Washington, DC — Immigrant justice groups are raising the alarm over increasing reports of medical neglect, overcrowding, and rampant transfers that sow confusion and cut people off from their loved ones and support networks in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers.
Last week, a man detained at the Krome Detention Center in Florida went viral from a video inside the facility showing people sleeping on the floor. In February, four women were detained at the same detention center, a facility used for men. They described their experience as “hell on earth,” as they were packed like “sardines in a jar” and told to urinate on the floor. At River Correctional Center in Louisiana, multiple people described to an advocate the horrendous and unhygienic state of the bathrooms. People detained detailed only having a large industrial fan in place of functioning air conditioning. Food portions are extremely small and with that, the food given is extremely poor quality. Weight loss and painful gastrointestinal illness are rampant. One individual who has been constipated for 15 days has put daily requests for medical attention - the response received has been medication to mildly ameliorate symptoms, with only a cursory medical examination of the potential serious underlying condition. Commissary prices have increased, putting an increased burden on family and loved ones trying to support people detained.
One man detained at Pine Prairie Correctional Facility in Louisiana told his attorney that he is being held in a room with 70 other men. He was not given a single change of clothes for weeks and is suffering from skin irritation as a result. He reports that the guards are racist and treat people detained differently depending on the color of their skin. He states: “The guards here don’t wear ID so they can’t be identified. They’re a mafia. They don’t respond to our complaints,” adding, “I shouldn’t be treated like an animal. I want freedom for us all and for the law to be just for everyone.”
For decades, directly impacted people, government oversight agencies, media outlets, and advocates have documented inhumane conditions, mistreatment, and abuse at immigration detention facilities nationwide. Advocates say the Trump administration's cruel, multi-layered detention expansion plan, which if fully realized will triple the immigration detention system, is exacerbating the detention system that is proven to be inherently inhumane.
ICE just received a staggering budget increase of nearly $500 million from Congress in its short-term government funding bill, bringing the agency to a nearly $10 billion annual budget, the largest in its history. That continuing resolution (CR), which was passed with the support of Senate Democrats, will supercharge Trump’s harmful detention and deportation agenda, while stripping away a series of funding directives and oversight provisions passed by Congress after years of advocacy. For example, ICE could stop reporting publicly critical information about its operations, including regularly publishing detention contracts and inspections reports. Additionally, the recently passed CR also makes it more difficult for Congress to monitor ICE overspending on its detention budget. Advocates are pressuring members of Congress to demand ICE continue to provide critical oversight information, make unannounced inspections of ICE facilities to further expose detention conditions, and oppose any additional wasteful funding for Trump’s cruelty through the budget reconciliation process. They are also cautioning that ICE officials will try to leverage the inhumane detention conditions, particularly overcrowding, as a cruel tactic to demand more funding for ICE and its private contractors. Elected officials must not fall into this trap – no amount of money will make detention conditions acceptable. Rather people can and should be released from detention.
Immigrant justice advocates and people who are directly impacted released the following statements:
Marcela Hernandez, Membership and Organizing Director at Detention Watch Network, said: “Immigration detention as a whole is unnecessary, rife with systemic abuses and completely arbitrary – full stop. What we’re seeing now in detention centers, which are inherently inhumane, is a heightened degree of cruelty as Trump will stop at nothing to dehumanize and vilify immigrants. No one should suffer in these conditions. Immigrants are our family members, neighbors, friends, and coworkers – worthy of dignity and respect regardless of where they came from or how they arrived in the U.S. Members of Congress must do more. We need real leaders who aren’t afraid to unite against Trump and advocate for the rights of immigrants – valued and vital members of our communities. The lack of transparency and accountability allows ICE to continue operating detention centers without any fear of having to answer for the inhumane treatment of people in detention.”
Tania Wolf, Southeast Advocacy Manager at the National Immigration Project, said: "Detention centers have always been inherently inhumane, but under Trump’s policies, they are becoming even more overcrowded, dangerous, and abusive. Let's be clear: No amount of funding or reform will change the fact that these are places of punishment, dehumanization, and trauma. The solution isn’t more money for detention—it’s the immediate release of people who should never have been jailed in the first place. Congress must take action now to stop this blatant attack on immigrant communities, put an end to this unjust system, and prioritize humane and community-based solutions that respect the dignity and rights of all people."
Jesse Franzblau, Senior Policy Analyst at the National Immigrant Justice Center, said: “The U.S. already runs the largest immigration detention apparatus in the world, costing the public billions while lining the pockets of the private prison contractors. The Trump administration's expansion of immigration jails is a core part of their cruel mass deportation agenda, designed to separate families and disappear long-standing members of our communities. It is unconscionable that our elected officials continue to support ICE’s inhumane and corrupt detention system. Congress must strongly oppose any more funding for ICE that siphons billions of public funds for mass incarceration.”
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Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition building power through collective advocacy, grassroots organizing, and strategic communications to abolish immigration detention in the United States.