Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-01-30 Friday

Episode Date: January 30, 2026

Headlines for January 30, 2026; “Hostile Takeovers”: As U.S. Claims Venezuela’s Oil, Trump Seeks “Vassal States” Across the World; “Cold-Blooded Murder”: Families of Trinidadian Men Killed in U.S. Boat Strike Sue Trump Admin; 350,000 Haitians in U.S. “at Risk of Losing Everything” After Trump Revokes Legal TPS Status; “Prevent the Bloodshed”: Filmmaker Sepideh Farsi on Iran Protests & U.S. Threats of Military Strikes

From New York, this is Democracy Now. We have the major oil companies going to Venezuela now scouting it out and picking their locations. Under pressure from the United States, Venezuela's interim president, Delci Rodriguez, assigned a law allowing for the country's oil industry to be privatized. This comes less than a month after the U.S. abducted former President Maduro from power. We'll speak to Pulitzer Prize-winning Latin America historian Greg Grant. then families of two Trinidadian men killed on October 14th in a U.S. missile strike in the Caribbean are suing the Trump administration for wrongful death. It's a criminal offense.

You cannot be bumming people both, you know, like that, you know, on insane international water and saying narco trafficking and raise your proof. We'll speak with their attorney and hundreds of thousands of Haitians are on the verge of losing their status to live and work in the United States legally. President Trump signed an executive order revoking that status early in his second term, despite the well-known conditions of instability and danger in Haiti. We'll hear directly from a health care worker in Florida. And finally, to Iran, where the estimated count of the dead from the brutal government crackdown on protests continues to rise possibly into the tens of the war.

thousands. This comes as threats of possible U.S. military action rise. We'll speak with the acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Sepita Farsi. All that and more coming out. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. Senate, Democrats, and President Trump have struck a deal that could avert a government shutdown, but the needed votes have not yet been taken. Under the deal, the Senate would approve funding for most government agencies, through September 30th, but Department of Homeland Security funding would only continue for two more weeks. Democrats are pushing to place new restrictions on DHS in response to the Trump administration's deadly immigration crackdown in Minnesota and the fatal shootings of Alex Preti and Renee Good.

On Thursday, Minnesota's Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frye, address the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington. He called for a nationwide end to what he called the Ice Siege. Never in a million years did I think that we would be in this place where troops and federal agents by the thousands have been deployed on a great American city, where the Department of Justice is used as a weapon to silence dissent. On Thursday, Trump's so-called border czar, Tom Homan, who's just been deployed to Minnesota, vowed to continue immigration operations but said the strategy will shift. We will conduct targeted enforcement operations, targeted what we've done for decades. When we hit the streets, we know exactly who we're looking for. good idea where we may find them.

You have a criminal history, you have their immigration history, a lot of information about this person that we get from numerous databases out there. Targeted, strategic enforcement operations. President Trump sent Homan to Minnesota to replace Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino. Homan also said the federal government's working on a drawdown plan in Minnesota. But on Thursday night, President Trump said he's not pulling back from Minnesota. He told reporters, no, no, not at all. He made the comment during the premiere of a new documentary about his wife, Melania Trump.

Jeff Bezos's Amazon paid a record $40 million to license the documentary, the highest ever for a documentary. Amazon is spending another $35 million on promotion. One former Amazon executive questioned the spending telling the New York Times, how can it not be equated with currying favor or an outright bribe, unquote? In other immigration news on Capitol Hill, more than 60 faith leaders were arrested inside the Hart Senate office building to protest Trump's immigration policies. They carried banners reading, do justice, love, kindness, abolish ice, unquote. Meanwhile, a coalition of groups has called for a national shutdown today a week after a general strike was held in Minnesota.

Organizers are calling for, quote, no work, no school, no shopping, stop funding ice, unquote. Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine is called. claiming ICE has paused its large-scale immigration roundup in the state. Collins said she'd urged Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noem to reconsider the operation, dubbed Operation Catch of the Day, that targeted the cities of Portland and Lewiston in Maine, which both have sizable Somali populations. Democratic officials have questioned Senator Collins' claim, a spokesperson for the main Democratic Party said, quote,

Collins is trying to save face on the same day the Senate is set to vote on a DHS funding bill. She has been leading the charge to pass without a single reform or guardrail to ICE's reckless, dangerous behavior, unquote. The Financial Times reports private companies have reaped $22 billion in contracts with ICE and CBP, customs and border protection. over the past year. Spending by CBP on private contractors increased sevenfold between the first and second half of last year. One gravel company has received more than $6 billion in contracts since July to help build a wall along the southern border. The firm, Fisher, Sand, and Gravel is headed by a Trump ally and Republican donor. Private prison companies have also received major contracts, $800 million has gone to the Geo Group and almost $300 million to Core Civic.

