Ep 10: Immigration Crisis: How We Got Here - Part 4

 In this final episode of my four-part immigration series, I examine the scope and impact of Trump's second-term immigration policies, including mass deportations, the targeting of legal immigrants and international students, and the administration's use of El Salvador's CECOT prison to detain migrants. I explore the attempted elimination of birthright citizenship through executive order, the economic consequences of widespread enforcement raids, and the dismissal of immigration court cases for people sent overseas. Through personal stories and policy analysis, the episode shows how these actions represent a significant departure from previous immigration enforcement practices and concludes our exploration of America's immigration system from its historical roots to today's breaking point. 

Episode Transcript

Raheel Khan (00:58):
It's amazing to think those words weren't
uttered by some fringepolitician talking to some small
crowd of supporters, but thecurrent president of the United
States speaking to tens ofthousands describing his opinion
of fellow human beings.
Based on that kind of rhetoric,it's not surprising that under
Donald J.

(01:18):
Trump, US immigration policy hasgone from broken.
To outright dangerous massdeportations, military
enforcement, birthright,citizenship under attack, and
real families, American familiesbeing torn apart.
Welcome back to Khannecting theDots.

(01:39):
This is the fourth and finalepisode of my in-Depth look at
Immigration in America.
In the first three episodes ofthe series, we explored how we
got here.
The long history of America'sracist immigration policies, the
political failures that led toour current broken system and
the fear-mongering that's turneda policy challenge into a weapon

(02:01):
of division.
Today we're looking at how Trump2.0 has turned that weapon up to
full blast.
The question is, are we at abreaking point?
Since the beginning of hissecond term, Trump has gone full
speed ahead on hisanti-immigrant crusade.
In the five months since Trumptook offICE; we've witnessed ICE

(02:25):
raids that ignored previousprotections for schools and
hospitals.
The deployment of Marines andNational Guard against American
protestors.
An executive order, attemptingto eliminate birthright
citizenship.
The detention and attempteddeportation of legal, permanent
residents for their politicalspeech.
American citizen children beingexpelled from the country.

(02:49):
This isn't about immigrationpolicy anymore, or even who gets
to be an American.
This is about who has power inAmerica and how they choose to
wield it over other humanbeings.
Let's start with what's actuallyhappening on the ground.
Since January 20th, the scopeand intensity of immigration

(03:09):
enforcement has exploded.
On day one, Trump declared anational emergency and ordered
the military to help expanddetention space and transport
migrants.
The administration sent 1500more troops to the southern
border, a 60% increase in activeduty forces.
Troop deployment is only the tipof the ICEberg, though.

(03:32):
What's so different about howthe Trump administration is
handling things is that theyhave explicitly abandoned the
longstanding practICE ofprioritizing criminals for
deportation.
To them all undocumentedimmigrants are criminals.
CNN recently reported oninternal ICE statistics that
showed less than 10% ofimmigrants in ICE custody had

(03:55):
criminal offenses.
More recently, the CatoInstitute reported that 65%
detained by ICE had no criminalconvictions, and that 93% had no
violent convictions.
This represents a fundamentalshift in immigration enforcement
from targeting public safetythreats to casting the widest

(04:15):
possible net.
The administration has alsoeliminated Biden era protections
for sensitive locations, givingICE permission to raid schools,
hospitals, and places ofworship.
I.
The costs of all of this areastronomical.
When Trump uses military planesfor deportations, it costs

(04:37):
taxpayers nearly$5,000 perperson.
That's far more than the cost ofa first class ticket to the same
destination.
The regular deportation flightsaren't much cheaper.
ICE pays private companies about$8,500 an hour to fly these
planes.
And flights considered highrisk, that prICE jumps to nearly

(04:59):
$27,000 an hour.
But here's the truly staggeringnumber.
Economists estimate that ifTrump actually tried to deport a
million people every year, itwould cost American taxpayers$88
billion annually.
That's nearly a trillion dollarsover 10 years.
This doesn't include the taxrevenue lost by removing these

(05:22):
immigrants from the workforce.
I.
The economic cost is terrible,but the human cost is
immeasurable.
Behind every statistic of massdeportation is a human story.
Let me tell you a few of themnow.
First in February there was acase of a 10-year-old US citizen

(05:44):
who was receiving treatment fora rare form of brain cancer.
She was expelled to Mexico,along with her undocumented
parents and four siblings, threeof whom were also American
citizens.
The family were on their way toan emergency medical appointment
in Houston when immigrationagents stopped them at a
checkpoint.
The parents were given a cruelchoICE.

