More People in ICE Custody Means Smaller Meals and Delayed Medical Care, Detainees Say
Those being held say they're having to gather donations to clothe and feed the new arrivals.
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Immigration detention facilities are facing shortages in food, clothing, hygiene products and staff as the Trump administration chooses to hold more people in custody, according to detainees in multiple states.
People in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in California, New Mexico, Texas and Washington said that since President Donald Trump took office, they've noticed a deterioration of already difficult conditions in facilities run by various entities including private prison companies CoreCivic and GEO Group as well as ICE itself.
“It keeps getting worse, and it's going to get worse. It's horrible since Trump came,” said Ledys Isea in Spanish. “They bring people, they bring people, and they bring people.”
Originally from Venezuela, Isea was held until recently in El Paso Service Processing Center, a Texas facility run by ICE.
Though the number of people held in ICE custody had been increasing under former President Joe Biden, that number has grown higher under Trump. In February, the average daily population reached more than 42,500, the highest total since December 2019, according to ICE data.
ICE did not respond to a request for comment.
A GEO Group spokesperson said that the company strongly disagreed with claims about conditions at its facilities.
“Our secure support services are audited by federal contract monitors on a regular basis to ensure they are fully compliant with all federal standards,” the spokesperson said. “These allegations are part of a long-standing, politically motivated, and radical campaign to abolish ICE and end federal immigration detention by attacking the federal government's immigration facility contractors.”
Ryan Gustin, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, said that the company adheres to ICE detention standards and is monitored by ICE officials on a daily basis.
“We’re strongly committed to providing high-quality care for the individuals in our facilities, which is reinforced by the accountability we have to our partners and other outside organizations,” Gustin said.
People held at Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington, and Golden State Annex in McFarland, California — both run by GEO Group — and at El Paso Service Processing Center said that food portions have shrunk since late January and that meals are often served late.
Elenilson Armando Coto Delgado, originally from El Salvador, said that at Northwest ICE Processing Center, those being held used to receive two corn dogs but now get only one. Similarly, portions of rice and beans have shrunk, he said, and on days when they have meat, they get fewer slices as well.
Isea said that at El Paso Service Processing Center, most meals consist of bread and salad and that every few days they get a more filling meal.
“We're all losing a lot of weight,” he said. “They don't take into account how dangerous it is.”
Dinner sometimes isn’t served until 9 or 10 p.m., the detainees said. It used to be hours earlier.
“Things in every department, whether it's the dorm living conditions, medications, the dining hall — everything is deteriorating. Everything is going downhill,” said Gustavo, who is in custody at Golden State Annex.
Gustavo, who is originally from El Salvador but grew up in the United States, asked not to be fully identified due to safety and retaliation concerns.
Men held at Northwest ICE Processing Center said that they've also experienced worsening delays in receiving medical care. Several men there, including Coto Delgado, said that they wait days after they sign up for medical attention before being seen.
Several people who had injuries or chronic conditions said they'd struggled even more than usual to get the treatment that they need.
“We want to be treated like humans, like human beings,” Jose Valencia Mata said in Spanish.
He said that ICE officers injured his arm when they arrested him in Oregon, and he's been waiting months for surgery. In the meantime, getting pain medicine has become increasingly difficult at Northwest ICE Processing Center, he said.
Jose Cisneros said that he has struggled to get treatment for a hernia.
“Every day I feel bad. It's very swollen. I finished my pills and put in a refill, and they denied me,” he said in Spanish. “They didn't talk to me for days. I told them my hernia hurts, and they said, ‘That isn't my problem.’”
A few who had spent time in state prison before being transferred to ICE custody said they received much better treatment in prison than in ICE custody.
Notably, immigration custody is not criminal custody, meaning it cannot be used as punishment. Legally, it is supposed to be used to hold people who are considered flight risks or dangerous while they go through immigration court proceedings or wait for deportations.
In addition to the problems with food and medical care, the three facilities don't have enough clothing to give to new arrivals, particularly socks and underwear, the detainees said. ICE detention standards require facilities to provide two pairs of socks and two pairs of underwear.
“They keep bringing people, but there's no underwear for new people, just pants,” Isea said.
Bella Bjornstad, a staff attorney at New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, said she visits Torrance County Detention Facility outside Albuquerque, run by CoreCivic, several times per month.
“We know all ICE detention beds in New Mexico are full, and we have seen that that capacity has exacerbated already pretty decrepit infrastructure and facilities that were already understaffed,” Bjornstad said.
