Latest / This Week On ICE / “It’s a stain on our national conscience.”: The documentary crew tracking families impacted by ICE

Transcript

“It’s a stain on our national conscience.”: The documentary crew tracking families impacted by ICE · This Week On ICE

• 0:00
  [music]
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to This Week On ICE for October 1st.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Matthew Kendrick.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Today we have a very special treat.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: We are interviewing one of the producers of Fractured.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Fractured is a documentary series covering the bitter human impacts on families
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: and community Thank you so much.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to start by having you introduce this project to us.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us a little bit how it got started and why you've chosen
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: the format you've chosen to tell these really compelling stories.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: Matt, you might remember,
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: as many of us do,
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: that in June of 2025,
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: we suddenly began to see people being kidnapped off of the streets of Los Angeles.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: And there was a lot of footage on social media of random kidnappings,
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: men showing up in trucks, masked, armed,
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: pulling street vendors,
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: car wash workers,
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: day laborers,
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: or just people walking down the street into trucks
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: and essentially disappearing them.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: So many of us were shocked and horrified by what we were seeing But we felt helpless.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't know what to do about it, what we could do about it.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: And a small group of us began talking about what this means,
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: not just to the People and the families of people who are being directly affected,
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: but the ripple effects across entire communities.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: Because of course,
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: as soon as these surges of kidnappings began,
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: our streets emptied out,
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: the schools emptied out,
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: the churches emptied out, people were too afraid to leave their apartments.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: So it was so clear to us that There were reverberations through these communities
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: that were profound that were not being adequately explored through
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: the social media footage we were seeing that were really of random arrests.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so the question became,
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: could we somehow document this in a way
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: that would help Americans understand what's actually going on here
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: and what this means?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: For the families involved, for the communities involved, but also all the rest of us.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: So that's how this got started.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: And it was just a small group of citizens.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: We reached out to some people we knew in the entertainment industry
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: who had certain skill sets in filming and producing and directing and just asked
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: the question, were people willing to help?
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: Were people willing to get involved and share their skills so that we could start doing this?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so happy to say that the response from the entertainment community was fantastic
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: and generous.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: And since then, we have put together a team of individuals with tremendous filmmaking skills.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: And we have been interviewing and documenting these activities throughout
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: the Los Angeles area and now moving into a national scope.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I would highly encourage folks to visit fractured-stories.com.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: We will have that linked in the description and in the Substack page as well
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: to watch these.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because actually,
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: when I tuned in,
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: I was like,
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: wow, each episode of this looks like it was It's like a $20,000 production.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: The camera work is excellent.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Audio is perfectly crisp.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Some really, really striking visuals in there for these four or five minute mini docs.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I did not realize that so many people were helping you out with that.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to start with,
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: I believe your most recent episode,
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: episode 12, where you interview a man named Jay and his family.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Jay is an abbreviation for his real name.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Can you tell us a little bit, kind of summarize what Jay went through?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: And talk to us about how that's affected his family.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Jay's just an ordinary guy.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: He's an ordinary family man.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: He's been in this country for a long time.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: He is undocumented.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: However, he is not a criminal.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: He's never had a criminal record.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: He's never been arrested before.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: He's never been in jail.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: And what a lot of people don't realize is that purely by being here undocumented,
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: one has not committed A criminal offense.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: It is essentially an administrative violation.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: So he was going to work and he was on a break from work and on his way back,
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: suddenly I showed up and started grabbing all kinds of individuals
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: from his workplace, including him.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: He was detained for several months and ultimately he got out on bond.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: He is still subject to deportation hearings.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: And it's important to know that almost no one is getting out on bond currently.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: So his detention occurred in late 2025, and he was released in late 2025.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: The situation has gotten much, much worse for people who are now being detained.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: Almost none of them are getting out on bond.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: And as we know,
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: many of them are now being deported to third countries for
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: which they have absolutely no connection.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: So Jay was detained.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: His attorneys were fighting to get him out.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: He ultimately was released on bond and his family was left to pick up the pieces
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: of their lives without their major breadwinner available to them.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: So it's been incredibly difficult for his family.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: We know of other families who have lost their apartments.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: They have been evicted.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: They have ended up living with friends and having their kids living in cars with them.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: Because when they take the primary breadwinner, they put the entire family at risk.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: And we are seeing this not only in Los Angeles, but all over the country.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: Jay's children have been traumatized by this event.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: The stability that they have known their entire lives has been disrupted.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: They don't know what's going to happen to him.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: They were tremendously worried about him while he was in detention,
