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DANGEROUS ICE program has quickly expanded under Trump · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: There's this obscure government program called the two eighty seven
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  Speaker 1: G program. At least it used to be obscure anyway,
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  Speaker 1: It's become a lot more common over the past couple
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  Speaker 1: of years. It's named after a federal law, Section two
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  Speaker 1: eighty seven G of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The
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  Speaker 1: program allows ICE to partner with local law enforcement to
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  Speaker 1: deputize your neighborhood police officers as immigration agents in exchange
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  Speaker 1: for funding. ICE calls the program quote a force multiplier.
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  Speaker 1: It's been around for a while, don't get me wrong,
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  Speaker 1: but the program's reach has exploded since Donald Trump returned
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  Speaker 1: to the White House. When Joe Biden left office in
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  Speaker 1: January of twenty twenty five, the federal government had one
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  Speaker 1: hundred and thirty five agreements under the two to eighty
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  Speaker 1: seven G program across the country. Under the second Trump administration,
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  Speaker 1: there are now two thousand, one hundred and seventy nine
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  Speaker 1: of these agreements in place across thirty nine states and
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  Speaker 1: two US territories. It's become a critical component of Trump's
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  Speaker 1: immigration crackdown, allowing ICE's reach to expand widely and rapidly.
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  Speaker 1: But as ICE's tactics have become more controversial and drawn
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  Speaker 1: greater scrutiny. Democratic lawmakers have been pushing back. In Texas,
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  Speaker 1: which has a whopping four hundred and seventy four of
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  Speaker 1: these two hundred and eight to eighty seven G agreements
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  Speaker 1: in place, Democrats are turning up the pressure on cities
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  Speaker 1: to end their contracts with ICE. That push is being
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  Speaker 1: led by Congressman Juaquin Castro of San Antonio, Texas. In
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  Speaker 1: a letter sent to several local mayors today, he and
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  Speaker 1: other officials warned, quote, your police department's partnership with ICE
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  Speaker 1: will not only increase the risk of constitutional rights violations
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  Speaker 1: against your constituents, but will damage public trust, strain your
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  Speaker 1: local law enforcement's resources and budget, and diminish economic activity
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  Speaker 1: in your city and region. Joining me now to discuss
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  Speaker 1: is Democratic Congressman Juaquin Castro of Texas. Congressman. This is
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  Speaker 1: one of the consequences of Trump's so called One Big
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  Speaker 1: Beautiful Bill, which supercharged ICE with seventy five billion dollars
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  Speaker 1: in additional funding. That's how they've been able to expand
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  Speaker 1: these two eighty seven G programs. As you know, tell
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  Speaker 1: us a little more about why you think local law
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  Speaker 1: enforcement should abandon these agreements turn down the money that
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  Speaker 1: they would get from the program. I mean, after all,
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  Speaker 1: police departments virtually nationwide are facing staffing shortages and recruitment
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  Speaker 1: challenges every day, So why shouldn't they accept this cash infusion.
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  Speaker 2: Well, no, you're exactly right, And that's been a big
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  Speaker 2: part of the reason why Texas law enforcement agencies have
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  Speaker 2: entered into these agreements, because a lot of them are
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  Speaker 2: facing budget deficits and they're balancing their budgets or at
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  Speaker 2: least trying to by entering into agreements with ICE in
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  Speaker 2: this task force model where they eventually essentially become their
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  Speaker 2: police officers, essentially become ICE officers. They're also facing a
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  Speaker 2: lot of pressure from Governor Greg Abbott, who has forced
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  Speaker 2: the Department of Public Safety and many local law enforcement
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  Speaker 2: to essentially become ICE agents. And so you asked the question, well,
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  Speaker 2: why would I be against it, and the county commissioners
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  Speaker 2: and the state legislators who signed this letter as well,
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  Speaker 2: because it's dangerous for our constituents and it's dangerous for
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  Speaker 2: the residents of those cities. I say that because we've
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  Speaker 2: seen the brutality of ICE out on the streets. We've
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  Speaker 2: seen multiple US citizens who have been killed. We've seen
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  Speaker 2: the abuse. We've seen an agency that's gone rogue, wearing masks,
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  Speaker 2: refusing to identify themselves, refusing to provide warrants or show
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  Speaker 2: warrants drawing guns, including on US citizens. And so we
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  Speaker 2: did this because we received a lot of outreach from
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  Speaker 2: constituents who are deeply concerned with the decisions that have
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  Speaker 2: been made by the mayors of the city councils in
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  Speaker 2: these cities.
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  Speaker 1: What effect do you think it has on the willingness
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  Speaker 1: of the local public to report crimes. They're fearful about
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  Speaker 1: immigration status of themselves or family members being used against them.
