An immigration processing center in California City, California, at right, will be reopened as an ICE immigrant detention facility.
Photo by Patrick Fallon, courtesy AFP/Getty Images.
“Creating conditions that fall below a constitutional minimum — it violates people’s rights.”
— Michelle LaPointe
The Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants has driven the number of people in immigration detention to a record high — exceeding the system’s intended capacity by more than 140%.
As the detained population grows, public health experts warn that overcrowding will deepen existing problems of dangerous living conditions and inadequate medical care.
As of July, nearly 60,000 people are being held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities. The agency’s footprint is set to grow even larger, with $45 billion allocated over the next four years to build new detention centers — a 265% jump from the current detention budget.
Despite the massive investment of funds, reports from inside detention centers show serious problems with health and safety. Among those who are speaking out is Amilcar Valencia, who has spent the last 15 years supporting people with family members held in Stewart Detention Center, in Lumpkin, Georgia, which is one of the largest immigration detention facilities in the country.
“One of the most common things that we hear is that individuals who are dealing with serious medical conditions are not getting the proper attention on time,” Valencia, co-founder and executive director of the non-profit organization El Refugio, told The Nation’s Health.
Poor living conditions at the detention facility were detailed in a 2023 civil rights complaint filed by Freedom for Immigrants and signed by more than 120 people detained at the facility. The complaint describes “inhumane and unlivable” conditions, including unsafe and inedible food, broken toilets that staff reportedly ignored, and multiple instances of medical negligence. Valencia said many abuses go unreported.
A woman interacts with law enforcement outside the entrance of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles in July. Demonstrators were protesting federal immigration operations.
Photo by Etienne Laurent, courtesy AFP/Getty Images
“They suffer in silence because no one knows what is happening to them,” Valencia said.
The new immigrant detention facility known as Alligator Alcatraz that opened in the Florida Everglades in July has also drawn condemnation for its harsh conditions and potentially unsafe location.
“Building a bare-bones tented detention center on hot tarmac in the middle of the Everglades and exposing imprisoned immigrants to the elements is a cruel and absurd proposal,” Melissa Abdo, PhD, the National Parks Conservation Association’s Sun Coast regional director said in a news release. “The Everglades’ intense heat, humidity and storms can be hazardous without proper precautions. This facility’s remote, harsh nature could leave people in very real danger, especially as Florida’s heat index skyrockets and hurricane season escalates.”
In July, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Trump administration over Alligator Alcatraz, citing inhumane conditions. The more than 700 people already held at the facility were subject to mosquitoes, spoiled food, poor sanitation and inadequate water, and blocked from accessing legal counsel, the organization said.
“This facility opens another dark chapter in our nation’s history,” Eunice Cho, senior counsel with the ACLU’s National Prison Project and the lead attorney in the case, said in a news release. “Its very existence is predicated on our country’s basest impulses and shows the danger of unchecked governmental authority when combined with unbridled hate.”
Inadequate care and conditions in detention facilities not only worsen existing health conditions. They also take a significant toll on mental health and well-being, Stacy Suh, program director at Detention Watch Network, told The Nation’s Health.
Demonstrators protest the new hastily constricted Alligator Alcatraz immigrant detention facility in Florida in June.
Photo by Giorgio Viera, courtesy AFP/Getty Images
“People are having a really hard time finding their loved ones in detention,” Suh said. “Part of the devastating impact on mental health for people who are detained is that they’re isolated and separated.”
People housed in immigrant detention centers report high rates of poor physical health, mental illness and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a study published in January in JAMA Network Open. The study also found that the longer someone was detained, the more severe the health effects became.
The current federal fiscal year, which began in October, could be one of the deadliest in immigration detention in recent decades. As of July, 13 deaths have been reported, surpassing the 12 deaths reported in fiscal year 2024.
Most of the deaths could have been prevented, according to a June 2024 report by the American Civil Liberties Union, American Oversight and Physicians for Human Rights. Nearly 95% of deaths in detention centers between 2017 and 2021 were preventable or potentially preventable with proper medical care.
Katherine McKenzie, MD, FACP, associate professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine and a reviewer of the report, said systemic issues, chronic underfunding and clinical staff working beyond their training are some of the contributors to deaths in detention.
“Detention facilities are not capable or set up to provide care to people who have any significant chronic illnesses and who have significant acute illnesses,” McKenzie told The Nation’s Health.
The Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants shows no signs of slowing. Under the federal fiscal year 2026 budget, the U.S. has allotted $170 billion over the next four years for immigration and border enforcement, tripling ICE’s budget.
The funds may also be used for family detention. Daily detention capacity could rise to 116,000 people — nearly three times the current capacity of 41,000, according to the American Immigration Council.
Public health advocates fear more detentions will exacerbate existing issues and cause worse health outcomes for people in detention.
“Immigration detention is a public health crisis because people’s well-being and lives are in jeopardy anytime someone is in immigration detention,” Suh said.
With the unprecedented budget increase, ICE is set to operate with expansive funding and limited oversight, Michelle LaPointe, JD, legal director at the American Immigration Council, told The Nation’s Health.
By law, ICE is required to follow the Performance-Based National Detention Standards, which establishes minimum requirements for conditions in detention centers, including health screenings, disease prevention, health education, diagnosis, access to medical services and timely follow-up care. But the guidelines are not particularly enforceable, LaPointe said.
Adding to concerns, two Department of Homeland Security departments that oversaw complaints from detention centers and provided oversight were gutted by Trump officials in March.
“Creating conditions that fall below a constitutional minimum — it violates people’s rights,” she said.
Public health professionals have played a crucial role in advocating for adequate care and improved conditions for people held in immigration detention in the past.
Suh encouraged health and human rights advocates to continue to speak out during the current crisis and use their “platform and expertise of a public health professional to speak in support of and in defense of immigrants.”
American attitudes on immigration have been shifting. As raids, detentions and deportments ramped up under the Trump administration this year, major protests have become commonplace. In a July Gallup poll, a record-high 79% of U.S. adults said immigration was a good thing for the nation, with only 21% of people saying they approved of President Donald Trump’s handling of immigration.
For more information, visit www.detentionwatchnetwork.org.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
