We also talked about the pressure building inside the immigration court system. That concern is understandable. EOIR has continued announcing additional immigration judges and temporary immigration judges, including a public April 8, 2026 update announcing 15 immigration judges and 17 temporary immigration judges. More staffing does not answer every due process concern, but it does signal continued pressure toward faster case movement.

I also want parents to take one message very seriously: do not assume that a child who grew up in the United States automatically became a U.S. citizen. I have seen too many painful cases where a young adult believed that he or she could vote, register, or answer “yes” to a citizenship question without fully understanding the consequences. Before anyone registers to vote, signs a form, or answers a citizenship question, that person should know exactly what his or her legal status is.

Another point from the interview remains just as important as ever: be careful who prepares your immigration paperwork. A poorly prepared filing is not a small problem. It can affect timing, eligibility, credibility, and, in some cases, future defense options. The cost of a mistake is often much greater than people expect.

If you heard the interview this morning and you are unsure how these developments may affect your case, take the time to review your history carefully before filing anything new. Truthfulness, consistency, and proper legal guidance matter now more than ever.

ENGLISH TRANSCRIPT

LOURDES UBIETA:
Well, two topics that I wanted to discuss with you, friends. Today the number of self-deported people has gone up to two million since President Trump’s administration, serving as number 47. Well… two million people have self-deported from the country. Of those millions who entered, mostly during President Biden’s administration, in addition to those two million who have self-deported, who have decided to leave, there is also a significant number of people who have been deported.

And within all of this immigration process, deportations of immigrants to third countries have begun. And many have already begun arriving in one of our countries, Costa Rica, right? A first group of immigrants deported from the United States to third countries arrived in Costa Rica. There were about 25 of them, citizens of Albania, Cameroon, China, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Kenya, Morocco. All those people had entered here, dear listeners, through the southern border. We knew who they were: Cameroon, Kenya, Morocco… well, deported, and they arrived in Costa Rica.

I want to welcome immigration attorney Martha Arias, who is with us at this hour. Attorney, it has been a long time since we talked. Welcome to your home.

ATTORNEY MARTHA ARIAS:
Yes, yes, Lourdes. Days without talking. A pleasure to speak with you and with all that audience. And even better, a pleasure to see you, because now we have…

LOURDES UBIETA:
There we have our immigration attorney on screen, dear listeners. It is no longer only hearing her, but now we see her. A pleasure, attorney.

ATTORNEY MARTHA ARIAS:
Yes, the same. Now we have put a face to the voice, that is it.

LOURDES UBIETA:
Welcome, as always, to your home. You know that we appreciate you very much here at Radio Libre and we thank you for having accompanied us for so long through all these immigration crises that we have had in recent times. And well, I wanted, first of all, to know your opinion, right?, because the figures that have reached us are two million — the number is not round, but almost — self-deported people, that is, people who have decided to leave the country. And then I understand that 900,000, correct me, attorney, if I am wrong, is the number of people who have indeed been deported effectively from the United States.

A process that for some is slow, for others, in the middle of so many people who have to be processed, well… I do not know how you see it, whether it seems to you that we are going fast, whether it seems to you that it is going slowly, how you see this process.

ATTORNEY MARTHA ARIAS:
I see that those figures appear to be real and a very close estimate. I suddenly think that the deported people may even be more, if we add those who are deported directly from the border, plus those that the judges are deporting. So I estimate that that figure is quite close, Lourdes. And what I also believe is that those quantities will increase even more soon.

The reason is that they are hiring more judges for these cases, which are the ones they call temporary judges. Last week, for example, I received a communication from the department of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, or as we call it, EOIR, by its initials, which said that 17 temporary judges and 19 new judges were sworn in. So if you add them up, there are more than 30 judges sworn in in one week who are obviously going to exercise functions as immigration judges to help in these mass deportation processes that the president announced and is carrying out.

LOURDES UBIETA:
Yes. In the year 2025, the figure being handled for deported people was 600,000. Between January 20 and December 31 of 2025. Fiscal year 2026, which is under way, which counts only October 2025 to February 2026, immigration judges have issued 262,021 deportation orders and voluntary departures.

There are also ICE arrests during the first year of the Trump administration, arrests carried out for having… do you remember?, or having applied voluntary departures. In short, there is a topic that is also the nationality of the people. Basically we are speaking of nationals of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, but also of other African countries, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

In this process that is in full, let us say, in full execution, and we see the use of third countries, attorney, in this case Costa Rica, when a person is deported to a third country, what is the objective of that? Why can that person not be deported to…? Because here there are nationals of Guatemala and Honduras. Instead of being deported to their own countries, why are they deported to a third country like Costa Rica?

ATTORNEY MARTHA ARIAS:
Well, it may be that these people were approved for withholding of removal. Most of those are the cases. Withholding of removal is a deportation that is not carried out, it is held back, because the person may receive future persecution in his or her country.

So that figure of withholding of removal, which is very similar to asylum… The difference is that in asylum the person had past persecution and is going to have future persecution. In withholding, the person is going to have future persecution.

