Continued Crackdown on Illegal Immigration, Canada Votes, Measles Outbreak

0:00Yes, I'm supposed to give a level and Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasuredome decree. Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weekend weary. Those are things I've said for many, many years, not every day. You haven't pulled that one out in a while. I feel sort of honored. I don't know. It's for you, Michelle. Thank you. It's a little poem for you. I feel special. Almost 100 days into the Trump administration, authorities arrested more than 100 people in a Colorado nightclub. The Trump administration says they lacked legal status. What does that say about the drive for mass deportation?

0:34I'm Michelle Martin. That's Steve Inskeep. And this is Up First from NPR News. President Trump won the U.S. election in 2024, and he's a big factor in another election in 2025. Canadians are frightened right now. We're afraid. We're under threat. Canada votes for a new parliament today, and the winning party chooses a prime minister. How has a trade war altered the race? Also, how can pediatricians persuade parents to let their kids get a measles vaccine. That is our biggest nemesis, right, is misinformation, at least from a healthcare perspective. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.

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2:34Almost 100 days into the Trump administration, we have a chance to check in on one of the president's signature goals. Yes, the president promised mass deportations, as many as a million people per year. It's hard to judge how they're doing, but one outside analysis gives some perspective. The Migration Policy Institute estimates that the number of arrests is up, But the pace of deportations is, so far, down from the last fiscal year under President Biden. There have been some high-profile cases, of course, including one over the weekend. Federal authorities say they arrested more than 100 people at an underground nightclub in Colorado Springs.

3:10People authorities say lacked legal status. NPRS Joel Rose has been following all of this. Joel, good morning. Hi, Steve. What happened in the nightclub? The Drug Enforcement Administration shared video and details about this raid that took place at what the DEA called an underground nightclub in Colorado Springs in the early morning hours of Sunday. The DEA says several hundred people were in the club at the time, including 114 immigrants without legal status who were arrested. And if true, this would be one of the largest single enforcement actions since President Trump took office. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a social media post on Sunday that the club was, quote, frequented by TDA and MS-13 terrorists, unquote, which is apparently a reference to Trende Aragua, the Venezuelan gang that the administration has recently designated as a foreign terrorist organization.

3:58NPR could not immediately verify the legal status of those who were arrested or whether there's any evidence of gang membership, though authorities also said that they recovered drugs and guns from this raid. Okay, so that is one case that has developed over the weekend. And I want to ask you about another one in recent days. We're told that a two-year-old American citizen was deported last week. What happened? Yeah, this involves a family in New Orleans. The mother does not have legal status, but her two-year-old daughter, who was born in Louisiana, is a U.S. citizen. The mother was going to her regular check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week, according to a lawsuit filed by her attorney, when she and her two children were detained.

4:36Her lawyer says immigration authorities held her and her children without allowing them to speak with anyone. Even her partner, the children's father, was only able to speak to her for less than a minute before the mother and two children were deported to Honduras. The judge in this case, who was appointed by President Trump, seems concerned about how this was handled, and he has now set a hearing for next month with the goal of dispelling his, quote, strong suspicion that the government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process, unquote. According to the ACLU, this is one of three U.S.

5:06children deported from the U.S., along with mothers without legal status last week. What has the administration said? Tom Homan, the White House boarder star, was asked about these cases yesterday on CBS's Face the Nation. And here is some of what he said. Having a U.S. citizen child after you enter this country illegally is not a get-out-jail-free card. It doesn't make you immune from our laws. American families get separated every day by law enforcement. But critics say these families did not have a meaningful chance to make major decisions about their children's futures. They say the administration is in such a rush to drive up deportation numbers to make good on President Trump's promise that the administration is making mistakes and deporting people with no criminal records, and in some cases, deporting very young U.S.

5:49citizens. Well, how popular is all of this? To some extent, that depends on the poll. There's a CBS YouGov poll that shows 56 % of Americans approve of President Trump's program to deport immigrants in the country illegally. Another Washington Post-ABC-Ipsos poll, though, found that only 46 % now approve of Trump's handling of immigration, 53 % disapprove. And P.R.S. Joel Rose with an update on almost 100 days of Trump's immigration policy. Thanks so much. You're welcome.

6:23Canadians are voting today in a federal election that's been turned on its head in a matter of months. Yes, at the beginning of the year, the Conservative Party had a seemingly unassailable lead in the polls. The Liberal Party, under then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, was trailing a distant second. But not anymore. The Liberal Party, under a new Prime Minister, Mark Carney, has surged ahead. NPR International Affairs correspondent Jackie Northam has been reporting on the campaign. Hi there, Jackie. Morning, Steve. So let's talk through how it is the Liberals recovered. Well, in large part, it's thanks to President Trump.

6:57For more than a year, the Conservatives under their leader, Pierre Paulyev, were consistently running 20 plus points ahead of the Liberals in the polls and looked like they would win overwhelmingly in Canada's next election. But then President Trump began to target Canada, imposing stiff tariffs on the country and saying he wanted to make it the 51st state. And Steve, this really angered Canadians and has had an impact on today's elections. NPR spoke to a number of voters, and one overriding concern, the threat of Trump, often came up. This is how Barbara Wilson from Milton near Toronto summed it up.

