♪♪ >> From NJ PBS Studios, this is "NJ Spotlight News" with Brianna Vannozzi.

>> Hello, and thanks for joining us tonight.

I'm Joanna Giedis.

Brianna Vannozzi is off.

Coming up, our education writer Kat Carrera shares the experiences of two New Jersey teens whose families have been impacted by federal immigration policy.

Plus, with temperatures on the rise, we look at urban heat islands.

What are they and why do they hurt the residents who live in them?

But first, U.S.

Senator Andy Kim joins us to discuss the latest on the Iran deal and his take on Delaney Hall.

Major funding for NJ Spotlight News is provided in part by NJM Insurance Group, serving the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

The US and Iran have struck a deal after a month's long war that resulted in skyrocketing fuel and food prices here in the US.

The parties have 60 days to formalize the terms of the agreement, so more negotiations are expected.

The Trump administration is touting the deal as a victory, but not all Democratic lawmakers agree.

US Senator Andy Kim is among them, and he joins me now to share his perspective.

Senator, it's great to have you on.

Thanks for taking some time.

I want to talk to you about what we know right now of this Iran deal that was struck between the President and leadership in Iran.

First, let me just preface by saying you've been vocally critical of this conflict overseas in Iran.

Can you just tell us what we do know now that this memorandum of understanding, some of it has been released?

Well, this war has been a strategic failure from the outset.

So it's no surprise that the deal to end it is a strategic failure for the United States.

We see a deal where Iran is getting billions of dollars, and we have no assurances about what's going to happen next in terms of their ambitions on a nuclear weapon, which is what Trump said this was all about.

And so, you know, this is something where we have to very much ask ourselves, what did we get out of this?

What did the American people get?

You know, the American people ended up spending over $60 billion more in fuel costs since the beginning of this war.

We lost 13 service members in this war.

Was it worth it?

And I think the answer is very clearly no.

You know, the President's talking about how the Strait of Hormuz is going to be open.

First of all, we don't still have assurances that things will go back exactly as they were before the war.

And also before the war, the Strait of Hormuz was, was open, we didn't have a problem.

So just getting it back open, it's like setting fire to your house, watching a good part of it burn, and then put out the fire and then claim that you have a great victory.

That's what Trump is right now.

That's an interesting analogy.

I want to add to what you said.

The Strait of Hormuz is open and $300 billion at least is what is outlined right now in terms of fiscal support for Iran.

There will be an end of sanctions if this deal is reached.

There is still right now 60 days for a final deal to be reached.

President Obama put in a deal that in some ways was similar to this, it offered an end of sanctions and fiscal support for Iran, and called for limiting Iran's nuclear weapons.

This calls for the same.

He was criticized then even by President Trump.

What makes this very different in your mind than the deal that President Obama struck?

Well, first of all, President Obama actually struck a deal.

There was an actual nuclear deal.

There was an agreement on limiting highly rich uranium, about allowing full inspections.

And it was a deal not just between the United States and Iran, but the major powers of the world, including Russia and China were on board.

Right now, Russia and China are firmly behind Iran.

They are not allowing with the United States on this deal.

So this is on us.

Now we own this by ourselves.

And I think that no American wants to own this by ourselves.

So when Obama was able to actually get a deal, Trump has already given hundreds of millions, hundreds of billions of dollars, has opened the door for hundreds of billions of dollars to Iran, we don't even have a deal.

I mean, what incentive does Iran have right now to take a deal when they're already getting money, the straight is already open, and President Trump has essentially said he doesn't want to start the war back up in 60 days.

So I think Iran is just going to call the president's bluff here.

And look, I hope that's not true.

Like I want to stop Iran from getting a nuclear But again, the difference is between this and what happened before was there was actual agreement that actually would have limited Iran's capabilities to build a weapon that was agreed to by all the major powers.

Whereas here, we have like a pinky promise between Iran and Donald Trump here with no other actors involved.

And it's on us now.

If you were the sitting president, I know you're not, and you had this 60 day period to negotiate a final deal, what terms would you add to ensure that Iran is not in fact enriching its nuclear weapons program, as they have continued to say in previous deals and now that they don't intend to?

But what would you put in place in the 60 days?

Yeah, well, first of all, it's about having, you know, I worked in diplomacy before I worked in the State Department, you got to have a real negotiating team, you know, cut this out about Sarah sending Jared Kushner, you know, your son in law over like we need real negotiators, professionals that understand the ins and outs of Iran's nuclear capabilities and their ambitions.

You know, those are the types of people we need at the table.

And then beyond that, what we need to do is try to ensure that there are limitations on Iran's capacity to be able to enrich as well as having the full inspections necessary.

