ANTHONY VICTORIA:
For KVCR News, I’m Anthony Victoria. This is IE Latino Voices, where we highlight the people, organizations and stories shaping Latino communities across the Inland Empire.
In this week's episode, we're continuing to look at conditions inside immigration detention centers and the challenges reporters face when trying to access public information about what happens inside.
Paloma Esquivel is a reporter who has covered immigration and now advocates for journalists through the First Amendment Coalition. She recently wrote about the need for greater transparency around detention centers in California.
Paloma, thanks for joining us today.
PALOMA ESQUIVEL:
Thank you for having me.
ANTHONY VICTORIA:
So, Paloma, why are reporters having such a difficult time accessing public information about incidents at detention centers?
PALOMA ESQUIVEL:
It can be just so incredibly difficult, and I'm so glad we're having this conversation so that the public can understand sometimes why information isn't emerging from these facilities. There are reporters who are trying to get this information, but these facilities have, for a long time, been shrouded in secrecy. And part of the reason is that even though they are federally funded and they are performing a government function, right, of detaining people for ICE, they are generally, and in California, all of them are not run directly by the government. They're run by private, for-profit companies, and those are companies that just haven't been very transparent about what's going on inside.
And then on top of that, there are some ways that reporters and the general public should be able to get information about these facilities through a law, the Federal Freedom of Information Act, that makes it so that we, as the public, should have access, right, to public records about what is happening inside these facilities that are funded with taxpayer money. But the problem is that that law just hasn't been as effective as it needs to be. There, it's just plagued with delays, unnecessary denials. So it can just be incredibly difficult to get any official information about what's happening inside these facilities.
ANTHONY VICTORIA:
What can records like 911 calls and other records tell us about what's happening inside detention centers, once journalists like yourself do receive access to them?
PALOMA ESQUIVEL:
They can tell us a lot about what's going on. And I'll give you an example of one of the stories that I came across when we were doing our reporting. There was a man in a detention facility, and he reported that he had been sexually assaulted by another detainee. And again, this is a situation where we pushed and negotiated and tried to get more records so that we could really understand, well, what happened in that case.
What we learned ultimately was that he had reported being sexually assaulted. There was video of this incident. It was reported to local law enforcement. Law enforcement reviewed the video along with, I believe, staff of the facility. And then at a certain point, the staff said, "Okay, we don't need any more. There's no further action needed from you." I don't know if the other person was also reprimanded, but the victim was disciplined, according to the records that we ultimately reviewed.
Months later, a detective reviewed the case. He believed that that person had actually been assaulted and that charges should be brought in that case. By that time, months had passed and the detainee had been deported, so the case was closed.
ANTHONY VICTORIA:
Why is the work that you're doing at the First Amendment Coalition important for advancing transparency, both when it comes to journalism, but overall when it comes to public accountability?
PALOMA ESQUIVEL:
I would say, you know, at the First Amendment Coalition, my job is really to help journalists learn about accessing those types of records, like I described, how important they are to the reporting process, right? How can we help journalists access those records so that they can fully report things to the public, so that the public can have a full understanding of what their government is doing and of how it's operating?
And one of the things that we are doing right now, we have co-sponsored, along with an organization called Immigrant Defense Advocates, a bill that was introduced by State Senator Lena Gonzalez, which is SB 423, and that bill would mandate disclosure of 911 call records in California from detention centers. So that would, you know, do a little bit to help shed some light on these incidents, so that reporters and the public can really better understand what is happening in these facilities at a time when it doesn't appear to be the case that transparency is a priority of the federal government when it comes to this area.
So it's been wonderful to see that sort of understanding of how important it is to shed some light on what is really just this incredibly opaque black hole kind of of a system that affects the lives of thousands of people across the country and in California.
ANTHONY VICTORIA:
Well, Paloma, thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate you coming on.
PALOMA ESQUIVEL:
Yeah, thank you again. Thank you for having.
Paloma Esquivel is a Press Education Specialist with the First Amendment Coalition. Before joining FAC, she worked for nearly two decades as a journalist, including 17 years at the Los Angeles Times.
You can read more of Paloma's perspective on public records access here.
