homeland security, working with myself and my staff, will begin immediate construction of a border wall. amy: we will look at trump's executive actions and the growing resistance to his policies. then to a sundance exclusive. here in park city, as jay z premieres his new docu-series, "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. i'm 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 executive 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 mexico's leaders. this is mexican president enrique peña 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 not 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 so-called sanctuary cities will stop trump's 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 for 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 indefinitely ban syrian refugees from entering the united states and impose a temporary ban on all other refugees. the order would also suspend all 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 movie, not a foreign policy." we will have more on the executive orders after headlines. donald trump's crackdown on immigration drew immediate protests nationwide. thousands of people poured into new york city's washington square park tuesday night holding candles and signs reading "no one is illegal." vigi 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, that's we speak, my brother-in-law's 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 they're saying, oh, we don't want you after we messed up your country. we don't 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 don't when you anymore. amy: following trump's executive orders, hundreds of people also marched through the streets kensington, brooklyn, a predominantly working-class immigrant community, and gathered for a press conference to announce the launch of a hate-free zone. the community defense is one of 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 trump's election, verbal and physical hate attacks against immigrants, lgbt people, african americans, and religious minorities have increased dramatically. last week, 27 jewish community centers 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 philadelphia, over 1000 people to the streets for a queer dance party to protest trump's 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, we're here to say we are queer, we are here, we will dance." activists from the group greenpeace hung a massive, 70 by 35 foot banner reading "resist" from a crane in the white house. this is greenpeace's nancy hernandez. >> i am standing here on a crane over the white house where we have deployed a banner. this banner is a message to this administration. but more than that, this message -- this is a hand-painted love letter to you. this is a message to the people. amy: an official with trump's transition team has announced the environmental protection agency's scientific studies will now have to undergo a political 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 nearly every mention of climate change from the white house's official website, whitehouse.gov, and pledged to eliminate president obama's environmental policies, including the climate action plan. a coalition of environmental and climate justice organizations have called for a people's 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 flint, michigan. the house oversight and government reform committee's 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 city's lead pipes have not yet been replaced. at the women's 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 city's unelected emergency manager, appointed by michigan governor rick snyder, switched the source of flint's drinking water from the detroit system to the corrosive flint river. the water corroded flint's aging pipes, causing poisonous levels of lead to leach into the drinking water. in minnesota, lawmakers are pushing an anti-protest bill that would allow cities to sue protesters in order to bill them for the cost of policing the republican-controlled committee in minnesota's house tuesday. it's part of a series of anti-protest bills nationwide that seek to criminalize public -- and discourage public demonstrations. in somalia, two bomb attacks in the capital mogadishu have killed at least 21 people. 50 more people were injured in the explosions outside the dayah hotel near the parliament building. seven journalists were among the wounded. the militant group al-shabaab 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 vice-president abdul rashid dostum's bodyguards, after another politician said the guards raped and tortured him. dostum is one of afghanistan's most notorious warlords. he was backed by the cia and on its payroll in the early 2000's. ♪ [music break] amy: here at the sundance film festival. i'm going to try some of those headlines again. in afghanistan, the attorney general has ordered the arrest of vice-president abdul rashid dostum's bodyguards after another politician said the guards raped and tortured him. dostum is one of afghanistan's most notorious warlords. he was backed by the cia and on its payroll in the early 2000's. he was involved in a 2001 massacre that killed up to 2000 taliban prisoners of war. the ctims 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 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 of that time in 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 -- docu-series, "time: the khalief browder story." you called khalief profit. while? >> we've 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 he 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 "time: the khalief browder story," which premieres on spike tv march 1. