Immigrant Activist to Biden: Close Deportation Cases Now to Take a Weapon Away from Trump

Arizona voters on Election Day approved a sweeping ballot measure that would allow state and local law enforcement to arrest immigrants suspected of crossing the U.S.-Mexico border outside of ports of entry, while empowering state judges to order deportations. Proposition 314, which creates a series of state crimes targeting immigrants, is modeled after a similar measure in Texas known as S.B. 4 that is currently under review by the U.S. Supreme Court. Only certain portions of Prop 314 are scheduled to go into effect later this month, while the most harmful parts won't be enforced until the Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of the Texas law. The measure has drawn comparisons to Arizona's controversial S.B. 1070, a 2010 law that also gave local police authority to arrest immigrants suspected of being undocumented, though large parts of it were later struck down by the Supreme Court. For more, we speak with Tucson-based activist Alejandra Pablos, who was targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for her activism and has been facing deportation proceedings for years. "People who are speaking out are the first to feel the chills," Pablos says of Trump's looming anti-immigrant crackdown. She urges the Biden administration to do what it can to mitigate the harm, including by closing deportation cases against people like her.

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