Progressive Indiana Network: https://progressiveindiana.net
HoosLeft: https://hoosleft.us
Indiana Organizing Project: https://indianaorganizing.org/
SUMMARY:
Scott sits down with Stuart Mora — immigrants’ rights advocate, veteran UNITE HERE organizer, and former immigration law firm staffer — to discuss the Indiana Organizing Project’s campaign to end ICE detention at Miami Correctional Facility near Kokomo, where approximately 600 detainees are being held in conditions Mora describes as approaching the definition of a concentration camp. Fresh off a 27-event statewide day of action, Mora walks through the human toll on Hoosier families — parents detained for traffic stops, U.S. citizen children left behind, irreversible trauma — alongside the financial toll on Indiana taxpayers, with the state $16 million into a facility upgrade and the federal government four months behind on payments. Scott and Mora examine how Indiana’s 287(g) agreement and Senate Enrolled Act 76 have made local law enforcement a de facto arm of ICE, why the detention bed count is actually falling in response to organized resistance, and what the Indiana Organizing Project’s mutual aid network is doing in the meantime to support affected families. Mora closes with a call to action for the movement’s August 29–30 statewide weekend of action, with a goal of more than 50 events.
WHAT’S INSIDE:
00:00:23 — Introduction & Context: The Statewide Day of Action
Scott sets the scene: Hoosiers at nearly 30 events across Indiana protested ICE’s use of Miami Correctional Facility to house detainees.
At least 31 people have died in ICE custody since Trump’s second term began, including two at Miami.
Scott introduces Stuart Mora of the Indiana Organizing Project as one of the key organizers of Saturday’s day of action.
Scott makes his fundraising ask and rattles off social media handles for HoosLeft and Progressive Indiana Network before welcoming Mora.
00:04:10 — The Campaign: From February Launch to 27 Actions
The campaign launched February 22nd with a 500-person rally at the governor’s mansion in the snow.
Congressman André Carson conducted a congressional oversight visit to Miami Correctional on April 9th and joined the call to end ICE detention there.
Saturday’s day of action drew 27 events across Indiana, including in small towns like Fowler and Pearson — a deliberate choice to build a statewide, not just Indianapolis- or Bloomington-based, campaign.
The movement is building to a statewide weekend of action on August 29–30, with a goal of more than 50 events.
00:06:39 — The Bottleneck: Detention Beds as the Choke Point
Mora spent five years at Muñoz Legal in Indianapolis working with detained immigrants, giving him firsthand knowledge of the ICE system before the current administration.
ICE itself told immigration lawyers that detention space is the bottleneck in their operations: “We are being told to arrest X number of people. We don’t know where to put them.”
When Trump took office in January 2025, ICE had 41,000 detention beds; that peaked at 73,000 in January 2026 and has since fallen — partly due to pushback, including Marion County removing 128 detention beds from ICE access.
Mora’s core argument: every detention bed represents a family in crisis, and the people being detained in Indiana are largely not violent criminals but people pulled over for traffic stops.
00:09:16 — “Worst First” Was a Lie: Real Families Torn Apart
Governor Braun promised “the worst first,” but the reality is families with no criminal history being separated.
Mora describes visiting a family in southern Indiana: dad detained for three months after a speeding stop, four U.S. citizen children at home, mom sobbing for two hours saying “my kids don’t deserve any of this.”
Scott notes that 70% of ICE detainees nationally have no criminal record whatsoever; the remainder are largely nonviolent offenders.
Scott and Mora agree the harm ripples outward — to neighbors, to schoolmates, to entire communities — regardless of immigration status.
00:11:40 — Reaching Across the Divide: Making the Case to Trump Voters
Mora deliberately rejects the framing of this as a partisan issue; he has organized extensively in rural, conservative Indiana.
His core pitch to Trump-voting Hoosiers: they believe in family, and when they hear specific stories, they want to help — because Hoosiers are family-oriented.
Three families the Indiana Organizing Project is currently supporting all have U.S. citizen wives, with pending marriage petitions — people going through the legal process — nonetheless detained or facing deportation.
A six-year-old’s comment — telling his four-year-old brother to buckle up “or they’ll come get mommy too” — illustrates the irreversible psychological trauma being inflicted on U.S. citizen children.
00:15:45 — The Long-Term Damage: Trauma, Healthcare Costs, and the Economic Lie
Mora, the son of a pediatrician, emphasizes that the trauma done to children can’t be reversed — it stays with them their whole lives.
Scott connects this to downstream costs on an already underfunded mental health system.
Indiana spent $16 million upgrading Miami Correctional to house ICE detainees, expecting premium payments from the federal government — but the feds are four months behind on payments, and the state has lost money.
Mora draws a parallel to Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz,” which is being closed — he suspects the real reason is also unpaid federal bills.
00:18:11 — Trump Stiffs His Contractors (Again) and the Concentration Camp Question
Scott jokes that Trump’s history of stiffing contractors is well-established, and Mora agrees the financial reality will move the political middle.
Mora says he uses the phrase “concentration camp” with great care, but Miami Correctional is “very, very close” to meeting the exact definition: people held illegally, with the Northern District of Indiana’s habeas petition backlog now exceeding three months.
Detainees report no medical care, no responsiveness — prescription medications withheld, Tylenol arriving weeks late — and two deaths in three months.
A guard-corroborated detail: during one of the deaths, detainees trying to alert guards were dismissed as joking.
