Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2025-07-22 Tuesday

Episode Date: July 22, 2025

Headlines for July 22, 2025; ICE Detained 6-Year-Old with Cancer for Over a Month: “He and His Sister Cried Every Night”; Trump Revokes Bond for Asylum Seekers, Forcing Immigrants to Fight Their Cases “Behind Bars”; “You Feel Like Your Life Is Over”: HRW Report Exposes Abuses in Trump’s Immigration Jails in Florida; “Life After”: Film Exposes How Medicaid Cuts, Assisted Dying Laws May Bring Disabled to Early Graves

From New York, this is Democracy Now! President Trump has been focused ever since he's been in office on making America safe again. And that is what my job is as a secretary is to make sure that we're following through on exactly what he promised the American people. To make sure that we're going after the worst of the worst every single day. Get the murderers, the rapists, the child pedophiles and pornographers off of our streets and out of this country.

As the Trump administration vows to arrest up to now 7,000 immigrants a day, we'll speak with an attorney who represents a six-year-old boy from Honduras with leukemia, together with his nine-year-old sister and mother, taken after an immigration hearing. As ICE moves to deny bond to those jails and nearly double its capacity to detain 100,000 people, we'll look at a new report. You feel like your life is over. Abusive practices at three Florida immigration detention centers since January 2025. Looking at three of these detention facilities in Florida, where people are surviving mass overcrowding, lack of access to basic hygiene, and complete, in some cases, lack of access to appropriate medical care, which in at least two cases might have actually led to the deaths

of detainees. And finally, as the federal government begins to implement some one trillion dollars in Medicaid cuts, a new documentary examines the moral dilemmas and profit motives surrounding assisted dying that members of the disabled community could face. It's called Life After. This film is not about suicide. It's about the phenomenon that leaves disabled people desperate to find their place in the world that perpetually rejects them. We'll speak with acclaimed filmmaker Reed Davenport.

All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now!, DemocracyNow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. The World Health Organization accused Israeli forces of attacking its staff residence in Maine warehouse in the city of Dera Balakh in Gaza. On Monday, Israeli forces entered the WHO premises and handcuffed, stripped, interrogated male staffers and family members. One WHO staff member remains in detention. So far today, Israeli forces have killed at least 43 Palestinians, including 10 aid seekers.

Israel killed another 60 Palestinians on Monday. This comes as the health ministry in Gaza says at least 15 more people, including four children, have died due to famine and malnutrition over the past 24 hours. Michael Fakhry, the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, told Al Jazeera, quote, "'What we're seeing now in Gaza is the most horrific stage of Israel's starvation campaign.'" This is Maltaz Harar, the head of the emergency department at Al-Shifa Hospital. Maltaz Harar, head of the emergency department at Al-Shifa Hospital.

Most patients admitted to the hospital recently are not suffering from war injuries, but from severe malnutrition. Even some of our medical workers have fainted from lack of food. The situation is grave, but it's not new. It's just that the number of cases is rising rapidly lately. The union representing reporters at the French press agency, Agence France Presse, AFP, is warning the agency staff in Gaza are in danger of starving to death. In an open letter, the union writes, quote, "'Since AFP was founded in August 1944, we've

lost journalists and conflicts, we've had wounded and prisoners in our ranks, but none of us can recall seeing a colleague die of hunger. We refuse to see them die." 28 countries, including Canada and Britain, have issued a call for an immediate end to Israel's war on Gaza. During a speech to Parliament on Monday, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy condemned Israel's militarized aid system in Gaza, noting almost 1,000 civilians have been killed while seeking food since May.

The new Israeli aid system is inhumane. It's dangerous. And it deprives Gazans of human dignity. It contradicts long established humanitarian principles. It creates disorder Hamas is now exploiting, with distribution points reduced from 400 to just four. It forces desperate civilians, children among them, to scramble unsafely for the essentials of life.

It's a grotesque spectacle, wrecking a terrible human cost. In more news on Gaza, authorities in Belgium have arrested two Israeli soldiers following a war crimes complaint filed by the Hind Rajab Foundation and the Global Legal Action Network. A federal judge in Kentucky Monday sentenced former Louisville police officer Brett Hankison to 33 months in prison for using excessive force during the deadly police raid that killed Breonna Taylor in her own home. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings rejected the Justice Department's recommendation to have Hankison sentenced to just one day

in prison. That was the prosecution recommending that, calling the effort not appropriate. Hankison fired 10 bullets during the no-knock raid in March 2020, some of which penetrated the walls of a neighbor's home where a family was sleeping. Taylor was a black 26-year-old emergency room technician whose killing in 2020 sparked nationwide racial justice protests under the banner Black Lives Matter. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump spoke after Monday's sentencing. Brianna Taylor killing five years later is telling us a lot at which direction we're going to go.

