Trump’s Joe Rogan Problem, Trump Won’t Bring Home Dad They Deported by Mistake, & "Liberation Day"
PDS Published 04/01/2025
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The Trump administration just admitted that it mistakenly deported a Maryland father to a Salvadoran prison despite the fact that he was in the U.S. legally with protected status that prohibited the government from sending him to El Salvador.
And the reason? Well, in court filings, lawyers for the Trump administration said that the man was deported “because of an administrative error,” even though ICE “was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador.”
And now, the man’s family is suing, but Trump’s lawyers claim that American courts don’t have the jurisdiction to bring him back.
Right, so the man in question is Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia (Kill-Mar Are-Mondo Ah-Bray-Go Gar-See-Uh).
And according to court records, he is a Salvadoran national who came to America in 2011 when he was 16 after fleeing gang threats.
And in 2019, a U.S. immigration judge granted him a kind of protected legal status called “withholding of removal.”
Which means he was the subject of a deportation order but still was allowed to stay in the U.S. and the government can’t deport him back to Salvador because he’s more likely than not to face harm.
With the judge there specifically citing the fact that he would likely be targeted by Salvadoran gangs if he was deported.
Additionally, it’s also been reported that Ah-Bray-Go Gar-See-Uh is married to a U.S. citizen and has a 5-year-old disabled child who is also a U.S. citizen, though, notably, it doesn’t appear that he has a green card.
But, as far as what went down specifically, according to The Atlantic, which first broke the story, Ah-Bray-Go Gar-See-Uh was stopped by ICE agents on the way to pick up his son from the house of the boy’s grandmother on March 12.
Allegedly, the agents told him his protected status had changed, waited for his wife to come to the scene to take care of his child, and then drove him away in handcuffs.
And within two days, he had been transferred to an ICE staging facility in Texas.
Then, one day after that, on March 15, he was placed on one of the three flights the Trump administration deported to be imprisoned in El Salvador’s “Terrorism Confinement Center.”
This despite concerns about due process, questionable legality — especially because most of the deportees were Venezuelan — and the fact that a judge ordered the flights to turn around or stay on the ground.
And since he was deported, Ah-Bray-Go Gar-See-Uh’s family said they have had zero contact with him, but his wife said she identified him based on his tattoos and scars in news photographs released by the Salvadoran president of the prison.
Which, notably, is also the same prison that Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem did her widely criticized tour and social media blitz last week.
Now, one VERY important thing to keep in mind here is that, in addition to having protected status, Ah-Bray-Go Gar-See-Uh has not been charged with any kind of crime.
This despite the fact you had JD Vance falsely claiming on X that court documents show “he was a convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right to be here.”[]
But, as Axios explains:
“Ah-Bray-Go Gar-See-Uh has not been convicted of gang-related crimes” — he was just accused of it in court.
Right, while Vance didn’t link to the evidence he was talking about, the documents he at least appears to be referring to are court filings from Trump administration lawyers.
And there, the lawyers alleging that, during Ah-Bray-Go Gar-See-Uh’s 2019 deporation proceedings, an informant told ICE that he was a member of the gang MS-13, and he did not present evidence to rebut those claims.
But Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, a lawyer for Ah-Bray-Go Gar-See-Uh, said the allegations are false and stem from an incident in 2019 where he and three others were detained by police in a Maryland Home Depot parking lot.
And, during questioning, one man told officers that Ah-Bray-Go Gar-See-Uh was a gang member — but that man offered no proof, and police filings show that the officers didn’t believe him and refused to identify him as a gang member.
With the attorney adding that since Ah-Bray-Go Gar-See-Uh was granted his “withholding of removal” in 2019, he has had no contact with any law enforcement agency and has complied with requirements to check in annually with ICE.
But regardless of the gang-tie allegations, Sandoval-Moshenberg argues that this deportation is flatly illegal because, no matter how you might feel about it, a judge explicitly protected Ah-Bray-Go Gar-See-Uh from being deported.
Right, if the government wants to deport someone with protected status, they usually have to reopen the case and introduce new evidence for deportation.
Which is why you even have government attorneys telling The Atlantic that they are stunned by this case.
With Sandoval-Moshenberg also telling the outlet that he believes Trump officials deported his client, quote:
“through extrajudicial means because they believed that going through the immigration judge process took too long, and they feared that they might not win all of their cases.’’
Adding that he’s never seen a case government knowingly deported someone who had received protected legal status from an immigration judge.
