The Future of Immigration Detention

This is Cat and Nat from Cat and Nat Unfiltered and this episode is sponsored by Michael's, your destination for all things birthday parties. If you've ever planned a birthday celebration, you know it goes from cute idea to full on chaos real fast. The party shop at Michaels makes life easier with over four thousand five hundred party supplies and sixty plus themes Buey, rodeo, soccer, rainbow, and more. Starting at just ninety nine cents. You can shop same day delivery or order online for pickup in store and they even do free helium inflation on Sack Balloon styles. Michael's everything to celebrate anything. visit Michael's in store or shop online Now This show is brought to you by Ground News. Here at Wetneext, we cover the news day in, day out. And when my producers prep interviews for me, they are full of different sources. because you cannot read just one source these days. You need all the angles to get the full picture Ground News is here to help B Ground News is an app and a website that helps you get down to the facts of important stories, rather than getting lost in the hype of the headlines It makes it easy to compare news sources, break free from algorithms, and think critically about where you get your information. coverage of say, the White House reflecting pool If you go to ground. News, you can click that story and explore coverage from ninety one different sources According to the platform, forty percent of the coverage is center or nonpartisan If you click rightite, you can see right leaning coverage, stories that focus on President Trump promising to begin repairs immediately. If you click left, headlines note Trump is claiming without evidence vandals are behind the pool's woes and calling the reflecting pool a seaweed infested basin All of these headlines are real, but they are pretty different. Ground News helps you cover your blind spots, and its analysis of ownership data allows you to see who is funding any given outlet before you read their coverage The Washington Post is called Ground News, one of journalism's major consumption shifts of the year The Nobel Peace Center called it an excellent way to stay informed, avoid echo chambers, and expand your worldview. Go to groundneews. com slash next to get forty percent off your unlimited vantage subscription groundneews d. com slash next. Use our link so they know we sent you. Groundneews d. com slash next couple of weeks now My feed's been filling up with videos and posts about Newark, New Jersey. And what's going on in front of an immigration detention center there Delaney Hall We begin with the ongoing tensions outside Delaney Hall in Newark, where a group of pro ed demonstrators confronted protesters who Maybe you've seen these clips too. videoide of protests and counter protests. Combat Tump war order. There is tape of state troopers advancing in full riot gear. Before that, there was footage of IC agents with pepper spray. They even pepper sprayed a senator. And you can see New Jersey Senator Andy Kim trying to de escalate the clash and getting in the middle of protesters and Iice agents, he ended up getting pepper sprayed as well The senator ended up having to have his eyes washed out At one point, New Jersey's governor showed up at Dellaney Hall She said even she couldn't access the place But slates Aimen Ismael lives just a half hour walk away We asked him to give us a report from the ground I've been down at Deliny Hall a couple times and it's just exhausting to be there Aamman says, The first thing you need to know about Delaney Hall is that it's in this part of town he calls the sacrifice zone. When I asked him what that means He said, Oh my god It's it's what you go out in the morning and smell sometimes On the same stretch of road where this detention facility is There's a sewage processing plant place where animal fat is rendered into feed There are some super fun sites nearby too Some of our elders in our community have memory peopleeople walking around in hazmat suits. I'm talking like head to tone, white justust like the vacuums collecting up some of this toxic material. while at the same time people are sitting on their porches watching from the start There have been problems with the detention center in the middle of all this For the last month, detainees have refused to work and eat to draw attention to what they say is going on inside our medical care unsanitary conditions It seems like it's worse than most people even imagine Not only are they holding Like adults are also holding children in this facility People who are diabetic, who are cancer patients are not able to get proper medical care There have been allegations that the food there is not even edible. People are being served frozen food and expected to eat it. Like actually still frozen, not defrosted And u The reason why It's so important for Congresspeople and state officials to be able to get access to go and see it for themselves because once they go in And they come out, they're able to cooperate some of these allegations. Getting this kind of access has been difficult A year back, Newwark's mayayor, Ros Baraca and Cgresswoman Lamonica McGyver Both tried to get into Delaney Baraca got arrested. McGyver was charged with assaulting a federal officer Meanwhile, outside the facility infrastructure has gradually built up. a tent that belongs to a group called Eyes on Ice Lets families have a little shelter while they wait to visit loved ones when they can over the last week What's been a standoff has come to a head Dozens of people have been arrested cururfew's been implemented And like we've seen in Minneapolis and Portland before Influencers and independent journalists have arrived. One of my sources, I was interviewing this guy named Trev, who's like a citizen journalist. He calls himself a content creator, but I would call him a citizen journalist. J in the span of me getting to know him and he's there every single day On the first day, he's just sort of mulling around, trying to talk to people getting interviews On the second day he gets arrested and gets taken into the Iice facility and then now he's just documenting more and more people show up on his own behalf And that was like a a small celebrity