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: particularly because we know how horrible the conditions are in prison.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: These detention centers, which I think is really a misnomer.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: These are mass incarceration centers,
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: not this lovely term that we hear bandied about, detention centers.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: So this has created a traumatic situation for the family,
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: for his wife,
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: who was suddenly responsible for making sure that They could pay all the bills.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: They could stay in their apartment.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: They could put food on the table.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: So it's important for people to understand these are ordinary families just like you
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: and me who are trying to live their lives,
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: send their kids to school,
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: do their jobs, save whatever money they can, and their lives are being ripped apart.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: For the reason of having violated an administrative violation here in the United States.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it really drove home to me in that particular episode how painful
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: and how difficult it was.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: You have this shot, you're in really close on Jay's eyes.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, hyper close up.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: And he mentions that when he was in the detention facility,
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: his daughter asked him, Daddy,
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: can you,
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm even like getting teared up right now,
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: thinking like, Daddy, can you help me do my homework?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it is.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: It is extraordinary.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: And it's important for people to understand this is one of now tens of thousands,
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: actually hundreds of thousands of stories just like this.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: Kids who are left home not knowing what's happening to their fathers, to their mothers.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: There are unaccompanied children,
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: three years old, Five years old, 12 years old, in detention by themselves.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: We are living through a period of American history
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: that we could not have envisioned 10 years ago, 15 years ago.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's a stain on our national conscience.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: And part of the inhumanity that we see and that Kelly and I have often discussed
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: on this program is the way that the administration turns people who arrived
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: on legal pathways,
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: people who have received DACA,
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: I know you interviewed DACA recipients,
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: people who are under temporary protected status
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: because their home country is suffering from any number of highly disruptive
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: and dangerous events and situations.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: They turn them into targets of deportation by eliminating those protections,
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: by removing the very few legal pathways that exist to enter this country for safety
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: and to build a new life.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Could you help me understand from your perspective how this has impacted the people
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: that you've spoken to who have had their lifeline ripped away from them in this way?
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's...
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: I cannot actually overestimate how profoundly unsettling this is.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: They came to this country in fear of their lives, many of them.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: They did everything right.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: They applied for asylum.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: They received temporary protected status because they were part of a group of people
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: that had been recognized by the American government as having been at risk
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: in their home countries.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: This narrative that everyone here who is
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: an immigrant is somehow here illegally is just factually incorrect.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: And to have arrived here,
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: gone through the trauma of having to get to the United States,
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: To turn yourself in at the border under a legal asylum request and to
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: then immediately be detained and treated as a criminal is profoundly disturbing.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: They don't understand how the America that they understood us
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: to be could have turned on them in this way.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: And we don't understand it either.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: The citizens of the United States don't understand us either.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: At least many of us don't understand it.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: These are legal pathways to stay in the United States.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: What's happening to the Haitian community right now is a travesty.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: These are people who have been here for decades,
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: have built lives here,
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: have had families here, have paid taxes here, have contributed to their communities.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: They've been on the PTA.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: They have volunteered as firefighters.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: Some of the individuals that we've interviewed here in L.A.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: were part of the cleanup after the Eaton Fire in Altadena,
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: volunteering their time to clean up after the devastating fires here.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: Many of those have had the protections that they came to rely on ripped away,
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: and there is no legitimate reason for this to be so.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: So the security that they felt being in the United States and being protected
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: under these programs has been taken away with no explanation,
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: accompanied only by an untrue narrative that they are somehow illegal
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: and somehow dangerous to communities when the opposite is actually true.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: And when members of these communities attempt to stand up for themselves,
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: attempt to cover what's happening to them,
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: they might end up like Richard Barrias, who we've discussed on the show before.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: You interviewed two friends of the show,
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Gustavo Arellano and Adam Rose, who came on to speak to us about him as well.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Could you tell us a little bit,
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: remind us how Richard ended up,
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: what ended up happening to him and how that's affected his family
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: in your documentary?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Richard's case is just so shocking and heartbreaking.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: Richard was just a citizen journalist.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he was a guy in South LA who was documenting community activities.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: He was out there with his phone and built a TikTok following reporting on Things
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: that happened in his local community that the news organizations were not reporting
