Plus, you opened the door and let me in.
How long will it take to deport me?
As soon as we have
a document to send you back.
- Brian. Brian.
- Brian.
Let me get the door
for you guys.
Proud to be a team member.
Good game. Hey, good game. Good game.
Come on, bro.
Watch your head.
Stay there.
From what country?
- Dominican Republic.
- Dominican?
Yo!
Nobody here, huh?
We're the first ones back.
You want water?
- Yeah, please.
- Water? I'll get you water.
- Just have a seat in here.
- Okay.
I'll put the lights on.
You know, he knows that he's done, right?
That guy's been
through the proceedings already.
He knows that
there's no judge for him.
There's just
a return ticket.
He's trying to hurt himself.
Step back from the wall, man.
Stop that.
Stop it.
Have a seat.
Let's see how many tangos we got.
Well, just one.
Shit! I wanted to make a video.
How do you make a video?
Can't you make a video
on this fucking okay.
Ready?
Oh. What's up, guys?
Hey, guys, how many guys are
in the processing room, in the bullpen?
- Just one.
- Just one. Okay.
Just making sure.
I thought there was an op today.
Let's see.
Let's go see what this guy looks like.
Oh, yeah.
Fuck it.
Alberto, Mike, Rodney,
all the supervisors. Look.
Just making sure.
I thought there was an op today.
Let's see.
Let's go see what this guy looks like.
Huh? Yeah.
Oh, man!
Hey, we got another one.
- All right.
- Yeah.
- Have a good day in school. Enjoy.
- Yeah.
We're looking for you.
This is a marathon, right?
It's gonna be a week-long operation.
So I have teams right now in Manhattan
from the Bronx to Queens to Brooklyn,
and we're gonna be working
15, 16 hour days.
People think
that we're just driving around the city
looking for what they will call
"our victims."
But this is precision policing.
We know exactly where we're going.
We know exactly who we're going after,
and once they get
a final order of removal,
that's what we're supposed to do.
We're supposed to find them
and remove them.
And people have a hard time
with that concept.
I've got eight targets today.
Petty larceny,
criminal possession of a weapon.
He's done a bunch of gang assaults.
His thing is
he goes up to people on the street,
hits them with a bat and stabs them
and then just takes their money.
So, he's not a good guy.
Has been deported twice, I believe.
- Ready to go?
- Yeah.
We're on our way to this case.
This is a 38-year-old female from Romania.
Both her and her husband got arrested
for possessing child pornography.
She works as a cashier
at a bagel store in the city.
We're all officers from the Department
of Homeland Security, understand?
Immigration.
I have a warrant.
You're ready for war, buddy.
What does I-C-E mean?
Immigration Customs Enforcement.
Good job, man.
- How many you got?
- We're at 30 right now.
Uh, I think we got
- Thirty just here?
- Yeah, just here.
So, I think we got 12 upstate
and, like, nine in Long Island.
- That's a pretty good number.
- Hey, yo!
Whose property is this?
It's got tons of money in here.
Just sitting up front!
- It's gonna go up to, like, 46 for today.
- Right. Wow.
Plus 20. It'll be, like, 65 so far.
- For day one.
- Yeah. Well, I mean
Yeah, you might wanna shut it down, bro.
I think I'm gonna cancel the op.
That's it, one day.
I think everybody will agree
that, especially now,
ICE isn't a fan-favorite of anybody's.
Words like "Nazis." "How can you do this?"
Uh
We're used to it. Um
And, I mean, I love my job. I do.
It provides a good
You know, I have a good, stable home.
I make good money.
To be called a Nazi, you know, a racist
you know, it just
it's ignorant. It's ignorant.
We don't pick and choose groups of people
based on race, color
religion.
We just look for people who are removable.
All right, I'm ready.
We constantly look like we're the bad guys
when all we're doing is enforcing the laws
and doing our job.
It gets to me sometimes. It does. Like
'Cause I just feel like, you know,
we have no respect.
I mean, I've been doing this for
gonna be 12 years.
Things have changed a lot.
We had a lot of priorities
we had to stick to
and things like that,
but, you know, now,
the administration has changed,
and we're finally able to do our job.
To be honest with you,
I honestly still cannot believe
that he's our president.
It's the best thing and
the worst thing that could happen to us.
