Star of immigration film says detention feels like reprisal

MIAMI (AP) — An Argentine immigrant says his most recent detention feels like retaliation for starring in a new award-winning documentary about a group that infiltrated a for-profit detention center to expose injustices.

Calling from a different immigrant detention facility, 53-year-old Claudio Rojas told The Associated Press that he has “reasons to believe it was reprisal,” but he hasn’t been told anything specific.

Rojas was detained last week and faces deportation. He said he wasn’t going to be able to attend this week’s premiere in Miami of “The Infiltrators,” which won two awards at the Sundance Film Festival. He hadn’t been able to travel to the Utah festival earlier this year because of conditions set by his prior detention, which inspired the making of the film back in 2012.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it could not comment on the case.