Summary

"The Detained" opens at the Mesa Verde Detention Center in California. It is a border overflow facility and the more detainees it houses, the more money Mesa Verde makes. Over 60 percent of detainees are held in facilities managed by private contractors despite the fact that the Department of Justice announced, in 2016, that it would no longer outsource incarceration to private contractors. The Obama administration deported more people than any administration to date, but the advent of the Trump-era has represented a new degree of intolerance for undocumented immigrants. At the time of publication, the exact nature of future immigration enforcement remains uncertain.

In Chapter 6, Lauren Markham met Ernesto and Raul at their school after administrators learned that the twins had missed their court date. Lauren knew that they need to find a lawyer though they have no money for one and...