121: In-Studio - Brutally Ruthless

Life of the Law

"As incompetent and bumbling as the Trump Administration has been in so many areas, they have been brutally ruthless on immigration."

-- Jose Chito Vela, Immigration Attorney and Candidate for Texas State Legislature

It’s been a year since the Presidential election of 2016 and the night the world turned upside down and inside out. Polls showed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton ahead by a solid margin. But by the end of the night, the networks had declared Donald Trump the next President of the United States.

Now, one year later, the Trump Presidency is in turmoil. On Monday, October 30, Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairperson was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury on charges of tax evasion, submitting false statements, and illegally laundering more than 18 million dollars. The most serious charge of money laundering carries a possible prison sentence of up to 20 years. It was also reported on Monday, that George Papadopoulos, one of Trump’s campaign advisers, had plead guilty back in July to lying to the FBI about his contact with a Russian professor who had ties to the Russian Government.

The charges in Washington are disturbing, but President Trump continues to hold the highest office in the land, with the power to enforce his campaign promise to rid the US of undocumented immigrants. On September 5, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced an end to the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program, but said they would give Congress six months to try and save the policy.

In our most recent episode, Life UnDACAmented, we presented an update on our January 2016 story about a young man who came to the US as a child and had taken his fight for DACA status to the immigration courts. You a find the audio on itunes, or on our websitelifeofthelaw.org.

This week, our team goes IN-STUDIO with Jose "Chito" Vela, the young man's immigration attorney and now candidate for the Texas State Legislature, to talk about immigration, DACA, and life in America one year into the Trump Presidency.

Joining Chito Vela are Life of the Law's team Brittny Bottorff, Attorney with the Mayor Law Group and Chair of our Advisory Board; Tony Gannon, Life of the Law’s Senior Producer; Nancy Mullane, Life of the Law’s Executive Producer and host; and Osagie Obasogie Professsor at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health.

Production Notes:

Brutally Ruthless was produced by Tony Gannon. Our Post Production Editors are Kirsten Jusewicz-Haidle and Rachael Cain. Music in this episode was by Ian Coss. Katie McMurran was our engineer at the studios of KQED in San Francisco. David Alvarez was our engineer at the studios of KUT in Austin.

This episode of Life of the Law was funded in part by grants from the Law and Society Association, and theNational Science Foundation.

© Copyright 2017 Life of the Law. All rights reserved.

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