The Federal Government Told ICE to Empty Torrance County Detention in 2022 and ICE Just Sent More People

The Federal Government’s Own Inspectors Said Get Everyone Out

In March 2022, the DHS Office of Inspector General did something it almost never does. It issued a management alert calling for the immediate removal of every person detained at the Torrance County Detention Facility in Estancia, New Mexico. The inspectors found conditions so dangerous they could not wait for a normal report cycle.

ICE ignored the recommendation. The facility never closed. By 2025, ICE was sending more people there.

What Inspectors Found

The OIG conducted an unannounced inspection in February 2022. The full report documented 14 standards violations. Here is what your tax dollars were paying for:

Finding	Detail
Staffing	54% of positions filled. 112 vacancies. Posts left unmanned.
Plumbing	53% of cells (83 of 157) had broken toilets or plumbing failures
Drinking water	People forced to drink from communal sinks meant for mop buckets
Medical care	Failed ICE detention standards for health services
Mold	Extensive growths and water leaks throughout the facility
Legal access	Detainees could not reach lawyers or use the law library

That means more than half the cells in this facility had plumbing so broken that people were living with sewage. CoreCivic, the private prison company that owns and operates Torrance, was being paid to provide conditions that its own client’s inspector general called unacceptable.

Someone Died Here

Five months after the OIG management alert, a 23-year-old Brazilian asylum seeker named Kesley Vial died by suicide at Torrance after spending nearly fourteen weeks detained — more than twice the average length of stay. He had received what investigators called inappropriate mental health care. In January 2026, CoreCivic settled the wrongful death suit rather than face trial.

Less than four months after Vial’s death, another man attempted suicide by hanging at the same facility.

The People Inside Are Telling You

In April 2026, roughly 200 people detained at Torrance signed a collective statement sent to the Albuquerque Journal:

“Today we raise our voices not as numbers, not as statistics, but as what we truly are: human beings. What we are experiencing is something else: a system that has turned human suffering into a business model.”

— Collective statement signed by approximately 200 detainees at TCDF, April 2026

Their specific complaints included drinking water delivered only twice a day in small containers, sewage flooding, racist mistreatment by guards, and retaliation against anyone who spoke up.

New Mexico Passed a Law and CoreCivic Found a Loophole

In February 2026, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the Immigrant Safety Act (HB9), which bans county governments from contracting with ICE to operate detention facilities. The law takes effect May 20, 2026.

Torrance County responded by extending its ICE contract the morning after the state senate voted to pass the ban. The county commission meeting lasted about two minutes.

Now CoreCivic is negotiating a direct contract with ICE that would cut Torrance County out entirely. Because HB9 only prohibits county contracts, a direct deal between a private company and a federal agency would sidestep the law. New Mexico legislators have warned that counties defying the bill could face legal action.

What You Can Do

Contact your members of Congress and ask them to support independent oversight of ICE detention facilities. Use the Immigration hub for current action links.
Support the Innovation Law Lab, which has led legal advocacy and documentation at Torrance for years. Their facility page tracks every development.
Follow the HB9 loophole fight. If CoreCivic signs a direct contract with ICE, legal challenges will follow. The New Mexico state page will track updates.
Share the detainees’ own words. The collective statement signed by 200 people is the most direct evidence of what is happening inside.
Ask your state legislature whether private prison companies operate ICE detention facilities in your state and whether your state law covers direct federal-to-private contracts.

Update, June 17, 2026: Legal service volunteers with Innovation Law Lab reported on June 17, 2026, that Torrance County Detention Facility currently holds 319 men, 297 of whom ICE classifies as having no criminal convictions. CoreCivic, the facility’s private operator, posted record profits in 2025 while continuing to accept new ICE transfers at the site.

Forty-six people have died in ICE detention centers nationwide since January 2025, and 10 of those deaths were suicides, all involving men, according to a commentary by sociologists Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo and Michael Messner published by Source New Mexico. Detainees at facilities across the country have begun organizing hunger strikes to protest conditions.

The Source New Mexico piece documents accounts from men held at Torrance, including a Cuban man who worked 17 years as a trauma nurse and an Angolan man employed as a caregiver for a disabled person in New England, both arrested and transferred to the facility in 2026.

Update, July 4, 2026: Estancia, New Mexico declared a water emergency last week after years of drought depleted wells in the Estancia Basin aquifer, and the town has since reduced water sales to the Torrance County Detention Facility. CoreCivic, the private contractor operating the facility, began trucking in water and told Inside Climate News that operations at the detention center have not been interrupted.

Estancia’s Board of Trustees passed a vote of no confidence in Mayor Runnel Riley, who stopped attending board meetings as the crisis deepened and has not returned calls from state lawmakers including Republican State Representative Stefani Lord, who represents Torrance and Bernalillo counties. The state has provided funding to drill a new well, and the town will open a 30-day bidding process this month to select a contractor.

The New Mexico Environment Department confirmed it is coordinating emergency response and requesting assistance from other state agencies to secure alternate water sources. Roy Hubbard, Estancia’s deputy clerk, said water supply to CoreCivic will be gradually restored once supply allows. More than 80 percent of the town’s water goes to commercial customers, though town officials have not disclosed CoreCivic’s specific share.