You know what I mean?
So, how do you deal with that?
We're at five right now.
Six soon, hopefully.
And three at court?
- Yeah.
- Nine? Oh, my God!
It's, like, too much.
Like, we don't even arrest eight people
in a week.
It's like the floodgates opened.
And no one's used to this,
'cause it's not like,
"Okay, we went back to the way we were."
We were
never like this. It's a different world.
With the new president, there was
a signature of an executive order
that mandated 10,000 immigration officers
to be hired.
We have never hired and trained
that many individuals
through our academy.
With the number they're talking about,
we're doubling,
close to tripling our agency.
There you go. Verbal commands. Good job!
We're going to have to have more
females in the workplace, more minorities.
It's going to open this agency up
to a better workforce.
I don't speak Spanish.
You know, I speak German.
We don't arrest many German people.
This is the scenario.
You have been dispatched span style=
"style2" to the scene of a loud argument
between a man and a woman.
- Sir, don't move. Let me see your hands.
- What was his name?
Frank,
I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. Kenny!
- What the fuck was his name?
- span style= "style1" Drop it!
Oh, my God!
- Sir.
- -Why'd you shoot him?
- Put your hands above your head.
- Ma'am, get back!
- Get away!
- Stand up!
- Back away!
- Come towards us!
- Drop the gun! Drop it!
- Stop right there!
You both had your guns on her,
both of you,
and you let her go look at the gun,
pick up the gun,
aim the gun at you before you ever shot.
Why in the world
would you let her do that?
When y'all go hit somebody's house
at six a.m.,
is there a chance that they could be
in an argument when y'all get there?
Yes, sir.
Does she know that he's illegal?
Does she know that she's about to lose
her only source of income?
Is she angry?
I mean, you just have no idea.
If that had been Shaquille O'Neal,
eight foot tall, 350 pounds
with leather and spikes and a Mohawk,
would you have let him get
anywhere near that gun?
- No.
- You wouldn't have.
Boys, don't ever think
that a woman is any less dangerous
than a man is.
You're gonna be sworn in
as deportation officers.
That's a massive responsibility.
Right? You have the authority
to make arrests
to tell someone,
"You're not free to leave."
And the one thing I can promise you,
in this career
is change.
Change will always happen.
It seems to happen a lot more frequently
in this agency, though.
Let's say ICE is gonna change a policy.
In a perfect world,
you have about six months to evaluate it
and then to implement it.
Well, what happens in ICE generally
you don't have six months.
You have about two hours.
It's rapid.
We're gonna go
from arresting only criminals,
which we've been doing for a few years,
to now,
we're arresting all immigration violators,
whether you've been convicted of a crime
or not.
This is the new direction.
- Be safe out there.
- All right.
- All right.
- Um, hey.
This is my first one, my first op.
We usually are stuck in processing,
so to come out here is like Christmas
for us.
We're like, "Yes! Thank you."
Is everybody on the move?
Confirmed.
Confirmed. We're all moving.
- Do you wanna be in my cover?
- Yeah, yeah.
Open the door.
It's the police. Open the door.
Who is it?
Good morning. Police.
Can you open the door for a second?
Huh?
I'm going to call the police.
But we are the police!
If you look through the door,
you will see.
Hello. Police.
- You sleeping?
- Just waking up.
- Can I come in and talk to you?
- Yes.
How many people live here?
There's a few of us.
When you want
to enter an apartment like this,
you need to bring a warrant, okay?
Listen, I asked him if I could
enter, and he said yes!
And that's it, right?
Don't even try with that!
I'm leaving for work.
Is this going to take long?
Can you come out, please?
Do you have ID?
Bring it, okay?
- This is Tango?
- Hmm.
Okay. All right, bye.
He wanted to know
if it was okay for collaterals.
- All of them?
- It's up to you.
Absolutely.
Okay. Where are you from?
- Guatemala. And you?
- The same.
How did you come in to the US?
Good, thank God.
How did you enter the US?
Oh. Illegally.
When?
It's been since, like, 2001.
- 2001?
- Yes.
- Through where?
- Texas.
But let me call my boss to let him know
I won't be coming to work.
You can call after we get to the office.
Can you turn off the light, please?
All right.