Are we going to continue to be a democracy that upholds the objective of liberty and justice for all? Or are we going to descend into being a police state where the police can do anything. Louisville Metro Police arrested four protesters who blocked traffic outside the federal court where Hankison was sentenced on Monday. Among those arrested was Bianca Austin, Breonna Taylor's aunt. A warning to our audience. The following story contains graphic footage of police violence.

In Florida, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said Monday, none of the officers involved in the violent arrest and beating of 22-year-old black motorist William Anthony McNeil Jr. will face criminal charges. The beating occurred February 19th, after Jacksonville Sheriff's office deputies pulled McNeil over for driving without his headlights on, even though it was daytime and not even raining. Now viral cell phone video shows McNeil posing no threat to officers as he questioned why they'd pulled him over. An officer then breaks McNeil's window and punches him

in the face before officers drag him from the car, throw him to the ground and begin pummeling him. I'm here. What is your reason, son? What is your reason? Step out now. Get on the ground. No, no, no, no, no. Get on the ground. McNeil says he suffered a chipped tooth that pierced his cheek, requiring stitches, a concussion and short-term memory loss. Jacksonville's branch of the NAACP called the video disturbing, adding, quote, This troubling behavior from law enforcement highlights the very reasons why many African

Americans, especially African American men, feel fear during traffic stops. The Pentagon says it's withdrawing 700 U.S. Marines from Los Angeles after their unprecedented deployment in June, as the Trump administration sought to crack down on protests that erupted after a wave of ICE raids in Southern California. Nearly 2,000 National Guard troops remain in Los Angeles. Mayor Karen Bass has accused the Trump administration of fomenting chaos and making L.A. a test case for authoritarian rule in U.S. cities. ICE agents in South Florida have detained the prominent Haitian entrepreneur Dr. Pierre

Reginald Boulos. He was born in the United States, but renounced his U.S. citizenship to run for president of Haiti. ICE accused him of being, quote, engaged in a campaign of violence and gang support that contributed to Haiti's destabilization, unquote. Boulos is being held at the Chrome Detention Center. On Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the Trump administration will begin deporting U.S. lawful permanent residents who have ties to Vidantam, a Haitian armed group

that was recently labeled a terrorist organization by the Trump administration. Democratic attorneys general from 20 states in Washington, D.C. sued the Trump administration Monday seeking to restore undocumented immigrants access to federal health and safety net programs. Their complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island alleges the Trump administration violated administrative law when it cut off immigrants access to programs including Head Start, mental health services in schools, 24-7 crisis hotlines and shelters for people lacking housing.

A new analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office finds President Trump's new tax and spending bill will add $3.4 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. The CBO's updated forecast also expects the legislation to cause some 10 million people across the U.S. to lose health insurance by 2034. The federal judges ordered the Trump administration to restore a website showing how the Office of Management and Budget directs agencies to spend congressionally appropriated funds. CRU, that's Citizens Responsibility and Ethics, which sued the OMB and its director, Russell Vogt, for taking down the website, celebrated the ruling, writing, quote, "'Contrary to the Trump administration's absurd arguments, it's not unconstitutional

for Congress to require the executive branch to be transparent." House Speaker Mike Johnson reversed his call for the Justice Department to release information about the dead serial sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, who was a longtime friend of Donald Trump's. On Monday, Johnson ruled out any votes on measures related to the Justice Department's trove of files on Epstein before the House leaves Washington at the end of the week for its planned August recess. Johnson said President Trump and his administration need space.

My belief is we need the administration to have the space to do what it is doing. If further congressional action is necessary or appropriate, then we'll look at that. That's a reversal from the House speaker's statement just days earlier, when he joined calls from Trump's MAGA base and House Democrats for the Justice Department to release everything it has on Epstein. It's a very delicate subject, but we should put everything out there and let the people decide it. On Monday, the White House said it's removing the Wall Street Journal from press seats on

President Trump's upcoming trip to Scotland. The move comes after Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the journal, its parent company and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, and the two reporters who broke the story, that Trump wrote a body birthday card, including a sketch of a naked woman, to an album for Epstein's 50th birthday, accompanying the sketch with Trump's note to Epstein, quote, Happy birthday and may every day be another wonderful secret.'" Unquote. The Trump administration has released over 240,000 pages of FBI records on Martin Luther

King Jr. and his assassination, despite opposition from King's children. In a statement, the King family said, quote, "'The release of these files must be viewed within their full historical context. During our father's lifetime, he was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign. They talked about the campaign against King by the longtime FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. And a federal judge appears likely to side with Harvard and its lawsuit against the Trump administration for stripping $2.6 billion in research funding to the university.