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: on.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: So those might be terrible traffic jams or crashes or crime
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: or other community events that were occurring.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: But when ICE swooped into LA and started kidnapping people,
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: he turned his attention to those activities
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: because those situations directly affected his community and his people.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so he not only was doing street footage in terms of actual kidnappings,
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: but he was also covering the protests and the demonstrations that were happening at
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: the time.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: And in one of those, he was attacked by officers and wounded, taken to a hospital.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: And then I should say he was taken to a hospital by his friends because
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: although he was injured by officers,
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: agents of ICE, he was not being treated at the scene.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: So his friends took him to the hospital where he was treated and released and
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: then months later ICE tracked him to his home on his way to work in his truck
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: as he was pulling out of his driveway and they shot him and they shot him in the arm
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: and took him away,
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: took him to the hospital And then he was almost immediately discharged.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: He was on morphine hours before of his discharge.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: And then he was taken into ICE custody and almost immediately transferred
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: to Adelanto, a detention center, which is north of Los Angeles.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: And he has been in Adelanto ever since.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: He has never been adequately treated for the injury to his arm.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: He's in constant pain.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: He has lost much of the feeling in his arm.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: He has trouble using his fingers.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: And his family has been put in a position where they have had to try to survive
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: as best they can without him.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: Once again,
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: the major breadwinner of the family,
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: His son,
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: Ulysses,
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: who is just a fantastic young man,
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: is at State College in California,
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: has had to modify his hours in order to work part-time to support his family.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: He is now really trying to help his mother as much as possible in terms of income
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: because they are having a really tough time making ends meet
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: without Richard being available.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: They have to pay for attorneys.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: They have to pay to keep Richard in the very basic supplies needed to survive
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: in detention centers.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that this is an area of ICE detention that is not spoken about enough.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: And that is that these detention centers are profit-making ventures.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: And it is In order to access very basic supplies, one has to pay for it.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: Small bottles of water, toothbrushes, toothpaste, shoes.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Any kind of food other than the horrible food that is served the inmates
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: of these incarceration centers has to be paid for.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: And the prices of the supplies in these commissaries are egregiously high.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: So not only is his family having to survive without his income,
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: but they're also having to pay for attorneys And to keep him adequately supplied.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: Phone calls cost money.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: Access to the tablets cost money.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: This is a situation that is just beyond belief that we have American corporations
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: that are making money selling supplies to people
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: that they have purposely impoverished by detaining them for months and months at
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: a time.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to stay on Richard for a moment because even with the severe injury
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: that has been untreated,
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: even as he is being held in Adelanto,
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: which we know and you've described in gruesome detail,
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: the horrible conditions there, he is still reporting.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: He is still doing his job and sending out as much information as he can
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: about his situation there.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: Wondering if you could comment on
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: I just think if it were me, I would be broken by this experience.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: How have the people you've interviewed dealt with these incredibly traumatic events
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: that they've been forced to go through?
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: That is such a good question.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: I think
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: That many people do not understand the resilience of people who come to this country
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: to make a better life.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: They have a level of courage,
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: resilience,
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: and endurance that many of us who have been lucky enough to have been born
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: and raised here do not understand and frankly do not share.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: Richard is a born journalist.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: This is obviously what he was meant to do.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: This is a passion.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: This is a calling.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: And he is not going to give up because he is detained.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: This is what he does.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: This is who he is.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: This is not to say this does not wear psychologically on Richard and psychologically on Mm-hmm.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: How traumatized they are,
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: how it takes them months and months to even begin to feel like themselves anymore.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: They feel disassociated from their environments.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: It takes a very long time and a lot of assistance for them to start to regain
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: the sense of who they were before they were taken.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that one of the areas that is not discussed enough is
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: the mental health consequences of detention and the trauma of kidnap and arrest.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: But also the mental health consequences of the people who are being left behind.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: The students that we have spoken to who are living in fear
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: of their parents being taken and being left to prison.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: Make their own way and support their siblings.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: The congregations of the faithful who have seen members
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: of their congregation kidnapped and deported and feel the gaps in the spiritual life
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: of their community.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: As pointed out in the episode that we started talking about,
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: Jay's episode, the holes that are left in family life.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: Who is the person who is taking their children to school?