Right, and to that point, Trump’s lawyers aren’t even trying to hide the fact that they knew he had protected status — in their court filings, they explicitly wrote:
“ICE was aware of this grant of withholding of removal at the time [of] Ah-Bray-Go Gar-See-Uh removal from the United States. Reference was made to this status on internal forms.”
With the lawyers explaining that Ah-Bray-Go Gar-See-Uh wasn’t on the initial manifest of the deportation flight, but was listed “as an alternate” who got “moved up the list” as other detainees were removed from the flight.
Claiming that the flight manifest “did not indicate that Abrego-Garcia should not be removed” and adding:
“Through administrative error, Ah-Bray-Go Gar-See-Uh was removed from the United States to El Salvador. This was an oversight.”
But going on to insist that his deportation was carried out “in good faith” because of his “purported membership in MS-13.”
And that’s actually super significant because, according to The Atlantic:
“The case appears to be the first time the Trump administration has admitted to errors when it sent three planeloads of Salvadoran and Venezuelan deportees” to the Salvadoran prison.
Right, as we’ve talked about before, attorneys for some of those people have accused the Trump administration of falsely labeling their clients as gang members because of their tattoos that have nothing to do with gangs.
But Trump officials have disputed those claims amid widespread concerns about violations of due process.
Now, as far as what happens next with Ah-Bray-Go Gar-See-Uh’s case, lawyers representing him and his family have asked the court to order the Trump administration to ask for his return.
Even if that means withholding payment to the Salvadoran government, which has claimed it is getting $6 million annually to jail U.S. deportees.
But, on the other side, the Trump administration has asked the court to dismiss those requests on multiple grounds.
Arguing that Trump’s “primacy in foreign affairs” outweighs the interests of Ah-Bray-Go Gar-See-Uh and his family.
And, as I mentioned earlier, claiming that U.S. courts don’t have the jurisdiction to order his release.
But Sandoval-Moshenberg has hit back against that last argument, telling The Atlantic:
“If that’s true, the immigration laws are meaningless—all of them—because the government can deport whoever they want, wherever they want, whenever they want, and no court can do anything about it once it’s done.”
So for now, we’ll just have to wait and see how this plays out, but, in the meantime, unsurprisingly, this whole situation has gotten a ton of backlash.
In fact, Trump’s broader deportation tactics are so controversial that you even have some unlikely voices condemning them.
This includes the likes of Joe Rogan, who talked about these efforts on his podcast this weekend with political commentator Konstantin Kisin (Costantine kissin’).
And while Rogan did praise Trump for lowering the number of illegal migrant crossings at the border, we also saw this:
ROGAN: “The thing is, like, you got to get scared that people who are not criminals are getting, like, lassoed up and deported and sent to, like, El Salvador prisons.” 2:33:11-2:33:27
KISIN: “When you do things quickly and you do things aggressively, thats how you get shit done, but that’s also when mistakes get made. And I think a human being, being plucked out of nowhere and ending up in a country he’s never been in, in a maximum-security prison with gang members, seems like a bad thing to happen.”
ROGAN: “It’s horrific. It’s horrific…” 2:34:24 -2:34:43
But yeah, that’s where we are for now with this one, and we’ll just have to keep our eyes on all this, but in the meantime, I’d love to know what you think.
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The Justice Department wants Luigi Mangione dead.
Right, just this morning, Attorney General Pam Bondi directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Mangione, []
And we all know the story: he’s accused of shooting and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
With Bondi calling Thompson’s killing a “a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America,” []
And notably citing “President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again,”
Right, on the first day of his second term, Trump signed an order directing the AG to "pursue the death penalty for all crimes of a severity demanding its use."[]
This after Biden put a moratorium on it back in 2021.
And while all of this is big news, yes, it’s been expected.
But the key thing here is it could take a minute before any of this part of the story plays out.
Right, in addition to federal charges, he’s also facing state charges in New York and Pennsylvania.
And prosecutors on both sides say they’re okay with letting the New York case play out first. []
Notably there, New York doesn’t have the death penalty, so he’s facing up to life without parole.
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And then, here is a story bound to give you some deja vu: the TikTok ban deadline is approaching…again.
Right, even though January feels like a million years ago at this point, it was just over 70 days ago that TikTok went dark for around 12 hours, with Trump then signing an executive order to delay the ban by, well, 75 days.
Which, if you pull out a calendar, means that extension is up on Saturday, April 5.
