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When Rodriguez has an upcoming appointment with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, sometimes his daughters grades slip. The stress of not knowing whether ICE will let him stay in the United States has already sent two of his children to therapy, Rodriguez said. They know that when I go to the ICE appointments, we dont know if Ill come back, Rodriguez said in Spanish. The Guatemalan man, who asked not to be fully identified out of fear of retaliation, has already been deported once, and he has been held in ICE custody a few times. Though Rodriguez already has a deportation order and officials could send him back at any time, his attorney has managed to convince the U.S. government to let him stay in the country for now as long as he checks in periodically. That could change under President Donald Trump, who has already launched efforts to follow through on his campaign promise of mass deportations of immigrants. That promise has raised concerns among economists as well as human rights advocates based on the effects of large-scale deportations in the past. The Trump administration has floated ideas that include building temporary detention tent facilities where the government can hold people while it fast tracks their cases as well as using military and local law enforcement to assist immigration officials. The team has already indicated its considering invoking the same law that the government used to round up and detain Japanese Americans during World War IIa moment in U.S. history the government later apologized for and is now widely criticized as racist and xenophobic. Erin Tsurumoto Grassi, whose grandparents were children when they were forced out of their homes under a notorious executive order issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, said Trumps plans will continue that legacy. Its part of a much larger existing problem in this country that ties back to white supremacy, she said. What happened to my family is not necessarily unique when you look at the history of this country, when you look at the things that have been done to people of color in this country. Adam Isacson of the human rights advocacy organization the Washington Office on Latin America said he expects the Trump team to try new, legally creative strategies this time around to bring about the promised deportations. Who had read the quarantine statutes of the 1940s of the U.S. code as a way to exclude almost 3 million people? Isacson said, referring to a policy known as Title 42 introduced by Trump in 2020 as a way to block asylum seekers at the border. I had never heard of it, but Stephen Miller had. People like Rodriguez, who have already been ordered removed, are likely to be targeted for arrest in the coming days as ICE officers work to meet newly established quotas. In several cases during Trumps first term in office, people with such orders sought protection from deportation by living in churches. The only thing that makes us different from other people is that we dont have status, but with everything else were the same, Rodriguez said. We want our children to do well. Planning a Mass Deportation To deport the number of people that Trump has discussed, the administration will have to figure out how to streamline the deportation process, which often drags out in lengthy court proceedings and then in the logistical hurdles of getting a country to agree to take someone back. In his first term, Trump deported more than 900,000 people, according to ICE data. Thats fewer than former President Barack Obama deported in either of his terms. The process of deporting someoneI think their only restraint is resources, Isacson said. Trump has declared a national emergency and ordered the Department of Defense to deploy military troops to assist with immigration enforcement. Incoming administration official Tom Homan, Trumps so-called border czar, has called the military a force multiplier for immigration enforcement efforts. The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the military from participating directly in civilian law enforcement, but troops could provide logistical support from construction to monitoring. For example, every president since George W. Bush has deployed National Guard troops to do logistical work at the border, including to reinforce barriers or monitor Border Patrol camera feeds. Military planes are also now conducting deportation flights. Project 2025, the conservative policy plan by the Heritage Foundation that several of Trumps early appointees helped write, calls for changing detention standards to allow ICE to hold people in tents. The state of Texas has already offered 1,400 acres of ranchland for the administration to build additional detention facilities. Under the first Trump administration, the military participated in building the border wall, and it could be called in to help with this construction as well. As Project 2025 suggested, ICE has already removed restrictions on officers ability to conduct immigration arrests in places like schools, religious buildings, hospitals and emergency shelters such as those used during the Los Angeles fires. And, in keeping with Project 2025s plans, Trumps Day One executive ordersincluded instructions for an expansion of a program called expedited removal, which allows immigration officials to issue a deportation order without going before a judge. Historically, the program applied only to people who just crossed the border, but in his first term, Trump attempted to expand it to include anyone who had been in the United States for less than two years. Initially stalled in court, te change was eventually allowed though later rescinded under former President Joe Biden. I think their hope is that there is some legal device or set of legal devices that can kind of do for them in the interior what Title 42 did for them on the border and allow them to sidestep the immigration laws in whole or in part, said Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants Rights Project. He noted that requiring hearings before a judge to secure a deportation order helps protect peoples due process rights. Its not complicated for the sake of being complicated, Jadwat said. The ACLU has already filed a lawsuit to challenge the administrations re-expansion of expedited removal. Beyond that, the Trump administration is expected to lean into a program known as 287(g) that allows ICE to deputize local law enforcement to do immigration work. Some cities and states, including California, already forbid local participation in that program. Kevin Johnson, a professor of law and Chicano studies at the University of California Davis, said he was especially worried about local law enforcement becoming involved in the mass deportation effort because of what happened in the 1930s, when local authorities rounded up people believed to be Mexicanincluding U.S. citizensand sent them south on trains and boats. We have rules and laws regulating removals from the country, but if we start down the path of mass arrests and quick-and-dirty deportations, then those rules are not likely to be followed, Johnson said. Effects of a Deportation Most mass deportation efforts are rooted in a nativist belief that immigrants take jobs from U.S.