A New York Times investigation has revealed widespread reports of overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and lack of access to basic medical care in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers.
According to the report, some detainees have gone days without showers, sleep on bare floors in overcrowded rooms, and lack consistent access to medications for chronic illnesses. In some cases, detainees have been held for extended periods in temporary processing centers not designed for long-term stays.
"These are the worst conditions I have seen in my 20-year career," said Paul Chavez of Americans for Immigrant Justice to the outlet.
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The surge in detentions—over 56,000 were in custody as of June 15—follows directives from White House aide Stephen Miller to reach a target of 3,000 arrests per day. This has led to ICE expanding contracts with private prison firms and requesting over $45 billion for detention funding, more than 10 times the current budget. Trump's "big, beautiful" tax cut and spending bill would provide some $175 billion for border security.
ICE and the Department of Homeland Security have denied the allegations. "All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers," DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to the NYT. She attributed delays in deportation to court injunctions and called on local governments to provide more detention space.
However, accounts from former detainees, attorneys, and lawmakers paint a different picture. Marcelo Gomes, an 18-year-old held for six days in a windowless ICE office, said he slept on the floor with 40 other men, had no access to showers, and lost seven pounds due to poor food. "It was so bad," he said, "I used water to drink it down."
Lawyers and advocates also report detainees being denied medications, subjected to solitary confinement, or held in temporary facilities with limited access to food and hygiene products. "They're packing people in there as if they were sardines," said Mark Rosenbaum of Public Counsel. "It's a horror show."
"There is limited and very erratic access to food," Kristen Hunsberger, an attorney with the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, told CBS News in a similar exposé which focused on Los Angeles ICE facilites. "I spoke with one individual detained in downtown Los Angeles who reported being woken up at 2 a.m. or 4 a.m., was given food, and they wouldn't have their next meal until 14 hours later."
Meanwhile six Democracit congresspeople, led byRep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) are calling on additional oversight of these facilities, introducing a resolution last week that urges regular, unannounced congressional visits to ICE facilities, following reports that members of Congress were recently denied access to some detention centers.
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