Speaker 1: The new administration is quickly implementing President Trump's promised crackdown on immigration. Hundreds of National Guard and military troops are deployed to the southern border, but thousands more have been ordered to the U.S.-Mexico border. Now, the White House has also started the first deportation flights of the Trump administration. The White House press secretary shared images last night of migrants lined up, handcuffed, and boarding a military aircraft.

Speaker 2: Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it made 593 arrests on Friday, 538 on Thursday. Those numbers are likely to rise. A source tells CNN that federal immigration removal operations could target more than two dozen cities earlier this week. And President Trump signed an executive order suspending refugee admissions to the U.S. And last night, the White House went a step further, abruptly halting all services for refugees who are already here, including Afghans, who aided the U.S. during the war. Let's bring in now Doris Meisner. She is a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute and a former commissioner with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service under President Clinton. Doris, thank you for being with me. I want to start here with your reaction to that ending advocate group's support of refugees already in the country. Anything from helping them find jobs, helping them find housing, even teaching them how to use the banking system here in the U.S. What are the greater implications?

Speaker 3: Well, the greater implications are that we have a long history as a country of welcoming and accepting refugees. And our experience with that is that refugees do very well in the United States. They become Americans quickly. They contribute to the economy. They pay taxes. And so the initial help that they get to get established and have a foothold is very important to their future success. This action is very short-sighted because it in fact makes it far more difficult for what has been an extremely successful program and effort over many, many years that the United States has in providing protection to people that are in deep need. They actually help us much more than we help them. But it's an even street.

Speaker 2: I'm going to be speaking with Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ross Baraka next hour about an ICE raid in his city that he says was executed without a warrant. There was a military veteran who was detained. How much does the how of this mass deportation impact the sustainability of it, not just the legal sustainability of it, but the political sustainability of it?

Speaker 3: Well, that's a very important question that we need to see, watch how it plays out in order to give the answer. The administration, the new administration has certainly succeeded in what it said it was going to do, which was shock and awe and start right immediately. But these operations in the scheme of things are not going to be removing millions of people from the country in the way that President Trump has spoken about. There will need to be considerably greater resources, more time to build up the infrastructure that's required. They're trying to make their point right now, but the real test is whether over the longer term they can build up the infrastructure and resources that are needed, as well as withstand legal challenges to what it is they're doing, because they are very vulnerable on a range of measures that have been announced in these executive orders. And the pushback coming from court challenges will be considerable.

Speaker 2: Let's talk about one of those, and that's asylum seekers. The U.S.'s signatory to international protocol on the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers has codified it into federal law as well. Some of these controls on the border and access to entry points, does that still allow for the U.S. to adhere to its own law as it relates to people being able to pursue asylum, seek asylum in the U.S.?

Speaker 3: No, it doesn't. I mean, the administration is flouting those laws, and that will be challenged in court. The effort to cut off entirely access to political asylum, especially at the southwest border, violates U.S. law. Now, the Biden administration tightened those restrictions considerably, but it did still allow people ways to access asylum. This administration is saying no, none whatsoever.

Speaker 2: Is there any evidence, because we saw some of this in the first Trump administration, the first Trump term, that the rhetoric that the controls placed on immigration via executive order, that they are impacting the travel to the U.S., the underlying causes of the migration, that the countries in the Northern Triangle are addressing these elements so that these people don't come to the U.S. borders?

Speaker 3: Well, we haven't heard anything from this administration yet about the causes of the migration and ways to work effectively with countries in the hemisphere. The prior administration was making very considerable breakthrough efforts to work with countries in the region for cooperation all along the routes, including the causes, but also tackling the immediate issues of smugglers and cartels and the exploitation. The prior administration had put a network of offices into place throughout the hemisphere where people could apply for protection and asylum closer to home. That's all been erased by the current administration. So there will certainly be a wait and see period right now. That always happens when new policies go into place. But ultimately, the reasons for these migrations are not being, they will continue. And so a broader policy that really deals with if there's a regional issue and ultimately leads to cooperation among countries is essential, and we're not seeing

Speaker 2: any signs of that. Doris Meisner, day five of the second Trump term, and he has a lot more in his immigration to-do list. Thanks so much for being with us.