In June 2020, DHS descends on nationwide protests for racial justice and throws Portland demonstrators into unmarked vans. DHS was supposed to protect us from terrorist attacks, only to be weaponized against immigrants. Now it is being deployed against U.S. citizens exercising their right to protest…
Homeland Insecurity
by RAICES
How Fear Changed America. First released in 2020, Homeland Insecurity is an 8-part documentary podcast from RAICES that chronicles the untold story of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). We go back to the beginning, when our government built a powerful new agency in the wake of 9/11 to protect America from terrorists—only to use that agency to terrorize immigrants. From family separation to federal agents deployed amidst protests against systemic injustices, the scope and cruelty of DHS continues to expand, begging the question: Is anyone safe?
Latest Episodes
What happens when a dangerous immigration policy collides with a global pandemic? "Remain in Mexico," the Trump administration’s 2019 policy to deter immigrants from coming into the U.S., sets the stage for the spread of COVID-19 across borders. We investigate how DHS doubles down on plans to abolis…
When the Trump administration gets ahold of DHS, they implement a new, horrific policy: Family Separation. Parents and children who present themselves at the border to request asylum are torn apart. In this episode, we follow the story of Luz, a mother who comes to the U.S. with her two daughters Cl…
The Obama administration builds bigger and bigger jails to lock up families and labels moms and their children national security threats. President Obama’s legacy on immigration sets the stage for President Trump’s crackdown on immigration.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Califor…
As power switches hands from Republican to Democratic leadership in 2009, the nation holds its breath, hoping President Barack Obama will fix an immigration system that has become both unfair and unwieldy. Instead, hope turns to dismay as the new administration champions the Secure Communities progr…
In addition to staffing CBP, the federal government begins to expand immigration detention, with a mandate to add 34,000 beds in 4 years. Join us as we visit several of the Texas detention centers launched during this period. Learn how the Bush administration expanded the detention system, contract…
On the heels of 9/11, early warning signs indicate that the US is changing its approach to immigration. Congress approves a hiring spree at DHS’s newly-created Customs and Border Protection (CBP), doubling the size of Border Patrol forces by 2010. CBP quickly becomes the largest law enforcement agen…
Nearly 20 years ago, Presidents George W. Bush and Vicente Fox stand side by side on the White House lawn, poised to broker a deal that would give undocumented Mexican immigrants in the US a path to becoming documented. That deal never came to pass. Days later, 9/11 forever changed the course of imm…
I'm Erika Andiola: immigrant, activist, and host of the podcast Homeland Insecurity, which asks, "How did immigrants like me become the enemy?" We answer that question by investigating the unwritten history of the Department of Homeland Security. The first 4 episodes are available now. New episodes …