We go to a house or an apartment looking
for our intended target,
and then we encounter
all these other people while we're there.
That's what we consider collaterals.
Judy, do you copy?
Hello.
Most of our targets are criminal aliens.
That's where the collaterals
are kind of like
you know
kind of the victim.
It's an unfortunate situation,
'cause a lot of these guys
are hardworking individuals.
They're here to work
and provide for their family.
They just get caught up in politics
if you look at it. It's how it is.
I was on my way to work,
and they stopped me.
Supposedly, they arrived with a paper
looking for "Juan Maria Sosa,"
but they detained me.
I haven't had any problems with the law.
I'm not a killer or a robber
or gang member.
I have never committed a single crime.
They weren't after me, and yet, here I am.
They were after someone else.
I don't really
I don't do collaterals.
I just don't think it's right.
If I get somebody that's not cooperative,
it's a different story.
But if you let me into your house
and talk to me,
I'm not gonna roll your fingerprints
and arrest you
just because you're here illegally.
I know it's my job,
but I got guys that are aggravated felons
that I'd like to catch.
I don't care about the guy
that's minding his own business
and cooperating with me.
Just for the sake of numbers, anyway.
So, how many did you blow through?
Not a lot. A lot of them were collaterals.
No, but how many targets
did you blow through?
- Today?
- Like, a lot?
How many was there? Like, ten, 12?
Yeah, what's up, man?
span style= "style2"
Start taking collaterals, man.
I don't care what you do,
but bring at least two people in.
Okay.
- All right, thanks.
- All right.
That's my boss.
"Bring at least two people in.
I don't care what you do."
- He knew you guys were with me, right?
- Yeah.
Yeah, 'cause that's
a pretty stupid fucking thing to say.
Can I ask you a question, boss?
Sure.
Can I talk to my lawyer?
Absolutely.
Once we get back to the office,
I will allow you to make a phone call,
and you can speak to him, okay?
Any other questions?
Were you born over here?
- If I was born here?
- Yeah.
I mean, it doesn't
That's really irrelevant at this point.
We'll talk about your case in my office,
okay? When we get back.
We'll be able to talk more about it.
Is there anything you can do for me?
No.
Go around and sit over there.
I have no family there anymore.
I left my country
because my father was murdered.
I don't know what the problem was,
but they told me
if I didn't leave the country,
they would also kill me.
And this is still the case.
I know that they will kill me
as soon as I arrive.
Sanctuary!
Sanctuary!
We will give you
sanctuary!
Just hold on tight!
New York is with you!
Your sanctuary city!
We live in your neighborhoods!
We live in your neighborhoods!
We're with you every day!
We're with you every day!
And we're gonna come up there and get you!
And we're gonna come up there
and get you!
This is what they're doing right now.
- They're outside now?
- That's outside right now.
What, they caught wind of it already?
ICE has got to go!
ICE has got to go!
ICE has got to go! ICE has got to go!
I'm an immigration lawyer.
I defend people from deportation,
and I frequently have to interact with ICE
when I do it.
And when I interact with ICE,
I have to be polite
because my client's life is
in their hands.
But I'm not at work today.
So I'm not gonna be polite.
I'm gonna be honest.
You know, ICE is an anti-freedom,
anti-family, pro-violence institution.
They oppose with violence of deportation
the freedom to migrate.
They oppose with shackles and prison
the freedom to better your life.
The imprisoned are not detained.
They are interned.
And the interned are not in custody.
They are disappeared.
The time has come
to call evil out as evil,
and we will not apologize
for naming brutality.
As ICE terrorizes our nation,
we call it what it is:
Domestic terrorism
from our own government.
We have a rogue agency, and that's ICE.
Getting on Amtrak trains,
getting on Greyhound buses,
dragging parents from schools
when they're dropping their children off
to schools,
going into the courts.
I think when you punish people
for showing up for their court dates
or for going to the hospital
or for reporting domestic violence,
you really break apart the rule of law.
And if the purpose
of immigration enforcement is
to enforce the rule of law,
you're getting
some really perverse outcomes
when the threat of deportation
is making it impossible
for people to show up
for their own bond hearings
or for children to go to school
and get an education
or women to report their abusers.
You have to ask yourself, like,
"What is the point of that
other than
to just terrorize these communities?"
