US immigration detention centers threaten health and human rights

Abstract

Unsafe conditions and abusive practices are systemic in immigration detention facilities, writes Vicki B Gaubeca “We had to sleep on a bus for two nights, sitting on hard seats and shackled,” and they “only allowed us to use the bathroom once” explained a man in his late 40s in an interview with Human Rights Watch. He was describing being held by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on a parked bus for almost 48 hours in front of the Krome North Service Processing Center near Miami, Florida, in March 2025. Experiences like this are part of a pattern of abusive and harmful practices and conditions in US detention facilities. In a new report, “You Feel Like Your Life is Over”: Abusive Practices at Three Florida Immigration Detention Centers Since January 2025 , Human Rights Watch, Americans for Immigrant Justice, and Sanctuary of the South documented the conditions and treatment of people detained at these centers.1 Everyone we interviewed said they had been held in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions and subjected to degrading treatment. Some described being denied prompt …