Family Separation 2.0

Summary

The Daily: "Family Separation 2.0" - Detailed Summary

Episode Title: Family Separation 2.0
Host: Michael Barbaro
Release Date: May 2, 2025
Producer: Jessica Chung
Duration: Approximately 30 minutes

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Introduction

In the episode "Family Separation 2.0," The Daily delves into the personal repercussions of the Trump administration's immigration policies, particularly focusing on the intensified efforts to deport long-term undocumented immigrants. Hosted by Michael Barbaro and produced by Jessica Chung, the episode narrates the harrowing experience of Ayla Gomez and her family as they navigate the complexities of immigration enforcement.

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Background: Changing Deportation Strategies

Michael Barbaro opens the episode by outlining President Trump's unmet goal of deporting one million undocumented immigrants within his first 100 days. As detailed by Barbaro at [01:43], the administration shifted its focus from recent border crossers or those with criminal records to individuals who have established deep roots in the United States over decades. This strategic pivot aimed to disrupt families that have built lives, careers, and communities in America.

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Introducing the Gomez Family

Producer Jessica Chung introduces Ayla Gomez, the 20-year-old daughter of Fabricio Gomez, an undocumented immigrant from Brazil who has resided in Massachusetts since 2001. Ayla, a sophomore at Wentworth Institute of Technology studying architecture and interior design, shares a heartfelt account of her family's journey and the impact of her father's detention.

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Fabricio Gomez: A Hardworking Father

Ayla describes her father, Fabricio Gomez ([03:52]), as a dedicated construction company owner who immigrated to the U.S. seeking safety and better opportunities. Despite language barriers, Fabricio built strong relationships with clients, earning their trust through his amiable nature and work ethic. Ayla recounts fond childhood memories ([07:03]) of collaborating with her father on projects, fostering her passion for architecture and design with the dream of continuing his legacy.

Notable Quote:
"He’s always been the person to tell us, work hard, nothing's gifted, nothing's handed, go after it." – Ayla Gomez ([08:44])

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The Tipping Point: Detention of Fabricio Gomez

In February, a month into Trump's administration, Fabricio's routine annual check-in with ICE ([10:20]) became his last as he was detained on February 26th ([13:56]). The shocking news reached Ayla while she was in class, leading her to flee the classroom in distress ([00:26]–[01:43]). Fabricio's detainment marked the beginning of a tumultuous period for the Gomez family.

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Life After Detention: Communication and Coping

Post-detention, Ayla and her mother struggled to maintain normalcy. Despite being separated, Fabricio made concerted efforts to stay connected, engaging in phone conversations up to five times a day ([15:41]). These calls became lifelines, allowing the family to share daily updates and provide emotional support.

Notable Quote:
"Like, I really did it for him. And then in a couple years that I'm supposed to, like, get married and have a family, like, that sounds unreal doing that without my dad." – Ayla Gomez ([23:02])

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Relocation to a Harsh Detention Center

In April, Fabricio's ordeal worsened as ICE enforced an immediate removal order, relocating him to Pine Perry, Louisiana ([18:33]). Unlike the relatively humane Plymouth County Correctional Facility, Pine Perry was notorious for its harsh conditions and alleged abuses ([18:56]). The stark contrast in environments took a toll on Fabricio's spirit, with Ayla noticing a noticeable decline in his previously resilient demeanor ([19:19]).

Notable Quote:
"I refuse to believe that they'll be throwing that away. And if I can even continue my dad's company to keep going and get other people to manage it, I will be continuing to make their name." – Ayla Gomez ([20:55])

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The Emotional Toll: Dreams Shattered

Ayla grapples with the possibility of her father's permanent separation from the family ([23:02]). Her aspirations of collaborating with Fabricio's construction company now seem bleak, replaced by anxiety and a sense of hopelessness. The emotional strain is palpable as Ayla contemplates the future without her father, whose support has been integral to her personal and professional growth.