During a pivotal hearing on Monday, Judge Allison Burroughs said the constitutional consequences of the Trump administration's actions could be staggering. The Trump administration has claimed Harvard has not done enough to combat anti-Semitism, but Judge Burroughs called the government claims mind-boggling. She noted she is Jewish and questioned the relationship between cutting funding for cancer research and ending anti-Semitism, Trump reacted to the hearing by attacking the judge, saying she's a, quote, total disaster. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report.

When we come back, as the Trump administration vows to arrest up to 7,000 immigrants to a day, we'll speak with an attorney who represents a 6-year-old boy from Honduras with leukemia. He, his 9-year-old sister and his mother were detained for two months by ICE. They've just been released. Stay with us. I'm going alone with my grief, I'm going alone with my sentence. Running is my destiny, to make fun of the law, lost in the heart of the great Babylon. They call me clandestine, for not carrying papers. I'm a ghost in the city. My life is forbidden, says the authority. I'm a ghost in the city.

My life is forbidden, says the authority. I'm a ghost in the city. My life is forbidden, says the authority. Pantasma en la ciudad, mi vida va prohibida, dice la autoridad. ¿Qué será de nosotros si no pensamos en los niños? Lila Downs performing Manu Chau's clandestino in our Democracy Now! studio. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I'm Amy Goodman. We begin today's show looking at how the Trump administration is pushing ahead on its aggressive quota of as many as 7,000 daily immigration arrests, up from 3,000. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem spoke Friday at a news conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

Kirsti Noem, Homeland Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary,

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Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, Home Security Secretary, single day, get the murderers, the rapists, the child pedophiles and pornographers off of our streets and out of this country. The worst of the worst. But according to figures from ICE itself that were obtained by the Cato Institute, over 93 percent of immigrants arrested this fiscal year were never convicted of any violent offense. Still, Congress approved some $45 billion to expand ICE's immigration detention capacity, including the jailing of families and children. We begin today's show with the story of one Los Angeles family arrested after they dutifully showed up at their immigration hearing. They were then taken to a family detention center in Dilley, Texas, that Trump reopened.

On May 29, plainclothes ICE agents detained a 6-year-old boy from Honduras who had acute lymphoblastic leukemia, along with a 9-year-old sister and their mother, as they left their immigration court hearing, in which their asylum case was dismissed, even though they'd followed every rule of the immigration process. In detention, the boy missed a key doctor's appointment, disrupting his cancer treatment. The family also said his sister cried every night, afraid. As pressure grew over their conditions, the family was released on July 2. And Ice Spokesperson claimed, quote, any implications that Ice would deny a child proper medical

care are false, unquote. For more, we're joined by Elora Mujerji, an attorney who represents the boy and his family. She's a professor of law and director of the Immigrants' Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School. Thanks so much for joining us from Columbia. Elora, tell us the story of this young family and the 6-year-old boy with leukemia. Thank you for having me, Amy.

So this is a family that did everything right. While they were in Honduras, they faced imminent menacing death threats. The family then fled to the United States, but they didn't cross the border unlawfully illegally. Instead, they waited in Mexico until they had an appointment through the CBP-1 app to enter the United States. They showed up at exactly the date and time that they were assigned by the U.S. government. And at that point, the Department of Homeland Security paroled the family into the United States, necessarily finding that the family posed no danger to the community and no flight

risk. The family then integrated into their community in Los Angeles. The kids were enrolled in school. The family attended church every Sunday. The little boy loved playing soccer in the park with his friends. And they did everything right. They had never been accused or charged with any crime anywhere in the world, not in the United States. And then, as you said, they dutifully showed up to their immigration court hearing on May 29th, 2025. That was a routine immigration court hearing. All three of them went. And at the hearing, the mom explained to the immigration judge that she wished to continue with their asylum cases.