(06:05):
Leave their children in the USwithout them or be deported
together.
They of course, chose to staytogether as a family.
Now, five of the six childrenlive in Mexico while their
18-year-old sibling remained inthe US.
Since the deportation, herseizure medications have to be
mailed from the US at anunsustainable cost, and she's

(06:27):
lost access to the specialistswho understand her condition.
Worse yet, she's developed newsymptoms, including headaches
that her doctors have identifiedas a source of concern.
The family has applied forhumanitarian parole to return,
but meanwhile, a child withbrain cancer is cut off from the
medical care that could save herlife.

(06:48):
That isn't the only tragicstory.
There are at least two moreseparate cases involving
American citizen children beingforcibly removed from the
country, sent with their motherson deportation flights to
Honduras without access toattorneys, I.
In the first case, a 4-year-oldboy with stage four cancer and
his 7-year-old sister weredetained by ICE, taken to El

(07:10):
Paso, Texas and flown toHonduras first thing the next
morning.
The 4-year-old who was activelyreceiving treatment for cancer
was flown to Honduras withouthis medications.
In a second case, a 2-year-oldUS citizen was similarly
expelled from the country withher mother.
Attorneys were prepping legalchallenges when the children

(07:32):
were rushed outta the country onICE charter flights before any
petitions could be filed.
Both families had fathersresiding in the US who were
unable to make decisions abouttheir children before they were
flown to Honduras.
The mothers were given minimalto no opportunity to speak to
their husbands or lawyers beforebeing sent to ICE detention

(07:53):
centers and deported.
When Secretary of State, MarcoRubio was asked about these
cases, he said the headlineswere misleading and claimed that
the mothers chose to take theirchildren.
Homeland Security Secretary,Kristi Noem went even further
claiming that the Americanchildren with Cancer chose with
their families to be deported.
To countries where they wouldlikely have limited or no access

(08:16):
to lifesaving treatment.
But attorneys report, themothers were given no choice and
were told their children had tocome with them.
As one attorney put it.
"It's a lie.
It's untrue" that the motherswanted this to happen.
The most infamous example ofdeportations were those to El
Salvador.
On March 15th, after invokingthe Aliens Enemies Act.

(08:39):
The Trump administration sentthree plane loads of immigrants
to El Salvador's, notoriousCECOT Mega Prison.
238 men accused of being Tren deAragua or MS 13 gang members.
But.
Here's the real story.
A 60 minutes investigation foundthat 75% of those immigrants had
no criminal records.

(09:00):
A subsequent ProPublica reportshowed that the government knew
many, if not most of these menhad committed no crimes other
than being undocumented.
Many of them had actuallyfollowed legal pathways to enter
the country.
The evidence used to justifythese deportations, tattoos, and
social media posts.
That's it.

(09:21):
The stories of so many of thesemen remain unknown and are only
now starting to be told.
For those interested in learningmore about them, I highly
recommend reading the HuffPostarticle Trump sent them to hell.
Now he's erasing them alltogether" by Matt Shuham Jessica
Schulberg..
It's an excellent accounting ofwhat's happened.

(09:44):
Let me just talk about a few ofthe people deported.
Andry Hernandez Romero, a gaymakeup artist seeking asylum
deported after an ICE officerdetermined that his tattoos
reading Mom and dad were likelygang tattoos because they had
crowns over each word.
Andre comes from a Venezuelantown, famous for its Three Kings
Day Festival, which uses a crownas a principal symbol.

(10:08):
He had fled Venezuela seekingsafety from persecution due to
his sexuality.
Recently, his immigration casewas dismissed in US courts.
Effectively destroying hischances of returning.
Jerce Reyes Barrios.
A professional soccer player wasdeported based on a tattoo of a
crown over a soccer ball.

