Speaker 1: We're starting to see President Donald Trump's immigration policies go into effect. Officials tell CNN that the U.S. military is sending thousands of additional troops to the southern U.S. border. This comes just two days after President Trump ordered the military to step up its presence there. About 2,200 active-duty forces are already at the border as part of Joint Task Force North. They're mostly performing support roles for Customs and Border Patrol. Officials say the new arrivals will be doing much of the same as they're not authorized to perform any sort of law enforcement role. Let's bring in Natasha Bertrand, who's at the Pentagon for us. So, Natasha, what more do we know at this point?

Speaker 2: Yeah, Zain, so we know at this point that the U.S. military is ordering thousands of additional active-duty troops to the border to augment Customs and Border Patrol activities and mission operations down there. But they're not going to be engaged in any kind of law enforcement role, because that is actually banned by a law, by a centuries-old law called posse comitatus, which prevents the U.S. military from being used domestically for law enforcement purposes. So they're primarily going to be doing things like data entry, transportation of migrants around different facilities, intelligence support, as well as some additional support in air operations. But they're not going to be engaging extensively in the day-to-day with migrants. But still, this is significant because it does make good on President Trump's promise just earlier this week that he is going to augment the presence of the U.S. military at the border. Now, as you said, there are roughly 2,200 active-duty troops already at the border, and they're supported by Texas National Guard contingent there. And so what this is going to do is essentially lay the groundwork, we're told, for an even bigger military footprint to be sent in the coming weeks and months to the border. This is not something that the president can, just in terms of ordering them to engage in law enforcement functions, this is something the president has the authority to do under the Insurrection Act. And he has said in an executive order issued Monday that if within 90 days, he and the Secretary of Defense determine that the border is not under control and that more resources need to be used to control the flow of migrants across the border, then he can invoke the Insurrection Act, which would then allow the U.S. military to perform those law enforcement functions like arrests, searches, and seizures, as well as seizing drugs. And so this is something that we need to watch for. But for now, this is really just President Trump and the Department of Defense making good on their promise to augment Customs and Border Patrol, as well as DHS more broadly, their resources at the southern border as they have been stretched thin in recent years with the ongoing flow of migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Speaker 1: All right. Natasha Bertrand, live for us there. Thank you so much. All right. Donald Trump's new border czar says that deportation operations have actually already begun. Tom Homan told Fox News earlier that ICE agents arrested 308 serious criminals in the past 24 hours. The president says that ICE agents can now make arrests at churches and at schools, which were previously considered off-limits because they are sensitive places. Julius Vargas-Jones joins us live now from the U.S.-Mexican border in California, which is, of course, ground zero for the immigration battle. So, Julia, just the fact that these raids, this rounding up of undocumented immigrants, these arrests have actually already begun. Just talk us through what the reaction is where you are, especially because California is a sanctuary state.

Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, Zane. Look, people are scared. We're talking to folks who are saying that is it's fear and uncertainty. That's what's being brought here, both for people who are in the immigration system, so folks who are already in the process that who have a piece of paper, Zane, that says that they can stay in the United States through their immigration process. They are quite fearful at this point because they don't know what will happen. There's just been so many changes. And, yes, California is a sanctuary state. It's also home to dozens of sanctuary cities. But at this point, people don't know and officials here don't know. People who work with migrants don't know what will come of this. There's just been too much so quickly. We spoke yesterday with a family from Venezuela who came over and who said, look, yes, we got our appointment for asylum. We had our initial interview. But we don't know if this program will even be standing by the time that we get to the end of this process. And another thing that happened that I think is important to note is that these organizations along here, the Southern Border in California, who have been working in partnership with federal authorities, like Catholic Charities, which we visited yesterday and we spoke with the CEO, told us, look, they're saying they're not going to release migrants to our care any longer. So it raises a lot of questions of what will happen to these people. He said to us they've since 2021, once the remaining Mexico policy was lifted and migrants started to be able to stay in the United States while they waited for their date in court, they have been key to helping about 400,000 people to get on the way in the United States to make it to their day in court. And now where will they go? Will they be held in detention centers here in the United States? Will they be dropped off in these cities across the U.S. border to be on their own? Or will they be told to stay in Mexico? All of this just adding to the uncertainty, Zain, that we're feeling here at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Speaker 1: President Donald Trump's promise of mass deportations in the U.S. is causing panic and anxiety among immigrant communities, his administration issuing new directives, including one that allows immigration authorities to arrest people near and inside places previously considered off-limits, and that includes schools and churches. CNN's Ed Lavendera visited one Texas city that's now preparing for raids.

