Latino USA Podcast: Buried Alive

Over a ten-month period, Latino USA partnered with Rewire.News on an investigation into Laura Monterrosa’s sexual abuse allegations at the T. Don Hutto Detention Center. Listen to the story of that investigation and the alarming questions it raised.

[Photo: Illustration of a scared woman curled up on a floor. She sits behind a wired fence. A menacing shadow of a man is cast near her.]
Monterrosa’s case shows how the system designed to end abuse in detention facilities can be ineffective at best and traumatic at worse. The asylum seekers trapped in this system are often only looking for safety in the United States, but as Monterrosa explained, that isn’t always how it works out. Alex Charner

From Latino USA:

There’s a long and extensive pattern of sexual abuse and harassment in immigration detention facilities, even though the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) was introduced in DHS facilities in 2014. Over a ten-month period, Latino USA partnered with Rewire.News and dug into one specific case: that of Laura Monterrosa’s sexual abuse allegations at the T. Don Hutto Detention Center. What we learned after reviewing documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request raised questions about the efficacy of internal investigations at immigration facilities across the country and the safety of thousands of people detained there.