07/23/20 07/23/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! pres. trump: this bloodshed must end. today i'm announcing a surge of federal law enforcement inter-amamerican communities plagued by violent crime. amy: president trump is sending a surge of federal agents to democratic cities with protests against police violence and racism. we will go to philadelphia to speak with district attorney

todd miller --larry krasner. where protesters are demanding justice after teenagefficers punch activist miracle boyd in the face, knocking out her teeth during a protest when people were trying to topple a statue christopher columbus. >> freedom of speech and freedom to a symbol. never what i have thought i would become a victim to the biggest gang in america. amy: and the harrowing scenes in the streets of american cities has shocked mainstream america but the violent presence of federal border agents is not unfamiliar to mamany black and brown communities, especially those along the border. does patrol the border -- not only does the boundary line, but in 100 miles

jurisdiction with extraconstitutional powers, meaning the border patrol can do things above and beyond what normal law enforcement can do. they can put up checkpoints, do roving patrols, pullover people national security reasons. amy: we will speak with todd miller who documents all of this professork and with cecilia menjivar. all of that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democrcracynow.org, , the quarae report. i'm amy goodman. president trump has announced he is sending a "surge" of federal officers into chicago, albuquerque, and other large democrat-run cities, claiming it is needed to combat a rise in crime. pres. trump: i am announcing

that the department of justice will immediately surge federal law enforcement to the city of chicago. the fbi, atf, dea, u.s. marshals service, and homeland security will together be sending hundreds of skilled law enforcement officers to chicago to help drive down violent crime. amy: trump's announcement came as he faces increasing criticism for deploying paramilitary style units to portland, oregon, where unidentified federal officers have attacked antiracist protesters and even snatched activists off the streets in unmarked vans. the portland city council voted to end cooperation between local police and federal law enforcement. on wednesday night, federal forces fired tear gas at protesters once again. among those hit was portland mayor ted wheeleler, who also serves as police commissioner. meanwhile, the american civil liberties union has sued the

department of homeland security, u.s. mararshals service, as well the city of portland for attacking medics while they care for injnjured protesters. for a second day in a row, the united states reported more than 1000 covid-19 deaths on wednesday. "the new york times" reports nearly 60,000 people are now hospitalized for covid-19 across the country, nearly eclipsing the number of hospitalizations during the peak of the pandemic in april. california set new single-day record on wednesday for cases and hospitalizations. the u.s. death toll has now topped 143,000 with the total number of confirmed cases approaching 4 million. the governors of indiana, minnesota, and ohio all announced new orders requiring residents to wear masks in public. meanwhile, a number of large businesses, including costco walmart, winn-dixie, and whole

foods, are now requiring customers to wear masks. the trump administration has awarded a $2 billion contract with pfizer and a german partner to make 100 million doses of a covid-19 vaccine that is still being tested. president trump held another televised coronavirus briefing where he falsely claimed that wednesday children do not transmit the coronavirus. trump conducted the briefing alone. anthony faucuci, direcector t e national institute of allergy and infectious diseases, was not invited to the briefing, but he will make a public appearance later today. he will throw out the first pitch at the washington nationals opening game. major league baseball is beginning a shortened season today. games will be played without any -- in empty ballparks. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is expected to release a new $1 trillion covid-19 relief package today. the deal includes a new round of stimulus checks, $16 billion in new funding fofor vivid-19 testg and $70 billion for k to 12 schools.

under the deal, the trump admininistration will also spend $9 billion already allocated for testing at the administration has not yet usese despite widespread shortages in many states. it remains uncleaifif replicacan lawmwmers will support extendi a prraram th hasas gen unployoyedorkersrsn extra $600 in w weekly joblbls benefi. the nuer of glal covid-19 cases has now topped 1 15 milli. on wednesday, brazil set a new single day record wiwith nearlyy 68,000 new cases and almost 1300 new deaths. brazazil's president jair bolsonaro has extended his two-week quarantine after tetesting posititive twice for e coronavirus. meanwhile, one of brazil's most influential indigenous leaders, aritanana yawalapiti, is in an intensive care unit being treated for covid-19. in southth africa, nearly 600 dd

