Brianna Nofil

It's going to get worse.

Something has to be done about it.

And also, right, if we can pitch that these are immigrants, these are not, you know, people who are accused of murder, right?

These aren't your typical criminals with big air quotes, right?

Then people are going to say, great, you know, this is actually a better alternative to hosting a state prison or a federal prison.

If you are looking for kind of a powder keg of a situation, it is kind of hard to imagine people who feel more desperate than people for whom there is absolutely no clear plan.

There is no path either to going back to where you're from or no clear path for being released into the United States.

And then finally, in November 1987, they say, incredible news, right?

We've got a deal.

Castro has agreed to take a large number of these migrants back to Cuba.

This news is going to filter in to this group of people who has been detained in these prisons for years.

Many of these people feared retribution if they were sent back to Cuba.

They imagined they would be seen as defectors from the regime.

They imagined that they would spend life in perhaps even more gruesome prisons if they were sent back.

So when they hear the news, right, that this agreement is happening, that their sort of, you know, deportation is potentially imminent, people are explosively angry.

First at Oakdale.

Then a couple of days later at Atlanta.

And they say, we are not letting these people go until you promise us you will not send us back.

It's this incredible sort of political action, and it is an incredible media spectacle.

These end up being the longest hostage standoffs in American history.