So the future of the app is up in the air yet again, because that law requires the app’s owner, ByteDance, to divest from the company or get the boot in the U.S., and right now, it is unclear who would take it over. []
Though, Trump did tell reporters on Air Force One this week that he expects a deal to be made before Saturday:
“There’s tremendous interest in TikTok, the decision is going to be my decision, as you know, through Congress, they gave me the decision. We have a great team of people essentially taking bids.” (8:56-9:10)
“I’d like to see TikTok remain alive.” (9:24-9:27)
“If no deal, will you extend the deadline…oh there will be a deal, I’m pretty sure.” (9:49-9:54)
Right, so nothing too specific from him, in fact, that’s what he’s been saying for roughly the last month when broached on the matter.
“We have a lot of interest in TikTok.” (0:17-0:20)
“We’re dealing with four different groups, and a lot of people want it. And it’s up to me.” (0:13-0:18)
But even though we haven’t gotten any concrete answers from him, there has been a ton of reporting over the past few months on the many names and groups putting their hat in the ring.
Both Microsoft and Oracle have been mentioned as interested, as has billionaire Frank McCourt.
MrBeast is also reportedly part of a bid led by entrepreneur Jesse Tinsley.
And Trump has even floated the idea of a US sovereign wealth fund buying TikTok.
Over the weekend, the New York Times also reported that the private equity group Blackstone is considering taking a small stake in TikTok.
With the Times there adding that:
“Trump has been repeatedly approached by parties pitching him ideas, and his interest in different arrangements can be fleeting.”
Though, according to the outlet, right now one of the most likely deals is that existing US investors in Bytedance roll over their stakes to a new independent global Tiktok company.
Other reports have said that Oracle is the frontrunner, but there could be some legal issues there.
With Politico reporting that one deal being discussed in the White House would involve Oracle running TikTok, but saving a role for ByteDance.
This even though the law requires ByteDance to give up control of the company and algorithm, retaining at most a 20% financial stake in TikTok.
And so even though some in Washington are trying to fight against any deal that includes carveouts for ByteDance, Politico said there might be little anyone can do to prevent this deal, even if it does go against the law.
So, this might make you wonder, what happens if there is no deal, if talks with whoever fall through and by Saturday, if nothing is on the books?
Well, even though Trump has insisted that it will not be necessary, he has previously said that he is willing to extend the deadline yet again, so we could just be meeting up same time same place in, like, July.
He also has suggested he has a few tricks up his sleeve, like cutting some tariffs on China to get a deal through.
And this time around, you might notice people on the app seem a little less nervous about the potential for it to face a ban.
Right, last time, in the week leading up to the ban, everyone was in panic mode about where to go and what to do.
But this time around, it’s mostly business as usual on the app.
With CNBC doing a report talking to creators who say they are less nervous about it.
With some just saying that they don’t feel like the app is actually getting banned, others just noting they have had time to diversify their platforms and reach.
But I would love to know your thoughts on any of this here, on how you think this whole saga is gonna play out.
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[Intro 1:] Cory Booker just went on and on and on and on in a performance I didn’t know a 55-year-old was capable of.
[Intro 2:] Y’all, he may be done by the time you see this, but as of right now Cory Booker is still going on and on and on and on.
And what I mean is that the Democratic Senator from New Jersey decided to attempt a marathon speech on the Senate floor in protest of Trump. [Lead B roll into clip]
So at about 07:00 p.m. local time Monday night, he began speaking, and vowed to continue “as long as I am physically able.” [Lead B roll into clip]
With him quoting the late civil rights icon John Lewis before undertaking his own journey. [Lead B roll into clip]
[Clip, 04:17 - 04:29, 05:12 - 05:31] Caption: “He said, ‘Get in good trouble, necessary trouble. Help redeem the soul of America. … And so I start tonight thinking about him. I’ve been thinking about him a lot during these last 71 days — ‘get in good trouble, necessary trouble, help redeem the soul of America — and had to ask myself, if he’s my hero, how am I living up to his words?”
And with that, he was off, blasting the Trump administration for everything it’s done over the past few months. [Do Timelapse of video]
With him speaking virtually non-stop; right, the only times he paused were to take questions from fellow Democrats, who were really just giving him a chance to catch his breath.
[Line will need update] So as of this recording (02:00 p.m. EST), he’s still going, passing the 19-hour mark at two O clock his time.
Now, technically this isn’t a filibuster because he’s not actually blocking any legislation.