from the virus on wednesday -- a new single-day high. india also set a new record with nenearly 46,0 0 new cases ovovee past 24 hours. the overerall death h toll in ia is now approaching 30,000. in guatemamala, public health officialalare reporting covid-19 is spreading inside the nation's public hospitals as overcrowded is causing non-covid patients to come in contact with infected patients. meanwhile, in israel, 34 people were arrested earlier this week during ongoing protests against prime minister benjamin netanyahu's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and corruption. this comes as the united nations warns israel's threat to annex parts of the west bank has hindered palestinian efforts to control the pandemic. the united nations special envoy made the remarks a day after israeli authorities demolished a coronavirus testing center in the city of hebron. in immigraration news, a federal

judge on wednesday denied pleas to release immigrant families imprisoned at three ice family detention centers in texas andd pennsylvania, despite concerns over rising coronavirus infections. this comes as a separate federal judge has given ice until july 27 to release children from these jails, prompting fears that families will once again be separated. in related news, the associated press reports the trump administration has been detaining immigrant children and toddddlers as younung as o one r old in hotels, sometimes for weeks at a time, and then deporting them. immigrant rights attorneys say this violates federal anti-human trafficking laws that demand unaccompanied immigrant children be sent to government shelters or placed with sponsors. a private contractor working with ice has reportedly been taking children to three hampton inn & suites hotels in arizona and at the texas-mexico border.

the hotels have reportedly been used at least 200 times. in canada, a federal court has ruled anansylum agreement with the e united statates is invali, saying the u.s. violates the human rights of refugees. the "safe third country" agreement between canada and the u.s. was established in 2004 and it required refugees to seek asylum in the first safe country they reached in their journey. refuge arrrriving to the u.s.-cada bordrder were often turned away and forced to go back to the u.s. to apply for asylum there. attorneys and refugees seeking refuge in canada have long argued the u.s. is no longer safe for asylum seekers. in more immigration news, state senators in new york have passed the protect our courts act. the bill aims to bar immigration and customs enforcement agents from making arrests insides courthouses without a judicial warrant.

on capitol hill, the democratic-led house passed the no ban act on wednesday. the legislation authored by congresswoman ilhan omar aims to reverse all versions of president trump's travel bans that target many predominantly muslim countries. the house also approved a bill to remove confederate statueues from the u.s. capitol. 72 republicans joined democrats to approve the measure. the house also passed a bipartisan measure to allocate $900 million a year to acquire and preserve more land for public use and to spend of $9.5 billion on the u.s. national parks over the next five years. the national wildlife federation described the great american outdoors act as the most significant investment in conservation in decades. meanwhile in the senate, vermont democrat patrick leahy has introduced the john lewis voting rights advancement act, a bill to restore the landmark voting rights act.

the house has already approved similar legislation. the selflf-described anti-femint attorney who is suspected of ambushing the home of a federal judge in new jersey and killing her son has been linked to the recent murder of marc angelucci, a men's rights attorney in california who was shot dead on july 11. the suspect in both cases, roy den hollander, was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after he attacked the home of judge esther salas, the first latina federal judge in new jersey, appointed in 2011. salas was not injured in the attack, b but her son was kilild and her husband was critically injured. in afghanistan, local authorities are reporting 45 reporting died, including at least eight civilians, in a series of air strikes in eastern afghanistan. the strikes reportedly targeted taliban fighters.

charles evers, the brother of medgar evers, has died at the age of 97. in 1963, he became the mississippi field director of the naacp, taking the post held his brother who was assassinated by a white supremacist. in 1969, charles evers was elected mayor of fayette, becoming the first african-american mayor in mississippi since reconstruction. and the south african anti-apartheid activist andrew mlangeni has died at the age of 95. in 1964, he was sentenced to life in prison alongside nelson mandela and six others during the infamous rivonia trial. he served 26 years in prison, much of it at robben island. in 2013, he spoke at mandela's funeral.

>> [indiscernible] he believed d suring insigights and listening to -- amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantite report. i'm amy goodman in new york, with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: welcome to o all o our listeners and d viewers from around the countntry and around the world. amy: president trump has announced he is sending a surge of federal agents into chicago, albuquerque, another democrat-run cities to crackdown on black lives matter protests, climbing the move is necessary to combabat a rise in crime.e. this is trump speaking this weweek. pres. trump: new york a and chicago and philadelelphia, detroit anand baltimorere and af

these -- oakland is a mess. we are not would let this happpn in our country. all run by liberal democrats. amy: this comes as the president faces increasing criticism for deploying paramilitary style units to portland, oregon where unidentified federal officers have attacked antiracist protesters and even snatching activists off the streets in unmarked vans. on wednesday night, federal forces fired tear gas at protesters in portland once again. among those hit was portland mayor ted wheeler, who also serves as portland's police commissioner. portland's city council voted to end cooperation between local police and federal law enforcement, and the american civil liberties union is now suing the department of homeland security, u.s. marshals service , as well as city of portland for attacking medics while they cared for injured protesters. trump has responded by saying federal agents are doing a

