WEBVTT - Immensely Invisible 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:02.080 Hey, hey, hey, hey, get us. 0:00:02.720 --> 0:00:07.200 Latino USA is celebrating thirty years today, Ain't that amos? 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:09.160 And we would love to hear from you. 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:12.520 Dear listener, Do you want to share with us exactly 0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:14.960 what Latino USA has meant to you? Do you have 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:18.400 a birthday wish for us? Leave us a voicemail at 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:22.239 six four six five seven to one one two two four. 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:26.840 That's six four six five seven to one one two 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:29.600 two four, and we might feature your message in an 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:34.240 upcoming show grass Yas. This is Latino USA, the radio 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:38.800 journal of News and Kurture Latino USAIX Latino Latino USA. 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:41.760 I'm Maria Ino Hoosa. We bring you stories that are 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:45.360 underreported but that mattered to you, overlooked by the rest 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:47.840 of the media, and while the country is struggling. 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:49.360 To deal with these, we listen to the stories of 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:50.400 black and Latinos. 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:52.600 Studio United Latino Front. 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:56.800 A cultural renaissance organizing at the forefront of the movement. 0:00:57.520 --> 0:01:00.080 I'm Maria Inojosa. Nose Bayan. 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:09.720 Futuro Investigates Investia. 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:13.120 Dear let you know USA listener, just a quick warning, 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:17.920 this is an investigation into sexual abuse at ICE detention centers. 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:21.640 So we just wanted to let you know to prepare. 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:28.280 Since the beginning of my career, immigration has been at 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:32.280 the core of my work as a journalist, and one 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:35.440 of the things I've focused on has been what happens 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:39.839 in US immigration and Customs enforcement, what happens in these 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:45.920 detention centers. Claims of sexual abuse are widespread throughout the US. 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:50.080 Back in twenty eleven, I anchored a PBS Frontline documentary. 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:53.720 It was a film called Lost in Detention, and we 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:57.400 looked at the increasing numbers of people under detention in 0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:01.640 these centers and all of this happening under the Obama administration. 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:04.200 We know that there are many more cases that don't 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:08.160 get investigated, where people do not get held accountable for 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:11.000 the abuse or the rape of immigrants. 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:15.200 And one of the hardest things was hearing about the 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:19.880 sexual abuse that was happening inside these government run facilities. 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:21.800 And then what happened. 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:27.000 He said, if you tell anyone, you wouldn't come out 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:32.440 of your life to see your family, So then who 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:33.280 are you going to? 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:42.000 That work has stayed with me, but then a decade 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:46.280 after it aired, in twenty twenty two, I get this 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:50.560 message on Twitter from a young journalist named Zeba Warsei. 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:55.600 She was working on an investigative story and she wanted 0:02:55.600 --> 0:02:56.000 to meet. 0:02:57.120 --> 0:02:57.440 Well. 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:01.160 So here we are in the studio isabah Hi. So 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:04.160 back in twenty twenty two, when you were a student 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:08.160 at Columbia Journalism School and you come and meet me 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:11.000 at my office at Barnard College where I'm a professor, 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:14.600 and I remember you were like, look, I'm a journalist, 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:18.120 I have a career in India. But the story that 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:22.560 brings you here in part was this interest that you 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:25.880 had in what was happening in these immigrant detention centers. 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:29.480 That's right. I wanted to know how ICE operates. I 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:32.320 thought this was a big law enforcement agency under the 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:36.280 Department of Homeland Security, which hosts thousands of immigrants who 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:37.560 don't have a legal status. 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:41.320 In attention, right, these are people who are held by 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:45.640 the US government, but they have no legal standing, They 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:49.400 have no right to do process, they don't get a lawyer. 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:53.840 It's a very different thing than being in the criminal system, 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:56.160 where you actually have rights. 