KEYRIS MANZANARES: In this episode of VPM News Focal Point, we'll hear from a migrant mother reunited with her children, a man once held at one of Virginia's immigration detention centers, and meet migrant farm workers in our state.

You're watching VPM News Focal Point.

Production funding for VPM News Focal Point is provided by The estate of Mrs. Ann Lee Saunders Brown.

And by... ♪ ♪ KEYRIS MANZANARES: Welcome to this special edition of VPM News Focal Point covering immigrants in Virginia.

I'm Keyris Manzanares.

A recent report from the Department of Homeland Security details how nearly 4,000 children were separated from their families at the border with Mexico during the Trump administration, I spoke with a religious organization that's helping reunite families.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Tatiana Bardales came to the U.S. from Honduras in 2016, leaving behind her two youngest children, Maria and Alex.

(Tatiana speaking Spanish) KERYIS MANZANARES: In 2021, Bardales sent for her children after Maria had an epileptic episode.

When the children arrived at the U.S. border, Bardales says they were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and taken to a foster home in New York.

(Tatiana speaking Spanish) KEYRIS MANZANARES: The Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington helps immigrants and refugee families with reunification.

JESSICA ESTRADA: We work primarily with unaccompanied minors who have crossed the border and have been detained in ORR shelters and then are released to family members.

KEYRIS MANZANRES: Jessica Estrada, director of Newcomer Services says family reunification can be challenging.

JESSICA ESTRADA: Some of these young people have been separated from their families for a very long time, and so there's a process of getting to know each other again, getting to know the environment in which they're coming to.

KEYRIS MANZANRES: Bardales says without the support of Catholic Charities, it's hard to say if she would be with her children today.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Virginia is home to two immigration detention centers.

Over the years, advocates and impacted families have been calling for the closure of these facilities.

I reported on the impact these centers have on those locked inside of them and the communities that host them.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: In 2008, the town of Farmville signed an intergovernmental service agreement known as an IGSA with U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement amidst protests.

(crowd chanting indistinctly) KEYRIS MANZANARES: This resulted in the opening of what is now known as the Mid Atlantic's hub for ICE detention.

LUIS OYOLA: When I first learned about Farmville, it sort of seemed obvious to me why people should be pissed off about it.

It's jail for people who should have the right to move wherever they decide.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Luis Oyola was only 17 when ICA Farmville opened.

Today, he's the director of organizing at Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville where he is working to see the detention center close.

LUIS OYOLA: I think the best future for them is to close down and for the federal government to put money towards community programs that actually help people through their immigration cases.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: IGSAs allow the federal government to pay localities a per diem rate for holding immigrants in detention.

These localities can then contract detention services to a private company.

That's the case of ICA Farmville.

The facility is owned and operated by for-profit provider Immigration Centers of America.

According to ICE, as of March 1st there were 11 people detained at ICA Farmville.

The center's capacity is 732.

Documents obtained by the National Immigrant Justice Center show on average, Farmville bills ICE over $2 million a month.

After paying its private contractor to run the facility the town pockets its percentage.

In 2021 that was $200,000 according to their budget.

Farmville has come to rely on that income to help pay for essential town services.

BRIAN VINCENT: They're treated like any other business, right?

They pay their way.

And so you, that money then gets poured into the core services that we give to our town residents.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Farmville Mayor Brian Vincent was elected in 2022.

He says, while campaigning for mayor not one of his constituents brought up concerns regarding the town's agreement with ICE and ICA.

BRIAN VINCENT: As of this timeframe, there has not been an appetite or a movement to separate from that agreement.

But there's always that chance that that happens.

But the other side of this is rural Virginia and that facility supplies federal wage jobs and a locality that needs jobs.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: In 2018, this man who we are calling ‘José.

to protect his identity, was picked up by ICE and taken to ICA Farmville after serving a sentence for a misdemeanor traffic violation.

