Key Takeaways From This Week’s Primaries, and the Deportees Stuck in ‘No Man’s Land’

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Tracy Mumford** (0:33)
From the New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today is Wednesday, August 12th. Here's what we're covering.
Last night was a very busy night for primary results, as votes came in in dozens of races across six states, setting up some of the final matchups for the midterms. A few key takeaways. For Democrats, this primary season has been defined by battles between its progressive and moderate wings, and that played out again last night in Minnesota.

**Peggy Flanagan** (1:06)
For months now, I have been telling you that this campaign was about the many versus the money.
Well, guess what? The many just won.

**Tracy Mumford** (1:21)
Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, a progressive, won the state's Democratic Senate primary, despite being heavily outspent by the centrist moderate candidate. Flanagan was backed by left-wing leaders like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, whereas Democratic establishment figures like Hakeem Jeffries and Nancy Pelosi backed her competitor.
It was the latest progressive versus moderate showdown in the Midwest just this month, after Dr. Abdul El-Sayed rallied the party's left flank to win Michigan's Democratic Senate primary. Meanwhile, in Wisconsin last night, the Democratic primary for governor came down to a nail-biting finish between a moderate and a Democratic socialist. David Crowley, a county executive who was embraced by the more centrist Democratic establishment, ultimately won, but the very close margin showed how much power progressives were able to leverage in a key swing state. Switching tracks now to the Republican Party.

**Nicholas Casey** (2:21)
I've been accused of not being a politician.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:24)
Guilty as charged.

**Tracy Mumford** (2:26)
In South Carolina last night, Darlene Graham, the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, advanced to a Republican primary runoff. The race will be a test of President Trump's hold on the GOP.
Trump pushed for her to take her brother's seat after he died suddenly last month, and the president has urged Republicans to back her in November. For the full results of last night's primaries, go to nytimes.com.

**Nicholas Casey** (2:59)
Why don't you just introduce yourself to me? Who are you, Roberto?

**Tracy Mumford** (3:03)
Well, I'm Roberto Moquera de Peral.

**Nicholas Casey** (3:06)
I came from Cuba to the United States back in 1980
After 47 years, last year, I got arrested by ICE. They locked me up and sent me to Africa. Where are you exactly?

**Tracy Mumford** (3:19)
Right now, I'm in Swatini, Swatini, Africa. My colleague Nicholas Casey has been reporting on the growing number of people the Trump administration has deported to countries they have no connection to.
For more than a year, it's been offering millions of dollars to foreign governments to take immigrants the US was having trouble deporting to their countries of origin. And it has struck at least 35 of these kinds of deals, known as Third Country Agreements.

**Nicholas Casey** (3:46)
Roberto, could you show me around where you are right now? Sure.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:51)
This is my cell.

**Nicholas Casey** (3:53)
That's my roommate.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:54)
He sleep, but I'mma wake him up.

**Tracy Mumford** (3:55)
One of the people Nicholas has interviewed is Roberto Mckara. He arrived in the US from Cuba as a child. He ended up joining a gang in Miami as a teenager, and eventually took a plea deal after being charged with attempted murder for a shooting.
Authorities wanted to deport him, but Cuba wasn't cooperating with the US. So for decades, Mckara was allowed to stay. He became a plumber, got married, had four daughters. Then, last June, the 59-year-old was arrested by immigration agents and flown across the world to a maximum security prison in the Kingdom of Eswatini, one of the countries the US has made an agreement with.
Now he's been stuck there for more than a year, alongside other deportees from the US in what his lawyer calls a legal black hole. There are no charges against him, no way to appeal his imprisonment, and no sign that he will ever be freed. He wasn't even allowed to collect his passport or other ID before being deported.

**Nicholas Casey** (5:04)
How do you feel about that? I mean, how do you feel about this situation that you're in where you don't know if you're going to get out of this place? I don't know, man.

**SPEAKER_1** (5:12)
I got faith. My daughter's name is Faith.