Take executive action that could lead to the reopening of secret overseas cia prisons. He is also moving forward on building a wall on the u. S. Mexican border. The secretary of Homeland Security, working with myself and my staff, will begin immediate construction of a border wall. Amy we will look at trumps executive actions and the growing resistance to his policies. Then to a sundance exclusive. Here in park city, as jay z premieres his new docuseries, time the Khalief Browder story about a teenager jailed who ultimately commit suicide after being jailed at rikers for three years without trial, most of that time in solitary confinement, i ask him whether rikers should close. If that happens to one kid, anyplace that can happen to any good should be closed. Amy all that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. President trump has begun a sweeping crackdown on immigration and against undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States. On wednesday at the department of Homeland Security, President Trump signed two executitive orders to immediately begin construction to expand the border wall between the u. S. And mexico. The construction of the expanded wall is expected to cost tens of billions of dollars. Over the last decade, the u. S. Has already installed 700 miles of fencing and tens of thousands of motion sensors, as well as spy towers, radar systems, predator Surveillance Drones and thousands of Law Enforcement agents along the u. S. Mexico border. Trump has vowed to force mexico to pay for the wall, a pledge widely rejected by mexicos leaders. This is mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto who is threatening to cancel his visit to the United States next week. Today, the president of the United States signed two directives related to our country. Want to implement migration measures and the other to extend the wall on the border. I have said time and time again, mexico will nonot pay for any wall. Amy donald trump also calling for the department of Homeland Security to hire 5000 or Border Patrol agents and 10,000 immigration officers. The orders on wednesday revived a program known as secure to entities, under which local Law Enforcement agencies share information with federal officers in order to accelerate deportations. The program was ended by president obama after years of resistance by immigrant justice groups. The orders also stripped funding from socalled sanctuary cities will stop trumps actions were met by widespread criticism not only across the United States, but also by migrants fleeing violence in their home countries. Womans a salvadoran speaking seeking to reach the United States forr refuge. He says, doy what what he will. The wall is going to be built in migrants will continue to cross. A lot. No matter what he says, he is not strong. The people are stronger. Amy donald trump is expected to sign more exec of orders to continue the crackdown against immigration, possibly as early as today. The New York Times reports a draft of an upcoming executive order shows it would indefininitely ban syriaian refs from entering the United States and impose a tememporary ban on all otherefugees. Ththe order would also suspend l immigration from their end, iraq, libya, somalia, sudan, syria, and yemen. In response, connecticut democratic senator chris murphy tweeted we bomb your country, creating a humanitarian nightmare, then lock you inside. That is a horror m movie, not a foreign policy. We will have more on the executive orders after headlines. Donald trumps crackdown on immigration drew immediate protests nationwide. Thousands of people poured into new york citys Washington Square park tuesday night holding candles and signs reading no one is illegal. Vigils and rallies were also held outside Los Angeles City hall and at the Columbia Heights civic plaza in washington, d. C. This is debbie almontaser, president of the Muslim Community network, speaking in manhattan tuesday night. I am a Community Activist here in new york city. I am also a yemeni american who actually still has family back in yemen. Shortly after the war, many members of my family were actually able to flee, said just my daughter and her husband. Sadly, thats we speak, my brotherinlaws wife remains in yemen. He actually begin the petitioning for her and she was tojordan and awaiting just finish her paperwork, and now with this executive order, i very much doubt she will be a will to join her two daughters and husband who are already here. Amy that was debbie almontaser. And this is another protester, originally from sudan. Is quite ironic that there is a ban or there is a potential ban on people from sudan and people from a lot of muslim countries in general where the u. S. Has played a direct hand in disenfranchising people of those countries. U. S. Has played a direct hand even in the genocide that occurred. I think it is ironic now it is however many years later theyre saying, oh, we dont want you after we messed up your country. We dont want you after we disenfranchised or people. As the u. S. , we medal. We go everywhere. U. S. Goes everywhere in and says, no, we dont when you anymore. Amy following trumps executive orders, hundreds of people also marched through the e streetets kensington, brooklyn, a prededominantly workingclass immigrant community,y, and gathered for a press conference to announce the launch of a hatefree