(10:28):
Barrios chose that tattoobecause it looked like his
favorite team's logo, RealMadrid.
His tattoo artist, confirmedthis to CNN.
The family only discovered hisdeportation when they saw him in
viral videos posted by the Trumpadministration.
Recently, his asylum case wasupheld in court, giving the
family a glimmer of hope thattheir loved one could someday be

(10:50):
brought back to the U.S.
Then there's the most well-knowncase of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
His saga shows just how far thisadministration will go to deport
immigrants and circumvent thecourts.
Abrego Garcia had been living inMaryland with his US citizen
wife and three children for 13years.

(11:11):
In 2019, an immigration judgegranted him a reprieve from
deportation due to the danger hefaced from gang violence if he
returned to El Salvador.
On March 15th, ICE put him on aplane to El Salvador anyways.
The Justice Department latercalled it an administrative
error, but then defended themove claiming he was a member of

(11:32):
MS 13.
They continuously tried to provehis guilt with previous police
encounters, court papers, and atemporary restraining order that
had been filed by his wife.
They even doxed his wife, byaccident they say, forcing her
to be moved to a safe house.
This all led to the infamouspicture of the tattoos on
Garcia's hands with the letters.

(11:54):
MS.
13 Photoshopped on his fingersabove the actual tattoos.
The one that Trump insisted werereal in his interview with Terry
Moran.
Yet despite the government'sclaims, an immigration judge
ruled that they had offered noevidence linking Abrego Garcia
to MS 13 or any terroristactivity.

(12:14):
I.
The case went to the SupremeCourt, which unanimously ruled
that the government mustfacilitate Abrego Garcia's
return, but Trump refused tobring him back until June 6th
and not to correct the error.
Instead, he was indicted onhuman smuggling charges.
Recently, the government hasstated that Mr.
Garcia will never go free onAmerican soil even after a judge

(12:38):
recommended his release.
His attorney said it perfectly.
Due process means a chance todefend yourself before you're
punished, not after.
This is not justice.
It's an abuse of power." TheTrump administration has also
targeted students and activistsfor their political speech.
You've likely heard these namesbefore.

(13:00):
Rumeysa Ozturk, Yunseo Chung,Mohsen Mahdawi, and Badar Khan
Suri They, along with manyothers are students,
researchers, and scholars, somelegally in this country, and
visas others permanentresidents.
None of these students broke anylaws.
They weren't violent orconfrontational and are not

(13:21):
known to have a espoused anyhateful or anti-Semitic
rhetoric.
Their only crime wasparticipating in protests that
the Trump administrationdisagreed with.
They were targeted for theirpolitical speech supporting
Palestinian rights.
Of all the student activiststargeted, Mahmoud Khalil is
likely the most well-known.
The first activist arrested, hebecame the poster child for

(13:44):
Trump's attacks onpro-Palestinian students.
He is Syrian born of Palestiniandescent and a graduate student
at Columbia University where heacted as a negotiator between
campus protestors and universityadministration.
Khalil was in his apartmentbuilding lobby, returning home
from dinner when ICE agents tookhim into custody.

(14:06):
Even though he holds a greencard he was held at the Central
Louisiana ICE Processing Centermore than 1000 miles from his
home.
His wife was pregnant at thetime of his arrest, and the
government denied his request tobe there for the birth of his
first child.
After more than three months indetention, Khalil was finally
released on June 20th.

(14:27):
The government has neverprovided any concrete evidence
of his wrongdoing.
Marco Rubio said that the StateDepartment has revoked 300 or
more student visas adding.
"Every time I find one of theselunatics, I take away their
visas".
But the targeting goes farbeyond Palestinian activism.
The Trump administration hasintensified its crackdown to

(14:48):
include any internationalstudents who have ever had an
encounter with law enforcement,no matter how insignificant.
NPR reported that after weeks ofconfusion, the Trump
administration was compelled toconfirm in court that had
terminated immigration recordsfor thousands of international
students because of pastencounters with law enforcement;
for issues as minor as speedingtickets, traffic violations, and

(15:12):
dismissed cases that neverresulted in convictions.
By various accounts, almost 1800students and graduates have had
their visas or statuses revoked,affecting people at more than
280 institutions across the US.
Chinese students are beingparticularly targeted.
Rubio announced that the USwould aggressively revoke visas

(15:35):
for Chinese students, includingthose with connections to the
Chinese Communist Party orstudying in critical fields.
This could potentially affectclose to 280,000 Chinese
students in the U.S.
currently.
All potential internationalstudents must now show their
social media posts as part oftheir Visa application process.

