The United States operates the largest immigration detention system in the world. On any given day, approximately 50,000 people are held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities—not because they've been convicted of crimes, but because they're awaiting immigration proceedings.
What happens in these facilities is documented in government reports. It is not pretty.
Part I: Solitary Confinement as Torture
The Department of Homeland Security's own Office of Inspector General has documented conditions that violate basic standards of human decency:
"Because we observed immediate risks or egregious violations of detention standards... violated standards and infringed on detainee rights."
— Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, OIG-19-47, June 2019
Among the documented violations:
Solitary confinement: Detainees placed in isolation cells for extended periods—sometimes weeks or months. The UN has determined that prolonged solitary confinement can constitute torture.
Inadequate food: Spoiled or rotten food served to detainees. In some facilities, detainees reported losing significant weight.
Denial of medical care: Documented cases of detainees dying from treatable conditions because facilities failed to provide basic medical attention.
Unsanitary conditions: Open toilets next to eating areas, lack of functioning showers, vermin infestations.
The UN has weighed in:
"The use of solitary confinement in immigration detention facilities may amount to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."
— UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, February 2020
These aren't conditions in some distant country. They're in facilities operated by the United States government, documented by the United States government.
Part II: Arresting American Citizens
ICE has arrested and detained American citizens—including children. The Government Accountability Office documented the scope:
"Available ICE data indicate that ICE arrested 674, detained 121, and removed 70 potential U.S. citizens from fiscal year 2015 through the second quarter of fiscal year 2020."
— U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-21-487, July 2021
That's 674 American citizens arrested. 121 detained. 70 actually deported from their own country.
The Case of Francisco Galicia
In July 2019, Francisco Erwin Galicia—an 18-year-old American citizen born in Dallas—was detained for 23 days despite possessing:
- A Texas birth certificate
- A Texas state ID card
- A Social Security card
He lost 26 pounds in detention. He was held with 60 men in a cell designed for 8. He wasn't allowed to shower for 23 days.
Francisco Galicia is not unique. American citizens are regularly swept up by an agency that operates with minimal oversight and maximum discretion.
Part III: Family Separation
In 2018, the Trump administration implemented a "zero tolerance" policy that separated children from parents at the border. The policy had no mechanism for tracking or reuniting families.
"DHS was not fully prepared to implement the Administration's Zero Tolerance policy or to deal with some of its after-effects, resulting in extended detention of families and separated children."
— Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, September 27, 2018
The Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General documented the scale:
"HHS has thus far identified 2,737 separated children who were in ORR's care as of June 26, 2018."
— Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, January 17, 2019
Thousands of children were taken from their parents. Many were held in facilities without adequate care. Some were placed with foster families across the country. The government kept no reliable records of which children belonged to which parents.
Years later, some children have still not been reunited.
Part IV: Medical Cruelty
Deporting Children with Cancer
In 2019, ICE began targeting people with serious medical conditions who had received "deferred action"—permission to remain in the U.S. for medical treatment:
"USCIS is discontinuing its process for considering deferred action requests from individuals who are not in military service, including those seeking medical treatment."
— U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, August 7, 2019
Children with cancer. Patients on dialysis. People who would die without American medical care. They were told to leave the country within 33 days.
After public outcry and Congressional intervention, the policy was partially reversed. But the fact that it was implemented at all reveals something about the priorities of immigration enforcement.
Forced Hysterectomies
In September 2020, a whistleblower complaint from the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia alleged something even more disturbing:
"Detained immigrants reported high rates of hysterectomies and other gynecological procedures without informed consent, along with widespread sexual abuse by staff."
— Project South, Georgia Detention Watch, Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, September 14, 2020
Women detained by ICE were allegedly subjected to unnecessary medical procedures—including removal of their uteruses—without understanding or consenting to what was being done to them.
The allegations prompted Congressional investigations. The facility eventually lost its ICE contract. But the question lingers: how many women were harmed in a facility operated under government contract, with government oversight?
Part V: Sexual Abuse
Sexual abuse in ICE detention is not an aberration—it's a pattern. The Government Accountability Office documented systemic failures:
"ICE should enhance its use of facility oversight data and monitoring of detainee complaints including sexual abuse and harassment allegations."
— U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-20-596, August 2020
The ACLU and immigrant rights organizations have documented hundreds of cases of sexual abuse by guards, staff, and medical personnel. Victims often fear reporting because their immigration status makes them vulnerable to retaliation.
Part VI: Deaths in Custody
People die in ICE custody. They die from medical neglect, from suicide, from conditions that should have been treated:
"ICE reports over 200 deaths in custody since 2003, with independent investigations finding many were preventable and resulted from inadequate medical care."
— U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Detainee Death Reporting
Common patterns in death cases:
- Symptoms ignored or dismissed
- Delays in emergency treatment
- Lack of mental health services
- Failure to prevent suicide
- Medical conditions untreated until fatal
Many of these deaths were preventable. They happened because the system prioritizes detention over care.
Part VII: The System's Logic
Why does ICE detention produce these outcomes? Several factors:
Private profit: Most ICE detention facilities are operated by private corporations—CoreCivic and GEO Group—that profit from each detained person. Their incentive is to maximize detainees and minimize costs.
Lack of oversight: ICE operates with less judicial oversight than criminal detention. Immigrants in detention have limited rights to counsel and face proceedings stacked against them.
Discretion without accountability: Individual ICE officers have enormous discretion over who to arrest, detain, and deport. Accountability for abuse is rare.
Dehumanization: The political rhetoric around immigration—"invasion," "criminals," "illegals"—creates conditions where cruelty is tolerated or even celebrated.
The Documentation Gap
Much of what happens in ICE detention is never documented. Facilities restrict media access. Detainees fear retaliation for complaints. Oversight agencies are under-resourced.
The abuses documented in government reports are likely a fraction of what actually occurs. When DHS OIG describes "immediate risks or egregious violations," they're describing what they caught—not the full picture.
Why This Matters
Immigration policy is a legitimate subject of debate. Reasonable people can disagree about border security, visa programs, and enforcement priorities.
But torture is not a policy preference. Arresting American citizens is not a policy preference. Separating children from parents without tracking them is not a policy preference. These are human rights violations—documented by the government's own oversight agencies.
The sources cited in this article are not from advocacy organizations (though those exist and do important work). They're from:
- DHS Office of Inspector General
- Government Accountability Office
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Federal court records
- Congressional investigations
The government has documented its own abuses. The question is what we do with that documentation.
Primary Sources
- DHS OIG Management Alert on ICE Detention - June 2019
- GAO Report on ICE Detention of US Citizens - July 2021
- DHS OIG Family Separation Report - September 2018
- HHS OIG Separated Children Report - January 2019
- GAO ICE Sexual Abuse Report - August 2020
- USCIS Medical Deferred Action Termination - August 2019
- GAO ICE Death Reporting - March 2016