But DHS moved to dismiss those cases. The immigration judge quickly granted the department's motion to dismiss the cases without giving the family the time that they are entitled to, under the relevant rules, to explain their opposition to the motion to dismiss. And as soon as the immigration judge granted the motion to dismiss, the family stepped out of the courtroom, and there they were met by men Dressed in civilian clothing ICE officers who arrested them and detained them told them They couldn't go home told them they couldn't make a phone call The family was first detained in the courtroom in the courthouse itself, and then they were taken to a

immigration processing center in Los Angeles. There the family was held overnight, not given adequate food. And while the family was there, an ICE officer lifted his shirt, which displayed a gun. This terrified the little boy. He urinated on himself. He was left in wet clothing for hours overnight until the family was put on a flight to Texas the next day. Then they were detained for over a month. And throughout that month I repeatedly begged the Department of Homeland Security to release this family. The department didn't do so. That is why, with co-counsel, I filed a federal habeas petition on behalf of the family. And we are all extremely grateful that the family was released earlier this month.

So, they were held for just over a month. You have an ICE spokesperson claiming any implications ICE would deny a child proper medical care are false. Elora, can you explain—can you respond to what that person said? The mom of this young boy was terrified throughout their time in detention that he wasn't receiving appropriate medical care. He showed signs of easy bruising.

He lost his appetite. He had occasional bone pain. He and his sister cried every night and prayed to God that God would let them out of this detention center. And this connects to a broader theme. Right now there are hundreds of families who are detained at the Dilley Immigrant Processing Center in Texas. And for asylum-seeking families and children, detention is just not appropriate. All the major medical associations, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and other medical organizations have condemned

the use of family detention for immigrant children who are seeking asylum. Because even brief periods of detention can have long lasting mental health effects on the children who are affected. Taking this particular family, it's worth noting that although they've been released from detention, the children are still facing the consequences of their law of their

month of detention. The little boy doesn't want to leave his home. He's terrified. He sobs, cries, and screams when his mother takes him out of the house. The nine-year-old girl lost her appetite while she was in detention and she's still not eating properly, and their mom is trying to get both kids the medical care that they now need as a result of their time in detention. You worked on the Flores settlement. Trump is trying to get rid of it.

What is the significance of this, that children aren't supposed to be held for more than a number of days? Yes, that's exactly right, Amy. The Flores Settlement Agreement was reached in 1997. It has two basic components. First, it guarantees children in federal immigration custody basic minimal protections—access to adequate water, access to adequate food, access to basic sanitary conditions during their detention.

And two, it prioritizes the release of children as promptly as possible from detention in recognition that detention is not appropriate for children who are seeking asylum, survivors of trauma. And the Trump administration has moved to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement, leaving children with no protections in federal immigration custody at a time when $45 billion have been allocated for immigration detention, including for the detention of immigrant families. What happens to the family now as we wrap up? For this particular family,

they will continue to fight for their right to stay in the United States. They're pursuing humanitarian relief, specifically asylum. They have a strong asylum claim. And if they are given a fair opportunity to present their case, I hope that they are able a fair opportunity to present their case, I hope

that they are able to stay in the United States and continue to make contributions to this country. Elyra Mukherjee, I want to thank you for being with us, professor of law at Columbia Law School, director of the Immigrants' Rights Clinic there. We turn now to plans by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, to nearly double ICE's detention capacity to 100,000 people. ICE is reportedly racing to build more than—more detention tent camps after Congress allocated an unprecedented $45 billion in new funding over the next four years to lock up immigrants

as part of Trump's massive tax and spending package. The Homeland Security Department is also reportedly preparing to start detaining immigrants at more military bases, including in New Jersey and Indiana, as well as to transfer more immigrants to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo, Cuba. That's according to NPR, which says Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved the plans earlier this month. As ICE jails across the country face dangerous overcrowding amidst nationwide mass raids, the Trump administration is now moving to

revoke access to bond hearings for people who enter the U.S. through non-approved channels. New policy could potentially impact millions of undocumented people and orders officers to detain immigrants for the length of their removal proceedings, a process which can take months or even years. The rule will apply to people who've recently entered the U.S., as well as immigrants who've been living here for decades. From where we go to Washington, D.C., where we're joined by Adriella Roscoe, senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Council.

Welcome to Democracy Now! What does denying bond mean? It means that, unfortunately, you know, people who have been living in the United States for decades will have to fight their cases behind bars. We know that these detention centers have histories of medical neglect, of horrific conditions and malnutrition. And so, we know that this is one more tool that the Trump administration is trying to use to really scare the community and to get people to give up on their cases, because

people do not want to remain behind bars during the duration of the removal proceedings, like you said, can take years. So it will discourage people from continuing to fight their immigration and asylum cases and going through the legal process? Yeah, that's right. You know, I've had clients in the past who have had to stay in detention centers for three months at a time, and they've decided that they would rather accept a removal order because they don't have access to be able to talk to their family,

or sometimes it's really difficult to even talk to their attorneys. And the conditions inside, it's freezing. Right now, we know that at least a fourth of the immigrant detention centers in the country, at least of April, using ICE's data, were overcrowded. And so people are not getting enough to eat. People are having to sleep on floors. And so it's pretty horrific what people are having to experience right now in detention centers.

