Thanks for joining us for a special edition of NWPB Weekly News Now.

This week we have Dr. Christina Torres Garcia from Central Washington University here with us.

Now, immigration policies, and particularly mass deportations, are a hot topic in recent weeks in the country and in central Washington.

So first, can you just tell us about what's going on?

Thank you so much, for inviting me.

Yes.

President Donald Trump and his administration has significantly intensified the deportation process in the United States, implementing measures that accelerate and expand actions against undocumented immigrants.

One of the things that I want to cover here are three areas that have changed significantly due to the massive mass deportation that he just ordered is the expedited removal.

This... Actually, what happened is that it allows immigration officers to quickly deport individuals without a formal court hearing.

If it is determined that they entered the country within two years and entered the country undocumented.

Also, the rate in neighborhoods has increased.

Workplaces, they have been allowing individuals to come in or ICE to come in and pick up undocumented workers.

President Trump has expressed dislike for the arrest...

The number of arrests daily.

So he has been, asking to deport 1,200 to 1,500 individuals daily.

And, that's what ICE is working on right now.

Yeah, we're living in difficult times.

The administration has announced plans to deport migrants who have temporary residence permits granted under the previous administrations.

So that's another change that is drastic.

That's affecting 1.4 million temporary residents.

And we... Actually, all of these initiatives have our communities with fear.

And one of the things that I do want to cover, though, here is that I want to let our communities know that they do have rights, even though, they might be undocumented, they do have rights, and they should be reaching out to lawyers, to community members, making sure that they have a phone number in their phones of a lawyer to contact and a friend to contact in case they are being picked up.

Make sure that your documents are complete and stored in a particular place where your friends could help you retrieve if necessary.

Please make sure that you go and visit a lawyer due to your case, to ensure that... perhaps there could be a way that you could protect your deportation by submitting another document or making sure that you have a document with you all the time.

So I really want to ensure that our community are aware of their rights, their human rights.

Absolutely, Dr. Torres Garcia.

Now, real quickly, what can folks do to protect and prepare themselves?

So one of the other things that I was hoping to mention was that the communities, especially the state of Washington, are gathering and taking action.

There is a community for the Washington agricultural sectors who are taking action due to this will definitely affect their pocket, their money.

So they are gathering and making sure that they are helping out to protect their workers.

There are also groups in the community who are focusing on providing funding for those individuals who need some funds to submit for new documentations for lawyers.

So you need to tap into your community.

Latinos En Spokane has been an amazing group where they have grants to assist individuals with immigration... Funds or anything that has to do with submitting your documents.

So I would say to reach out and not wait to reach out to individuals to make sure that you have some type of protection in the US, in case you're being detained.

Dr. Torres Garcia, thank you so much for your time and helping explain this.

I'm sure we'll speak with you again.

Thank you so much.