- I'm an American.
Please you have to believe me, this is a mistake.
Sir?
- Come on now.
It's not up to me.
♪ Small pale house ♪
♪ A moment's march from the beach ♪
♪ My day is growing near ♪
♪ And here I find no peace at all ♪
- Here they are.
(ominous music)
- It's so quiet.
- They are much more docile compared to Max.
Our red uniforms are for our level two,
people with felony convictions, etc.
Orange are our level one's, our non-criminals.
- So they're in orange, but they aren't criminals?
- Well, they are criminals.
They're here, right?
They came to our country illegally.
- That's exactly right, Carlos.
Carlos Lupa, Natalie Figueroa our new warden.
Mr. Lupa is head of ICE here at PolyCon detention.
ICE handles the processing, the legal, the deportation,
and PolyCon handles the housing and feeding.
(wings flapping)
- What's with the bird?
- Cute, right?
Flew in here a few days ago.
- Keeps the ladies entertained,
so we decided not to deport it. (laughs)
- Do any of them speak English?
- Some, though, most favor (speaking foreign language).
Majority here are from Mexico,
followed by El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala.
Then we have your others:
your Haitians, your Jamaicans, general Africans.
Of course there's your Asian nerds, your cool Asians
but beware of the Plastics.
That was a "Mean Girls" joke.
- So, it's like the It's a Small World ride,
but minus the joy and the singing,
and the line is just as long.
- Some do-gooder, lawyer-advocate types told the detainees
who were working in the kitchen
that they don't get paid, and it doesn't help their case
so they quit.
- Looks like you have your first task.
Luckily, America's cheapest labor forces
are just down the hill.
- I need to get in touch with someone
so that I can prove that I was born here.
I'm gonna ask for my phone call.
- You don't get a phone call.
- (scoffs) But there are phones right there.
- You don't get a free call.
You gotta pay to set up an account.
You gotta pay per minute.
- Okay well fuck that, when I get assigned my lawyer,
that's the first thing I'm gonna do.
- You don't get a lawyer.
- (Scoffs) What?
This is America.
- Not in here.
(speaks in foreign language)
- Touch me again,
and you're going in the box.
And you need to speak English or Spanish,
(speaking foreign language)?
- Oh my God, oh my God!
- Hey, excuse me.
Do not touch the inmate, immigrant.
Do not touch the immigrant.
- Why don't you take it over there?
We got this.
- Oh my God, girl, am I tripping?
I thought I'd never see you again.
Girl, you look hot.
- Well duh, I'm still me.
- No, I mean sweaty.
- Oh, it's like a fucking dank-ass locker room in here.
It's the worst.
Flaca, you have no idea.
You have to help me get out.
- What do you mean?
Help you escape?
- No, no, it's a mistake that I'm here.
I need you to find my mom.
Tell her, I know she's mad at me,
but that this is an emergency, okay?
Maria Ramos in Miami.
- Okay, don't worry, okay.
Worry face gives you elevens between your brows.
- Okay. - I got you.
- Okay.
(hysterical crying)
- What happened to her?
- Patient presented with severe abdominal upset
and vaginal spotting,
and thankfully the pregnancy is still viable.
- She's pregnant?
(speaking in foreign language)
- I'd say about nine weeks along.
- So, why is she still screaming?
- She's scared.
Poor thing, she doesn't know
that her little hugywugy is gonna be okay.
Mama, your baby is gonna be okay.
Your baby's gonna be okay.
(yells in foreign language)
- Where is her translator?
- We don't have a translator for that.
- You're suppose to file a report
if a detainee needs the language line.
- I have a new courtroom to oversee,
so it sounds like a you problem to me.
(somber piano music)
(begs in foreign language)
(phone rings)
- [Maria] Hello?
- Do you know Maritza Ramos?
- [Maria] Yes.
- Really?
Oh my God, are you the Maria Ramos, Maritza's mom?
- Yes, what's going on?
- Hi, I'm her best friend, Flaca
and I know you wouldn't take her calls
when she got out of prison,
but this is an emergency, so please.
- Is Maritza okay?