-born workers, according to Tom Wong, a professor of political science and founding director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Center at University of California, San Diego. He said that belief is neither accurate nor rational, but the effects can cause lasting harm. Immigrants are complements, not substitutes, he said, giving the example of an immigrant worker offering child care services so that a U.S.-born single mother can also work. He said that economists have found labor market shortages following mass deportations. The coming removals, he said, could lead to an increase in food prices as well as gaps in construction. Advocates pointed to the daunting task of rebuilding in the wake of the Los Angeles fires as a project that could be impacted by mass deportations. The American Immigration Council recently estimated that Trumps deportation plans could shrink the United States GDP by 4.2% to 6.8%. According to the immigration policy think tanks October report, undocumented workers paid $46.8 billion in federal taxes in 2022, along with $29.3 billion in state and local taxes, while contributing $22.6 billion to Social Security and $5.7 billion to Medicare. But Wong said he does not think messaging about potential economic harm will convince the voters who elected Trump. I think the American public is willing to pay the costs, Wong said. Its going to take a lot of pain before people realize how damaging mass deportation efforts are, he added. Wong said members of the public may begin to wake up to the problems caused by mass deportation once they see the effects on neighbors, coworkers, and loved ones. Rodriguez, the man who is among those facing potential imminent deportation under the second Trump administration, said he works two jobs, one in construction and the other at a restaurant. Ive never hurt anyone. Ive never asked the government to maintain me, he said. The only thing weve done is work every day. He first came to the United States in the 1990s, fleeing the civil war in Guatemala and the obligatory military service that came with it. Over the years, he tried to get attorneys to help him sort out his case, but for one reason or another, it never worked out. He remained undocumented. Meanwhile, he got married and started a family. Then in the mid-aughts, ICE deported him. I had my family and kids here. I was paying for a house, Rodriguez said. I had to come back. He crossed through the desert mountains and returned to California, but during the Obama administration, ICE found him again. This time, the agency allowed him to stay temporarily as long as he checked in periodically with its officers. Rodriguez said he is worried about what will happen to his family if ICE sends him back again. He doesnt want his children to move to Guatemala, and he knows they will suffer emotionally and financially in his absence. He said that when he was in ICE custody, teachers noticed a change in his sons behavior. The boy didnt play with his friends, and they ended up sending him to a counselor. Rodriguez is the breadwinner, supporting his children as they pursue college degrees. Under the law, I guess its right, but for many of us who have been here for years, the family is who suffers, he said. Growing Gardens Though some polls have found public support for mass deportations, Johnson, the Davis School of Law professor, said he believes that many will protest if Trumps threats become a reality. He noted that organized political movements in the Latino community didnt exist during the historical removals of the 1930s and 1950s in the way that they do today. There was no MALDEF that was going to sue to try to stop the repatriation, he said, referring to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, a prominent civil rights organization. He acknowledged that there appears to be a lot of support for mass removals, but he also predicted national outrage. Family separation, one of the Trump administrations key immigration policies in its first term, ended because the public couldnt stomach it, Johnson said. Tsurumoto Grassi, associate director of Alliance San Diego and a descendant of Japanese Americans whom the government forced from their homes during World War II, said the stories of resilience during previous immigration roundups can teach community members how to navigate the years ahead. Japanese Americans held under former President Franklin Roosevelts executive order made gardens and planted trees around the prison camps that were hastily constructed to separate them from the rest of society, she said. They found ways to still come together as a community and find their dignity in the midst of all that, Tsurumoto Grassi said. She said that community wisdom from those past experiences is among the ools that people can draw on today. How do we make it through a time when people are treating individuals like they are less than human? she said. We need to look to those stories to give us hope for how do we get through what looks to be a difficult time ahead. Rodriguez said hes hoping that the public will consider people like him before deciding to support the mass deportation effort. The most important thing is that society puts its hand on its heart and thinks about all the people who will be affected if this new administration does everything that its saying, he said. Kate Morrissey, Capital & Main This piece was originally published by Capital & Main, which reports from California on economic, political, and social issues.
