In Los Angeles, opposition is mounting to the latest attempt by for-profit company VisionQuest to open a shelter for unaccompanied minors. 

In November, my colleagues Aura Bogado and Patrick Michels told you about VisionQuest, its history of scandals related to its treatment of children and the firm’s plan to open a shelter for unaccompanied youth in Los Angeles.

Aura and Patrick obtained notes from a September meeting between city officials and the company that say VisionQuest is seeking to lease a two-story building in a working-class neighborhood that will “host children who have entered the country as unaccompanied minors.”

After they started asking questions about VisionQuest’s proposal, City Councilwoman Nury Martinez drafted a motion requesting that city staff review whether a shelter was the best use for the property. “I am vehemently opposed to placing immigrant children in what some call holding facilities or detention centers,” she told us.

Others are opposing the plan as well, we learned this week. According to the Los Angeles Daily News, dozens of residents protested in front of the proposed shelter site in the Arleta neighborhood, holding up signs that read, “Justice for children,” and, “Say NO to a for-profit immigration detention center in Arleta!!”

U.S. Rep. Tony Cardenas, whose district includes Arleta, also tweeted in support of the protesters, according to the story. “I will not sit quietly as this administration attempts to open a youth-migrant detention facility in my district that would separate families and imprison children,” Cardenas wrote.

From the article:

The two-story building on Woodman Avenue where the facility is planned was formerly a convalescent home, said local resident Ed Rose, whose mother stayed there briefly. But “locking up little kids” was not something the 82-year-old Mission Hills resident ever imagined would happen there. He said he found the idea “absolutely ridiculous” and would rather see the building be used as a shelter for homeless people.

“To be silent is to in essence support what is going on,” added Rose, who turned out Monday to challenge the plans, by youth shelter operator VisionQuest, to lease the building and create the detention center with part of a $25 million federal grant.

VisionQuest is among dozens of providers that were awarded funding – totaling nearly $800 million – from the U.S. government in the past year as the Trump administration expands its network of shelters for unaccompanied children. 

Besides Los Angeles, VisionQuest has faced similar backlash from other cities. Officials in Philadelphia, San Antonio and Albuquerque, New Mexico, have blocked the company from opening shelters in their communities.

Read our VisionQuest story here.

FLORIDA NEWSPAPER DEMANDS CHANGES IN RESPONSE TO OUR U VISA INVESTIGATION

The Tampa Bay Times’ editorial board recently weighed in on my investigation that exposed how law enforcement officials are undermining a special visa program, called the U visa, for immigrant crime victims. 

The newspaper cited my analysis that found nearly 1 of every 4 agencies serving large immigrant communities create barriers never envisioned under the U visa program.  

“There is no reason law enforcement should be creating a separate structure outside of the typical U visa process. There are already plenty of barriers to immigrants getting a U visa: for one, the number is capped at 10,000 visas a year,” the Times writes. “Each of these immigrants deserves a chance at a U visa if they are a good candidate. Agencies that refuse all U visa applications – with what appears to be no good reason – are not following the spirit or the letter of the law.”

My reporting uncovered that from border communities in Texas to some of New York’s biggest cities, police leaders are blocking immigrants from even applying for a potentially life-changing visa and sowing distrust, affecting the safety of their entire communities far beyond immigrant neighborhoods.

My story also was published on the front pages of the Tampa Bay Times, the Miami Herald and its Spanish publication, El Nuevo Herald.  

Read the editorial here.
 

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING

This week, Frontline released an hourlong documentary about El Paso, Texas, and how President Donald Trump transformed this border city into the backdrop for his immigration crackdown. El Paso was the testing ground for many of his new policies, from a pilot initiative for family separations to the “Migrant Protection Protocols” program that forces asylum seekers to wait for their court dates in Mexico.

Reporter Martin Smith interviewed Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, who is also a staunch supporter of Trump’s restrictive immigration policies. Smith asked about the thousands of asylum seekers living in shelters or makeshift encampments in Juarez, El Paso’s sister city in Mexico, where families often are at risk of violence.

“I don’t deny that there are parts of Mexico that are dangerous, but the families are not contained there, nor are they obligated to stay here,” Cuccinelli said. “They do not have to stay in the dangerous area you describe, is the simple point.”

Watch the documentary here.

3 THINGS WE’RE READING

1. The Trump administration wanted to embed ICE agents inside the federal agency that oversees the placement of unaccompanied children with their families. (The Washington Post)

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services rejected the government’s proposal to place U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in its offices, but agreed to share biometric information of family members who were rejected as sponsors for migrant children.

The kicker: The arrangement appears to circumvent laws that restrict the use of the refu­gee program for deportation enforcement; Congress has made clear that it does not want those who come forward as potential sponsors of minors in U.S. custody to be frightened away by possible deportation. But, in the reasoning of senior Trump administration officials, adults denied custody of children lose their status as “potential sponsors” and are fair game for arrest.

ICE often has been suspected of targeting child sponsors. Last year, we told you the story of a Guatemalan father living in Philadelphia who was arrested by immigration agents after he took in his daughter when she arrived alone at the border. You can read the story here.

2. The ‘bottomless demand’ for indigenous-language interpreters. (The New Yorker)

The U.S. immigration system often denies basic rights to Mayan-language asylum seekers, leading to family separations and a lack of due process in court proceedings, lawyers and experts say. Meanwhile, a small group of interpreters is trying to fill that void.

The kicker: I asked Sales and Martín if Mam speakers generally understood their explanation of asylum, and Martín said yes, but he mentioned another problem cited by nearly everyone I interviewed. “A tendency for a lot of indigenous people is to agree to everything being asked of them in Spanish,” he said, even if it’s incorrect and self-incriminating. “A lot of times they get deported,” Sales said. Marianne Richardson, a graduate student at the University of Texas, studies access to indigenous languages at the border in Arizona, where many Mayan migrants cross. She told me that, often, when the Border Patrol asks a migrant if he or she speaks Spanish, “the person will just say ‘Sí.’ And they’ll be, like, ‘OK, can I continue in Spanish?’ And the person says, ‘Sí.’ But there’s not really a comprehension check.” She added, “Some of them are really intimidated by an authority figure with a gun and just want to do what they’re told.”

3. ICE relies on social media searches to track down and arrest immigrants, emails show. (The Intercept) 

Emails obtained by The Intercept expose how the agency’s Pacific Enforcement Response Center, which provides intelligence support to ICE, searched an immigrant’s Facebook posts to confirm his identity and track down his address.

The kicker: The emails are a rare glimpse into the ever-widening surveillance dragnet ICE uses to track down immigrants who are subject to possible deportation. In this case, ICE used Thomson Reuters’ controversial CLEAR database, part of a growing industry of commercial data brokers that contract with government agencies, essentially circumventing barriers that might prevent the government from collecting certain types of information.
 

Your tips have been vital to our immigration coverage. Keep them coming: [email protected]. 

– Laura C. Morel

Fact-based journalism is worth fighting for.