ICE Prisons, Trump Says ‘You’re Fired’ to U.S. Attorney, Gentrification in Pittsburgh

Coming up on today’s show:

• Tens of thousands of immigrants detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were forced to work for $1.00 a day, or for nothing at all, according to a new class action lawsuit against one of America’s largest private prison companies. Jacqueline Stevens, a professor and director of Northwestern University’s Deportation Research Clinic, has the details.

• In a tweet sent out Saturday afternoon, Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said he had been fired after refusing to resign from his post. The Trump Administration asked Bharara and 45 other U.S. attorneys, all Obama appointees, to resign on Friday. Josh Dawsey, a White House reporter for POLITICO, says this is more than party politics. 

• President Obama’s failure to shutter the Guantánamo Bay detention center is turning into an opportunity for the Trump Administration, which wants to detain terror suspects at the military site. Jennifer Daskal, assistant professor at American University Washington College of Law and a former counsel to the assistant attorney general for National Security at the Department of Justice, explains. 

• Katharine Kollins,president of the Southeastern Wind Coalition, discusses the fight over renewable energy growth in North Carolina, where Republicans are divided over wind technology. The Tar Heel State’s first wind farm may end up being its only one.

• The global urbanization boom has increased the demand for concrete and asphalt, which requires a tremendous amount of sand mining. The result has created considerable environmental damage, and even a black market for sand. Vince Beiser, a journalist covering the global sand crisis, weighs in. 

• Dave Zirin, author and sports editor for The Nation and host of the podcast “Edge of Sports,” reflects on the criticism aimed at Colin Kaepernick, who has said he will end his kneeling protests during the national anthem now that he is free agent. 

• James Logbo, a Pittsburgh transplant, and Nila Peyton, a native of The Steel City, discuss their perspectives on gentrification in this Pennsylvania city. This is the latest segment in The Takeaway’s series, “Uncomfortable Truths: Confronting Racism in America.”