What one senator saw inside Delaney Hall

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Support for Here and Now Anytime comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink software, to design and develop engineered systems, accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at mathworks.com.

**Chris Bentley** (0:16)
WBUR Podcasts, Boston.

**Andy Kim** (0:21)
When I'm in there and I'm talking to a high school senior who just is trying to graduate high school, why are we wasting money detaining her?

**Chris Bentley** (0:30)
Inside the Delaney Hall Detention Center, where some immigrants are on a hunger strike. It's Thursday, June 4th, and this is Here and Now Anytime from NPR and WBUR. I'm Chris Bentley.
Today on the show, Republican Senator Tom Tillis said President Trump's new acting director of national intelligence is a joke.

**Tom Tillis** (0:58)
Whoever these people are in the White House need to get the hell out of the White House. I am tired of amateur hour.

**Chris Bentley** (1:04)
It's one of several examples of Republican senators going against Trump lately, after years of supporting him. We'll ask what it all amounts to, whether it's a passing fad and what it means for legislation that affects you, including war powers.
Also, we'll listen back to a little of our past conversation with Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian-French author known for her series of graphic novels, Persepolis. Satrapi has died at just 56 years old.

**Marjane Satrapi** (1:34)
The problem is that today, in today's world, we talk about everything but about the human being. We're always, you know, going towards abstract notion. We forget that people are just, people are just like us.

**Chris Bentley** (1:45)
Persepolis was a portrait of a girl growing up after the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Some of the things she told us in 2008 are really prescient for the situation there today.
You can hear it in about 10 minutes. But first, we've been following the protests outside Delaney Hall, a privately run immigration detention center where some detainees say they've been on a hunger strike. The government is holding several hundred immigrants there, including some married to American citizens. We've heard from lawyers, for some of them, who say conditions inside are deplorable.
But few people have been in to see for themselves. New Jersey Governor Mikey Sherrill says immigration officials will not let her visit.
Senator Andy Kim was able to visit this week. He's a Democrat, and he told Scott Tong what he saw.

**Andy Kim** (2:36)
Well, I saw first of all about 800 detainees are there. And many of them were telling me just about the hardships that they've been having to talk to several women who are pregnant that were not getting the care that they needed.
I met a person who has stage 3 lung cancer and not getting the medical care that one would need. And just over and over again, people not getting their medication. I saw how they are organizing the medication. They just do it all by handwritten lines in a notebook. There is no real coordination in any sophisticated way to be able to handle this. One doctor, one full-time doctor for about 800 detainees, at least that's what they told me. One person is in a wheelchair and the facility can't handle a wheelchair, so they put him in medical isolation. He's been in there for four months in one room, not able to go to other parts of. I will say that the detainees wanted me to make very clear that it's not just about the conditions inside Delaney Hall. It's the fact that many of them have been there for eight months, 10 months, 12 months without any movement in their case.

**Scott Tong** (3:43)
And that's what I wanted Senator, forgive me, to ask you about is whether it's clear to these detainees when their immigration cases will be heard. I've been reading about judges who have too much on their plate.

**Andy Kim** (3:58)
Yeah, they have zero idea when their cases will be heard.
Many of them have cases, many of them have filed habeas petitions as well, and just uncertain about what's going to happen next. They've been there for a long time. They went and actually showed me this document. They had a document posted on the wall, which showed the court docket for the following few days. And it showed that like on the Tuesday after Memorial Day, one judge had 74 cases before her in one day. Oh my goodness. Which is about five minutes a case, if everything goes perfectly. And, you know, they also need interpretation of any of them.
It's a huge mess. And I just want the people to know like we're paying for this. You know, we're paying upwards of $70,000 to $100,000 a person in there every year. You know, they're not these worst of the worst that the Trump administration keeps talking about. You know, like I think we have a large agreement that they're violent felons and criminals. Like, we get it. But when I'm in there and I'm talking to a high school senior who just is trying to graduate high school, like, why are we wasting money detaining her? Many of them were also spouses of American citizens, mothers and fathers to American citizens. So I just wanted to give people a greater context of who's inside these facilities.