\ 01/04/22 01/04/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! pres. biden: and to give you a sense of how transformative this is, this would be the largest ever one-year decrease in child poverty in the history of the united states of america. america those were the words of president biden just six months ago hailing the expansion of the child tax credit. now the program has already ended thanks to opposition from

senator joe manchin. while the monthly payments kept millions of children out of poverty, many immigrant families got no assistance at all. we will look at what this has meant for new bedford, massachusetts, the focus of a new marshall project investigation headlined "essential, but excluded." then wwill look at what's happening in theprawling network of private immigration jails amid the latest surge in omicron. then we go to europe, where a french humanitarian group has filed a complaint. thumane member say their love was could have been saved. >> they all had phones, internet, they could have located the before they drowned. they called the french police and the british police, so we feel the police betrayed as

after these 12 hours, they were dead. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. global coronavirus cases have skyrocketed to a new record high, with more than 2.2 million confirmed cases reported on monday. in southern africa, cases are skyrocketing in mozambique, where president filipe nyusi said monday he and his wife had tested positive for coronavirus and were self-isolating. botswana's president mokgweetsi masisi also entered isolation monday after a positive test. australia recorded nearly 50,000 daily cases, a record high in a country that until recently had prevented large-scale community spread of the virus. in france, lawmakers are debating a vaccine pass law that

would require anyone 12 or older to present a vaccination certificate to enter restaurants and other public venues. >> let us not lose side of the fact the objective of this law is not to restrict people, the objective of this law is to save lives. it is to protect our hospitals and relieve the workload of our health care workers. amy: across the united states, more than 1 million positive coronavirus tests were reported monday, shattering the previous single-day record. u.s. hospitalizations are rising rapidly, with covid-19 patients now occupying more than 100,000 hospital beds. on monday, the food and drug administration extended emergency use authorization for the pfizer/biontech covid-19 booster shot to include children aged 12 to 15. shots coulbegin later this week if the cdc signs off on the move. this comes as more than 3200

schools around the united states canceled in-person learning amid the surge in cases. in florida, which has a test positivity rate of over 26%, republican governor ron desantis on monday rejected demands he open more coronavirus testing sites and once again rejected calls to require public health measures like masking and social distancing in schools. >> kids need to be in school. they do not need to be doing any crazy medication. just let them be kids. i think it is pretty clear. a lot of this medication has not worked period. amy: over 3000 flights into and out of or within the united states were canceled monday as airlines struggled with staffing shortages and winter weather. meanwhile, the coffee chain starbucks has become the latest corporate giant to require workers to get vaccinated against covid-19 or get tested weekly for coronavirus. on capitol hill, senate majority

leader chuck schumer said monday he will schedule a vote on rolling back the filibuster by january 17, the official holiday celebrating martin luther king junior's birthday, unless republicans end their obstruction of major voting-rights legislation. currently, a pair of bills -- the freedom to vote act and the john lewis voting rights advancement act -- don't have the 60-vote supermajority needed to overcome a republican filibuster in the 100-member senate. by monday, nearly 60 groups had signed on to an open letter asking senators to reform the legislative filibuster to protect democracy. they cited a recent deal that saw republican minority leader mitch mcconnell agree to a one-time exemption to the filibuster allowing democrats to raise the ceiling on the national debt, writing -- "just as we needed to extend the debt limit to avoid economic calamity, we need to pass federal democracy and voting legislation to safeguard our democracy."