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. today, president trump is flying to philadelphia where congressional republicans are on retreat. he's going in an effort to win more support for his political agenda. over the past five days, he has signed a number of executive orders and presidential 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 steps to weaken the affordable care act. then on monday, trump reinstated the controversial global gag rule that bans u.s. funding for any international healthcare 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 trans-pacific partnership. on tuesday, he instituted a federal hiring freeze and issued presidential memorandums to revive the dakota access and keystone xl pipelines. then on wednesday, trump signed a pair of wide reaching executive orders dealing with expanding a wall along the u.s. mexico border, empowering state and local law enforcement to act as immigration officers federal funding of so-called , prohibiting century cities, and expanding the number of border patrol agent's. trump: will begin immediate construction of a border wall. amy: and more executive orders are 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 trump's actions, we are joined by two guests. vincent warren is the executive director of the center for constitutional rights. faiza patel is co-director of the liberty & national security program at the brennan center. vince, before we get into the specifics of this slew of executive orders and presidential 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 presidential orders. things like that. there's 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 executive orders and actions. of course, as we will be talking about later, some of them have not come out yet. we have to see what these things say, with a mean, and think about ways to challenge them. amy: and the difference between a presidential memorandum, as was the case with the reviving of the keystone xl pipeline and moving forward with the dakota access pipeline, an executive order? >> there is. think about it as a game of presidential ping-pong. president obama, for example, issued executive actions around daca and president trump is going to theoretically come in and redo that. similarly with respect to the decision of president obama not to move forward with the keystone pipeline, president trump comes in and issues a presidential memorandum saying, move forward on that. these are challengeable issues, but not the same as federal law and laws that passed by congress. laws that get passed by congress are harder to enact because it requires congressional consent in a vote. they are harder to withdraw because it also requires congressional consent. the idea here is that presidents woman for to move forward the executive -- executive order is taking executive agencies and ordering them to do something. ordering them to build a wall is a good example of an executive order because it is ordering the agencies under the president's power to be able to do so. amy: so you have one of the first executive orders that president obama issued in 2009 come a closing guantanamo in a year. so it is 2017, he served for eight years. that never happened. >> that never happened. what we are likely to see coming down the road, at least if the leaked documents are correct, that president trump is going to be issuing an order that says guantanamo is to remain open and in fact that new prisoners that are captured can and should be brought to guantanamo. so president trump is essentially using his executive power to reverse the course of many of the things that president obama did, including things like permanent ban on torture with respect to the cia and the army and the u.s. government officials. amy: faiza patel, you're with the brennan center. talk about your response to what happened this week. later in the broadcast, we're going to talk about immigration, and a single day, more changes to immigration policy than we have ever seen in this country's history. the proposed reopening of black sites that is expected to be yet another executive action of the president. your assessment of all of this? >> i think vince is right. we were seeing a rollback of the changes obama made, which he make her merely by executive order and not through legislation. taking not only back to th early days of the bush administration, but i think it is action worse than that because you have not just these suggestions that we are going to revert to torture, we're going to revert to black sites, but his overall demonization of muslim americans and muslims around the world -- which is very counterproductive to what is the stated national security aim of trying to bring people together to fight against isis. i think this is an overall set of measures that are really going to set us back in terms of national security, of course, hugely seminal to our constitutional values and the rights of americans here at home , which will be affected as they are demonized as being terrorists. , you wroteiza patel a piece, an op-ed piece in "the new york times." can you lay out your concerns? >> the pisa wrote about, i was looking at the three or four proposals that then candidate trump had put up, which related to muslim americans. and the one that bothers me, which i thought had not gotten enough attention, was his proposal to create a commission on radical islam. the reason i was worried about that is that is pretty easy for president to do. they create commissions all the time. but what it does is it serves as a vehicle for finding ways to demonize muslim americans and to stigmatize them and to go ahead and bring out into the mainstream some of the crazy conspiracy theories that we have seen come out from people who are now in government, frankly, such as when they went off to sayingear clinton aide she had six degrees of separation connections to the muslim brotherhood. i think that is really, really damaging. it is damaging to american muslims right here because they see the government does not consider them to be equal, normal citizens like everybody else. that basically as a fifth column inside the country. amy: we're going to go to break and come back. faiza patel is codirector of the liberty & national security program at the brennan center. vince warren executive director of the center for constitutional rights. we will be back with them in a minute. ♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. always a night, thousands of protesters packed in to washington, square park for an emergency rally in support of muslim rick rights. the new york chapter of the council on american slum aggressions organize the event after leaked documents showed trump is preparing to