Notable Quote:
"Everything that I worked for has no meaning to it. Everything no longer has a value, since it could all just be taken away from you." – Fabricio Gomez ([23:48])

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Ayla’s Defiance and Resilience

Despite the overwhelming challenges, Ayla remains determined to honor her father's legacy. She expresses unwavering resolve to continue her education and uphold the family business, rejecting the notion that Fabricio's deportation would nullify their hard-earned achievements ([24:30]).

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Conclusion: A Call for Empathy and Understanding

In her poignant reflection, Fabricio urges Americans to empathize with families like his. He distinguishes between criminals deserving of deportation and hardworking immigrants whose separation breaks the very fabric of their families.

Notable Quote:
"If you're okay with separating families because they're just simply immigrants, that's a battle you're dealing within yourself... I just really want them to picture that." – Fabricio Gomez ([22:00])

The episode concludes by highlighting the personal stories behind immigration statistics, emphasizing the profound human cost of stringent deportation policies.

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Additional Insights and Updates

While the primary focus remains on the Gomez family's narrative, Michael Barbaro briefly touches upon other significant news, including President Trump's personnel changes and the economic impact of tariffs on American businesses. However, these segments are secondary to the main story of family separation and its emotional ramifications.

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Overall, "Family Separation 2.0" offers a compassionate and in-depth exploration of the real-life consequences of immigration enforcement policies, portraying the resilience of individuals caught in the crossfire of political agendas. Through Ayla and Fabricio Gomez's story, The Daily underscores the urgent need for humane immigration reform.

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This summary captures the essence and key moments of the "Family Separation 2.0" episode, providing a comprehensive overview for those who have not listened to the podcast.

Transcript

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[Ayla Gomez]

So I was in class. I was about to turn in all my work to the teacher, so I was already starting to pack up my things slowly, and I got a call from my mom. She seemed very down, and she was like, it's like when you hear somebody, they're trying not to cry, but, like, they're really, like, holding it in. And I could hear in her voice, and that's when I started to get a little bit worried. And she told me that, like, your father got detained. And then that's when it was just like. It felt like somebody put a little, like, 10,000 blocks of, like, bricks on my chest. I was just hearing mumbles. I felt like I was building up so many emotions and it was all going to come out, and I didn't want anybody to see me like that. So I just gave my paper to my teacher and I, like, ran out the classroom and I tried to get in my car as fast as possible. And it's just like, you just start envisioning the worst. Like, he's in this terrible place. This is a hardworking man, no criminal record. Like, you guys just took him from.

[Michael Barbaro]

The New York Times. I'm Michael Balbaro. This is the Daily. In his first 100 days, President Trump has struggled to fulfill his promise of deporting 1 million undocumented immigrants, a reality that has prompted his administration to change its strategy. Rather than putting its focus on migrants with a criminal record or those who recently crossed the border, the White House is increasingly seeking to deport those who came to the US Decades ago and have established a life, career and family in America. Today, Daily producer Jessica Chung tells the story of one such migrant through the eyes of his daughter. It's Friday, May 2nd.

[Jessica Chung]

I first spoke to Ila back in February. This was a month into the Trump administration, which had promised quick and mass deportations. I was calling immigration lawyers around the country, trying to get a sense of who exactly was getting targeted for deportation and how ICE was fining them. And that's when a lawyer called me back saying, you gotta talk to Ayla.

[Ayla Gomez]

Hello.

[Jessica Chung]

Hi.

[Somini Sengupta]

Hi.

[Ayla Gomez]

So this is Jessica. This is ayla. She's Fabrico's 20 year old daughter.

[Jessica Chung]

Okay, great. Nice to meet you.

[Ayla Gomez]

Nice to meet you too. My name is Ayla Gomez.

[Jessica Chung]

The first thing that struck me about Isla Gomez was her bubbly personality. She's excitable, so positive right now. Isla's a sophomore at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Massachusetts, where she's studying architecture and interior design. She was raised in a town called Saugus, just outside Boston, where days before we had talked, her dad was detained by ICE officers. Tell me a little bit about your dad. What is his name? How old is he and what does he do?