0:03:56.640 --> 0:04:01.280 Absolutely, this investigation began as my master's teas about abuses 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:04.320 in ICE detention centers, and then I got more and 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:07.560 more interested in focusing on the sexual abuse that was 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:11.520 happening in these facilities. Your documentary, Maria, was in fact 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:14.200 one of the first pieces of journalism I watched to 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:17.359 help me understand how ICE works and how ICE was 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:18.680 dealing with sexual abuse. 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:24.080 The decade later, I get your message, Saber, and I 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:28.880 was very moved by this young, very hungry reporter who 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:32.279 more than a decade after my reporting, wanted to look 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:34.599 into the issue of sexual abuse that was happening in 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:35.240 ICE detention. 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:38.000 Yes, and for me it was also a chance to 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:41.920 learn from another woman journalist such as you, Maria, an 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:45.360 immigrant herself, who has been investigating this type of abuse 0:04:45.520 --> 0:04:48.479 for many years, and who cares about this kind of 0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:52.960 reportage because no matter how much time passes, as journalists, 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:56.200 we need to shine light on abuses if they continue 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:59.680 to happen. And we found women who have recently complained 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:06.360 about sexual abuse and ICE facilities, women like Viviana, Marlissa and. 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:13.000 Mari Sinto tritesa Sinto Fortasion. 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:16.080 So you run away from trauma to come here and 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:17.520 view with trauma again. 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:21.200 Joe v v Sufria Wilso selling as a lugar. 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:26.080 You hope that when you do your reporting that things 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:28.680 are going to get better, And I wanted to know, 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:32.320 so has anything changed about how ICE handles cases of 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:37.040 sexual abuse? Are survivors getting any justice? And so view 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:41.080 Zeba and I, both of us immigrant women, two different generations, 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:49.960 we decided to team up to find the answers from 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:54.120 Futuro Media and PRX It's Latino USA. I'm Maria in 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:59.679 Josa today they felt immensely invisible, but these immigrant women 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:04.320 are fighting back. A story by Futuro Investigates in collaboration 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:09.240 with Latino USA about sexual abuse in ice detention centers. 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:12.320 We look at how women are sexually abused when they're 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:16.080 at their most vulnerable in a medical setting, and how 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:23.720 ICE has done very little to stop it. So remember 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:26.520 I meet Zeba when she's a student at the Columbia 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:30.200 Journalism School. Then she gets her job at the PBS 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:34.080 News Hour, and starting in the fall of twenty twenty two, 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:37.760 she and I and our team have been interviewing women 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:40.440 around the country about their time in ice detention. 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:41.920 Yes, Maria. 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:45.080 Since I began investigating the story in twenty twenty one, 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:48.520 almost two years now, I've spoken to dozens of women 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:52.320 in detention centers. The first woman we interviewed together was 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:56.360 Viviana we met in a suburb of Houston, Texas. Vivianna 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:58.760 is not her real name, but we're using it to 0:06:58.800 --> 0:06:59.920 protect her identity. 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:02.839 We're meeting her right now for the first time. 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:05.160 Kay, nice to meet you in person. 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:05.719 Thank you. 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:13.760 I was struck by how gorgeous she was five feet two, long, 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:19.240 straight dark hair, very young and vivacious. But also there 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:23.120 was something really somber about her eyes. And I noticed 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:26.040 how every time she would get emotional, she would start 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:28.440 touching the gold rosary around her neck. 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:31.680 Juno saki or amil. 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:35.200 And she says that she didn't even know until the 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:37.440 last minute if she was going to be able to 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:39.960 retell what happened to her while she was in attention, 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:45.240 And even though she was scared, frankly traumatized, she pushed 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:48.240 through and decided to talk to us. 