ICE arrests hundreds
of undocumented immigrants
after a series of raids across the US.
Agents from Immigration and span style= "style2"
Customs Enforcement have conducted sweeps
in cities around the country.
Hey, come to the door! Now!
Yeah, you, open the door.
Go. Go, van. Go!
Can I call my family please?
Okay.
He says he's not coming with us.
We'll have to go in there and get him.
Subject is coming to the door.
I need my team lined up over here.
Hold! Hold!
Come out with your hands up!
On the ground! On the ground!
Turn around! Get on the ground!
Don't move!
That's my dad! Let me fucking go!
Get her out of the way.
I want to say bye for the last time!
Good afternoon. I'm Tom Homan.
I'm the acting director
of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
known as ICE.
If you're in this country illegally,
you should be uncomfortable.
You should look over your shoulder,
and you need to be worried.
Get that message clear
that there is no safe haven here.
We're gonna look for you at your home,
at place of employment.
You're not welcome in the United States,
and you'll find no harbor here.
ICE agents announced
that they have arrested
nearly 500 illegal immigrants
in the last week.
Arrested immigrants span style= "style2"
without any prior criminal convictions
have more than doubled
since President Trump took office.
I went to pick up some donuts,
and this guy comes up to me,
and he's just looking at me
like he knows me.
I was like, "I'll take a dozen donuts."
And he's like
"You don't
You don't remember me?" I'm like, "No."
I go, "Where do I know you from?"
He's like, "You deported my mom."
I'm like, "Oh, I'm sorry."
And I go, "How long ago was that?"
He goes, "Last week."
I was like, "Oh!"
It comes to a point
where it's just, "Next. Next. Next."
Sometimes, I'll call the bosses.
"Hey, can we give them an extra week?"
And if they tell me no, sorry.
I'm a soldier.
I was in the military before.
I do what I'm told. I do what I'm told.
Today, we are here to send a message
to the world
that we are not going to let
the country be overwhelmed.
I have put in place
a zero-tolerance policy
for illegal entry on our Southwest border.
If you cross the border unlawfully,
then we will prosecute you.
It's that simple.
If you are smuggling a child,
then we will prosecute you,
and that child may be separated from you
as required by law.
For what appears to be
the first time ever,
this country is now systematically taking
children from their parents at the border,
thanks to new directives issued
by the Trump Administration.
If you didn't
come with your children, go to that side.
It's been 27 days
since I crossed
with my three-year-old child.
Since then, I haven't had any contact
or communication with him.
When this moment happened,
my son wouldn't let me go.
He just said to me, "Bring me, Papi!
Bring me! Don't leave me here!"
Because my boy can just barely talk.
I asked them
to give me the opportunity to be with him,
because he's barely three years old.
And they told me they couldn't,
that they had to comply with the rules,
that they had to send me to a jail
and him to a shelter.
I never saw him again
after they pulled him off of my leg.
When I was at ICE,
they told me that
that they were going
to separate us forever.
She was going to stay here.
I don't know in whose hands.
My daughter was crying and crying,
"Papi, don't go! Papi, don't leave me!"
Stay with me. Papi, come with me! Papi
"Come with me, Papi. Don't leave me alone."
Crying.
And me as well, my love
ICE took her from right in front
of me, leaving me with
with pain in my soul,
because I've never been apart from her.
Your right hand index finger.
Relax your hand.
Thank you.
Five years.
You are deported for five years, okay?
My personal opinion?
I mean, think about it.
You're a US citizen.
You're driving a car.
You've been drinking.
You have your children
in the back of the car.
You get pulled over. That's a felony.
They're gonna pick up your children,
separate you, and they're gonna book you.
Tell me what the difference is
between that
and knowingly coming to the United States
illegally with your children.
I mean, the law is law.
We are a politically-driven agency.
If you change the law,
that's the law we're gonna follow.
Zero-tolerance is the law,
and for those of us
that are in law enforcement,
we look at that, and we go,
"That's why I got into law enforcement,
to enforce laws."
This is our new direction.
Zero-tolerance,
we're gonna begin to separate families.
My son
is extroverted, cheerful.
His hair is like mine.
But he has brown hair.
Curly.
Round eyes.
He's a champion.
He's skinny.
He is very handsome, more handsome than me
because he takes after his mother.
