Debbie Mucarsel-Powell on Trump’s Attack on Florida

0:00Ben Meiselas:Total chaos continues to break loose in Florida and frankly throughout the country. But I want to focus our attention on what's going on in Alligator Alcatraz, now a concentration set up between the Trump regime and Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis. So DeSantis had a like photo op where he invited the media where he was going to say, look how great it is. Everybody loves it. We're doing our three meals a day. And then the media was like, all right, so I'm like, Like, can we be let in? Like, you kind of have us 30 feet away from where you are. And Alligator Alcatraz is still kind of like a football field over there.

0:37Ben Meiselas:Can we look at it? No. Why would I ever show you it? Okay, where are you sending the people? Where are they going? Yeah, I'm not going to tell you that either. So why do you have us here at all? Let me just show you what went down to the local Miami CBS for their great report. Let's play it. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. I'm Nasha Sherman. The governor says there have been a number of flights out of the facility over the last few days, and hundreds of illegal immigrants have been sent away. CBS News Miami's Morgan Reiner is in Ochope with more on what the governor had to say about the facility.

1:10Ben Meiselas:The governor says that they've officially started flying immigrants out of alligator alcatraz and out of the country, and he said to expect that to ramp up. The Department of Emergency Management shuttled buses full of journalists inside of alligator alcatraz. I'm pleased to report that those flights out of Alligator Alcatraz by DHS have begun. Where his message and everyone else's standing up next to him was clear. You better leave the country if you're here illegally. And if there's any illegal immigrant listening to my voice right now, self-deport. Use the app. We will get you home. Do not come here because you will be removed.

1:54Ben Meiselas:There have been concerns over treatment of immigrants, like the fact that attorneys have not been able to access their clients here. We had some technology issues. We have now worked those things out, and we should be starting that on Monday. Or living conditions. Hot meal service three times a day. Not great turkey, by the way. Full medical care, including 24-7 clinic and pharmacy, indoor and outdoor recreational space, laundry, legal and clergy services, air-conditioned detention housing units. And while they say they have it all, we didn't get to see it today. You can see the governor's plane right behind me.

2:29Ben Meiselas:And where I'm standing, that's where he spoke to the media. So the media asked him, in the name of transparency, why weren't we allowed inside of the actual facilities? This is not a spectacle, okay? You don't get to go into other facilities willy-nilly either. I mean, that's just the reality of the situation. I think they have a job to do here. I also asked the governor where these immigrants are being deported to places like El Salvador back to their country of origin. That's a question for DHS. As I said, they've got processes that they go through. They can do a direct deportation from here.

3:05Ben Meiselas:They can do to one of the hubs and then the hub can take them. And I know that they have used El Salvador. I mean, it's so clownish and it would be a parody if this wasn't so real and so lethal. And they're also taking away people's protected status in the area. So hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans and Cubans and Haitians who were here lawfully, if they don't self-deport, and you heard it right there, they end up in a concentration camp called Alligator Alcatraz. And it almost seems like they were like mocking the press and mocking the whole situation and just enjoying the torturing of people.

3:50Ben Meiselas:But I want to focus our attention to the Congress members, you know, in that area. And a lot of these Congress members are Cuban Americans, people whose family fled Castro or Venezuelans, people who fled the authoritarian regimes there. And then they weaponize that to say anyone who's a Democrat is a socialist and they're like Castro and you should trust Donald Trump. Trump's worse than Castro. Trump's worse than Chavez. And let me just show you an example. This was Carlos Jimenez. He posted this back in 2024. I will not be intimidated by the socialist Democrats. The left calls anyone who supports border security and legal immigration a racist.

4:35Ben Meiselas:I'm a Cuban exile and a legal immigrant and a legal immigrant to this country. It's illegal. That bull will never fly with me. Let me just show you a short portion of how they say, like, you're calling me a racist? Watch this. I believe that immigration should be legal immigration. I disagree with illegal immigration. You think I'm a racist? No, when we talk about the ballot proposition, if I was to enforce that. I'm sorry. I'm asking you about me. I'm asking about me. Do you think I'm a racist because I believe in legal immigration and not illegal immigration? They speak Spanish, Hispanic last names, Hispanic characteristics.

5:13Ben Meiselas:It's been that way for hundreds of years. Okay, so you believe I'm a racist? All right, let's bring in former Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Mercosal Powell. Congresswoman, you saw those tactics there from Carlos Jimenez. You know them better than anybody. He used those tactics against you in the 2020 election, and he took your congressional seat in Florida's 26th. He called you a socialist, the leftist. He compared you to the communist dictatorship in Cuba. And that was unfortunately effective with voters in that they were like intimidated and fearful of that. And so you've seen this firsthand.

