Bad Watchdog

For the past few episodes, Maren has explored the reality of immigration detention, uplifting the conditions in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) centers where thousands are held under the presumption that they may be threats to national security. In the season finale of Bad Watchdog, we return to where we started, with the DHS’s counterterrorism mission. Maren breaks down the current landscape of terrorism in the United States, where the most dangerous threat isn’t posed by those who’ve crossed our borders illegally, but by homegrown, far-right, violent extremists. And, as Maren learns, domestic violent extremism isn’t just a problem across the country — it’s a problem in DHS’s own ranks as well. Domestic terrorism experts Daryl Johnson and Alejandro Buetel walk Maren through the rise of far-right violent extremism in the U.S. and interrogate whether DHS is taking the threat seriously. Maren discusses both shortfalls and potential solutions for how DHS could address far-right violent extremism with the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty’s Spencer Reynolds. POGO Senior Investigator Nick Schwellenbach shares his investigation into just how many Oath Keepers are or were employed at DHS. And Maren connects with people who are working to make this broken system more humane, including activists Arely Westley and Berto Hernandez, Las Americas Director of Cross-Border Strategies Crystal Sandoval, former POGO Senior Researcher Freddy Martinez, and POGO Senior Paralegal Lance Sims. To report waste, fraud, or abuse in the federal government, please visit us at https://www.pogo.org/send-us-a-tip. If you enjoy Bad Watchdog, sign up for emails from the Project On Government Oversight to learn more about POGO’s mission and work. Bad Watchdog is a member of the Airwave Media network and a part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Content note: This episode discusses suicide and sexual violence. After a years-long legal fight from the Department of Homeland Security, a court order finally gave Nick and other investigators access to 33 reports detailing conditions in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities. The documents showed a disturbing pattern of abuse that extended far beyond the gates of Adelanto Detention Center, spreading throughout ICE detention facilities across the United States. In this episode, Maren gets into the conditions in ICE detention and raises the question: What needs to change for this broken system to be fixed? Maren breaks down the reports with POGO’s Senior Investigator Nick Schwellenbach and former Senior Researcher Freddy Martinez. She talks with activists Berto Hernandez and Arely Westley about their experiences of the conditions in ICE detention, and she visits a Louisiana airport with LA-AID volunteer Sarah Jones to meet people who were recently released from ICE facilities. Finally, to untangle just how immigration policy became entwined with counterterrorism — and how we can fix it — Maren talks with POGO’s Katherine Hawkins, the Brennan Center for Justice’s Spencer Reynolds, and The Ohio State University Professor César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández. If you enjoy Bad Watchdog, sign up for emails from the Project On Government Oversight to learn more about POGO’s mission and work. Bad Watchdog is a member of the Airwave Media network and a part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

The Department of Homeland Security is a very large, very powerful federal agency. It’s also extremely secretive. Who monitors the agency and holds it accountable the actions it takes as part of its mission to protect the homeland? In this episode, Maren explains how hard it is just to access information about conditions in DHS detention facilities. She breaks down the ways agencies like DHS withhold information from the public — and how journalists and advocates fight back. And she explains how transparency has always been an issue at DHS, detailing how the post-9/11 push to create an agency dedicated to counterterrorism raised lawmakers’ concerns about accountability, civil rights, and civil liberties at its founding. POGO Senior Paralegal Lance Sims walks Maren through the five-year — and, at times, absurd — legal fight to get DHS to release reports documenting abuses and poor conditions in its detention centers. Former POGO Senior Researcher Freddy Martinez examines the larger pattern these reports revealed, and what that pattern indicated about systemic issues in DHS detention facilities. If you enjoy Bad Watchdog, sign up for emails from the Project On Government Oversight to learn more about POGO’s mission and work. Bad Watchdog is a member of the Airwave Media network and a part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

This episode discusses suicide and recounts an incident in which a homophobic slur was used. Maren follows the story of Berto Hernandez, who recounts their detainment at ICE’s Adelanto Detention Center and the treatment and conditions they faced inside. But when people in detention are mistreated, where can they turn for help? Experts from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) investigate complaints involving ICE’s detention facilities, then file reports on their findings and recommendations. Maren breaks down POGO’s investigation into three of these expert reports — and their disturbing findings regarding Adelanto’s overuse of solitary confinement. Maren talks with Berto, who shares how the conditions in Adelanto affected them and how they grew determined to fight for their release. POGO Senior Investigator Nick Schwellenbach delves into his investigation into CRCL’s reports, what those findings revealed about the problems at Adelanto, and the upcoming obstacles to get more reports out of the Department of Homeland Security. If you enjoy Bad Watchdog, sign up for emails from the Project On Government Oversight to learn more about POGO’s mission and work. Bad Watchdog is a member of the Airwave Media network and a part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it. While recording this episode, POGO reached out to ICE and DHS but neither agency responded to our request for an interview.

Host Maren Machles learns more about people’s experiences in ICE detention by talking with formerly detained activist Berto Hernandez and traveling to El Paso, Texas, to hear directly from people who were recently released from ICE facilities. She explores how immigration laws and one anti-terrorism law from the 1990s influenced the current political landscape and helped create the conditions that led to the mass detention of migrants. And she unpacks an exclusive POGO investigation that reveals ICE’s dangerous overreliance on solitary confinement. To dig into what it’s really like interacting with ICE, Maren talks with Berto Hernandez, Ouderwuil Esteban Marval Rivas, Joseph Olivas, and Diego Andres. She learns how activists are trying to help by meeting up with Las Americas Director of Cross Border Strategies Crystal Sandoval. Law professor César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, from The Ohio State University, breaks down how government policies altered today’s political landscape, and POGO Senior Investigator Nick Schwellenbach outlines his investigation on solitary confinement in ICE detention. If you enjoy Bad Watchdog, sign up for emails from the Project On Government Oversight to learn more about POGO’s mission and work. Bad Watchdog is a member of the Airwave Media network and a part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.