In the last two months, I’ve told you about how two detained asylum seekers who spoke to me were cut off from a video visitation app called GettingOut, which they use to talk to loved ones. 

My April 7 story chronicled the fear immigrants faced in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement as the pandemic spread. The asylum seekers I spoke to were being held at the Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center in Louisiana, where 30 detainees have tested positive as of Thursday.

The same week my story was published, two of these sources’ GettingOut accounts were suspended. Our attorney, D. Victoria Baranetsky, has now sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, demanding an investigation into the suspensions.

“This unilateral prohibition is clear retaliation and violates constitutionally-protected speech of the press, public, as well as the detainees,” the letter reads. “We request that you investigate this unlawful conduct and that you provide an opportunity for us to speak with your office to ensure that such actions are not repeated in the future and that proper policies are put in place.”

The suspensions continued for about five weeks. Eventually, one of my sources was released from detention, and the other had his GettingOut account restored. They aren’t the only detainees who have faced consequences after speaking to the press. After reporter Debbie Nathan wrote about a protest organized by women inside the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center, her sources had their access to phone calls and television temporarily cut off and video visitation hours reduced. 

This is the second letter we’ve sent to the government. Last month, our attorney also wrote to the Pine Prairie warden and ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility, arguing that cutting off the men’s access to GettingOut constituted a clear violation of the First Amendment rights of both Reveal and the detained men.

An attorney representing the GEO Group, the private contractor that runs Pine Prairie, responded to our letter. The suspensions, he said, were not a result of retaliation, “but because (the detainees) violated rules by publishing photos inside the facility thereby creating a security risk.” It’s unclear how my sources violated this rule. I took the screenshots that were published with the story.

We sent the new letter last week and are awaiting a response from the Inspector General’s office. We’ll keep you posted on any developments.

In the meantime, you can revisit our Reveal episode, Detained and Exposed, here, or our comic series based on the story here.

REPORT: 17 MIGRANT CHILDREN IN U.S. CUSTODY TEST POSITIVE FOR COVID-19  

Seventeen migrant children held in government shelters across the country have tested positive for the virus as of June 7, according to recent court filings in the landmark Flores case that has protected the rights of migrant children for two decades.

An additional 162 shelter employees have also tested positive. But there may be more cases among shelter staff. According to the records, the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which oversees the care of migrant children, “cannot require that staff disclose their private medical information as it relates to COVID-19.”

These new details were disclosed in an interim report filed by a juvenile coordinator from the refugee agency following a federal judge’s order that it release monthly information about children in its care during the pandemic. The 17 children who tested positive were being held at six shelters in New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. The shelters aren’t named in the report. As of June 7, all the children were released from quarantine. "Currently, there (are) no children in medical isolation and there have been no hospitalizations of minors due to COVID-19.”

3 THINGS WE’RE READING

1. Immigration authorities handed out forms to detained parents that would allow the government to separate them from their children. (San Antonio Express-News)

Immigration attorneys say that migrant parents held at the country’s three family detention centers received forms in English that presented them with a “binary choice” to either remain detained indefinitely with their children, or allow the government to place their children in a shelter for unaccompanied youth. The Trump administration is barred in most cases from separating families at the border, but “the binary choice is a way around those legal obligations,” said Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst for the Migration Policy Institute.

The kicker: May 14 was the worst day in more than nine months of detention for Honduran immigrant Miriam and her 15-year-old daughter. At 9:30 a.m. that morning, immigration officials brought Miriam to a room full of other mothers and told her to sign a paper, she said. It was in English, and they didn’t explain what it was. An official marked an “X” in red ink next to where she needed to sign. Frightened, and wary without her lawyer, Miriam didn’t sign. 

2. A judge blocked his deportation, but ICE deported Hector García Mendoza to a border city in Mexico. Now he is missing. (BuzzFeed News)

On May 19, a judge temporarily blocked the deportation of 30-year-old García Mendoza, who was being held at the Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey. His attorneys later learned from Mexican authorities that their client had been deported and crossed into Nuevo Laredo, where immigrants are often targeted by cartels. His family hasn’t heard from him. Four days before his deportation, García Mendoza had been a plaintiff against U.S. immigration authorities and a warden from the private prison contractor, CoreCivic. Several lawmakers have now sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security to express their concerns that the deportation was a form of retaliation. 

The kicker: For now, (Joelle Eliza) Lingat said attorneys are pursuing the case in good faith without accusing ICE of retaliating against García Mendoza, and that once their client is found, immigration authorities will allow him to continue fighting his claim from within the US. "But to the common person it doesn't take much to connect the dots, a plaintiff in a lawsuit against an entire facility was deported to one of the most dangerous places when there were other options," Lingat said. 

3. Asylum seekers waiting for their U.S. court dates in Mexico are struggling to find food and shelter as their cases remain postponed. (The San Diego Union-Tribune)

As court hearings for asylum seekers waiting in Mexico under the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy remain postponed, many are facing challenges in finding work, food, and a place to live as border cities grapple with a surge of COVID-19 cases.  

The kicker: Living conditions are even more tenuous for others in Remain in Mexico. Many who were renting apartments in Tijuana with money from jobs that they got to support themselves while they wait for their cases have had to stop working because of pandemic closures. If they lose those apartments, they may not have anywhere to go. Most of Tijuana’s shelters are not accepting new residents because of COVID-19 concerns.

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