Detention is expanding faster than anyone can watch
When Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, there were 39,000 people in ICE detention. By late August, that number reached a record 61,000. The administration conscripted local jails, federal prisons, and private companies to hold the overflow. It opened Camp East Montana on the grounds of Fort Bliss in Texas, which became the largest immigration detention center in the country.
Within its first 50 days, ICE’s own detention-oversight unit found that Camp East Montana violated at least 60 federal detention standards. Inspectors documented failures to screen for mental health risks and staff who did not perform required safety checks. Emergency 911 calls from the facility revealed at least six suicide attempts and at least 20 seizures.
Former detainees reported physical and sexual abuse, medical neglect, and intimidation to pressure them into signing self-deportation orders.
Three of the 25 people who died in ICE detention since October 2025 were held at Camp East Montana alone.
People are dying at rates not seen in two decades
| Year | Deaths in ICE custody |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 11 |
| 2025 | At least 32 |
| FY2026 (through March) | On pace to exceed 2025 |
At least 32 people died in ICE custody in 2025. That is triple the previous year and more deaths than occurred during the entire Biden administration. It is the highest annual total since 2004.
The cases have names. Brayan Rayo-Garzon, 27, was found unresponsive in his cell with a blanket around his neck. During his two weeks in detention, his mental health appointment was rescheduled twice. Jesus Molina-Veya was discovered with a cloth ligature tied to the bottom rail of a top bunk. Chaofeng Ge was found in a shower stall four days after his intake assessment. Victor Manuel Diaz, a Nicaraguan man, died at Camp East Montana under circumstances that remain disputed.
The office supposed to investigate these deaths (the DHS Civil Rights and Civil Liberties office) has had hundreds of staff cut. ICE inspections of its own facilities plummeted even as detentions soared. The people who are supposed to be watching are gone. Tell Congress to restore independent detention oversight.
Deported by mistake, imprisoned without trial, then indicted
The case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia tells the story of the entire enforcement system in miniature.
- March 15, 2025: Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man living in the United States with a legal order protecting him from removal to El Salvador, was deported and sent to CECOT, El Salvador’s maximum-security prison. The government later called it “an administrative error.” He had never been charged with or convicted of a crime in either country.
- April 2025: The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the government must “facilitate” his return. The administration stalled.
- June 6, 2025: The government finally brought Abrego Garcia back to the United States — and immediately indicted him on federal charges of “unlawful transportation of illegal aliens for financial gain.”
- February 17, 2026: A federal judge ruled that ICE could not re-detain him because there was no good reason to believe removal was likely.
”They didn’t try any legal channels where he could defend himself. They just put him on an airplane.”
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, attorney for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, PBS NewsHourThink about that sequence. A man with legal protection was deported by mistake to a prison in another country. The Supreme Court ordered the government to bring him back. The government complied — and then charged him with a crime. The message to anyone with a pending immigration case is clear: the system will not protect you even when the law says it must.
The Alien Enemies Act and flights to CECOT
In March 2025, the administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — a wartime law last used during World War II — to deport 238 Venezuelan men to El Salvador. They were sent to CECOT, a facility that holds prisoners in 24-hour lockdown with no access to lawyers. The United States paid El Salvador to take them.
A federal judge later ruled the deportations violated due process. The men were given no meaningful chance to contest their removal. A federal appeals court ruled the administration had illegally invoked the wartime law. But by then, the men were already in a foreign prison.
The diplomatic disputes spread beyond El Salvador. In January 2025, Colombia refused to accept two U.S. military planes carrying deportees. President Petro demanded they be “treated with decency.” Trump responded with tariff threats and visa sanctions. Colombia backed down within hours. Brazil accepted a deportation flight but filed a diplomatic complaint after deportees were reportedly handcuffed in degrading conditions during the flight, in violation of a bilateral agreement.
The pattern: deport first, deal with the legal consequences later, and use economic threats against any country that objects.
Asylum has been shut down at the border
On his first day back in office, the president declared a national emergency at the southern border and ended access to asylum. The administration cancelled approximately 30,000 scheduled CBP One appointments and closed the pathway for an estimated 200,000 to 270,000 asylum seekers in Mexico who were actively using the system.
The Migrant Protection Protocols (known as Remain in Mexico) were reinstated for a third time. This forces people who apply for asylum at the border to wait in Mexican border cities while their cases are processed. During the program’s first run, asylum seekers were exposed to kidnapping and extortion by criminal groups in northern Mexico.
