Beyond the Border: 13 deaths in custody, a map of detention centers and an architect revolt
Here's what happened this week in immigration news.
Written by Kate Morrissey, Edited by Lauren J. Mapp
Corrected on March 20, 2026 at 08:30 a.m. with the correct name of Kino Border Initiative. The previous version incorrectly called the organization Kino Border Institute. Daylight San Diego apologizes for the error.
Welcome to another edition of Beyond the Border, which summarizes immigration news from across the country in a weekly roundup. Did I miss something? Message me via kate@daylightsandiego.org or on Instagram.
Want to support this work? Consider donating to Daylight San Diego or email maya@daylightsandiego.org if you're interested in sponsoring this newsletter.
DHS accountability
The Kino Border Initiative and the Washington Office on Latin America released a report Thursday looking at the effects after one year of a dismantled accountability structure inside the Department of Homeland Security.
The Civil Rights and Civil Liberties office has shrunk its staff by 80% and the Detention Ombudsman's office has reduced by 96%.
In a call Thursday about the report, staff from the organizations gave examples of people being deported without medical documents to follow up on care they received while in U.S. custody. They also raised concerns about impunity when officials mistreat detainees.
On Wednesday, the Women's Refugee Commission and Physicians for Human Rights released a report that found the department deports parents without their children even when the parents ask for their children to come with them. The groups spent time speaking with people who had recently been deported to Honduras.
Conditions in custody
The Trump administration has held more than 900 immigrant children in custody past the court-ordered limit of 20 days, NBC News reported.
Leqaa Kordia wrote a first-person account of her experiences in immigration custody for Zeteo.
Data analyst Austin Kocher posted a summary on Instagram of how Immigration and Customs Enforcement is modeling its detention center plans on Amazon's supply chain model.
A judge granted a bond of $10,000 to a journalist arrested by ICE in Tennessee, Nashville Banner reported, but because the attorney representing ICE reserved appeal, she has not yet left custody.
Migrant Insider identified lobbyists who work for private prison companies with ICE contracts.
Freedom For Immigrants made an interactive map of detention centers and community resources, Prism reported.
Journalist Gillian Brockell reported in her newsletter about ICE flights that Delta transported Liam Ramos and his father to Texas while they were in immigration custody.
ICE-related deaths
Two more people died in ICE custody this week, bringing the total of known deaths in ICE custody this year to 13. That's a rate of more than one per week.
An Afghan man with a pending asylum case died less than 24 hours after going into custody, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. A 19-year-old from an autonomous Tzotzil Maya community in Chiapas, Mexico, died in custody in Florida, L.A. Taco reported.
A Haitian woman was found dead at a bus stop in Pittsburg after ICE picked her up from jail to put an ankle monitor on her, WTAE reported.
Arrests
ICE lured a Maryland man to a local police station to supposedly recover his stolen car so that immigration officers could arrest him, The Washington Post reported.
A video from Unión del Barrio on Instagram shows immigration officials arresting a man inside a Home Depot. The man's shirt is torn and dangling from him as they lead him to an exit.
Targeting documenters and protesters
Immigration officials rammed the car of a community patroller and then violently arrested him, L.A. Taco reported.
The New Yorker profiled Marimar Martinez, the woman shot by Border Patrol in Chicago and then falsely accused of being a domestic terrorist by the agency after agents found a pink gun at the bottom of her purse that she was licensed to carry and had purchased to feel safer after her sister's car was hijacked.
Anti-ICE protesters are facing lengthy prison sentences after a jury in Texas convicted them of terrorism charges, The Intercept reported.
Resistance
Neighbors in Springfield, Ohio, have created safe houses for Haitian families to hide from ICE, The New York Times reported.
A Minneapolis human rights group sued over immigration courts closing hearings to the public, Sahan Journal reported.
An architecture firm's employees revolted — and in some cases quit — when they found out it had contracted with ICE, Mother Jones reported. Now the firm says it won't take more contracts with the federal agency.
For Capital & Main, I spoke with a woman who documented immigration officials killing someone in San Diego more than a decade ago about what it's like to witness state violence. She shared advice for people who have recently had similar experiences around the country.
Other stories to watch
The Boston Globe accompanied a mother and her children to Guatemala to reunite with a deported father.
Maine nurses called out Sen. Susan Collins for taking money from Palantir, a tech company that helps ICE with surveillance, Maine Public Radio reported.
The Oregonian profiled a soccer team for refugee and immigrant girls. One of the girls told the paper that her brother had recently been deported.
The Chicago Tribune reported that, under the Trump administration, work permit processing delays mean that immigrants renewing their documents are losing their jobs, including people who came to the U.S. as children and have protection from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program.
The New York Times reported that the Trump administration lowered the required wages for temporary foreign farmworkers.
Border Patrol leader Gregory Bovino will soon retire after he was removed as commander of agents roving the country's interior to arrest immigrants and returned to the El Centro Sector, NBC News reported.
Thanks for reading! Take care and stay well.
— Kate
