Over the last week since Donald Trump was declared the winner of the 2016 Presidential Election, there have been an increase in the number of reports of harassment and bullying directed at students of color and religious minorities.
Speaking to Lesley Stahl last night on CBS' 60 Minutes, President-elect Donald Trump addressed the recent incidents.
Trump said he was "saddened" by the news and implored people to "stop it".Susan Reed, a managing attorney at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center in Kalamazoo, joined Stateside to talk about the reported incidents and what citizens should do if they are faced with any harassment or intimidation.
According to Reed, these type of incidents are trending higher than after the September 11 attacks.
One of the major concerns by many immigrants are the statements Trump made throughout his campaign that he plans to deport several million illegal immigrants. In his 60 Minutes interview, he said he will "get the people that are criminals and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably 2 million, it could be even 3 million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate."
Reed says we will likely see more workplace enforcement actions to find illegal immigrants, but according to her, there are already deportation squads in place. They are called fugitive operations teams utilized by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Listen to the full interview above to hear more about the harassment and intimidation incidents, and she says "our immigration system has always been designed to perpetuate white supremacy.”
(Subscribe to the Stateside podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or with this RSS link)
Watch Donald Trump's 60 Minutes interview below