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E-Commerce
The Trump administration and Elon Musk have spent the past several weeks upending the federal government. After essentially shutting down most operations of the nations foreign aid efforts through USAID, the next target appears to be NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Musks team has reportedly infiltrated NOAAs offices, and NOAA staff have been told to stop all contact with foreign nationals, which threatens the very nature of the agency’s work; international cooperation is crucial to both weather and fisheries activity because neither the atmosphere or the ocean are limited to U.S. borders. Employees are anticipating drastic staff and budgeting cuts. Project 2025 specifically noted NOAA as a target, as well. The Heritage Foundations 900-page right-wing playbook called the agency one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and recommended it be dismantled and many of its functions eliminated” and instead privatized. It’s not clear what that would look like, though experts have said it isn’t a good ideaand that private weather companies wouldn’t even want that change because they’d have to bear the cost of collecting weather data that’s currently given to them for free. NOAAs services are far-reaching; most prominently, it houses the National Weather Service, which provides forecasts for the country, and the National Hurricane Center, which issues warnings and forecasts for tropical cyclones. It’s also responsible for marine fisheries and even space weather predictionswhich can affect the GPS that all our phones rely on. Even if you dont live in an area at risk of hurricanes or eat seafood from fisheries managed and inspected by the agency, NOAA plays a huge role in your life. Everyone relies on NOAA, whether you realize it or not, says Jeff Watters, vice president of external affairs with the Ocean Conservancy, an environmental advocacy nonprofit. The services that NOAA provides touch basically everyone everyday, in some way or another. Weather forecasts, marine rescues, plastic pollution, and oil spills Because theres no NOAA logo under each local meteorologists forecast or on weather apps, most Americans may not realize that agency is actually providing the data that underpins Accuweather or the Weather Channel or their local news channel’s meteorological reports. But once NOAA’s functions “start to fall apart or degrade, Watters says, we’ll notice them pretty quickly. If our weather forecasting industry were to be entirely privatized, as Project 2025 envisions, it could leave entire areas of the country without proper forecasting and essentially in the dark. What about remote areas in Alaska? Watters asks. Is a [private] company going to invest in multimillion pieces of infrastructure to monitor and understand weather in those locations when theyre serving small-ish numbers of people? Americans needand have come to expectblanket weather forecasting coverage. If you break that system, I almost shudder to think of the ramifications, he says. As another example, the entire tsunami warning system is within NOAA. It’s another function Americans may not notice “until you are facing down a potential tsunami, and don’t have the prediction that a tsunami is going to hit,” Watters says. Multiple scientists reacting to the threats against NOAA have summed up its impact by simply noting that accurate, publicly available weather forecasts save lives. Beyond weather forecasts, NOAA manages the network that responds to stranded marine mammals, like beached whales or dolphins that need rehabilitation. They’re essentially first responders” for sick, injured, or distressed animals from whales and dolphins to seals and sea lions, Watters notes. Its also responsible for the stewardship of nearly everything in the ocean, from managing marine sanctuaries and coral reefs (which are in severe decline) to monitoring marine debris, which includes plastic pollution. Ocean Conservancy does a lot of work on the plastic pollution front, and Watters notes that two recent pieces of legislations to bolster the marine debris programthe Save Our Seas Act and Save Our Seas 2.0were actually signed by Trump during his first term. President Trump should be proud of that part of what NOAA does, he says, and to turn our backs on those important bodies of work would be hugely damaging to the ocean environment. Understanding oil spills also falls under NOAAs purview. Theres a small but mighty team within the agency that works on models to predict the movement of oil, so whenever theres a spill, it can explain how it will spread and calculate how much oil might be in the water. If we don’t have that function and a big oil spill happens, we have no