S1: Welcome in San Diego , it's Jade Hindman. On today's show , we're talking about the impact of ongoing Ice raids , protest and a new travel ban. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Over the weekend , President Donald Trump deployed the California National Guard to respond to LA protests over immigration raids. Governor Gavin Newsom and other local officials criticized Trump's deployment of the guard , calling it an unnecessary escalation that is inflaming tensions in the city as a result. Earlier today , California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Governor Newsom announced plans to sue the Trump administration for the deployment. Here's Attorney General Bonta speaking at a virtual press conference this morning.
S2: Trump and Hegseth jumped from 0 to 60 , bypassing law enforcement expertise and evaluation. They threw caution to the wind and sidelined strategy in an unnecessary and inflammatory escalation that only further spurred unrest.
S1: Meanwhile , starting today , President Donald Trump's new travel ban blocks people from a dozen countries from entering the United States. Another seven countries face partial restrictions. President Trump says the ban will improve security vetting and prevent terrorist threats , but the policy will dramatically affect the lives of refugees , immigrants and U.S. citizens , many of them right here in San Diego. Joining me to talk about this is Humaira Yousafzai. She's a senior policy strategist with the partnership for the Advancement of New Americans , or Pana. Emira , welcome to Midday edition.
S3: Thank you.
S1: Well , this isn't the first time.
S3: Um , you know , my my family actually came to the United States. I'm from Afghanistan. Um , my family's from Afghanistan , and and , um , while some members of my family were able to come to the United States as refugees , um , myself and my mom and siblings actually came , um , through this family based visa , um , to be able to reunite with our family here with my dad , who was here on a student visa , um , and others in our family. So I think my initial reaction was just feeling heartbreak for all of those people who had who have been waiting for years and years and years to reunite with their families. For those individuals who , um , you know , who are trying to come here on student based visas or for employment , um , who will now be essentially told that that's not possible.
S1:
S3: Um , but it still is just as destructive as the initial Muslim and African band from the last Trump presidency. Um , it is going to lead to the same discriminatory practices. It is going to have the same chaotic implementation , if you remember , back in 2017. The chaos at the airports of people trying to arrive in the United States and essentially not able to , um , and it's going to create the same harmful practice of separating and terrorizing families at our organization. We are seeing this right now. People are calling us. My organization works predominantly with folks from the African continent , Middle East , South Asian. And so they are , you know , calling us saying , is this impacting my case ? What's happening ? Right. Um , there's there's so much , um , fear that they're feeling around this , but also this sentiment of this is this feels discriminatory towards us just because of the countries that we come from.
S1: And I want to talk more about that. I mean , the countries included in this ban. You know , Africa is the most represented continent on the list. The with seven countries , I mean , completely banned.
S3: There is a lot of fear , fear mongering rhetoric that he's been using in the first term as well as now. I mean , most of it is not actual concerns. If you just take , for example , Afghanistan as an example. You know , the administration is saying , well , there's security threats , right ? And there's terrorist action , but also no central authority. But then at the same vein , two weeks ago , the administration ended. Temporary protected status for Afghan nationals , citing that there's notable improvements in security and economic situation and that they don't pose a threat to safety. So , sure , we can deport them , but we can't let them come into this country. It doesn't. It's not making sense. It's not based on true facts and what's happening. And in the midst of this , people's lives are suffering. People are being disconnected and , you know , torn away from their families in a most brutal ways and are feeling the fear and the threat , um , of just doing anything but just living here , working here , having their families here , um , and trying to reunite with loved ones. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. Well , as you mentioned , Trump ended temporary protected status for Afghans. He's also suspended the refugee admissions program , which halted the refugee process for some 200,000 Afghans.
S3: I mean , many who were brought here by our US government in back in 2021. Are they are still on temporary status ? They have some status. The vast majority of them , some of them are still waiting. And those are the ones who are most vulnerable to the fact that the temporary protected status was taken from them. But , for example , I work with many unaccompanied Afghan minors. These were children who were brought by our U.S. military to the United States , but they were brought by themselves. They were separated at the airports or whatnot in Afghanistan. And so they're here by themselves and have been waiting and hoping for reunification. And there's this one boy that I just saw over the weekend , you know , who's heartbroken , saying , am I ever going to be able to see my parents and siblings again ? Right. And he's just been going from , you know , home to home to shelter. You know , and he's heartbroken. And to see those faces and to to be able to , you know , make some sense of out of all of this for them is is is a difficult task given that this is not , you know , just one , one travel ban. Like you said , this is a continued effort at just , you know , blaming immigrants , um , rather than recognizing , um , the contributions and like the community that immigrants bring into this country.
S1: And you've touched on this , but with a ban like this , family separations are inevitable.
