The Raid

The U.S. government wired $70 million to purchase a massive warehouse to house detained immigrants in Surprise, Arizona — without telling the mayor, the city council, or a single one of the 80,000 people who lived there. No announcement. No environmental review. No community input. Just a done deal. 

In this episode of The Raid, investigative journalist John Carlos Frey unpacks how the secret purchase unfolded, who pushed back — and what happened when residents realized their own city council wasn't going to fight for them. 

This is the story of Surprise, Arizona. And it could be the story of your town next. 

https://theraidpodcast.org/ 

https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/ice-buys-warehouses-immigration-detention/ 

https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/dhs-reveals-surprise-warehouse-turned-ice-detention-facility-part-38b-plan 

https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/041826_surprise_ice_warehouse/

Disclaimer:

The statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants on this program are solely their own and do not necessarily represent those of the distributor of the program and any person or entity affiliated with said distributor ("distributor's affiliates").  The distributor and distributor's affiliates are not responsible for, and shall not be liable for, the statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants, or for any content that appears on the program.   

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Host John Carlos Frey sits down with Lilian Serrano, Director of the Southern Border Communities Coalition, for a powerful conversation about what's really happening along the U.S.-Mexico border — and what it means for the entire country. 

Lillian grew up between Tijuana and San Diego across four generations, and has spent over a decade fighting for human rights and accountability in border enforcement. In this episode, she exposes how racial profiling, Constitutional violations, and unchecked use of force — long normalized in border communities — are now spreading to cities across America. 

They discuss the staggering $240 billion in federal funding handed to ICE and Border Patrol with little to no oversight, the gutting of DHS civil rights offices, the militarization of public lands along the border, and what communities can do to fight back. This is not an episode you can afford to tune out. 

https://www.southernborder.org/ 

https://theraidpodcast.org/ 

Disclaimer:

The statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants on this program are solely their own and do not necessarily represent those of the distributor of the program and any person or entity affiliated with said distributor ("distributor's affiliates").  The distributor and distributor's affiliates are not responsible for, and shall not be liable for, the statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants, or for any content that appears on the program.   

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He was born in the United States. He has a Real ID, a Social Security number and a birth certificate. ICE detained him three times in less than one year. 

Leonardo Garcia Venegas is a 26-year-old construction worker from Baldwin County, Alabama. In May 2025, ICE agents raided a private job site, tackled him to the ground, and held him in handcuffs for over an hour — ignoring his proof of citizenship. Two weeks later, different agents made the same assumption at a different construction site. Then in May 2026 — while he was the lead plaintiff in an active federal lawsuit challenging these exact tactics — agents pulled him from his truck in front of his own house and shackled him. 

In this episode of The Raid, investigative journalist John Carlos Frey traces the full story: from the first raid to the federal courthouse to the morning they came back again. 

https://theraidpodcast.org/ 

https://www.newsweek.com/how-ice-agents-detained-one-us-citizen-three-times-11928213 

https://abcnews.com/US/lawyer-us-born-citizen-detained-ice-disputes-interfering/story?id=126162608

https://ij.org/case/alabama-construction-site-raids

Disclaimer:

The statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants on this program are solely their own and do not necessarily represent those of the distributor of the program and any person or entity affiliated with said distributor ("distributor's affiliates").  The distributor and distributor's affiliates are not responsible for, and shall not be liable for, the statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants, or for any content that appears on the program.   

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John Carlos Frey digs into the extra $70 billon just approved for ICE and Border Patrol. What is that money for and how is it all managed? The details are nothing short of a corrupt system. https://theraidpodcast.org/

https://theraidpodcast.org/

Disclaimer:

The statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants on this program are solely their own and do not necessarily represent those of the distributor of the program and any person or entity affiliated with said distributor ("distributor's affiliates").  The distributor and distributor's affiliates are not responsible for, and shall not be liable for, the statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants, or for any content that appears on the program.   

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Host John Carlos Frey talks with Nayna Gupta, Policy Director at the American Immigration Council, to break down the Council's new report: Restoring Credibility and Humanity — a detailed framework proposing a path forward for U.S. immigration enforcement. 

Nayna and John explore how decades of overly broad immigration laws have enabled the Trump administration's mass deportation agenda, and why simply opposing it isn't enough — elected officials need a credible alternative vision. They also discuss the political landscape in Congress, shifting public opinion, and why the Council believes now is the moment to start building consensus — before the next political opening arrives. 

https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/report/immigration-enforcement/ 

https://theraidpodcast.org/

Disclaimer:

The statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants on this program are solely their own and do not necessarily represent those of the distributor of the program and any person or entity affiliated with said distributor ("distributor's affiliates").  The distributor and distributor's affiliates are not responsible for, and shall not be liable for, the statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants, or for any content that appears on the program.   

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John Carlos Frey speaks with Stephen Sefton — industrial designer, philosopher, and founder of Third Coast Pillows — to explore how one small business owner is fighting back against America's deportation machine with art. When ICE raids intensified across the country — and two people were shot and killed in Minnesota — Stephen used his platform to respond. He designed a politically charged advertisement with a message about immigration enforcement: the who, what, when, and why of the tragedy in Minnesota. 