(15:56):
Officers must review applicant'sentire online presence to
identify those who bear hostileattitudes towards our citizens
culture, government,institutions, or founding
principles.
The problem is that the criteriafor one counts as hostility are
so vague that it could includevirtually any criticism of

(16:17):
American foreign policy or thecurrent administration.
The message to internationalstudents nationwide is clear.
Any political speech, anycriticism of US policy, any
association with causes, theadministration disapproves of,
can cost you, your education,your future, and your right to
remain in this country.

(16:39):
As a result, universities acrossthe country are issuing guidance
to international students,essentially telling them to stay
silent on political issues toprotect their immigration
status.
This is having a chilling effecton academic freedom and turning
campuses into places where fear,not inquiry dominates.

(16:59):
But students aren't the onlylegal immigrants being targeted.
The crackdown is systematicallydismantling legal immigration
pathways across the board.
Skilled worker visas are beingdenied at higher rates.
Family reunification is stalledand even routine renewals are
facing unprecedented delays andrejections.

(17:20):
Most appalling, even naturalizedcitizens are being investigated
for potential de naturalization,basically stripping the
citizenship of people who'vebeen Americans for years or
decades.
This is extremely rarehistorically.
The Trump administration isdramatically expanding these
efforts.

(17:41):
During his first term, the rateof referral for de
naturalization increased byalmost 600%.
Under his second term, it'spredicted to skyrocket with the
administration indicating a planto review 700,000 naturalized
citizen files.
Even US born citizens aren'timmune.
The percentage of citizensdetained by immigration

(18:02):
authorities has been increasingas agents prioritize speed over
accuracy.
There have been multiple storieson social media of US citizens
being detained, typically whenattempting to reenter the
country.
Suspiciously, many have been ofthose critical of the
administration.
All of this just means thatunder Trump 2.0, the net is

(18:24):
being cast far and wide with noreal concern about who gets
swept up in the wake.
Trump's biggest constitutionaloverreach has been his attempt
to eliminate birthrightcitizenship through his day one
executive order.
This is a direct attack on the14th Amendment, which states all
persons born or naturalized inthe United States and subject to

(18:47):
the jurisdiction thereof arecitizens of the United States.
As I talked in the secondepisode of the series, the
Supreme Court upheld this rightin the 1898 United States versus
Won Kim Ark case.
Affirming that a Chineseindividual born in the US to
immigrants was still a UScitizen, even though his parents

(19:08):
could never be.
In an effort to block thisaction.
22 Democratic LED states filedlawsuits and multiple federal
courts have blocked Trump'sexecutive order.
But on June 27th, the SupremeCourt handed Trump a major
victory.
In a six three decision.
The justices essentially saidthat federal judges can't block

(19:30):
Trump's policies nationwideanymore.
They can only protect the peopleand states that actually sue
him.
And what does that mean?
Trump's birthright citizenshipban could now potentially go
into effect in over half thecountry, the 28 states that
haven't filed lawsuits againstit.
The courts didn't say whetherTrump's order is actually legal

(19:52):
or not.
They're saving that fight forlater.
If allowed to stand Trump'sorder of would deny citizenship
to more than 150,000 babies peryear.
These children would be deniedbasic healthcare and nutrition
assistance, and when older won'tbe able to work lawfully or
vote.

(20:13):
As one civil rights attorney putit.
"This order seeks to repeat oneof the gravest errors in
American history by creating apermanent subclass of people
born in the U.S." The speed andscale of Trump's crackdown has
triggered massive protestsacross the country.
Protests against immigrationraids started in LA and spread

(20:34):
across the nation.
Trump's response was to deploymilitary force against the
American citizens.
In L.A..
He deployed 4,000 National Guardtroops and 700 Marines, over the
objections of the governor andmayor.
A three court panel recentlyallowed Trump to maintain
control of the Guard as a legalcase continues to be reviewed.

(20:58):
Trump has also threatened toinvoke the Insurrection Act,
labeling the protest as an actof rebellion.
If he does, it will allow him tofully deploy the US military
against the US citizens.
Despite this threat, theprotests continued and
culminated in the No Kings Dayprotests on Saturday, June 14th

(21:18):
that drew at least 5 millionpeople nationwide.
Protests against immigrationraids continue, but they are
smaller in scale and morelocalized now to avoid clashes
with the guard or military.
There's yet another troublingdimension to Trump's approach.
Expanding who is consideredillegally in the country.