two democrats, senators kyrsten sinema of arizona and joe manchin of west virginia, have said they oppose democrats' push to abolish the filibuster, which critics call a relic of the jim crow era. iraq's military says it shot down a pair of explosives-laden drones monday as they approached a military base near baghdad's airport where u.s. troops are stationed. the attack came after thousands of iraqi protesters gathered in baghdad to mark the second anniversary of the killing of qassem soleimani, a top iranian general and iraqi militia leader who was assassinated in a u.s. drone attack ordered by then-president trump. on monday, the iranian president ebrahim raisi said trump and former secretary of state mike pompeo should face justice for soleimani's murder. >> if a just prosecution is that of her trunk, pompeo, the other criminals where they are prosecuted for this shocking

crime and they face the consequences of their horrible actions, then so be it. if not, do not doubt that i will tell every american official that revenge will extend from the fleet of the islamic community. amy: haitian prime minister ariel henry said monday he was forced to flee the northern city of gonaïves on new year's day after his convoy came under fire from members of a criminal gang. the gunfire reportedly left one person dead and two others injured. human rights groups estimate criminal gangs control over half of haiti's territory, filling a power vacuum left behind by the assassination of president jovenel moïse in july and a devastating earthquake in august. brazil's far-right president jair bolsonaro was hospitalized in são paulo monday with abdominal pain that doctors said was caused by an intestinal blockage. it was the latest in string of health problems bolsonaro has faced since he was stabbed in

the abdomen during a 2018 campaign event. he faces the prospect of surgery just nine months out from presidential elections. bolsonaro's hospitalization came as environmentalists warned deforestation in brazil's vast cerrado region last year spiked to its highest level since 2015, as bolsonaro's government encouraged large-scale divide develment. this is environmental scientist ane alenca >> deforestation is the most raw indicator of the terrible environmental policy of bolsonaro's government. amy: and a california, jury has found elizabeth holmes guilty of defrauding investors who poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the blood-testing startup theranos. holmes founded theranos in 2003 at the age of 19. a decade later she announced her company had produced a device that could test for more than 200 health conditions with only

a few drops of blood. in fact, the device could run only a small number of such tests, and theranos secretly relied on larger, commercially available blood-testing machines for its results. holmes attracted large investments from billionaires including media mogul rupert murdoch, members of the walton family, and the family of former education secretary betsy devos. holmes was found guilty on 4 of 11 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy related to misleading investors. she faces up to 20 years in prison for each of the four charges, though white-collar criminals rarely face such a steep penalty. she posted bond and will remain free as she appeals monday's verdict, a process that could take years. a newly unveiled 2009 confidential settlement between convicted predator and sex trafficker the late jeffrey epstein and survivor virginia giuffre has revealed giuffre agreed to restrictions on her ability to sue others involved in epstein's network of abuse.

the deal also awarded giuffre to receive a payment of $500,000. the settlement was made public as part of a lawsuit giuffre filed against british royal prince andrew last year and may impact whether giuffre's suit moves forward. prince andrew's lawyers are expected to argue for a dismissal of her case against him. giuffre has accused convicted sex trafficker ghislaine maxwell of trafficking her to prince andrew when giuffre was 17. republican congress members who voted last year to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election received over $8 million in campaign donations from corporations and trade groups even after the deadly january 6 insurrection at the u.s. capitol. that's according to a report and data compiled by the watchdog group accountable. the report focuses on 20 fortune 500 companies and 10 industry groups, including boeing, raytheon technologies, lockheed martin, chevron, exxonmobil,

merck, and pfizer that continued funneling money to gop lawmakers even after the violent riot and unfounded claims of fraud in the 2020 election. in a statement, accountable said -- "major corporations were quick to condemn the insurrection and tout their support for democracy -- and almost as quickly, many ditched those purported values by cutting big checks to the very politicians that helped instigate the failed coup attempt." this comes as over 200 grassroots have planned vigils across u.s. cities and towns thursday to mark the first anniversary of the january 6 attack on the capitol. new york attorney general letitia james subpoenaed former president donald trump's two eldest children, donald trump, jr. and ivanka trump as part of a civil investigation into trump's business practices.

