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Released or at least as far as the film is concerned. can you fill in some of the blanks? >> i mean, i.c.e. detention, immigration detention, and just to fill in some background here, you know, it's civil detention. it's not prison. it's not meant as punishment, at least as a legal matter. it's a thing that exists to hold noncitizens who are facing the threat of deportation ostensibly so they don't abscond, so they show up in court. it's at the discretion of the federal government, of i.c.e., and so nearly everybody who's detained in i.c.e. detention could actually be released at any point at ...

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, ...

Pandemic and the sort of moved by all of us to start using video communication tools, it made it possible for me to get inside of an i.c.e. facility that i probably never would have been able to get into. >> right. >> otherwise. the detention center at one point -- and i wrote about this in "the new york times" magazine story that i published last year -- did sever my access to the video app. and some of the people inside lost access to the tablets that they used to have these conversations. i was able to sign back up and sign back in and continue having these conversations and collecting foot...

Seth, what was interesting about this film is also how you got your access. in many places during the film you made it clear you had to pay for your access, but explain how you met nilson, how you met andrea, how you got that access. >> sure, so at the beginning of the pandemic my plan for reporting were sort of upended. and i had to figure out how i was going to continue as a print reporter to develop new stories, to cover the pandemic on the beats that i already work on. and so i began making a series of calls through a video app that's installed inside of a set of i.c.e. detention centers t...

Film is concerned. can you fill in some of the blanks? >> i.c.e. detention, it's civil detention. it's not prison. it's not meant as punishment as a legal matter. it's a thing that exists to face non-citizens facing the threat of deportation, ostensibly so they don't abscond, so they show up in court. it's at the discretion of i.c.e. so nearly everyone detained in i.c.e. detention could be released at any point at the discretion of immigration and customs enforcement. and policy shifts from administration to administration about who's released and who's let to stay home with their families. ni...