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:52.760 Viviana left Venezuela in twenty fourteen. She was twenty one 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:56.080 years old at the time and was studying law. Her 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:59.280 family was part of a political party opposing the government. 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:02.840 She told us that they began to receive death threats. 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:06.480 This was a moment of political crisis in Venezuela. The 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:10.160 longtime president, Hugosha Viz died a year before, and there 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:13.239 were protests against the new president, Nicolas Maduro. 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:19.520 Akia was Telir Singh Tabo signe signa Forlanz. 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:23.000 So she and her mother and her two brothers fled 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:27.800 to Panama, but as more and more Venezuelans arrived, Vivianna 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:34.040 said her family became victims of xenophobia. After seven years 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:37.400 of living in Panama, Vianna and her mother knew it 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:40.680 was time to leave, so they made the arduous journey 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:44.920 across the US Mexico border. In September of twenty twenty one. 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:49.280 It was a record year in the number of border 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:55.160 patrol encounters, more than one point seven million. Viviana and 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:58.520 her mother were detained in Texas in one of those encounters, 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:01.640 and border patrol then handed them over to an ice 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:03.920 processing center in Houston. 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:16.640 Mei Lang and Guartos on the Tquito emails. 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:17.560 So followed bor. 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:23.240 Then Vivianna was separated from her mother. She was locked 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:26.679 in a tiny cold room. She was told by the 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:31.400 staff that she had tuberculosis. She didn't understand English at 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:36.520 the time, so she panicked and she basically couldn't sleep. 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:40.839 She said she was put in isolation for days, she 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:43.920 couldn't tell if it was day or night. The only 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:46.199 light she could see was from a TV that was 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:47.240 always left on. 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:55.840 Yeah, just see tokyom. Then through the DC something broke 0:09:55.920 --> 0:09:57.720 inside of you. Ce Si Jo. 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:06.280 Record, Gilma Maraami, MoMA, Lacentia, Tiquita. 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:10.319 By then she was twenty eight years old, but she 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:13.360 felt like a little girl again, crying and asking to 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:16.840 speak with her mom. And then the vienna was transferred 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:19.040 to Stuart Detention Center in Georgia. 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:27.200 For most of the time that the Stuart Detention Facility 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:32.040 has been open, it has housed mostly men. But something 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:36.920 happened in Georgia and now women, immigrants and refugees were 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:38.480 being transferred to Stuart. 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:43.360 Yes, Maria, something that happened at another facility. You probably 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:44.960 remember the horrific headlines. 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:47.840 A group of Margaret women is coming forward with claims 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:51.120 that they were the victims of unwanted and unnecessary medical 0:10:51.160 --> 0:10:54.000 procedures at a federal detention center in Georgia. 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:58.880 It became a national story because the abuses that medical 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:03.439 staff were accused of at Erwin included a gynecologist performing 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:08.960 hysterectomies without the women knowing about it. Erwin was closed 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:13.520 in twenty twenty one because of this scandal, and some 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:16.440 of the women who had been detained at Erwin were 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:20.280 now transferred to Stuart, some one hundred miles west in 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:23.040 the state of Georgia. The idea was that they would 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:26.800 be safe from medical and sexual abuse if they were transferred, 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:32.240 but in fact, Zeba, what did happen? Were the women 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:35.439 who were transferred to Stuart to keep them safe? Were 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:39.720 they actually safe? And that's the question we had, which 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:43.240 is how we meet Vivianna, the woman from Venezuela. 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:52.360 During her first weeks detailed at Stuart, Vivianna had a 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:56.400 urinary tract infection. She was prescribed medication that gave her 0:11:56.480 --> 0:11:57.960 a severe allergic reaction. 