(José speaking Spanish) LUIS OYOLA: People who are immigrants, when they are convicted they served their sentences and then ICE is able to get them and put them in a detention center.

So to people who say it is necessary, why is it necessary to people who just so happen to not be citizens but not necessary for people who just so happen to be citizens?

It's arbitrary double standard.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: ‘José says his time at ICA Farmville caused him so much stress and trauma there were times he wished to be deported although he had fled El Salvador because of threats to his safety.

(José speaks Spanish) KEYRIS MANZANARES: In the United States immigration detention is civil detention and is not intended to be punishment for criminal convictions.

Yet the people detained are in facilities that mirror the country's criminal incarceration system.

BRIAN VINCENT: The Immigrant Naturalization Act empowers the federal government to determine that someone in immigration proceedings either awaiting for their court case to be heard or they've lost their case and they are awaiting deportation that they can be held in detention.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: ICE enforcement and removal operations field office director Russell Hott says, generally speaking the purpose of detention is to facilitate repatriation and or removal proceedings.

RUSSELL HOTT: I think often, right, especially when we started to see some of the abolish ICE movement, there was definitely a lot of misgivings on the agency's focus overall, you know ultimately, you know, we continue to prioritize our efforts on those individuals that pose the greatest threat to undermine the immigration laws of the U.S. KEYRIS MANZANARES: But traffic violations like ‘José's can often trigger the possibility of deportation and result in what justice advocates call the traffic stop to-deportation pipeline.

RUSSELL HOTT: Here within the Commonwealth, we have a program we refer to as the Criminal Apprehension Program, and its focus is based on individuals who have already been arrested for other state and local charges.

Right?

We'll interview those individuals, determine whether or not they are subject to removability.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Hott says two detention centers in Virginia are a requisite to the level of activity they are seeing overall.

Caroline Detention facility used to be a jail located in Bowling Green.

Caroline County and ICE entered into that five year agreement in 2018.

As detailed in the county's detention fund they are reimbursed $7 per detainee at a minimum rate of 224 people per day, per month.

That's more than half a million dollars a year going into the county's budget.

Opponents of the Caroline Detention Facility have leveled charges of detainee abuse.

In 2021, immigrant advocate groups filed a civil rights complaint with the Department of Homeland Security on behalf of people detained at Caroline Detention outlining medical neglect, solitary confinement and COVID-19 negligence.

The Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties within the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged the complaints and allegations made against the facility.

At last report, they intended to investigate.

LUIS OYOLA: The federal government, you know at the end of the day determines immigration law.

But as Virginians, we can decide that we don't want to be part of the detention arm of that anymore and say, you know, the federal government cannot host detention centers in Virginia anymore or hold contracts with local jails for holding immigrants.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: ‘José fought deportation for five years and has finally been granted asylum.

However, he says that because of the two months he spent in ICE detention worried he might never see his wife and children again.

He is being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Immigrants are an essential part of Virginia's farming ecosystem.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, farm workers were considered essential.

Yet, many still lack basic labor protections.

I traveled to South Richmond and Independence to report on migrant farm workers.

(engine revving) (speaking Spanish) KEYRIS MANZANARES: Louis Genaro Cruz Crisantos is a long way from Tlaquilpa, Veracruz, Mexico where he was born and raised.

He works at a farm just south of Richmond.

(speaking Spanish) KEYRIS MANZANARES: Cruz Crisantos is one of hundreds of thousands of immigrants who entered the U.S. legally with an H-2A Visa.

H-2A visas are sponsored by American farmers and allow migrants to live and work in the States for a short period of time.

(speaking Spanish) KEYRIS MANZANARES: Cruz Crisantos has been coming to Virginia for the last four years to farm and has over 20 years of experience.

He says the hardest part is leaving his family.

(speaking Spanish) KEYRIS MANZANARES: Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Joe Guthrie says guest workers are absolutely essential and irreplaceable.