Stephen speaks candidly about why he felt morally obligated to act, how his background in philosophy shapes his view that government policy doesn't define ethics, and what he believes small businesses owe to the communities they serve. A powerful conversation about art as protest, courage in the face of silence, and what it means to refuse to look away. 

https://thirdcoastpillows.com/ 

https://theraidpodcast.org/

Disclaimer:

The statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants on this program are solely their own and do not necessarily represent those of the distributor of the program and any person or entity affiliated with said distributor ("distributor's affiliates").  The distributor and distributor's affiliates are not responsible for, and shall not be liable for, the statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants, or for any content that appears on the program.   

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ICE has quietly changed how it reports deaths in immigration detention — and the change is designed to make people disappear from the record. Under the new internal policy, a death only counts as an "in-custody death" if it happens inside a detention facility. Deaths that occur after release — even the day after — are no longer reported.

In this episode, John Carlos Frey breaks down exactly what this policy change means, why it was made, and who it affects — and why calling it anything other than a cover-up would be dishonest.

People are dying in the custody of the United States government. And now, the government has made it significantly easier to make sure those deaths are never counted.

https://theraidpodcast.org/

https://www.newsweek.com/ice-updates-reporting-policy-amid-rising-detainee-deaths-12034515 

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ice-ends-post-release-death-reporting-1800942 

https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/1404918-ice-ends-30-day-detainee-death-reporting-rule-amid-custody-concerns

Disclaimer:

The statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants on this program are solely their own and do not necessarily represent those of the distributor of the program and any person or entity affiliated with said distributor ("distributor's affiliates").  The distributor and distributor's affiliates are not responsible for, and shall not be liable for, the statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants, or for any content that appears on the program.   

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Award-winning journalist Jacob Soboroff — author of Separated: Inside an American Tragedy and incoming host of Connect with Jacob Soboroff (premiering June 13 on MSNOW) — sits down with host John Carlos Frey on The Raid to trace his full journey covering U.S. immigration policy. 

From his first trip across the border into Tijuana during the Obama era, to the moment he walked into a converted Walmart housing 1,100 separated boys in Brownsville, TX — Soboroff reflects on what he missed, what changed him, and why he refuses to pretend injustice has "two sides." He also opens up about covering the 2025 LA wildfires that burned his childhood neighborhood, how those events shaped his new show's identity, and why he believes human connection — not neutrality — is the future of journalism. 

https://www.jacobsoboroff.com/ 

https://theraidpodcast.org/

Disclaimer:

The statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants on this program are solely their own and do not necessarily represent those of the distributor of the program and any person or entity affiliated with said distributor ("distributor's affiliates").  The distributor and distributor's affiliates are not responsible for, and shall not be liable for, the statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants, or for any content that appears on the program.   

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Host John Carlos Frey speaks with Austin Kocher, a political and legal geographer and Navy veteran (1999–2003), about the deeply underreported issue of immigrant veterans being detained and deported under the current administration. Kocher explains that while this problem predates the Trump administration, deportations of veterans have accelerated dramatically in recent years. 

Kocher argues that the current administration has eliminated even the modest administrative protections that previous administrations — both Republican and Democratic — had extended to veteran cases, leaving immigrant veterans with virtually no shield against deportation. 

https://austinkocher.substack.com/ 

https://theraidpodcast.org/

Disclaimer:

The statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants on this program are solely their own and do not necessarily represent those of the distributor of the program and any person or entity affiliated with said distributor ("distributor's affiliates").  The distributor and distributor's affiliates are not responsible for, and shall not be liable for, the statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants, or for any content that appears on the program.   

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In the 1960s, the CIA recruited tens of thousands of Hmong farmers and warriors in Laos to fight a secret proxy war on behalf of the United States. They rescued downed American pilots, ran intelligence operations, and died by the thousands — doing work Congress never officially authorized. When the U.S. withdrew in 1975, it left them behind. After surviving massacres, refugee camps, and decades of displacement, most of them rebuilt their lives here, in America. Now the government is deporting them. 

Since the summer of 2025, ICE has been arresting Hmong residents across Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin — many of them here for forty years, some U.S. citizens swept up in raids. In Indiana, two Southeast Asian refugees — a Cambodian man named Lorth Sim and a Vietnamese man named Tuan Van Bui — died in the same newly-opened detention facility within weeks of each other. No network interviewed their families. No crew was sent. John Carlos Frey investigates the most underreported deportation story in America: a community that fought for this country, fled to this country, and is now being erased by it — while the cameras look the other way. 

https://theraidpodcast.org/ 

https://sahanjournal.com/immigration/hmong-deportation-ice-minnesota-laos/ 

https://www.startribune.com/hmong-minnesotans-face-deportation-laos-ice-arrests/601385285 

https://asamnews.com/2026/04/08/cambodian-vietnamese-detainee-deaths-ice-indiana/

Disclaimer:

The statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants on this program are solely their own and do not necessarily represent those of the distributor of the program and any person or entity affiliated with said distributor ("distributor's affiliates").  The distributor and distributor's affiliates are not responsible for, and shall not be liable for, the statements and opinions expressed by the host or participants, or for any content that appears on the program.   

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.