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: Who's the person who is cooking for them?
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: Who's the person who is helping them with their homework?
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, these are essential parts of family life that are profoundly changed
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: when someone is ripped from them.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: And we...
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the themes that we've been hitting on in this conversation is the economic pressure.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Thinking not only of the cases we've discussed,
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: but also in episode one,
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: the husband of the woman who was detained in that episode,
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: mentioned that in order to attempt to get his wife out of detention and deal
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: with her case, he has to forego the chance to earn money for days at a time.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: It takes him hours to get to the detention facility.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: It takes hours for him to be able to see his wife.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: And all of that time, he's losing income.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: We mentioned in Richard's case in that video as well,
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: his son won't let his mom leave the house often because he's afraid
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: of what could happen to her.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: So he has to He should be studying, but he has to work.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: He has to provide for the family and run errands for them.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm curious your response to this.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: It almost seems to me that that is incredibly intentional,
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: that the point is to make life in the United States unlivable for people who,
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: in many cases,
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: were born in this country and are U.S.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: citizens,
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: but by impacting people who are undocumented in their family and No, not at all.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think you are absolutely correct.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: I think all of this is a targeted policy.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think there is an agenda to essentially depopulate the
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: United States
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: of immigrant populations that are non-white.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: And that every move that this administration is making is an effort to further that policy.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: The fear,
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: the targeting of the breadwinners, the long-term detention.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: If people are here illegally,
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: why—and you're hell-bent on getting them out of this country—why leave them
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: in detention for 11 months?
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: Why aren't you deporting them right away?
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: They are sending a message to the immigrant population of the United States
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: that you are no longer welcome here.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: And we will either get you or we will scare you enough so that you will leave.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: And they're wrong.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, this country was built on immigrants.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: We are all, virtually all of us, immigrants or come from immigrant families.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: The only people native to this country are the indigenous people of this land.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: So we are seeing a targeted policy
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: scare and terrorize large swaths of
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: the American population to leave this country With the insane idea that somehow
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: the folks who are going to be left are going to be able to maintain
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: a higher standard of living than we're currently seeing.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: Completely ignoring the fact that the immigrant population of
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: the United States is what keeps us afloat.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: What maintains our economy, makes our economy possible.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: And that over generations,
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_01: the children of immigrants end up going on to hold positions of authority and power
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: and economic power.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: And that immigrant kids, in fact, work harder in many respects in school.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: And the statistics are very clear in showing
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: that immigrant populations are less likely to It is a targeted policy.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: It is designed to try to scare people into leaving.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: And the ramifications of this are already coming back to hurt us.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: Cattle ranchers,
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: are wondering how in the world they're going to be maintaining their herds
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: without their workforces.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: Farmers are already seeing devastating effects by the fact
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: that they cannot find workers to come and pick fruits and vegetables.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: Those of us who have elderly parents and grandparents in assisted living facilities
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_01: and in other care settings are subtly being faced with the fact
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: that it's almost impossible to staff these institutions appropriately because
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: so many of the immigrant,
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: primarily women who are working in these places,
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: have either been detained, deported, scared, too scared to go to work.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: Finding daycare for our children is becoming increasingly difficult.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: So those of us who think this does not affect us
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: are dead wrong.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I think everyone who Works on this beat,
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: who has to deal with immigration courts,
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: who has to deal with immigration authorities,
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: experiences them lying and obstructing to you.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you're trying to get your loved one out of detention or
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: whether you're just trying to get authoritative figures on how many people are in
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: a detention facility,
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: the deceit and the barriers that are put up are kind of endless.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: They just continually happen.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm curious how your subjects and your team have dealt with these kind of barriers
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: and obstructions as you've been producing the series.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: Well, most of the barriers and obstructions that we
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: actually experience are through
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: the first-person interviews that we're conducting with interviewees.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: I can tell you what it's like to try to visit someone in Atalanta.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: You cannot bring anything into the visiting room.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: No phone, no pencil, no paper, no jackets.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: You are examined before you can enter the visiting space to ensure
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: that your clothing is appropriate.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so the ICE officers can turn you away if, for example, your shoulders are showing.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: No tank tops allowed, for example.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: You cannot touch anything.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: The people that you are there to visit, even family members.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: You have to sit across from each other.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: At least in Atalanto, there's not even a table.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_01: There's a line of chairs against a wall and then a line of visitors' chairs opposite.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so you have to lean forward to speak to them because you are in a room where
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: The noise level is unbelievable.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's very difficult to carry on a conversation.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: You cannot share water with them.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: You cannot...
