Politics and views in the United States.

FEMA's Texas flood response gets more criticism for unanswered calls. Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego-Garcia want guidance about a potential second deportation. And new polls show not as many Americans are worried about the state of democracy.

TRANSCRIPT

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Welcome to 2025 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

It's hard to believe the devastation.

Trees that are 100 years old just ripped out of the ground.

I've never seen anything like it.

I've seen a lot of bad ones.

I've gone to a lot of hurricanes, a lot of tornadoes.

I've never seen anything like this.

President Donald Trump touring the devastation in Central Texas after historic flooding on July 4th.

But new reports show the Federal Emergency Management Agency failed to answer thousands of calls from survivors.

The Homeland Security Department let go call center employees July 5th when their contracts expired.

In a cost-cutting measure, contracts over $100,000 have to get approval from Secretary Kristi Noem.

The FEMA contracts were renewed after having lapsed for five days.

Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia are working to protect him from a second deportation.

The Maryland man was one of nearly 300 accused of gang ties and taken to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

Now back in the US, he faces criminal charges, but one of his lawyers says they're afraid he could be deported before that case is heard.

And Simon Sandoval-Motionberg says Abrego Garcia could face grave threats if deported because he's accused of being an MS-13.

There are many, many countries in which he might well suffer persecution on that grounds.

In addition, it's unclear whatever country he would be sent to, whether he would be even at liberty in that country or whether he would be incarcerated.

Federal judges have slowed or halted parts of the Trump administration's immigration agenda.

A federal judge in Los Angeles just stopped California immigration arrests initiated solely because of race. in the state continues to spark angry protests.

In a separate ruling, the US Supreme Court ruled the administration could move ahead with deporting migrants to countries they aren't from.

Democratic lawmakers visited Alligator Alcatraz, a new Florida immigration detention center, after being temporarily denied entry for what Homeland Security called safety concerns.

Florida Democratic Representative Maxwell Frost describes the conditions inside as barbaric and says elected officials will need to keep up the pressure.

We actually heard reports from many immigrants within the facility that said, "Well, yesterday out of nowhere, They let us take a shower.

They had to let us take a shower all week.

Yesterday, out of nowhere, the food got a little better than it's been before.

And of course, all of this is in connection to the tour we were doing.

He says one problem is officials seem to be intentionally ambiguous about who's in charge there.

Though it's a federally commissioned facility, the state is slated to run it.

But Frost and the other lawmakers report seeing private third-party security contractors doing most of the work.

When asked, the security officers said their orders came from immigration and customs enforcement.

New polls show 75 percent of Americans feel democracy is threatened see political violence as a growing problem.

More than half of all people surveyed across party lines feel there is a serious threat to American democracy, but that's actually down from two years ago.

In part because Republicans feel there was a larger threat to democracy when Joe Biden was president.

Associate Supreme Court Justice Katonji Brown-Jackson says the state of democracy keeps her up at night.

I am really very interested in getting people to focus and to invest and to pay attention to what is happening in our country and in our government.

I'm Edwin J.Viera for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.

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