5:52Ben Meiselas:You see what we're going through now. I really just wanted to pick your brain on this moment. But with your experience from your race, when you lost in 2020 based on all this crap, and now you see what they're doing. What do you make of it all? Oh, God, Ben, it's painful to listen to Carlos Jimenez speak. First of all, I have some news for Carlos Jimenez. I think that most people know this, but Latinos, unfortunately, are racist. Many Latinos, the Latino community have grown up with these misperceptions on criminalizing Native Americans in some of our countries, Black Americans. There's a lot of racial tension between Black communities and Latino communities.

6:33especially in in some areas in florida so carlos please uh stop with the hypocrisy and trying to act all tough when when he knows the truth there is racial discrimination particularly against latinos with what we're watching right now with the attacks against immigrants and why is that because unfortunately it's a very vulnerable population tens of thousands of immigrant families are trying to go through the legal process, seeking asylum, seeking temporary protected status, parole programs that were passed under President Biden, which gives a lot of the immigrants that are here this pathway to remain legally so that they can go through a vetting process, which protects public safety and at the same time provides job opportunities for so many that are here actually cultivating the food that we're eating.

7:24And not only that, I mean, living in South Florida, and he's such a hypocrite. Let me just keep saying that because he knows very well that our community in South Florida has been built by immigrants, many who came here without legal papers, many of them that were able to obtain legal papers after going through some of these vetting processes and some of these programs that I just mentioned. And they are actually entrepreneurs who are providing jobs, who are contributing billions, billions into Florida's economy. And all of these men acting so tough, including Governor Ron DeSantis. Well, the interesting part is that when you see these images of so many immigrants being detained, a lot of these images are happening in blue states.

8:10And you're not seeing these mass detentions in an area where we know that there are tens of thousands of workers working without permit, without papers. But they're working for many Republican owned businesses, whether they're in the agricultural sector, in the tourism sector, restaurants. And they don't want to disrupt that. A lot of these Republican owned businesses provide money to their campaigns. And so they're hypocrites. They are demonizing an entire group of people, which they are a part of. Carlos Jimenez is an immigrant himself. I came here to this country when I was 14 years old. My mother brought my sisters and I to give us those opportunities to give us the American freedom that so many of us need.

8:55because I grew up watching a military dictatorship. So many people are fleeing political violence, famine. They're looking for the American dream. And now they're being treated like animals and it has to stop.

9:10Ben Meiselas:So I showed you there, Carlos Jimenez, and now I'm going to show you Congresswoman Maria Salazar, also Cuban. Her family fled the dictatorship as well. She was a TV show host on the local news there. And she promised the Cuban population and the Venezuelan population and other immigrant populations there. You have nothing to worry about when it comes to Donald Trump. She said, I have the Dignity Act and I've showed the Dignity Act to Donald Trump. You are protected. And then a PBS reporter now Trump regime is defunding PBS. But the PBS reporter goes and asks her. But, you know, I see everybody holding up those signs that say mass deportation.

9:56Ben Meiselas:I don't see any asterisks next to them. Are you sure? And she goes, don't worry, my people are protected here. Watch this. congresswoman we should also note that he has proposed mass deportations of undocumented people starting on day one of his presidency there's an estimated 198 000 undocumented people in miami-dade county in your district what would the sudden arrest and deportation of nearly 200 000 people mean for your community and i and i love what you're asking me you know i wrote the dignity Act, which is one of the only comprehensive or complete immigration reform law. So I understand exactly what you're telling me about immigration.

10:38Ben Meiselas:But the problem, and I need to put this into context, when you have a Biden administration that opens the southern border for four years and allows 10 million people to come in, and out of those 10 million, two are gutaways. And out of those 10 million, you have this group called Trenduragua from Venezuela, which is a transnational criminal organization. Congresswoman, if I may, I know our time here is limited. I'm asking about the potential deportation of hundreds of thousands of people from your community. The deportation is going to be among those criminals who are the gang members, the gutaways, the Trendyaragua.

11:14Ben Meiselas:I am sure. Not all 200 ,000 undocumented in your community. Is that what you're saying? I am sure that we're not, that the Trump administration is not going to be targeting those people who have been here for more than five years that have American kids, that don't have criminal records, that have been working in the economy and paying taxes. I am sure that they're going to hone in on the criminals who arrived less than four years ago because I wrote the dignity. I wrote the dignity act, she says. She wrote the dignity act. So it was all good. You make of that. OK, first of all, this dignity act is just a way for her to protect herself because she knows that she's very vulnerable in the next midterm election.