e ne. The e Community Defense is o onf a series of efforts by neighborhood groups nationwide to mobilize residents to provide their own security against hate attacks and police brutality. In the wake of trumps election, verbal and physical hate attacks against immigrants, lgbt people, african americans, and religious minorities have increased dramatically. Last week, 27 Jewish CommunityCenters Nationwide received bomb threats after 16 Jewish Community centers received bomb threats the week before. Other examples include a swastika and the word trump being graffitied onto a high school in cincinnati, ohio, and onto a library in northbrook, illinois. In p philadelphia, over 1000 people to the streets for a Queer Dance Party to protest trumps visit to congressional inders on retreat philadelphia today. This dance party was a protest against the republicans plan to rid feel repeal the Affordable Care act, with the invitation reading as they try to take away our health care to police black, brown, queer and trans bodies, to regulate our bodies, were here to say we are queer, we are here, we will dance. Activists from the group greenpeaeace hung a massive, 70y 35 foot banner reading resist from a crane in the white house. This is greenpeaces nancy hernandez. I am standing here on a crane over the white house where we have deployed a banner. This banner isis a message to ts administration. But more than that, this message this is a handpainted love letter to you. This is a message to the people. Amy an official with trumps Transition Team has announced the Environmental Protection agencys scientific studies will now have to undedergo a politicl review by the Trump Administration before being published. The move is part of a series of attacks by the Trump Administration against the epa in recent days, which includes freezing all epa grants and contracts, and imposing a media gag against all employees of the agency. The administration has also stripped neaearly every mentionf Climate Change from the white houses official website, whitehouse. Gov, and pledged to eliminate president obamas environmental policies, including the Climate Action plan. A coalition of environmental and Climate Justice organizations have called for a peoples climate march on april 29, 2017, in washington, d. C. , and in cities nationwide. Republican lawmakers have closed the investigation into the lead poisoning of the water system in flinint, michigan. The House Oversight and government reform committees findings blamed state officials, the Michigan Department of quality and the , epa. The closing of the investigation comes as flint mayor karen weaver told residents they should still not drink the water. The citys lead pipes have not yet been replaced. At the womens march on washington, democracy now spoke with flint resident and Community Organizer melissa mays. Now we have a president that made it very clear he has no intentions to keep the apa. We feel even worse. The day after the election, we sat there and said, we have to work an appeal battle with republican State Government and now we have republican federal government. Amy the flint water crisis began when the citys unelected emergency manager, appointed by michigan governor rick snyder, switched the source of flints Drinking Water from the detroit system to the corrosive flint river. The water corroded flints aging pipes, causing poisonous levels of lead to leach into the Drinking Water. In minnesota, lawmakers are pushing an antiprotest bill that would allow cities to sue protesters in order to bill them for the cost of policicing the demonstrations. The legislation passed a republicancontrolled committee in minnesotas house tuesday. Its part of a series of antiprotest bills nationwide that seek to criminalize public and discourage public demonstrations. In s somalia, two bomb attacks n the e capital mogadishu have killeded at least 21 people. 50 morore people were injured in the explosions outside the dayah hotel nearar the paramenent building. Seven n journalists weremong the wounded. D. The militant groroup alshabaaab has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Somalia is one of the seven countries that will be affected by an executive order trump is expected to sign in the coming days, which is expected to ban all immigration from some majority muslim countries for at least 30 days. In afghanistan, the attorney general has ordered the arrest of vicepresident abdul rashid dostums bodyguards, after another politician said the guards raped and tortured him. Dostum is one of afghanistans most notorious warlords. He was backed by the cia and on its payroll in the early 2000s. [music break] amy here at the Sundance Film Festival. Im going to try some of those headlines again. In afghanistan, the attorney general has ordered the arrest of vicepresident abdul rashid dostums bodyguards after another politician said the guards raped and tortured him. Dostum is one of afghanistans most notorious warlords. He was backed by the cia and on its payroll in the early 2000s. He was involved in a 2001 massacre that killed u up to 200 taliban prisoners of war. The victims were allegedly shot to death or suffocated in sealed metal truck containers after they surrendered to dostum and the u. S. Backed northern alliance. And today marks the First Anniversary of president o obama theng juvenile solitary in federal prison