Heroes Under Fire -- History Channel - Friday, December 9, 2005 - 10:00 p.m. (EST)

As a TV news reporter in 1987, I was sent to Atlanta to cover an uprising at a large prison where Cuban refugees were being detained before being deported back to the home country they desperately wanted to leave. I remember arriving to a crowd of people outside, anxious to find someone to interview so I could file an early report. I recognized Rep. John Lewis, who provided my first interview of a long ordeal. The uprising...and the vigil outside...stretched on through the night. My memories of that night are of filing occasional reports with the help of a CNN video crew, listening to Larry King on the car radio, and one poignant scene of the young daughter of one inmate being interviewed by another reporter, a tear streaking down the child's cheek.
This episode of the History Channel series Heroes Under Fire recalls that episode, as well as another involving Cuban detainees at a Louisiana prison, and the efforts by the FBI to bring them to resolution. Eighteen years later, the drama of desperate Cubans, many of them so-called "undesirables" whom Fidel didn't want back, resonates again as the U.S. continues to struggle with immigration issues.