Special interview on mass deportations in the US with Jose Pertierra

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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.

Transcript

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.

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