ACLU sues over immigrants sent to Guantanamo | The Excerpt
On Thursday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: Paste BN National Immigration Reporter Lauren Villagran breaks down the ACLU's lawsuit over immigrants sent to Guantanamo Bay, and tells us about one mother's anguish. The Trump administration sues New York state over immigration. 75,000 federal workers take President Donald Trump's buyouts as the offer expires. Plus, in other news out of Washington, Tulsi Gabbard has been confirmed by the Senate as national intelligence director. And - Trump says he and Russian President Vladimir Putin plan to meet in Saudi Arabia. Grocery prices in January were up 0.5% from December, and up 1.9% from the same month last year. Paste BN TV Reporter Erin Jensen stops by with her Valentine's Day date Casey Johnson after a nationwide search.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning, I'm Taylor Wilson and today is Thursday, February 13th 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today breaking down the ACLU's lawsuit over Guantanamo Bay. Plus the Justice Department is suing the state of New York over immigration. And we check in with one of our reporters and her quest for a Valentine's date.
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The ACLU filed a lawsuit yesterday against the Trump administration demanding attorney access for people removed from the US to the Guantanamo Prison in Cuba where the Trump administration has set up a 30,000 bed immigrant detention camp. I spoke with Paste BN national immigration reporter Lauren Villagran to learn more. Lauren, thank you so much for joining me today. Always good to have you.
Lauren Villagran:
Yeah. Thanks, Taylor.
Taylor Wilson:
So we'll talk about this ACLU lawsuit here in a second, but would you just start by telling us a bit about Angela Sequera, her son and really their troubling story?
Lauren Villagran:
So Sequera is a Venezuelan woman who lives in California. She, her husband, her daughter, and her daughter's three children are all living and working with permission in California. Her son though, 25-year-old Yoiker David Sequera, crossed the border at a time when the Biden administration had essentially suspended access to asylum. So when he turned himself in, he was detained. She had been speaking with him while he was in ICE detention in El Paso, Texas every day, sometimes two, three times a day trying to keep his spirits up as he went through his own immigration process while in detention. But on Sunday, earlier this week, she didn't receive a call from him. She heard instead from another detainee at the El Paso Processing Center, which is run by ICE, and this man told her that her son had been sent to Guantanamo.
Taylor Wilson:
And just since then, no word at all from her son?
Lauren Villagran:
She's had no word from her son. And the US government maintains an online locator for loved ones of people who are detained by ICE. You can plug in the A number that follows them around in the immigration system and typically it will tell you where they are. In this case, when she plugs in that number, it turns up an ICE field office in South Florida. And Taylor, advocates and attorneys tell me that for many of the people sent to Guantanamo, that field office is what turns up when you search for someone. And there's no way for her to get in touch.
Taylor Wilson:
Wow. So turning to this ACLU lawsuit then, Lauren, I mean what specifically is that issue here and really what is the ACLU arguing?
Lauren Villagran:
So the ACLU filed a lawsuit that Angela Sequera signed on to as well as other advocacy organizations and relatives of people detained at Guantanamo. And they say that the government needs to provide access to legal counsel to the people detained there. For one, Taylor, we don't know who's there. The Trump administration has not provided a list or a roster of detainees. Likewise, we don't know what the nature of the crimes or convictions. The Trump administration has maintained that it is sending, "Murderers and rapists," to Guantanamo. But for example, in the case of Angela's son, she says he has no criminal background. Paste BN reviewed a check of nationwide records and also found no criminal background other than a prosecution for misdemeanor crossing of the border.
Taylor Wilson:
And Lauren, as for ICE, do we hear from them directly at all this week?
Lauren Villagran:
Paste BN has made a concerted effort to reach ICE, both at its headquarters in Washington DC as well as field offices in El Paso, Texas and South Florida, to no avail. Phone numbers are going straight to voicemail, emails are going unanswered. The agency is obviously overwhelmed with requests. But as you can see in this lawsuit, there are a number of organizations beyond the media that would like to see an accounting of who is being sent to Guantanamo and under what pretense.
