The Raid

Investigative journalist John Carlos Frey has spent 20 years covering ICE and Border Patrol. What he found will shock you. The three highest-ranking officials at the U.S. Border Patrol have all been implicated in sexual misconduct. The current chief bragged about paying for sex abroad — then abolished the agency's anti-fraternization policy. His two deputies left after sexually victimizing female employees. Three officials. Three sex scandals. Zero accountability. Frey documents over 170 cases of criminal behavior by agents nationwide — child sexual abuse material, assault, kidnapping of minors, convicted agents returned to duty with their firearms. And Congress just handed these agencies more money than they've ever had in history. Oversight dismantled. Hiring standards lowered. Accountability measures stripped out. This isn't a few bad apples. This is a system designed to protect predators — funded by your tax dollars.

https://theraidpodcast.org/

https://open.substack.com/pub/raidpodcast/p/the-worst-of-the-worst?r=5r26a&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

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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Celeste, co-founder of People Over Papers and ICEOUT.org, discusses the organizations' collaborative effort to map ICE enforcement activity across the US. ICEOUT.org is an anonymous, community-powered platform where users can report and view confirmed ICE sightings on an interactive map. The platform was built to give communities real-time, data-backed awareness of enforcement patterns in their neighborhoods.

https://iceout.org/en/

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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The U.S. government made a promise to half a million people who grew up in in the United States — and it's breaking that promise quietly, deliberately, and one policy at a time. In this episode, investigative journalist John Carlos Frey breaks down the real-time dismantling of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). This isn't happening through a single executive order. It's happening through delayed renewals, secret memos, stacked courts, and administrative rulings most Americans never hear about. This is the most dangerous moment in DACA's 14-year history, and this episode documents exactly how we got here. 

https://www.npr.org/2026/04/25/nx-s1-5798943/justice-department-makes-it-easier-to-deport-those-with-daca-status 

https://edsource.org/2026/daca-renewal-delays-educators/756448 

https://www.npr.org/2026/04/25/nx-s1-5798943/justice-department-makes-it-easier-to-deport-those-with-daca-status

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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Sara Hernandez — candidate for California State Senate District 26 — joins host John Carlos Frey to talk about what it's like to run for office in a district under siege. A former middle school teacher in South L.A., immigration attorney, and current president of the L.A. Community College District Board of Trustees, Sara brings a ground-level perspective to some of the most pressing issues facing East Los Angeles communities right now. 

She shares stories from her classroom — students caught between academic ambition and the threat of deportation — and explains why those experiences led her first to law, then to politics. The conversation covers the limits and possibilities of state-level action against federal immigration enforcement, the constitutional questions raised by ICE's use of administrative warrants, the economic case for immigration reform, the housing crisis squeezing working families out of California, and why her mother's words — "if not you, then who?" — pushed her to run. 

Sara also discusses her campaign on the ground: canvassing alongside rapid response networks, her key endorsements from Supervisor Hilda Solis, civil rights icon, Dolores Huerta and major labor unions, and what's at stake for communities in Boyle Heights, Pico Union, Echo Park, and beyond in the June 2nd primary. 

@sarahernandez.26 

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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For more than twenty years, Meenu Batra sat inside courtrooms and recorded everything — testimony, rulings, the words spoken on the most consequential days of people's lives. She had legal status. She had a career built on institutional trust. She was as embedded in the American legal system as anyone could be.

Then ICE apprehended her.

In this episode of The Raid, host John Carlos Frey speaks with Gaige Davila — freelance investigative journalist, former Texas Public Radio Border and Immigration Reporter, correspondent for Deceleration News, and contributor to The Texas Observer. Gaige broke the story of what happened to this immigration court reporter in a recent piece published by The Texas Observer — a story that raises urgent questions about due process, the targeting of legal status holders, and what it means when the people who work inside the justice system are no longer safe from it.