[Ayla Gomez]

My dad? He's Fabricio Gomez. He is 47 years old and he works at a construction company of his own.

[Jessica Chung]

Isla told me in 2001 her dad had settled here in Massachusetts as an undocumented immigrant. He'd come here from Brazil. This was three years before Isla was born. Tell me about why he left Brazil.

[Ayla Gomez]

Sorry, I'm just asking like these questions for my mom because I never really went like in depth of so my mom said it was due to the violence down there and like he couldn't make a living for himself, let alone have a family down there.

[Jessica Chung]

When he first got here, he lived with his aunt, who was already here. But eventually he met Isla's mom, who's also from Brazil.

[Ayla Gomez]

They actually walked into each other and they were like, oh my God, like I remember you, blah, blah, blah.

[Jessica Chung]

And they moved out on their own with money Fabricio made by working in construction.

[Ayla Gomez]

So he had been working like small jobs, almost like a handyman. And then he met somebody, which is my dad's old boss that still remains in our life, Ken. And he slowly taught my dad how to work. It went from like changing door panels, windows, to fixing inside the house, and then it went to roofing until he gathered up all his knowledge that he had. And then that's when he decided that he was ready to open his company and start creating life for himself and our family.

[Jessica Chung]

And is your sense that he loves his job?

[Ayla Gomez]

Yes. My dad is actually very passionate for his job. You would think he wouldn't be because you're constantly going up a ladder. It's so cold. Since we live in Massachusetts and it's really a hard job.

[Jessica Chung]

Even though he wasn't fluent in English, he had this way of connecting with people.

[Ayla Gomez]

My dad, wherever he walks, he talks out loud to everybody and he talks to people like he knows people. He's always talked to his clients like he knew them for so long. I don't know how he talks that I'm like, everybody understands him.

[Jessica Chung]

For as long as she can remember, Ilis wanted to be just like him.

[Ayla Gomez]

As a little kid, I was like, my dad's, like, kind of tomboy. I'd always buy construction little kids kit, and I would always go around the house with, like, plastic toys. Me and my dad are the type of person where we take something that is not good and we reform it to make it into a better place. When something's not designed properly, it doesn't feel that good. Like, walking to a house that is just, like, simple. There's no design. It just feels down. And when you reform it, it brings another life.

[Jessica Chung]

It sounds like you and your dad shared a special bond over your love of building things. So I wonder if you have, like, an early memory of him sharing that love of construction with you.

[Ayla Gomez]

Yes. So this was a fifth grade science fair. First I had to do kind of, like, the blueprint. So I went to my cousin, and we drew, like, the measurements and everything. And then I went to my dad. It was for a ramp to, like, define gravity. If we were to drop something, it would fall, like, on the ramp, and it would flip up. My dad took me one of my favorite stores. It's Lowe's and Home Depot. And, you know, that's my dad's automatic favorite store, because he always has to be there. And we had to buy wood nails, and we had to use, like, the saw because the corners had to connect, so we had to cut it diagonally to connect. So he taught me, like, measurements, too. I got to do this with my dad. I was able to present it to my class. I was able to show it to my teacher, and I got so congratulated for it school that it's just like, oh, my God, everybody's gonna know me. Everybody's gonna know my dad. I'd be like, do you know my dad does construction? He could build your house. And I'd offer, like, he could do things for you. He could build your house. I would actually walk around with my parents card in my purse, offering everybody. I always wanted to work with my dad. I'm not gonna be able to, you know, carry all the shingles, the roofs, and everything that he does. But I'm gonna, like, do what my dad does, which is why I went to college for architecture and interior design. So eventually in the future, I could work with my dad's company.

[Jessica Chung]

Ila says her dream is that her dad's company becomes a family company with her.