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: Isolation that one feels when you are in there trying to communicate with people
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: who have been incarcerated, it's almost hard to describe.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then up on a podium are ICE officers who are monitoring
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: and watching everything that's going on in the room to ensure that if there is even
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: the smallest infraction, That you are escorted out immediately.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: You cannot bring a snack or anything to share with the folks who are incarcerated.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: The visiting room itself is away from the actual facility,
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: so you have no idea what the conditions are actually like behind the locked doors.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: It is...
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: It is like going to visit someone in a maximum security prison with even more stringent rules.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: And just to remind people,
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: these are law-abiding people who at worst are accused of
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: an administrative violation, not criminals.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: They're not being held for criminal activity whatsoever.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: They are not being held for criminal activity whatsoever,
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: but yet they are treated as if they are hardened criminals.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think that we could go on for hours talking about this,
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: but unfortunately, we do have to wrap up for our time.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sitting here in Vienna,
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: Austria, about two blocks from the city's major Holocaust memorial in which...
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: The names of 65,000 Jews who were killed in the city are written.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: One of the questions the memorial asks is, what would you have done in that scenario?
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: How can people help with this horrible crime that in a generation
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: or two generations,
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: people will ask,
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: what would I have done while the U.S.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: was conducting this awful abuse of innocent people?
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_01: I think first and foremost, I would urge people, do not look away.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: Do not pretend this is not happening.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's exactly what happened in Nazi Germany in the run up to the Holocaust.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: This is real.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: This is happening.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: This is happening on our streets every single day.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: It is now in urban areas.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: It is in rural areas.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: It is in suburban areas.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: There are tens of thousands of people who are being snatched from their homes,
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: from immigration court, from the streets, from restaurants, from hospitals.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: This is happening every single day.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_01: So do not look away.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_01: The second thing I would say is you have to vote.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_01: Our best way,
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: our best pathway to get out of this horrible situation is to get this cabal of cruel
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: and evil people out of our government.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_01: So you must vote and you must get your friends and families to vote.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I would pressure our legislators to be continually speaking up against this.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_01: They need to know that their constituency cares about this issue, cares deeply about this issue.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_01: And for those of you who do care already, do something.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: Visit people in Atalanta.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: Even if you don't know them,
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: you cannot imagine the number of people who are there whose families cannot come
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: to visit them because of their own status.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so they are on their own in there with no one on the outside who cares.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_01: Participate in protests.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: Write your legislators about them.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_01: CoreCivic and GEO,
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_01: these companies that are making hundreds of millions of dollars
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: through government contracts to run these awful incarceration centers.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_01: Pay attention.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_01: Talk about it.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: Look at it.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: Do not look away.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for that.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I will repeat the name of the website, fractured-stories.com.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: Is there anywhere else folks can access your work and share and spread the message?
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: We are on all social media platforms.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_01: So we're on YouTube, Fractured Stories.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_01: We're on Instagram, Fractured Stories.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_01: We're on TikTok, Fractured Stories.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_01: Please view our work.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_01: Share it with your friends.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_01: We are Trying to get as wide viewership and amplification as we can,
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: particularly before the midterm elections coming up in just over a month.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_01: Donate.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_01: We are going to be expanding across the country, filming across the country.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_01: We are completely privately funded.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_01: Through a 501c3 nonprofit affiliation with Grateful Film Fund.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: So please donate.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_01: Help us do this work.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_01: Help us continue this work.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_01: And we hope that you will all get involved.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much for joining us.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_01: You're very welcome.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's going to be it for us for This Week On ICE for October 1st.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much for listening.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: As always, stay safe, look out for your neighbors, and we'll see you next week.