detention

GRITtv: Speaking Out: Transgender Detainee Faces Twice the Abuse

Esmeralda came to the U.S. seeking asylum from her native Mexico. She tried twice to enter the country legally, each time forced into detention. As a transgender woman, she was segregated and subjected to abuse from guards on her first attempt, and when she tried again, she was held with male detainees. Eventually, her claim was successful and today she works as an advocate for others who have survived sexual violence. In this video from Breakthrough, she tells her story of speaking out against abuse.

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GRITtv: Nov. 12, 2009

Why aren't reporters asking the real questions? That's what our media panelist Rose Aguilar asked today, and it's a valid question. Rose Aguilar, John R. MacArthur, Dan Gross and Hendrik Hertzberg discuss this and other media questions in our Thursday segementt. "Yoga is slow medicine but it is medicinal in character," Deirdre Summerbell says. She's the founder of Project Air, where she uses yoga to help women and girls in Rwanda, survivors of the genocide, reconnect with their bodies and heal their spirits.

GRITtv: Breakthrough Films' 'Restore Fairness'

It's odd that the Bush administration legacy evokes so much literature: sometimes Orwell's 1984, other times Kafka. This next piece belongs to the latter: from Breakthrough Films, here is "Restore Fairness," which looks at the harrowing lack of due process in America's immigration detention policies.

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GRITtv: Is Immigration Reform Dead?

Immigration reform is hardly the front page issue it was one year ago, even though thousands of immigrants end up in detention centers every year. More than 90 immigrants have died in detention in the last few years and the cost of maintaining these facilities is about $1.7 billion. The facts on the ground haven't changed, so where does the movement stand? And is there a real possibility for reform under Obama?

GRITtv: Breakthrough: A Surprise Visit

As the right wing's war on immigrants veers between alarm sirens, when talking about fat government contracts to build walls, to silence when it comes to easily exploited workers, the stories that go missing are often the ones involving real people. The Human Rights Organization Breakthrough has been working for years to uncover these sorts of stories, and in light of today's panel, we wanted to share this recent one, called "A Surprise Visit," about how those who claim to push "family values" are also so quick to break families apart.

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