fantastic job and is now threatening to deploy them across the country. now in a remarkable statement, the philadelphia district attorney has warnened trump's police forces that he will criminally charge them if they bring these same tactics to philadelphia. da larry krasner issued a statement wednesday that -- "my dad volunteered and served in world war ii to fight fascism, like most of my uncles, so we would not have an american president brutalizing and kidnapping americans for exercising their constitutional rights and trying to make america a better place, which is what patriots do. anyone, including federal law enforcement, who unlawfully assaults and kidnaps people will face criminal charges from my office." again, the words of larry krasner, the district attorney of philadelphia, who joins us now for more. forarry krasner, thank you joining us. can you explain how you plan to arrest federal agents and what

actions do you feel wouldld warranant t that? >> good morning. firsrst of all, we do not plan o arrest anyone. we plan for people to obey the law. so if any federalal authorititis were to come to philadelphia and follow the law and follow the constitution, the issue will not present -- which is whatat we al hope. it is simple. the law applies to the president of the united states. the law applies to law enforcement. ththe law applies to civilians. it is simple. we have to be evevenhanded. if people are going to come to philadelphia in n uniform and fracture these goals are protesters with rurubber bullet, jumpmp out original man's and dg people intoo those b bands witht probable cause, they''re committiting crimes ununder pepennsylvania statutes. these are p pennsylvania offenss overer which the distrtrict atty in philly has jurisdiction over that area. we can bring those charges. the law is very clear. we can proceed with those

charges in state court under certaiain circumstances they mit end up being processed in federal court. ininially, we e can bring those chcharges and pursue them and as much as possible, we can put those individuals in front of a philadelphia jury.y. we might --- you might have somethining to say abobout those tactics. nermeen: does the president even hahave the legal authority to deploy federal officers s on the streets of philadelphia irrespective of what they do? saidrofessor michael door federal authorities coming into states like this without the cooperation of the cooperation of state and local authorities is "extraordinary outside the context of civil war." larry krasner, your response? >> there are certain kininds of ovoverlapping jujuriictions. a couple of classic ones are over drug offenses, over gun

offenses. ththere are collaborations betwn state and federal lawaw enforcemement? on all the time. they are happening in my office right now. but there's also a long-standing sort of protocol in w which you inform each other r what you're doing. some of the time one of the prosecutorial entities or police entities getets out of the way s to not trip over. that is not what we're seeing. what we're seeing is, a, who knows what because it is donald, who knows what t entity will shw up in what uniforms to do what. what we're seeing is nono intert in collalaboratition. i t think it is impmportant noto overerstate whatat is happening here. when the president talks about how he is gogoing to take over cicities -- - really? isis that what you're goioing t? 12,500agogo, there are active police officers. lastst i heard was the presidedt was s going to's and 1 150 fedel agents of some s sort.

really?? wow. that is 1% of the police force in chicago. we should nott lose sight ofof e reality of what t donald trump always does is he got a shiny object that he is shining over here and he wants us to pay attention to it because he is dodoing some dirt in somome othr location. here he obviously is doing a pretty effective job of trying to distract from his incredible failureses, including s failures with the pandemic and the economy at this point. it remains to be s sn w what exactly he will do, , if anythig in philadelplphia and remains jt -- to see if this is just fluff. therefore in some pretty terrible things happening in portland that appear withoutt perfect information because i don't have perfect infmamation, but they appear to be illegal and blatantly so. if fedederalay is authoritities want to come to philadelphia and break the law, then they will face the law like everyone else. amy: can you talk about your

family's history? would you say president trump's move calling for a surge of these federal agents throughout the country, particularly in democratic cities, would you call president trump fascist? would say he is definitely a want to be fascist. i'm not sure he can spell the woword bubut he is definitely someone whwho is in love with dictators, in love withh authoritarianism, brutality, racism, division, hate. his playbook is essentially the same playbook as the white supremacist playbook, which is as w we see with the boooogaloo movement and a all this kind of stuff, we have seenn their tryig to take advantage of the peaceful protetests, which i ise vast majority of what it is come around george floyd to b become agent provocatuer, to get into it and to cause violence thahat would not have been theree otheise. so once they have caused it they can say, look atat these people. look at what these black people do. look at t what these left-wing people do.