sign an executive order locking these is from thing issued to anyone from syria, iraq and iran, somalia president, and yemen. york city public advocate the teacher james addressed the crowd. >> listen. constitution and the bill of rights, then all of you have an obligation whenever you see a government that is lawless, you have got an obligation and a duty to do what? resist. resist. resist. resist. resist. resist. amy: at the rally, palestinian-american activist linda sarsour spoke to democracy now! >> i am the executive director of the arab-american association of new york and we are in washington square park with new yorkers from all backgrounds standing with her muslim sisters and brothers. they are outraged by the proposals to then muslims, to then refugees. they are saying this is not what new york is about. we're a city of immigrants. i am proud to be a new yorker. with the new administration is doing is bending muslims from particular countries. it will set precedents for other muslim countries to be banned from coming here. it is stopping and holding refugees. you know the refugees need to be an a country where there is saying sure in safety. they have been vetted and now the administration is saying you're not welcome here. the syrian refugees need is more than ever. amy: we're still joined by two guests, vince warren and faiza patel. i want to turn to donald trump's interview with abc news on wednesday night. pres. trump: we are excluding certain countries, but for others we will have extreme vetting. it will be very hard to come in. right now it is easy. i do not want terror in this country. you look at san bernardino. look at what happened in the world trade center as an example. >> are you concerned it is going to cause or anger? pres. trump: there is plenty of anger right now. how can you have more? david, i mean, i know you're a sophisticated i. the world is a mess. the world is as angry as it gets. you think this is going to cause a little more anger? the world is an angry place. all of this has happened. we went into iraq. we should not have gone into iraq. we should not have gotten out the way we got out. the world is a total mess. any code that is donald trump come in exclusive interview on abc. people were protesting around the country. fore warren of the center constitutional rights, your response to what he is saying? >> the first thing that is clear is that we have an extremist that is a president right now. here is a person who is essentially creating chaos in the world and manufacturing chaos in the world and using that as a justification for exclusion of muslim people from the united states, the repression of muslim people within the united states, bringing back were thinking about bringing back things like torture, things like isolation and things like prisons that are outside of the scope of the federal government. that is not a democratic regime. that is essentially an extremist regime. ironically, the type of extremism that he seems to be so concerned about when it happens outside of the united states. he is essentially wrong. what we moved back from is the idea that we would rely -- as advocates and push the government to make smart policy and smart solutions based on problems that we all agree exist . terrorism is a terminus problem. now we are fighting this president the cousins he wants to shift the focus from smart solutions to essentially rounding up and criminalizing entire swaths of populations. then he is going to start saying from anyone who stands with our muslim sisters and brothers is also part of the problem, then we will have to come down on them as well. that is where this is going. amy: faiza patel? >> i agree with warren -- sorry, vince. i think what you see happening over here, if you're trying to preserve national security, what you're trying to do is trying to catch people or prevent actions. instead, what you're seeing over here, is a sort of generalizing out what people believe or what people think or where they are from. and we are using those categories as kind of a proxy, if you will, for people who are going to commit terrorist crimes. and that just isn't right. if you look at the seven countries on the list of the visa ban in the document leaked yesterday and you look at the 1975 to 2015, you know, there were zero casualties in the united states from people from those countries. there is a ban on syrian refugees. how many terrorist attacks have syrian refugees committed in the united states? i believe the number is 0 -- at least through 2015, and i have not heard anything in the last year. you're looking at this kind of manufactured fear of the outsider, fear of people who do not look like us, you know, who may have believes that we don't agree with in some instances, and extrapolating that as to, well, these guys must be terrorist. it has a huge domestic impact, not only for people who have relatives from those countries, but also for the overall atmosphere for american muslims. i think it is no secret that we have seen a significant surge in hate crimes against all communities -- jewish community as well -- but particularly striking against muslim americans. i think we need to be really careful going forward as a country that we do not further stigmatize and alienate these communities. amy: in your piece that you did in the new york times, commission on radicalism could lead to a new mccurdy era, could such a commission actually he put in place? >> very easily. proposals for establishing this kind of commission have been floating around at least since the mid-2000's. you will recall in 2011, presented of peter king had a series of congressional hearings these things are pretty easy to get going, whether through an executive action or through congressional action setting up a committee. that doesn't take but a signature, frankly. amy: during the abc interview on wednesday that donald trump did with david muir, he asked trump about torture. >> mr. president, you told me during one of the debates you would bring back waterboarded and a hell of a lot worse. pres. trump: i want to keep our country safe. amy: what does that mean? >> when they're chopping off the heads of our people and other