And again, that was something that in the JCPOA, there were deep levels of accessibility to all of the nuclear sites in Iran.

That's what we would need to have any assurance that this isn't starting back up.

The other thing, though, look, is that regardless of what Iran agrees to on the nuclear side, and again, I hope that we do get something, though I'm very skeptical of it, but you know, we know that Iran is going to push back forward when it comes to their ballistic missiles and other capabilities.

But I will just take a step back.

If you're Iran right now, and you just, you know, you just endured this war against the most powerful force in the world and came out on top, I'm guessing this will just further their thought that they need to have a nuclear weapon so that this doesn't happen again.

So I think in some ways, might have just, Trump might have just incentivized Iran to actually push forward on something that they didn't actually pull the trigger on building the weapon.

Yeah, Trump may very well accelerate that now.

That is an interesting point.

You mentioned the JCPOA, that is the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that was struck under President Obama.

President Trump withdrew from that in 2018.

I do want to switch gears because there's a bill that just will help us understand where does this bill stand on affordable housing?

I know you've been a champion for it called the 21st Century Road to Housing Act.

Where does that stand?

I know the House and Senate had different versions of it.

Well, first of all, I hope the American people see that this is what we, what they deserve.

They deserve a government that is focused on their needs.

So we see what happened when Trump goes alone.

He starts wars in the Middle East.

He engages in these tariffs around the world that are raising our costs.

When we're able to come in and engage, we focus things on what it is that the American people are asking for.

Right now, there's no issue I hear more about in New Jersey than about housing costs.

And we have a huge problem of supply and not having enough in New Jersey and around the country.

So this is the first piece of legislation, bipartisan legislation that's going to tackle housing in years.

So I'm proud to have played a role in shaping this both through the community.

Can you laundry list, Senator, just a little bit of time left, can you laundry list some of the major things that this bill will accomplish?

Well, for instance, I worked with Republicans to come up with some reforms that will allow for quicker building of housing.

Housing is often taking five to seven years onwards to build.

So we are trying to streamline that process, move forward.

We're bringing in, allowing for more federal dollars to be spent on housing through community development block grants and other tools like this.

Is it going to solve all the problems?

No, but it's an important step.

You know, housing isn't just at the federal level.

A lot of it is at the state and local level in terms of permits, in terms of zoning.

So we have more work to do.

But this is going to help build more housing in America.

And that will help give more opportunity for people to be able to own and rent.

And that's important.

And so this is something that passed through the Senate.

By a wide margin, we expect the House of Representatives to pass it when they come back into session and it to go into law.

This has agreement already between the two chambers and the White House.

So that is something that again, we need to make sure we're continuing to push on.

It's not going to solve all the problems, so there's more work to be done.

A rare moment of bipartisanship that we haven't seen too often these days.

Very quickly, you did team up with Miss Rachel in a visit to Delaney Hall.

Protests were held outside.

outside.

We've heard different about what's happening in their short amount of time left.

Do you feel any better now that we've heard from the State Department of Health that food is satisfactory inside or do you still have concerns?

Look, I still have concerns because I still know that there's a woman in there that is not getting the medical treatment that she needs and deserves.

If things were fine in there, they would let me go and talk to the detainees.

Last time I went in there, they completely barred me Last time I went in there, they completely borrowed me from talking to anyone.

Anytime I stepped foot on the floor, they would go and clear out all the detainees, close the door between me and them.

Like, what do they have to hide?

If they're so proud of what's going on inside, then let me talk to the detainees.

Let me get a sense of it.

Also, a number of these detainees have been there 8 months, 10 months, 12 months.

So they made it clear it wasn't just about the conditions.

It's the fact that they are not having their time in court, which is actually required by our constitution for everyone in this country to be able to have their day in court.

And they're not getting it.

So they're being held without conviction.

Everyone at Delaney is a nonviolent, is there with nonviolent offenses, if anything.

So you know, these are the types of problems that we continue to see.

And that's why I'm continuing to push for Delaney to close for geo group, a for profit company to stop profiting off of this type of detention, and for us to actually be able to proceed with a process that is in line with our courts and in line with our law.

All right.

Of course, the Trump administration says there are people in there who have criminal convictions, but we have to leave it there.

U.S.

Senator Andy Kim, thank you, as always, for your time today.

Thank you.

The focus on federal immigration policy often centers around who should or should not be detained according to the law.

It's been a source of constant contention since the start of the second Trump term, but what happens when it's kids who get caught up in the controversy?

Our education and child welfare writer, Kat Carrera, looked at the stories of two young people here in New Jersey whose lives were impacted by immigration enforcement.

I recently spoke with her about it.

Here's that conversation.

Kat, great to see you here on the show.

