Immigrants from El Salvador and Guatemala who entered the country illegally prepare to board a bus after they were released from a family detention center in San Antonio in July.

Immigrants from El Salvador and Guatemala who entered the country illegally prepare to board a bus after they were released from a family detention center in San Antonio in July. Eric Gay/AP

A New Report Details the Harrowing Conditions of U.S. Immigrant Detention Centers

A new government report details the rights violations in government-run and private facilities.

Mirabel was 16 when her alcoholic father attacked her with a machete. It was the latest incident of violence she and her family had faced at the hands of her father, and the last straw for her. She left her home in Honduras and made her way to America. In an interview with Politico, she recalls her risky decision:

“We all know the stories of women who get raped or die in the desert,” Mirabel told me. “But I couldn’t stay. I had no life there.”

Like Mirabel, thousands of people try to cross the U.S. borders illegally to escape the horror and pain in their home countries. But if they get caught and detained by the U.S. Border Patrol—as Mirabel briefly was—they might end up facing an even more terrible fate than the one they’re running from, according to a new report by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.

Here’s how the report puts it:

While these immigrants migrate to the United States to escape harsh living conditions, once they cross the U.S. border without authorization and proper documentation, the federal government apprehends and detains these individuals in conditions that are similar, if not worse, than the conditions they faced from their home countries.

In 2013, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials detained more than400,000 people for varying amounts of time (below, top). This number has been climbing in recent years (below, bottom), in part because of tightening border security.

U.S. Civil Rights Commission

Center for Migration Studies

In theory, detention is temporary and for administrative purposes only. In reality, apprehended children are often detained for longer periods of timethan necessary. They are separated from their families and exposed to conditions that don’t meet government’s child-protection standards. Adults, meanwhile, are “held in conditions similar to criminal incarceration in violation of standards of civil detention,” the report says.

Here are some highlights from the report that describe the deplorable conditions at these facilities.

Medical negligence

While Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials maintain that they have taken steps to ensure that government- and private-run facilities meet medicalstandards, the commission finds evidence to the contrary. Medical care is delayed and often denied to detainees, in both private and government facilities.

The report mentions the case of a 46-year-old detainee in a private Denver facility, for example, who succumbed to a heart attack because of lack of access to immediate medical care. It also cites the testimony of journalist Maria Hinojosa, who has investigated abuses at detention facilities. In it, she explains how a detainee named Andre, who suffered from bipolar disorder, was overmedicated by the medical staff:

He was given pills and he was asleep for 36 hours. At some point during that time Andre fell off of his top bunk and fell on his head on the concrete floor. He broke his eye socket bone and his testicle ruptured.

Unlivable conditions

According to the report, many detainees called their cells “hieleras,” or freezers, because they were far too cold. The detainees also got inadequate food and water, and faced unhygienic living conditions.  

“Andre told me about once seeing a detainee fighting with a rat over his food,” Hinojosa reports in her testimony.

Shoddy handling of sexual abuse cases

The commission found many instances of young female and LGBTQ detainees being sexually abused by guards while in custody. The handling of these cases by detention officials was extremely opaque, according to the report.

Ill-treatment of LGBTQ detainees

The abuse and mistreatment of transgender detainees at these detention centers is well-documented. Transgender women are often locked up with men, making them targets for sexual, physical, and emotional violence. The report also found that facilities often isolated transgender detainees as a way of protecting them. Here’s Barbra Perez, a transgender detainee put in solitary confinement after she told authorities she feared the male inmates, via aFusion investigative report:

“When you're in solitary confinement it starts to break you down,” Perez said of her 20 days in a cell alone. Desperation, anxiety and depression started to eat away at her will.

(Earlier this year, ICE released a new directive which allows transgender detainees to be housed according to their gender identity, not the gender assigned to them at birth.)

Religious freedoms and legal rights violated

In many cases, detainees’ First Amendment right to exercise free religion was ignored. Muslim detainees, for example, often had their daily prayers interrupted.

Detainee rights to due process, a fundamental Constitutional right everyone on American soil is entitled to, were also grossly undermined. Here are some of the ways in which these violations occurred, via the report:

Practices at detention facilities, including requiring detainees to pay for telephone calls to their attorneys, inhibit the detainees’ Due Process rights, including access to counsel, assistance of counsel, and allowing working conditions for counsel which allow them to perform their jobs efficiently and thoroughly.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.