system. Obama took the action in response to the case of new york city teenager Khalief Browder, who committed suicide in 2015 at the age of 22. In 2010 when khalief was just 16, he was sent to rikers island, without trial, on suspicion of stealing a backpack. He always maintained his innocence and demanded a trial. Instead, he spent the next nearly three years at rikers nearly 800 days s of that time n solitary confinement. Here in park city at the utah Sundance Film Festival democracy , now got an exclusive interview with jay z as he seriesd his new dock you docuseries, time the Khalief Browder story. You called khalief profit. While . Weve seen profits come in many shapes and forms and we have seen sometimes tragedy happens. Martin luther king. I believe this young man, his story will save a lot of lives. What was done to him was a huge injustice and i think people see his story and realize, man, this is going on. This is not like one case that happens, this is happening a lot to people, especially places where i come from. And are and the bronx clinton all of these places. Amy you knew khalief. What were your thoughts when h e committed suicide . I heard about his story in i reached out to him and i met him, came to my office. The way this happened we will explain that another time, but it was meant to happen. He came to my office and i wanted to see him and tell him, give him encouragement for what for those three years of his life that he had missed. Just offer in courage meant anything i could do for him. Amy do you think rikers should be closed . Is anything like that is happening if that happens to one give them any place that can happen to any kid should be closed. Amy that was jay z executive director of ttime the k khalf browdeder story, which premiers on spike tv march 1. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Today, President Trump is flying to philadelphia where Congressional Republicans are on retreat. Hes s going in an effort to o n more support for his political agenda. Over the past five days, he has signed a number of executive orders and p president ial memorandums, but many of his actions will require congressional support. In his first day in office, trump directed Government Agencies to freeze all pending regulations and to take stepepso weaken the Affordable Care act. Then on monday, trump reinstated the controversial global gag rule that bans u. S. Funding for any ininternational healthcarere organizations that perform abortions, advocate for the legalization of abortion or even , provide information about abortions. On that same day, trump withdrew the United States from the transpacific partnership. On tuesday, he instituted a federal hiring freeze and issued president ial memoranandums to reviveve the Dakota Access andnd keystone xl pipelines. Then on wednesday, trump signed a pair of wide reaching executive orders dealing witith expanding a wall along the u. S. Mexico border, empowering state and local Law Enforcement to act as immigration officers federal funding of socalled , prorohibiting century cities, and expanding the number of Border Patrol agents. Trump will begin immediate construction of a border wall. Amy and more executivive orders arare on the way. According to leaked documents, trump may open the door for the cia to reopen secret overseas black site prisons. And another executive order in the works would temporarily ban most refugees from entering the country and reportedly block visas from being issued to anyone from syria, iraq, iran, libya, somalia, sudan, and yemen. To talk more about President Trumps actions, we are joined by two guests. Vincent warren is the executive director of the center for Constitutional Rights. Faiza patel is codirector of the Liberty NationalSecurity Program at the Brennan Center. Vince, before we get into the specifics of this slew of executive orders and president ial memoranda, can you talk about what has happened this week and how binding are these moves that President Trump has made . Well, this week has really been extraordinary because we have seen he has rolled out a ies of actions and orders let me talk a little bit about executive orders. Executive orders can be done by the president and they come from his article to power. So he or she is allowed to move forward these orders that have the force of federal law. So some of the things we have seen have the effect of federal law. Executive actions come from a subset of the power and they can be things like memoranda and things like that. They have bearing degrees of power. As a general rule, they are challenged will, particularly if the orders or the actions are unconstitutional. They violate International Human rights or they violate existing federal law. But those are actions that the president can take. As an example, things like interning the japanese or president ial orders. Things like that. Theres an opportunity here to not only see what he is putting forward, but a lot of us who are in the social justice field are looking for opportunities and ways to be able to challenge these execucutive orderers and actions. Of course, as we will be talking about later, some of them havave nonot come out y yet. Wewe have to see what these this say, with a mean, and think about ways to challenge them. Amy and the difference between a president ial memorandum, as was the case with the reviving of the keystone xl pipeline