(21:38):
More than 1 million people weregranted legal entry under Biden
administration programs.
I.
They're now being consideredillegally here by the Trump
administration.
Trump has retroactively deemedthat these legal programs were
actually illegal.
These people are from countriessuch as Venezuela, Haiti,
Nicaragua, and Cuba.

(21:59):
All places that have beensuffering from unrest, economic
collapse, and violence.
Even more galling is that hisadministration plans on
deporting Afghan refugees, manythat helped the US military,
back to Afghanistan.
They're claiming that theconditions there have improved
enough that the refugees don'tneed to be in the United States

(22:20):
anymore.
The Taliban still controlAfghanistan, and many of these
people are at risk of detention,torture, and death if returned.
Not only is administrationrevoking protective status for
so many, but they're activelyattempting to deport people to
countries They're not even from.
El Salvador is a prime example,but others include war torn

(22:43):
nations like Libya and SouthSudan.
The Supreme Court in theirinfinite wisdom recently ruled
that Trump can continue withthese deportations while the
case works its way through thecourts.
Not surprisingly, there appearsto be an ulterior motive to why
some of these countries werechosen.
In a May, 2025 courtdeclaration, Marco Rubio said

(23:07):
that blocking these deportationsthreatens a significant
commercial deal to expandactivities of a US energy
company in Libya.
Essentially, the US wantsLibya's oil and that apparently
takes precedence over humanrights.
The administration has alsoordered the expansion of
Guantanamo Bay, the militaryprison in Cuba to hold tens of

(23:29):
thousands of immigrants.
Using Guantanamo for civilianimmigration Detention crosses a
line that even previous hardline administrations avoided.
And here's something that seemsstraight out of a Comedy Skit.
Florida is apparentlyconstructing what's being called
Alligator Alcatraz, a detentionfacility in the Everglades that

(23:50):
will cost$450 million a year torun.
Florida's attorney General hassaid the state won't need to
invest much in security becausethe area is surrounded by
dangerous wildlife, includingalligators and pythons.
How is this being paid for?
FEMA funds the same money beingdenied to residents in blue
states affected by disasters.

(24:13):
This is our reality now.
Where we're sending people intowar zones for the sake of
commercial deals and buildingdetention camps surrounded by
alligators.
Ever the showman, Trump and histeam have turned immigration
enforcement.
Into a massive propaganda tool.
On official White House socialmedia pages.
There have been posts showingimmigrants and shackles being

(24:36):
prepared for deportationflights.
One was captioned.
ASMR, illegal aiding deportationflight, featuring footage of
handcuffs and change jingling.
Another used Semisonic 1998 hitsong Closing Time while showing
handcuffed migrants being loadedonto planes.
Semisonic quickly condemned theunauthorized use of their song,

(24:57):
saying:"We did not authorize orcondone the White House's use of
our song in any way.
And no, they didn't ask.
The song is about joy andpossibilities and hope, and they
have missed the point entirely."The administration has also
manipulated media coverage,updating timestamps of old ICE
press releases to make themappear current, and allowing

(25:20):
celebrities like Dr.
Phil to accompany ICE raids.
And let's not forget, KristiNoem's infamous photo op at
CECOT, where she posed in frontof a cell with numerous
shirtless prisoners behind her,forced to display their tattoos.
This isn't just aboutenforcement.
It's about dehumanization.
It's about turning humansuffering into entertainment and

(25:44):
immigrants into something lessthan human.
The goal is more than justremoving people from the
country.
It's to create a climate offear, so pervasive that it
affects everyone, citizens andnon-citizens alike.
But while the administrationcelebrates these deportations as
victories.

(26:04):
The real world consequences areforcing a harsh reckoning with
economic reality.
The economic fallout initiallyforced Trump to dial back some
enforcement.
After complaints from farm andhotel owners, Trump posted on
truth social in mid-June thatchanges are coming to protect
farmers.
Acknowledging that his veryaggressive policy on immigration

(26:27):
is taking very good long-termworkers away from them, with
those jobs being almostimpossible to replace.
The Department of HomelandSecurity even sent guidance
telling agents to hold on allwork site enforcement operations
on agriculture, restaurants, andoperating hotels.
But the reprieve wasshort-lived.

