U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is detaining thousands of migrants for weeks at secret, unauthorized sites across the country, raising serious legal and human rights concerns, according to an investigation by The Guardian and Latin Times.
The investigation, which utilizes federal data, identifies at least 170 temporary detention sites across the United States, including 25 located within ICE field offices.
ICE originally designed these rooms for brief administrative procedures lasting only a few hours, often describing them as bare concrete spaces lacking beds, privacy, or sanitation facilities.
ICE originally designed these rooms for brief administrative procedures lasting only a few hours, often describing them as bare concrete spaces lacking beds, privacy, or sanitation facilities.
ICE’s internal policy had capped detentions at 12 hours. But in June 2025, an internal memo raised the limit to three days. The Guardian warns that ICE routinely violates even this window, exposing migrants to dangerous delays.
Inside a Manhattan federal building, detention times have surged almost 600 percent. A 62-year-old languished there for two and a half months. Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, at least 63 migrants have spent more than a week inside.
These unofficial sites avoid federal audits and inspections and fall outside official ICE detention standards. Attorneys and advocates remain barred from visiting detainees inside.
A former senior ICE official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Guardian: “These facilities were never designed for long-term stays. (…) It puts people at risk of sexual violence and medical neglect.”
ICE crowds about twenty detainees together in a harsh, fluorescent-lit Manhattan facility, where they sleep under emergency foil blankets without privacy. Migrants report spending days without access to showers, clean clothes, or legal counsel. A federal judge, responding to a complaint, has ordered ICE to provide mattresses, meals, toothbrushes, and legal assistance.
Human Rights Advocates Denounce “Abusive Practices”
As migrant arrivals surge, ICE officials defend makeshift facilities as necessary due to overcrowding. Rights advocates counter that the June memo seeks to retroactively legitimize abusive detention.
“It’s a way for ICE to give itself more leeway to detain people in conditions it knows are unsafe,” said Amelia Dagen, from the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights.
A Harvard and Physicians for Human Rights report warns that nearly 14,000 migrants have endured prolonged isolation, which amounts to “psychological torture” since April 2024.
According to Paige Austin of Make the Road New York, the practice underscores systemic failures within the immigration enforcement system:
“There is zero oversight. Blocking access to lawyers is shutting down transparency and accountability,” Austin said.
Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responded to The Guardian’s requests for comment.
These revelations have fueled a firestorm of criticism, with human rights groups warning that the immigration system is becoming increasingly opaque and prone to extreme rights violations.
These revelations have fueled a firestorm of criticism, with human rights groups warning that the immigration system is becoming increasingly opaque and prone to extreme rights violations.
