Plus: Who has the U.S. left behind in Afghanistan?

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** THE WEEKLY REVEAL
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Saturday, Aug. 20, 2022

Hello! In this issue:
* Tracing the impact of our award-winning series American Rehab
* How religious leaders are advocating for abortion access
* The inequality between treatment of refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine


** THIS WEEK'S PODCAST
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** American Rehab: A Desperate Call
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Our award-winning series American Rehab ([link removed]) investigates how treatment for drug addiction has turned tens of thousands of people into an unpaid shadow workforce.

The investigative podcast built on years of Reveal reporting ([link removed]) that uncovered, for the first time, the shocking and legally questionable practices employed by rehab work camps across the country – practices that participants and experts alike compared to indentured servitude and even slavery.

The project has created enormous impact since the first story ([link removed]) published in October 2017:
* Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Baldwin said the rehab work camp model violates federal law and called for a congressional investigation ([link removed]) into rehabs that receive federal funding. The investigation began in May 2022.
* Former clients filed six lawsuits against the drug rehab Cenikor, alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. They were all consolidated and in April 2022, a federal judge certified it as a class action, applying to more than 2,700 people who worked for Cenikor since May 2016.
* More than a dozen lawsuits have been filed against work-based programs since our reporting began. The Salvation Army is facing lawsuits ([link removed]) in multiple states from former rehab clients who worked for as little as $1 a week. ([link removed]) In North Carolina, for example, former clients sued the director of Recovery Connections ([link removed]) Community, which shut down after Reveal’s investigation, for exploiting their unpaid labor.
* In 2021, Cenikor CEO Bill Bailey announced the company was effectively shutting down its residential treatment programs. Cenikor said it was"transitioning" them into sober living environments, which are unregulated in Texas (and many other states).

But despite its problems, Cenikor has received millions of dollars in public money. In April 2020, Cenikor received a Paycheck Protection Program loan of $3.9 million. In June 2021, the PPP loan and the related interest was forgiven in full. In 2021, Cenikor received more than $10 million ([link removed]) in state and federal funds to provide treatment services. The company has been expanding, with recent acquisitions in Texas and New Mexico ([link removed]) .

Over the next three weeks, we’re re-airing the first three episodes of the eight-part series ([link removed]) . In the first episode, Reveal reporter Shoshana Walter gets a disturbing phone call from a stranger: Penny Rawlings has just read one of Walter’s stories about Cenikor. Rawlings is desperate to learn more because her brother is a participant there. Rawlings helped send him to Cenikor – but didn’t realize getting him out of treatment was going to be the bigger problem. You can listen to the full series on our Reveal Presents podcast feed ([link removed]) , which highlights our investigative series.
Listen to the episode ([link removed])
🎧 Other places to listen: Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) , Spotify ([link removed]) , Google Podcasts ([link removed]) , Stitcher ([link removed]) or wherever you get your podcasts.
🎨 Illustration by Eren Wilson for Reveal
Taking on powerful interests demands lots of time, a strong backbone and your support. Donate to keep us going ([link removed]) .


** FEATURED STORIES
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** The US Has Approved Only 123 Afghan Humanitarian Parole Applications in the Last Year
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By Najib Aminy and Dhruv Mehrota

Our episode last week ([link removed]) highlighted the treatment of refugees fleeing Afghanistan in the year since Kabul fell to the Taliban. Reveal got copies of government records showing that more than a year since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, the U.S. government has approved less than 2% of Afghan applications it processed for its humanitarian parole program. Since July 2021, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has collected nearly $20 million from 66,000 applications filed through something called a Form I-131 and approved just 123 of the less than 8,000 applications processed. Read the full story. ([link removed])
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** The Religious Right Mobilized to End Roe – Now What?
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Clergy members from five religions have filed suit ([link removed]) against the state of Florida, saying the state’s abortion ban violates a Florida law that prohibits the government from “substantially burdening” the exercise of religion. The plaintiffs are three rabbis, a United Church of Christ reverend, a Unitarian Universalist minister, an Episcopal Church priest and a Buddhist lama. In a recent episode of Reveal, reporter Grace Oldham explored the history of religious groups advocating for abortion access. She visited the First Unitarian Church of Dallas, which back in the late ’60s was part of a national hotline for people seeking an abortion. Today, the church is continuing its legacy of supporting abortion access. Listen to the episode. ([link removed])


** In the News
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What’s happening in the news — with a Reveal context
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Illustration by Ben Fine for Reveal

🔹 A bill aiming to aid Black farmers was rewritten to remove race. A $4 billion federal program was meant to help about 15,000 Black, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian American, Pacific Islander and Latino farmers who had faced racial discrimination. But a group of White farmers filed suit, saying the program would discriminate against them. As part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, congressional Democrats rewrote the policy ([link removed]) to remove race from the eligibility requirements. Instead, $2.2 billion is set aside to aid farmers and ranchers who faced discrimination of any kind. Reveal’s episode Losing Ground ([link removed]) reported on the barriers Black farmers face: Black families went from owning nearly a million farms in 1920 to now fewer than 36,000.

🔹 A group that profits off spreading voter fraud myths is teaming up with right-wing sheriffs. Texas-based group True the Vote raised millions of dollars in donations claiming that it has evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election. But the group has never released any evidence of voter fraud and instead, a Reveal investigation found ([link removed]) , gave more than $1 million in questionable payments to its founder, a board member and its lawyer. Now, True the Vote is seeking powerful new allies ([link removed]) : local sheriffs. True the Vote founder Catherine Engelbrecht has joined forces with Sheriff Mark Lamb of Pinal County in Arizona, leader of the conservative sheriffs group Protect America Now, to create a new website ProtectAmerica.Vote, which promotes a larger role for sheriffs in monitoring elections. “I think it’s a significant overreach of authority by
sheriffs across the country … to on their own declare they have the authority to investigate voting fraud,” David Mahoney, a former president of the country’s largest sheriffs organization, told The Guardian ([link removed]) .

🔹 The Oregon governor’s race could hinge on one big issue: homelessness. OPB reports ([link removed]) that the three women running for Oregon governor have all made homelessness a key issue. In June, Reveal reporter Melissa Lewis documented tensions ([link removed]) about how to respond to homelessness in West Coast cities, as the combination of a mental health crisis and a decade-long real estate boom has created a new, especially vulnerable, especially visible generation of the unhoused. And as the unsheltered increasingly live on streets in residential neighborhoods, their new neighbors have turned to one place for help in particular: the police. Read the full story. ([link removed])


** A Number to Remember
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68,000

That's how many Ukrainians have been approved for humanitarian parole, which gives them temporary entry into the United States. In contrast, government records reveal ([link removed]) that only 123 Afghan humanitarian parole applicants have been approved – despite more than 66,000 Afghans applying over the past year.
🎧 Listen to the full investigation: Afghanistan’s Recognition Problem ([link removed])
This issue of The Weekly Reveal was written by Kassie Navarro, edited by Andy Donohue and copy edited by Nikki Frick. If you enjoyed this issue, forward it to a friend ([link removed]) . Have some thoughts? Drop us a line (mailto:[email protected]) with feedback or ideas!

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