[Ayla Gomez]

His dream was always for us to go to college and pursue something that we have passion for because they weren't able to choose their own path. You're not born saying, I'm going to clean toilets, I'm going to be a contractor. You're born thinking, like, I want to be a businesswoman, I want to go after this. I want to have my own company, I want to have my own home. And it's just like, I feel like that's what their main goal for us was, that we're able to choose our own path. My dad, he's always been the person to tell us, work hard, nothing's gifted, nothing's handed, go after it.

[Jessica Chung]

So fast forward to today. The dream that you described your dad having for you guys was in progress. Like, you're in college, your dad is working hard at a business that he owns. When Trump was inaugurated on January 20, did your family have conversations about what precautions you guys would take, given that he was aggressively pursuing people without documentation?

[Ayla Gomez]

I would always ask my dad, like, should we worry? And he'd always tell us, like, no, like, there's don't worry as much as, obviously, when I'm alone, when anybody's alone, you always have that thought in the back of your mind, like, what am.

[Fabricio Gomez]

I going to do?

[Ayla Gomez]

What if things go down? Obviously, we worry at all times, but I try not to, because if my dad himself could be positive through something like this and always tell us that, don't worry, things are always going to get better. I'm not going to stay here and panic.

[Jessica Chung]

Fabricio had no criminal record, and he didn't want to hide from law enforcement. He wanted to do things the right way. He's had a pending application for a visa. In the meantime, he's been checking in with ice. He's been doing that for 12 years. In February, just one month after Trump's inauguration, he was due for another check in.

[Ayla Gomez]

We were all kind of like, trying our best to treat it like a regular day.

[Fabricio Gomez]

Like, he literally called his clients, spoke.

[Ayla Gomez]

To them that morning, said that after his court, he's going to go to work and he's going to fix so and so's roof and do this and that. So he just shows up for his yearly check in, and you go there, you represent yourself, talk about whatever is being asked, and that was about it.

[Jessica Chung]

And so her dad shows up to his check in like he always does. And it was soon after that that her mom called her in class, notifying Ayla that her dad had been detained.

[Ayla Gomez]

I was hyperventilating I felt like my heart just left my chest. I think about him being there. I think about him being in this close up space. So I worry a lot at night, like, what if he's panicking? And we don't know what if he's holding strong but he's actually having the hardest time in his life. Like, that's what constantly replays in my head. So it just felt like my whole heart got ripped out of my chest because I never got to really say a proper goodbye.

[Fabricio Gomez]

Like, I'll see you later.

[Michael Barbaro]

We'll be right back. This podcast is supported by Sierra.

[Sierra AI]

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[Fabricio Gomez]

Please hold.

[Ayla Gomez]

Estimated wait time is 25 minutes.

[Sierra AI]

Now you can deploy a Sierra AI agent to delight customers and solve tough problems. Always friendly, always helpful, always ready. Visit Sierra AI to learn more. That's Sierra AI.

[Somini Sengupta]

This is Somini Sengupta. I'm a reporter for the New York Times. I've covered nine conflicts, written about earthquakes, terror attacks, droughts, floods, many humanitarian crises. My job is to bear witness. Right now I'm writing about climate change and I'm trying to answer some really big and urgent questions about life on a hotter planet, like who is most vulnerable to climate change? Should we redesign our cities? Should we be eating differently? What happens to the millions of people who live by the coast as the oceans rise? To make sense of this, I talked to climate scientists, inventors, activists. Mostly I document the impact of global warming, and that impact is highly, highly unequal. My colleagues and I are doing our best to answer complicated questions like these, but we can't do that without our subscribers. If you'd like to subscribe, go to nytimes.com subscribe and thank you.

[Jessica Chung]

Isla's dad was detained on February 26th. He was taken to the Plymouth County Correctional Facility, about an hour's drive away from their home. Eventually, Ilo was able to reach him on the phone.

[Ayla Gomez]

I'll give it to my dad. From the first day that he called us to speak to us, that man has holden strong. Every time we call, he has the most positive energy and so positive that he will see us and things will go back to not normal. Because I don't feel like anybody could really treat life as normal after the situation, but definitely better.