7:34Canadians are frightened right now. We're afraid. We're under threat. I've heard some people say, oh, you know, he's just joking. He's just joking. No, this is not funny. This is not funny to us. It is a threat. It is real. Yeah, we're feeling vulnerable. And Steve, the problem for the Conservative leader, Poliev, is that he's seen as copying much of Trump's rhetoric. Canada first, close the borders, shrink the government, erase wokeism. And Canadians started to view him as Trump-lite, sometimes calling him Maple MAGA. And that association with Trump has really hurt him and the Conservatives in the polls.

8:09Okay, I'm amused by Maple MAGA, but we should be clear. Looking at the polls, the Liberals are ahead, but this election is within range. We shouldn't be surprised by any result. But it seems that the Liberals also benefited from getting a new leader, didn't they? Yes, indeed. Mark Carney succeeded Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after he resigned. You know, Trudeau was deeply unpopular after a decade in power, and his resignation helped lift the Liberals' chances. Mark Carney is popular even though he has never held political office. He's 60 years old and has a long career in finance on Wall Street and is head of the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada.

8:48He's widely viewed as unflappable, and most importantly, he's seen as someone who can handle Trump. The president hasn't said much about annexing Canada since Carney took office. He calls him prime minister rather than governor, like he called Trudeau. And Trump exempted Canada from the global 10 % tariffs that he imposed on much of the rest of the world earlier this month. At the same time, Poliev's team says he too will be tough on Trump if he gets into office. Well, just as everyone was settling down to vote, Jackie, there was this tragedy, to say the least, in Canada. 11 people killed when a driver rammed a vehicle into a crowded Filipino festival in Vancouver.

9:28I know the police have said it's not terrorism, but what do they think? Well, the suspect in the attack, a 30-year-old man with a history of mental illness, has been charged with eight counts of second-degree murder. All of the main candidates in the election paused their campaign on Sunday, and Prime Minister Carney flew to Vancouver and attended a vigil for the victims and met with members of the Filipino community. It is a tragedy, but it is not going to postpone today's election. Well, we'll be listening for the results. NPR International Affairs Correspondent Jackie Northam, thank you so much.

10:03Thanks so much.

10:11Next, we meet some of the people affected by a number in the news. That number is 884. That is the number of confirmed cases of measles in the United States this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. So it's April, and we've already tripled the number of cases from last year. Officials also say vaccine hesitancy is a factor in the resurgence. Measles is in 30 U.S. states now, and we have a view of it this morning in one hard-hit county in Texas. Brad Burt with member station KTTZ went there. Hi there, Brad. Hi, Steve. Thanks for having me. Glad you're with us. Where'd you go? So I was in Gaines County last week where a little less than half of all the measles cases in the country have been confirmed, 393 to be exact.

10:56What I saw was children playing out at a park in Seminole there, people coming in and out of a coffee shop on Main Street. But meanwhile, the MMR vaccine clinic set up by the South Plains Health District was empty. Zach Holbrook's director for the district says vaccine hesitancy has remained an obstacle to ending that outbreak. It's a lot of groups that are hesitant. So all we can do is provide the venue for people to either get tested, screened or get the vaccine. At the beginning of the year, the vaccination rate for this county was 82 percent. The Center for Disease Control says at least 95 percent vaccination rate is needed to prevent outbreaks.

11:36I appreciate that perspective. The vast majority of people in this vaccine-hesitant county are actually not vaccine-hesitant. They've taken the vaccine, but some are not, and that leads to this problem. So what's being done? Well, local health authorities set up a pop-up clinic in a building where livestock shows are normally held. And billboards and local TV ads encourage people to get vaccinated. There's messaging in English, Spanish, and actually low German for the local Mennonite community. And yet many here still don't trust vaccines. Pediatrician Dr. Anna Montagnez says some parents have chosen to forgo the vaccine for other unproven remedies like vitamin A.

12:16That is our biggest nemesis, right, is misinformation, at least from a health care perspective. I struggle with that every single day with almost every patient that I see. Now, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. previously endorsed vitamin A as a treatment for measles. He has since stepped back from that and has said the MMR vaccine is the most effective way to prevent the spread of the disease. So you have a longtime vaccine skeptic, maybe the top vaccine skeptic in the country, saying the vaccine is good in this case. But I guess that comes too late for some people. So how has this affected, especially children?

12:54Yeah, most of the cases in Texas are children. The two deaths so far in West Texas were children. And you have to ask why that would be. Here's an intriguing number. About 18 % of students in public schools in this county claim conscientious exemption to required vaccines. And that's provided by state law. Dr. Montanez insists that vaccination is the best prevention, but she says an ounce of protection is worth way more than a pound of cure. But she also says when she engages skeptics and answers their questions about alternative remedies like vitamin A, many have become more open to safer decisions.

13:34And when I was in Seminole, families continued to go about their daily lives. Schools were open, businesses were open, and the virus continues to spread. Brad Burt with KTTZ in Lubbock, Texas. Thanks so much. Thanks for having me, Steve.

13:52And that's Up First for this Monday, April 28th. I'm Stephen Skeep. And I'm Michelle Martin. Remember, you can listen to this podcast sponsor-free while financially supporting public media with Up First Plus. Learn more at plus.npr.org. That's P-L-U-S dot N-P-R dot O-R-G. Today's Up First was edited by Russell Lewis, Tara Neal, Alfredo Carbajal, Jenea Williams, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from David Greenberg, and our technical director today is Zach Coleman. Join us again tomorrow.

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