Taylor Wilson:
And Lauren, in terms of where we go next, I mean what do legal experts say about this suit and what might come out of it?
Lauren Villagran:
Well we know, Taylor, that obviously Guantanamo was used for years as a place to house detainees associated with the war on terror. People who were accused of crimes in some cases were held for years without charges or a trial. This is a slightly different situation, but attorney groups won access to Guantanamo Bay in the early 2000s under very strict limitations. For example, attorneys could access the military-run detention camp if they received security clearance, permission. It required an incredible amount of planning even to reserve a telephone, you had to do that 15 days in advance. Now things are somewhat different. The current prison camp for immigrants is being run by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And so far, as far as our reporting goes, no attorneys have been given access to the people detained there.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Lauren Villagran covers the border and immigration for Paste BN. Lauren, great reporting work here as always and thanks for hopping on. Appreciate you.
Lauren Villagran:
Thanks, Taylor.
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Taylor Wilson:
Attorney General Pam Bondi said yesterday that the Justice Department is suing the state of New York and its top officials for prioritizing, as she said, illegal aliens over American citizens.
Pam Bondi:
If you don't comply with federal law, we will hold you accountable.
Taylor Wilson:
Bondi announced that the Department of Justice sued not only the state of New York but also Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James, and Mark Schroeder, the state's Motor Vehicles Commissioner. Bondi said the lawsuit targets what she called New York's policy of limiting law enforcement agencies from working with immigration authorities, allowing dangerous criminals to operate with impunity across state lines. She did not provide many details of the specific laws that she said New York had broken, but said its policies were undermining and hindering law enforcement, including from running background checks on potentially violent offenders in the country illegally. Hochul's office did not immediately return calls for comment.
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Around 75,000 federal employees accepted President Donald Trump's buyout offer, which is closed to applicants as of last night. The final buyout number comes after a federal judge lifted a pause on the program earlier in the day. The figure confirmed by an Office of Personnel Management official represents about 3.3% of the federal government's 2.3 million workers. That's below the White House's projections of 5% to 10% of the workforce who were expected to accept the buyouts.
Meanwhile, in other big news out of Washington, the Senate yesterday confirmed Tulsi Gabbard to serve as Director of National Intelligence. Her confirmation comes after lawmakers raised pointed questions about her views on Russia, ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, and Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked classified information.
And President Trump said yesterday he expects to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia in the near future to discuss an end to his nation's war on Ukraine. You can read more about some of these latest developments with links in today's show notes.
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January saw a notable jump in grocery prices, up 1.9% from the same month last year. Some of the largest price hikes are hitting the American breakfast table in particular. Bacon prices are up 4.1% from the prior month. Frozen juices are up more than 5%. And fresh biscuits, rolls and muffins are up nearly 2%. But the item with the largest monthly price jump in consumers' grocery carts, according to the Labor Department's Consumer Price Index, eggs. Prices jumped more than 15% last month after bird flu disrupted egg production. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.
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A few weeks back we had Paste BN TV reporter Erin Jensen on the show to talk about her quest for a Valentine's date at the top of the Empire State Building. And she found one. I caught up with Erin and her date, Casey Johnson, to find out how it went. Hey guys, thanks for popping on the podcast today.
Erin Jensen:
Hi, thanks for having us.
Casey Johnson:
Hi. Thank you for having us. Appreciate it.
Taylor Wilson:
Great having you on. So Casey, I want to start with you if you don't mind. How did you hear about Erin's search for a Valentine's date? And what made you want to put yourself out there in this way?
Casey Johnson:
Yeah. I mean, funny situation, I actually had multiple friends send me this link to this nationwide search for love. And listen, I'm an adventurous person and I started to read the profile a couple of times, I said, "Okay, this Erin girl, she seems interesting. We seem like we have similar lifestyles." And I thought, what the heck? It's Valentine's Day. I haven't had a Valentine's in years. Here we are.