- No, she's in immigration prison,
because she doesn't have her ID.
She needs her US birth certificate to prove
that she's a citizen.
(Maria sighs)
- I don't have it.
- Okay, well, can you go to the record place,
and get her a replacement?
- No, what I'm saying is there isn't one.
Maritza wasn't born here.
(suspenseful music)
- State your true and complete name.
- Karla Diana Adelena Cordova.
- At your last proceeding, your case was set over
to give you time to find an attorney,
yet you're here today without an attorney.
- I'm representing myself, your honor.
I'd like to file my application for relief
under the Convention Against Torture act.
- Do you have a filled out I589 application
and your supporting evidence
that demonstrate you will be tortured
if returned to El Salvador today?
- I do, your honor.
The newspaper article is about the school
where I used to teach and I lived.
The year that I left, we had 36 deaths.
All of them boys who refused to join gangs.
I knew them all personally,
many of them were my students.
They were good boys, but they had no way out.
When I became pregnant,
my husband and I knew we had to leave.
We couldn't risk our child's life.
- Gang violence is not grounds for CAT.
It's not even grounds for asylum.
- I'm getting to that.
- Speed it up, Ms. Cardova.
- I have two boys now, American boys.
I can't take them to a country
where their choices are kill or be killed.
The Convention Against Torture clearly states
that torture is intense suffering
that is inflicted in order to obtain information
or to coerce.
(scoffs) If I take my boys back,
they'll be coerced into join in the gangs,
or they will suffer the consequences.
The very definition by which CAT stands.
- The state is not deporting Ms. Cordova's kids.
The state is deporting Ms. Cordova.
- I'm not leaving them.
Their father passed away last year,
I'm all they have.
- Your honor, Ms. Cordova doesn't even have custody
of her children.
- That's only because I'm in here.
- I'm seeing your children are already placed
in pre-adoptive foster care.
- I'm their mother, I will file to get them back.
- Ms. Cordova, your children will be safer here.
If anyone's made that case, it's you.
Unfortunately, what you have failed to do
is make a case for yourself.
This application doesn't even make a prima facie case
for relief under the CAT.
I'm denying your case,
and I am issuing a written order of removal.
- You can't! (sobs)
(sobbing) No.
(intense piano music)
(baby cries)
- Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
My name is Judge Christine Holister,
and we're sitting in Immigration court in Lichfeild, NY.
These are removal proceedings
for siblings Alma and Santiago Casillas.
Let the records show the respondents are present in court
but without an attorney.
Do you understand what these proceedings are about?
Ms. Casillas, do you and your brother have a lawyer?
Do you know what a lawyer is?
- No.
- Well do you understand that we are here
to determine whether or not
you two can remain in the United States?
- Can I used the bathroom?
- I thought this courtroom was for adult hearings?
- We have a juvenile docket on Fridays.
Illegal is an illegal, even if they're mini.
- And a piece of shit is a piece of shit
even if he's grown.
- She said shit.
(children laughing)
- Hey!
- [Older Son] Mama?
- Mijo?
- Where are you?
- Momma, they took our cat and my Pokemon cards.
- [Older Son] When are you coming back?
- I'm working real hard on getting back to you, okay?
I'm going to be away for a little while,
but I'm coming back.
- But, when?
- I don't know yet, but soon.
You have to know that no matter what happens,
no matter what anyone tells you,
I will not stop until we're together again.
- Will you be here for my birthday?
- If I'm not, it just means
that I'm still on my way, okay?
It might take me a little while.
So until then, you two need to take care of each other,
remind each other to drink water and zip up your jackets.
And you know how when you were little
and you'd get real angry or sad,
we used to talk about using your words.
Well, you're gonna have to do that.
You're gonna have to tell people what you need.
If there's something you don't understand
or if something hurts,
or if someone hurts you,
you're gonna need to speak up for yourselves
and for each other, because I won't be there
to do it for you.
(sniffles)
I love you both more than anything.
Never forget how much I love you.
(somber guitar music)
(singing in foreign language)
♪ America, America ♪
♪ We're all, we're all America ♪
♪ America, America ♪
♪ A home for you and me ♪