The Growth of DHS Detention Camps

The Brian Lehrer Show

WNYC

Bryan, Politics, Arts, Npr, News, Wnyc, News Commentary, Nyc, Daily News, Lerer, New, Public, Radio, Media, York

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2026

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jonathan Blitzer talks about the scale of the U.S. immigrant detention program, health and safety issues and expansion plans, following the firing of DHS Sec. Kristi Noem.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Brian Mayer on WNYC, with the war on Iran taking center stage and news coverage,
0:16.0	it's easy to lose sight of the Trump administration's main domestic agenda, mass deportation. And even within that,
0:23.8	it's easy to miss a big aspect of it that flies under the radar mass detention. New Yorker staff
0:30.2	writer Jonathan Blitzer has a very good new article about that. And there's also breaking news.
0:34.8	A woman from New Jersey the last 10 years, an immigrant from the West Bank,
0:39.2	was released from a detention center in Texas yesterday after a year behind bars there, March 13th,
0:46.4	2025 until yesterday, March 16th, 26th, and she was emblematic of two big trends in immigration detention.
0:55.0	One, according to the AP, she was detained while voluntarily checking in with ICE in New Jersey.
1:02.0	And two, she was the last of the people still being held in connection with protesting the war in Gaza at Columbia University.
1:10.0	Mahmoud Khalil out of detention, Mosan Madhw Dhabi out of detention. with protesting the war in Gaza at Columbia University.
1:14.5	Mahmoud Khalil out of detention, Mosan Madhawi out of detention,
1:18.9	and now much later and much less well-known, La Khadirdea.
1:23.6	And upon her release yesterday, she drew attention not just to her case, but to the larger detention issue.
1:31.3	Okay. case, but to the larger detention issue. We're going to keep fighting. There is a lot of injustice in this place. There is a lot of
1:37.5	people that they shouldn't be here in the first place. We're going to keep fighting for them.
1:42.5	We're not going to forget them. And we're not free until
1:45.2	everybody is free. La Cauta Cordia yesterday. With us now, New Yorker's staff writer Jonathan Blitzer,
1:51.5	who is also author of the much-aclaimed book from 2024. Everyone who is gone is here,
1:57.7	the United States, Central America, and the making of a crisis. He was on the show for a
2:02.8	book interview for that at the time. His latest article is called Trump's mass detention campaign.
2:09.6	Jonathan, thanks for coming on. Welcome back to WNYC. Thanks for having me. It's common to hear the term
2:15.9	mass deportation. Not so much mass detention.
	...

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