The data intelligence firm Palantir has received more than $81 million in ICE contracts since last January. The online news outlet 404 media recently reported Palantir has developed a new tool to help ICE find neighborhoods to raid. Iran's top diplomat is in Turkey for talks, says fear continues to grow. The U.S. might soon launch a major attack on Iran. The New York Times reports Trump has been presented in recent days with a, quote, expanded list of potential military options against Iran aimed at doing further damage to the country's nuclear and missile facilities or weakening Iran's supreme leader, unquote. The current options include sending U.S. forces inside Iran to carry out raids. Defense Secretary Pete Higgs said spoke during Trump's cabinet meeting Thursday. Same thing with Iran right now, ensuring that they have all the options to make a deal. They should not pursue nuclear capabilities that we will be prepared to deliver

whatever this president expects of the war department. Meanwhile, inside Iran, Reuters report security forces have rounded up thousands of people in an attempt to prevent renewed anti-government protests. According to the U.S.-based human rights activist news agency, over 6,000 protesters were killed since December, but some believe that to be a vast undercount. We'll have more on Iran later in the broadcast with the award-winning Iranian filmmaker Sepida Farsi. Venezuela's interim president, L.C. Rodriguez, assigned into law a bill to allow for the privatization of Venezuela's oil industry. Soon after the bill was signed, the Trump administration lifted some sanctions on Venezuela, making it easier for U.S. oil companies to buy, sell, and store Venezuelan crude oil.

Oil companies going to Venezuela now scouting it out and picking their locations. On Thursday, President Trump also said he would order Venezuela's commercial airspace to be reopened. The moves come less than a month after the U.S. attack Venezuela and abducted President Nicolas Maduro and his wife. In related news, Trump's threatening to impose tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba as the U.S. intensifies efforts to topple the Cuban government. On Thursday, Trump said, quote, I think Cuba will not be able to survive, unquote. The Financial Times reports Cuba only has about 15 to 20 days left of oil. The move appears to be intended to put pressure on Mexico, which has been an oil lifeline for Cuba. President Trump's announced Russia will pause attacks on Ukrainian cities for a week due to the, quote, extraordinary cold weather.

But Russia has not yet confirmed the claim. In recent weeks, Russia has repeatedly attacked Ukraine's energy infrastructure, leaving Ukrainians without heat or electricity at a time when temperatures are often sub-zero Fahrenheit. Last week, Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. held trilateral talks in the United Arab Emirates. A former sheriff's deputy in Illinois has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for fatally shooting Sonia Massey, a black mother of two who called 911 herself about a suspected prowler in July 2024. The deputy, Sean Grayson, responded to the 911 call and shot Massey in her own kitchen. He was convicted in October of secondary murder. Ahead of the sentencing, Massey's mother, Donna Massey, told the court, quote, Today I'm afraid to call the police and fear I might end up like Sonia, unquote.

In economic news, President Trump selected the conservative economist and former Fed governor, Kevin Warsh, to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve to replace Jerome Powell, whose term ends on May 15th. Warsh served on the Fed's board of governors from 2006 to 2011. And President Trump and two of his sons have sued the internal regulations. Service and Treasury Department for at least $10 billion over a leak of their tax returns. In 2024, a contractor at the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton was sentenced to five years in prison for leaking the Trump records to the New York Times and ProPublica. Earlier this week, the Treasury Department canceled all contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton.

Both the IRS and Treasury are headed by Trump, appointee. In October, Trump demanded the Justice Department pay him $230 million in compensation for the federal probes against him. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org. The Warren Peace Report, I'm Amy Goodman. We begin today's show looking at the Trump administration's tightening grip on Latin America and the aftermath of the abduction of the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Celia Flores. On Thursday, Venezuela's interim leader, Delci Rodriguez, signed a law that will open Venezuela's oil industry to privatization, reversing a key principle of the Chavista movement that's persevered in Venezuela for more than two decades.

This is Delci Rodriguez speaking from Caracas. In this law is President Nicolas Maduro's vision for the future, because there are those who think we're pull this law out of nowhere. No, we had already studied this law. It's reform, together with President Maduro. I feel moved to be able to tell him from Caracas. He's birthplace. President Maduro, we are delivering for you. We are delivering for the first combatant Celia Flores, and we are delivering for the people of Venezuela. Soon after the legislation was signed, the Trump administration lifted some sanctions on Venezuela to facilitate access to the country's crude oil reserves for U.S. companies to buy, sell, and store.

President Trump also said Thursday the United States plans on opening up Venezuela's airspace. Trump spoke following a cabinet meeting yesterday. And I just spoke to the president of Venezuela informed her that we're going to be opening up all commercial airspace over Venezuela. American citizens will be very shortly able to go to Venezuela. and they'll be safe there. We have the major oil companies going to Venezuela now scouting it out and picking their locations. This all comes, as President Trump Thursday signed an executive order that would impose tariffs on goods from countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba,

as Trump intensifies efforts to topple the Cuban government. The move appears to be intended to put pressure on Mexico, which has been an oil lifeline for Cuba, as the island has. been devastated by decades of U.S. economic sanctions. Trump said Thursday, quote, Cuba will not be able to survive, unquote. Meanwhile, the Financial Times reports Cuba only has about 15 to 20 days left of oil. For more on this and other issues, we're joined by Greg Grandin, Yale University History Professor Pulitzer Prize-winning author, whose latest book is America, Medica, a new history of the new world.

