The lead inside source for a documentary exposing immigration detention centers has been arrested by ICE.
The documentary, "The Infiltrators," debuted at a national film festival. The film takes a look at a South Florida for-profit immigration detention center.
Claudio Rojas, the inside source, was arrested by ICE during his annual visa check-in in Miramar. Rojas was planning to attend the premiere of the film at the Miami Film Festival later in the week.
Rojas' attorneys say he was apprehended without cause and is facing immediate deportation. He is being detained in the Krome detention center in South Miami-Dade.
According to Rojas' attorney, "They called Claudio's name and then three agents just grabbed him...he has no criminal record. They did not allow us any due process, did not allow his attorneys to talk to him and took away his passport. They told us we had nothing to say to him and that his order for arrest came from the higher-ups. It's grotesque."
ICE has declined to comment.
Rojas is a fifty-three-year-old native of Argentina and a well-known activist catching national media attention for the last decade. He was first detained by ICE in 2010 for overstaying his visa.
According to filmmakers, Rojas leaked information about the Broward Transitional Center which is a holding space for impending deportations for those who enter the United States unlawfully.
According to "The Infiltrators" synopsis, the film follows "a rag-tag group of undocumented youth--Dreamers--who deliberately get detained by Border Patrol in order to infiltrate a shadowy, for-profit detention center...[exposing] awful conditions immigrants face while unfairly detained and holding no power over their future."
The events of the film took place during the Obama administration (in 2012).
Rojas has a pending T visa application and it is ICE policy that those with pending T visas are protected from deportation.
Those who were part of the film believe that Rojas is being detained as "retaliation for his activism."
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