But still, it’s gonna go down as one of the longest speeches in Congressional history.
Right up there with Ted Cruz’s 21 hours, Chris Murphy’s 15 hours, and Bernie Sanders’ 8 and a half hours.
Though the record was set by then-Senator Strom Thurmond, a South Carolina segregationist who spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes in 1957.
It’s wild how much racism can motivate a man.
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Trump’s handing over billions of dollars to Elon Musk, and Jon Stewart is blaming Democrats for it, at least partially.
Right, so let’s start with this money, 42 billion dollars of it in fact, all of which is supposed to go toward the poorest Americans.
You see, one of the things that Biden’s 2021 infrastructure bill did was create a federal grant program called Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment, or BEAD for short. [B roll, 42:04]
With the purpose being to hook up the estimated 22 million Americans without at-home internet to high-speed underground fiber-optic cables. [Image]
And for the past four years, states have been crawling through the regulatory obstacle course to get their hands on that money and start digging.
But earlier this month, Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced that BEAD was getting overhauled. [Image and Quote, find “ripping”]
With him launching what he called a “rigorous review” of the program, cutting out red tape, and most notably making it “tech neutral.” [Same quote]
Meaning that instead of just extending fiber-optic cables to homes and businesses, the program will be open to satellite internet. [Image]
Which, in effect, just means Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite internet service. [Image]
Right, because there are very few other serious providers, and none of them focus on the consumer market the way Starlink does. [Image]
I mean, even Amazon’s Kuiper [Kye-per], the closest competitor, is just launching its first batch of satellites this year, and the full constellation will be less than half the size of Starlink. [Image]
Now the White House argues that this move will get broadband to people more quickly and for less money.
But as basically every expert points out, fiber optic is cheaper, faster and generally more stable than satellite internet. [Quote, find “more stable”]
Right, ‘cause while satellite is cheaper to set up initially, it’s arguably more expensive in the long run. [Image]
With Starlink service that’s comparable to high-speed fiber costing some 120 dollars a month, whereas fiber itself costs around 80 dollars on average. [Quote, find “120” and Quote, find “80”]
So you have Drew Garner with the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society explaining to NPR:
“Satellite internet is like a dirt road, fiber internet is like a highway. You can build a few houses off a dirt road, but you can build hospitals, schools, businesses and entire cities off a highway.” [Quote]
So as that metaphor suggests, satellite service works well for remote locations that have no other option, but the whole point of this grant program is to give those areas another, better option.
And critics say what makes this whole thing even more ironic is that Republicans have criticized Biden’s infrastructure plans, be it charging stations or broadband networks, for being too slow.
But critics fear Trump’s “rigorous review” of BEAD will slow it down even more.
With Evan Feinman, who ran BEAD until earlier this month, telling NPR:
“I'm sympathetic to the argument that the program should've gone faster. But the program went too slowly does not lead logically to, 'We should then slow the program down more so we can provide worse connections at a higher end-user cost.’” [Quote]
“West Virginia was ahead of schedule, under budget and ready to provide excellent connections for every West Virginian home and business. How can anyone go back and say, 'Let's go back to the drawing board’?” [Quote same link]
Adding, “It's hard to identify any sensible case for upending these plans based on the technology or the economics.” [Quote same link]
Which is why many see this as a transparently corrupt way to further enrich Elon Musk with taxpayer dollars.
Now Republicans counter that they’re not the ones putting the thumb on the scale; they’re just making the program “tech neutral.”
With them pointing the finger back at Democrats for, or so they claim, deliberately excluding Starlink from consideration for political reasons.
As well as generally tying up the whole program in red tape, with Arielle Roth, Trump’s pick to lead the telecommunications agency, saying BEAD was the victim of a “woke social agenda.” [Quote and B roll, 01:27]
That apparently referring to provisions that encourage states to select companies with racially diverse workforces or unionized firms. [Same assets]
And during Roth’s Senate confirmation hearing last week, Ted Cruz made essentially the same point. [Lead B roll into clip]
[Clip, 02:03 - 02:10, 02:17 - 02:30] Caption: “To date, BEAD has not connected even a single American to high-speed internet service. … This is the result of prioritizing partisan requirements like ‘climate resiliency’ and rate regulation over actually connecting those who are offline.”
Now some, like Feinman, the program’s former head, argue that Republicans can get rid of those bureaucratic requirements without disrupting the contracts.