Speaker 4: Every school day at Cactus Elementary starts like this. Moments of patriotism and reflection, with a high-energy dose of inspiration from Principal T.J. Funderburg. Why are we here? You do that every morning? Yes, sir. When I looked out on the student body this morning, I mean, it's quite something to think that we're in the Texas panhandle, and that's what your student body looks like.

Speaker 5: It's always very eye-opening to people that come here. We have got 13, 14 different languages, all these different cultures represented. And, yes, we're up here in the heart of the Texas panhandle. Everybody thinks it would be farm and ranch and country and kids in cowboy hats. And we have got just about a little bit of everything.

Speaker 4: The population in Cactus, Texas, is about 3,000 people. But the diversity is staggering. There's an African restaurant, safari restaurant in Halal Meat. There's an Asian grocery store. There's a Mexican butcher shop. There's a Guatemalan grocery. There's also an Islamic center. What draws so many immigrants and migrants here to a community like this is the work. And it is brutal, backbreaking work. There is a meat processing plant that runs 24 hours a day. There are dairy farms that run nonstop. These are the kinds of jobs that the United States economy and food supply rely on every day. It's also the kind of work that only immigrants, by and large, are willing to do. There are towns like Cactus, Texas, all over the country. And with President Donald Trump promising to carry out mass deportations, a sense of fear and uncertainty looms over these streets. What are you hearing specifically from people?

Speaker 6: They — well, they're scared. They don't know if they're going to be able to stay here. A lot of them have been here for decades. They've built their lives here. Their kids are here. You know, everyone they know is here.

Speaker 4: Elizabeth Oliveros grew up in Cactus, the daughter of immigrants who became citizens and earned their living working in the city's meat processing plant. She went away to college, became a lawyer, and moved back to Cactus to work as an immigration attorney. If there were to be mass deportations here in this city, what would happen to it?

Speaker 6: It would be quite empty, I think. There's a lot of people here that don't have status that keep a lot of the businesses, the smaller businesses around here running. So, if immigrants leave, I don't know where they're going to find workers as hardworking as some of the immigrants.

Speaker 4: As we walked the streets of Cactus, it was clear that most residents, regardless of their immigration status, didn't want to speak with us on camera, and especially didn't want to talk about President Trump's deportation dreams. You know, I don't like politics. I don't like it. The fear among many in this town and other agricultural communities across the country is that vital food production would be paralyzed and communities torn apart. The meat processing plant here says it only hires people authorized to work. Under different management, in 2006, the plant was raided by immigration authorities. About 300 people suspected of identity theft or being in the country illegally were detained, many of them deported. Faith Oliveros remembers the day clearly.

Speaker 6: I was in elementary school, and I remember they had to keep us because they didn't know how many of us, our parents were gone. And a lot of my friends, their parents were gone. They got deported.

Speaker 4: The children at Cactus Elementary are mostly oblivious to the political storms brewing outside these school walls. Principal T.J. Funderburg is bracing for whatever comes next.

Speaker 5: It's just the unknown that scares me to death.

Speaker 4: He says as many as half the kids in the school could have undocumented family members. These are the kinds of places where the reality of mass deportations could play out. To the people who are going to be making these decisions about deportations, whether it's mass deportations, just broad or targeted, what's your message to them?

Speaker 5: Just, I mean, come talk to me. Come meet these kids. Think, you know, I know there has to be rules, there has to be checks, there has to be balances, but it can't just be paper. This community of people that have come together, that are here now from all these different countries, all these different places, we can do amazing things.