S3: Right. Um , we have individuals who have elderly parents that they have been waiting for years to reunite with. Right. And wondering , will I ever see them again ? Um , we have folks who are just feeling a great sense of fear because they're not only are they. You know , so many of them have immigration status. This is what I want to say. Like when we talk about immigrants , I feel like there is this sense that , oh , well , there's certain ones that are undocumented and this and that. First of all , the travel ban is limiting a legal pathway , right , for folks to come into the United States. It's a very expensive process to get visas to come into the United States. It is a highly vetted process. Right. Um , and individuals who have been waiting for years to get these visas from these countries are essentially told you're out of luck. Um , and so for those people waiting and for their families who are waiting , it's complete heartbreak. But there's also a great sense of fear for them because they're feeling attacked on so many different levels and , um , are afraid to go to work , are afraid to participate. You know , um , Pana has this global village that we're developing , developing in Mid-City , where we have community events and folks are scared to come out , right. They're scared of being targeted because they're in mixed status families , or just because of the rhetoric that they're seeing , even if they're U.S. citizens. They're saying , I don't know if I want to do anything right now. Right. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. And to speak a bit more to that , because I know all of this can really evoke genuine terror , confusion and anxiety. So how has that changed how people move in their day to day lives.
S3: It's definitely , um , preventing people from engaging in democracy. Right ? So when we're talking about , hey , come out to the special elections , right. Or support your community. Right. Um , folks are for folks are scared to protest , right ? I mean , if you remember , back in 2017 , actually , when that happened , there were huge protests amongst so many different , um , airports across the the country. Um , this time when we're asking community , do you want to engage ? They're scared. Right ? They're they're scared. And so we're really depending on allies , on folks who have shared values about due process , about American values of like welcome , that , you know , they need to stand up. Because at this moment in time , many of our immigrant communities who are directly impacted are feeling the brunt of just fear , but they're also feeling frustration. And we're seeing that play out in the streets as well , right ? Um , I know that last week we saw in South Park community members witnessing a workplace raid and kind of just stood up and said , hey , this is you know , these are the guys who make my pizzas. This is the people that I know and are in my community. How do we stand up together ? Um , to make sure that this doesn't happen. And unfortunately , those folks did get , um , taken. And we're seeing , you know , this abduction of family members is happening all over the country , and our communities are witnessing this and just feeling so much fear and frustration.
S1: I mean , over the weekend , you know , we saw mass protests in Los Angeles over Ice raids. And we've also seen some of those raids here in San Diego , like the South Park raid you mentioned. Um , and it was at an Italian restaurant there.
S3: They are fed up to a certain extent. Um , folks are seeing there. You know , it's one thing to see it in the news , and it's another thing to be a witness to it that you're , you know , the guy who's made your pizza for 25 years is now being taken away by these , you know , people in face masks and in tactical military gear. Right ? Um , and , you know , there I think there's a natural , um , feeling of like , this is not right. How do we , you know , How do we stop this ? We've seen this , you know , with the labor SEIU labor leader , um , who was picked up at a workplace raid and now is in detention , and we're calling for , you know , his release. We're seeing it all over the community , and people are feeling this natural , organic feeling of like , there's injustice here. How do I respond ? Um , given that this continues to happen over and over again.
S1: You know , this is really a historic moment. Uh , the last time a president deployed a National Guard , for example , without a governor's consent was in the 1960s. And it was for much different reasons.
S3: I was just talking to a veteran a couple of days ago , and he was telling me we We didn't. He said , I've been to Afghanistan and other countries. We don't even do this in other countries , right ? But here we are in the United States , in our communities , and we are bringing National Guard , and we're bringing people in these full military gear , threatening our communities , attacking them , using tear gas , violence. Um , and it's just another way to , to , to , you know , bring fear , um , and to allow these abductions to happen. And I think many folks , um , you know , be of the immigrant community or allies or just folks on the street are like , this is not okay. How do we respond to this ? I need to do something. And that's to be , you know , recognized.
S1: Well , I know you've got your hands full at Pana right now.
S3: What we've seen in terms of immigration cases as that's so vital. But of course , you know , when you look at the landscape in San Diego , it there's so many people in need of immigrant , of legal representation and , you know , not the funding behind it. So we continue to provide what we can. Um , and , and to ensure that we're also facilitating community meetings so that folks understand that , you know , there's so much ambiguity in , in this travel ban. So making sure that , um , community members understand who would applies to who doesn't , um , so engaging with them. But we're also engaging on the No Ban Act , and I call on all viewers to our listeners to call their congressional offices , um , and , you know , ask for their congressional offices to support this No Ban Act , because this will actually , um , limit the way that the administration , um , can , you know , have these sweeping bans across nations. We really need to make sure that this doesn't continue to happen. We saw in the first administration that there wasn't one ban. There was multiple. Right. And so we're anticipating that. And the way to really stop that is to pass the No Ban Act. And in addition to that , we're working on advocacy at the local level. I think that a lot of folks are saying the administration is doing this , but they're not necessarily thinking about how our local governments are actually , um , you know , buying and utilizing surveillance technologies that are then shared with federal immigration enforcement. And so we're working to shut down the automated license plate readers in San Diego so that Ice and CBP and HRC , all these different federal agencies out of state agencies , don't have access to our automated license plate readers , and so that our communities are more protected.
S1: Um , of course , some of those resources you mentioned are available at our website , KPBS. I've been speaking with Humaira Yousef. She's senior policy strategist with the partnership for the Advancement of New Americans , or Pana , for short. Humaira , thank you so much for joining us.
S3: Thank you. I appreciate your time.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
