In this harrowing documentary—told mostly through video chat and news footage—reporter Seth Freed Wessler investigates conditions at the Irwin County Detention Center, a private Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Ocilla, Georgia, for people facing deportation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many immigrants are held indefinitely until a U.S. district court agrees to hear their case, a predicament further complicated by pandemic lockdowns. Through Wessler’s impressive access, we see firsthand the center’s negligence in protecting detainees against infection. The situation becomes so dire that they protest by mounting several hunger strikes. The detainee’s plight only becomes news, however, when one of the center’s nurses blows the whistle.  BD

Filmmaker Q&A available

Closed Captioning available