His recent op-ed in the New York Times headline, Trump picked the right stage to act out his imperial ambitions. So we last spoke to you, Professor Grandin, when Maduro and his wife were abducted. They're sitting not far from here in a Brooklyn detention center, expected to be in court, I believe, in March. But talk about what's happening now. It surprised many when the Mexican president, Claudia Schaenbaum, announced that Mexico would be cutting off oil supplies. But then she had to clarify her comments. I want to see if we can go to a clip of President Schaembaum talking about exactly what Mexico would be doing. It is Mexico's sovereign decision to send humanitarian.

aid, and Pemex fulfills its obligations under the contract once it ships. I never said it had been suspended. It had not been suspended. That was a later interpretation based on a newspaper article. Therefore, humanitarian aid to Cuba, as to other countries, continues. So it's not exactly clear what she's saying there, that oil for humanitarian reasons would continue. But if you can explain what's happening and the connection between It's something you've long said. Venezuela and Cuba, especially U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, the Cuban Americans, complete focus. Yeah, well, just to put into larger context, I mean, Trump came into power saying with a kind of buffoonish change of the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

And within a year, he had launched this campaign of chaos and murder in terms of the speedboat operators and pilots over 100 dead. and then this fair strike into Venezuela, and he built up a military, naval presence in the Caribbean that is still there. It hasn't wound down since the kidnapping of Maduro. So the pressure is still on Venezuela, because Delci Rodriguez, as Marco Rubio said the other day, is basically governing under the blade.

You know, she could be, you know, he's basically threatened to take her out if they didn't, if they're not happy, satisfied with the level of cooperation that they're showing. She's the interim president. Yeah, she's the interim president. Trump already tweeted that he was the interim president Trump himself. Right. So basically what we're seeing is a kind of new form of imperialism where Trump is treating these countries like hostile takeovers, where, you know, whether it be Venezuela, whether it be Gaza, whether it be Haiti, whether it be Libya. These are all kinds of, in which these countries go into receivership.

Venezuela, it really is the most striking example because it's a big country. In the past, in the 19th century and early 20th century, the United States would take over the customs house of the Dominican Republic or something like that. But what the United States is planning for Venezuela is basically to run the country as a vassal state, basically giving it an allowance, taking its revenues, approving its budget, the money is going to be deposited in some fund in Qatar. This is, this is an arrangement. an arrangement with kind of transactional details that we've never seen before. And yes, oil is key to it in terms of isolating Cuba,

or oil as a weapon, not oil as profit, oil as a way of isolating Cuba, because Venezuela in the mind of Marco Rubio and the greater Florida constituency within the Republican coalition wants the end of the Cuban Revolution. They want regime change in Cuba. and it seems like Trump has openly stated that that's the next goal. And they're putting pressure on Mexico and to cut off oil to Cuba. It seems like Mexico is caving to that pressure. Whatever Claudia Scheinbaum has said, the fact of the matter is that oil,

the Mexican oil has been dropping, has been decreasing that it's been exporting and transporting to Cuba over the last couple of months. So she's under enormous pressure. And Cuba does have apparently a few weeks without oil, and it has very few friends. Brazil's not helping Connie in Canada for all of the strong words in his speech at Davos. They're not saying anything about this action in the Western Hemisphere. It's really a criminal, it's a straight-out criminal activity. Why criminal?

Because it's based on no international law. When the United States says that Venezuela has sanctioned oil, That's just the United States asserting it. It's not, it's not, it's not, it's not, it's not ratified by any international body. I wanted to go to new information. The Trump administration reportedly planning to establish a permanent CIA presence on the ground in Venezuela following the abduction of President Maduro. That's according to CNN, which spoke to several anonymous sources that outlined talks between the state department and the CIA have weighed short and long-term schemes to foster U.S. influence Venezuela. One source told CNN, quote, state plants the flag, but