She said people held there have told her that the guards are not often present around the units, a change from before the increase in detentions. Now, she said, the detainees spend longer in their cells because there aren't enough guards available to unlock the doors after count, and they don't have access to drinking water while in the cells. If someone were to need immediate medical attention, there might not be a guard around to notify, she said.
“The risk of understaffing is pretty significant for folks,” Bjornstad said.
Gustin, the spokesperson for CoreCivic, said that the facility performed well on audits last year.
“We work to meet or exceed our daily staffing patterns at our Torrance County Detention Facility, which are designed to ensure the safety of the facility, our staff and those in our care,” Gustin said. “Those staffing patterns are reviewed and approved by our government partners at ICE.”
Gustavo said that at Golden State Annex, detainees are trying to support each other through the shortages. They've donated clothing to newcomers, and recently, one man went around the unit with a trash bag asking for donations to help those who didn't have enough money to make up for the gaps in supplies through purchases at the commissary.
“The facility is failing us, but we still make the effort to take care of each other in here in whatever way we can,” Gustavo said.
He said that the private prison company that runs Golden State Annex should've been better prepared for the increase in detainees given the Trump administration's plans.
During the pandemic, ICE dramatically reduced the number of people held in custody, in part because of a judicial order, but private prison contractors’ revenue fell only so much because of guaranteed minimums written into their contracts that say ICE will pay for a certain number of detainees whether they are held or not.
“They care more about making a buck than our conditions, how we're living,” Gustavo said. “The more bodies, the more money, but it seems like they haven't done an appropriate effort to accommodate.”
High-Profile Arrests
Stories of tourists stuck in immigration detention have surfaced in recent weeks, including KPBS' reporting on a German tattoo artist held at Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego. On Sunday, writer Jenny Croft shared on X about a British tourist who has been similarly held in ICE detention in Tacoma, Washington.
Bakery owners in the Rio Grande Valley were arrested and charged with harboring undocumented people after many of their employees were arrested by ICE, the Texas Observer reported. In Houston, ICE arrested a young man who had protection from deportation through Special Immigrant Juvenile status, according to Houston Landing.
Reuters spoke with student activist Mahmoud Khalil hours before the federal government arrested him on Saturday and threatened to deport him over his pro-Palestinian activism. Khalil is a green card holder and married to a U.S. citizen.
Other Stories to Watch
The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the U.S. Border Patrol over a January operation in Kern County, California, that has left the community there terrified. Agents targeted residents who appeared to be Latino, the lawsuit says, regardless of their immigration status.
ICE has a new boss, the secretary of Homeland Security announced on Sunday. Todd Lyons, who previously ran its enforcement branch, will serve as its acting director, and Madison Sheahan, who once worked for Secretary Kristi Noem, will be acting deputy director.
Customs and Border Protection launched a new mobile application on Monday that includes a feature allowing undocumented residents to alert the government that they intend to leave the country voluntarily. (The American Immigration Council, a policy advocacy organization tied to the American Immigration Lawyers Association, put out an analysis of the Trump administration's registration requirements for undocumented immigrants at the end of February.)
A staffer for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who came to the United States as a child and later received protection from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, decided to move back to Colombia to build a life with less uncertainty, Migrant Insider reported last week.
Since migrants deported from the United States arrived in Costa Rica, the Defensoría de los Habitantes, or ombudsman, of Costa Rica, has posted a series of critiques about their treatment. Meanwhile, the government of Panama decided a few days ago to allow some of the migrants it had similarly received to leave custody while they determine their next moves. Human rights observers have called both countries a “black hole” for migrants following the deportations.
Customs and Border Protection appears to be using a soft-sided facility in southern San Diego to hold families for longer than the 72 hours typically permitted in the agency's guidelines, Bloomberg reported.
Hundreds recently protested outside of a former federal prison in Dublin, California, over the possibility that the facility could be repurposed for use by ICE.
In a continuation of an escalating saga in San Diego over so-called sanctuary laws, the San Diego County Sheriff may have violated a California law that limits how local police can interact with ICE officials, according to KPBS.
The Washington Post told the story Sunday of a Mexican man who was kidnapped and tortured by cartel members but was turned away when he tried to seek protection in the United States. He is still stuck in the country of his persecutors, a situation that both international and U.S. asylum law are intended to avoid.
Thanks again to Capital & Main for sponsoring and co-publishing this edition of Beyond the Border.
As always, feel free to send questions, concerns and feedback my way. Take care and stay well.
The BS from the PR hacks at Geo Group and Core Civic is insulting and infuriating. I assume Torrance is still the hell hole it was a couple of years ago. Thank you for sharing the perspectives of the folks inside.