Narrator/Interviewer (7:54)
One of the many areas where things are not as they have been. The Trump administration has flouted rules and even court orders and sent migrants to El Salvador's megaprision Secot, a place where torture is routine and where few people have ever left. They attempted to bring criminal charges against migrants to justify their actions and eventually ended up in a prisoner change with the Maduro regime. At the same time, Maduro's government began offering, quote, unquote, humanitarian flights to Venezuelans in Mexico. And some even took to navigating the Darien Gap southwards to return to Colombia, where they thought they might have some chance at a decent life in the usa, a country with more guns than people. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath and worrying that we'd see an increase in lethal violence. But after a few weeks, thankfully, that hadn't happened. But more and more where ICE agents showed up, local people also showed up. They called them all number of things, fascists, cowards, traitors. And then people began to organize, following ICE agents around and announcing their presence, identifying their hotels and making noise outside, picking up neighbors, kids and getting their groceries. So people wouldn't need to expose themselves to the risk of arrest if ICE agents were spotted, people alerted their communities. In cities across the U.S. people began to form networks to take care of their neighbors. Some of this came from lifelong activists, but much of it did not. People even began using apps normally used for suburban racism like Nextdoor and Ring to call out the presence of ice. Raids were opposed and ICE agents were shouted at across the country. But they still kept going. It wasn't until June that we saw the first mass protest. Everyone wondered if we'd be in for another hot summer like 2020. CBP officers had been deployed to LA to conduct a series of loud and once again curated for Instagram raids. Border Patrol's El Centro sector chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino, became the face of the operation even before Trump had taken office. Just a day after Congress had certified the results of the election, Bovino had sent 65 agents six hours north of the border to push the boundaries of what people would accept. In California's Central Valley, not so far from Los Gatos Canyon, he led Operation Return to Sender, accosting Latino farm workers at convenience stores and on the way to work. Bavino claimed the operation was targeted, but reporting from Calmatters showed CBP had no prior records for 77 of the 78 people it arrested. Bovino, who has bestowed the title of Premier Sector on the part of the border he oversees, has five agents on a team dedicated to producing videos. He likes to praise Eisenhower, whose operation often flew migrants to El Centro before they were Sent back to Mexico. The plane which crashed in Los Gatos Canyon was headed there. Bovino has a long history of these raids, dating back to at least 2010 in Las Vegas. And he is very much the face of the new Border Patrol approach. While ICE numbers are growing, CBP still has several times more offices. And indeed, some reporting suggests that ICE officers and some offices might be replaced with CBP personnel. Border Patrol notionally operates within 100 miles of the border, an area which includes all US coastline and the entire shore of the Great Lakes. And even then, this hundred miles is an interpretation and not a hard legal block. This remit covers two thirds of the population, gives them a wide leeway to infringe on the Fourth Amendment. This has been the case for decades, since the Department of Homeland Security was founded after 9 11. But mass protests against CBP has been rare. We've seen it on occasion, but less than you'd think for an agency with such a broad remit in a country that seems so proud of the first 10amendments to the Constitution. In LA, though, people weren't having it. Following a series of violent raids, Border Patrol agents had been met with protest across the city. They'd responded with tear gas, projectile weapons and threats. They'd arrested Dennis Huerta, leader of the Service Employees United International, one of the largest unions in the country, as well as dozens of other Angelenos. They'd shot tear gas out of moving vehicles and launched projectiles into the faces of reporters and bystanders alike. Seeing this, doing what I do, I got on a train to Los Angeles. But with it being Southern California, it took like five hours. Are they throwing or shooting? Did you get hit? You okay? I'm going to that tree on the right. Yeah. After getting off the train in LA and before, I met my friend Charles McBride to work on some coverage together, I walked around Alverda street, grabbed a coffee and spoke to some of the local folks. There were tags all over the walls and windows of the buildings around the train station. But that's always been how LA has expressed itself. All I heard from people I met there was support. One man expressed to me that his anxiety made protests very uncomfortable for him, but he was glad to see people standing up. Obviously, crimes against property are something that parts of Los Angeles take very seriously. It's a spiritual home of conspicuous consumption. But in this instance, it seemed everyone I've met either didn't care or was so mad they didn't care. From mid morning to early the next day, lapd, who are not supposed to Assist cbp, but who can enforce state law? Chased angry kids around their own city. In skid row in downtown la, tear gas flooded the streets and so did young people from across town. In between the tear gas and pepperballs, I managed to talk to a few of them. Their stories were similar. They were those kids whose better futures had brought their parents here. They were citizens raised in the USA to believe in the right to free speech and assembly, something they were now using to make their voices heard. I mean, my family, they're, you know, susceptible to all the ICE raids and stuff like that. And, you know, being a citizen here, I feel like it's my duty to come out here and, you know, speak.