the proud boys are doing a. the boogaloo crew are doing it. as they have repeatedly stated, they're looking to have a s secd cicivil war. absurd asas that may sounund, t isis the same tactic we're sick with donald t trump right now. we have e citieses that have n d unrest, have not had an uprising for weeks. the only thing that has been happening in philly for weeks has been a moderate amount of peaceful protests. the president is announcing to the nation that philadelplphiis out of f control. no, it is not. i live here. we all see what is going on. there is no problem. there is no crisis that would in any way require fedederal intetervention. ononce again, if he sends troops of some s sort in here to stir things up, to r requisition people, , to beat t people up, s going to cause unresest. what i i am saying is he is actg as an agent provocatuer by using his authority dissent people in.

what is the real purpose of this from his perspective? probably not a second civil war, much more shortsighted than that. his real purpose is to distract from his dismal record, the fact his campaigngn is dropping likea stone. in t terms of family history, we have a lot of people -- almost all passed nowow, we have a lotf people in the family who were of an a age that they volunteered d they served in world war ii. my dad served in the pacific at an airbase. i had an uncle w who was in germany. he was an n tillery spotter, whh is a lousy job to have because you are in beteten both sides watching the shells s that have been fired from both sides and hopefully they don't lean on you. i had another one who lost most of his hearing serving on a navy vessel. going a littttle furthther than that, by wife's side of the family, her father was a career military. he was not in world war ii, but he flew planes and a couple of wars and ended up being a pilot

for an ambassador to afafghanistan, which is whwherey wife lived when she was a young child. we go way back when it comes to this. that is not is say wewe're any didifferent or b better, but wee someone here who avoided military service n not because e was a conscientious objector, entitled,e he is cowardly, lazy. we have this person pretending to be sosome kind of wt t to be fascist. it is intolerable. this is nothing we can except in the united states.s. amy: i want to asksk about the people still locked up in philadelphia's jails, despite the higher risk of contracting covid. most of them are waiting foror their day in court, , which has been disrupted due to the spread of the virus, and many are bail-eligible. the philadelphia community bail fund has been actively bailing people out during this time. some activists have focused in particular on young people who are still incarcerated. this is a member of the youth art & self-empowerment project named briyananna, describing wht it was like when her juvenile son was recently incarcerated

during covid.. >> i worried. i i worried about my son.. is hee eatining? is h he safe? is he cold? i i also cannot see my sonon bee ofof covid-19, which made it evn worse. thahat only hadad a phone conversatition with mymy son, te werere no hugs, there were no kisseses. amy: da larry krasner, do you think there are people locked up right now who should n not be, given the health risks? what is your office is d doing o releasase more people from what some have called death traps? i am looking at an ad by the philadelphia community bail fund and they say da larry krasner drop the charges, not your knee. they said charge more than 400 people i in the last two days of protests -- this was in the last weeks, kept over 100 black youth in detention during covid,

incarcerated thousands of black philadelphians in cages at risk of death during covid. can you respond to these accusations or criticisms against you? >> well, the problem with a lot of these c criticisms is they ae completely out of context. frankly, cynically out of context. when we cameme i into office, we were coming off an city that had 10,000 people in county custody. 500000keded it d down to about within a year and a half, which was the quickest progress toward incarceration esessentially in e history of the city. we are currently at 4000. ththis is the lowestst rate of incarceration in philadelphihia sincnce about 1985. 1985. and we have gotten there through a lot of extremely diligent and careful work. i would be misleading if i told you i thought that people who were accused of murdering four people should be out of custody. they should not.

they should be in custody before they kill five people. i'm not making that up. we have someone who was a contract killer who is associated with four different murders. someone else associated with five. once again, let's talk about the juveniles. when we came in, there were about 650 juveniles in custody -- which was lower than it had been in the past. it changes every day, but there is now something like 140. it is not enough simply to say someone is a juvenile. if that juvenile has paralyzed another juvenile by shooting them in the back of the head behind a dumpster, there is a role that has to be played by the state in order to make sure that we dodo not have slaughterf people on the street. i do not have any reservation about saying there are some people who need to be in custody even under the circumstances, but this office is working closely with the public defenders office and has done a remarkable job diminishing the harm that could have come from

