Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Masked agents, tear gas, and raids_ the tactics used in Trumps deportation drive

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Masked agents, tear gas, and raids_ the tactics used in Trumps deportation drive · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: Extraordinary scenes have been playing out in ordinary places across
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  Speaker 1: the United States in recent months. Dear guests, an old
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  Speaker 1: irving park, Hey, you.
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  Speaker 2: Guys came from the squat to do.
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  Speaker 1: What we're seeing is the result of a key campaign
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  Speaker 1: promise from Donald Trump. On Day one, I will launch
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  Speaker 1: the largest deportation program in American history. Immigration and Customs
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  Speaker 1: Enforcement otherwise known as ICE, is the main agency implementing
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  Speaker 1: his plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, but other
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  Speaker 1: departments are also involved, including Border patrol. These agents are
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  Speaker 1: usually stationed along America's land borders, but they are increasingly
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  Speaker 1: being seen making arrests in US cities.
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  Speaker 3: This is a whole of government efforts. We have never
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  Speaker 3: seen anything like this in the United States of America.
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  Speaker 3: This is an unprecedented effort to reduce the immigrant population
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  Speaker 3: in the country.
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  Speaker 1: The Trump administration has reportedly set ICE a goal of
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  Speaker 1: three thousand arres a day. They're still some way off that.
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  Speaker 1: The agency's average monthly arrests under President Trump are about
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  Speaker 1: three times as high as under President Biden over the
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  Speaker 1: same period last year. Trump says anyone who has ended
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  Speaker 1: the country illegally is a potential target. Former ICE officials
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  Speaker 1: like John Sandweg, who headed the agency, and the Barack
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  Speaker 1: Obama say previous administrations prioritized arresting those with the criminal record.
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  Speaker 3: It'd be a much more targeted surgical strike, not nearly
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  Speaker 3: as flashy, much lower profile, and far less controversial. Of course,
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  Speaker 3: what's happened here, though, is the administration didn't like that approach,
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  Speaker 3: and the reason they didn't like that approach is it
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  Speaker 3: doesn't result in large numbers of arrests. What this has
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  Speaker 3: resulted in is a shift in tactics away from these
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  Speaker 3: more targeted approaches, but just mass arrests of people.
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  Speaker 1: BBC Verify as gathered more than seventy videos shared on
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  Speaker 1: social media at the current crackdown across several cities since June,
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  Speaker 1: and we found free tactics being widely used under Trump.
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  Speaker 1: This term agents concealing their ideaies what law enforcement, people
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  Speaker 1: being arrested outside immigration courts and other previously protected places,
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  Speaker 1: and the use of weapons normally associated with controlling riots,
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  Speaker 1: like tear gas on civilians. The most widespread tactic we've
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  Speaker 1: seen is officers hiding their faces in more than eighty
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  Speaker 1: percent of the videos we analyzed. Some of the offices
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  Speaker 1: involved are wearing face coverings. In seven videos, some agents
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  Speaker 1: are seen in plain clothing with no clear law enforcement
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  Speaker 1: ID on display. They also often use unmarked vehicles. Immigration
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  Speaker 1: agents have operated undercover in the past, but the widespread
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  Speaker 1: use of face coverings is new. According to Deborah Flyshaker,
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  Speaker 1: who was the acting chief of Staff at ICE under
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  Speaker 1: President Biden, masking is.
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  Speaker 2: Not something I've ever seen done before. These are people
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  Speaker 2: we trust to carry guns on behalf of the federal government.
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  Speaker 2: By being masked and by fear willing to identify yourself,
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  Speaker 2: I think that is it is making the situation more
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  Speaker 2: dangerous and putting people at risk.
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  Speaker 1: The Trump administration says it's necessary for the protection of
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  Speaker 1: the agents. They report officers and their families are being
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  Speaker 1: threatened online and that they are facing a more than
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  Speaker 1: one thousand percent increase in assaults, although we can't independently
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  Speaker 1: verify this figure.
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  Speaker 3: I'm going to answer the mass question.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, I'm sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks,
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  Speaker 2: but I'm not going to let my officers and agents
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  Speaker 2: go out there and put their lives on the line
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  Speaker 2: and they're family on the line.
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  Speaker 1: Because people don't like what immigration enforcement is. The second
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  Speaker 1: tactical shift is where the arrests are taking place. Before
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  Speaker 1: Trump entered office at the start of this year, certain
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  Speaker 1: locations were typically out of bounds for immigration enforcement. But
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  Speaker 1: now we're seeing federal agents in hospitals and they patrol
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  Speaker 1: immigration courthouses.
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  Speaker 4: When people are coming to court. It's because they want
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  Speaker 4: to be follow the process and trying to gain lawful
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  Speaker 4: status in the United States. It's also because if they
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  Speaker 4: don't come to court, they can be ordered removed in
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  Speaker 4: their absence, so it's a catch.
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  Speaker 1: Twenty two, we verified several videos of arrests taking place
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  Speaker 1: at twenty six Federal Plaza in New York. The immigration
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  Speaker 1: courthouse here has become the epicenter of a crackdown in
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  Speaker 1: the city. This incident there went viral. A woman whose
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  Speaker 1: husband had just been detained confronts an agent. I'm not
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  Speaker 1: and is throne to the ground. The officer was temporarily
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  Speaker 1: suspended as a result. The third tactic we've analyze is
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  Speaker 1: the use of tear gas and other chemical irritants by officers.
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  Speaker 1: We verified footage of them being used in eight different incidents.
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  Speaker 1: This is a raid in Los Angeles targeting suspected illegal
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  Speaker 1: immigrants trying to pick up construction jobs. One agent point
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  Speaker 1: pepper spray at someone filming, another deploys what appears to
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  Speaker 1: be a tear gas canister. Tear Gas has also been
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  Speaker 1: deployed against civilians protesting the crackdown, including in these incidents,
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  Speaker 1: which happened in Chicago in October. Earlier in the month,
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  Speaker 1: a judge in the city told agents to stop using
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  Speaker 1: such weapons on protesters who pose no immediate threat, and
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  Speaker 1: as raised and says, they still appear to be doing so.
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  Speaker 1: Dr raheey Har study of the dangers at deploying tear
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  Speaker 1: gas in civilian settings.
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  Speaker 2: It's an indiscriminate weapon, and so you can't really target
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  Speaker 2: that towards an individual that's posing a threat or is
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  Speaker 2: causing harm. It will hit everybody in the area.
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  Speaker 3: It appears that they're using it excessively and unnecessarily and
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  Speaker 3: quite disproportionately to what the threat is that's being posed.
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  Speaker 1: The Department of Homeland Security says far left protesters have
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  Speaker 1: interrupted their work and a published video showing people from
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  Speaker 1: objects towards agents.
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  Speaker 2: Congress basically handed in Ice a blank check. Anything they
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  Speaker 2: want to do now they can afford to do. I
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  Speaker 2: think that what we've seen largely up to this point
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  Speaker 2: has been the opening act, and we're about to get
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  Speaker 2: into the meat of the performance.
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  Speaker 1: Immigration raids and the protests against them show no signs
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  Speaker 1: of slowing. Recruitment drives to further bolster ICE's ranks are
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  Speaker 1: well and away. That's part of a seventy five billion
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  Speaker 1: dollar package approved for the agency over the next four years.
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  Speaker 1: This will make it the highest funded law enforcement body
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  Speaker 1: in the US by far.