AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.

We turn now to President Trump’s crackdown on immigration. The White House says Colombia has agreed to begin accepting flights of deported migrants to land in Colombia, after a dramatic standoff between the U.S. and Colombia unfolded on Sunday with the Colombian President Gustavo Petro turning back two U.S. military planes that were carrying deported migrants in shackles, saying immigrants should be treated with dignity. President Trump then imposed new tariffs and sanctions on Colombia, 25% tariffs that he said would go up to 50%. Petro responded with retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports, but within hours the White House announced a deal had been reached.

The standoff with Colombia comes as the Trump administration announces nearly a thousand people were arrested Sunday as federal agencies carried out immigration raids in Chicago, in Newark and in other cities. Local communities are pushing back.

This comes as the Pentagon is sending 1,500 active-duty troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, including 500 marines, where they’ll join thousands of National Guard and reserve forces already deployed there.

For more, we’re going to Mexico City, where we’re joined by Fernando García, founder and executive director of the El Paso, Texas-based Border Network for Human Rights.

Fernando, welcome back to Democracy Now! There are so many developments around migration. Talk about the increased militarization on the border, for beginning.

FERNANDO GARCÍA: Hi, Amy. Thanks for having me again.

Well, we see it again. I mean, this is not the first time that we have seen the deployment of the military, the U.S. military, to the border specifically. We have seen it multiple times. But this time it seems that it’s a little bit different. And, however, we’re very, very concerned. We don’t know what is going to be the scale and the magnitude of the deployment. As you mentioned, we have at least now 1,500 active-duty soldiers being deployed specifically in El Paso, where they’re going to be trained at the Fort Bliss military base. Then maybe they’re going to be deployed in other parts of the border.

But it’s very problematic in many ways. As you know, we have had incidents in the past where the military has been deployed, and they had engaged with civilians, both in the Mexican side of the border but also on the U.S. side of the border. We had the incidents in 1997 in Redford, Texas, where the Joint Task Force Six, a Marine unit, killed a U.S. citizen, Esequiel Hernández. So, that is part of the context of what we’re seeing right now in this deployment under the Trump administration.

AMY GOODMAN: And you’re in Mexico City. We usually talk to you in El Paso. Mexico refused to accept a U.S. deportation flight, like Colombia, but then the White House press secretary, Trump’s press secretary, tweeted that they then accepted four deportation flights. Can you talk about what’s happening in Mexico right now and what President Trump’s reestablishing the Remain in Mexico edict for migrants trying to cross into the United States?

FERNANDO GARCÍA: You know, listen, it is quite unclear what Mexico specifically is going to do, what it’s going to do. What we know is what the Trump administration is doing. They’re trying to implement two different processes towards Mexico. The first one is these return flights, that we don’t know if these are only Mexicans. Obviously, Mexico have said in the past that they’re just going to accept Mexicans, Mexican nationals, coming back or being returned, deported. But also, the other part of the program is what is called the Remain in Mexico. That means even other nationalities, not only Mexicans, would be sent back to border cities, such as Ciudad Juárez, close to El Paso, or Tijuana in California. So, that is the two different programs that are actually being implemented in Mexico.

Mexico has said many times already that they are only going to accept Mexican nationals, and they are not necessarily going to accept the deportation to Mexico of other nationalities. However, that is to be seen. As you have seen already, the United States is putting a lot of pressure in terms of economic terms, tariffs, on Colombia and Mexico to accept these new programs, that actually failed dramatically in the first administration of Trump, where we have refugee camps along the U.S.-Mexico border with no essential services, no legal support, no food nor water for many of the people that has been deported to those border cities.

AMY GOODMAN: Before we go, Fernando, there is a lot of reporting on the shock of migrants across the United States and the terrible fear communities are facing. But there’s also a lot of pushback and organizing. If you can talk about what’s happening with community forums, workshops, Know Your Rights programs, from Eagle Pass to areas in El Paso and others, how you’re pushing back?

FERNANDO GARCÍA: So, we just launched what is called the community education program on constitutional rights. I mean, this is something that we have been doing for many, many years, both at the U.S.-Mexico border but also in the interior of the United States, where we’re teaching people about their rights under the Constitution. And I think this is specifically important today, because the people right now is having anxiety and fear, not only of detention and deportation, but also of family separation.

What we are trying to do with this program is to give people the tools to how to deal with situations where they are confronted with law enforcement, especially with immigration raids, in their homes, in the streets, in their workplaces. And we’re just reminding people, essentially, that the Constitution of the United States still exists, that under the Fourth Amendment, for example, of the Constitution, they only can allow somebody into their property or house or workplace only with a search warrant or the permission of the owner. Or, for example, if they are confronted and being asked questions by law enforcement, that they have the right to remain silent. That is guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment of the United States. Like, those key elements, that that’s what we’re trying to actually tell people, educate them and organize them around that concept of constitutional rights.

AMY GOODMAN: Fernando García, we want to thank you for being with us. We’re going to be checking back with you frequently, founder and executive director of the El Paso, Texas-based Border Network for Human Rights, speaking to us today from Mexico City.