What happens to you when you sneak into the U.S. without papers, hoping for a better life? You might make a living working at jobs that the native-born wouldn't take, supporting your family back home. Or you might end up in indefinite detention. On Tuesday at 9 p.m., PBS's Frontline airs Maria Hinojosa's in-depth, year-long investigation of this system, Lost in Detention. As you may know, Hinojosa's powerful journalistic career has been dedicated to telling the stories of social injustice and exposing the machinery that perpetrates it. I suspect this will be powerful and disturbing. Here's what her production house, Futuro Media Group, says about this show:
[Lost in Detention] takes a penetrating look at President Obama's vastly expanded immigration net, explores the controversial Secure Communities enforcement program and goes inside the hidden world of immigration detention ... tracks the enforcement sweep from the neighborhoods of Illinois to the expansive Willacy Detention Center in south Texas. During a yearlong investigation, Frontline and Hinojosa uncovered a troubling picture of abuse inside immigration detention facilities, as well as alleged cases of beatings, racism and management cover-ups.
Full disclosure: I collaborated with Hinojosa on an investigation of workplace sexual harassment of teens, "Is Your Daughter Safe at Work?" She is fearless.