AMY GOODMAN The American Immigration Lawyers Association said members had reported immigrants were being denied bond hearings in more than a dozen immigration courts across the country, including New York, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, Oregon, Virginia. Can you talk about what this means? Yeah. And so, you know, one of the most troubling aspects of this likely unconstitutional memo is that, you know, usually when a person who goes before an immigration judge and is in detention, they can ask for a bond.

They can show the immigration judge that they're not a flight risk or that they're not a public safety threat. And we know that a majority of individuals in immigrant detention right now don't have a criminal conviction. And so unfortunately, what that means is that many of them will not have the opportunity to go before an immigration judge or an immigration judge might side with ICE's interpretation of the law and deny them even a hearing for bond. And so people who have no criminal histories or non-serious criminal histories will have US citizen children in the United States will not even have the opportunity

to show that they shouldn't be held in detention. So, this will guarantee that they will need more jails built when people don't get bond. It means they stay, obviously, in these jails longer. Yeah. You know, obviously, we understand that this administration is, you know, using every tool that it has to target the immigrant community, to scare the immigrant community, to hopefully on their end, you know, discourage people from staying in the United States. And so what they're trying to do here is they're

creating a national policy of detention to fill the beds that unfortunately Congress recently funded. Congress gave 45 billion dollars to ICE to build more here, is they're creating a national policy of detention to fill the beds that, unfortunately, Congress recently funded. Congress gave $45 billion to ICE to build more detention capacity, which is 13 years of current funding that has to be spent within four years. So we're going to see a massive expansion of detention, and this policy is to fill those beds. And so, as we see that massive expansion of detention, we're going to move next into

a segment on what these jails look like. We're going to go to a Human Rights Watch report. Adriel Orozco, I want to thank you so much for being with us, senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Council. When we come back, we'll look at the report. You feel like your life is over. We'll look at the report, You Feel Like Your Life Is Over, Abusive Practices at Three Florida Immigration Detention Centers, since January 2025, back in 20 seconds. I'm gonna be Me

The The wind tells my story, I live at the beginning and at the end The rivers run after me, they define my freedom The mountain kisses me and smiles, that next to it there is no rival I don't eat like any other story, I carry my truth inside Well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, If you're coming for me by Mako Sound System here in our Democracy Now! studio. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. You Feel Like Your Life is Over. That's the title of a new report released jointly by Americans for Immigrant Justice,

The Sanctuary of the South and Human Rights Watch. It details dangerous and abusive conditions at three immigration detention centers in Miami, Florida, since Trump returned to office. One of the detained people they spoke to said detention officers made men eat while shackled with their hands behind their backs. One man said, quote, We had to bend over and eat off the chairs with our mouths like dogs. The report also describes how detained immigrants are routinely denied access to legal counsel and critical medical care. Some have been held incommunicado in solitary confinement as an apparent punishment for

seeking mental health care. For more, we're joined by Belkis Villa, an associate director in Human Rights Watch's Crisis, Conflict and Arms Division, author of the new report, You Feel Like Your Life Is Over, Abuse of Practice at Three Immigration Detention Centers. Belkis Villa, thanks so much for joining us from Washington. We have spoken to you about abusive conditions in countries around the world. We're talking to you right now about what's happening here in the United States, in Florida. Talk about what you found. What we found was that since January 20th of this year, there has been an upsurge in

immigrants being detained, including in particular in Florida. And what this meant was that tons of people were being brought to these immigration detention centers. One of the ones we look at, Chrome, within the first three months of the year, was suddenly at two, three times its capacity in terms of the number of people being brought. And with that overcrowding came truly horrific conditions, unsanitary conditions, people being unable to get access to medical care,

both to see medical health professionals and to get key treatment that they need for chronic health conditions, women being brought to a male-only detention center, being held there and denied any access to medical care because they were told this is a male-only facility. In a TikTok video that went viral in March, an unidentified immigrant from Mexico detained at the Chrome Ice Jail in Miami begs for help. As he secretly records the inhumane conditions inside his overcrowded holding cell, several other immigrant men are seen sleeping on the floor and the significance of what it is showing.

