Investigative reporter Jim Mustian chipped away at reporting on a full-body restraint suit known as the WRAP for more than a year.
In February, he teamed up with fellow investigative reporter Jason Dearen, who found a possible angle buried deep in a FOIA log for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Following that lead, Dearen tracked down a woman in Nicaragua who had witnessed the WRAP being used on an ICE flight.
Dearen asked Los Angeles reporter Dorany Pineda to help conduct the interview in Spanish. The woman described watching ICE officers restrain a young man in the WRAP, who cried and said he feared returning to Nicaragua due to violence.
Meanwhile, Mustian worked a source who had filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of four African men deported in the WRAP during the first Trump administration. He also obtained a trove of documents, including a 2023 investigation by an internal government watchdog.
A breakthrough came when Pineda suggested checking procurement records. Dearen confirmed that DHS had been purchasing the WRAP since 2015, with 91% of those purchases occurring during the two Trump administrations. He also found that the manufacturer had created a custom version of the WRAP for ICE.
Another break came in September, when five West African men sued over their deportations to Ghana, saying they had been “straitjacketed” during the flight. Ope Adetayo in Ghana interviewed one of the plaintiffs.
Late that month, a source sent contact information for a Salvadoran man who had also been restrained in the WRAP. Pineda and Dearen worked with his wife to conduct interviews during his time in ICE custody.
The investigation also drew on past work for AP’s Lethal Restraint series, including leads from reporter Ryan Foley. Allen Breed produced the central video for the story, including an interview with the WRAP’s inventor.
Judges praised the global collaboration, visual storytelling and the team’s perseverance in exposing the use of this restraint device.
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