>> of course the super bowl was sold out months ago but mark morgan reminds us you can get tickets on the secondary market, they're at prices as low as they have been for four years. that's it for us. have a good night. >> nogales. arizona. a bus has arrived filled with people being deported from the united states. right now, we're headed to san juan bosko, it is a shelter at nogales, where the authorities pick up the people who have been deported so they have a place to stay their first day back in mexico. many thought 2013 would be the

year when congress finally passed comprehensive immigration reform. but it was not to be. over several months, fault lines investigated how the failure to pass that reform played out in the lives of some of the nearly 12 million undocumented immigrants in the u.s. people like jose, who preferred that we use only his first name. when were you deported? >> when i deported? today. >> today is your first day in mexico in 31 years since you left last? >> yes. it was half of my life. i have a daughter, she's going to be lawyer in about three, four months. >> she's going to be a lawyer? >> i was riding a bicycle. the police stops. the first thing he says, you got

i.d? first ten years i in united states, license no license that's all i have. >> no license, 21 years ago? >> yes. i mean it's enough. you know what i mean? 21 years clean. >> jose is one of 1,000 people who is deported each day. and one of nearly 400,000 deported last year. president obama has presided over almost 2 million deportations, more than any other president in history. >> if i leave my family, it's my family.

>> where is your family? >> in phoenix. >> phoenix? >> they don't know i'm here. >> your family doesn't even know you're here? >> no. >> with reforms stalled in congress deportations have become the defining aspect of obama's immigration policy and a flash point for immigrant communities. fault lines traveled to new orleans to examine the impact of deportations on the city's immigrant community. obama has assured critics that immigration, customs and enforcement, ice is using discretion in its deportation efforts. >> we are focusing our limited resources on violence offenders people convicted of crimes and as a result, we have increased the conviction of criminals by 70%. >> we have learned that ice is

operating a new program called cary, ice says is focused on immigrants who, quote, pose a serious threat to the community. >> it's a small terrifying effect. they'll go into a grocery store and take three people. >> lucinda gonzalez has been piecing together the impact of cary. >> we have learned from the the testimony that we have been gathering that the ice agents will go in bible studies, anyone who looks latino.

sometimes they ask questions, sometimes they handcuff people, finger print them. minor criminal record or any previous immigration history they immediately take them into custody. >> this type of enforcement represents a shift for new orleans. >> after hurricane katrina. a lot of day laborers and construction workers helped to rebuild the city, roofing work, demolition work, basically get people clean up the streets and get people back in their homes. >> at the worker center for racial justice, immigrants fighting deportation gathered to share stories. >> the center's collaborating with the national anti-deportation movement called

not one more. to help a response to the cary program. >> what we're starting from new orleans a real live resistance to president obama's deportation program. this is playing out in new orleans. >> what we have been seeing and what the people are living with for the past six months in new orleans is a different type of enforcement. it's a new kind of noarm enforct rooted in the communities. >> investigators for the workers center told us that they have document ed hundreds of stories of these raids. >> what this program called cary tries to do, they are approaching people who look

latino, they're handcuffing them and then they're subjecting them to fingertips. >> j.t. rose rosenbaum uncoveree documents. >> it might be an accidental release. >> what she found she says appeared to be a blueprint for collaboration between local law enforcement and ice officials that launched nationwide in 2012. >> when we see ice vehicles driving around predominantly latino areas of town, arresting people and continuing to drive the vans around until they fill them up, that's not targeted enforcement, that's racial profiling. >> in november, people took their anger to the streets in cities across the country. this protest culminated in a blockade of rush hour traffic in one of new orleans's busiest intersections for three hours. >> human rights, human rights!

>> i got a job. get one! >> just behind me another truck is tried to make it through the intersection and protestors have put themselves in front of it. >> protestors believe that obama turned on what they called an immigration dragnet and he can turn it off. >> they just started their first arrest. the crowds chanting for obama to listen. >> they said the immigration system is broken and there should be a moratorium on deportations until it's fixed. for an undocumented immigrant being arrested even for a misdemeanor, is a dangerous act. especially obama's focus on

deporting criminals. ice refused an on-camera interview with fault lines. but the day after the protest they agreed to talk to us on the phone. ice official asked for his name not to be used. >> if someone with no other criminal record gets arrested for civil disobedience and protesting ice policies, does that move them into a priority category now that they've been arrested for something? >> that's a really good question. let me check on that. in general, a criminal offense would put someone in to a priority category, that would be yes. >> in an e-mail ice officials stated that they target specific violent criminals but we wanted to ask them about allegations that latino communities are

being profiled in the orthis. being profiled in the process. >> this is an area that genuinely in good faith i understand how people can misinterpret it. we have information we're going after a specific cross section what we know has a violent criminal conviction and we had information that they were working at this restaurant that they're talking about. okay, we will scan people in the immediate vicinity because that makes us feel, we want to make sure nobody else is there, but they're only going to be taking if they have one of those mitigating factors. >> just to be clear, by scan he means handcuffed and fingerprinted. so people have been out in the parking lot of this grocery store and after they're walking out of the grocery store they're handcuffed and fingerprinted, there's a laundry across the corner. the problem is ice officers are not permitted constitutionally to create a latino person dragnet and arrest everyone fingerprint and decide who they want to remove.

that's exactly what the constitution prohibits.