philadelphia's jails becoming an epicenter. they have not become that. we have experienced, based on my limited information, a total of two deaths among the inmate population, believe among the step population. as we compare that to national averages, a lot of extremely hard work we have done and are continuing to do has paid out. it is a real problem. i will not kil kid you. there is no easy exit door to the jail because the courts are close and they have been close for months and it doesn't look like they're going to open up more quickly but all things considered when we are objective about it, i think we have done an excellent job of keeping this population down the being very surgical about which individuals need to be in custody at this time. i think it is fair to say -- i'm not going to get specific with which bail fund, but there is one of these bail funds that

took a young man who had no prior records and was racking up one drake case after another in a short period of time. dignified thisy person needs to be held in custody kind needs an intervention. but once again, the bail fund would charging in, paid that person's bail, he came out and was killed on a corner shortly thereafter. he was in honor because the bail fund, even though this young man he only 18 years old when it started, had collected six consecutive drug cases in a short period of time. they paid his bail. we have seen another case, domestic violence case where the harmednt had viciously his long-term partner in a number of different states, been convicted of it, and over the objection of the das office who were trying to protect her, bail fund looked at none of that and ran and painted and she then suffered a terrible sexual assault at the h hands of the ee persrson. it is nonot the case that every single person should get out.

it is not the case and no mamatr what the record or the circumumstances, everyone should get out. the life of that woman mattered. that life of that young man whose bail was paid and he died mattered. we have to be careful about these things. amy: i would ask about movie abu -- mumia abu-jamal. one of the least known facts about the case is mumia was jellybean toto death a at the ce scene. one ththird of the police invold in the case were jailed for systematically tampering with evidence to obtain convictions and cases across philadelphia. at least one police officer in the case, james forbes, light on the stand. -- light on the stand. what about police corruption? some say philadelphia has a history of cases like this. i asked you about mumia

abu-jamal when you're running for da. what is happening in his case? >> in terms of the broader question about corruption, one of the t things mymy office hase as we have established a p polie misconduct database e -- you mit call it list, bubut it is s a lt bebetter thahan that i knew we e consistent with our constitutional obligation to get the defense the information they're entitled to, including that which may be used to try to defeat our case, the prosecutors. what happenss s we keep data, we keep inforormation whether it is findings by police of lying or brutality or a police officer having been charged with a crime in a different county or it may even be a judge having made a decision that a partrticular polilice officer lied or cououle postings on facebook t that show bias towards any particular group -- we keep all of that information posted because it is a database come as soon as a new case comes into the system involving that officer, the information automatically is connected to the case and is a

properly provided to the defense. that is never been done in philadelphia before. it is a relatively high tech and we think excellent solution, and fair to the police because they are notified there on thisis database and given the opportunity to explain why it may be biased. the truth is, sometimes it is. internal affffairs is as politil and biased as anything else at certain times, in certain cases. we have exonerated at this point 14 p people and we have been in office for about 26 months. it is a seachange from eveverything that t came before. included on our database, there are cecertain individuals who ae categorized d as or nearly peope we will not call. we will not c call to testitify becacause we do not trust their integrity. aere are other people and less difficucult situation. as far as mumumia ababu-jamal, h year of litigation, we have things going on actctively in tt casese. we takake that case no more ando

less seriously and every other case bececause of notorietety at it. onee thing i''ve cerertainly sen our workrk around exoneration ad conviction integrity as i have seen often the eye and famous people get a whole lot less attention than the famous people. but what i can say in that regard is it is pending. there are certain restrictitions on what we should apappropriatey say. it is a microcosm of the realities of what progressive prosecutors face now when they are trying to go back in time and do justice, when they're trying to o do justice moving forward, trying to comply with your obligations to give exploratory information. .hey used to hide and destroy amy: larry krasner, thank you for being with us, district attorney of philadelphia. next we go to chicago where trump is saying he is sending a surge of federal agents.

we will look at how protesters are demanding justice after police o officers punched out te teeth of an 18-year-old activist named miracle boyd. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i am amy goodman nermeen shaikh. we go now to chicago, where protesters are demanding justice after police officers attacked a teenage activist last week during a demonstration in which people attempted to topple a statue of christopher columbus in grant park. an officer punched 18-year-old miracle boyd in the face,

knocking out several teeth. miracle is a recent high school graduate and an organizer with the group good kids mad city. journalists also reported being mistreated by police who used chemical sprays and batons on protesters. police said 12 people were arrested. this is miracle boyd speaking at a news conference monday. >> i was attacked by cpd. christopher columbus did not discover america. he was a rapist, murderer, thief, and colonizer. who laid the groundwork for indigenous genocide is a translated slave trade.