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  Speaker 2: It basically shuts a lot of people off from reporting
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  Speaker 2: because they may be undocumented themselves, or they may be
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  Speaker 2: a legal permanent resident or be here on an asylum
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  Speaker 2: case where they actually were allowed into the country legally.
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  Speaker 2: But they've seen a lot of people in the same
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  Speaker 2: position get detained unlawfully by the Trump administration, so they're
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  Speaker 2: scared to report crime. But it also has this pernicious
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  Speaker 2: effect of taking away the time of local police officers
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  Speaker 2: to deal with other things, to deal with home invasions,
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  Speaker 2: investigations of home invasions or thefts burglaries, other crimes, sexual assaults,
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  Speaker 2: and so my longer term fear is that all of
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  Speaker 2: this money that is being thrown at small cities. These
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  Speaker 2: are all small cities ranging from a thousand people to
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  Speaker 2: maybe ten thousand people, they're going to start spending a
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  Speaker 2: lot of time, a lot more time being ICE officers
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  Speaker 2: and less time actually investigating things like murder, sexual assault,
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  Speaker 2: and burglary.
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  Speaker 1: Speaking of where money is going, the Associated Press is
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  Speaker 1: reporting that ICE is planning to spend twenty million dollars
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  Speaker 1: to buy gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks in
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  Speaker 1: order to gain compliance from individual subjects. What do you
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  Speaker 1: see as the risks here.
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  Speaker 2: A lot? Well, first, like we've seen the brutality out
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  Speaker 2: on the streets, we know that a lot of these
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  Speaker 2: ICE officers are untrained, are not fully trained. So you
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  Speaker 2: have a lot of people out there who are not
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  Speaker 2: fully trained. They're going into situations that are very emotional.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I can't tell you how many videos all
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  Speaker 2: of us have seen where there's a young girl or
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  Speaker 2: a young boy who is clinging on to the leg
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  Speaker 2: of their mom or their dad as they're being separated
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  Speaker 2: at a school or at a business or in a
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  Speaker 2: parking lot. So I asked the question, are ice officers
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  Speaker 2: going to use those electric gloves on the little kids
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  Speaker 2: to separate them from the parents. Are they going to
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  Speaker 2: use them on these parents that are sobbing because they're
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  Speaker 2: having to leave their kids behind? Are they going to
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  Speaker 2: use those gloves to electrify them, to electrocute them? And
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  Speaker 2: my answer at this point, with a lot of these
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  Speaker 2: guys out there on the street is probably yes, because
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  Speaker 2: they're untrained. Some of them are outright cruel and often
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  Speaker 2: violating the law.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know how you could look at the
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  Speaker 1: pattern of behavior that we've seen to date and think
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  Speaker 1: that giving these officers more potential ways to use force,
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  Speaker 1: even if it's non lethal force, would be helpful. But
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  Speaker 1: on another note, you have made multiple visits to Dilly
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  Speaker 1: Detention Center. You were there as recently as just a
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  Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago, I believe, tell us about the
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  Speaker 1: conditions inside of those centers and have things improved at
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  Speaker 1: all since your first visit?
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  Speaker 2: Dilly under this Secretary of Homeland Security has become more
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  Speaker 2: secretive and less transparent. And I was actually hopeful because
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  Speaker 2: when I went in January, there were over a thousand
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  Speaker 2: people there in detention, and that number went down to
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  Speaker 2: about three hundred over the months, but it's back up
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  Speaker 2: over five hundred. And the last count that I got
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  Speaker 2: of children was about one hundred and twenty children who
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  Speaker 2: were in detention. And the trauma that is being inflicted
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  Speaker 2: on these kids is just incredible. The youngest kid there
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  Speaker 2: the last time I was there in the last few weeks,
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  Speaker 2: was two months old. Again, is these very young kids
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  Speaker 2: who are imprisoned every day. My office is getting outreach
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  Speaker 2: from families who have loved ones that are there. There's
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  Speaker 2: this case of a little girl who today I believe,
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  Speaker 2: celebrated her seventh birthday inside that trailer prison, inside the
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  Speaker 2: daily trailer prison, and her mom has had to tell
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  Speaker 2: her to convince the little girl that she's at a
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  Speaker 2: kind of summer camp. And that's the experience that they're
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  Speaker 2: going through, this summer camp. And so this is long
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  Speaker 2: lasting trauma. And it's the only place in America where
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  Speaker 2: I can think of where we have allowed for the
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  Speaker 2: commodification of child imprisonment where investors literally are making money.
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  Speaker 2: The more children that are put into the day detention center,