organization continues to fight to block james from questioning trump and both his children. james has been investigating whether the trump organization inflated the values of its properties to obtain loans and then reduce them to evade taxes. and mexican president andrés manuel lópez obrador has confirmed he has askedormer u.s. president trump to pardon wikileaks founder julian assange and reiterated he'd offer assange asylum imexico. this is amlo speaking monday from mexico city. >> before president trump's term was over, i sent him a letter reesting aardon for a stage so he be exonerated. you know the president of united states into their term, they can exercise this right stop i sent him the letter and got no response. we believe the united states government should act humanely. assange is sick. amy: a british court in december

ruled in favor of the biden administration's appeal to extradite assange to face espionage charges in the united states. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman in new york, joined by my co-host juan gonzález in new brunswick, new jersey. hi, juan. juan: hi, amy. happy new year to you and to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. amy: and happy news year to you and to everyone. as covid cases reach record highs in the united states, a key biden administration program that helped keep millions of children out of poverty has just ended. over the past six months, the treasury department has sent monthly payments of up to $300 per child to 30 million families as part of the expanded child tax credit program. the biden administration and the democratic leadership in congress had hoped to continue

the payments by including it as part of the build back better package, but the plan has been blocked by democratic senator joe manchin of west virginia. economists fear child poverty could soar in the united states as a result. senate majority leader chuck schumer has vowed to bring the build back better act to a vote soon in the senate, t its passagseems unlikely without support from both manchin and fellow democrat kyrsten sinema. we turn now to look at how this is playing out in one city in new england -- new bedford, massachusetts, the largest commercial fishing port in the -- on the eastern seaboard. immigrants, many undocumented, play key roles in the fishing industry and have worked throughout the pandemic despite the risks. however, many of these same immigrant workers have been shut out of pandemic aid and so have their children, many of whom were born in the united states and are u.s. citizens. the marshall project recently

published a detailed investigation into the crisis facing families in new bedford. the article is headlined "essential, but excluded." it was written by julia preston and ariel goodman, who both join us now. julia preston is a contributing writer at the marshall project. a former reporter "new york times" where she was part of a pulitzer prize winning team in 1998. ariel goodman is the tow audience engagement fellow at the marshall project. she is also my niece. julia preston, let's begin with you. this is a deep peace because it really puts a face on who suffers in this country, not only when the child tax credit ends as it has, but for those who missed out on it completely. if you can lay out what you found in new bedford and who these essential but exclud immigrants are. >> well, the community we found

in new bedford are mosy immigrants from guatemala, from the highlands of guatemala. it is a community of mayan speaking indigenous people. they work in the plants across the waterfront wherehey pack seafood. scallops, haddock -- the food that was actually keeping americans fed during the pandemic when so many people had to stay home. it was not an option for these workers to stay home, however, because many othem are undocumented. they were not eligible for unemployment insurance of any kind. they were not eligible for some of the enhanced stimulus payments that came as a result of covid starting under president trump and including under president biden.

theyere not eligible for certain kinds of tax credits. but, actually, because they are taxpayers, they were eligible for the enhanced tax credit, child tax credit that president biden made available to the rescue act last march. juan: julia, the estimates as i understand it, are as many as 70 4% of undocumented immigrants in the united states are considered essential workers, far higher percentage than about the 65% in nativeborn labor force. what has been the difference between how the trump adnistration dealt with pandemic relief and the biden administration from what you have been able to tell? >> well, the trump administration worked hard to make covid relief unavailable to

most undocumented workers. there was a revision in terms of stulus relf at the end of last year so that at least the families that had an american citizen children and an american citizen spouses, if there was an and document a taxyer in that family, those families did beco eligible finally for some form of covid relief. but in general, what we found in new bedford is that in spite of the fact these undocumented immigrants were working, they were paying their taxes, and mo of their kids were american citizen children, the difference over the length of the pandemic in terms of their income from federacovid aid andhe income of a family that had american citizen taxpayers, that differen was almost $35,000.