yet the police are protecting a statute of a man who died more than 500 years ago. the police are not serving and protecting. way should leave a protest bruised and battered. i'm disgusted and never would have thought i would become a victim to the biggest gang at america. amy: this comes as president donald trump announced he is sending a "surge" of federal officers into chicago. mayor lightfoot respondeded on n . >> we do not want unconstitutional, secret federal agents coming into our citities grababbing our residents and detainining them and viviolating their rights. i have drarawn a very bright lie there, and we're not going to go back from that. amy: for more, we go to chicago where we're joined by sheila bedi. professor of law at northwestern university and the lawyer representing miracle boyd. professor, thank you for joining us.

before we talk about the surge, can yoyou t talk abouout what ey happenened to miracle? >> thank you so much for having me. an activistst, a freedom f fighter, works for an organization called good kidss mad city that focuses on ending violence in the south and west sides of chicago. miraracle was at the protest on friday. she was doing what she does, which is document in police violence, trying to ensure the prprotests were going to occur without some of the violence we have seen consistently during the uprisings in chicagogo's. she was filming the arrest of a man and an officer c came up to her and slapped her because she was filming the arrest, and slapped her with such force her fronont teeth were knocked out f her head. this is consistent with what we have seen from the chicago police department over the last three months in the response to

these uprisings. , could youeila bedi explain in chicago strikes l lie the one merkel b boyd was s subt to are considered the ususe of lethal f force in chicago, so coululd you talk about that and what the impmplications of that are? and what exaxactly it is that mimiracle boyd is calllling for, restorative justice? explain what she wouldd like to see happen. >> the city of chicago is subject to a federal concentra see. the decree makes it clear that had strikikes, whichh is where police officers using force to the head area, is a form of lethal force. it is a form of force that should only be used when lethal force can be justified. so d dealing with somebody who s suspected of a violent felony, someone who is an immediate

threat to a police officer or to somebody else -- that is not miracle boyd. but what we have seen throughout these protests, police officers using ththat k kind of lethal fe againsnst protesters i in an eft to quell the movement and in an effort to retaliate against protesters for the exercise of their first amendment speech. what miracle is calling for at this time is for the officer to be fired. the videotape is very clearar miracle was not a threat, she was exercising her first amendment. the officer came up and use this lethal force against her. the other thing that miracle is asking for is for this officer to engage in restorative justice process. she's not asking for the officer to be charged. she i is asking for the offffico be engaged in a processss where she could explain what this has done to her, how it has affected her, the trauma that she has experienced. that is her demand at thihis

offificer at this time. amy: and now if you can respond to what president trump is saying he is doing in chicago. looks like he is particularly focusing, and has clearly said democratic mayors, particularly focusing on cities that have mayors who are women and women of color. >> no question about that. during donald trump's comments yesterday, he made it very clear that this action was about quelling the movement, that this action was about specifically taking on the activists who called for defunding the police and intercommunal -- tying intercommunal violence to those demands. which is not supported. it is also very clear that this request for the federal troops toto come into chicago was supported by the chicago police union.

the police in chicago have a long history of cooperating with the federal government to violate the rights of people in the chicago community. there is a real concern that that is what is gogoing to happn here. that the deployment of t these troops that has been done to t y , andell these protests that is s unconstitutional. that is something thahat will absolutely be challenged in court. the issue we have right now is the chicicago police depepartmet has systematically attempted too chill first amendment rights of protesters. and thahat has been happening oa regularr basis and happening ina very systemamatic way. the overlalay of additional federal troops is deeply disturbing and what that might mean for the city's protest. amy: sheila bedi, thank you for being with us. you are suing on behalf of mimiracle boyd? >> miracle boyd will be filing a civil rights lawsuit.