So what we see in that video is exactly what was described by these men that were held at Crome Detention Center. These cells are being used for the quote unquote processing period when people are first brought in. Now these cells are only meant to hold a small number of people for a matter of hours. Those conditions you saw, those are men who were held in there for one week, two weeks.

In those rooms they do not have regular access to showers. They're in frigid temperatures with the air conditioning blasting. They're sleeping on regular access to showers. They're in frigid temperatures with the air conditioning blasting. They're sleeping on concrete floors for days. Some of the rooms don't have regular access to a sink and soap to wash people's hands. And as I mentioned, those same cells were being used at some point to hold women being brought to Chrome. Again, a male-only facility. The women told me that in their cell they had a toilet,

but with the way that the windows were only partially glazed over, male detainees from other cells could actually stand on a chair and look in and watch them while they were using the toilet. So if you can talk about the people who have died in detention in Florida. What we saw across all three detention centers that we looked at was really a concerning and chronic lack of access to appropriate medical care. And what we saw was that people with chronic health conditions, where their records were on file, it was clear that they had diabetes or they had HIV or asthma or any number of conditions, they were not being

given regular access to their medication. And in some cases, people begging to see a doctor were not given access to a doctor. And in the case of two instances, a Ukrainian man, Maksim, who was brought in, you know, he was in very good health, his wife said, until he got brought to to Chrome. He got sicker and sicker, was begging to see a doctor. He saw medical health professionals that were not prescribing him medication to address his illnesses. And we spoke to a cellmate who describes how in the middle of the night, suddenly he started foaming at the mouth, vomiting, defecated on himself.

That day, again, he had been insisting to see a doctor and had not seen one. And he was taken away on a stretcher and then died. And there was also a Haitian woman the same age as Maxime, also 44, and we interviewed a woman who was in the cell opposite her who saw her collapsing. This is Marie-Ange Blaise? Exactly, this is Marie-Ange Blaise. And the woman we spoke to watched as it took far too long for a guard to come, as cellmates were screaming for a guard.

The guard came, sauntered over, then walked away slowly before calling the medical team. They took, you know, 10, 15 minutes to arrive, and then one signaled to the rest of the group, you know, it's too late, and the woman was taken away and then pronounced dead. So, she was held at Broward Transitional Center, BTC. You also report on Federal Detention Center and, of course, Chrome in Miami. Can you talk about what it means when these companies—when these—I didn't actually say it that wrong—when these jails are privatized, there are companies. And what role do they play in, for example, when they don't have enough food for people?

You save money by not giving them so much food. Absolutely. So, Broward Transitional Center, BTC and Chrome are both run by private companies that have contracts from ICE to run them. And at a facility like Chrome, as I said, within the first three months of the year, they became far over capacity of the facility. And detainees explained to me,

those that were already detained in 2024, the change in conditions. Suddenly they weren't getting substantial and warm breakfasts anymore. Suddenly their meal portions for lunch and dinner were cut. They couldn't even eat in the canteen anymore. They were required to eat in their cells, which is still the case

because the facility is so overcrowded. And as you said, that's a financial matter that, you know, that's a way of saving on the money being spent on food. When we wrote to the companies that are running Chrome and BTC, we got no responses to our substantial allegations. One company simply wrote back and said, you have to talk to ICE.

We can't respond to any of your allegations. What exactly is Human Rights Watch calling for now? I mean, these three detention centers in Florida are a small example of the mass expanding detention complex that is growing across this country, from places and swamps like the Everglades, what the Republicans have called Alligator Alcatraz, to make it sound a bit cute, to the new expanding detention centers on military bases? Absolutely. I mean, as you said, this is just a small example of a system that is abusive and is

treating immigrants in detention in a dehumanizing manner. One immediate thing that could be done by the government that would really limit the number of people who are at risk of ending up in these facilities is to reinstate programs like the humanitarian parole and TPS programs, programs that invited people from Cuba, from Haiti, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Afghanistan to come to this country lawfully. And these people were told they could come to America and got this protection until the situation in the country of their origin improved.