people, when they're chopping off the heads of people because they happen to be a christian in the middle east, when isis is doing things that nobody has heard of since medieval times, what i feel strongly about waterboarding as far as i'm concerned, we have to fight fire with fire. with that being said i'm a i'm going with general mattis. i'm going with my secretary because i think pompeo is going to be phenomenal. i'm going to go with what they say. that i have spoken as recently with people at the highest level of intelligence and i asked the question, does it work? does torture work? and the answer was yes, absolutely. amy: vince warren of the center for constitutional rights? >> do not believe a word that comes out of donald trump's mouth, particularly with respect to this issue. there is zero chance that he spoke to high-level officials works.y said torture because everybody knows that torture does not work, particularly if you're trying to reliablenable, good, information. it might make the president feel better. it might make an angry president that is manufacturing and angry world feel better about his role in it, but it does not work. what is the most important piece here is that we are seeing what we saw just after 9/11, where folks will come out and paint this week world, manufacture facts that will then be the backdrop for what is essentially regressive policies. torture is illegal under u.s. law and international law. it does not matter how the president feels about it. he does not matter whether the president is interpreting his generals and nominees to say, yeah, it is probably a good idea, or at least we should think about it. there was a blanket prohibition on it in this country needs to abide by that. do not believe that there is anyone really that is rational to doing it has anything with intelligence or has knowledge of the law that would say torture is a good thing we should do because it isn't. amy: i want to turn to senator john mccain who chairs the senate armed services committee. on tuesday, he tweeted -- "potus can sign whatever executive orders he likes, but the law is the law -- we're not bringing back torture." mccain further addressed the issue wednesday on msnbc's "morning joe." >> executive order is circumscribed by the law that we passed prohibiting the use of torture. even though the army field manual can be reviewed, it still does not allow to return to the use of torture, including waterboarding. i am happy that general mattis has spoken out against it, as has every -- general the tray is full stop any leader with respect said, we should not torture people and i am very confident that it would not stand a day in court if they tried to restore that. amy: i want to turn to kenneth roth, executive director of human rights watch. the group expressed its concern over donald trump's agenda. it is an ongoing detention facility, it is an invitation for trump to start refilling it, which i'm afraid trump is determined to do. one thing we expect is in order from trump to begin exploring a considering or some kind of word like that, the resumption of cia dark sites. it is interesting there is going to be executive order because these dark sites are supposedly supersecret, even a we all know about them. the order has been reported on has the kind of liberatory caveat that of course we will not use -- obligatory caveat that we will not use torture. what is the purpose of these black sites except for torture? int is why they were created the first place. and for the house minority leader nancy pelosi addressed the issue of the possible executive orders to reestablish black sites, cia prisons. >> i think this would be a step backward. i'm not alone in thinking that, the path he is going down is wrong. it is not about our values as a country. don't ask me, just ask john mccain and others. again, does that, not support our values, but also endangers our people who are there, whether it is from a security standpoint, intelligence community, or in the military. i just think it is wrong and i hope he will rethink it and listened even some republican leaders on this subject. amy: so that is the house minority leader nancy pelosi. vince warren, should the obama administration -- should president obama have gone after bush administration officials involved with torture? actually had people tried as ccr has tried to do over and over again? would that have sent a stronger message? >> it would have sent a much stronger message. yes, president obama absolutely should have done that. there is some controversy around the question, should we be pursuing, prosecution for high-level bush officials. this is an example -- one thing we were saying at the time is if we just do these things by executive order, if we just do these things by sort of a ansensus-based discussion in particular administration, it does not deter future administrations from bringing torture back all step so that is what we are seeing. had president obama sought to hold high-level bush officials probablyle, we would or we might be in a different situation, at least there would be a broader consensus that what was happening was wrong. and the question would be, what role did each individual have in it? it would make a stronger case to push back against president trump. this is similar to what we have done recently. we had a case earlier in january where we were challenging bush level officials for rounding up muslims in new york right after 9/11. the idea there is if we can't rely on the federal government to hold its own lawbreakers accountable, then it really falls visible society groups like the brennan center and ccr to try to hold of recoverable through any legal means we can. ,my: last comment, faiza patel on where you see this administration going and where you see the possibility even with these executive orders, presidential memo, as just being a kind of arrows to a roadmap of what the president wants to do, but them being turned back by congress? >> i think the president is doing pretty much exactly what he said he would do. you have to give him credit for that. if you go back and look at his campaign plan and pledges, i mean, he is delivering on what he