to put that in perspective, a family of seafood packing workers does not make that much money in an entire year under normal circumstances. and certainly not in the pandemic. these families, in spite of the fact they were essential workers, endured this punishing income gap with american families who were able to stay home and collect unemployment insurance and protect themselves during the pandemic. juan: do you have any sense of how many states have been able to plug the gap somewhat by creating state lel essential workers funds or pandemic relie funds? i know there is one in new jers that was passed recently for excluded workers who might be undocumented. is this a trend

across the country or just a fluid -- few of the blue states? >> new york was also one of the states that did that, but that did not happen in massachusetts were we were warding. what did happen in massachusetts and across the country was in terms of federal aid, was the availability to undocumented workers who work paying their taxes and were being paid in paychecks, of the child tax credits, this child tax credit that is the center of the debate right now in washington, did become available because of some changes that the biden administration made last march to the terms of the child tax credit. so these long-suffering families who basically endured the entire pandemic without any form of

federal assistance or very little federal assistance, in august, they started to receive direct payments into their bank accounts of $300 or $360 per child if the child was an american citizen. we really t a view of how signifant these payments are. for ma of these families, this s the difference between having food on the table for their children and not. it was t difference between being able to pay the rent and continue to be housed and not be able to do that. it was the difference between being able to pay a mobile phone bill and a wi-fi belt. these are not luxuries anymore. these we fundamental fesaving tools, and during the pandemic, these were a necessary tool for their kids to go to school.

again, we're talking about kids who are american citizens. they were born in this country. they go to school in our communities. they are just like our american citizen kids. so what you had an opportunity to see in new bedford at the end of the process last year was the enormous positive impacts these child tax credit payments can have on the lowest income families. and especially, on these families that have worked so hard despite their immigtion status, despite the struggles they face in the immigration system. they work so hard to put food on our tables during the pandemic. amy: despite the fact many of them pay taxes. the power of your piece is some of the people, the two of you interviewed for this piece, so let's turn to lucia. >> i am a dreamer.

my cars reach further than a car. i never had a childhood pla with toys. and never had that becau we live in extreme poverty. we are deeply discriminated in our country for the fact we are women and have brown skin. we are indigenous. amy: her photograph is the top photograph on the piece. ariel, if you can talk about who some of these people are. this is the flesh, the stories, the beauty of this piece. >> yeah, so get a sense of the people are in the kind of work that they were doing, these are people whore wakinup long before the sunrise, who are working in cold packing plans for nine hours a day. i spoke to a woman stands on a packing line every d, jackets on under her rose, picking up

the imperfections of the days catch with tweezers. these are people who endured extreme hardship to the pandemic and to the continuation of the pandemic that we are also living in right now. some were forced to eat cereal for days when their hours were cut in order to get better food to their children. these are stories of survival, people who were left out of almost all federal aid had to lean on one another. people who converted cramped apartment kitchens into the businesses that they sell to their neighbors. i spoke to someone who is that fiber in this country when he lost his work, he did what he knew how to do, which was grow vegetables and seldom in town. these are stories of survival. these are stories of deep inequality as julie mentioned. but i think the larger point here is these are american

stories. this is a story not only of how this one immigrant community survived, like so many immigrant communities are surviving by relying on one another throughout the country, but it is the story of how food arrives on all of our tables. it is the story of the people whose hands, the cod, the flounder come the scallops passed through and were packaged by before it arrives on your table. i think that is kind of what it represents, this larger question that is being addressed in build back better, which is house our country going to treat the workers that their labor is essential? ? to its function amy: new bedford is the scout capital of the world. in the case of lucia, we know her name in your story because she is now documented. if you could talk about that?

