00:00Inflation and immigration were the top campaign issues in the 2024 U.S. presidential race.
00:05As Donald Trump enters his fourth week in office,
00:09mass deportations are picking up and hundreds are also being moved to Gitmo or Guantanamo Bay.
00:14VOA's Aline Barrios wraps up this story in her report.
00:20On his first day in office, U.S. President Donald Trump declared illegal immigration a
00:26national emergency. He promised to follow up on a key campaign promise
00:31and deport millions of undocumented immigrants.
00:34Lawyers say migrants facing deportation are entitled to due process.
00:39You are issued a charging document which begins a proceeding against you when you can apply for
00:45asylum or otherwise defend your right to be in the United States. At the end of that process
00:52of applying for immigration relief, of going to immigration court and seeing an immigration judge,
00:59if you don't win at the end of that process, then you are issued a deportation order.
01:05Flem says deportation can happen quickly or it can take a long time.
01:10It's possible that somebody is deported after months or years of fighting their case. It's
01:16also possible that somebody is deported after hours or days of seeking entry to the United
01:22States or having lived here for many years within hours or days of being taken into custody under
01:28Trump's latest policy. Since January 21st, federal authorities have arrested over 8,200 people
01:36and requested help from other enforcement agencies. The administration has also expanded
01:42the use of fast-track deportation, which allows immigration officers to remove undocumented
01:48migrants without a court hearing. We got to do more and that's what we're looking at now. We're
01:53looking at ways to create more efficiencies to do more. The administration is using a military
01:59base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to detain certain undocumented migrants. That's going to be another
02:05place we have up to 30,000 beds and President Trump made a commitment that the worst of the
02:10worst will go to Guantanamo. But legal challenges have already begun. A federal judge in New Mexico
02:15recently blocked the transfer of three Venezuelan immigrants to Guantanamo and advocates have sued
02:22the Trump administration for holding detainees at Guantanamo without access to lawyers or family.
02:29This is the first time in U.S. history that the U.S. government has detained people on U.S.
02:36soil and transported them to Guantanamo. A DHS official told VOA that Guantanamo Bay
02:42is currently holding individuals with final deportation orders, including violent criminals.
02:49While legal challenges are ongoing, the administration continues to enforce
02:54deportation measures. Aline Ibarra's VOA News, Washington.
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