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:04.000 Your face is swollen, your lips are swollen. You were 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:12.160 unable to breathe, and you were feeling incredibly scared. She 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:16.400 tells us that in that moment of total vulnerability, that's 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:19.719 when she met this male nurse, a short white man 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:23.240 with a beard. And we should warn you. The following 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:27.920 descriptions of her visits are explicit. They are hard to 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:32.000 listen to, but we also believe that they're necessary to 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:34.280 understand what Viviana and other women go. 0:12:34.400 --> 0:12:39.960 Through may see Aki. 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:44.760 So he's using a stethoscope to put it on your 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:48.160 lower body. So I'm just to describe what you're showing 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:50.400 me is that he takes the stethoscope and he basically 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:54.199 puts it right where a woman's ovary might be. 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:01.840 You are as yeah Aria. 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:06.240 Vivianna told us that while examining her with the stethoscope, 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:09.720 the nurse asked her to open her mouth and then 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:13.120 to open it wider. He then stepped away and typed 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:16.400 a question into Google Translate, and this made her feel 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:19.040 even more uncomfortable and. 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:21.360 Seek. 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:27.400 So at this point he writes a note to you 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:31.679 that asks you, if you have a boyfriend, punish noovo see. 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:37.440 And then it happened again. Vivianna had problems with her eyes, 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:40.600 and eyes eventually sent her back to the same male nurse. 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:46.760 As Viviana entered the room, she felt uneasy. It was nighttime, 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:50.760 the room was dimly lit and smelt of bleach. All 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:53.800 Vivianna could think of was that that nurse was staring 0:13:53.840 --> 0:14:01.480 at her and they were all alone, mad alone. The 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:06.160 nurse told Viviana to lower her pants, then he placed 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:08.040 the statoscope near her vagina. 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:19.160 As yeah uta si yes, yes, c como he torrado 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:23.960 como sosios sonrea. 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:26.000 Amidawa. 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:31.560 While touching her, Viviana says the nurse made lude faces. 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:39.240 U U. 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:45.080 Viviana froze. She kept quiet and stared off into space, 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:48.920 praying and asking herself why was this nurse doing this 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:49.360 to her? 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:57.200 This all made me remember what I saw over a 0:14:57.280 --> 0:15:00.440 decade ago when I reported for the frontline docu Mentory. 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:05.440 I saw complaint boxes in a nice detention facility, but 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:09.280 the complaint box was nailed shut. You couldn't even put 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:12.960 a complaint in the box. And now Vivianna is telling 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:15.840 us that there were posters at Stuart with the phone 0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:20.320 number and the poster said if you suffer from abuse, call. 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:21.640 That No matter. 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:26.080 Why that. 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:30.720 Now there are posters everywhere seeing ICE has zero tolerance. 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:34.400 But Viviana said they were just protocol and didn't do 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:38.800 much to stop the abuse. Women who are abused in 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:41.600 detention are supposed to be protected by the Prison Rape 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:45.600 Elimination Act or PRIYA. That law says that people who 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:48.160 are detailed have a right to speak out freely and 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:49.880 report abuse and harassment. 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:54.360 PRIA was created in two thousand and three, it took 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:57.560 more than a decade to be fully extended into ICE 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:00.880 detention because it's completely in the and from the criminal 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:05.480 justice system. Three years after the Frontline documentary aired, Priya 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:09.560 was finally extended to ICE detention centers in twenty fourteen. 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:15.240 But that's still several years before Viviana was detained at Stewart. 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:20.800 We're hearing from Vienna that she was being abused. So 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:25.160 the question is is that what's happened that now there 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:29.560 are just posters that say there's zero tolerance for sexual abuse. 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:33.560 Maria. I've been talking to officials at ICE for quite 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:37.040 a bit, exchanged dozens of emails, and this is what 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:39.800 I've learned that one of the few things that has 0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:44.440 changed is that they conduct unannounced inspections of their facilities, 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:48.600 and the agency has increased audits and inspections since you've 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:53.720 investigated this topic. But activists, detainees and women we've spoken 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:55.320 to feared it's not enough. 