close lucia is a person that was granted asylum. she came here in 2015. she was a seafood worker for the first year of her time in the united states. she is also a person we spoke to because she was a survivor of a fire that happened last year, fire debt displaced 40 families, the majority of whom seafood workers. we chose to focus on this fire because we were trying to understand, you know, two years of the pandemic, what are the effects of not having received aid on people? how are we sing that not only in the beginning of the pandemic when we heard so many stories of what it was to live for so many of these communities under the epicenter of the pandemic, but what does it mean now two years in? we found were stories like the one lucia's family went through, deep housing and security, of

families who had to begin living together. the place where they lived went up in flames. two people died in this fire. according to the residence, there were not -- the fire alums did not go up. and now they have been displaced and the few belongings that they did have, that they were able to accumulate over years of hard work, things like couches, something to create a space for the family, are all gone and there forced to live in a place even smaller. we are all learning about what that means and what their reckoning with now with omicron on the horizon. amy: this is diego, the son of an out of work seafood worker in new bedford, massachusetts. >> it is hard. we cannot buy school supplies and things like that, shoes, clothing. how are we going to get money for our food? stuff like that.

amy: and this is an undocumented seafood worker speaking to the marshall project. >> we are not free in this country. they can come and take me at any time and my children would stay her suffering. if i had a social, it would be different. because i don't, i am in the hands of god. amy: julia preston, we're hearing the voices of immigrants from the highlands of guatemala, well-known for the persecution that whole population-based for decades after the u.s. intervened in supported the military dictatorships. if you can relate that to current immigration reform today and what is not happening in this country as they face depression there and then come to the united states and face this hardship here? >> well, especially for this community that we saw in new bedford, the lack of immigration status is just become due the

pandemic incredibly punishing. really see how the failure of congress to advance some kind of broader immigration rorm to just bring these people into a basic legal status has really not only at this point affecting workers who were so essential to keeping us bad and providing home care, they did so much work for us during the pandemic for the larger community -- a failure of congress to pass immigration reform has -- it is not only punishing those people, but now we have generations of american citizen kids who are growing up and because of the failure of congress to correct this legal status for these folks, now there are american

citizen kids were born under this country, not going anywhere, they're going to grow up here, are being punished as well. and so i think one of the points that we should see is that even while the immigration, the explicit immigration provisions in the build back better bill that president biden has put forward and is under debate in the senate, those have run into tremendous procedural hurdles and it is really not clear what is going to happen with those provisions. the child tax credit provisions are also very important for a document of people- a document of people, to give them some kind of basic support going forward as we struggle again with another chapter of the pandemic. it is great to focus also on the

child tax credit provisions as another aspect of immigration reform that is potentially could happen in this bill. juan: in terms of the children of these workers, there's been a lot of emphasis in recent months on the mental health crisis among young people in the united states. in terms of the children of these workers, what kind of services artwork may not be available to them, and how did you see in your reporting the mental health impact on them, the situation to the pandemic? >> while we were in new bedford, we sveyed 39 middle school aged cldren, just about what their expenses were li during the pandemic. we heard a range of responses. we heard from children who talked about injuring mental health issues. we are talking people who are

around 13 years old. we heard from people who simply said all they did was have faith and try to survive. we also put about children who had to look for work. for whatever reason, their parents turn the pandemic were not able to provide for their family so many of them got part-time jobs. we spoke to teachers who had children signing into their zoom classes from production lines in packing plants and lots of the other industrial places in new bedford. in terms of what kind of support was available to children, i mean, this is tied to the larger issue of because when children's parents are denied many forms of federal aid because of their status, how does this trickle down to the children? so that was some of the things that we heard. amy: what most

shock to you, julia preston, about this? and if you could axley the difference between the social security number, and the -- >> heard the seafood worker referred to that. she said, if only i had a social security number, things might be different. but as it is, i am in the hands of god. undocumented workers cannot tain social security numbers, valid social security numbers. but an undocumented worker who is working in e factory setting or any kind of institutnal setting, is paid with the paycheck. they are having their standd deductions, and they are paying taxes, just like everybody else who works in at kind of a context. so the irs has created a special number called an i-10. it is so those workers can file

your taxes and pay their taxes. if they are eligible, they receive certain kinds of refunds. in most cases, until recently, there were not eligible for many kinds of refunds or tax credits. and this is another form of tax -- of discrimination. it is a tax discrimination that these workers are facing. it really seems particularly unfair in this context because they are working hard, they are paying their taxes, they're doing exactly what other people do who do have legal status and valid social surity numbers, and yet they are not eligible for so many of the benefits that come from being a taxpayer for other people. and so that was -- i think what