With him telling The Washington Post that Louisiana, Nevada and Delaware have already finalized their plans under BEAD. [Quote, find “finalized”]
So instead of making them reconsider their plans to include Starlink, the White House could just strip away the “woke” stuff, let the process go ahead and take the win that Biden gave them. [Quote same link, find “the win”]
And keep in mind, it’s not just Republicans who want to simplify regulations.
Right, you may have noticed the liberal commentator Ezra Klein making the rounds recently to promote his book, arguing that Democrats have fucked themselves over by putting process before results.
And just a few days ago, he made this claim specifically about BEAD on Jon Stewart’s show.
With him laying out all the regulatory steps, and you can almost see Stewart’s eyes popping further and further out of his skull. [Lead B roll into clip]
[Clip, 22:06 - 22:12, 22:16 - 22:33; Clip, 29:21 - 29:27, 29:35 - 29:42, 30:17 - 30:22, 30:27 - 30:33, 31:24 - 31:29, 31:54 - 32:01, 32:06 - 32:13, 33:20 - 33:28, 35:46 - 35:56, 36:09 - 36:13, 36:24 - 36:31, 37:16 - 37:31] Caption: [Ezra Klein:] “We have to issue the notice of funding opportunity within 180 days. That’s step one. Step two … is states who want to participate must submit a letter of intent. After they do that, they can submit a request for up to $5 million in planning grants. Then the NTIA, step four, has to review and approve and award, again, planning grants. … States must submit a five-year action plan.” [Jon Stewart:] “Oh my god.” [Ezra Klein:] “So the states kind of go back and they kind of think about how they’re gonna do this. … Then the FCC must publish the broadband data maps. … And then of course the states need an opportunity to challenge the map for accuracy. … So then the NTIA, step seven, has to use the FCC maps to make allocation decisions. … Step eight is states must submit an ‘initial proposal.’ … Step nine, NTIA must review and approve each state’s, again, initial proposal. … Step 10, states must publish their own map and allow internal challenges to their own map. … Step 11, the nTIA must review and improve the challenge results and the final map. … Step 12, states must run a competitive sub-granting process.” [Jon Stewart:] “Oh my fucking god!” [Ezra Klein:] “Step 13, states must submit a final proposal. … Step 14, the NTIA must review and approve the state’s final proposal.” [Jon Stewart:] “I’m speechless, honestly. It’s far worse than I could’ve imagined, but the fact that they amputated their own legs on this is what’s so stunning.”
So if you buy that argument, then yeah, what Trump’s doing is bad, but in some sense Democrats brought this on themselves by making a process so complicated and so cumbersome that they couldn’t get the money out the door in time.
And remember, they had nearly four years, four whole years just to build some fiber-optic cables; they weren’t going to the moon.
But we’ve heard a few different perspectives, so now I’ll throw it to you; what are y’all’s thoughts on all this?
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In about 24 hours, we’re going to find out just how big of a trade war the world is going to be in.
We know that 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, as well as a 25% tariffs on all auto imports, start tomorrow.
But that might just be the tip of the iceberg because President Donald Trump is reportedly going to announce another wave of tariffs on just about everyone and everything in what he’s calling “Liberation Day.”
The exact details are unclear, with President Trump just teasing that the tariffs would be “nicer” than what American goods face in other markets. [read]
“We are going to be very nice by comparison to what they were. The numbers will be lower than what they have been charging us, and in some cases, maybe substantially lower.”
Sources within the White House have told outlets various things.
Some say that the administration is looking to implement reciprocal tariffs in order to “balance” out the tariffs other countries place on US goods.[]
One example that the president has harped on for weeks is the alleged 200-300% tariffs American dairy products face in Canada.
But as Canadians point out, that number is missing a bunch of context.
Right, in that example, allegedly 99.9% of American dairy products are actually exempt from the tariff since it only applies once a certain threshold is met.[]
And many tariffs around the world have similar carve-outs and exceptions, but the President seems to just say the big number and claim that’s what we’re going to match.
Other advisors are reportedly pushing a different approach.
Instead, they want to implement a flat tariff -- 15-to-25% has been thrown around -- on essentially every good entering the US. []
Trump has also said that some industries, like automobiles, could also be slapped with additional tariffs. []
They claim this will raise upwards of $6 trillion in revenue.
That money can then be used for a variety of things.
Obviously balancing the budget is a top priority for Republicans (on paper at least), but other options being floated around include some kind of tax rebate or payout to Americans.[]
While that sounds great, such a rebate will likely not even be close to the crazy amount extra Americans will have to pay for nearly everything if such a tariff were to go into effect.