amy: sheila bedi is a professor of law at t northwestern university, lawyer representing miracle boyd. when we come back,k, the harrowg scenes are paramilitary style units in the streets of american cities may shock mainsnstream america but the violent presence of federal borderr agents is not unfamiliar to many black and brown communities. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i am amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. we turn now to the harrowing scenes of paramilitary-style units in the streets of american cities like portland, oregon, where heavily armed federal officers with no agency markings have snatched people off the streets and forced them into unmarked vans. the developments have shocked mainstream america. thth is msnbc host banan lliaiams >> overseas, if we saw these pictctures, we would call it something like a military junta under mussolini or pen

inochet. we would make nothing of it, would just be a wednesday. amy: but the violent presence of federal border agents is not unfamiliar to many black and brown americans, especially those that live along the border. the brutality now seen on u.s. streets is also all l too recognizable to global communities who have faced the terror of u.s.-trained military forces, from iraq to kenya to guatemala. the scene unfolding in portland has also drawn comparisons to u.s.-backed death squads that terrorized latin america for decades. for more, we're joined by two guests. cecilia menjivar is a professor of sociology at the university of calalifornia los angeles where she focucuses on state and gender-based violence in central america and immigration enforcement in the u.s., originally from all salvador. also with us, reporter todd miller who has covered border security and immigration for over a decade.

he is author of "empire of borders: the expansion of the u.s. border around the world." also the author of "border patrol nation: dispatches from the front lines of homeland security." we welcome you both to democracy now! professor, let's begin with you. if you can respond to what is happening in portland, oregon, as you heard brian williams i -- this may be familiar to others, he talked about chile and mussolini, but here in america? you know a different picture of this country and also back to where you came from in el salvador, really connected to the united states, especially in the 1980''s.s. sadly,y, through sololdiers come often u.s. trained soldidiers, caring weaeapons that might me from the united states. questionsou for the becaususe what is happening in portlala and probably other cities in the uniteded states, was,s,s brian wiwilliams sayayse order of the day for most of

latin america during the 1970's and 1980's. for instance, the image of an unmarked van taking people from the streets and taking them who knows where, it brings back memories to latin americans who lived through disappearances of families and friends and coworkers for a long period of time. so this is something very throughoutery close the region because these were strategies of state violence and state control implemented throughout the region during the military dictatorship of the 1970's and 1980's. nermeen: i would l like to bring todd miller into the

conversation. you are the author of a book called "empire of borders: the expansion of the u.s. border around the world." so could you talk about that specifically yr subtitle and then specifically how the role 9/11? cbp c changed after >> sure. in terms of the expansion of the ,.s. border around the world even thinking specificicly about the specific course that was in portland and the war tactic of the u.s. border patrol thahat ws pulling people off the streets, over t the yearsrs doing r reseh seveveralacross occasions. on one occasion was in guatemala and i was going to a military base to meet with ththe commandr f forceew border patrol

there were forming there. my whole purpose of going there mike united -- how much o of the united states was behind the creation of that border force. i got there late but i try to convince the sololdiers at the if iof the military base could still meet with the commander. while i was waiting, one of the soldiers came up to me and asked were tapped. i could not believe my ears. hardly anyone in the united states knew what bortact was but here i was thousands of miles away from the border and of soldier of guatemalan who bortat was. i got the meeting with the commander r in the commander thn verified that bortat had been there, the u.s. border patrol had been trainings there, that the united states busy funding was behind the creation ofof the

new border patrol.. that was onene example o of many expansion ofhis the u.s. border abroad, what they called externalization or the extension of the zone of security if you want to use the kind of state speak being used. of, tooa is one example much to my surprise, over 100 examplples in countrieies all or the world where the u.s. bobordr patrol specificallyy bortac, are going and doing training, setting resources, creatating border patrol, teaching other countries how to control t their borders. ththis whole idea of pushingng t the u.s. boborders cacan accordg to the missionon of stopping

people from coming to the united states l long before thehey geto u.s. shores. s something that has been happening for quite a while. it h has been happening for decacades in m many ways. in t the 1980'0's, c can go baco documentnts of ion estimate imimmigration and natuturalizatn seservice, going t to mexico in, wewe will stop people from comig from different countries in central america from crossing the mexican border. that is an example of how w fart goes b back. programsms -- the really shifted post-9/11. there was really a huge emphasis put on this extensnsion of the border. you could really see where the core of this comes from, the 9/11 commission report. the 9/11 commission report, there is onequote that is really revealing it says "the american homeland is the planet."