As you know, we've covered immigration policy a whole ton, but you recently wrote a story where you really looked at two students and the experiences that they've had when they encountered the Trump administration immigration policies.

Can you talk us through these two stories?

I want to start with Brixie, who's an 18-year-old.

Yeah, here we really see the intersection of immigration policy and education.

With Brixie, she's an 18-year-old.

She's a student at Dover High School and it's really a very touching story but she was with her mom and her three siblings in April and they went to a welfare center check in that I reached out to her mom and so her mom has an ongoing asylum case pending and in that case she has her four children including Brixie and they went to this.

Let me just to interrupt there for a second.

She has this pending asylum case.

She is seeking asylum here because she, as I understand it, escaped some life threatening situation in Honduras.

And when you say she had them, they're part of her application, right?

Her four children.

Yes, yeah.

Mom has her four kids in her application, and so they're awaiting the next steps in their case.

And so just to sort of adhere to any meetings or calls from DHS, she obliges when she gets those calls.

And so she had one on April 13th and her kids went with her and it seemed to her that, but it was unclear that upon learning that her eldest daughter had recently turned 18 in January, she was detained in that moment and put into Delaney Hall in Newark, which we know has been at the center of controversy for the last year.

And since then, she hasn't really been able to see her daughter.

She didn't have an attorney at the time and she said that they refused to let her in.

And so I have.

From your report, too, it looks like she was transferred to Louisiana.

Is that right?

Where both the mom and her now attorney have had a hard time communicating with her.

Is that still the case?

Yes, that's still the case.

Brixey was transported twelve hundred miles away to Richwood Detention Center, which is a very large detention center in Louisiana with more than eleven hundred beds.

I found it interesting that the mom said she came forward and shared their names.

She shared their photos because she said, "We are not criminals."

And they were attempting to go through the legal process.

Is there any clarity in terms of where her attorney is in appealing her case?

Yeah, there's a lot of hang-ups and pauses with getting these cases to go to the next step.

And so her attorney didn't really have much to say on other than that it's still pending.

And that she does believe that despite Rixie turning 18, that that would not have prevented her to, as her mom's child, her mom's name is Orbelina, it would not have prevented that case to continue.

And then you spoke, you wrote also about Allison, whose mom was detained.

Allison is 17 years old.

She's now living alone.

She's caring for a house.

This was a student who was an AP student, right?

How is she responding?

How is it impacting her education?

Yeah, Allison is a very high achieving student.

She had her plans laid out for senior year to take four AP classes and to continue her high GPA.

And she's maintained a decent GPA, but she did have trouble attending school regularly due to the added responsibilities on her plate after her mom was deported in last July.

And so she did have to drop two of her AP classes, but she says that she's gotten support from school and from advocacy immigrant advocacy groups in Atlantic City.

But she has been living as an independent minor for all of these months, this school year, and it's just been very tough to reach these milestones without her mom with her.

And so she's having a graduation very soon and just had really mixed a bit hopeful but also very sad feelings about her mom not being able to be there.

Yeah.

You point out that there's been a shift in the second Trump term and that there are more than 6,200 people under the age of 18 who've been detained.

That's according to the Marshall Project.

You spoke with a mental health social worker as part of the piece who talked about the impact of some of the uncertainty that a lot of young people are feeling right now.

Can you just share what that social worker told you?

Yeah, she's a former social worker.

at Montclair State University, Tanya Suarez, and she shared with me that in with the high school students that she works with in a large urban district here in New Jersey, they have seen ice raids in their neighborhoods, and that the way that this is manifesting in their schoolwork, and these are also high achieving students, they have fallen behind on some classwork.

And at first she said, you know, I thought it was a typical end of looking at the end of school year, maybe there's a dip in motivation, but after holding restorative circle sessions, which is really just a safe space for the group to come together and talk about their feelings, she learned that they are carrying burnout anxiety and it's just ever present on their mind and it's affecting their work.

All right, well, thank you for your reporting.

Really interesting to see the convergence of these two issues and how they impact young people.

Kat Carrera, our education and child welfare writer.

Thank you.

Thanks, Joanna.

Urban areas are usually warmer than their rural surroundings, a phenomenon known as the heat island effect.

These heat islands can have dangerous health impacts on residents and can drive up their energy costs.

Now, recent reporting shows that data centers are having similar effects, in some cases, raising surface temperatures by up to 16 degrees Fahrenheit.

That's according to researchers at the University of Cambridge.

While residents in New Jersey continue to call for a pause on new data centers, but some communities where they've already been built, like Vineland, are calling for further investigation into the impacts.

Meanwhile, the state's committed millions of dollars to urban areas that suffer from the heat island effect.

