Matias Prieto-Campos (left) and Ernesto Aciego-More were detained in the U.S. after arriving from Cuba in 1980. Chip Brantley/Chip Brantley/NPR hide caption
White Lies On the morning of August 21, 1991, a group of Cuban detainees took over a federal prison in Talladega, Alabama, and demanded their freedom. But how did they get here? And what became of them after? In season two of NPR's Pulitzer-finalist show, we unspool a decades-long story about immigration, indefinite detention, and a secret list. It's a story about a betrayal at the heart of our country's ideals. And in charting a course to our current moment of crisis at the border, we expose the lies that bind us together.
Support in-depth storytelling that matters by subscribing to Embedded+ and unlock early access to new episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org/embedded
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NPR
White Lies
From NPR
On the morning of August 21, 1991, a group of Cuban detainees took over a federal prison in Talladega, Alabama, and demanded their freedom. But how did they get here? And what became of them after? In season two of NPR's Pulitzer-finalist show, we unspool a decades-long story about immigration, indefinite detention, and a secret list. It's a story about a betrayal at the heart of our country's ideals. And in charting a course to our current moment of crisis at the border, we expose the lies that bind us together.
Support in-depth storytelling that matters by subscribing to Embedded+ and unlock early access to new episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org/embedded
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Prison employee Phil Little tours the prison yard at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary after a riot in 1987. The wall behind him has messages from Cuban detainees. Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Courtesy of Georgia State University Library hide caption
Headstones of Cuban men who died while they were detained at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. According to a document compiled by the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, 32 Cuban men died in the prison between 1980 and 1987. There were homicides, heart attacks, the vague "natural causes." But nearly a third of them died by suicide. Chip Brantley/NPR hide caption
Cubans who arrived in the U.S. during the Mariel boat lift in 1980 are housed at Fort Chaffee in Arkansas, on April 19, 1981. The fort first housed German prisoners during World War II and Vietnamese refugees in 1975. AP hide caption
A Florida National Guardsman stands guard in the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami as firefighters battle a blaze in the area after rioting on May, 20, 1980. Kathy Willens/AP hide caption
A boat arrives in Key West, Fla., with more Cuban refugees in April 1980 from Cuba's Mariel Harbor after crossing the Florida Straits. The historic Mariel boat lift brought over 100,000 Cubans into the United States. Tim Chapman/Miami Herald/Getty Images hide caption
Cuban detainees stand on the roof of the Federal Correctional Institution in Talladega, Als., after a take over of the prison in 1991. Joe Songer/Birmingham News/Donated by Alabama Media Group/Alabama Department of Archives and History hide caption
The Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., was the scene of the confrontation that became known as Bloody Sunday. William Widmer for NPR hide caption