in that community because people are showing up because they saw what happened to him When I go down there, the vast majority of people are not from Newark They're not from the community at all. They're just from all over the place. I many people from Minneapolis from Texas, from Seatt who are getting on planes, getting on trains to see what's happening for themselves Some people would worry those are outside agitators Yeah, but I would call the police the agitators in this case Tay on the show Exactly is going on Delaney Hall I'm Mary Harris. You're listening to what next stick around What if a marginal gain unlocked greater performance. What if an insight in data could change everything at a RAMco. Our focus on detail helps us deliver reliable energy to millions across the world. because margins aren't marginal They' where we can truly push the limits of what's possible. A RMco. an integrated energy and Chemicals company Learn more at arramco. com Hey, it's Paige from Gigly Squad, and you know those moments when you just wanna slow down and actually treat yourself. That's exactly where Hagand' comes in. Haganda' just launched a brand new flavor, coffee almond Toffee ice cream. It's rich, smooth, creamy, indulgent, and honestly too good to rush through. Take your sweet time, That's Ds. F Hagendu's new Coffee almond Toffee ice cream at retailers nationwide This is Cat and Nat from Cat and Nat Unfiltered and this episode is sponsored by Michael's, your destination for all things birthday parties. If you've ever planned a birthday celebration, you know it goes from cute idea to full on chaos real fast. The party shop at Michaels makes life easier with over four thousand five hundred y supplies in sixty plus themes like Bluey, Rdeo, soccer, rainbow, and more. Starting at just ninety nine cents. you can shop same day delivery or order online for pickup in store and they even do free helium inflation on Sack Balloon styles. Michael's everything to celebrate anything, visit Michael's in store or shop online Now When I look at the last couple of weeks in Newark, actually I see there are like two battles going on over Delaney Hall One is the battle to understand what's going on inside the facility, and the other is the battle to understand what's happening outside the facility. I wonder if you and I can start by explaining what we know about what's going on inside the facility because it's the conditions inside that led to the protests outside. So Do you know about conditions inside Delaney Hall I don't know much. All I know is what's being reported. I've never been inside Delady Hall rememember not that long ago, somebody died in ice custody Yeah, this is this forty one year old Haitian man who died in December. Yeah, he was having like aedical medical emergency. He was taking a university hospital downtown Newark and he didn't survive We know that there are several examples of people who are pregnant who feel like they're not getting adequate care Cancer patients. children who are, you know, there was at least two cases, I believe where lawyers were just trying to get the students to get out so they can attend graduation with other students. You know, so we're talking about teenagers who are in this hall who are not getting access to education at all And in some cases, conditions are so bad that people are assigning voluntary deportation paper is because they're just trying to get out. and even in those cases, they end up staying for months because of how slow the bureaucracy is actually moving in a place like Delady So what we do know so far is that things are bad. They're just not Humane , but if you listen to Donald Trump who the otherday said things are fine. It's not the holiday inn Yeah, he's like we wanted to call them nice facilities Yeah. It's like, it's up to you whether or not you want to take the word of Donald Trump or the IC detainees. Yeah, I mean, like when some of the detainees have complained about food, for instance and the pushback from someone like Mark Wayne Mullen, the head of DHS, is like, well, they want their ethnic food and you know, this isn't a hotel. We don't get to order the food you want. But my understanding is that's not what folks are asking for. they're asking for defrosted food or food that's edible. Yeah But more than anything, they're just asking for some clarity as to what's happening with them. I know that people feel like they're not moving, they're not going anywhere. They're just sort of hanging around and waiting for months on months on months end unsure about what their fate is actually going to be So I feel like The bigger ask, the bigger demand that detainees have at the moment is They just want to know what's happening to them The facility is run by Geo Group. what do we know about GeO group Geo Group is a private company Uh we know that they got a couple of billion dollars to operate this facility. this is not the only facility that they operate And we know that they're federally subsidized to to maintain these facilities. But because they're a private institution, there isn't really any federal oversight or state oversight for that matter And I think that's the reason why Mayor Raaz Baraka and others are trying to leverage their only leverage at the moment, which is like permits and, you know, whether or not they have the right fire certificates and the facility. and that's why they're trying to exercise the rights to do an inspection. Yeah, Razbrok is saying because this facility was sort of switched into being an immigration detention facility at the beginning of the Trump administration, that meant there needed to be inspections done, things done by the city that were never done. Right. And because they're private facility, they have the authority to do that. What's interesting about Geog Group is that they're so enmeshed with the Trump administration, it seems to me. Like Donald Trump just tapped a geogroup executive to replace Todd Lyons as the interim head of IC. So it's like These things are holding hands. You know what I mean? The federal government and this private entity That sound sounds like the Trump administration to me. I mean, he just tapped pool boy to do the Lincoln Memorial pool. So Uh Yeahah, it just seems like This has nothing to