>> the struggling midddle class >> we just can't get ahead... >> working longer hours, for less pay. >> people are struggling everywhere. >> school loans... morgages... inflation... taking it's toll... >> we live paycheck to paycheck... >> now in a continuing series, join ali velshi as we follow families, just like yours, as they try to get by... >> we're all struggling financially... >> america's middle class: rebuilding the dream only on al jazeera america! >> president obama won a second term with 70 percent of the >> president obama won a second term with 70% of the latino vote. while he was campaigning he promised to reform the nation's immigration laws. that goal has proven to be

elusive. >> we're trying to get our senators to pass the comprehensive immigration reform. >> in june 2013 the senate passed an enforcement-heavy bill with bipartisan support that would have provided a path to citizenship. but house republicans didn't follow suit. >> speaker boehner, immigration reform is alive in the harlts of all of us here today. >> i'll make it clear we have no intention of ever going to conference on the senate bill. >> activists besiege the house of congress. >> who are you fighting for? >> my mom and my father. >> these protestors, have told us that under obama, more border patrol agents and more deport -- deportations, nearly 400,000

a year. and that number 400,000 that is not completely arbitrary. in 2009, congress mandated that ice filled 34,000 beds in detention centers every day and that's the quota driving record deportations. >> arizona democratic congressman raul grehaga says the pace of deportation is a political strategy. >> i think there was a belief once that if we were really hard on the issue of enforcement, that that would bring the more conservative members, republican members of congress around, because you were being strong on enforcement, path to legalization, unfortunately that strategy of being tough hasn't seemed to sway a significant amount of votes. >> congressman david beladow is one of just three house republicans that support

comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. >> hr 15 why don't you think your party doesn't support that? >> it always brings back thoughts of comprehensive health care reform, obamacare, that brings a lot into it and they want to take a step by step approach. i don't have a problem with either. i just want to make sure if we take a step by step approach we don't jump over any. >> would you say obama is tough on immigration? >> i would say yes, he is tough on immigration, up to 1100, 1200 per day being deported. it's a pretty strong number and it's adding pressure to the situation. >> how does that create pressure? >> it's affecting a lot of different industries and it's bringing a plot of business owners and employers to washington, d.c, and starting to call their members of congress, saying let's start to lose this,

let's start doing something. so we're not here today. >> if this is the case why is it such a difficult issue to move through congress? >> anything that does allow them to stay is going to be considered amnesty. that's where it starts to get to be a tough lift. that term does make a lot of people nervous. if we are not at the table and not part of the solution, what are we here for? >> in december 30 house democrats signed a letter demanding obama halt deportation until the bill get passed. >> mr. president, start deporting the very people who could gain relief from the senate bill that you would sign into law and which you have praised. >> and at an event in san francisco obama was interrupted by pleas by his supporters to do just that. >> most importantly we will live up -- most importantly we will live up to our character as a

nation -- >> our families are separated, i need your help. there are -- stop deportation. >> thank you, all right. >> some believe he could provide relief for many the same as he did for dreamers, by executive action. >> what i'm proposing is the harder path to use our democratic processes to achieve the same goal that you want to achieve but it won't be just as easy as just shouting. >> atlanta, georgia. impatient with the slow pace of reform, activists are taking matters into their own hands. the not one more movement is spreading across the u.s. >> since 2007, we start feeling heat of these police enforcement that are chasing us all over the place. you see roadblocks all over the place. it doesn't matter the time. >> the deportations are

happening now. that's where the bleeding is and that's where we need to be. >> we want to stop their ability to move for as long as we can. >> their primary target is ice, who they say is collaborating on local police to expand the deportation dragnet. >> there are communities that i have asked, who have been detained by the police. everybody raised their hands. very hopeful, i think a lot of people were. part of what this campaign is about is to say you know what, we are tired of being a football in your political game. >> so within the deportation machine, right, of ice it's like the control room.

>> the not1more campaign has been focused on getting president obama to act because >> the not one more campaign has been focused on getting president obama to act. because it wasn't just a promise of immigration reform that he made. it was a promise of community to bring relief.

the stream is uniquely interactive television.