[Jessica Chung]

Isla's dad told her to hold strong, too. He said the detention center wasn't so bad. He told her he'd gotten a job cleaning, which allowed more time Outside of his cell, he started a Bible study with a group of other detainees and he was allowed visitors.

[Ayla Gomez]

I'm the only one eligible to visit because I'm over 18 and I was actually filling out the papers and I was on the phone with him, telling him when he called my, I'm filling out the papers to come visit you. I'm trying, like, because you have to send it through the mail. It's a whole process. So I tried to do as fast as possible. And he told me, like, as much as I would love to see you guys so much, just don't come here because this is not the person that I am. And he was just like, it would hurt to see you get up from that chair and turn your back and have to leave. That's when reality would hit. It's very hard comprehend that and it's very hard to imagine that.

[Jessica Chung]

But as the days in custody turn into weeks, the two of them adapted to a new version of their relationship. No visits. They talk on the phone a lot, as often as five times a day.

[Ayla Gomez]

We open every conversation like he was here with us.

[Fabricio Gomez]

Like I'm walking into the house saying hi to him.

[Ayla Gomez]

Bansa. Hi, dad.

[Fabricio Gomez]

How are you? I missed you. We continue lives how it is like on the phone.

[Jessica Chung]

What are some of the updates that you give him on how life was going for you?

[Fabricio Gomez]

I gave him updates on my grades. I gave him updates on my finals. Well, I can't show to him my projects since they're all like online based because they're all like floor plans, stuff like that. But I like, give him the visual analysis.

[Jessica Chung]

Inside the cell, time had stopped for Isla's dad. For Ila, on the other hand, life went on and her dad didn't want to miss out on it.

[Fabricio Gomez]

So my school requires me to do an internship within that day that I literally got that interview, like from the night before that. I got a call to get the interview. Soon as he called, let him know, he's telling me, good luck on your interview.

[Ayla Gomez]

My dad always says to be prepared and be at least well.

[Fabricio Gomez]

My dad at his job, he was like, if you let him, he was an hour early. So he would at least tell me to be at least 30 minutes early. So I took that advice. I was 30 minutes early. And on top of that, I already had everything printed. I literally had in a folder. He was like, yep, that's how I like. So as soon as she was ready to, like, give me the opportunity, I could just give her the folder and I was automatically hired.

[Jessica Chung]

Oh, wow. Amazing. And then how did you share the news with him?

[Fabricio Gomez]

I just, like, I couldn't hold it.

[Ayla Gomez]

I literally was like, hi, Bansa, how are you?

[Fabricio Gomez]

He was like, great.

[Ayla Gomez]

Your mom said you had great news for me.

[Fabricio Gomez]

I was like, yup. And I told her, I was just.

[Ayla Gomez]

Like, I got the job.

[Fabricio Gomez]

I'm working at the company. Explain the company to him.

[Ayla Gomez]

And he was like, look at you.

[Fabricio Gomez]

Like, I'm so proud of you. He would always tell me, like, these are the things that keep me going. You're going after your future. You're creating a future for yourself, and I need you to continue to do that for me.

[Jessica Chung]

These calls went on for two months. And then in April, Isla learned of two major developments. First, ICE was going to enforce an order of removal against her dad, which meant he could be deported immediately. Second, Ice was moving him over 1600 miles to a notorious detention center in Louisiana, which had been investigated by the Department of Homeland Security for alleged abuses after he was transferred there.

[Ayla Gomez]

Can you hear me okay, great.

[Jessica Chung]

Yes, I can. I gave her a call on a recent Sunday. How was your Easter Sunday?

[Ayla Gomez]

You know, it is fine.

[Fabricio Gomez]

We're just missing our dad. So. Yeah, he got transferred to Louisiana last night.

[Jessica Chung]

Isla says her dad's new detention center in Pine Perry, Louisiana, is nothing like the one in Plymouth.

