Dignity in Detention Documentaries
These are some recommended videos that can be included in a classroom presentation, shown during a Chapter meeting, or shared widely to help you educate your community about the horrors people are facing when they are caught up in the US immigration detention and sweeps happening now.
Videos about children in detention
From PBS's Frontline along with the Associated Press, this is an Emmy Award-winning examination into conditions inside federally-funded shelter programs for detained migrant children and the lasting impact on kids who were held in U.S. government custody in 2019. (Click to watch, 26:23)
News of ProPublica's February 2026 investigation into "The Children of Dilley" reveals new details about a sprawling ICE detention complex where families describe horrific conditions inside, such as being served contaminated food, with children and parents at times finding worms in their meals. (Click to watch, 7:01)
Videos about what people experience in US immigration detention centers
In this New York Times Opinion video, meet three people who came to America legally, only to find themselves in ICE detention. They followed the rules — but it didn’t matter. (Click to watch, 10:11)
MS Now reviews a 2026 report issued jointly by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch that details the hellish conditions inside Camp East Montana, America’s country’s largest ICE detention center in Texas. It alleges rampant abuse inside the facility, including brutal physical attacks by the guards and people being denied necessary medical care. The report relied on interviews from former detainees who survived it. (Click to watch, 14:23)
Read The New Yorker's "Locked Away" referenced in the discussion.
In March 2025, comedian John Oliver discusses Trump's second term mass deportation plan as well as ICE detention facilities, who’s in them, who runs them, and the conditions people detained live in. (Click to watch, 24:18)