For the past year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been conducting deportations under the leadership of President Trump. With the goal of removing all non-citizens from the United States, ICE has infiltrated streets, hospitals, schools, and homes. Outfitted in black vests, boots, and balaclavas, ICE continues to violate not only the safety of illegal immigrants, but US citizens. All the while ignoring the very constitution they claim to protect.
Since Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, ICE has arrested 328,000 people and detained over 78,000, according to the American Immigration Council (AIC). This is a 75% increase from 2024, signifying a huge operational shift. Instead of the previously manageable numbers, hundreds of arrests are now being made daily, leading to mistakes and mismanagements.
According to AIC, as of November 2025, the Trump administration has built 104 new facilities for immigration detention across the country. Despite this growth, ICE has strongly reduced the number of detention facility inspections carried out by the Office of Detention Oversight. In other words, as the number of migrant detention facilities has increased, the number of safety reports have subsequently decreased.
This is made even more concerning when paired with the speed at which ICE has needed to construct new facilities to keep up with the number of detainees being brought in. Poorly built facilities combined with high demand has created unlawful conditions.
According to AIC, thousands of arrested immigrants are being detained in “hasilty-constructed tent camps” where conditions are “brutal”.
Incidents including family separation, inadequate food and water supplies, unsanitary living conditions, overcrowding, medical mismanagement, and prolonged detention are some of the results of the rapidly increasing detentions.
In coordination with Freedom For Immigrants, Erik Mercado, an ICE detainee, detailed his experience with trying to get medical assistance while in custody: “Every day, when I get my medications, I ask the nurse if there is any update regarding the critical health care that I’ve been requesting for months. Every day, they just tell me, ‘No.’”
Another example of ICE operational failure is that of Fort Bliss. Fort Bliss is the biggest ICE detention facility in the country, currently housing roughly 3,000 people. Despite its location in the scalding El Paso desert, detainees are housed in tent-like structures. According to witness accounts, a tent housing 60-70 people will only receive meals enough for 50, resulting in “chronic food shortages.” As reported by ACLU News, “People are forced to ration food, skip meals, or take turns eating—and when food is available, it is often spoiled or partially frozen.”
In addition to poor and sparse food, detainees also report conditions in which each tent is given little hygiene products, resulting in people going days without toilet paper, soap, showers, and clean clothes. This, coupled with extreme overcrowding, is creating unsafe living conditions for thousands of detainees.
Because of the inhumane conditions, it comes with no surprise that the number of deaths in ICE detention is at an all time high. With twenty three deaths last year, 2025 was officially the deadliest year in ICE detainment since 2003.
With recent budget decisions from the Trump Administration, ICE is planning a major expansion. Reports indicate they are looking at building eight large-scale facilities, with a capacity of 10,000 people, and 16 smaller-scale facilities with capacities ranging from 1,000 to 1,500 people. 75 billion dollars in taxpayer money will be awarded to ICE over the next four years, ensuring their rampant growth. This unfortunately means that the lack of oversight and abuse will continue as the number of people impacted continues to grow.
