Live Chat 1 p.m. ET: Detained in America

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October 18, 2011

During a yearlong investigation, FRONTLINE and the Investigative Reporting Workshop uncovered a troubling picture of abuse inside America’s vast immigrant detention system, and documented the far-reaching impact of the Obama administration’s controversial immigration enforcement policies.

What’s life like for the people “lost in detention”? Are Obama administration policies, including the Secure Communities program, doing more harm than good? And how does the administration defend its controversial decisions?

We’ve asked correspondent Maria Hinojosa and producer Catherine Rentz to join us for a live chat to discuss these questions — and answer yours. Submit questions in the chat box below anytime, and join us at 1 p.m. ET.

We’ll also be joined by veteran Univision journalist Tifani Roberts, our guest questioner.

We’ll be taking questions in English from 1-2 p.m., and in Spanish from 2-3 p.m.

Award-winning journalist Maria Hinojoa has reported hundreds of stories over the course of her 25 year career. She is currently anchor and managing editor of NPR’s Latino USA, anchor of the Emmy-award winning WGBH talk show Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One, and serves as contributing correspondent on PBS’ Need to Know.

Catherine Rentz is a producer for the American University School of Communication’s Investigative Reporting Workshop and FRONTLINE partnership. She has helped produce the FRONTLINE documentaries Poisoned Waters, Spying on the Home Front, Can You Afford to Retire? and, most recently, Flying Cheaper.

Our guest questioner Tifani Roberts is an investigative reporter for Univision, where she has served as correspondent for the news magazine Aquí y Ahora (Here and Now) since 2006. Roberts has reported for CNN, NBC and CBS over the course of her nearly three decade career. She got her start reporting from conflict zones in Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador.


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