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:04.000 The Southern Poy Law Center reviewed medical records and they 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:07.119 showed that the male nurse had been working at the 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:11.760 Stuart detention facility since at least twenty eighteen, and as 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:14.800 we mentioned before, in twenty twenty one women were now 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:19.520 being transferred to Stuart following the medical abuse scandal in Irwin, 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:25.199 the other detention facility in Georgia. So once women started 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:29.720 to arrive at Stuart, this nurse started seeing female patients, 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:33.000 and Vivianna said, he started abusing them. 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:41.760 This nurse and his abuse, you believe was not a secret. 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:45.680 To anybody who had spent any time inside Stuart, whether 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:49.359 they were his colleagues or people who were detained duci 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:52.439 in Disquito Mundo Sabia de Ste Fermero Claro. 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:57.320 After that second incident with the nurse, Viviana returned to 0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:01.000 her cell and broke down in tears. She told other 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:06.040 detainees what happened to her, Dye, what the anasla il? 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:09.520 So you feel like you were one of the people 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:14.399 who helped the other women start naming what was happening. 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:17.280 Yeah, Yama Nicarawa. 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:24.879 May say solo women from different countries told her that 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:30.240 these suffered similar abuses from the same male nurse. We've 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:34.000 reviewed documents obtained by The Intercept, who first reported on 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:37.560 the Stewart complaints, that show that at least five women 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:41.320 came forward and complained against the male nurse. 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:45.119 Coming up on Latino USA, we're gonna hear from Marii, 0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:49.080 another woman who was abused by the same male nurse, 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:52.760 and what her story reveals about the way ICE handles 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:54.679 complaints of sexual abuse. 0:18:55.600 --> 0:18:57.680 Stay with us, not debyas. 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:18.240 Hi, dear listener. My name is Lenaldo Leos Junior, and 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:22.000 I'm a producer with Latino USA. As a producer, part 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:24.720 of my job is to speak with people from across 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:28.959 the country and in some occasions travel around the United States. 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:32.200 And this is something that Latino USA has been doing 0:19:32.359 --> 0:19:36.200 for thirty years, is bringing the voices from people across 0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:39.880 the country to the airwaves and to our podcast. Thank 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:42.840 you for supporting us these past three decades, and I 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:45.760 hope you stay with us for many more years to come. 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:53.879 Hey, we're back. Before the break, we heard from Bivianna. 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:58.160 She was held at the ICE Stewart Detention Center in Georgia. 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:03.320 She says she sexually abused by medical staff there. And 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:06.159 we're going to continue our investigation now with Saba Warci. 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:09.520 She's the journalist from the PBS News Hour that we 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:12.360 teamed up with for this story. Hey, Zeba, Hey. 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:16.560 Maria, while with Vienna, was detained at Stewart, she heard 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:19.480 about other women who had been assaulted by the same 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:23.359 male nurse. One of them was another woman from Venezuela. 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:25.080 We're calling her Mari. 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:28.200 Oh La jeanyand Lois. 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:34.040 Okay, okay, we're coming. We met Marie in November of 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:36.880 twenty twenty two in a suburb of Chicago. She had 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:39.560 her hair nicely tied up high up in a pony. 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:42.640 She was wearing an all black outfit, and she had 0:20:42.880 --> 0:20:46.320 these big gold hoops and a necklace with honey popping 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:46.600 on it. 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:50.800 She pulls out these pictures on her phone that showed 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:53.639 us her life before she came to the United States. 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:54.639 She was a. 0:20:54.720 --> 0:21:01.000 Bodybuilder, made up. Come on, yeah, the Holy. 