This is not a story about someone who crossed a border without documentation. This is a story about a woman who spent two decades serving the court — and what happened when the court's enforcement arm turned its attention to her.

https://www.texasobserver.org/immigration-court-interpreter-arrested-ice-south-texas-airport/

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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Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, more than 100 immigration judges have been fired in an unprecedented purge — with a similar number resigning or retiring. In their place, the administration has installed over 140 new judges, many with no immigration law experience and as little as three weeks of training. Investigative journalist John Carlos Frey examines who these new judges are, what they've been hired to do, and what it means for the millions of immigrants waiting for their day in court. From a divorce lawyer who fights exclusively for men, to a judge rebuked for deciding a gay man didn't look gay enough for asylum protection — this is the story of how America's immigration courts are being reshaped to serve one goal: deport one million people a year. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2026/04/27/justice-department-immigration-judges-deportation/ 

https://newrepublic.com/post/209532/donald-trump-terrifying-new-immigration-judges-experience 

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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Izzy Ramirez didn't start as a journalist. He started as someone who refused to look away. 

When ICE raids swept through Los Angeles last summer, Izzy was on the streets — phone in hand, posting real-time alerts, telling people where federal agents were, which neighborhoods to avoid, where families were being torn apart. He wasn't working for a newsroom. He was working for his community. And people listened. LA Taco was listening too. 

The Los Angeles-based independent publication — one of the most important outlets covering immigration enforcement in Southern California — recognized what Izzy already was: a reporter. They asked him to make it official. He said yes. And he hasn't stopped since. In just a few months as a staff reporter, Izzy has covered ICE operations, deaths in detention, political corruption, and the day-to-day reality of what he doesn't hesitate to call what it is — the kidnapping of people from their homes, their jobs, their families, across Southern California. He is twenty-something years old. He has no journalism school on his résumé. What he has is the trust of the people most at risk, the instincts of someone who learned by doing, and a publication behind him that understands why that matters. 

This is what accountability journalism looks like when it comes from the inside. 

https://lataco.com/author/izzy-ramirez 

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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At just 18 years old, Cesar Vasquez is already a veteran organizer on California's Central Coast. As a Rapid Response Organizer for 805 Undocufund — a nonprofit providing emergency financial relief and real-time immigration enforcement alerts to undocumented residents across Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo Counties — Cesar is on the front lines of one of the most vulnerable communities in the country: the largely undocumented farmworker population that feeds much of the nation. But his activism didn't start there. At 14, Cesar founded La Cultura Del Mundo, a youth-led organization built on a simple but radical premise — skip the red tape and ask families directly, "How much do you need?" No forms, no status checks, just rapid mobilization of cash, groceries, rent assistance, and whatever else a family needs to survive. Today, Cesar joins us to speak about the ongoing ICE raids devastating his region. According to 805 Undocufund, over 1,800 people have been taken since the raids began — a number that continues to grow. 

https://www.805undocufund.org/ 

https://laculturadelmundo.org/es

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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Over the past ten months, federal immigration agents and Border Patrol officers have arrested more than three hundred American citizens at immigration protests across the country — charging them with serious federal crimes like assaulting an officer, conspiracy, and interfering with law enforcement. In more than a third of those cases, the charges were dropped, dismissed, or lost at trial. Because the evidence wasn't there. Because in many cases, video footage directly contradicted what arresting officers put in their reports. John Carlos Frey examines the findings of a landmark ProPublica and PBS FRONTLINE investigation. 

ProPublica: https://www.propublica.org/article/caught-in-crackdown-ice-cbp-immigration-protests-arrests-convictions 

PBS FRONTLINE: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/caught-in-crackdown-ice-cbp-immigration-protests-arrests-convictions 

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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On this episode of The Raid is Marc Philpart. He is the Executive Director of the Black Freedom Fund, bringing more than a decade of leadership in grassroots organizations to build power for racial justice. Marc serves on several boards and advisory committees, including the California Immigrant Policy Center, Partners for Dignity and Rights, and the University of Southern California’s Equity Research Institute. Marc is on the podcast to discuss how the lessons of black empowerment and the civil rights struggles of the past can help inform the immigration rights movement of today. 

https://fundblackfreedom.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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