48 Hours at El Refugio: A Haven for Families of ICE Detainees
Latino USA
My Cultura, Futuro and iHeartPodcasts
4.8 • 3.8K Ratings
🗓️ 5 December 2025
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In a rural town in south Georgia, sits “El Refugio,” a charming white home with green shutters. For 15 years, thousands have walked through its doors during the hardest moments of their lives. The house serves as a refuge for families of immigrants detained just two miles away at one of the largest immigration detention centers in the U.S.. In recent months, the visits to El Refugio have skyrocketed. We spent 48 hours inside El Refugio, the only hospitality house of its kind in the nation. We meet volunteers who visit with detainees and the families of those held at Stewart Detention Center.
Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Dear Latino USA listener, before we start, you should know that if you want to listen to this episode, add free. |
| 0:15.4 | Just join Futuro Plus, and you can join for as little as $7 a month. |
| 0:21.0 | Joining also gets you behind the scenes access, and yes, some chisement. |
| 0:26.7 | So click the link in the episode description. |
| 0:30.1 | And after you do that, then click play. |
| 0:32.7 | Let's go to the show. |
| 0:43.6 | Futuro investigates. |
| 0:45.8 | Futuro. |
| 0:46.2 | Futuro. |
| 0:48.2 | Investiga. |
| 0:52.2 | It's just past 8 a.m. on a rainy Saturday morning in late August. |
| 0:58.0 | We're at the back of a large white house with dark green shutters, bordered by a manicured yard with flowers. |
| 1:07.6 | Good morning. |
| 1:08.5 | I'm with reporter Shannon Heffernan of the Marshall Project, the nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. |
| 1:18.2 | I'll be reporting with her for the next two days, here in southwest Georgia. |
| 1:23.0 | Sorry, the rain got us. |
| 1:24.6 | Yeah, I see. |
| 1:26.6 | A woman with long, grayish white hair named Marilyn opens the door for us. |
| 1:32.1 | We walk directly into an airy kitchen, where she and four other women are huddling around a kitchen island. |
| 1:39.6 | Once introductions are made, they get right back to business. |
| 1:45.0 | The smell of brewing cars. Once introductions are made, they get right back to business. And everybody's got their ID. |
| 1:50.0 | The smell of brewing coffee permeates the air. |
... |
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