CIA is really the influence. CIA officers were in Venezuela in the months leading up to the U.S. military strike targeting Maduro and his wife. The agency covertly installed a small team inside Venezuela in August to surveil Maduro, providing key intelligence for the attack on Caracas earlier this month. One CIA source reportedly operated within the Maduro government. Yeah, well, we could assume that in the Rodriguez government, the CIA is interpenetrated on all levels. I mean, the CIA has a presence in Latin America. That's not new. Every embassy has a CIA staff operating out of the basement office. But this is envisioning an upscaling of the objective, of the mission of the CIA. It's basically turning the CIA into a colonial,

colonial office, you know, how to run an informal empire. Let's go to Secretary of State Marco Rubia Wednesday, refusing to rule out further U.S. attacks on Venezuela. His threat came during his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he told lawmakers that Venezuela's interim government has agreed to submit a monthly budget to the Trump administration, which will release money from an account funded by oil sales and initially managed by Qatar. On the third point of use of force, look, the president never rules out his options as

commander-in-chief to protect the national interest of the United States. I can tell you right now with full certainty, we are not postured to, nor do we intend or expect to have to take any military action in Venezuela at any time. The only military presence you'll see in Venezuela is our Marine Guards at an embassy. Greg Randon. Well, and they haven't drawn down the name. naval presence with about a tenth of the naval fleet is in the Caribbean, you know, doing, you know, both threatening Mexico, threatening Venezuela, and isolating Cuba. So they've met much,

many more ships in the, in the Caribbean than they have in the Persian Gulf going into Iran. Again, this is a new form of, this is some kind of weird hybrid of imperial, informal imperial rule. It's kind of like, it's kind of like the hostile takeovers of nations and turning them and putting them in receivership in which the United States takes the power to administer the funds, to run them at transactionally, but not take any responsibility. The idea of nation-building, of course, it's not something that Trump ran on and his basis against, but this really kind of obliterates the idea of national sovereignty and the idea of citizenship. This is turning millions of people, I mean, Venezuela's population, but again, it's not just Venezuela,

Venezuela, potentially Cuba, Gaza, Libya, and so on, into interdependencies, you know, and a kind of new vassal, kind of techno-vassal imperialism. I wanted to also ask you a really, really unusual report. Atlantic Magazine recently published an article headline, MAGA thinks Maduro will prove Trump won in 2020. The article quotes, my pillow founder, Mike Lindell, saying, quote, I'm hoping now that Maduro will actually come clean and tell us everything about the machines and how they steal the elections, unquote.

Some have speculated Trump could pardon Maduro in exchange for him stating that Venezuela interfered in the 2020 election, even the president. no evidence of that exists. And it might also explain why. When the FBI raided the election office this week in Georgia's Fulton County seeking computers and ballots related to the 2020 election, inexplicably the head of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who would be dealing with international issues, was there. Yeah, apparently Tulsi Gabbitt's going to be in charge. of making the case that the 2020 election was rigged, drawing on all sorts of evidence. And there's long been a conspiracy that the voting machines had, I'm not exactly sure,

but there were some Venezuelans that were invested in the company that ran the machines. I don't know the details. But, I mean, anything could happen. Look, Trump pardoned one Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted of drug running. He was former president of Honduras. basically as part of a deal to bring the conservative party in Honduras to power to overthrow the left. And in alliance, if you read there's a great op-ed in New York Times yesterday by Gene Guerrero. Basically, the MS-13, Trump were acting as election monitors, basically threatening people to vote for the conservative party or be killed.

Who, Jeff endorsed? And again, just to make that point, just Trump says that Mendoza is sitting in this Brooklyn jail, because he is a narco trafficker that President Trump pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras, who was sentenced to something like 45, 46 years in prison for bringing in 400 tons of drugs into the United States. So you could imagine, I mean, who knows, but you could imagine some deal being worked out with the daughter where he makes some statement. I mean, the point is just to flood the zone, right, to create confusion, to raise the idea that the election was stolen.

And this is a way of setting up to discredit whatever comes in the midterms or whether it comes next presidential elections. Well, we will continue to. But there is one thing is that the oil wasn't privatized. They just want to make this point very quickly. The privatization of Venezuela happened in the 1970s. And the law that was passed yesterday doesn't reverse that. What it does is it moves any kind of arbitration to international courts is what oil companies want, and it gives oil companies credit control over their operations,

and it reduces the amount of royalties and taxes that Venezuela would charge on oil. But it doesn't quite privatize. Oil remains considered part of Venezuela's international patrimony, so that will still be a point of contention in future Venezuelan politics. I want to thank you for being with us. Greg Grand and Yale University History, Professor Pulitzer Prize-winning author as the latest book, America, America, America, a new history of the new world. We'll link to your piece in the New York Times. Trump picked the right stage to act out his imperial ambitions.

