Trump Wants to Detain More Immigrants.

When his three young children woke up in their small house in Oakland one morning a few weeks ago, Maguiber wasn’t home. That wasn’t so unusual. The 27-year-old dad worked long hours, juggling three different jobs cleaning in two hotels and a restaurant.

But then the children’s mother told Kevin, 8, Gabriela, 4, and Christopher, 2, that their father had been taken away to jail. Before dawn that morning, two officers had knocked on the door. They said they were investigating a hit-and-run, and they asked to see Maguiber. (His attorney asked that we not use his last name until his immigration status is resolved.) He walked out to the driveway, while Yibi Heras, his wife, watched from the door.

It was only after Maguiber took out his car registration that he realized the officers were Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, not local police, she said. There had been no hit-and-run. The agents handcuffed Maguiber and put him into their SUV. They told Heras that her husband could call her later, after he had been booked into immigration detention.

In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order greatly expanding the categories of undocumented people that law enforcement officials should prioritize for deportation. Since then, thousands of people have been detained around the country.

Trump has promised to deport 2 million to 3 million people this year alone. For comparison, President Barack Obama deported 2.75 million people over the course of eight years.

In order to deport people, the government typically must detain them first. But if the system is already at capacity, where will all these new detainees go? A KQED investigation found the government can likely ramp up detention capacity quickly — and California’s jails could play a key part.

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Chris Alexakis