Deportation; Sanctions; Surfmen | 60 Minutes Full Episodes

Mass Deportation Plan

• The largest deportation operation in US history is being planned, with over 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the country, about 3% of the population, and nearly 80% having lived there for a decade or more (6s).
• The plan's realism and potential human and financial costs are being questioned, with estimates suggesting it could cost $88 billion to deport a million people a year (32s).
• The Russian economy has grown since the start of the war in Ukraine, despite sanctions imposed by the US, with Russian oil tankers flouting sanctions off the coast of Greece (50s).
• Being a surfman is a highly exclusive and challenging profession, often compared to being a Navy SEAL or in the army Special Forces, with a small number of individuals training for the opportunity to save human lives (1m16s).
• Former President Trump has pledged to conduct the largest deportation in American history if elected, with Tom Homan, who led immigration enforcement during the first Trump Administration, saying it's necessary due to the historic illegal immigration crisis (2m21s).
• Homan claims that mass deportation is not racist, but rather a necessary measure to address the illegal immigrant community, and that it would involve targeted arrests rather than massive sweeps or concentration camps (3m11s).
• Homan worked his way up from border patrolman to acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over three decades, and has been a proponent of mass deportation, telling illegal aliens to "start packing now" (3m37s).
• The plan's details are unclear, but Homan says it would involve investigative processes to identify and arrest undocumented immigrants, with former President Trump's running mate JD Vance suggesting it would be reasonable to deport a million people (4m36s).
• A massive military air operation to deport millions of people was proposed by Steven Miller, Trump's top immigration adviser, which would involve large-scale raids and deputizing the National Guard to carry out immigration enforcement (4m43s).
• The operation would target not only people working illegally in the country but also companies that hire them, which could undercut competition and affect citizens who are employees (5m24s).
• Mass deportation could result in the removal of millions of construction, hospitality, and agriculture workers, reducing the GDP by $1.7 trillion, according to a study by the American Immigration Council (5m36s).
• Prioritizing public safety threats and national security threats is crucial, but it implies that others would follow, and the scenario of limiting deportation to only criminals and national security threats is not feasible (5m54s).
• The Biden-Harris administration has proven that there are no consequences for entering the country illegally, which drives illegal immigration, and a targeted enforcement operation would be necessary to address this issue (6m12s).
• The majority of the 4 million deportations carried out by the Biden administration have occurred at the southern border, where an unprecedented influx of migrants created scenes of chaos and a humanitarian crisis (6m52s).
• Mass deportation is suggested as a solution, but the number of people to be deported is unknown, and there is no written plan or memo for such an operation (7m12s).

ICE Operations and Challenges

• ICE agents are experienced in carrying out operations to locate and arrest undocumented immigrants with criminal histories, including assault, robbery, drug, and gun convictions (8m6s).
• A recent operation in Silver Spring, Maryland, involved ICE agents gathering in a parking lot before dawn to locate and arrest an undocumented immigrant with a criminal history (7m51s).
• The goal of the operation was to catch the target by surprise, and the agents had been watching the individual's routine for a couple of days (8m21s).
• The operation resulted in the arrest of a 24-year-old Guatemalan with an assault conviction (8m46s).
• ICE agents discovered a van driver who was in the country illegally, had been deported once before, and had no criminal record, but they chose not to detain him due to limited resources and the need to prioritize felons (8m50s).
• The goal of immigration law is to enhance public safety through targeted enforcement, rather than aimlessly arresting anyone (9m22s).
• A team of over a dozen ICE officers took 7 hours to arrest six people, highlighting the challenges of mass deportation (9m34s).
• Arresting a million people would be impossible for ICE due to limited resources, detention space, and the high cost of detention, estimated at $150 per night, and deportation flights, which can cost up to a quarter of a million dollars (9m55s).
• The average stay in detention while awaiting deportation is 46 days, and many countries, such as Cuba and Venezuela, rarely accept deportees (10m25s).
• ICE currently has around 6,000 law enforcement agents, but it would take around 100,000 officers to arrest and deport a million people (10m41s).
• Trump adviser Steven Miller suggested that staff could come from other government agencies, but immigration enforcement requires specialized training and language skills that most military and law enforcement officers don't have (10m59s).
• The estimated cost of deporting a million people per year is $88 billion, which raises questions about whether this is a price worth paying for national security (11m47s).

Family Separation Concerns

• Mass deportation could lead to the separation of families, but it is possible to deport families together (12m2s).
• Monica Kamacho Perez and her family, who have lived and worked in the country for over 20 years, worry about being deported and separated from their loved ones (12m14s).
• Monica, who is protected from deportation under the DACA program, fears for the future of her nieces and nephews, who could be separated from their parents (12m23s).
• Many US-born children live with undocumented parents, and if these parents were to be deported, the children would have to choose between staying in the US or moving to a country they don't know with their parents (13m47s).
• Over 4 million US-born children live with an undocumented parent, raising questions about why these children should have to leave the US if their parents are deported (13m49s).
• During the Trump administration, at least 5,000 migrant children were forcibly separated from their parents who were prosecuted for crossing the border illegally (14m14s).
• Tom Homan, former head of ICE, was called the "father of Trump's family separation policy," but he denies this, stating he signed a memo hoping to save lives by prosecuting people who crossed the border illegally (14m24s).
• Homan believes that family separation should be considered as an option if Trump were to win a second term (14m50s).
• However, Homan does not think a mass deportation plan would deter people from coming to the US illegally, as people will still try to come for a better life (14m59s).