Coming up, the families of two Trinidadian men are suing the Trump administration for wrongful death. The men were killed by the U.S. in a military strike that the U.S. engaged in in a boat. in the Caribbean. But first up, a premiere of a song by Billy Bragg. The ghost of Martin N. Muller haunts the halls of history. When they came for the communists, he said it's nothing to do with me. When they came for the Democrats, he had nothing to say. And when they came for the Jews, he just looked the why his silence didn't save him when they came for him as well there was no one to speak out for him

resistance had been quelled what excuses would you tell yourself if this ever happened to you well I live in a city of heroes I know what I would do when they came for the immigration I got in their face When they came for the refugees I got in their face When they came for the five-year-olds I got in their face When they came to my neighbourhood

I just got in their face They used tear gas and pepper spray Against our whistles and our phones but in this city of heroes, we will protect our house. That city of heroes, a tribute to anti-ice protesters in Minneapolis by the British folk singer Billy Bragg, the song written and released in response to the murder of Alex Preti. In a note accompanying the release, Billy Bragg said, quote, that these crimes can be committed in broad daylight on camera and yet no one's held accountable only

adds to the injustice. We'll play more of his song later in the broadcast. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. The families of two Trinidadian men killed by U.S. boat strike in the Caribbean are suing the Trump administration for wrongful death and extrajudicial killing. On October 14, Chad Joseph, who was 26 years old, and Rishi Samaru, who was 41, or on a small vessel headed back to Trinidad from Venezuela when their boat was targeted, killing all six

people on board. Soon after, President Trump released video of the strike on social media, referring to those killed as narco-terrorists. The families of Joseph and Samaru say both men had been away from home working on Venezuelan farms and fishing and were simply returning home. At least 125 people have been killed in the unprecedented bombing campaign on. civilian boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific since September. This is Chad Joseph's uncle, Pop Salvery, speaking about President Trump. He's supposed to face murder charges because it's a criminal offense. You cannot be bombing people both, you know, like that, you know, on, and saying

international water and saying narco trafficking and raise your proof, you know, raise your proof. Well, the families say neither man was involved in narcotrafficking. And their attorneys have laid out arguments for why these strikes were illegal under all circumstances. For more, we're joined by Bahraismi, legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights, attorney for the families. Welcome to Democracy Now. Lay out their case and who these two young men are. Yeah, these are two, yes, two Trinidadian citizens. there are sort of itinerant farmers and fishermen who had been long awaiting for a ride home

from Venezuela, where they worked and were assassinated on their boat along with four other people. And it's just sort of, I think, the latest example of the Trump administration's total mockery of, contempt for the post-World War II human rights consensus, where nations are, constrained by law and not mere might. And under that law, nation states can't just sort of willy-nilly declare war on some entity, like some unspecified drug cartel and then use military force. The conditions for an armed conflict aren't there. And so, therefore, this is just an outright, cold-blooded murder. So let's talk about the laws. Your suit was filed under two federal statutes, the Death on the High Seas Act, a law that

allows family members to sue for wrongful deaths occurring on the high seas and the alien tort statute, which allows, well, tell us about foreign citizens to sue in U.S. federal courts for human rights violations. Explain both. Yes, so the death on the high seas act is a species of U.S. admiralty law. It's a statute that authorizes individuals to sue the United States government for wrongful death. And wrongful death here is synonymous with illegality. And because there is no legal. justification. There was no war. These were civilians. It's illegal under any peacetime or wartime

paradigm. And then just constitutes simple murder. And then the alien tort statute allows foreign nationals to sue for egregious human rights violations, which is an extraditional killing, an arbitrary deprivation of life. So we're pursuing these claims with our partners at the ACLU. Earlier this week, Congress held the first public hearing to address U.S. involvement in Venezuela. This is five months after the unprecedented bombing campaign against alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean began. This is Senator Tim Kane. I'd like to talk about the complete weakness of the legal rationale about the strikes on boats in international waters, but I can't because the administration has only shared it with members in a class.

setting. I can't tell you why the domestic rationale is hollow and the international rationale is hollow. I can't tell you why the rationale for attacking Venezuela is hollow because, again, the rationale has been shared with us in a closed setting. I can't talk to you about the weakness of the targeting criteria being used to attack boats in the Caribbean and Pacific. I would encourage any colleague if you have not. Go to the classified setting and asked for a briefing on each strike and ask this question, what was the evidence that there were narcotics on that craft? You will be very surprised if you ask that question about every strike. So if you can respond to what he's saying, and if you expect to learn new information

and discovery in these suits, something that senators and everyone else have not been able to learn? Yeah, I mean, he's right, the purported legal justification, the memo that somehow authorizes this, is being kept secret at the same time the administration sort of postures and boasts about the legality of this and with the ACLU where we filed a separate FOIA lawsuit to try and get that memorandum. But, you know, under any legal theory, there's no way these killings are justified. In the end, ultimately, I think, killings for sport and for spectacle. And no more can the U.S. military assassinate civilians in the high seas than paramilitary forces can shoot civilian protesters in the face or in the back. And we're seeking accountability,

justice for the victims, and a clear ruling that we cannot kill with impunity. Barr, before you go, I want to ask you about what's happening in Minnesota, and you may not know this latest news, just been reported that the former CNN anchor Don Lemon and independent journalist Georgia Fort have been arrested. Last week, they both reported on a peaceful protest at a St. Paul Church where top ICE official serves as pastor. Lemon's attorney, the famed free speech lawyer, Abby Lowell, called his arrest a, quote, unprecedented attack on the First Amendment. Lowell went on to say, quote, instead of investigating the federal agents who killed two