do with the people and the people are paying for it. So there's something needs to be fixed there Current situation at Delaney Hall, My understanding is that It got started because a hunger strike kicked off inside the facility, a hunger and a labor strike because GeoGroup relies on the inmates to do work themselves, they get some kind of small amount of money for the work that they do. Can you explain how, you know, why now? Why are people paying attention to Delaney Hall? now? How did that start? Yeah, so my understanding is that it started before the hunger strike. My understanding is Eyes on ice We're trying to organiz like this is this group that's camped out in front where they have like this is Yeah and they've been there for a year every single day as a show of solidarity with the people who are inside Yeah. so they organized something of a vigil because they wanted to call attention to the awful conditions on the inside. and then people on the inside of the facility wanted to hold a hunger strike and solidarity with the folks outside So it was like something of like a mutual Um protest Things escalated pretty much immediately As soon as word about the hunger strike came out, one of the organizers, her husband is inside the facility. This is Gabriella Soto. Gabrielle L Soto is one of these protesters four months pregnant, is my understanding. Yeah. And her husband is inside. Yeah So cururrently IC was immediately retaliatory towards this person and they said that they were going to be moving him to a different facility The folks behind this group eyes on ice They told you a little bit about what happened when Gabrielle is so to hiss husband was when they tried to, u transfer Gabriellea Soto's husband because that seems to become a real flashpoint where people could see him in a vehicle and responded, right It was really emotional Gabriella Soto was describing seeing him being slammed against the window forciively manhandled in a way that's humiliating and undignified and I think that really triggered pain not just for her but for everybody because the way that she said that this person was not responsible for The hunger strike, he was just one of the people who was participating. But the way that IS was retaliating against it, they were calling him like, like one of the agitators or he's the source of all of the All of the disruption Gabrielle, I think feels right now that this is all happening because of her and this is something that there is being done to her that they're abusing her husband because of how she's been organizing on the outside And, you know, u For someone who's pregn It's gota feel really, really painful and confusing Did the purchaster surround the facility to try to keep him from being transferred Protesters immedately formed the a human chain So they locked arms and they tried to block the driveway And u The ice people usually means immediately used tear gas, immediately used pepper balls Andy Kim was there, Senator Kim, sorry. Senator Kim was there and that was, I think one of the bigger moments of flash pointoints because now we had images of a congressman getting abused by federal agents And which is really, I think Doubly upsetting because in the pictures and all the videos you can see him with his arms raised to create calm and a chain of communication between protesters and the IC agents So the way that Delaney sort of set up is there's like two driveways on either side So at all times right now, there's protesters in front of well, I guess not right now. But at that time, there were protesters on either side. And so there was a big rush for people to try to stop the vehicle as soon as people saw that um that Mr. Soto was inside one of the vehicles that they were trying to leave So it just escalated immediately because as soon as ice responded with tear gas and pepper balls, prrotesters immediately started throwing things and I think there was at least one report that one Iice agent was taken to the hospital as well, so Yeah, I feel like those images of Senator Kim They really focused the mind on this place But it was interesting because the focus was, of course, on the senator and not on what had brought him there. You know, there's always tension when something like that happens. The attension can be good for the people protesting, but it can also be distracting because it takes away maybe from what they're trying to say certainly I feel like after those images came out you saw A rush of people into Delaney Hall, into this space whether they were there to support Iice or to protest Iice. And we've seen how over the last year, when that happens It just creates a mess of people live streaming things, people confronting each other to try to get clicks. And that certainly happened Delaney Hall. Yeah. yeah. it content creators converge One of the things I think is really interesting that notot really talked about in these basaces is And you see the same thing in Minneapolis, You see the same things in other places where these protests become like national circuses People show from all over then at night Other people show up different people. There's always like a change out in the evening when like the regular content creators and protestterors sort of like, shuffle and go home then maybe all other the people who are coming out of work or for whatever reason soap with shields, face masks, goggles, sort of prepared for a fight And they're there just to fight But I think it's really important to separate that from like the everyday protest during the day because it's really easy, I think, to conflate those two. But it's almost like an entirely different population of protesters. And the same thing happens everyverywhere. We call them the bllack black, peopleople who just show up specifically just to fight cops T You did see some tense exchanges while you were there. Like you weren't there at the most tense moments, but you did see people kind of beginning to get into it, right Yeah, and that's that was my cue to leief. Because I've been teargasted enough. I'm good on that I don't need to do that again. Or people fighting over? It's just like a barricade, you know, just like the smallest things. like A barricade will be placed and then people put their hands on it