11:54She's lying. She's looking at a camera, lying to the American people, lying to her constituents. The Dignity Act didn't even get the support of Marco Rubio, doesn't really have the support of Republicans. Look, I'm glad that she has bipartisan support. Veronica Escobar from Texas, Representative Veronica Escobar, is truly trying to find a fix to this issue. I know that maybe Maria Elvira Salazar, somewhere inside of her soul, there's a part of her that wants to provide some sort of pathway for people that are working in her district, but she's lying. We know that Alligator Alcatraz is right now holding people without a criminal record.

12:34We know that they even detained a minor, a 15-year-old, and they have absolutely no due process. We know that they're criminalizing students, DACA recipients, the universities, FIU and some other universities have agreed to allow immigration enforcement in public universities in South Florida. This is ridiculous. It's posing a danger to many families living in South Florida. There's a lot of fear and she's doing absolutely nothing to speak up against the detainment of people that have been in the United States for more than five years working in South Florida, working in her districts. But she could care less.

13:17What do Carlos Jimenez and Maria Elvira Salazar care about? They want to hold their seats for that tiny bit of power. They have no power in Congress, by the way. I haven't seen them pass any significant legislation. I don't really see them influence like what Maria Elvira Salazar is saying. the Dignity Act, trying to push that through. The Republican Party of today, the MAGA Party, is 100 % anti-immigrant. They are a party that is proposing a white nationalist Christian movement. And it wouldn't surprise me that ultimately, after deporting all the people that for them pose a threat because they're not white, Maria Elvira Salazar and Carlos Jiménez are in danger of being deported also with this movement, with this ultra-right movement that wants absolutely nothing to do with any person of color.

14:07So they need to protect their own, they need to protect the community that they represent, and they are absolutely failing at every turn.

14:14Ben Meiselas:You know, when the Trump regime spokesperson Caroline Levitt was recently asked about the Dignity Act and where Trump stands on it, her response was that Donald Trump has never read it. They were focused on the budget bill. And so they haven't even seen it, know what it is. And I pointed that out in prior videos as well. But what do we do, right? Because you experienced it in your election. There are other segments that I've played of CBS Miami or some of the local news. They'll go into still Little Havana and they'll say to them, well, what do you think about Trump's positions? And the people will say, we hate his position on immigration, but on the other stuff, which they don't even usually ever list what it is.

14:57Ben Meiselas:And the other stuff, though, we're with them. And then I always give my opinion or analysis to say, but the immigration stuff is kind of like you dying. It's kind of the killing you part. So I'm not sure where you get to the transgender volleyball player or how you rank these things, but one of them is you dead. The other is you living here with dignity, which is what Biden supported and what you supported. And now you're kind of on the dead side of the spectrum where they want to throw you into concentration camps. But but the propaganda is real. The radio station stuff is real. I think we're making inroads on YouTube and and others are building new ways to to reach people.

15:40Ben Meiselas:But what do we do? How do we how do we deal with this? Yeah. And Ben, you asked me, you know, one of the first questions was, you know, how do you feel about them lying, calling me names that I don't even want to repeat? that were completely false attacks. And they've been doing this for years. And they have used now some of it, mainstream radio stations, mainstream Spanish language stations to propagate this political propaganda, to spread fake information. And Latinos particularly have been really high targets of this disinformation. So when you hear Spanish language radio, what do you hear?

16:17You only hear Marivira Salazar or Jimenez saying, you know, we're going to protect our community. We support legal immigration. They're only detaining criminals. So they keep hearing that thinking, OK, so this is not going to affect me. But living in Miami, I can tell you, I have been talking to a lot of people and this immigration issue is affecting Latinos in Miami and their perception of Donald Trump. They don't support the immigration policies. It's affecting maybe their families, maybe their friends, maybe someone that they know, this American family, her daughter-in-law has a status that is going through a process of legal immigration.

16:57She went back to her home country and they're not letting her back in. This is affecting Republicans that are living in Miami that have mixed status families and even American families that have, you know, mixed marriages with Latinos. I mean, Miami-Dade County is 70 % Latino. So you're asking, what do we do? And here's where Democrats need to realize that what they have been doing for years is not working. We need to, first of all, lift up Latino voices within our own party, which I have not seen for, you know, even during the presidential campaign. I remember we were completely abandoned. And then after the election, then Latinos were blamed for electing Trump.

17:38And I'm sorry, but this right shift didn't happen only with Latino communities. It happened all over the country with every ethnic group. and blaming the Latino community is not going to bring us back into the fold. We need to be present. We need to be consistently fighting. And this disinformation, which I have been engaging, trying to fight these fake political propaganda pieces that are being put out by elected officials in our area, and that requires investment. And I'm so glad, Ben, that you're talking about this today. And my decision has done a great job of trying to spread this media ecosystem.