i would say was shocking for me was to see the level of poverty that these families were plung into or forced into during the pandemic, even though they were continuing to work. the kind of hardship these families were facing, particularly that these kids were having to endure, was really shocking. that shocked me. i have seen a lot covering immigration over the years, but the level of hardship that these families endured really did -- it was something i had not seen before. amy: i want to thank you both for being with us. we will link to your piece. julia preston, catering writer at the marshall project. ariel goodman, fellow at the marshall project. we will link to "essential but

excluded: immigrants put seafood on america's tables. but many have been shut out of pandemic aid -- and so have their u.s. citizen children." next up, inside the sprawling network of private immigration just for an update on conditions amidst the latest surge in covert infections. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "somos" by the guatemalan indigenous singer sara curruchich. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. as concerns grow about record covid infections across the united states, we look now at conditions in the sprawling network of jails run by ice, tt's migrant d custs enforcement, wre the den admistrations holdin mo than ,000 peoe who ar oftetransfred arnd the country. ice sa fewer tn 300 pele in dention a being mitored r covid. rightsdvocatesay this surelyn undercnt. most othe ice ils are n by prate pris compani, like gegroup,hich areot tranarent. in washiton stat people ld

in geo gup's nortest ice processing center sayondition haveotten ev worse ding thpandemicfter a feral jue ruled e companmust p deined pple minim wage f work like cooking d cleani, stead ofaying th a dollar a day. geo group responded by suspending a so-called voluntary work program. on december 13, geo group issued a memo at the northwest ice processing center that "no detainee is permitted to do any work previously done under the program, including, but not limited to, work in the kitchen, the laundry areas, cutting hair, painting, waxing, or scrubbing floors, or cleaning the secure areas of the facility." this is ivan sanchez, held for more than a year in geo group's ice jail in tacoma. in a call from inside to the group la resistencia, he describes what happened after the federal judge ordered geo group to pay the detainees a living wage for their work.

>> we were not able to work anymore. they said they were going to hire a special crew to clean the facility, but that has not happened. they don't want none of us to clean. i worked for them for about three years and also clean floors and barbershop. they wasn't paying me for that step -- for that. i would get paid in sodas and chips. that's it. amy: this comes as washington state recently passed a law barring private, for-profit prison companies from contracting with agencies there, but geo group has signed a contract to keep its ice jail in tacoma open until 2025. for more, we're joined by maru mora villalpando, co-founder of la resistencia and a longtime immigrant activist. in september, the government dropped its deportation case

against her and granted her lawful permanent residency. welcome back to democracy now! congratulations on your immigration status. can you talk about why tacoma jail is open and then talk about what is happening inside with this change of what should happen to the prisoners who are also workers? >> yes, thank you. good morning, amy. what we have seen is the detention center is still open. although the contract says from 2015 that it will be open for 10 years because that is what the last contract was signed for, we know that every year congress has approve the budget for this kind of work. in this case, for detention centers to continue operating. attorney general in washington filed a counter suit in september against geo for remaining open regardless of our

law. according to the attorney general, for every day the remit open, they will have to pay a fee. feel by next september, we can actually get it shut down because they are violating the law. obviously, geo filed a lawsuit -- i'm sorry, an appeal to the lawsuit. they spent their money on fighting lawsuits, and they usually lose. in the meantime, what they decided to do was remain -- the key people remaining detained in squalid conditions, in filth. it took over a month for geo to hire an outside company stuff the company called trust. what we heard from people in detention is there are some instances where a crew of maybe two to three people show up to clean for maybe half an hour, at

most an hour. we're talking about units that hold maybe 62 100 people in total. as far as we know december 30, there were 411 people detained. it is way less than the average that was 1500 in the past pre-pandemic. there is still a lot of people detained. there is no social distancing. people are still getting covid. in december, there were five cases of covid in the population. there were seven cases of geo guards with covid and at same period of time, plus three employees also testing positive for covid. having a crew of two to three people showing up for maybe an hour, maybe two to three days