Impact of Sanctions on Russia

• International sanctions were imposed on Russia after it invaded Ukraine, with the goal of crippling Russia's economy, but two and a half years later, the fighting continues, and Russia's economy is expected to grow over 3% (15m27s).
• Delip Singh, the architect behind the US sanction strategy, initially predicted that the sanctions would bring Russia's economy to its knees, but now admits that this has not happened (16m11s).
• Singh believes that while Russia's economy may appear to be resilient, its foundations are fragile, and the sanctions have had an impact, including sky-high inflation and nose-bleed interest rates (16m22s).
• The US and its allies have imposed over 5,000 sanctions on Russian targets, including financial sanctions, export restrictions, and freezing the foreign bank accounts of Russian billionaires (17m6s).
• Russia is the third largest oil producer in the world, and despite sanctions, its oil and gas revenue is expected to increase by 2.6% to nearly $240 billion this year, with the Kremlin's most valuable asset being oil (17m42s).

Russia's Dark Fleet and Oil Trade

• An investigation found that Russia is using a "dark fleet" of around 200 ships to move a million barrels of Russian oil around Western sanctions every day, with one such ship being the 21-year-old oil tanker called the Sprite (18m39s).
• The Sprite is registered to a shell company in the Caribbean and was last purchased in February, with its ownership and age being red flags indicating it is part of the dark fleet (20m10s).
• The oil tanker was spotted off the coast of Greece, acting as a "dropbox" for Russian oil, where it would transfer oil with other dark fleet vessels, adding an additional layer of obfuscation to the oil's origin (20m24s).
• The use of the dark fleet and the transfer of oil between vessels is a tactic to get around Western sanctions, specifically a price cap imposed by the G7 in 2022 to limit Moscow's oil profits (21m29s).
• The G7 allowed Russian oil to continue to flow internationally but imposed a $60 price cap, which Russia is trying to circumvent by using the dark fleet and transferring oil between vessels (21m51s).
• Samir Madani, who runs a company that tracks oil tankers, noticed that some tankers were sending false signals about their location, allowing them to move undetected and avoid sanctions (19m7s).
• Madani's team uses satellite images, signals from ships, and photographs from the ground to track tankers and identify those that are part of the dark fleet (19m0s).
• The investigation found that the dark fleet vessels would often change ownership, and their age would be beyond 15 years, indicating they were supposed to be scrapped but were instead extended (19m51s).
• Russia has found ways to circumvent the barrel price cap on its crude oil, with almost all of its crude oil selling above the price cap in the last two years, and its "dark fleet" moving an estimated $45 billion worth of crude oil (22m9s).
• Most of the oil that departs Russia is going to China and India, with the value of India's imports of Russian crude oil increasing by more than 2,000% since the invasion of Ukraine (22m34s).
• Much of the crude oil imported by India is refined into other oil products, such as gasoline, which are then exported to other countries, including the US, with around half a million barrels of refined product fuel arriving in New York twice a month (23m12s).
• The US Treasury has sanctioned 38 Russian "dark fleet" tankers, but there are still 170 others that are active and moving Russian oil, making it difficult to track the oil once it becomes refined (23m25s).
• To stop the Russian "shadow fleet," the US needs to identify the tankers, inform them that they are subject to sanctions, and deliver those sanctions, but this requires a diplomatic component and a balance between sanctioning Russia and maintaining global oil market stability (23m44s).

US Dependence on Russian Uranium

• The US is also trying to reduce its dependence on Russian enriched uranium, which is used to fuel 94 nuclear reactors and provide about a fifth of America's energy needs, with Congress banning the import of Russian enriched uranium but the ban not going into full effect for four years (24m42s).
• The US does not have the capacity to produce the enriched uranium it needs, with around 25-30% of it being imported from Russia, but Centrus Energy has begun enriching uranium in Ohio and plans to build 11,000 more centrifuges to increase production (25m0s).
• It will take around six to seven years for Centrus Energy to reach full capacity and for the US to stop relying on Russia for enriched uranium (25m54s).

Flow of Goods into Russia Despite Sanctions

• Despite sanctions, Western products, including iPhones, are still finding their way into Russia, with Russian businesses quickly pivoting to replace Western companies that left the country at the start of the war (26m0s).
• Despite sanctions, many goods that were previously available to Russians before the war are still accessible, with some being sold through third-party countries like Georgia, Kazakhstan, or China, resulting in higher prices due to the roundabout route (26m34s).
• Wealthy Russians are willing to pay the higher prices, and small businesses in Russia have found it profitable to acquire goods from sanctioning countries, bring them back to Russia, and sell them at a markup, making evading sanctions a lucrative business (27m21s).
• The number of small and medium-sized businesses registered in Russia has reached an all-time high, with trade and logistics becoming the single biggest source of investment since the war began (27m39s).
• From an economic perspective, the war seems to have positively impacted Russia, with the fastest consecutive growth in over a decade and a half, although it is uncertain whether this growth can be sustained (28m1s).