peaceful Minnesota protesters, the Trump Justice Department is devoting its time, attention, and resources to this arrest. And that is the real indictment of wrongdoing. in this case, Abby Lowell said. Your final comment. Yeah, I mean, I think what's happening in Minneapolis is a sort of terrifying deployment of Trump's brown shirts, you know, incentivized 50 grand vigilantes. And this, the punishment of journalists or perceived political opponents and to connect it to your prior segment, I think a bit of a dry run, a rehearsal for deployment of troops

during elections. Well, I want to thank you for being with us, Bahra Asmi, legal director of the Center for Constitution Rights Attorney for the two families of two Trinidadian men killed off the coast of Venezuela in a U.S. boat strike on October 14th. The case is Burnley versus the United States. When we come back, hundreds of thousands of Haitians could lose their TPS status, the right to work in the United States. United States legally. We're going to speak with a health professional from Haiti who lives in Florida about what this means. Stay with us. When they came for the immigrants, I go in their face. When they came for the refugees, I go in their face. When they came for the five-year-olds, I go in their face. When they came to my neighbourhood, I just got in their face.

They used tear gas and pepper spray against our whistles and our phones. But in this city of heroes, we will protect our home. When they drag people from their cars, I got in their face. When they took families from their homes, I got in their face. face. When they murdered our sister, I got in their face. And when they murdered our brother, I still got in their face. In Dachau, Martin Nehuller suffered for his complicity. But in this city of heroes by Billy Bragg about Minneapolis to hear the first part,

go to DemocracyNow.org. This is DemocracyNow.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. We turn now to Trump's deportation campaign with temporary protected status TPS for immigrants from Haiti scheduled to end next week, February 3rd. A federal judge in Washington, D.C. is expected to rule any day

on a request to pause the termination of TPS for Haitians. An estimated 350,000 Haitians with TPS protections could face deportation. About 150,000 others still have pending TPS applications. That's according to Haitian Bridge Alliance. As Haitian communities and supporters nationwide continue to fight local officials in Springfield, Ohio, are bracing for a surge and ICE agents to the city if TPS relief for Haitians is not extended past the February 3rd deadline. The city was at the center of President Trump and vice president.

President, J.D. Vance's racist smears against Haitians when they said they're eating cats and dogs. This comes as a federal appeals court has ruled that Homeland Security Secretary Christy Knoem illegally ended protections for immigrants from Venezuela and Haiti. It's yet to be determined how this will impact Haiti's TPS case. The Supreme Court last year allowed Nome's bid to end TPS for Venezuelans. For more, we are joined by two guests. Guerlín Joseph is co-founder and executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance. And Maurice Balthazar is a former journalist and certified nursing assistant from Haiti, who currently has temporary protected status. She was once president of the Haitian Women's Journalism Association. She fled Haiti after the devastating earthquake in 2010.

We welcome you both to Demoschina. Garlene, let's begin with you. Explain what's at stake? Good morning, Amy. What is our stake if that we have over almost half a million Haitians living in the United States at risk of losing everything? That includes family separation through deportation, where we have children, US-born children, at risk of losing the parents if TPS is not re-designated and extended for Haiti. As you mentioned, we are currently in the court fighting for the lives of over 3.3. 350,000 Haitians, and we are hoping to get a favorable ruling from the judge in Washington, D.C. However, in other to cover half a million people, we need a designation and extension of TPS for Haiti.

So you came into our studio, we spoke, and then you headed off to Springfield. That was a while ago last year. Again, for people to understand, I remember watching the Republican governor of Ohio talk about going to Haiti a number of times. They were really recruiting Haitians to Springfield to enliven to resuscitate Springfield, Ohio. And instead, you had the Republican vice president, J.D. Vance, going after Haitians there, tens of thousands of people. as he talked about the Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, eating cats and dogs. Talk about what's happened since. We are back at it again, Amy.

As I'm speaking to you, we have been coordinating to respond to what we are hearing will be a major ice rate in cities like Springfield, Ohio, San Diego, and others. We are heading to Springfield to make sure we are observing what's happening with in the community, and also supporting our clients and our community members on the ground. So we are hearing those things, and the community is traumatized. We are living under a cloud of terror where we do not know what will happen because from what we are hearing, there is a 30-day ice raid that is being planned for major cities where Haitian Americans are, specifically targeting Springfield or High.