For more on this, I recently spoke with Jennifer Sauter with the Rucker Center for Urban Policy Research.

Here's that conversation.

Jen, great to have you on the show.

Thanks so much for coming on.

Thank you for having me.

What is the heat island effect?

In other words, what does it actually do?

How do these urban spaces actually create this effect?

The urban heat island effect is really just when you have a built up area which is densely populated with just envision a lot of roof surfaces, paving surfaces and other services that heat up and retain heat.

So you're displacing the natural systems.

So really any urban area can have an urban heat island effect.

Obviously less greenery too, right?

Less plants, less vegetation.

What areas in New Jersey are most vulnerable to this heat island effect?

New Jersey, a lot of New Jersey has this, can experience the urban heat island effect.

And in particular overburdened communities, densely populated communities like Newark, which is a hot spot actually in the nation.

I think it's the second, which is a hot spot and Patterson, Trenton, Camden, and really any area that has that condition can experience this problem.

I set it up in the intro here, but we know that you said that these are overburdened communities.

They're already dealing with a range of other types of environmental impacts, whether it's truck traffic or sometimes water pollution.

But when we talk about the impact on the cost of cooling spaces in this heat island effect, how is this a compounded problem?

Well, if you picture it, you have an increased temperature, and then you're increasing your need for cooling, which is then increasing the need to on the grid, the power grid, so there's more pollution going into the air.

And then in addition, some communities and some households don't have air conditioning.

So when you're having those increased conditions, you're exacerbating health problems.

And that's a real problem, especially for vulnerable populations that already have maybe respiratory issues or heart conditions.

The increased heat can really pose a danger for a lot of people in communities across New Jersey.

Yeah, something that's not often talked about, but we have covered here on our news, is the impact on pregnant women, actually the impact on early labor and maternal health impacts, death in fact, is significant.

So help us understand now what the state is doing.

The BPU is stepping in, they're putting $5 million behind some mitigation efforts.

Can you talk about that project and what that's going to look like?

Absolutely.

It's a really exciting project and it's statewide and it's $5 million, as you mentioned, and it's distributed into three different categories.

There are two projects that are million-dollar projects, which are larger scale, of course, and there are about four projects that are focused on resilience hubs.

And then the remaining projects are smaller micro projects that really show how strategies to mitigate the urban heat island.

It can be at all different scales.

And they're really great projects.

So exciting working with community partners in Newark, Trenton, Patterson, Camden, Atlantic City, just to name a few.

And each project is different.

A lot of them include major planting initiatives, redevelopment of parks, resilience hubs, cooling centers, and green infrastructure.

>> when you talk about planting And green infrastructure, what Does that look like?

Make that come to life for us.

>> sure.

It can mean a lot of things.

And in this case, it can be Things like green roofs, the Opportunity to green a roof.

Because roof, if you picture a City, lots and lots of square Footage of roofs.

And roofs are really an area That retain heat.

So you can have a green roof, Which basically means a planted Roof, and you can have a white Roof.

So any time that you have a Choice to pick a lighter color For those surfaces, it's going to reduce that urban heat island effect.

And there's other things like rain gardens, plantings that absorb water, and any area that when you're replacing a black asphalt area or dark material with a plant, you're going to be reducing that urban heat island effect.

Can you talk to us about how Rutgers is involved in these projects?

How are you involved?

Well, we're really excited to be part of this project.

So the Rutgers Center for Urban Policy Research is helping to provide technical assistance.

So we'll be working with the awardees across the state and working with BPU to make sure that in the beginning of each project we're baselining what are the temperatures now and how are these mitigation strategies making an impact.

And also we're helping to tell the story, because we want to make sure that the community members involved are getting the benefit, understanding the importance of this project and how it's impacting the community.

And a lot of these projects are really community-based, so the community members are a big part of making it happen.

How will you measure success here?

Oh, there's a lot of different ways.

Some are the analytical piece of saying the temperature over time will decrease, and we can do that through modeling.

Sometimes it's more literal surface temperatures, taking the before and after temperatures.

And also it's, again, telling the story.

So are people enjoying these spaces?

Are they using spaces that they weren't using before?

Are people more comfortable?

So it's surveys, quantitative and qualitative data that we're collecting.

All right.

Jennifer Sauter, appreciate you coming on to talk to us about it.

We look forward to seeing how these projects look as they roll out.

Project Manager for the Rucker Center for Urban Policy Research.

Thanks so much.

Thank you so much for having me.

That's going to do it for us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gaggis for the entire team here at NJ Spotlight News.

Thanks for being with us.

We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

New Jersey Education Association, making public schools great for every child and RWJBarnabas Health.

Learn more at RWJBH.org.

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