Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / 'So much taxpayer money' going into Trump's ICE operation Immigrant rights group co-founder

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'So much taxpayer money' going into Trump's ICE operation Immigrant rights group co-founder · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: Ms now as Alex Tabbitt is in Durham for us.
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  Speaker 1: Also with us Nicki Mariin Bena, co founder and co
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  Speaker 1: director of the immigrant rights group SIAMA, North Carolina. It's
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  Speaker 1: good to have both of you here, Alex, I know
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  Speaker 1: emotions are high. What are you seeing and hearing as
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  Speaker 1: you're out in the community.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Chris, on any given Wednesday, you might typically hear
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  Speaker 2: the laughter of children or the sounds of pencils scratching
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  Speaker 2: on a notebook here at this Spanish language church in Durham,
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  Speaker 2: North Carolina. But this Wednesday, all you're going to hear
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  Speaker 2: is this silence. And that's because after Border Patrol agents
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  Speaker 2: were spotted here arresting and detaining several people on Tuesday,
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  Speaker 2: this church, like so many other community centers in Durham,
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  Speaker 2: have put their operations at a standstill and put their
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  Speaker 2: tutoring services on hiatus. I want to introduce you to
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  Speaker 2: the pastor of this church, Julio.
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  Speaker 3: I made it.
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  Speaker 2: Julio, I meet us Eve. Julio. Tell me what the
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  Speaker 2: impact of border patrol is having on the children of
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  Speaker 2: this community.
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  Speaker 4: Well, we have the program, the Tutuin program for the
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  Speaker 4: working Horror family partying who work in fourteen hours per
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  Speaker 4: day and they don't have any year at the time
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  Speaker 4: to pay attention to the education of the childing. This
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  Speaker 4: program is helping them to improve the education and we
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  Speaker 4: diive where a good feedback from the teachers, they say
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  Speaker 4: the childing are doing better. This program is they need
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  Speaker 4: it in all day to be successful in the United States.
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  Speaker 4: Thank you, Julio.
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  Speaker 2: And while the tutoring services have been put on a
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  Speaker 2: temporary suspension, while this community shelters in place, it's not
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  Speaker 2: stopping this church from trying to make a difference. Chris,
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  Speaker 2: I want to show you what's been happening, not just
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  Speaker 2: right now, but all morning volunteers lining up preparing fresh
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  Speaker 2: produce to send to the families of this community who
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  Speaker 2: are worried that if they go outside of their homes
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  Speaker 2: to pick up the necessities like bananas, peppers, grapes, they
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  Speaker 2: might not be able to come home to their children.
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  Speaker 1: Chris, So, is that normally a pantry that they have
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  Speaker 1: there where people come and they are able to pick
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  Speaker 1: things up. And the difference now is there so much
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  Speaker 1: fear in the community that they've sort of devised a
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  Speaker 1: delivery system that is absolutely right.
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  Speaker 2: Chris and this food pantry tells me that the last
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  Speaker 2: month and a half have been particularly busy here, one
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  Speaker 2: because of the snap benefits that temporarily elapsed, and now
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  Speaker 2: two because this community is rallying together, donating much more
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  Speaker 2: food than usual and sending food to about eight hundred
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  Speaker 2: and fifty families this week.
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  Speaker 1: Chris, Wow, eight hundred and fifty families. Thank you so
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  Speaker 1: much for that, Alex Nikki. Is there anything that you're
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  Speaker 1: seeing in that that surprises you.