JOE GUTHRIE: It's very important that we have immigrant workers, guest workers who come to Virginia and are able to fulfill the jobs that need to be done.

They very often bring very valuable skill sets with them.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Guthrie says, during the pandemic we found out how fragile our supply chain and food systems are, and when writing policies, guest workers should be considered.

JOE GUTHRIE: I would certainly hope that our policies would keep in mind the welfare of the workers who are coming here from other places and the value that they provide to us.

And look at how important they are to our supply chain and to our food systems.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: But the reality is farm workers are not protected despite agriculture being Virginia's number one private industry bringing in $70 billion a year.

Virginia delegate Elizabeth Guzman says.

ELIZABETH GUZMAN: Many of them, I mean, if they are fortunate to come with a tourist visa to get a job, and then they realize that once they get here, even though they enter to this country legally through a visa, they have no rights.

They can work long hours without breaks and without not even good conditions to live.

And on the other hand, you have those who came here illegally, that it's even worse.

They cannot speak up or say anything.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Virginia's farm workers are exempt from minimum wage, collective bargaining, and overtime protections.

Earlier this year, the Virginia Senate scaled back a worker overtime pay bill that included farm workers and would have given them the right to sue for unpaid overtime wages.

ELIZABETH GUZMAN: And I realized that all of their, all of those exemptions were tied to the Jim Crow era, people of color that were exempt to have any type of rights.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Guzman, who has visited migrant farm camps around the state, says the pandemic highlighted the often challenging conditions that farm workers face.

ELIZABETH GUZMAN: Many of them have to share a bathroom, that many of them don't have heat, AC in the summer, or even a heat in the wintertime.

And how they just try to follow whatever they could work according to the season.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Manuel Gago works for Legal Aid Justice Center informing farm workers of what to do when they face injustice, which Gago says can be difficult since workers are often isolated in camps across Virginia.

(speaking Spanish) (speaking Spanish) (speaking Spanish) KEYRIS MANZANARES: Gago says when Legal Aid does outreach, they mainly go to listen to farm workers so they can work to address concerns from the fields.

(speaking spanish) KEYRIS MANZANARES: Emilio Lopez Castello entered illegally into the U.S. in 1996 and has worked in Virginia's Christmas tree industry ever since.

Working with Christmas trees is delicate, but dangerous work.

Lopez Castello says.

Workers must tend to the tree, trimming and shaping over years, what becomes a staple item in many households during the holidays.

(speaking Spanish) (speaking Spanish) (speaking Spanish) (speaking Spanish) (speaking Spanish) (speaking Spanish) KEYRIS MANZANARES: Lopez Castello says he would like to see Virginia farm workers like himself protected and supported.

(speaking Spanish) (speaking Spanish) (speaking Spanish) (speaking Spanish) KEYRIS MANZANARES: Little ones who migrate with their families to Virginia or learn English as a second language often need the verbal communication skills to better express themselves.

But statewide, there's a lack of bilingual speech therapists.

One woman is changing that.

(Tia speaking Spanish) TIA JAVIER: The reason that I became a speech therapist was because my three-year-old at the time, I was not able to understand what she was saying, so she needed a speech therapist.

And since we speak Spanish at home, I was looking for a Spanish-speaking speech therapist, but there were none in Richmond.

And through my research, I found that there were only 91 Spanish-speaking speech therapists in the entire state of Virginia.

TEACHER: What do we do?

STUDENT 1: Spin.

TIA JAVIER: Good job, good job.

Before studying to become a speech therapist, I was a Spanish professor and decided to study speech therapy so that I could fill this gap.

I know that Richmond has a very large Hispanic population.

I was born and raised in Richmond, so I'm familiar with the community, and I know that these types of services are needed.

TEACHER: Mask.

STUDENT 2: Mask.

TIA JAVIER: Good job.

Yeah, that was a really good one.