The Columbia River and Surfmen Training

• The mouth of the Columbia River, where it meets the Pacific Ocean, is one of the most dangerous inlets in America due to the powerful collision of the river's water and the Pacific waves (28m47s).
• Elite members of the United States Coast Guard come to this location once a year to earn the certification as a surfman, which requires navigating through the challenging aquatic conditions (29m5s).
• The Coast Guard's National Motor Lifeboat School, led by Chief Eric Kelly, provides training to students, exposing them to extreme surf conditions over four weeks to prepare them for the certification (30m17s).
• The school's commanding officer, Tim Crochet, welcomes the students and promises world-class instruction from the experienced instructors (30m40s).
• The goal of the students at the motor life boat school is to certify as a surfman, a highly exclusive title with only about 130 active-duty surfmen in the Coast Guard, out of approximately 40,000 members (31m13s).
• Being a surfman is sometimes compared to being a Navy SEAL or in the Army Special Forces, but it is an even more exclusive club (31m5s).
• The US Life Saving Service, which began in 1872, is the precursor to the Coast Guard's surf stations, where rescues may have to be made in breaking waves (31m54s).
• The Coast Guard makes more than 5,000 rescues a year, with an average of 20 surf stations where rescues are made in challenging conditions (32m8s).
• The surfman's Creed is a guiding principle for surfmen, which includes the promise to never unnecessarily jeopardize themselves, their boat, or their crew, but to do so freely to rescue those in peril (32m37s).
• To become a surfman, candidates must complete a series of courses, including a basic course, heavy weather, and the surf class, which can take up to four years to complete (33m30s).

Columbia River's Dangers and Coast Guard's Role

• The mouth of the Columbia River is known as the "graveyard of the Pacific" due to its treacherous waters, with over 700 lives lost and thousands of shipwrecks occurring over several centuries (34m19s).
• Despite the dangers, the Columbia River is a vital economic waterway, with over 40% of the grain exported from the United States passing through it (34m36s).
• Local pilots are required to guide commercial ships into the river due to the perilous conditions, which can be seen in a video showing the dangers of just getting a pilot onto one of those ships (34m51s).
• The Coast Guard's mission is considered amazing and incredible, with its members performing a cool and challenging job, including rescuing people in trouble at sea (35m0s).

Surfman Training and Rescue Simulation

• Eric Kelly, a Coast Guardsman, teaches his students how to read every swell and watch the running center of the helm while driving a lifeboat (35m41s).
• Kelly emphasizes the importance of squaring up, pointing the bow of the boat directly into and through a breaking wave, to avoid a knockdown or 360° rollover (36m20s).
• The worst thing to do in a situation like that is not being square to the breaking wave, which can result in a knockdown or rollover (36m49s).
• Kelly has experienced a knockdown but not a full 360° rollover, and the boat's design is meant to withstand such situations (37m7s).
• The students take control of the boat after a demonstration, and Kelly provides feedback and corrections throughout the training (37m30s).
• The students drive in various conditions and run simulated missions, including pulling someone from the water (38m3s).

Real Rescue Mission and Graduation

• On graduation day, a real rescue mission supplants the simulations, as the training boats respond to a Mayday call from a boat called the Sandpiper (38m31s).
• The conditions are severe, with 25-35ft breaking seas, 50 knots of wind, rain, and hail, making it impossible to tow the vessel to safety (38m55s).
• The Coast Guard's Advanced rescue helicopter school drops a rescue swimmer, John Walton, into the water to assist in the rescue (39m13s).
• A Coast Guard rescue mission was conducted, where a new recruit was deployed for his first rescue and successfully retrieved an individual from the Sandpiper, a boat that was being rolled multiple times by a 30-plus foot break (39m23s).
• The rescue was considered one of the coolest in the career of the person narrating, and it showcased how the Coast Guard works together (39m41s).
• On graduation day for the future surfmen, all nine students completed the course and memorized the surfman's Creed, which emphasizes pursuing each mission with commitment, compassion, and courage (39m52s).
• Not all students certified as surfmen on graduation day, but two of them, BM2 Casey and BM2 Trenton Campbell, received their certification in a surprise ceremony attended by their commanding officers (40m19s).
• The certified surfmen from various stations on the west coast were present to hand over the coveted medallions to the new surfmen (40m38s).
• Trenton Campbell, one of the newly certified surfmen, accepted hugs from his trainers and fellow classmates before heading back to his base at Quillayute River on the coast of Washington (41m3s).
• Campbell joined the Coast Guard to save lives, and he believes that there's no better feeling than that, which serves as motivation for him and others (41m19s).
• The segment was part of a report from the graveyard of the Pacific, where the Coast Guard operates (41m31s).