Immigration Detention in the United States

Immigration Detention

As of January 2024, there were 106 immigration detention centers in use. While some are managed by ICE, the majority are managed by corporations working with ICE, including:

• Private prison companies like The GEO Group and CoreCivic
• Local governments that run county jails and other similar facilities

In 2022, The GEO Group and CoreCivic alone were paid over one billion dollars to run immigration detention centers.

Conditions in Detention

Often, the corporations that run detention centers cut corners to make a profit, for example by having immigrants work in the facilities for $1 a day.

The federal government has failed to provide meaningful oversight of detention centers. When a facility fails an ICE inspection or a government oversight agency asks ICE to stop holding people at a facility due to terrible conditions, ICE is not required to do anything until it fails another inspection. For example, as of September 2023, ICE had thirty six recommendations from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General left open and unresolved for more than six months, including from as far back as 2017. This impunity increases the risk of litigation for local governments and other contractors. It also contributes to horrific conditions in detention.

The Torrance County Detention Facility in Estancia, NM provides just one example of the terrible conditions in immigration detention around the U.S.

In 2021, the Torrance detention center failed an inspection that was set up by ICE itself, with advance notice. A stream of violations had been reported at the facility, including those related to safety, medical care, and adequate nutrition. Nevertheless, through 2021 and into 2022, ICE continued to detain people at the facility, where it denied them access to their attorneys for months and failed to provide interpretation services so people could understand their immigration proceedings.

The dire conditions at the Torrance center were called out in March 2022 by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General. This watchdog agency found more problems including security lapses, staffing shortages, and unsanitary conditions, and recommended that ICE immediately stop housing people at the facility. ICE disregarded the warning, and in August 2022, a Brazilian national died at the facility. ICE still refuses to stop holding people at Torrance as of 2024. They have no apparent plans to do so.

People held in detention regularly report inhumane conditions all over the U.S. Frequent themes include medical neglect, poor living conditions, abuse and assault, and due process violations.

Although people in detention are constantly flagging alarming levels of mistreatment, abusive conditions often stay out of the public eye. Many immigration detention centers are located in remote places, far away from population centers. And people are often sent to detention centers far from home, making it difficult for family and friends to visit.

The remote locations of many detention centers can also make it harder to find legal help.

Detention & Representation

Most recent data shows that nearly 70 percent of immigrants in detention lacked representation. Not only are detention centers often located far from population centers where attorneys typically live and work, but it can be hard for migrants to know how to start looking for one. Though ICE offers migrants the contact information of some local nonprofits, this information is often outdated or not available in the person’s language, and the nonprofits are often overwhelmed and not able to take on new clients.

Securing free or pro bono representation for detained migrants is far from guaranteed, and hiring an attorney can be cost prohibitive. The cost can range from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars.

Some organizations, like the Immigration Justice Campaign, offer pro bono counsel to people in immigration detention. But the need is immense, and the representation available is a drop in the bucket. Recent data shows that only two percent of people seeking pro bono immigration legal assistance will successfully find an attorney.

Having a lawyer can make a big difference. Seventy-four percent of people in detention who work with attorneys are ultimately ordered to leave the country. For those without attorneys, it’s almost nine out of ten.

The Role of Racism

The punitive and unjust treatment of people in immigration detention cannot be separated from the immigration system’s long and enduring history of racism. Federal immigration enforcement in the U.S. began with racial exclusion laws.

In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, effectively barring almost all immigration from China. This act was extended in various forms into the 20th century. In 1917, the exclusion was expanded to anyone from an “Asiatic Barred Zone,” except for Japan and the Philippines—Japan had already agreed to voluntarily limit emigration to the U.S., and the Philippines was a U.S. colony. Later, the 1924 Immigration Act excluded all immigration from Asia, including Japan. This act also created the Border Patrol, an agency that remains inextricable from its racist roots. The Chinese Exclusion Act was a key factor in the development of immigration detention in the U.S., prompting the creation of the Angel Island detention facility in San Francisco.

During World War II, the U.S. government set up a system of prison camps to incarcerate Japanese Americans. They forcibly relocated around 112,000 people, including nearly 70,000 U.S. citizens. The conditions in the camps were harsh and punitive. Most people were held in these camps for three years or more. Many lost possession of their houses and belongings. In the words of one detained individual, “If we were put there for our protection, why were the guns at the guard towers pointed inward, instead of outward?"

In the late 1970s, repressive conditions in Haiti led thousands of people to seek safety in the U.S. In response, U.S. officials detained them in terrible conditions and summarily rejected their asylum claims, sending over 4,000 people back to danger. A 1980 federal court decision explicitly pointed out the obvious racism of this program. Meanwhile, discrimination towards Haitian asylum seekers arriving in the early 1980s contributed to construction of the first new immigration detention centers in the U.S. since Ellis Island closed in 1954, with Attorney General William Smith declaring in 1981 that detention was “necessary to discourage people like the Haitians from setting sail in the first place.” In 1983, the Reagan administration published the first Mass Immigration Emergency Plan, which required the government to find the capacity to hold up to 10,000 immigrants at any time. Haitian asylum seekers continue to face disproportionately unjust treatment in the detention and asylum systems.

Racism was central to the immigration policies of the Trump administration. A week into his presidency, Donald Trump issued Executive Order 13769, a.k.a. The “Muslim Ban,” banning people from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the country for 90 days, suspending the refugee program for 120 days, and blocking Syrian refugees indefinitely. On the campaign trail, he had called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” The ban was litigated throughout the Trump presidency and was not revoked until Joe Biden took office on January 20, 2021.

During the Trump administration, immigration policy was largely shaped by White House aide Stephen Miller, who has espoused white supremacist theories. Until the COVID-19 pandemic, he spent years looking for an excuse to use the public health law known as Title 42 to curtail immigration—promoting the racist idea that immigrants spread disease. The COVID-19 pandemic gave him his excuse. Title 42 remained in place until May 2023, all but eliminating asylum at the border. On the day it ended, the Biden administration reinstated a version of another Trump policy, known as the asylum transit ban, which has disproportionately impacted people of color.

The numbers show that this long legacy of racism is embedded in our current system. While Latino immigrants make up 57 percent of the immigrant population in the U.S., they make up 90 percent of the deportations. A recent study found that Black immigrants were six times more likely than others in ICE detention to be sent to solitary confinement. Personal reports from migrants and observers show that racism is common throughout ICE detention centers.