way of figuring out how to deal with it, Watters says. NOAA also helps recover funds from those responsible for oil spills; over the last 30 years, that’s totaled more than $10 billion. Without NOAA, there may not be that retribution, which is crucial for restoring coastal communities. NOAA is bipartisanand stopping it doesnt stop climate change Project 2025 takes aim at NOAA for its role in driving what it calls the climate change alarm industry. The Trump administration has been purging mentions of climate change, and any data associated with it, from government websites. But dismantling NOAA doesnt stop the effects of climate change; it would just limit how prepared we are for them. NOAA also, notably, doesnt have a partisan alliance. Its actually historically had bipartisan support. Watters calls it the impartial eyes and ears and what’s going on in our atmosphere and in our ocean. NOAA doesnt relay this data with any political bias or agenda, it does so from a purely scientific view that information and transparency matters. It is up to the administration to decide whether they want to actually do anything about climate or not, he adds. But to cut off our eyes and ears and say we’re going to face the world blindfolded seems like not a very good idea. All of NOAAs powers and responsibilities have been given to it by Congress over decades, and written ito law. Watters didnt share an opinion on Neil Jacobs, Trumps nominee to head NOAA who was cited for misconduct in an incident known as Sharpiegate in 2019. But Watters emphasized the need, in Jacobs confirmation hearing, for senators to ask about the administrations plans for the agency. (Congress also has jurisdiction over NOAA’s activities, so the threats to the agency are another example of how Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is embarking on illegal actions across government departments. DOGE itself isn’t even a federal agency, as the creation of new cabinet-level departments needs approval from Congress.) Congress has given so much direction and responsibility to this agency, and American people depend on it. If someone has plans for this agency and isn’t saying so, shouldn’t we have a conversation about that? he says. It shouldn’t just be up to someone behind the scene deciding that they want to tear an agency apart. The services that NOAA provides are too important for us to not have a national conversation about the future of the agency.
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E-Commerce
Appointing a chief of staff is a critical first step for any CEO looking to make impactful leadership decisions. But an executive who merely utilizes their chief of staff as an administrative extra set of hands risks missing out on meaningful transformation opportunities. The critical decision to position a chief of staff as a true executive partner, when executed well, can be a bold investment that impacts a CEOs legacy. Based on my own experience as a chief of staff for a Series A unicorn-to-be and my current work coaching and placing these professionals, Ive seen firsthand that todays chiefs of staff act as leadership amplifiers. They occupy a unique position at the top of the organizational chart, where they can operate across teams without being burdened by the direct management of a department. This freedom allows them to shield their CEOs from distractions and ensure they focus on the work that truly matterstheir unique strengths, vision, and decision-making. An open secret and unfair advantage Understanding and defining the role remains a challenge. As a former partner at Andreessen Horowitz put it, appointing a CEO-whispering talent as one of the firms inaugural chiefs of staff made sense because nobody knew what that meant. I’ve seen this asymmetry of understanding first-hand in hundreds of conversations with executives. For Jamie Hodari, CEO and cofounder of Industrious, a chief of staff is a clear necessity. Who wouldnt want to be in two places at once? The best chief of staff relationship enables exactly that. Sitting alongside his sixth chief of staff since founding his company, Hodari told me, Ive never encountered a hard problem at work where two smart people trying to think through it wasnt preferable to one. But Ive also spoken with CEOs who have been given the misguided view that this position is merely an administrative role with a fancy title. Bridging this executive knowledge gap promises so much upside that McKinsey and BCG have intensified their thought leadership around this role in recent white papers and podcasts. Christie Horvath, CEO of pet healthcare company Wagmo, says that she views her chief of staff as an extension of her own brain. The chief of staff on her team takes on tasks that can be