Taylor Wilson:
Okay. So Erin, shifting to you, as I mentioned, we talked a few weeks ago, listeners might remember about some of the things you were searching for in a prospective date. So what ultimately stood out to you about Casey that really set him apart from the other submissions?
Erin Jensen:
I liked in reading his application, I think he said he was a certified lover boy, I thought that that stood out to me. I liked that he seemed to have a similar lifestyle. We both don't drink and that's a new thing for me, so I wasn't sure how that would go in any sort of relationship or dating scenario. He seemed like a really fun, genuine guy. And obviously this isn't a video podcast, but he's not hard on the eyes, ladies.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. So let's talk about the date itself. What was it like to go on a date in front of all these cameras and the crew? I mean it seemed to me watching it, like you got more and more comfortable with the date as it went on. Is that fair to say? I mean, how did it go, the date itself?
Casey Johnson:
Yeah, I think that's fair to say. It's always nerve wracking when you're meeting somebody for the first time, having to meet her and there's cameras. But I think once the date got started and we had some conversation, everything started to flow, everyone was super lovely. And everything was great, to be honest with you, until we actually went up the Empire State Building and then I wasn't nervous about the date, I was nervous about the heights at that point.
Erin Jensen:
He was so chill. And then when the nerves kicked in about the heights, I felt like I was the King Kong and I was like, "Let's go higher." And he was like that poor woman in my hand. He was like, "I'm good. Someone help me."
Taylor Wilson:
That's adorable. Is it a matter of just ignoring the cameras and just focusing on one another? Is that what it's all about?
Erin Jensen:
First dates can be so intimidating and you are getting to meet someone, and this was such a high profile first state. I enjoyed having some of my Paste BN favorites there. I think it made me more comfortable and they were such a fan of Casey. The boys were obsessed with him, so I thought it made it more fun.
Taylor Wilson:
Would you agree with that, Casey, or was it a different experience for you?
Casey Johnson:
It almost felt like a group date, but there are some moments where I'm just getting to know Erin and asking her questions. But it is hard and everyone was so nice and it just felt comfortable. We were strangely all connected somehow, just a little Valentine's Day date family. Finally at the end, Erin and I finally got to have some one-on-one time over dinner.
Taylor Wilson:
I love that. All right. So, as I'm sure both of you are well aware, most people don't have this kind of access to a big national platform like Paste BN to find a relationship. So I'm just going to ask you both. What would you recommend our single listeners do to find love in 2025?
Casey Johnson:
Put yourself out there. Don't be afraid to be yourself. Don't be afraid to start a conversation. My best advice is to treat everything as if it's a friendship. Don't set expectations, go out there, talk to people, meet new friends. And oftentimes friendships can turn into romantic relationships.
Erin Jensen:
I think similarly, I think put yourself out there. I think dating can be hard and facing rejection and feeling like there's nobody out there, it can be really defeating. But I think if you just have that optimistic attitude and just know that you're a fantastic person and good things will come.
Taylor Wilson:
Erin and Casey, thank you so much for joining me and best of luck going forward.
Erin Jensen:
Thank you, Taylor. That was so wonderful.
Casey Johnson:
Thank you.
Taylor Wilson:
They're hoping to have another dinner date in New York and you can catch the newly dating pair on Good Morning America this morning and learn more about Erin's nationwide search on usatoday.com.
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It was 60 years ago this month that Civil Rights Leader Malcolm X was assassinated, but only one of his killers has been brought to justice.
Peniel Joseph:
We have entrenched evidence that US intelligence at the domestic and global levels infiltrated Malcolm X's organizations and were intent on silencing Malcolm X.
Taylor Wilson:
What else have experts learned about what happened that day? And what is his lasting legacy? Peniel Joseph, an American scholar, teacher and public voice on race issues joins The Excerpt to discuss the 60-year legacy of Malcolm X. You can hear a conversation with my colleague Dana Taylor right here on this feed beginning at 4:00 PM Eastern Time today.
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And thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from Paste BN.