(26:48):
Just days later, DHS reversethat guidance.
Why?
Because Steven Miller, themastermind behind Trump's
immigration policy opposed anycarve outs for industries that
rely on immigrant workers.
By June 11th, ICE was back toconducting coordinated raids at
farms in Central California andmeat packing plants in nebraska.

(27:12):
The scope of these raids haseven some Republicans expressing
concern.
Representative David Valadao ofCalifornia urged the
administration to prioritize theremoval of known criminals over
the hardworking people who havelived peacefully in the Central
Valley for years.
The impacts of all of this areimmediate and severe.

(27:32):
Farms across California.
Georgia and Florida report up to70% worker shortages.
Crops are rotting in the fields.
Food prices are rising.
Construction projects arestalled or canceled for lack of
workers.
Healthcare facilities areclosing units.
40% of home health workers areforeign born.

(27:54):
These losses are affectingAmerican citizen jobs as well.
Some experts estimate that forevery 1 million undocumented
immigrants deported 88,000citizens could lose their jobs.
We're also losing billions intax revenue.
Undocumented immigrants paidnearly 100 billion in taxes in
2022.

(28:14):
Business groups from the USChamber of Commerce, tech and
Agriculture are warning thatmass deportation could cost the
US nearly$1 trillion over adecade.
So where does this leave us?
In the five months since Trump'sreturn, we've witnessed a
systematic dismantling ofconstitutional protections, the

(28:36):
militirazation of immigrationenforcement and the
weaponization of fear againstentire communities.
This isn't about immigrationpolicy anymore.
This is what kind of country wewant to be.
When a four and 10-year-oldAmerican citizen with cancer are
expelled from the country anddenied medical care.

(28:57):
When legal permanent residentsare detained without warrants
for their political speech.
When the president tries torewrite the Constitution by
executive order.
We've crossed a line that noprevious administrations have
ever crossed.
This approach violateseverything America claims to
stand for.
But let's also remembersomething important.

(29:20):
This isn't sustainable.
The costs are massive.
Nearly a hundred billion dollarsper year to enact mass
deportation.
Another a hundred billiondollars a year or more from the
economic disruption.
And the legal challenges aremounting.
The resistance building againstall of this.
It's about protecting immigrantsfor sure, but American democracy

(29:44):
as well.
The goal is to offer clearalternatives while standing firm
on fundamental human rights andconstitutional principles.
As we witness what is happening,we have to remember that we are
better than this.
We have been better than this,and we can be better than this
again.

(30:04):
Here's what I want you to keepin mind.
This story isn't over.
The fight for America's soul ishappening right now in
courtrooms and classrooms, inchurches and community centers,
in protests and voting booths.
And each of us gets to decide.
What role will we play?
History teaches us that it onlytakes 3.5% of a population

(30:28):
engaged in sustained action tocreate transformational change.
And no movement that reachedthat threshold has ever failed.
It's not a matter of capability,it's a matter of will.
Over these four episodes, we'vetraced the long arc of American
immigration from our foundingcontradictions to today's

(30:50):
breaking point.
We've seen how every generationhas faced a choice between fear
and hope, between closing ourdoors and keeping them open.
The stakes of that choice havenever been higher.
In a global economy, in a worldfacing climate change and
political instability.
America's ability to attract theworld's best and brightest isn't

(31:14):
just an advantage.
It's a necessity.
We can choose to be the countrythat turns inward, that builds
walls and deports families, orwe can choose to be the country
that lives up to the idealsenshrined on the Statue of
Liberty.
A place that solves problems,creates opportunity, and remains

(31:37):
a beacon of hope for peoplearound the world.
As we close this series, I wannaleave you with the words of
Ronald Reagan, a Republican anda conservative.
But in his final presidentialaddress, he said it best about
what makes America great.

(33:53):
The doors are closing.
The question is, will we fightto keep them open?
Thank you for listening toConnecting the Dots.
If you found this series onimmigration helpful, please
consider sharing it andsubscribing.
Until next time, stay curious,stay critical, and stay
connected.

(34:13):
I.