My business is Bilinguatherapy, and it's a speech therapy and occupational therapy practice, and we offer and specialize in therapy in Spanish.

This is my community that I'm from, and I feel very invested in it, so to be able to help so many people from so many different places, it really fulfills me.

And not only that, but these are children who are not able to communicate with their own families, with their moms and their dads.

(client speaking Spanish) TIA JAVIER: The majority of my patients are between the ages of one and five, so these are little kids, and our sessions are usually play-based.

They think that they're playing, but in reality, we're doing skilled speech therapy.

STUDENT 2: My turn.

TEACHERS: Good job.

A lot of these kids, they are frustrated.

They want to communicate with their family, but they can't.

So once they get that communication, that makes them more confident, it makes them more sociable with others, it makes them just a more happy person.

TIA JAVIER: Ssss.

STUDENTS: Spin.

TEACHER: Good job.

TIA JAVIER: Very good.

TIA JAVIER: Someone who doesn't have early intervention in speech therapy, it can affect their academics, it can affect their social life, it can affect them as an adult.

Look, it's Abby's turn.

I've never met a stranger, so to me, everyone is like family, and the way that you feel about family, you would want them to be successful and help them.

So to know that these kids cannot communicate, my heart goes out to them, and then to be able to see them and to see their progress, and I'll have some kids here that are like four and five years old who can't speak to their own parents, but after a few months of therapy, they're saying “hi ”, they're using sentences, and that's just a beautiful thing just to see their life change like that.

STUDENT 2: Four.

TEACHER: Good job.

TIA JAVIER: Good job.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: From the struggle faced by unaccompanied minors to language barriers, Physician's Assistant Sylvia Garcia, uses her bilingual skills to enhance the healthcare of Richmond's Latino community.

(vehicle engines running) SILVIA GARCIA MURCIA: I come from an underserved community, in different ways.

I was born in Honduras, grew up there.

I turned 17 in the U.S. and when I came here I was placed in foster care too, and I saw the necessity, and I volunteer a lot in clinics like CrossOver, Health Brigade, care clinics in VCU, and I saw the need, and especially in the medical community.

I was helping patients with documents, and I was interpreting different things.

I remember a lot of my journey from Honduras to the United States.

I spent two months from Honduras to here.

I was walking, busses, in trailers.

I was 16-years-old.

I had no idea what I was doing, but I spent, we crossed Mexico, in Sonoran Desert.

We walked for five days.

That was the hardest part, I think.

Not only because, you know walking five days, we didn't have water or food, but seeing people dying.

That was when I realized like, ‘oh my gosh, what did I do?

You know, like, ‘why did I get into it?

I get sad every time I think about, especially my trip from Honduras to the U.S.

But at the same time, I think if I hadn't done that, I wouldn't be where I am.

Right, there's no way.

Si, thank you, Matt.

I am a physician assistant here at Daily Planet.

I go to three different clinics now.

I come here to Southside, where we have a huge like Hispanic population.

Probably like 98% of my patients are Hispanic.

And I love that.

I feel comfortable with them, and I know they feel comfortable with me.

Even now that I speak English, and I'm still learning.

But you know, I speak better.

And when I meet someone that speaks Spanish, I'm like, ‘Oh you speak Spanish, okay.

Like I feel more confident, because that's my first language.

(phone dialing) There's some words that you can express that in Spanish but not in English.

When they say about like stomach pain, and they have all these names for stomach, uterus, you know, low abdomen, they have a lot of words and like 'matriz', they say "me duele la matriz" And I think it changed a lot.

You know, like the treatment.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Through these stories, we are reminded that every immigrant's voice is woven into the fabric of Virginia.

Share your ideas and watch more episodes on our website, vpm.org/focalpoint.

I'm Keyris Manzanares, thanks for watching.

Production funding for VPM News Focal Point is provided by The estate of Mrs. Ann Lee Saunders Brown.

And by... ♪ ♪