sporadically here and there, is not going to solve the problem of having unsanitary conditions. the way we see it and based on what people in detention and told us, it is retaliation against people thanks to the hureds of thousands of people going on hunger strike, sounded the alarm about this exploitation. and no washington -- ando washington passed a law against the detention centers. in a federal jury and a federal judg determined this should not be the case and people should be paid for their labor. what geo does take it -- retaliate and just create further worse unsanitary conditions in the middle of a global pandemic. juan: i wanted to ask you, the geo group is a national private prison company, had more than 100 jails in detention centers around the country. could you talk about what i the

lawsuit that exposed the exploitation of people there, there was something called the sanitation memo you found that you referred to as the hunger games? could you explain that memo and what it signified? >> yes, so we knew was the first strikes started happening detention center throughout the country that geo has relied on

voluntary work program which they pay one dollar a day for this kind of work to create people detained as slave labor. they are part of that progra that doesn't give people money detention. so another way to make people -- everyone, regardless of you choosing to go into this voluntary work program or not, everyone had to clean. that meant every week there will be a contest that we call the hunger games. a contest so every pod will compete against each other to see who is the cleanest pod. and the reward was a night with xbox that you can borrow and chicken for the night. obviously, the food that is given to people in detention is nothing but trash. that is another of the demands of people that have staged hunger strikes that have named number one, they want real food. the conditions that geo created in the first place of hunger is used by pushing people to clean the unit. the most recent one that we saw in early december, there were ese -- one of the pods that remains in third place, call us and the people told us, well,

there are very few people compared to our pipe. many of us here, we cannot compete against a pot that there is less people and they produce less trash, let's say. so this is another way in which geo profits from not only the detention of people, but to make them clean, make them sustained the facility. people in detention did everything except security, and now geo is saying, no, no, they're not going to do it because they don't want to pay minimum wage. they still feel obligated to clean because they do not want to live in squalor and filth and they are afraid of the conditions regardless -- regards to covid as well. in relationship to covid, you mentioned ice said nine people held in a small network of for-profit jail have died from

covid. what is your sense, especially with the ohmic on, the spread of the omicron variant, what is happening in terms of covid under these detention facilities? >> it is spreading fast. we saw an uptick in june. we kept track of numbers when the biden administration started transferring more people throughout the country, we saw an increase in detention. the numbers of people detained have grown since trump left. when trump left, we are asking -- we are now at 21,000. the majority throughout th nation. we received calls from other detention centers such as georgia. people are really worried about it because not only are transfers happening and ice doesn't give absolutely any information in regards to covid or anything in general, but also what we've seen is the guards

might not be vaccinated. the way we find out is cause in this case in washington, [indiscernible] when there is a case -- a positive case of covid, ice notifies this judge. we get these notices. but we can tell is most of the guards in the ice employee are not vaccinated. but people in detention have said that only here but througho the nation is most of the covid cases we're going to get in detention come from outside. that means all of these employees that refuse to get vaccinated, they bring the covid in and we have no recourse knowing also have suffered medical neglect for years and years in detention centers. amy: maru mora villalpando, thank you so much for being with us. well-known immigrant rights activist. as we turn to europe, where

french humanitarian group has filed a complaint against britain and france over the drowning of 27 refugees. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break] amy: "the lost singer" by ismail kaseem. the song was part of the calais sessions, a benefit album recorded at the calais camp with refugees and professional musicians years ago.