18:14But we can't compete right now. I mean, they control most of the Spanish language radios in South Florida. They have been threatening, you know, mainstream media like CBS and they're folding. They're bending the knee. We need people that have a spine to stand up to an administration that is really destroying the American values that we have fought so hard to protect. The pillars of democracy. This is about civil rights. So whether you're Latino or not, whether you have a family with a mixed status or no immigrants that are trying to go through the process, this is about constitutional civil rights in America and whether this country is going to stand up for everyone living in this country.

18:54Because at the end of the day, we're all here and we have to work together to try to bring back some of the decency, the transparency that we have for over 200 years tried to build. And this man is destroying it within just a few months.

19:11Ben Meiselas:Finally, speaking of decency or the lack thereof, you were featured recently in one of Trump's AI videos, a really disturbing video where it was, and I don't even want to play the video, so I'll just show a screenshot here of Donald Trump arresting former President Barack Obama. The FBI comes in, throws him on the ground as Donald Trump is laughing at Obama being arrested. And then it features video of you and other members of Congress saying no one is above the law. And then it has that weird like Pepe the Frog meme, which many have said is also has its racist connotations, you know, do like like a weird like clownish laugh.

19:53Ben Meiselas:And like that's being posted from the official account of the president of the United States. So what do you make of being featured in that? And I think it dovetails with what we've been talking about, though, just the disinformation that's constantly out there now from the account of the presidency. Yeah, Ben, it's extremely dangerous. And we have seen what happens when political violence, when lies are spread and they go unchecked. I mean, we saw what happened in January 6th when Trump was spreading the lie that he that there was election fraud and he didn't win the election. He told the Proud Boys, stand back and stand by and look at what happened.

20:32I mean, it resulted with an officer being killed and the loss of life of an American woman that was on Capitol on the Capitol that day. We saw what happened with Representative Melissa Hortman. She was the target of political violence and assassination of her and her husband. And it just happened a few weeks ago. And we cannot forget that. So when I saw that video, it sent chills down my spine because I know that that rhetoric eventually translates into physical acts of violence. And this is coming from the president of the United States. This couldn't be more dangerous. This is a matter of national security.

21:12And we need to at a moment in time when we're so polarized, we need to make sure that we demand that those that have that microphone in public office, whether it's the president of the United States, a U.S. senator, a U.S. Congress member or even a local state official, that they speak against any of these deep fakes that are promoting or inciting violence. And that's why I'm speaking about it. And we're trying to make sure that people are aware that as this continues, we see these targets and these threats become more and more a reality that we can't allow to happen in the United States of America.

21:54I lost my father to gun violence in Ecuador. I know what it's like to live in a society where you don't feel safe. And that's what we're starting to experience here in the United States of America. And so if we really are talking about putting Americans first, we need to come together and denounce any sort of hatred, hate speech, AI fakes. And we need to demand and make sure that the president does not go down this road, even though we've seen him doing this now for four years.

22:25Ben Meiselas:What are you working on now? How can people help out your efforts right now? Well, please follow me on at Debbie for Florida, whether on Instagram, TikTok, whatever social media of your choice. I'm starting the Democracy Mobilization Project, which is really being on the ground, having conversations with people about issues so that we can bring them along. And they have the appropriate information to make the choices when they have to elect the next generation of leaders. We have already had some really great events. We've been at FIU. We did an immigration town hall actually providing just information to our community.

23:00And what I've sensed and what I've seen, Ben, is that people want more of it. People want leaders that are going to come to them present in their communities, giving them accurate information. And so that's what I'm going to dedicate my work on.

23:13Ben Meiselas:Congresswoman Debbie Mercosile-Powell, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Thank you, Ben. We've got to get you back. and this is how I kind of pressure the guests live. I'd love for you to have a show somewhere on the network because I truly, I texted my producer. I said, you know, I said, this is an incredible interview and I truly would love for you to come back on more and really let us know about these issues because, you know, I try to elevate the right voices, but it's a blind spot of mine and you made things very clear to our audience today. So we appreciate it. Thank you, Ben.

23:47I really appreciate it. Anytime. Yeah, you're all wonderful. And you're just trying to get the right information out there. And I'm always going to support that effort. So thank you so much for that.

23:56Ben Meiselas:Amazing. All right, everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. The truth is more important than ever. Check out our new Truth Over Lies collection at store.midastouch.com. All 100 % USA union made.