When they give withholding to the person, the person can live and work in the United States, but the statute does authorize that that person can be sent to a third country that is not the person’s country from which he or she asked for withholding, where his or her life is in danger, and this if that third country receives the person.

So, historically, withholding… this is the first time, at least in my 23 years that I have been practicing as an immigration attorney, that I see the government of the United States seek that third country, make the arrangement with that third country, and send the people there. Because although this has indeed always been in the statute, Lourdes, and let me clarify it, because sometimes people think that this is the first time that this has happened. Yes, it is the first time that it happens, that people are sent and that the government makes the arrangement. But it is not that this is not in the statute and that it was created from one day to the next. This has always existed in the statute, especially for people with withholding.

Now, the problem here, which is where much of the complaint comes from, is that many of those people who are also being sent there do not have withholding either. They are people who came here to request asylum and their country will not receive them back. So that is another situation for which they are sending these people. So it is like a combination of those people who have withholding and those whose petition in the United States has been denied and whose country will not receive them back.

I do not know why it is seen that the countries they are sending to Costa Rica, for example, now these latest ones, are from Albania, Cameroon, China, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Kenya, Morocco. I, like you, ask myself why. Why Honduras here? Of course, a withholding case.

LOURDES UBIETA:
Of course, a withholding case. Exactly. Well, what is interesting is that Costa Rica is also granting immigration status to some of them because in 2025 they received 200 deportees from the United States and 85 were given… pardon me, of 285, they were repatriated to their countries of origin, attorney. That is to say, what I cannot understand is why they do not repatriate them directly from the United States to their countries. I imagine it will be because of what you explain and not pass through a third country. In the end, many, in the case of Costa Rica, stay in Costa Rica and are given an immigration status.

ATTORNEY MARTHA ARIAS:
Exactly. It is what Costa Rica… What Costa Rica, I understand, did with the United States is first to treat them humanely and give them housing for a week, review their asylum cases to see if they qualify, and if not, send them to other countries, but not to countries where they are going to receive persecution.

I cannot imagine… it is that in the end those who were repatriated to their own country may be that they finally made some arrangement with their country, or the person said, “Well, I am going to my country, I prefer to go to my country than stay here.” Who knows how the situation was. The point is that they are indeed reviewing asylum petitions there, in Costa Rica, for those who apply.

LOURDES UBIETA:
We are speaking with immigration attorney Martha Arias, dear listeners, at this hour with us live. Attorney, in Florida changes are going to be implemented in driver’s licenses. Dear listeners, pay attention to this.

As of January 1, 2027, implementation of law HB 991 begins. We have discussed it in other programs. What this law establishes is that all licenses and identifications issued in the state of Florida will explicitly indicate whether the person carrying that identification is a United States citizen or whether he or she has another legal status. Basically they are going to have little letters that say “citizen” or “non-citizen.” Attorney, what do you think of this?

ATTORNEY MARTHA ARIAS:
It seems to me… let us see, here I say: obviously for the immigrant who does not have legal status it is going to be problematic, but it is not something that is going to cause so much upheaval, I think, because today many people who do not have legal status still cannot obtain the license. Those who obtain the license are residents or citizens or have a legal status, such as some tourist visa, I mean, investor visa, student visa, any visa that gives that status. So, suddenly, it is not the most shocking thing because we have already seen that Florida has been very strict in granting licenses to people without status.

What does seem shocking to me is the person who took the risk or was so… well, I do not know what word to use that is not a word of craziness, but a person who took the risk, a person who has the madness to get a driver’s license saying he or she is an American citizen. There they are really going to catch that person with solid proof for a possible deportation.

And let me explain it, Lourdes. I have had cases where the person used a birth certificate of a person from Puerto Rico, for example, saying that he or she is an American citizen, and they get the license. What happens is that sometimes it is difficult for the government to prove to the person that he or she did that, because although that certificate appears in that file, in that record of the person with Florida, with the Department of Motor Vehicles, there were ways there, especially before, of achieving a defense.

Once you have a driver’s license with a photo that says that you are an American citizen, if that person committed fraud, then it is going to be super easy for the government to prove that fraud to that person. So here is where I go with this: it should give a lot of fear to those who like to do those crazy things, because here it is indeed going to be strong proof. One.

Two, another thing. What I think: the people who have, especially the young people, Lourdes, the young people, for God’s sake, or that the parents who are listening to us tell the young people to be very careful about voting in a federal, state, or local election without even asking whether they are citizens or not.

Even though it may seem illogical, it happens many times and I have seen it thousands of times. Because look: a young person arrives in the United States very young, at two years old, three years old, who knows. The father and mother are American citizens. The young person never became a citizen, but he has in his mind that this is his country, he speaks perfect English, he lives here and thinks he can vote. And he gets to school and they say, “Look, it is time to register,” I do not know what, and they register him, as used to happen before. Or who knows who calls him and registers him, and that young person votes. My God, what do you think? If that young person votes, then it remains recorded that he voted or said that he was an American citizen without being one. And that is deportation without the right to have a waiver, Lourdes. That one goes deported for life.