so the idea they american homeland is everywhere and thus there is an underlying logic of this expansion of the united states going to over 100 countries and using the same units that are now found in portland, oregon, or possibly in chicago today or in other cities around the united states. amy: what gives these federal agents, todd miller, and law enforcement agencies so much power? yeah portland, oregon, which falls within 100 miles of the border with canada. you have called -- you have talked about these constitution-free zones and how it relates to border security, both the north, south, now trump is saying he is sending it to, well, many cities where there are democratic mayors -- partulararly womenen andnd womef color who are mayors. >> yes. uninit are essentially

u.s.s. border patrol agentss. and as you just mentioned, they work in what are known as 100 mile zones or as thehe a aclu ps it, c constitution-free zone. if one can imagine the concourse of the u united states along the 2000 mile camille is mexico border, 5000 mile u.s.-canada mile, you can imamagine like a n orange band along ththe contour. chunk ofcovering a huge the u.s. popopulation. 200 million people are covered in what is known as the constitutionon-freezone, where e u.s.s.order patrtrol works with extraconstitutional powers. in that sense, on the southern border, the idea of the u.s. boarder patrol agent snatching people off the street t or snatching people in ththe desert or snatching people in the vavarious checkpoints they can t up in these zones,s, happens all the time.

in a sense, it is like the extension ofof that border into places like p portland or chica. but as youou mentioned, within e constitution-freezone or the border jurisdiction. portland, close to the canadian border and also along the coast. so along the coastline, that also in the jurisdiction. when you look at bortac, the special forces unit of the u.s. border patrol, the once during ththe paramilitary style tactic, they are the border patrol on top of the bordeder patrol in terms of being militarized, weaponized. they were formed in 1984 to in detentiongs centers with immigration and naturalization service. in n 1992 inpresence lolos angngel when there was ununrest after the rodney king incident. it goeoes on and on. there is a long history of unrest.eing involved in

it seems to be part of their purpose. inbororder patrol has expanded asastronomical fasashion over te , the25 years particularly expansion of bortac happens as well. quite a surprise like this clip from bririan williaiams and in another way it is no surprise at all to see that bortacc is being put in washingtone from might view as unrest. people protesting. that they're going to be showing up in chicago, showing up in new york -- places that are in the 100 mile zones. people are ququite aware of, there was an announcement in march that bortac reported patrol unit was going to join a show ofof force and in

sanctuary cities. sanctuary cities to then go after dodocument a people in cicities, the same cities that e are seeing them be deployed now. in a way it is going hand-in-hand now with what was announced in march with what has been going on actually for years now. nermeen: professor c cecilia menjivar, if you could talalk abouout thehe state vioiolence t has been deployeyed against immigrant communinities along te border and also whahat has been happening in detention cenenters where disisappearances are r roe often? clothes right. yes. not onch hahas focused the border, butut away from the border. i wass doing q quite ait of researchch in arizona in maricoa

county during the time when the usedff of mararicopa county similar techniques toto terrorie the latino population specifically. at that time i was interviewing central americanmmigrants in me in thisho pointed direction. they brought up to myy attention the similaritieies betetween wht they had lived during the civil war's in guatetemala and el salvador and what they were living in phoenix during the reign of terror that the s sriff created in phoenix, for instance. their experiences that brought to my attention the similarities between technologies of state violence and statete terror used during the civil wars inin latin -- latinod immigigrant

immigrants specicifically, specifically i in phoeoenix, whe the concentrateded. centersion to detention and disisappearances in detentin cecenters, whatt happened to immigrants who are sent to detention facilities is they are sent to very remote places. they often lose c contact with their r families. their families do not know where they are. i have had immigrants calling me, askiking me the t to help le their family membersrs because they do not know where they are being held. this again b brings back memoris to in their home countries they would go search for families who had been taken from their homes at night or from their places of work to be disisappeared. and so the same thing was happening here -- is happening here in the united states with

638 detainenee facilities throughout t the country. eachch state has at least two detention facilities dedicated to holdd immigrants in detenent. parallels are so strong and so vividid that immigrants who have lived through both h can vy .uickly point that out amy: i can only think, professor, i can only think about the words of archbishop romero as he did h his lasast hy broadcast throughout el salvavar marcrch 24, 1980, gunned down by u.s.-backed death squad. to thesaying the words soldiers of el salvador "i , implore you, i beg you, i order you -- stop the repression." cecilia menjivar professorcecilia menjivar, professor of sociology a universe of california los angeles, and todd miller, author

of a number of books, award-winning journalist including "empire of borders: the expansion of the u.s. border around the world." that does it for our show. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

narrator: on this episode of "earth focus"...los angeles is knownwn for itsts urban sprawl d traffic-clogogged syststem of frfreeways rather than i its diverse array of living species. the second-most-populated city in america is actually a biodiviverse hotspot--one ofof just a few in the entire world. withthin the confinenes of thihs conncrete jungle, , species are adapting and, in some cases, even thriving. welcome to the los angeles urban wild.