[Fabricio Gomez]

It's quite literally a prison where people that actually committed real crimes would be in. Like, he's in a jail cell where it's just, like, 10 times worse. Guards are completely strict. Like, there's no really sitting there conversating with them, like, they're guards. And he says that it's a mess in there. It's just, like, very chaotic. Everybody's everywhere. Everybody's mixed.

[Jessica Chung]

When Isla talks to her dad now, things feel different. She senses that the brave face her dad had put on is starting to crack.

[Fabricio Gomez]

He was very sincere this time on this call. Like, it's not good. Usually he wouldn't really complain about Plymouth, but now, like, like my mom was saying right now to me, that, like, since it started to hit two months in reality, is really knocking at our door, especially with the deportation. Now I feel like he's really being sincere of how he's truly feeling like. And I don't want to say he's in full panic, but he's really feeling it. Even so on the phone, like, I can hear himself let go. I can hear his voice drop, and I can hear that, like, excitement that he would try to have low.

[Jessica Chung]

And this change in mood is starting to have an impact on Isla, too.

[Fabricio Gomez]

It's like this feeling of, like, life.

[Ayla Gomez]

Keeps going and life still feels normal.

[Fabricio Gomez]

But there's something wrong. It's just all so real now. Within these last days, I felt like my anxiety has been over the roof. It just feels like it's so hard to get through your day. It's so hard, like, because I can't believe it. You cannot tell me they'll be taking my dad and he will be in Brazil for the next, like, 10 years up until we can reapply for him to come. Like, that does not cross my mind.

[Jessica Chung]

Oh, man. Would you ever consider moving to Brazil to be with your dad if it came to that?

[Ayla Gomez]

As much as I would love to.

[Fabricio Gomez]

Stay here and be like, yeah, my.

[Ayla Gomez]

Family is going to reunite in Brazil.

[Fabricio Gomez]

Where it can't be a plan. And it's also, it can't be a plan due to the fact that my parents have worked way too damn hard, too many years of their damn life to come here. I will be continuing college, and if anything, I will be continuing their success. Times that by 100. I refuse to believe that they'll be throwing that away. And if I can even continue my dad's company to keep going and get other people to manage it, I will be continuing to making their name. So Brazil was never in my plans. It's one thing to take my dad away from me. It's another to take everything that they worked hard for.

[Jessica Chung]

I wanted to ask, you know, what do you make of the fact that for a lot of Americans, your father's story, while sympathetic, might, at the end of the day, feel like, yeah, he ultimately was here, not legally. What would you say to those people who might agree with the administration's policies to remove people like your dad who don't have documentation here?

[Fabricio Gomez]

I'd get it. If you're talking about a murderer that doesn't belong here and he's just out running on the street, or I'd get that. But if you're okay with separating families because they're just simply immigrants, that's a battle you're dealing within yourself. If they're hearing my story, specifically, I hope they hear that and that they try to picture one of their daughters sitting here and having to talk about their. One of their parents like this, because somebody out there is wishing that on somebody else. And I just really want them to picture that.

[Jessica Chung]

I'm really thinking about how your dad coached you through the interview that you did to obtain that internship, and how if your dad is deported back to Brazil, that. That's going to be the permanent state of your relationship that he's always going to have to coach you from afar. Father, you from afar. I wonder if you've thought about that. Has that sunk in with you?

[Ayla Gomez]

So.

[Jessica Chung]

And can you bear that new version of that relationship?

[Fabricio Gomez]

I cannot possibly bear that at all. I can't even envision that my dreams was have both of my parents see me walk the stage. That's in within two years. I don't believe that my dad will not be there, because at the end of the day, I really did it for him. And then in a couple years that I'm supposed to, like, get married and have a family, like, that sounds unreal doing that without my dad.

[Jessica Chung]

Yeah.

[Fabricio Gomez]

And it sounds like you're talking about somebody that passed away, but it quite literally, I refuse to believe, like, those were my plans. Those are what I used to pray for God. Now that's not even my prayers anymore.

[Ayla Gomez]

That's how much I already feel like.