He likes motorcycles,
because I had a motorcycle.
He said, "Dad don't sell the motorcycle,
my motorcycle."
I sold it, and with that money,
I started the journey
with my wife and two kids.
We left through the northern part
of Honduras
and entered through the south
of Guatemala.
Everything happened so fast,
and my family wasn't prepared.
In Chihuahua, the coyotes asked me
for $3,000 for the four of us to cross.
But I couldn't raise the money.
They told me that I could pay $500
for me and one child to cross.
And as a guarantee that I'd pay the rest,
I would leave behind my wife
along with my one-year-old daughter.
Because my son who came with me is three.
She stayed there,
and right now
I have no idea if she's okay.
As I stand here,
they are 2,300 babies and kids
who were ripped away from their parents
by our government
and are in detention facilities
across America.
Imagine being ripped away
from your mother or father
and not knowing
if you're ever gonna see them again.
What must that sound like?
Mommy!
The gentleman will suspend.
The gentleman is in breach of quorum.
Why are we hiding it
from the American people?
The gentleman will suspend.
Per rule 17 of the House.
We have 2,300 babies and kids
We have 2,300 babies and kids
in detention facilities
who were ripped away from their parents.
I think the American people
need to hear this.
Off of the sidewalks, into the streets!
Off of the sidewalks, into the streets!
Off of the sidewalks, into the streets!
Off of the sidewalks, into the streets!
Off of the sidewalks, into the streets!
Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame!
- Stand up!
- Fight back!
- Stand up!
- Fight back!
- Stand up!
- Fight back!
Hundreds
of thousands are marching
in over 700 planned protests
from coast to coast,
all unified under one message:
Families belong together.
Let the kids go!
Let the kids go!
We have children housed in cages
because we took them from their parents.
We are better than this.
Allies slam the president.
The pictures of children being held
in what appear to be cages
are deeply disturbing. This is wrong.
The Pope labeling it immoral.
Even in the face span style= "style2"
of growing opposition across the globe,
President Trump is not backing down.
When you prosecute the parents
for coming in illegally,
which should happen,
you have to take the children away.
Mr. President! Mr. President,
if you believe
We had a great meeting.
These are laws that have been broken
for many years, decades.
But we had a great meeting. Thank you.
Mr. President,
if you believe separations are nasty,
why won't you stop them yourself?
Mr. President, don't you have kids?
Don't you have kids, Mr. President?
The whole world right now is watching
what the men and women of ICE are doing,
and it's causing a lot, a lot of concern.
I understand that totally.
Is this new zero-tolerance policy
that the president has supported,
that the attorney general announced,
is it humane?
I think
I think it's the law.
As a law enforcement
It may be the law. It's the policy,
but is it humane?
There's a demand that is growing
across the country:
Abolish ICE.
Abolish ICE.
- Abolish ICE!
- Abolish ICE!
- Abolish ICE!
- Abolish ICE!
- Abolish ICE!
- Abolish ICE!
- Abolish ICE!
- Abolish ICE!
It was my job
at the Montana Department of Labor
to pass information to ICE
that would be used to deport people.
I couldn't do it and live with myself.
We all have choices to make,
choices that will define us as individuals
and as a nation,
especially those people working
in Immigration.
You need to decide right now
what side of history you want to be on.
This is the building
that no one answers the door.
Luckily for us,
we haven't really been involved
in any of that family separation thing.
We don't rip children out
of families' arms
and things like that. We don't do that.
That's not what we do.
We're doing an investigation,
and we need to know
who lives in this apartment.
- What is your husband's name?
- Geronimo.
Okay. Can we speak with him?
You'll have to wait
I'll be right there, honey.
- You have a daughter?
- Yes.
Can you tell him we are here
and need to ask him a few questions?
Yes, just give me a minute please.
Sure. Thank you.
This is not gonna be easy.
- How are you?
- Fine. How are you?
We're doing an investigation.
Can I see your ID, please?
Yes.
No?
- Okay, sir, what is your name?
- Geronimo.
- Okay, Geronimo, stand over there.
- Yes.
Ma'am, don't let the girl
come out here, okay?
Shut the door.
Geronimo, we're officials
from the Department of Homeland Security.
We're from Immigration.
We have an order for your arrest.