And instead, suddenly we saw a political decision taken to strip these people of their status. And now all of these people, as their status gets terminated, are at risk of being detained at these detention centers. So that's one very easy and quick fix. But, you know, there are also so many alternatives to detention for immigrants. It was ICE itself in 2004 that developed an Alternatives to Detention program,

a program that by many measures was effective. Why are we seeing a system that is using detention centers as the default when we're showing very clearly these detention centers are carrying out abuses, and not just abuses of international human rights law, but abuses of ICE's very own detention standards. What does it mean—and maybe you can't answer this, but when an ICE jail is placed on a military base, already Congress members, who have every right to go at any time unannounced to an ICE jail to investigate, to inspect, are having trouble getting in under the Trump administration. But if they then have to get not only permission from ICE, but from the Pentagon, to get onto

a military base? That's of extreme concern. So much of the immediate solution that's needed to address and rein in these abuses is oversight. And oversight includes an ability for those in power to visit these facilities and to ensure that abuses are not being carried out. What we heard from people at facilities like Chrome is that when the management of the facilities and ICE found out there was going to be a visit, you know, a few nights before suddenly a hundred men would get transferred out, a wall would get repainted, so that, you know, the reality of the facility and its overcrowding would not be properly seen.

So, when you're talking about facilities that are even harder to get access to, it really means we're talking about a black hole that does not allow for appropriate oversight of conditions. Belges Bile, I want to thank you for being with us. Associate Director and Human Rights Watch's Crisis, Conflict and Arms Division will link to your new report. You Feel Like Your Life Is Over. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman.

As the federal government begins to implement some $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts called for in President Trump's budget bill, which gives massive tax breaks to the wealthy. We end today's show with a new investigative documentary that examines the moral dilemmas and profit motive surrounding assisted dying that members of the disabled community could face. It's called Life After, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Reed Davenport. As one reviewer put it, Davenport is uniquely positioned to tell the story.

He himself has cerebral palsy. This is the trailer for Life After. Elizabeth Bouvier is asking for help. Trapped in a useless body, she says she deserves the right to die quietly What was your purpose in being murdered her to say her house? Start myself I began to think that buffet was still alive. Requests for medical assistance in dying are increasing across the country. We're beginning to hear more stories

about people feeling it's their only recourse from excruciating circumstances. I didn't want to really end my life, but it really just came down to a matter of funding at that point. The health system is basically going to tell you, you should kill yourself, because that's the cheapest option. you should kill yourself, because that's the cheapest option. Many people are afraid of disability. They've never had to interact with it before.

The decision makers are really ruining our chances of surviving. I feel that this film will be dismissed as cynicism. But the death of disabled people has been justified for so long. Doctors encouraged me to pull the plug. This film is not about suicide. It's about the phenomenon that leaves disabled people desperate to find their place in the world that perpetually rejects them. She's very bright, she's attractive, but so what?

I need to find her. There are too many unanswered questions. That's the trailer for the new investigative documentary Life After, directed by Reid Davenport and produced by Colleen Casingham with Multitude Films. They both appear in the film. I spoke to them on Monday. Congratulations on winning the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award at Sundance, where the film premiered earlier this year.

I wanted to start off by asking you about why you made this film and how it ties into this current moment, where we're going to see something like, in the next few years, 17 million people losing their health insurance, with millions losing their Medicaid. Reed? I wrote about Boothberry about eight years ago. I was instantly drawn to his story because many disabled activists who identify as progressive also are gassers and suicide. So I was very interested in that friction and then when I figured out she could possibly be alive. That was when I knew that this was a film. Unfortunately, this film is called Advertisements. The average growing environment day by day with Medicaid cuts.

Medicaid keeps disabled people alive but barely. If you are on government assistance, you are probably below the poverty line, so cutting this back further will only deepen out your poverty and attract disabled people to early graves. And Colleen, if you can talk about your involvement with this film. Sure. Reed brought this film to me and to my team at Multitude Films back in 2020 or 2021, and it was around the time that Canada had just expanded its assisted dying legislation made to include eligibility for disabled people on the basis of disability.

And so, you know, I knew this was a film that we wanted to be involved with just because of the sort of personal political perspective expansion it had for me. You know, I personally thought I was for assisted suicide legislation. It seemed like to me it was a matter of personal choice and bodily autonomy, which I'm deeply committed to.

And it was working on this film with Reed that really changed my perspective to understand that these questions are really about what kind of society we want to be and how we want to care for and uphold each other's dignity. And there are so many layers of ableism and systemic failure that influence the ways that assisted suicide legislation is able to be implemented that make it so dangerous for disabled people. So, you know, with the Medicaid cuts on the horizon, the reason I feel this film is so important right now is because people with disabilities experience,

already experience huge health disparities. And so when you introduce a policy like assisted suicide, it takes a group of people who are already incredibly marginalized by our system and gives the institutions and the people with power a profit motive for denying those people care. This film is particularly relevant here in New York, as Governor Hockel has a bill on her desk, which she has not yet signed.