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:07.720 Mati tells us that when she lived in Venezuela, she 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:12.400 trained every day, but once she got detained at Stewart, 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:15.280 she said that she was just too depressed to exercise 0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:17.080 and she started to gain weight. 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:18.159 Look at that. 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:23.800 Madi told us that like Bi Vienna, she also had 0:21:23.840 --> 0:21:27.440 grown up in a politically involved family in Venezuela, and 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:29.920 that she decided to leave her country with her boyfriend 0:21:30.200 --> 0:21:32.879 in December of twenty twenty one to come to the 0:21:33.040 --> 0:21:34.080 United States. 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:35.000 And finery. 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:45.960 Because of what she had seen in Venezuela. The injustices 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:48.760 she talks about. When she arrived in the United States, 0:21:48.840 --> 0:21:53.000 she thought that the pain would be over. Addi and 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:56.399 her boyfriend crossed the border. They were both then held 0:21:56.800 --> 0:22:00.800 in Houston, and then they were separated and Marie was 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:04.840 sent to Stuart in Georgia. She was only twenty two 0:22:04.920 --> 0:22:11.320 years old at the time. Shortly after Marie arrived on 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:15.520 New Year's Eve of twenty twenty one, she had a 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:18.080 routine checkup at Stuart. 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:22.280 Mari was sent to a hallway filled with other women, 0:22:22.840 --> 0:22:27.200 detainees and nurses. She waited for two hours, and then 0:22:27.280 --> 0:22:29.920 she noticed that there was only one man in the area. 0:22:30.240 --> 0:22:33.280 She thought he was a doctor. She later found out 0:22:33.520 --> 0:22:34.440 that he was a nurse. 0:22:35.200 --> 0:22:39.720 It was that male nurse who had already spotted Mary. 0:22:41.920 --> 0:22:44.760 He then directed her to follow him to a small 0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:48.920 room for her checkup. He closed the door behind him, 0:22:50.400 --> 0:22:52.200 and Marie sat down on a chair. 0:22:52.840 --> 0:22:56.480 Ai Yas saying to this to you in Spanish. 0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:02.920 Hamas spoke to her in Spanish. He asked her some 0:23:03.320 --> 0:23:06.200 routine questions, and then he told her that she was 0:23:06.359 --> 0:23:10.720 very pretty. This put Mary on edge, and the nurse 0:23:10.760 --> 0:23:13.920 asked if she had ever had any surgeries. Maty told 0:23:14.000 --> 0:23:18.080 him yes, that she had had breast surgery. Mary says 0:23:18.119 --> 0:23:21.879 that when she responded, the nurse then got excited and 0:23:22.119 --> 0:23:29.720 stared at her chest. As a moment, the nurse asked 0:23:29.720 --> 0:23:32.919 her some other medical questions, and then he told her 0:23:33.000 --> 0:23:37.800 to lay down on the examination table. Now what happens 0:23:37.920 --> 0:23:41.760 next is disturbing to hear. It is, but it's also 0:23:42.080 --> 0:23:46.200 really important in order to understand the consequences that these 0:23:46.320 --> 0:23:51.840 actions had on MARII. So while it's hard, please don't 0:23:51.880 --> 0:23:52.359 turn away. 0:23:56.560 --> 0:23:59.560 The nurse told Mary to pull up her shirt. When 0:23:59.600 --> 0:24:01.600 she did, he hovered over her. 0:24:02.080 --> 0:24:08.320 Your pience, okay, okayo consume him. 0:24:08.880 --> 0:24:13.960 So he's pushing his penis up against your hand that 0:24:14.320 --> 0:24:17.600 is next to your body because you're on a you're 0:24:17.640 --> 0:24:18.280 on a stretcher. 0:24:18.359 --> 0:24:28.040 Basically, yell comsa amavarse commno. 0:24:28.840 --> 0:24:31.840 He then came closer to her and trapped her hand, 0:24:32.200 --> 0:24:35.720 pushed himself very close to her, and used her hand 0:24:35.840 --> 0:24:38.199 to masturbate him over his clothes. 0:24:38.880 --> 0:24:39.840 She was shattered. 0:24:40.600 --> 0:24:43.120 Yment Vetrosa. 0:24:49.040 --> 0:24:52.399 I was suddenly taken back to twenty eleven when I 0:24:52.520 --> 0:24:55.520 was reporting for the PBS documentary and it was these 0:24:55.760 --> 0:24:59.680 very similar stories and so it's so hard to see 0:24:59.760 --> 0:25:04.680 that this is still happening more than a decade later. Now, 0:25:05.200 --> 0:25:09.600 both Marii and Bibiana, among other women, decided that they 0:25:09.680 --> 0:25:12.560 were going to report what had happened to them, so 0:25:13.359 --> 0:25:18.199 they took agency. They filed complaints against ICE and against 0:25:18.320 --> 0:25:23.000 cor Civic. Corcivic is the private company that manages the 0:25:23.080 --> 0:25:26.880 Stewart Detention Center where Muddy and Bibiana were held. Now. 0:25:27.200 --> 0:25:28.600 Cor Civic is not new. 0:25:28.760 --> 0:25:32.120 It used to be known as Corrections Corporation of America 0:25:32.480 --> 0:25:35.400 and they've been around for a while ZEBA. 0:25:35.800 --> 0:25:39.080 Yes, and Courcivic is the largest prison corporation in the 0:25:39.240 --> 0:25:44.040 United States. It manages eleven detention centers, including Stuart. In 0:25:44.119 --> 0:25:46.760 twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two, the company made 0:25:46.840 --> 0:25:49.760 nearly a billion dollars in public money, with more than 0:25:49.840 --> 0:25:53.320 half of that coming from ice detention centers. And get this, 0:25:53.760 --> 0:25:56.520 When President Joe Biden took office in twenty twenty one, 0:25:56.840 --> 0:26:01.320 he signed an executive order phasing out privately managed federal prisons, 0:26:01.760 --> 0:26:05.159 but companies like Courcivic can still manage ICE facilities. 0:26:06.160 --> 0:26:11.520 It's that double standard that allows immigrants to be more vulnerable. 0:26:11.880 --> 0:26:13.720 They don't have the same. 0:26:13.640 --> 0:26:20.080 Rights, and according to advocates, accountability is an even bigger 0:26:20.200 --> 0:26:24.600 challenge in detention centers run by these private companies. This 0:26:24.800 --> 0:26:27.879 is Leila Rasavi, who heads Freedom for Immigrants, a national 0:26:27.960 --> 0:26:28.840 advocacy group. 0:26:29.400 --> 0:26:32.240 It's already a challenge to get ICE to do anything 0:26:32.320 --> 0:26:35.080 and investigate its own employees, and so I think when 0:26:35.119 --> 0:26:38.399 it comes to exercising that type of accountability over a 0:26:38.520 --> 0:26:42.840 private entity, it's that much harder to really get transparency 0:26:43.119 --> 0:26:46.800