- Okay?
- Okay.
Okay?
Can I get my things?
Okay.
Ma'am, can I come in
and explain what's going on?
- Yes?
- Okay.
Go back inside with your mom, little girl.
Listen, she wants
him to say goodbye to his daughter, so
Why are you taking him?
He'll be okay,
and he'll call you soon. Okay?
Don't worry honey, okay? I love you.
Come here, baby.
Not a good one.
I mean, I could speak for myself
and for my team.
That's the way we always are.
We're all parents on my team, so we
we always take into consideration
the children, you know, and the family,
and we try to make, you know,
this probably unpleasant situation,
you know, just a little bit easier
for everyone.
When you first start this job,
it is kind of hard.
You do let your emotions become part
of what you do,
you know, in the beginning,
just because you're a human being,
you know, and you
just as a human, you have compassion
towards other people.
But you know the saying, right?
"It's a job, and somebody has to do it."
So that somebody is you,
and you just have to kind of learn how
to
separate, you know, your personal feelings
or your personal emotions
from doing your work.
I think the brilliance
of any bureaucratic system
whose net result is fear and trauma is
that it's big enough to break it down
such that everyone just thinks
they're only moving papers
or only doing a little piece,
and a very small number of people
at the top have designed the system
such that an incredible amount
of terror or trauma results,
but most people are completely divorced
from that.
What is ICE, right?
It's a government agency.
Is a government agency evil? No.
Is every single person inside ICE evil?
No.
Is ICE as a body net doing evil things
under the Trump Administration? Yes.
Is that the fault of nefarious individuals
throughout ICE? No.
Are they caught up in a policy net
that's beyond their understanding? Yes.
It's the police.
The brilliance of the system is
that their job has been siphoned off
in such a way
that may be what they see
day-to-day-to-day seems justified.
But when you add up
all of the people just doing their job,
it becomes this crazy, terrorizing system.
Every time there's changes,
and it goes from the top on down,
it usually creates some type
of what we tend to call controlled chaos.
But once you get an understanding
of what needs to be done
and what should be done,
and you separate the two,
then there's not that much
that you can control.
It's already written law.
You just have to follow it.
Twenty years. You are
deported for 20 years, sir. Understand?
Go stand in that line.
Now we have politics playing a big role
and the news media playing a big role,
saying, "Hey, you know,
now they're separating families."
So what we need now is that word
to get back to the country,
and they spread it out.
If the word gets passed out to them back
in their country,
I think it'll be a good deterrent.
Are you intending for this
to play out as it is playing out?
Are you intending for parents
to be separated from their children?
Are you intending to send a message?
I find that offensive.
No, because why
would I ever create a policy
that purposely does that?
- Perhaps as a deterrent.
- No.
AG Sessions says it was a deterrent.
The way that it works
Do you believe the policy is a deterrent?
Madam Secretary,
do you believe the policy is a deterrent?
Ultimately, that becomes the vision.
The vision becomes zero-tolerance.
We're gonna begin to separate families,
and looking at it as
The vision here is to deter
illegal immigration coming to the US
and hopefully, to slow it down.
I get all that,
but where are we gonna put them?
We're getting the news pretty much
as everybody else is getting it.
Very little heads-up.
I mean, the first thing that happened is
I realized we don't have a plan in place.
We don't have bed space that can handle,
you know, 20,000 families.
And that's a piece
where this becomes a really bad idea,
because it's one thing to say,
"This is what we're gonna do,"
but then if there's no plan
at the national level,
it makes it so much more challenging.
At our level, at the ground level
where we make things happen,
that we don't have the resources
to manage this long-term.
We don't have resources
to manage it short-term.
Okay.
You're gonna have a lot of happy people.
span style= "style2"
Caving to political pressure,
President Trump signed
an executive order today
that temporarily prevents the separation
of families
prosecuted
for illegally crossing the border.
President Trump reversing course
on the policy, his own policy,
that led to their separation.
span style= "style2"
It is an undeniable shift
after the president
and his top officials argued for days.
Now the hard part:
Congress still wrestling
with a long-term solution on immigration
and what to do with all those children.
They have no clue. All I know is
they got pulled from the dorms.
We dressed them out of their uniforms
and into civilian clothes.
And now, "What's gonna happen to me now?"
