"Despite the stated goal of processing deportations in an effort to cleanse the country of those the Trump administration deems undesirable, under the guise of enforcing the law, an ever-increasing number of people are ending up stuck in detention for ever longer periods. As the total population of detainees grows, overwhelmed immigration courts can't keep up, and the standard of care can only reasonably be expected to go in one direction."
"There are currently about 73,000 individual detainees facing deportation in ICE custody around the U.S. according to DHS data. By way of comparison, at the start of 2025 there were less than 40,000. The Trump administration, meanwhile, wants far more total detainees even though the nation's immigration courts are already critically understaffed and overwhelmed. As part of the "One Big Beautiful Bill," which allocated an insane $45 billion alone to expand detention space,"
ICE detainee numbers have climbed to roughly 73,000, more than double the count early in 2025. The administration seeks further increases in detention despite immigration courts being critically understaffed and backlogged. A large allocation—around $45 billion in the cited bill—aims to expand detention capacity, prompting the creation of makeshift facilities and numerous abuse complaints. Some facilities operate under state control, outside federal databases and oversight. Rising detention populations and longer stays correlate with worsening standards of care and increasing detainee deaths, and routine reporting on those deaths has reportedly ceased.
Read at Jezebel
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