said he would do. that is what makes me scared. a lot of people were saying, oh, well, he is really not going to go that far, it won't be as bad as you think it is. and it is as bad as we think it is or thought it was going to be. in terms of congressional action, i have to say, while i am an optimistic person, i'm not too optimistic on a particular point. much of what we expect from president trump is being done under the immigration laws, where the executive traditionally does have fairly broad authority to stop the other sort of basis for his action seems to be national security. again, another area where the executive is generally granted a fair amount of latitude. so i think we're going to have to fall back on the court and civil society together to be pushing back against these very extreme and very unproductive ways of addressing what is a genuine security threat. i think we will undoubtedly see litigation -- hopefully, vince is ready soon -- to be challenging some of these laws. immediate in the aftermath of 9/11. and i think that is something to remember. the president painted a scary picture of the world stuck yes, in some sense, the world is a scary place. but if you look at the united states, the number of terrorist attacks we have in this country, while each is horrific, it does not result -- do not result in huge numbers of the tallies. the numbers are quite low, compared to when you look at the number of deaths through gun violence. have ahave -- we don't terrorism emergency in the homeland that would warrant such an extreme reaction. and i am hoping the courts will also be receptive to the fact this is not september 12. this is a long time after september 12. and that they will see through some of the fluff that is been put around these executive get to their true intent, which is the various. amy: faiza patel is co-director of the liberty & national security program at the brennan center. and vincent warren the executive , director of the center for constitutional rights. when we come back, we will look at the progression executive order set president bush -- the president trump has just issued in the last days. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. wednesday marked the biggest single day of changes to u.s. immigration policy in recent memory. in a news conference at the department of homeland security, president trump announced executive orders to begin construction on the border wall between the u.s. and mexico and to crack down on those who cross it. pres. trump: the secretary of homeland security, working with myself and my staff, will begin immediate construction of a border wall. [applause] pres. trump: so badly needed. you folks know how badly needed .t is stil this will help mexico by detroit illegal immigration from central america and by disrupting violent cartel networks. as i have said repeatedly to the country, we are going to get the bad ones out, the criminals and the drug deals and gangs and gang members and cartel leaders. the day is over where they can stay in our country and wreak havoc. we are going to get them out and we are going to get them out fast. and john kelly is going to lead that way. amy: the construction of the expanded wall is expected to cost tens of billions of dollars. it remains unclear how his directive will pay for the project. mexican president enrique peña nieto vowed wednesday night not to pay for the wall. he is set to meet with trump next week but may now cancel the , trip. trump's directive also greatly increases the number of immigration enforcement personnel. pres. trump: can't order also does the following e --nds the policy of catch and release at the border. requires other countries to take back their criminals. they will take them back. cracks down on sanctuary cities. officers to target and remove those who pose a threat to public safety. calls for the hiring of another 5000 border patrol officers. calls the tripling, the number of ice officers. amy: the order also strips funding from so-called sanctuary cities. but mayors in across the country -- including those in new york, boston, chicago, and los angeles -- say they will continue to allow police officers to refuse to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants on behalf of federal authorities. for more, we go to washington, d.c., where we're joined by erika andiola, a nationally known immigrant activist who served as a spokesperson for bernie sanders and helped him craft immigration policy. she is the political director for our revolution and recently spoke at the women's march on d.c. she is a daca recipient -- or dreamer -- who grew up in arizona. in 2013, her house was raided and immigration agents picked up her mother and brother. welcome back to democracy now! overall, can you respond to this historic day yesterday? more changes to immigration policy in one day than we have ever seen. >> absolutely. first off, thank you for having me. yesterday was definitely a day all of us were afraid was going to happen. there were several changes that happen -- basically, horrifying for our communities. , we arefor a lot of us trying to figure out what is the best way to resist this. but also making sure we are starting the organizing on the ground to make sure people are ready for this. each executive hasr that president trump laid out. start out with what concerns you the will stop >> most of points he touched on yesterday concern me a lot. i think for us, one of -- at least for myself -- i am from arizona, so i have seen what it is to use the police, use local law enforcement to basically cooperate with ice. not only that, you increase the number of people that end up in deportation facilities or deported. what happened yesterday makes that easier and makes arizona at the national level. i think we need to make sure we are ready in all fronts. i think for many of us, it is our responsibility -- amy: let me go to president trump's plans for daca or the deferred action on childhood removals, which has provided temporary deportation relief and work authorization to almost 800,000 young people. democracy now! spoke to a daca recipient last night in new york during a rally against trump's new orders. and