start rattling it I will take that see that as an invitation to to come in and express their authority They might think of themselves as people who are trying to like de escalate by showing that who's in boss or who's in control. almost like ten times out of ten It's just going to give the protesters and the rioters where there to fight the cops an excuse to to escalate as well will be back. afterfter a quick break Hey, it's Paige from Giggly Squad, and you know those moments when you just wanna slow down and actually treat yourself. That's exactly where Hagand' comes in. Hagand' just launched a brand new flavor, coffee almond Toffee ice cream. It's rich, smooth, creamy, indulgent, and honestly too good to rush through. Take your sweet time, That's Ds. F Hagendu's new cooffee almond Toffee ice creream at retailers nationwide This is Cat and Nat from Cat and Nat Unfiltered and this episode is sponsored by Michaels, your destination for all things birthday parties. If you've ever planned a birthday celebration, you know it goes from cute idea to full on chaos real fast. The party shop at Michaels makes life easier with over forty thousand five hundred y supplies in sixty plus themes like Bluey, Rdeo, soccer, rainbow, and more. Starting at just ninety nine cents. You can shop same day delivery or order online for pickup in store and they even do free helium inflation on Sack Balloon styles. Michael's everything to celebrate anything, visit Michael's in store or shop online Now Over The week since Andy Kim's arrest I feel like there's been ust a A real set of circumstances at Delaney Hall You know, you see this rush of people come in You see it get tense And then there's this question of who should be in charge of the area? Should it be ice U Is that too tense? Okay, maybe that's too tense. And then you see the governor Mikey Cheryl, who just A few days earlier had been saying, I can't be leted into this facility. let me in She sends inra state troopers which Historically has not been a great move in these situations to send in people like state troopers But she did it That seemed to escalate things. There were more Arrests is my understanding after that happened. There were free speech zones, which is never popular where you sort of try to blockade people off Pfew The road to Delaney Hall was blocked Um Then just in the last twenty four hours The mayayor of Newark. Rosbaraka seems to have come in and said Listen, we have specifically trained police officers for crowd control Let us send those people in and he has. But this is felt a mess to me. And there's been plenty of speculation online that the governor here in the wrong for sending in state troopers and may have been responding to some kind of federal pressure As a New Jersey resident, someone who follows us closely, I'm just wondering what you make all of this. Yeah. I mean Very early on when IC was cracking down on these protesters their main complaint was that the state was not stepping in to create safety around Delenia Hall. So it felt like she was definitely under pressure federally and from the statewide, and also probably just looking at the videos and thinking, Maybe the state troopers can do a better job than these undertrained ice officers. there might have been some expectation there that might they might actually do a better job and actually calm things down You're right that historically that's never really played out that way But at the same time, I think as somebody from Newark and who's in Newark right now There's something to say about The special relationship that Nord PD has with local organizers. Very famously during like the Black Lives Matter protests here in Newark Nobody got hurt. not a single glass pane got smashed And the reason for that was The police gave them the space and opportunity to march up directly at the City hall and do what they wanted to do peacefully And because they didn't fight back or because they didn't show up with riot chills and because they didn't show up with police horses People just sort of express their discontent Ross Bara went out and said, I get you. I understand you. Heere's what you're actually saying. It sort of repeated to people and made them feel validated And nobody got hurt U So I feel like Ros Baraka understands better than a lot of mayors How Like what a success in this case actually looks like I'm hoping that Mickey Shherll actually listens to him and takes his lead I think at this point, it's escalated to the point where people here are just not from Newark. and It's going to get more and more difficult because of how violent things have already gotten to go back to a phase where we can just express our pain, but Ros Brock, part of this announcement, I think is really, really important here, which is that he's introducing a lawsuit to try to shut down the facility permanently So there's some sort of mechanism to do the things that the protesters want to do legally. And I think part of the reason why there's so much violence and anger and an outpouring of emotion is because the lawlessness of IC officers going out there and cracking heads because nobody's going to hold those people accountable Yeah Doid we know if the hunger and labor strike are still underway at Dillenial? I believe that they are. The last I checked, I believe that they are, and I'm not sure where that's going to gofortunately I hope it in soon It's interesting because On Monday multiple politicians were offered access to Delaney Hall. I feel like it was this It was an offer to try to calm things down, right So we had a Republican and a couple of Democrats go inside the facility And what was challenging to me about this is that They came out with totally different impressions You know, you had, um Congressman Jeff Vanrew, who's a Republican, say the facility was clean, organized and well run And then you had Democratic representatives, Analia Mahhia Cologone say it was Bad. They confirmed that pregnant women and other medically vulnerable detainees had been released which have been requested by advocates But they said, listen, things haven't changed here. This split screen is so unhelpful me as someone who's trying to understand What's happening there Um, And I wonder if you think ever have a clear understanding