Any tariffs are going to trigger a trade war, but experts warn that a flat 20% would be disastrous.
Greg Mankiw -- an economics professor at Harvard who wrote a popular economist textbook – blasted many of these plans.
He pointed out that low tariffs and open, global trade is one of the FEW things economists agree on.
He also added: “Trump doesn’t seem to understand basic international economics. A lot of the arguments he makes, Adam Smith was refuting two and a half centuries ago in ‘Wealth of Nations.’”
“I have not seen a more wrongheaded policy come out of a White House in decades.”
The chief economist for Moody’s -- a major financial outlook company -- said that a flat tariff would almost immediately put the US economy into a recession and that stocks would lose one-fourth their value by 2027.
He also fears that unemployment will drastically rise.[]
Moody’s is hardly the only financial institution making these predictions, with essentially all of them bracing for the worst. []
There are also clear signs that investors are on edge, because stuff like gold -- which is traditionally seen as a hedge during economic downturns -- rose above $3100 per ounce for the first time ever. []
The tldr of this is that economists widely agree that a flat-rate on everything would be a worst-case scenario.
The good news -- although it’s only good because of the other options -- is that Trump seemed to back off from the flat-rate approach yesterday, telling reporters “Whatever they charge us, we’ll charge them.”
(Many administration officials don’t like this approach because it’ll incentivize companies to instead move products to a third country before importing them in order to dodge the tariffs).
Either way, these tariffs are allegedly an attempt by the administration to restructure the world’s economy.
And the president has widespread authority to do this under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
So with all that said, we’ll have to wait and see what will happen on “Liberation Day.”
The details are all up in the air but they all point to an economic downturn according to almost every economist.
So if I have to know all of this and be anxious, so do you.
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And for your once daily DeFranco recommended dose of good news, I’d like you to meet Wendel and Artemis.
They’re service dogs that were trained by inmates in the San Quentin State Prison.
Right, back in 2023, San Quentin introduced a puppy training program run by Canine Companions, a nonprofit based in Santa Rosa.
They bring in puppies between 2 and 4 months old that are then placed with San Quentin inmates for training. [B Roll 0:16-0:28]
The dogs stay with the inmates until they are roughly 16 months old and during that time, the inmates are responsible for teaching the dogs about 20 foundational commands and skills, as well as just caring for them. []
And every few months during that time, the dogs are taken out into the world for socialization experiences like interacting with children, riding in cars, or going to the grocery store. []
After that, the dogs go to professional trainers for several more months before they are then given to people with disabilities as service animals.
Before you start panicking about the safety of the dogs, only inmates in “earned living units” - which is where they’re allowed to participate in a wide variety of self-help programs - are allowed to apply. []
And only those without a history of animal or child abuse or cruelty are allowed to participate.
And the program thus far has been pretty successful - with James Dern, the national director of puppy programs for Canine Companions, saying that dogs trained by inmates have a 10% greater success rate at becoming service dogs than other candidates. []
Because of the time and care that the incarcerated men put into these dogs.
Which is absolutely evident in Chase Benoit and Jared Hansen. [B Roll 0:04-0:009]
You see, Chase and Jared were a part of the first round of prison puppy training at San Quentin back in 2023.
They were the ones who laid the foundational training for Artemis and Wendel.
And for the first time since the dogs graduated, Chase and Jared got to see them again as well as their owners. [B Roll 0:39-0:44]
It was an emotional reunion - with Jared telling Wendel’s new owner,
“He remembers me, for sure, I could tell when he came in. I’m so happy that you love him, and that you have a bond.” []
And Chase told AP news that it was amazing seeing Artemis in action and serving the community.
Now, since that first round, the puppy program at San Quentin has grown to 16 trainers and two dog sitters who are currently training eight puppies. []
And there are similar programs at more than 20 other prison institutions.
With Dern saying,
“Being given something to care about other than themselves and the opportunity to give back and to sort of start to make amends for the things they have done in their lives can be life changing.” []
And that sentiment was echoed by Chase - who said,
“Being in this program, it’s given me something that I think I’ve searched for my whole life. And that was meaningful purpose, doing something that’s good, better, bigger than myself and feeling like I’m part of something great.” []
So hats off not only to Artemis and Wendel for being exceptional service dogs but also to Chase and Jared for doing the work to get them to that point.
And finally, to Canine Companions for giving them that opportunity.
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