00:23:33 — Inside Miami: Conditions, Staffing, and What Detainees Say
People bounced between facilities universally call Miami Correctional the worst — not one dissenting voice among detainees, who have comparative experience.
The facility is 34% short of the staff needed to house the detainees it’s currently holding — confirmed by staff themselves.
Detainees report: two pairs of underwear, two pairs of socks, laundry broken for two months, living in filth, constant lockdowns, lawyers and family nearly impossible to reach.
Scott offers a darkly hopeful observation: the staffing shortage at least suggests Hoosiers aren’t lining up to do this work to their neighbors.
00:25:36 — Senate Enrolled Act 76: Indiana Mandates Cooperation with ICE
Indiana passed Senate Enrolled Act 76 this spring, mandating that all state governmental entities — schools, hospitals, jails, universities — cooperate with ICE by law, effective July 1.
Indiana is the opposite end of the spectrum from Minnesota, where local authorities resisted federal enforcement; Indiana’s state police already have a 287(g) agreement and function essentially as ICE agents.
Mora details a state police encounter in Indianapolis: two men changing a tire were both put into ICE detention after a routine welfare stop.
The federal government has also made it harder to renew work permits, which causes people to lose driver’s licenses, which then triggers the arrests that feed the detention pipeline.
00:30:08 — The Spectrum of Law Enforcement Response
Mora says not every officer is arresting every person without a license — driving without a license is the lowest-level misdemeanor, and a summons or infraction is an option.
He cannot document a formal policy, but says there is clearly a “spectrum” of how officers are handling these encounters.
Scott pivots to Senate Enrolled Act 76’s July 1 effective date — schools especially are facing real confusion about what they’re required to do and where they can draw lines.
Community leaders working with schools and hospitals report concern but also genuine uncertainty about how the law will play out in practice.
00:33:20 — How Detention Policy Changed: Bonds, Habeas, and the DUI Example
In prior administrations, ICE exercised discretion: a traffic stop wouldn’t warrant pickup, and even a DUI could result in a bond negotiated and paid the same day.
The current administration eliminated ICE officers’ ability to negotiate bonds and stripped immigration judges of bond-setting authority — the only exit now is a federal habeas petition.
Mora asks: what are we accomplishing by caging a DUI defendant for months, destroying their family financially, traumatizing their children?
The plan to turn warehouses into detention centers — including a potential 8,500-person facility in Indianapolis — has largely stalled due to community pushback and logistical failures (the Social Circle, Georgia example: a town of 5,000 can’t handle a facility that size).
00:37:05 — The Pushback Is Working: From 73,000 to 60,000 Detainees
National ICE detainee count fell from 73,000 in January 2026 to 60,000 by April 4th — evidence the resistance is having an effect.
Mora frames the campaign goals in two steps: first, prevent the expansion of Miami from 600 to 1,000 detainees; second, begin rolling numbers back incrementally.
Indiana is being used as a detention hub for detainees from other states — particularly New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
He also raises a broader civil liberties warning: detention infrastructure built for immigrants will eventually be used for political opponents, and Trump has said as much on the record.
00:40:27 — The Mutual Aid Network: Community in Action
Indiana Organizing Project has built a network of several hundred volunteers who mobilize immediately when a family comes into contact with them.
First message to every family: “You’re not alone. You have a community of people here who care about you.”
Support includes food, diapers, toiletries, rent and utility assistance, and a growing pro bono legal program staffed by volunteer attorneys, retired lawyers, and paralegals.
The mom with four U.S. citizen children, approached about sharing her story publicly while still crying, said: “If I can do anything to prevent other families from having to suffer what we’ve suffered, I want to do it.”
00:44:42 — Stuart’s Story: Notre Dame, UNITE HERE, and the Road to Organizing
Mora traveled Mexico for seven months at age 20, informally interviewing people — a formative experience in listening and building connection.
A one-credit Notre Dame seminar taught by Jay Caponigro, including four days meeting organizers in Chicago, convinced Mora this was a real career path.
He was recruited by UNITE HERE (food service, hotel, and casino workers’ union) after college, spent 13 years with them including serving as Indiana chapter president, and “salted” a hotel in Indianapolis to build the union.
The pandemic devastated the hospitality industry and triggered a serious mental health crisis for Mora; he moved to immigration law and then back to organizing, where he now says he has never felt greater moral clarity about any campaign.
00:49:59 — Maintaining Hope for the Long Haul
Mora has won long campaigns before — the experience helps him resist the American impulse for instant gratification.
He finds sustenance in watching people become leaders who never saw themselves as such — first-time action leaders from Saturday’s events already talking about what they’ve learned and who they’ll teach next.
Community is the antidote to the isolation and paralysis that the current political moment produces — and that Mora believes predates even the pandemic.
Joy, art, music, and hope are not accessories to organizing, they are essential to it; channeling anger into something constructive is the only sustainable path forward.
00:54:52 — Call to Action & Outro
Three ways to get involved: join the public campaign team (goal: 50+ actions August 29–30), join the mutual aid network, or donate to the family assistance program.
Contact: stuart@indianaorganizing.org.
Scott thanks Mora and plugs upcoming PIN programming: HoosLeft This Week Sunday at 10:30 a.m. with Leslie Nuss and Bryce Green; Hold ‘Em Accountable Friday with Derrick Holder on convention process; Brianna the Recovered Republican hosting a Blythe Potter town hall Friday evening (delegates especially encouraged to submit questions).