Romero, Bravo.
- Good morning!
- Good morning.
Take a seat, please.
You gentlemen, who are here,
when you were first arrested
by border control or US Customs
which of you, by a show of hands,
had your underage children with you?
Out of 20 in this room, we have 18.
Has anybody spoken
with you about your separated children?
Has anyone spoken with you?
- No.
- No? Okay.
What we're gonna do, gentlemen
In a moment,
you are going to give us your names.
We'll give them
to the deportation officials
to try to reunite you
with your children again.
- Understand?
- Yes.
The win was hopefully
that they'd stop coming,
and that was hopefully the win.
Clearly, that's not happening.
What I'm hoping is now they're reassessing
the plan at a higher level and saying,
"Okay, that didn't work."
This is clearly a chance that was taken,
and it pissed a lot of people off.
There's a lot of angry people out there.
But there's also a lot of happy people
out there.
From a political standpoint,
I'm sure
our current administration is going,
"This is good attention for us,"
and we might be retract it.
We might go back,
"and we might, you know,
say we're not doing this anymore."
But the people
that supported President Trump are going,
"This is who we want in office,
and this is why we voted for him."
Look, when I was little,
in my community, I would go to a church.
In that church, there was a group
from the USA.
We would call them "gringos."
They would give us chocolate, cookies,
and I had the image that gringos are good.
This image never left me.
I think the United States is
the greatest country in the world.
But when I came to the United States
I thought it would be an opportunity
for my children.
But with this law,
with this separation of children,
I'm left with
where are the good Americans?
Before leaving,
they told us they were going to bring us
to a place a foster home where
supposedly, we were going to reunite
with our children.
And I don't know what happened,
but when we arrived,
we could see
that this was not a foster home.
It's another prison.
My daughter needs
my love. She needs me.
She is alone.
She was orphaned by her mother.
Her mother was murdered.
She saw everything.
She saw everything that happened
everything that happened to her mother.
And it hurts me not knowing
what's going on with my daughter.
To help her,
I had to bring her to a psychologist.
"And the psychologist told me," Look,
you cannot be separated from her.
"You must always be close to her," he said.
All I know is
she took two airplanes
to where she is now.
The news says that
they are reuniting family members.
Have you heard anything about Erin?
No, still nothing.
He told me that
they were going to be reunited this week.
But it doesn't seem like it.
Maybe tomorrow. span style=
"style1" -Yes, maybe tomorrow.
He thinks he might be deported.
He even asked me, "If I get deported,"
do you think you can take care
of my daughter?"
"Yes, of course,
but you need to believe in God
that you won't be deported."
In my family, this has never happened.
To leave your country
to find a better life
and get such a harsh punishment.
A federal judge is requiring
all families separated
by the administration's
zero-tolerance policy
to be reunited by the end of the day.
Honduran span style= "style2"
Josue Rodriguez is one of the lucky ones
who was able to reunite
with his son in Phoenix, Arizona,
after being separated for 40 days.
My smile says it all.
It's like I got my life back.
I've come back to life.
There are span style= "style2"
over 1,800 families back together
according to the Justice Department.
But on the date of the court-imposed
deadline for reunifications,
there still more than 700 kids in custody,
partially because more than 400 parents
have already been deported
without their children.
There wasn't a night
that I didn't think of you.
I couldn't sleep
thinking of you.
If I went to bed at midnight.
By two a.m, I'd be awake
thinking about what might be happening
to you,
thinking about where you could be.
Where have you been, my love?
Talk to me. Tell me.
What happened while we were separated,
my love?
I was sad because I couldn't see you.
Me too, my love.
What did they say to you?
That I was going to see you
That I would never get to see you again,
that they are going to move me
from home to home.
I told them I would see you again,
but they just told me
I would never see you again, and I cried.
- They told you that?
- Yes.
I couldn't see you or mom
because she's in heaven.
She's there looking after us.
She was watching you from heaven, my love.
This nightmare will never happen again.
I love you so much, my love.
Me too, Papi.
I never want to be away from you again.
You are all I have.
Now we're going
to my cousin Bairon's house.
And we hope for happiness.
Right?
- You need two?
- Two.
- There is one.
- Huh?
- You want to sit there? I'll sit here.
- Oh.