Can you explain its significance. New York is said to be one of about 12 states that would allow assisted suicide for people who are turned into the elderly. However, we know that disabled people who are not dying are able to use doctors to wrinkle their way into this line. That's pretty strange. For example, people who have diabetes are technically terminal without insulin, so that can be used to allow someone with diabetes who is not dying to access assisted services legally. I want to go to another clip from Life After.

It's with Melissa, the wife of Michael Hickson, an Austin man who in 2017 suffered an anoxic brain injury that made him blind and damaged his spinal cord. The hospital that was treating him wanted to end life-saving measures when he needed to be treated for COVID at that Austin, Texas, hospital. Michael went into sudden cardiac arrest while he was driving me to work. As a result of that, he had a dendroxic brain injury. He was blind and had a spinal cord injury that caused him to be quadriplegic. Several doctors kept saying to me,

you know, we can just let him go. If you want us to, we can. In fact, they encouraged it. My goal for him was to go to a place where they specialized and care for people with brain injuries and spinal cord injuries. That was never what they wanted. I was villainized for trying to get the care that Michael needed the whole time. I was always encouraged to let him go, to pull the plug, to not treat. It would just be easier. Did you expect doctors to be discriminatory, or was this a shock for you?

I think, as most people believe, that doctors are healers, that they're there to help you get better. I never thought that a doctor would ever question life. So that was Melissa Hickson being interviewed by Reid Davenport, the director of Life After. At the end of this interview, Reid, you hug Melissa. Talk about why you reached out to her? Um, and initially we reached out to her because Michael's story was so devastating, and it wasn't getting the attention that it needed. And we were asking Melissa to bear some very deep, pretty new wounds.

So during the interview, I think it was just about trying to be a decent person, recognizing all we were there to do something difficult, and trying our best to ease the pain and make it—to make it less hard. I want to go to another clip from your film Life After, where you speak to a Canadian man named Michael Callezan, who has spinal muscular atrophy. He lost his mother, who is his primary caretaker, and is considered dying through Canada's MADE program. That's M-A-I-D, Medical Assistance in Dying.

When we heard mom's diagnosis, I had basically three thoughts. My first thought was, OMG, mom's going to die soon. My second thought was, OMG, I'm going to die shortly thereafter. And then I thought, OMG, how do I get my together? I didn't want to really end my life, but you know, it really just came down to a matter of funding at that point.

There's a facade of universal healthcare in this country that claims to take care of anyone who gets ill. But the truth is, we have these points of crisis in our healthcare system where people are falling through, not cracks, but massive openings in the system. That's Ash Kelly, a Canadian journalist. And before that, Michael Callezan said he didn't really want to die, but since his mother was his main caretaker—

M. Reid, in this story, what's surprising, as it's pointed out, is that Canada has national healthcare. surprising as it's pointed out is that Canada has national health care. Yeah, I think as Americans, especially if you're on the left, you look up to Canada as this more liberal country where everybody has health care but their healthcare, even if it's nationalized, is extremely overburdened and it's on the virtue club. The weed lines are endless. It can take years to see a specialist or even a therapist. their health cares by no means are given in Canada. That's Reid Davenport, director of the new investigative documentary Life After, and producer Colleen Kasingham, with multiple films.

The film has won major awards at Sundance. It's at Film Forum in New York through Thursday, and over the summer will be coming to many cities through one-night-only screenings with conversations with movement leaders and activists and thinkers. The cities include Philadelphia, Chicago, Austin, Miami, Atlanta, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, Des Moines, Iowa and Middlebury, Vermont. There will also be virtual companion screenings as well, so the film will be accessible. You can check their website, LifeAfterFilm.com, for locations and dates.

And you can go to our website to see our 2022 interview with Reid about his first documentary, I Didn't See You There, in which he, as a disabled filmmaker, reflects on the portrayal of disability in media and popular culture. We have job openings. Go to democracynow.org. Democracy Now! is produced with Mike Burke, Renee Feltz, Dina Guzdar, Messiah Rhodes, Nermeen Shaikh, Maria Tarasena, Tammy Warnoff, Tarina Nadura, Sam Alkoff, Tamarie Astudio, John Hamilton, Ravi Karan, Pani Masood and Safwat Nassal.

Our executive director is Julie Crosby. Special thanks to Becca Staling, John Randall, Paul Powell, Mike DeFilippo, Miguel Negara, Hugh Grant, Dennis Moynihan, David Prude, Dennis McCorbett, Matt Ely, Anna Osbeck, Emily Anderson, Dante Torriere, and Buffy St. Marie Hernandez. To see our Democracy Now! video and audio podcast, you can go to I'm Amy Goodman.