Ohio, Chalawai, Pennsylvania, and others. So we are bracing ourselves. Not only are we fighting in the frontline to make sure that we secure safety for the people through to the lawsuits, sending a letter to President Trump to ask him to reconsider and extend and we designate TPS for Haiti, but also bracing ourselves for what can be catastrophic within the community, if indeed has dissent on. Springfield, Ohio, in New York City and other places that we are hearing right now. I mean, it is we have. It's amazing that you have the governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine,

talking about recruiting Haitians, the Haitian community to come to Springfield to revitalize it. And at the same time, in Lewiston, Maine, you have the mayor having talked about recruiting Somalis. The Somali community come and revitalize downtown Lewiston. And yet now the pressure on these communities. I wanted to bring in Maris Balthazar, certified nurse from Haiti, living in the U.S., living in Florida. She was the former president of the Haitian Women's Journalists Association. She's a certified nursing assistant. Maris, can you talk about what this means? Good morning, Amy. Thank you for having me. What this means to me? The end of TPS will be. mean that I will be probably deported, grab by ICE agent, and leave behind.

My daughter, she's in college. She needs my backup for stability to have a roof over her head. And I don't know what's going to happen. I'm anxious. Every day I'm thinking about it. And it's not only me, my son who is 30 years old, he just turned 30s, is living with TPS also. So you have TPS and your son has TPS. You're very brave to come on the air, but you're speaking for so many people.

Are we talking about hundreds of thousands of Haitians in the United States? You came here after the horrific earthquake that took place in Haiti, what, like, 16 years ago. Yes. Yes, I came here with my kids and I'm still living in the United States and I was never been illegal here because I since 2010, I have TPS. They renew it over and over again and I work. I pay tax.

I'm a good citizen. I don't bother nobody. I do what I have to do. During my time here, I take care of a gentleman who was a pilot during World War II for seven years. And I'm still doing it, helping elders with activity of daily living. And the end of TPS next week, it's like a... it will be like another earthquake to me. Garlene Joseph, the U.S. Embassy has removed 80 to 90 percent of its staff in Haiti due to security concerns in the country.

Can you talk about the conditions on the ground there if people like Maurice Baltazar, who has worked here in this country? And it's a real question about what this means for health care, as you described, for example, Maurice, taking care of this World War II vet, what this would mean? This will mean extreme hardship, not only for the Haitian, but also for the United States as a whole. At the end of last year, the U.S. Embassy in Haiti had a webinar where they clearly stated that Haiti is currently at a stage four do not travel, like a war zone. And they have also said that they have removed about 80 to 90% of their personal in Haiti due to insecurity. But at the same time, they are saying that it is safe enough for half a million Haitians to be returned.

And we also want to highlight that the Haitian TPS holders in the United States have invested $5.9 billion into the U.S. economy. They are like Maurice, our nurses, our nurses assistants, our healthcare workers, our meatpacking, industry, our agriculture, you know, workers, really centering and uplifting the life of people here in the United States. And keep in mind, currently we have 1.4 million people who are internally displaced in Haiti. The impact of terminating TPS for Haiti not only will have a big sustainable failure in the United States, but we have to understand that those people are the ones supporting over 4 million people back home in Haiti. It is in the best interest of President Trump and the U.S. government to redesignate and extend TPS for Haiti, both to make sure that Haiti is somewhat being taking care of with the remittance being said, but also centering the fact that we as Haitian American, specifically CBS holders, are investing

over $5.9 billion in the United States, pay in the taxes. They are homeowners and business owners making sure that we continue to go forward. Marie Balthas, are we just have 30 seconds? Are you afraid for your life? What kind of danger do you face if you're deported to Haiti? I was a journalist, and now I don't have any control of power prints because I haven't been there for 16 years now. I don't know what I will face for sure, because everything is upside down.

I don't know, nobody anymore. All my contacts are living abroad in the United States. in Canada, all over. And I don't know. Maurice Valtesar, I want to thank you for being with a certified nurse from Haiti living in the U.S. with TPS protection. Thank you so much. Her son also has TPS, her daughter and American citizen, and Gurleen Joseph of the Haitian Bridge Alliance.

This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. We end today's show in Iran. The New York Times reports President Trump has been presented in recent days with a, quote, expanded list of potential military options against Iran aimed at doing further damage to the country's nuclear and missile facilities or weakening Iran's supreme leader, unquote. The current options include sending U.S. forces inside Iran to carry out raids. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke during Trump's cabinet meeting Thursday. Same thing with Iran right now, ensuring that they have.

all the options to make a deal. They should not pursue nuclear capabilities. We will be prepared to deliver whatever this president expects of the war department. Meanwhile, inside Iran-Royder's report security forces have rounded up thousands of people in attempt to prevent renewed anti-government protests, according to the U.S.-based human rights activist news agency. Over 6,000 protesters were killed since December, but some believed to be that to be a vast undercount. For more, were joined by Sepida Farsi, Iranian filmmaker and activist, the director of most recently the Oscar-nominated documentary, Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk. Sepida Farsi was born and raised in Iran. She was jailed for almost a year as a teenager

in Iran for helping a political dissident in her high school. Since 2009, she can't go back to Iran due to her films and her political statements. Sepida, explain what's happening there in Iran right now. You're deeply critical of the Iranian government, but also critical of the U.S. threats to strike Iran. Yes. Hi, Amy. Thanks for talking about Iran. I was just listening to the statement you broadcast it. I am amazed that they talk about everything except the Iranian people who are losing their lives. This is my main concern now to prevent the bloodshed, to stop it. Of course, I'm against Khomey and the whole regime.