this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. we turn to europe, where a remarkable new legal complaint accuses british and french officials of failure to help people in need to the 27 refugees who drowned while trying to cross the english channel in november. at least three of the victims were children. it was the biggest single loss of life in the channel according to the international organization for migration. the complaint also accuses authorities of involuntary manslaughter. according to the only two survivors, refugees made distress calls to french and english rescue services after their boat capsized and started sinking in the freezing waters off the french port city of calais. they were ignored. at least two of the group were able to call british authorities and tell them their location. one of the refugees who drowned shakar ali pirot, sent , this voice message to his family in iraq. his message is believed to be the last known communication from the boat. >> we are still in the sea

between u.k. and france. we're not sure who is coming to rescue us. if you have not heard from me, we are in the u.k. i will put this phone away. if we stay in french waters, i will answer you. amy: pirot said if he made it to british shores, he would throw his phone into the water, keeping with a demand that is reportedly often made of migrants by smugglers concerned with protecting their identities. at least 16 bodies were returned to iraq just over a week ago where they were greeted by grieving family members and friends. this is the brother of one of the drowned migrants. >> they all had phones, internet, and some cards and it could have located them before they drown. they called the french police and the british police, so we feel the police betrayed is because they waited 12 hours until after they drown. so after these 12 hours, they were dead. amy: a new lawsuit filed by the french humanitarian group utopia 56 aims to hold authorities

accountable for the deaths. this is an attorney for utopia 56. >> we are saying from the moment the rescue services english and french were formed between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m., this boat was in distress, would have been necessary and it is a legal obligation to coordinate and intervene. that was not the case. amy: for more, we go to paris to speak with nikolaï posner, communications coordinator for utopia 56, a french humanitarian organization working on refugee rights that found the complaint. welcome to democracy now! if you can what happened and what your demands are, this horror that took place. >> as you just said, on, first you have to know there were people trying to cross every day . since the beginning of this year, 30,000 people reaching u.k. through the sea.

this is very common. as soon as the weather -- people trying to cross on the boat. what happened that night, those people trying to cross. once they were in the water and had trouble, they try to locate authorities. [indiscernible] coming to save them. no one came. four days before, facing the same situation. people on the boat have been contacting our volunteers, calling for help send "we are contacting both authories and no one is responding." we wanted to just ache sure to carry the voice of the families

and relate it [indiscernible] to bring the truth and transparency. our society has to keep our eyes open on what is happening. there is a system of mistreatment and violence that we deeply have to change. at the moment, just after the tragedy [indiscernible] as soon as we saw -- response to save the people, we wanted to make sure we marked a point -- people looking at the situation

and we will not let it happen again and again. juan: could you talk about what countries refugees are coming from? those who are trying to cross the channel? and why are they bent on getting to the u.k.? they are already within the european union. is there a sense that would have a more welcoming situation in the u.k. than they would in france or germany? >> yeah. you have people from all different regions and countries, so from sudan, afghanistan, a lot of people i fromraq, kurdistan. all of those people have been crossing different countries in europe. they could not find a safe place. one of the people are trying to cross new england, most of them run away from the systems that

are not welcoming in europe at the moment. it makes it almost impossible for you -- most of the time from greece or spain. as soon as you move to another country, this country must send you back to the first country you arrived. at the moment, england becomes the last exit for people to actually apply for asylum. those people running away from the systems we have in europe to be able to apply. the second reason, for example if you apply for asylum, you know you will spend days and weeks and months before you get -- if you cross and other countries

of europe, you will get protection. so at this moment, we have a system that pushed people away. that is our strategy, to push people away. for the next one to not come again. but this doesn't work. because for now, because of the situation of those regions in the world, we are still in a better situation and we will probably stay that way. if we want people to not come, she would become in the worst situation in afghanistan or sudan? i think the only answer now -- so push those people -- juan: we just have about 20 seconds, but can you characterize the anti-immigrant climate in france right now? >> we have an election in three

months. it is paved on hatred. it is based on treating the people -- to make the people fight against each other. the migrants -- constant lie. [indiscernible] deal the solution is to welcome the people and we care. amy: nikolaï posner. thank you for being with us with the french humanitarian group utopia 56. we end today with condolences on the death of nermeen shaikh's aunt in pakistan. all the best to you and your

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