[Fabricio Gomez]

I'm changing my life. It feels like everything that I worked for has no meaning to it. Everything no longer has a value, since it could all just be taken away from you.

[Jessica Chung]

I guess at this point, you know, you're in college right now. You're studying architecture and interior design, and you pick that major because you hope that you could eventually work with your dad. And that dream is looking dimmer and dimmer. What is that dream now?

[Fabricio Gomez]

As of right now, there's, like, no dream, no goal. There's no that dream that you dream big of. Oh, I really want to do this.

[Ayla Gomez]

It's.

[Fabricio Gomez]

It's just kind of like, I. I want to be, like, completely honest. It's just bland. It's just like, okay, well, my dream is to kind of just be able to push through this.

[Jessica Chung]

Have you dreamt about reuniting with your dad, on the other hand? And if so, when you picture seeing him, where do you imagine it will be and what do you think he'll look like?

[Fabricio Gomez]

That I have, like, a literal, ideal dream. Me just getting that call of being told, like, go pick up your dad. And all I could think of is me just, like, parking my car, getting out my car. He's standing outside, like, quite literally the same exact person. He left, like, in his work clothes.

[Ayla Gomez]

Just the way he is with his.

[Fabricio Gomez]

Face, like, his regular face.

[Ayla Gomez]

The same exact way he left is.

[Fabricio Gomez]

The same exact way I'll be seeing him in that vision.

[Jessica Chung]

Like no time had passed.

[Fabricio Gomez]

No, like, literally no time has passed. But it feels like life spent upside down.

[Jessica Chung]

Yeah.

[Fabricio Gomez]

And just hugging my dad and all I could literally do is cry, like, cry my literal heart out. You ever just cried as a kid where you would literally hiccup, like so much? Like, that type of cry? Like, everything that I've been holding in, like within these two months is that's exactly how I see. It's like a deja vu, like, vision. It's just like, it just feels like it's going to happen. And it's all I think about. That's all I can envision, like over and over again, every single day that I wake up and it's just me. Like, it's not like my mom's around, my sister's around. It's just like me and my dad.

[Jessica Chung]

Isla never got the call to pick up her dad. Instead, a few days after we had talked, she received news that her dad had been deported from the US To Brazil. So Isla packed a small suitcase for herself and a bigger one for her dad, and she booked a ticket for one to Brazil. And on Tuesday morning, at the arrivals terminal in Bella Orizanchi Airport, Isla finally got to be with her dad.

[Michael Barbaro]

We'll be right back.

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[Michael Barbaro]

Here's what else you need to know. Today, President Trump is ousting his national security advis Michael Waltz, the first major shakeup of Trump's inner circle since the start of his second term. Waltz had infuriated the president by including a journalist on a group chat that included highly sensitive plans to attack military targets in Yemen. And he further alienated Trump by espousing a worldview that is far more traditional and interventionist than the presidents. Trump said that his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, would temporarily fill in for Waltz as national security adviser. And on Thursday, General Motors said that President Trump's tariffs would increase its cost this year by 4 to 5 billion dollars, a vivid demonstration of the tariffs impact on American businesses. Much of that cost will come from GM cars that are made in Canada, Mexico and South Korea and sold in the United States, many of them now carrying a 25% tariff. Today's episode was reported and produced by Jessica Chung. It was edited by Michael Benoit with help from Ben Calhoun. It was fact checked by Susan Lee. Contains original music by Diane Wong, Dan Powell, Pat McCusker, Alicia Etu and Marion Lozano and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. Our theme music is by Jim Runberg and Ben Landsfer of Wonderlane. That's it for the Daily I'm Michael Balbara. See you on Monday. How many discounts does USAA Auto Insurance offer? Too many to say here. Multi vehicle discount, Safe driver discount, new vehicle discount, Storage discount.

[Sierra AI]

How many discounts will you stack up?

[Jessica Chung]

Tap the banner or visit usaa.com autodiscounts restrictions apply.