And I am also very concerned about a possible military intervention because it would only worsen the situation, as we remember last June. It only reinforced the regime. When Israel first started the so-called preemptive attacks and America followed, they didn't end the nuclear capacities of Iran because they were still talking about it. And they did not harm the regime because all those who were killed by them were replaced. And now, even if they hit Khomeini, somebody else would take over. This is not the way to do.

And we are hearing about tens of thousands of killed people, people arrested. Many of my friends have been called in for interrogation. Doctors are being arrested. Lawyers are being arrested, kidnapped. and their death sentences pronounced against people, activists, which will go if this attack would happen. This is really my concern that what would go on in Iran if they do this? They would destroy part of the country, perhaps part of the regime's capacity, but the regime will not fall. We've already seen this.

How many people do you think have been killed? How many people have been arrested? What do you base your information on? It's very hard to evaluate that and even one life is too much gone, you know. I mean, but I've seen, and I see every day, every time I go on social media, I see new names coming up. Right now, the latest quite believable, I would say, but I'm not, you know, a human right, I mean, NGO and all the figures are quite kind of under. But we are, I saw a account which was city by city and that was a bit more than 30,000, 30,000, 274 to be precise.

And we're talking about 100,000 people injured in the eye who lost one or two eyes. We're talking about tens of thousands of arrestees, more people who are being called in, all those who might in one way or another help wounded people or defend prisoners are now being called in to be jailed or to be interrogated. It's a total disaster, total disaster. During the nationwide uprising, Iranian security forces apparently killed dozens of protesters in the market of the Caspian Sea City of Rasht on the night of January 8th. We turn now to a rare eyewitness testimony of that apparent massacre for the safety of the eyewitness

who are keeping her identity concealed. You know what happened? She told me that they made a mistake by running away through the alleys. She said they should have stayed with the main group, the mass of the people, but instead they ran into the alleys. But whoever went into the alleys and the side streets was shot by the forces and killed, they tracked them down there and cornered them and shot them. She said, I was running away and they shot me once. And when I continued running, one of them followed. and hit me with a baton.

But, because I continued to run, they shot me a second time. And when I fell down to the ground, they thought I was dead and they left me. After they left, I crawled to a fruit shop. And the shopkeeper is the one who took me to the hospital. As if we are not human beings. It's as if we are all running away from a mass murder. What happened to her could have happened to any of us there earlier that night. At the beginning of the evening, you didn't see any special forces there around the town hall.

where the rally and the gathering had started and was taking place. And there were so many people at the rally. The gathering was so crowded, so big. But not one of the protesters attacked any of the administrative buildings. No one attacked the town hall. No damage was done by the protesters to the administrative buildings, nor to the banks. You can't imagine. You can't imagine the size of the rally.

How many people were there? And then they, the military forces, came back by the evening. Why did they come and start rounding up all the young people and burning buildings? A number of people had taken shelter in the bazaar, and that's where they opened machine guns on them, and they killed them all. It was a rain of bullets. I was farther away, and I was hearing the bullets, the gunshots, and I thought, well, there are so many people. The military forces cannot do anything. So they're just shooting in the air to scare people, but it turns out that they were actually shooting on the people and killing them.

killing them. We're not identifying this eyewitness. Sepi de Farcy in this last minute or so that we have left. Your message to the United States, to Israel, to Iranian protesters and to the world. Iranian protesters are cut off from the world, but they are looking at us. About less than 20% of the internet traffic is now established, but it's still very weak. My message to America, to the United States and to Israel, is please think of the Iranian people. If you are thinking of democracy in Iran, and I do believe deeply that a democratic Iran is the best partner for any of those countries to deal with afterwards.

Leave it to the Iranian people. Please put maximum pressure, but diplomatic pressure. IRGC has been listed by Europe, the European Council, yesterday, finally. as a terrorist organization, they can freeze their assets. Please stop dealing with this regime and do not do a military attack. I don't believe that. That is not for the interests of the people. That is, again, to strike a deal as Trump wants to.

This is not for Iranian people. This is just for business. I want to thank you so much, Sepi de Farsi, for being with us from Paris, France. Iranian filmmaker and activist once jailed in Iran. director most recently have put your soul on your hand and walk. That does it for our show. On Monday, February 23rd, Democracy Now will be celebrating our 30th anniversary at the historic Riverside Church in New York. Our guests will include Angela Davis, Naomi Klein, REM's Michael Stipe, Winton Marsalis, the jazz legend,

Masab Abu Toha, hooray for the riffraff. I'm Amy Goodman. Thanks for joining us.