delegated to other departmentstheyre often CEO-led initiatives where the chief of staff must operate as a true strategic partner, not just a project manager. Unleashing emerging leaders Ive seen chief of staffs being tasked with all sorts of significant initiatives by savvy CEOs. These might include projects like: Spearheading the hiring process for other C-Level roles Company-wide Rhythm of Business and Stakeholder Management Plans Standing in and speaking for the CEO in high-stakes meetings . . . all with little to no guidance. Their often-uncommon career trajectoriesspanning disciplines like consulting, law, and product developmentalso equip chiefs of staff to bring fresh, outsider perspectives that might not otherwise appear in executive leadership meetings. And while 75% of chiefs of staff support CEOs, many others work with CFOs, CHROs, or department heads, tailoring their expertise to the leaders scope. Hire for a partner, not a position A trusted right hand can create new value that even the CEO or board of directors might not see. While the position is usually leveled as a middle-management role, the chief of staff is one-of-one in the corporate hierarchy, reporting directly to a boss several levels more senior. These individuals command competitive salaries even in a challenging job market, reflecting the rigors of the position. We see this in the data from our most recent Ask a Chief of Staff compensation reportcompared to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, average chief of staff salaries across industries are approximately 49% higher than the latest median salary figures for general and operations managers. Taking on the $150 billion pet care industry as a leadership duo with her chief of staff, Horvath shared with me that, a huge part of what makes this partnership successful is the “chemistry”how easily my chief of staff can anticipate what I envision. The key is to hire someone who complements your skill set and shores up areas where youre less effective, rather than duplicating your strengths. The most important takeaway for CEOs is that this role is not merely a positionits a partnership. Empowering a chief of staff as a true C-suite partner is a bold future-focused move, requiring the highest degree of self-awareness, trust, and adaptability from a chief executive.
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E-Commerce
Maybe I should begin this article by arguing that nothing spices up a mundane meeting like a creative, beautiful, or hilarious background for your Zoom calls. But the reality is that most of us just need to hide messy offices, guestroom beds, or dirty-dish-filled kitchens. These three websites offer up almost half a million free Zoom backgrounds for your perusal, so forget tidying up and get that scrolling finger ready. Pexels: Something for everyone The undisputed king of free Zoom backgrounds, Pexels houses more than 450,000 photos and more than 50,000 videos in its Zoom section. With that many options, you have . . . well, options. Whether you’re looking for something professional, fun, or quirky, Pexels has you covered: nature, home, office, space, peopleyou name it. If you cant find it here, it might not exist. Photos can be filtered by orientation, size, and color to help you whittle down your selection. They can also be sorted by popularity or latest additions. Unsplash: Modern masterpieces With only (only?!) 10,000 or so Zoom background images, Unsplash cant hold a candle to Pexelss giant collection, but this site specializes in slick backgrounds that will make your Zoom calls look posh and polished. There are some great options here, mostly skewing to the modern end of the spectrum. Theyre like what your office could look like if you had the time, money, awesome lighting, and daily cleaning service. Images can be filtered by landscape and portrait orientations, and sorted by relevance, date, and curated, which features hand-picked selections. Freepik: No nonsense, no distractions When you need a background to hide your background, Freepik has a wonderful selection of understated options. There are lots of plants here. Lots and lots of plants. However, theres also a great selection of slightly-blurred backgrounds that give your setup a nice, real-life depth of field to make things seem as realistic as possible. With not-quite 4,000 images on hand, this is the smallest collection of the bunch, but its a great place to start if youre looking for something neutral and nondescript. Its also got the most robust searching features, with more than a dozen filtering options to help you hone in on a most excellent downloadable.
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E-Commerce
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