U.S. president rose to power by making mass deportations of undocumented immigrants a central promise of his campaign. To go deep into this topic, we invite Jose Pertierra, one of the top-rated immigration attorneys in Washington, DC.
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00:00And U.S. President Donald Trump rose to power by making mass deportations of undocumented
00:06immigrants a central promise of his campaign.
00:08Today, those promises have become a stark reality, one that the world is watching with
00:13growing despair.
00:14To go deep into this topic, we invite José Bertierra, one of the top-rated immigration
00:19attorneys in Washington, D.C.
00:20Hi, José, and welcome to From the South.
00:22Hi, Alejandra.
00:23It's a pleasure to be with you.
00:26First, as an attorney, how are you experiencing this scenario in your direct contact with
00:31undocumented clients who are seeking ways to legally remain in the United States?
00:36Well, Alejandra, you know, first of all, it's an honor for me to be in the front line of
00:42combat against fascism and xenophobia in the United States.
00:49Immigrants and immigrants in general are terrified of what's going on because this
00:55is a movement that is being televised by Trump for the purpose of engendering terror, fear
01:04in the hearts of every immigrant in the United States.
01:07The raids are on purpose televised with reporters embedded with ice as they raid different places
01:18where immigrants may be gathering.
01:21And they're hoping that the images will be shown on television, that people will leave
01:26the United States of their own accord.
01:29Most immigrants, however, are going to stay here, and they're going to ride this out,
01:33and they're going to fight, and they're going to resist, and they're going to defend themselves.
01:38In what ways are the human rights of immigrants being violated in these deportations?
01:42Let's recall that we witnessed recently the tensions between President Gustavo Petro and
01:47Trump because Colombian deputies were being tied up, shackled, and also Trump recently
01:52announced his intentions to house over 30,000 high-profile criminal aliens, as he said,
01:58in the Guantanamo Naval Base, which is a Cuban territory legally occupied by Washington.
02:02So what does this mean?
02:03Well, you know, Alejandra, those flights to Colombia and to Brazil first, before Colombia,
02:13the deportees were being shackled.
02:18Their wrists and their feet were shackled, and they were made to kneel down in military
02:25planes.
02:27That is a humiliating way to deport people from the United States.
02:32These are people who came here to work.
02:35They came here to better their lives and the lives of their family.
02:41Most of them are hardworking people, and to treat them this way is a way to try to
02:47again terrorize the rest of the immigrant community and say, see, this is what will
02:53await you if we catch you.
02:56And that is a violation of the human and civil rights of the deportees.
03:01Deportees have constitutional rights in this country, and one of them is the right to be
03:07treated humanely.
03:09And if they want to deport people, if they have an order of deportation and they want
03:13to exercise that order of deportation, they should fly out on commercial flights and with
03:19all the dignity that a human being demands.
03:24You mentioned that migrants are people who come to the U.S. to work.
03:29Let me ask you, what will the short and medium term consequences of these deportations in
03:34social and economic terms?
03:37You know what, Alejandra, this country needs immigrants.
03:42For example, we just had a series of fires in Los Angeles that devastated the city.
03:49Who's going to rebuild those?
03:51Anybody who drives around construction sites in this country sees that the vast majority
03:58of the construction workers are immigrants.
04:00The vast majority of the service industry workers are immigrants, restaurants, hotels.
04:06The people who wash the windows in the high rise buildings are immigrants.
04:11Immigrants are doing the work in this country, even high tech.
04:15The high tech people are immigrants.
04:17The doctors and nurses in the hospitals of the United States are immigrants.
04:22So with this notion that we're going to get rid of immigrants, who's going to do the work?
04:28What's going to happen to the crops in this country?
04:30Who's going to pick them?
04:32Who's going to serve them in the restaurants?
04:34Who's going to attend to people when they're sick?
04:37Who's going to attend to old people when they need help?
04:42It's something that President Trump will find out if he is successful in getting rid of
04:48a large segment of the immigrant population.
04:51Venezuela just received a special envoy from the U.S. government regarding the massive
04:57deportations that the U.S. is trying to do.
05:01What's the meaning of this visit, in your opinion?
05:04Well, first of all, it shows that the United States, when it wants to negotiate with Venezuela,
05:12negotiates with the sitting president of Venezuela, and not with the so-called interim president
05:18who I think is in Spain.
05:21But also it shows that the United States has got a problem on its hands with the Venezuelans
05:26coming to this country.
05:28And they're coming, you know, why?
05:29It's because of the sanctions that were imposed on Venezuela.
05:33Same with Cuba.
05:34Cubans are coming here in massive numbers because of the sanctions that the United States
05:39has employed against these countries.
05:41If they want to diminish Venezuelan and Cuban immigration, they should get rid of the sanctions
05:46and allow the economies of those two countries to flourish so that people don't leave their
05:51home and their family in order to look for ways to support themselves and their family.
05:57Thank you very much, Jose, for your time here and from the South.
06:01Thank you very much, Alejandra, and saludos to all the Telesur audience.