Advocacy is crucial for breaking barriers

“Caged Dreams” details the stories of Johannes Favi, Beatriz Batres, and Felipe Diosdado, who were previously detained in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody and suffered long-lasting trauma due to their incarceration. The goal of the film is to paint a vivid picture of the emotional experience of immigration detention and the deep impacts on a person’s mental health and their loved ones.

Many Americans are shocked to learn that the United States government systematically deprives the liberty of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, refugees, and people seeking asylum, creating a system of immigration detention run by ICE. There are approximately 200 ICE jails across the country – the largest detention system in the world. ICE racially profiles and separates people from their loved ones and community every day based on what they look like, the language they speak, and where they work. ICE’s record of abuse is well-documented by people detained, immigrant rights advocates and the Department of Homeland Security’s own Office of Inspector General. 

Johannes Favi, a father of three, was previously detained at the Kankakee Detention Center in Illinois. Beatriz Batres, a mother of three, was detained with her child at the Artesia Family Detention Center in New Mexico in 2014 (now shut down). Felipe Diosdado, a father of two who has resided in the U.S. for more than two decades, was previously detained at the Dodge Detention Center in Wisconsin after applying for a license at the DMV in his home state of Illinois. Together, Johannes, Beatriz, and Felipe are striving to raise awareness of the unspoken trauma people experience and continue to live after their release from immigration detention. 

Currently, the number of people in ICE detention is at an all time high under the Biden administration, more than double than when he first took office. Immigration detention as a whole is unnecessary, rife with systemic abuses and completely arbitrary. Rather, people navigating their immigration case should be able to do so with their families and in their community -- not behind bars in immigration detention. For every person has the right to move and live freely, in community and with their family, without fear of being separated from their loved ones or displaced from their home.