LOURDES UBIETA:
It ends in deportation without the right to a waiver.

ATTORNEY MARTHA ARIAS:
What do you think? So here is where I say: even more so today, young people must protect themselves and be careful, because they are going to have a license and they are not going to be able to say to the department, with complete ease, “It is that I am a citizen.” Obviously it always has to be proven, but they have to be even more careful.

So it is a measure that is going to impact many things in the immigration part, but also those who are friends of what is not good or not correct have to be even more careful, because now it is indeed more difficult.

Lourdes, I was reading a summary of that project, that bill, of that law that passed. Look, there is one thing that catches my attention among many, but this also has to do with immigrants, and it is that those who are going to be candidates and who have dual citizenship are going to have to express it also to the Department of Motor Vehicles. That sounds a little complicated to me. I do not know if they are going to prevent them from being… from being candidates. What is that? Why was that required? Because to me everything has a reason, right? Why that requirement?

I know that at the federal level there are certain offices that a person who was not born in the United States cannot exercise, like the presidency. Others yes. So why here are they going to ask them to publish before the Department of Motor Vehicles their dual citizenship?

Another thing, that is for candidates who are going to be candidates for public office. And it also speaks, it says — and look, this is interesting — starting on July 1 a five-year statute of limitations is created for people who have been accused or convicted of a felony in violation of the election code. This is also something interesting.

Why? Because it means that there is going to be a statute of limitations, which means like a deadline within which charges can be brought against a person who has violated the statute or the election code as a felony. So it seems to me that in these five years, starting July 1, 2026 — because that part of the bill begins now in July — people who may have committed some violation in the election statute are going to be able to receive felony charges.

And this is delicate because, returning to the point of those young people who did not know or who, I do not know, may receive those notifications of having committed a felony. What would the advice be? Speak with your attorney. And here they are going to need two attorneys: the criminal attorney and the immigration attorney, so that the two of them handle this in a way that possibly that person does not have greater consequences.

That is why this starts in July. So we not only have the driver’s license part, there are many other things that, especially in terms of elections and candidates, are also going to have very interesting effects, I would say — I do not have a more specific word than “interesting” — they are really going to be delicate or sensitive, that is the word, for many immigrants.

LOURDES UBIETA:
Here I have a listener who tells us that the United States Embassy in the Dominican Republic has emphasized telling the truth and not presenting false documents. It seems there are cases of United States visa fraud and they say that fraud in visa applications not only affects immigration opportunities, but can also lead you to judicial proceedings and prison sentences in the Dominican Republic.

The United States Embassy — United States visa fraud can close the doors for life — the United States Embassy in Santo Domingo is warning. They have alerted about the serious consequences of committing fraud in those visa applications. We return to the usual, to the first point. Lying on an application for any type of document in the United States is a felony.

ATTORNEY MARTHA ARIAS:
Exactly. And you have to be careful because now, more than ever, with the denaturalization process — which is another of the goals of the current government — they can review or revisit all those immigration applications of people to determine whether that person committed fraud or lied.

Look how delicate this is. Fraud, obviously, implies a little more. It is a conduct that the person has to do a little more. Misrepresentation or lying is different, because it is simply something that the person may have said under oath to an immigration officer or may have placed in the applications, which are also under oath.

So if a person lied or committed something called misrepresentation, that person can also have this very strong consequence. That is where I come in, as an attorney, and tell people: today more than ever be careful. To whom do you give your immigration case? To whom? There are many people who are the lady on the corner or over there who fills out applications and I do not know what. Well, notice that if that person fills out that application badly, it is going to have these serious consequences and even a denaturalization process, at least during this administration.

LOURDES UBIETA:
Attorney, as always, a pleasure. Martha Arias, dear listeners, if you need an immigration attorney, Martha Arias is there, ready to take your consultations. My dear listeners, if there is something delicate, it is precisely an immigration process in the United States, not only because of the economic costs — which would be the least of it — but also because of how much a process or petition in the United States can be delayed if you do something wrong. And let us say, if it is in good faith, even being in good faith, right, attorney?, how long a poorly done filing takes to set that filing back and start again, undo it… and you know that time passes inexorably. That is what cannot be recovered. So…

ATTORNEY MARTHA ARIAS:
If you allow me one second, this note is important: the current administration has ordered all immigration officers that when a residency is denied, that person is automatically sent to a deportation process in court. So a badly done process is no longer like before, when one simply filed it again. Now you go to court directly.

LOURDES UBIETA:
Just imagine. Well, too much risk. Martha Arias, thank you for joining us today, attorney. A pleasure, and a pleasure to see you on streaming.

ATTORNEY MARTHA ARIAS:
Thank you, thank you. A pleasure to see you and the whole studio. I love all the flags.

LOURDES UBIETA:
You have to come one day when we have the Colombian one. Look, there it is.

ATTORNEY MARTHA ARIAS:
Yes, I see the Colombian flag there. Yes, exactly.

LOURDES UBIETA:
Well, a big hug, attorney.

ATTORNEY MARTHA ARIAS:
Thank you. Happy day to everyone.