The administration has also signed “safe third country” agreements with at least 10 nations, including Paraguay, Rwanda, Uganda, and Belize. These agreements allow the United States to send asylum seekers to countries they never passed through. A federal judge in Boston ruled in February 2026 that immigrants must be given meaningful notice and time to raise country-specific objections — but the agreements remain in effect while appeals continue.
The immigration court backlog has reached more than 2 million cases, with average wait times stretching to nearly 900 days. Some courts report waits exceeding four and a half years. People forced to remain in Mexico will wait in danger for years before a judge hears their case.
Local police are becoming immigration agents
On his first day in office, President Trump signed an executive order directing ICE to expand 287(g) agreements — the program that deputizes local police to enforce federal immigration law — “to the maximum extent permitted by law.”
The results have been dramatic. The number of 287(g) agreements has grown from 135 to more than 1,864 across 39 states. That is more than a 900% increase in less than 18 months.
In September 2025, ICE sweetened the deal. The agency announced it would pay the full salary and benefits of any trained 287(g) officer, plus startup costs and bonuses based on how many immigration arrests officers make. Performance bonuses for arrests. Think about the incentive structure that creates.
The administration also rescinded the sensitive-locations policy that had protected schools, churches, and hospitals from immigration enforcement since 2011. ICE agents now operate in and around all of these locations at their discretion. There have been widely reported arrests near schools in Denver and outside churches in Washington, D.C.
Nine states have now banned 287(g) agreements, with New Mexico, Maine, and Maryland enacting bans in 2025 and 2026. But in states that participate, a traffic stop can become a deportation proceeding.
| January 2025 | May 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Active agreements | 135 | 1,864+ |
| States participating | 21 | 39 |
| Federal payment per officer | Partial reimbursement | Full salary, benefits, overtime, plus arrest bonuses |
| Sensitive locations policy | Schools, churches, hospitals protected | Rescinded -- enforcement at officer discretion |
Families are being separated again
Between January 2025 and April 2026, an estimated 400,000 people were detained through interior arrests. Immigration arrests more than quadrupled in 2025, reaching the highest rates of immigration detention in U.S. history.
Brookings researchers estimate that approximately 205,000 children have been affected by a parent’s detention. About 145,000 of them are U.S. citizens. More than 22,000 children experienced the detention of every parent they lived with — meaning there was no one left at home.
Physicians for Human Rights found that most deported parents were never asked if they had children. Dozens were deported within four or five days of being detained. In April 2025 alone, more than 8,000 children aged 11 or younger received deportation orders.
This is not the family separation policy of 2018, which had a name and a directive to reverse. This separation happens as a side effect of speed. Arrests move so fast that nobody stops to ask whether there are children at home.
Who This Affects
Sofia, Houston, TX
Sofia is 9 and a U.S. citizen. She was born in Houston. Her father, a construction worker with a pending asylum case, was picked up by ICE at a traffic stop in October 2025 under a 287(g) agreement between the county sheriff and federal authorities. He was transferred to a detention center 300 miles away. Nobody asked if he had children. Sofia's school called her mother when she did not get picked up. Her father was deported to Guatemala five days later. He had never been convicted of a crime. Sofia has not seen him since. Her mother stopped driving to work for two months because she was afraid of being pulled over.
Based on documented cases and public data.
Congress handed ICE the largest enforcement budget in history
In July 2025, Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and handed Immigration and Customs Enforcement the largest funding surge in the agency’s history. ICE’s base budget was already around $10 billion. The new law added $75 billion in supplemental funding that ICE can spend over four years. $45 billion goes to detention expansion and $30 billion to staffing and bonuses. At a steady pace, the agency will have nearly $29 billion on hand each year. That is more than the FBI’s entire budget.
By the end of 2025, ICE was 30% larger than it was in January. The law calls for a force of 30,000 within four years. The Senate pushed the package through without accountability measures. No independent oversight. No limits on how the money gets spent.
Budgets are policy. This is the largest expansion of domestic law enforcement in American history, and it happened with almost no public debate.
Protect yourself right now
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Know your rights and share them. If ICE comes to your door, you do not have to open it without a judicial warrant signed by a judge. You have the right to remain silent. The ACLU’s Know Your Rights resources apply to everyone regardless of immigration status.
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Support local resistance. If your city or state is considering a 287(g) agreement, show up to the public hearing. If your state has banned the program, thank the officials who voted for it. Local decisions determine whether your police department becomes an arm of ICE.
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Help someone who is afraid. Drive a neighbor to a legal consultation. Help a family make a safety plan. Share information in your community about what to do if a family member is detained. The most effective thing you can do is make sure one more person knows their rights.
Last updated June 4, 2026