Detained and Denied is the result of more than six months of reporting by Spotlight PA journalists Gabriela Martínez, Kate Huangpu, and Danielle Ohl.
On March 28, Spotlight PA received an email from a woman named Brenda Joves with the subject line “URGENT.” Brenda’s brother Carlos had been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement four days prior. She was desperate for someone to check in on her brother, who is hearing-impaired and blind, and had a pregnant wife at home at the time.
As reporter Gabriela Martínez began making connections with the family, Huangpu and Ohl continued reporting they started earlier in the year, which revealed cooperation between Pennsylvania county jails and ICE to detain immigrants arrested in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.
That story, published in early April, showed that a group of Pennsylvania county jails had billed the federal government more than $21 million to detain immigrants on their behalf. That group included the Cambria County Prison, where Moreno ended up shortly after his arrest.
Gabriela made contact with Moreno’s wife, Wendys Martinez, who began explaining their family’s story: the threats of violence they faced in Colombia and Chile, their harrowing journey through the Darién Gap and Central America, and their time in a migrant shelter in New York before finding some stability in Pottsville.
To complete the accounting of the family’s journey to and experience within the United States, the reporters visited and interviewed Wendys twice in person at her home in Pottsville. Gabriela also spoke with Moreno numerous times over the phone when he called her from jail.
Neither Wendys nor Moreno speak fluent English; Gabriela interviewed both in Spanish.
The reporters also reviewed documents to support the family’s account of their journey and Moreno’s arrest and detention, including medical records, property records, state and federal court filings, and immigration records. The reporters spoke to local officials, immigration attorneys, academics, people who supported the family after Moreno’s arrest, and other immigrants detained at the jail, among others.
To understand the scope of the agreement between Cambria County Prison and the federal government, the reporters filed records requests with the county. In response, they received the contract between the county and the U.S. Marshals Service, and dozens of pages of invoices showing requested payment for detaining hundreds of immigrants, some for months.
The reporters analyzed these documents to determine the Cambria County Prison received over $1.5 million in compensation from the federal government between September 2025 and July 2026.
The reporters reviewed detention standards to understand whether Moreno’s experience aligned with the conditions the federal government requires. The reporters also interviewed Cambria County Prison wardens Kurt Wolford and Megan Bursky to understand the effect of federal detention agreements on local jails generally and Moreno’s situation specifically.
Before publication, the reporters sent letters to the wardens, ICE, and the Cambria County Board of Commissioners outlining their findings and offering an opportunity for comment. Wardens Wolford and Bursky did not have further comment beyond their August interview. The full response from ICE is available here. The Cambria County commissioners did not respond.