the codirector of the dream action coalition and i'm also undocumented. i am here because this directly impacts the and my mother who is also undocumented. we could be subject to deportation. at the same time, i need to elevate my voice, to show my face, that we are not afraid. we're not going to let trump's ego or tweets target us. one of the exec of actions is ending daca. i could lose my drivers license. i could lose my home. i could lose my work authorization and my law license as new york's first undocumented attorney. there is a lot at stake which is what we are here because we are fighting because there is a lot at stake. amy: with the loss of different action status, daca, referred to being a document of. but like most, the government knows exactly who they are and where they live. erika andiola, you are a daca recipient. talk about what is going to happen. it is not clear yet what happens to daca folks. it is understanding is one of his promises he would end the program. we know there is internal pushback. people in the administration want to make sure that he moves forward with getting rid of the program. there are other people within the administration and other republicans who are telling him not to do it. we don't know what is going to happen. there is also -- i think there is a lot of uncertainty of how it would happen, whether -- my example, my daca expires in february. they could wait until that expires and make sure it does not get renewed. they could leave some people with daca were literally say, you can no longer work, you need to get out the work permit. we don't know how it is going to work. it is concerning to a lot of people. it is a program that has helped not only daca recipient's, victim and so much back to the country. we are hoping that he makes the right decision. the gop and knows folks that are more moderate than know exactly what dreamers have contributed to this country, you know, convince him not to do this. it would be devastating for a lot of our community members. amy: i want to ask about president trump's plan to expand the border wall. his pick to head home and secure the secretary retired general john kelly, was skeptical of the effectiveness of a border wall. during his confirmation hearing earlier this month. >> a physical barrier in and of itself certainly as a military person that understands defense and defenses, physical barrier in and of itself will not do the job. it has to be really a layered defense. if you were to build a wall from the pacific to the gulf of mexico, he was so have to back that wall of with the trolling by human beings, by sensors, by observation devices -- patrolling by human beings, by sensors, by observation devices. amy: some say the plan could face several challenges. the government and account ability office estimates the cost of building a single layer fence along the nearly 2000 mile border with mexico would the $6.5 million per mile, plus an additional $4.2 million per mile for roads and more fencing. this doesn't include maintenance of the fence. some experts to the coral -- total cost at $14 billion. over the last decade, the u.s. has installed 700 miles of fencing, tens of thousands of motion sensors as well as spy towers, radar systems, predator surveillance drones, thousands of lawn foresman agents along the u.s.-mexico border. can you respond to this? >> first of all, the border is the most secured border than any time in history. people who have been advocating for a secure border. going tois, it is not change the lot. the reality is, if you want to waste taxpayer dollars and he wants to go to congress and ask for more money to build this wall, it is not going to do much in terms of immigration policy. reality is bigger than the wall. the reality is people are coming from other countries because they have a necessity to do it. the fact is we have not even dealt what is happening in u.s. with the undocumented community. for me, it is not worth building this wall for millions of reasons. we are hoping that when this goes to congress, that, you know, our elected officials and leaders decide the right thing. like i said, not waste people's money on something that isn't going to work. amy: after trump issued his order to strip funding from cities that shield undocumented immigrants, new york city mayor bill the blasio echoed mayors across the country in saying he would not allow police officers to be used as immigration and foresman agents. this is what he said. >> we will not support law-abiding new yorkers. we will not tear families apart. we will not leave children without their parents. we will not take breadwinners away from families who have no one else. and we're not going to undermine the hard won trust that has developed between our police and community's. this executive order is very vague and are corporation counsel is here, former u.s. attorney in his life, make clear to me today that if any action is taken as a result to restrict our funding, at that point we will bring legal action to stop it. any code that is the new york mayor. we just have five seconds. sanctuary cities and states like california? >> this is a time for the sake sure cities all over our country and other cities to step up and protect their community members. california is leading the charge . sb 54 will do that. we're hoping that california passes the bill and it spreads across the country. amy: erika andiola, thank you for being with us, political director for our revolution. i will be speaking friday at 1:00 rallo: on this episode of "eat! drink! italy!" we'll tour napoleon's wine tunnels. i'll cook a wonderful tyrolean treat. we'll visit one of wine's dynamic couples. and guess what? i'll prepare a roasted cauliflower salad. my name is vic rallo, and i believe that italy is the best place on earth to eat and drink. follow me, and i'll prove it. "eat! drink! italy!" is brought to you by the asaro line of sicilian extra-virgin and organic extra-virgin olive oils, tomatoes, olives, and more. from the asaro family to yours. martin-scott wines, providing wines from around the world. banville & jones, importers of italian wines.

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