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  Speaker 3: No, nothing at all. We've been seeing those kinds of
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  Speaker 3: closures across the state, and we've also been seeing I
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  Speaker 3: know that there's a lot of reports about the protests,
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  Speaker 3: but we've seen hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of church
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  Speaker 3: people this week get come to trainings to learn how
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  Speaker 3: to protect their communities, their immigrant neighbors. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: The Trump administration has said repeatedly they're going after the
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  Speaker 1: worst of the worst criminals. Tell us what you're seeing
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  Speaker 1: and what you know about this community and the people
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  Speaker 1: who have been targeted.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, So across Charlotte and then the Research Triangle area,
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  Speaker 3: we've seen hundreds of detentions. Some people are saying close
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  Speaker 3: to two hundred detentions, and many of those detentions are
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  Speaker 3: actually US citizens. They are hard working people with no
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  Speaker 3: criminal record, and so we know that they like to
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  Speaker 3: you know, Greg Bovino goes on social media and is
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  Speaker 3: saying that they've detained over two hundred people, and one
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  Speaker 3: of our questions is, well, how many of those people
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  Speaker 3: are they going to have to turn around and let go,
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  Speaker 3: either because they were actually US citizens or because they
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  Speaker 3: were clearly on constitutional arrests of clearly the wrong guy
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  Speaker 3: that was not who they were looking for.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I'm also thinking about the impact on kids, right, because
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  Speaker 1: there's a couple of things. As we're watching somebody being
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  Speaker 1: taken away, we know across the country children have witnessed
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  Speaker 1: their parents, their teachers being taken into custody, but also
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  Speaker 1: just missing a program as we're seeing at that church
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  Speaker 1: where alex is, where they're used to going, they're used
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  Speaker 1: to getting help, and now somebody has to explain to
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  Speaker 1: them why that's not happening.
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  Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, exactly, And you know, not to mention we
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  Speaker 3: haven't really talked about this too much, but when I
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  Speaker 3: see these operations, what I'm seeing is so much taxpayer
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  Speaker 3: money that's going into paying for those agents, those cars,
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  Speaker 3: those uniforms, all that tactical year. That's money that we
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  Speaker 3: are spending on these operations again for people who probably
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  Speaker 3: will have to be re released in a couple of
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  Speaker 3: days because they were the wrong person. And that's on
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  Speaker 3: top of how many people, like Alex mentioned, we're already
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  Speaker 3: struggling financially needing food assistance because of the government shutdown,
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  Speaker 3: not just immigrants, but North Carolinians in general. We don't
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  Speaker 3: know because of all the business closures in the state,
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  Speaker 3: all of the construction sites that are silent right now,
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  Speaker 3: how many millions of dollars this operation is actually costing
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  Speaker 3: the people of North Carolina. But I think that it
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  Speaker 3: is significantly more than whatever it's worth to have detained
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  Speaker 3: these two hundred people.
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  Speaker 1: The training you mentioned to help people know how to respond,
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  Speaker 1: My colleague Jacob Soberoth actually attended a training at a
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  Speaker 1: packed church on Monday. One woman told him, not only
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  Speaker 1: are the lessons helpful, but they work. Take a lesson.
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  Speaker 4: What's the most important thing that you've taken away from
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  Speaker 4: at these trainings and actually being out in the field
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  Speaker 4: in the face of the border patrol being here, I.
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  Speaker 5: Think obviously watching someone literally being detained, but I felt
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  Speaker 5: like our presence and the way that the rest of
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  Speaker 5: the folks in the parking lot at the grocery store
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  Speaker 5: where we were located, the community coming together prevented that
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  Speaker 5: from being executed.
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  Speaker 2: They let them go, They let them go, They let
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  Speaker 2: them go.
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  Speaker 1: How important is community response in all of this.
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  Speaker 3: I think it's very important, because I think it's really
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  Speaker 3: important that across the country people see that it's not
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  Speaker 3: just violent protests whenever these detentions are happening, but it
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  Speaker 3: is North Carolina church ladies who don't like this. A
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  Speaker 3: lot of people across the state are not happy with
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  Speaker 3: what's happening right now, and so the community response is
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  Speaker 3: really really important.
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  Speaker 1: Nikki Madam Baiania, thank you so much and thank you
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  Speaker 1: for the work you're doing.