proceeding through her asylum case. nilson is waiting for a green card. he s married to a u.s. citizen. he has very clear claims to be able to stay here. he probably was never going to be deported, actually. he was probably going to win his case, but because i.c.e. had the discretion to hold him at the time, they had a sort of policy, as a policy matter, were holding anybody that they could, and so he stayed in detention for close to a year, actually, while he was fighting his case. and through this film, the facility, i really tried to bring people inside, because for most of the pandemic, for the beginning of the pandemic, the early months of the pandemic, i sort of attached myself to this computer screen in order to have these conversations with people and to observe what life was like inside of an i.c.e. facility that s really built with the intention to separate people from the outside world. right. and it s certainly not intended for months, maybe a day or two.
reunions with their loved ones outside an ice detention center in louisiana. olena seeing her fiance, max, for the first time since fleeing ukraine and crossing the southern border. nobody was expecting them to be in an jail for 18 days. reporter: now max lives here. she came to apply for asylum and was taken into custody by border patrol. the fakt that we couldn t communicate, they couldn t hear anything from us. that was the hardest thing. reporter: she said during her time inside this ice facility, about 100 russian and ukrainian women came through and she says many are still inside. ukrainian women, like victoria, who s now reunited with her husband. her sister in law says she was traumatized after escaping war and thenbying treated like a prisoner. were you hungry? always. reporter: do they feel welcomed into the united states?
he s waiting for a green card. he s married to a u.s. citizen. he probably was never going to be deported, actually. he was probably going to win his case. but because ice had the discretion to hold him at the time, they as a policy matter were holding anybody they could. so he stayed in detention for close to a year actually while he was fighting his case. and through this film, the facility, i really tried to bring people inside because for most of the pandemic, for the beginning of the pandemic, the early months of the pandemic, i sort of attached myself to this computer screen in order to have these conversations with people and to observe what life was like inside of an ice facility that s really built with the intention to separate people from the outside world. right. and that s certainly not intended for months, maybe a day or two.
in fact, you know, in a way the pandemic and the sort of just move by all of us to start using video communication tools, it made it possible for me to get inside of an ice facility that i probably never would have been able to get into otherwise. right. the detention center at one point, and i wrote about this in the new york times magazine story that i published last year did separate my access to the video app. and some of the people inside lost access to the tablets that they use to have these conversations. i was able to sign back up and sign back in and continue having these conversations. and collecting footage that ultimately resulted in the documentary of the facility. but it allowed you in some ways to briefly take us into the facility which made yours stand out. let s take nelson. he doesn t know why he was held for as long as he was held and he s not sure why his release,
card. he s marries to a u.s. citizen. he has very clear claims to be able to stay here. he probably was never going to be deported actually. he was probably going to win his case. but because i.c.e. had the discretion to hold him at the time, they had a sort of policy as a policy matter were holding anybody that they could. and so he stayed in detention for close to a year actually while he was fighting his case. and through this film, the facility, i really tried to bring people inside because for most of the pandemic, from the beginning of the pandemic, the early months of the pandemic, i sort of attached myself to this computer screen in order to have these conversations with people and to observe what life was like inside of an i.c.e. facility that s really built with the intention to separate people from the outside world. right, and it s certainly not intended for months. maybe a day or two. these are topics that the public