Exclusive: Nearly 1,000 pages of internal CBP documents shared with @theintercept reveal US gov's militaristic, multi-agency, multi-national efforts to seal off the border from peaceful asylum seekers.

My latest co-reported with @jlosc9

theintercept.com/2022/03/22/cbp… Following Trump's 2019 SOTU fear-mongering of caravans, CBP cracked down around the cities of Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras, bringing in the military, national guard, Texas DPS, local police, establishing a no-fly zone and closely surveilling migrants, activists, and attorneys.

DHS Secretary recently announced that ICE would be severing its contract with Irwin, the highly contentious detention center, "as soon as possible."

That's not quite what we're seeing.

My latest, with @jlosc9, for @theintercept
theintercept.com/2021/06/03/ice… Since the announcement, people have been transferred INTO Irwin, and Marshals Service may continue operating with LaSalle Corrections, the for-profit prison company.

Groundbreaking news out of El Salvador.

A US military advisor was present in December of 1981 as Salvadoran soldiers carried out the El Mozote massacre, slaughtering almost a thousand civilians.

Read
@ElFaroEnglish's late edition newsletter:
mailchi.mp/elfaro.net/el-… For decades, the US government tried to cover-up the US role in the worst massacre of a long, bloody war that killed over 70k and displaced at least a half a million people.

A pre-trial hearing this week included the bombshell revelation of integral US involvement at El Mozote.

As the number of children crossing the US-Mexico border increases, I take a look at the private security companies maneuvering to cash in on child detention.

for @theintercept
theintercept.com/2021/03/14/chi… Two of the companies, Caliburn and Serco, have troubling histories with immigration detention, and have been accused of multiple counts of sexual abuse and fraud.

Another company, PAE, specializes in biometric data gathering.

All three stand poised for enormous profits.

So, @USBPChief Rodney Scott signed a potentially illegal administrative subpoena as part of a Border Patrol effort to destroy evidence and obstruct a homicide investigation after BP agents helped beat a man to death.

How much longer until Scott is fired?
theintercept.com/2021/02/04/bor… new revelations in the case come in a petition to the @IACHumanRights in their first-ever hearing of an extra-judicial killing carried out by US officials.

Read petition in full here:
d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/alliancesandie…

ICE deported 57 Cameroonian asylum seekers last month.

They have since been detained, interrogated, and brutalized by the same gov officials many of them had previously fled.

Giscard wrote to me about the torture and the fear.

My latest for @thenation
thenation.com/article/politi… Giscard wrote to me at length last May as part of the Migrant Voices series for The Nation.

He described being arrested and threatened for his politics, of his friends and family being killed, and why he needed to flee.

thenation.com/article/societ…

BREAKING | Key witness to medical misconduct in Irwin detention center is on the verge of being deported. She was detained in Irwin for 2+ years and was seen by the doctor at heart of allegations.

She's also a US citizen, her lawyer says.

theintercept.com/2020/11/02/ice… Alma Bowman was born in the Philippines to a US citizen father, was "legitimated" and obtained citizenship when she was 2. She moved to Georgia as an adolescent, grew up there, but was taken into ICE custody in 2017.

She's been in detention for over 3 years.

BREAKING | The number of migrant women detained in Irwin who underwent unnecessary or overly aggressive gynecological operations — or were pressured to undergo them — is at least 57.

My latest with @jlosc9 for @theintercept

theintercept.com/2020/10/27/ice… Coalition of attorneys identified 57 women (there could be plenty more).

Detained women report a host of abuses, including sterilizations & invasive procedures performed w/out consent. 5 of them have been deported since 1st reports were published. 2 more may be deported soon.

Following up on exclusive from yesterday, we spoke with the doctor behind the allegations of the high number of hysterectomies at ICE detention center.

“No woman should go through this,” a detainee told us.

Reporting for @theintercept with @jlosc9
interc.pt/3c8GUlZ One woman had part of her fallopian tube removed while the doctor was operating on a cyst. She never gave consent.

Along with @jlosc9 I spoke with a nurse whistleblower at a Georgia detention center, who described a host of extremely worrying abuses.

One symptomatic detainee, requesting a Covid test, was denied and told “Get your ass back in that room.”

interc.pt/35y6Hmf
@theintercept The list of serious medical abuses is long, but some of the most troubling include:

-staff encouraged to downplay covid concerns
-staff not told that detainees they were interacting with had tested positive for covid.
-staff encouraged to work even when they were symptomatic

Yesterday I broke the story, for @theintercept, about Bloomberg exploiting prison labor to make campaign calls.
theintercept.com/2019/12/24/mik…
Today I'm offering a little more context on the use of prison labor. @theintercept The briefest of histories: due to the “exception clause” in the 13th amendment, people convicted of crimes can still be subject to “involuntary servitude,” basically “prison slavery.”

A good background piece: psmag.com/social-justice…