>> without immigration reform in washington dc, individual >> without immigration reform in washington, d.c, individual states have gone their own routes. here in georgia, undocumented immigrants have been targeted by an arizona-style law, hb 87 giving police the power to check immigration status at traffic stops. >> i do believe hb 87 is a good policy. so far we haven't received any complaints for a law that's been in effect for two years. >> actually, hb 87 which lindsay co-sponsored, parts of it were struck down.

>> voters, the people who brought us here, should not be required to bear the burden of a failed government enforcement policy. >> we understand there's a lot of roadblocks where where they'll check for documents. federal immigration authority? >> when you stop someone and they're a criminal suspect, the ability to check and confirm who they are, to me that's police work 101, if someone is here illegally and picked up here for being here legally, there are directions we should follow. >> fault lines has obtained from the aclu office ice e-mails, from the ice leadership in washington, to the atlanta office, pointing out they're 1200 deportations behind, completely worried about being under their quota. >> the e-mail reads, please implement your initiative and reallocate all of your available resources.

>> here is the kicker, the only performance measure that will count this fiscal year is the criminal alien removal target. >> a year later, obama lauded the results. >> we focus enforcement efforts on criminals who are here illegally and today we deport more criminals than ever before. >> dan martinez has explored the efforts. >> we need to be careful when we here these in the media, when we hear reports of the number of criminal aliens who are removed, we picture people who rape murder burglarize, assault. however there is a piece of legislation which expanded the number of criminal offenses, will expanded the list of deportable offenses, such as failure to appear in court. that redefines what it means to be a criminal alien. >> and definitions have real world consequences. >> hi dad, i miss you.

>> ice says it is using discretion to target criminals. the deportation initiatives like the cary program we found in new orleans, found that families are still being separated. >> it's a big gray building, with a lot of barbed wire everywhere. >> it looks scary when you walk in. but then -- >> juan de leon was 9 when his mother died. he left guatemala to go to live with his sister, a legal resident in the u.s. he was caught shove lif liftinga teen.

fast forward nine years, juan says after a disagreement with his boss his boss called the sheriff. he was arrested for using a fake i.d. to be able to work. that act, a felony, brought him to the attention of ice. >> why did you have someone else's i.d? >> work, so i could provide for my girls. >> you have to have an i.d. to work? >> you have to have an i.d., social security and fg. -- and everything. i know it was bad, i was breaking the law but it was the only thing i could do to provide for my daughters. i feel sad that i have been the whole year for both of them. i mean, i missed their birthdays, christmas. because i've never missed any of them. but they mean everything to me. >> this is a picture of, i thought he was coming home and i thought, oh yeah, i guess he wasn't because he was waiting for a long time.

i just miss him so much. >> so here we see state sponsored initiatives aimed at separating families. what are going to be the long term social consequences? so you have kids growing up without their mothers and fathers, and not only that, you have distrust of local law enforcement. it is a recipe for disaster and it is something we do not yet fully understand the consequences of this approach to immigration control. >> after our interview, juan was released from detention. but he could still face deportation. he would not be offered a pathway to citizenship under the framework for reform that house republicans released in january. downtown atlanta: ice headquarters. not one more coalition has successfully blockaded the facility and for this short time at least they've managed to do what president obama won't.

stop the deportations. this decision is not going to go away. the reality is you have people in the shadows with no rights, exploited, with families being divided and no pathway to get out of this situation. what should be clearly understood is that anyone who knowingly and willingly enters the united states illegally, should not expect amnesty. that to me is a clear, bright line. >> how does it make sense to continue deporting people today who tomorrow could actually be eligible for a legalization program? >> get a lawyer! >> to think that the state could actively separate families, actively take away the parents

of u.s. citizen children, i think we're going olook back on this time and probably be disgusted. >> welcome to al jazeera america. i'm morgan radford live from new york city. here are the top stories.

new allegations, for governor chris christie. lanes closed as retribution for a mayor who didn't support christie. a state department reports that the keystone xl project would have a limited effect on the environment. and the white house is expected to face pressure to approve it. >> president obama met with stop ceos. complaf officialcalifornia offit release water from forms. outrage from ukraine, after an activist claims he was kidnapped and tortured.

on saturday secretary of state john kerry will meet with opposition leaders. that's the top stories. i'm morgan radford, you can get the latest on aljazeera.com. >> chris christie facing allegations from the imagine who created the massive traffic jam. did the governor know about it as it was happening. also just how safe will the super bowl be? is a child injured almost every hour by gun fire? and you won't believe what one man did right after a shark bit him. hello i'm antonio mora, welcome to "consider this." here's more on what's ahead. >> i had no knowledge of this. >> bombshell revelation.