facilities

Oct. 19 (UPI) — Former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., a convicted fraudster and identity thief, has said he will work to reform U.S. prisons, having been released from a penitentiary Friday by President Donald Trump.

Trump commuted Santos’s seven-year sentence for wire fraud and identity theft, the latest in a series of moves by Trump to exonerate associates and Republicans involved in criminal activity.

Santos was expelled from the U.S. House in 2023 after refusing to resign following a scathing ethics investigation uncovered his criminal activity. In an interview with the Washington Post, Santos called his time in federal prison “dehumanizing” and “humbling.”

The former representative admitted to stealing the identities of 11 people, including his own family members. He served 84 days in prison before being exonerated by Trump and released from prison Friday night. He also admitted that he embellished and fabricated his biography during his run for Congress in 2020.

Santos called the prison system, and the facility where he was housed, FCI Fairton in N.J., as “broken” with “rotting facilities, and administrators who seem incapable or unwilling to correct it.” He said a large hole in the ceiling exposed “thick, black mold,” and claimed broken air-conditioning systems forced inmates to endure sweltering heat.

“The building itself is hardly fit for long-term habitation: sheet metal walls, shoddy construction, the look and feel of a temporary warehouse rather than a permanent facility,” Santos wrote on The South Shore Press website while he was incarcerated.

As part of his plea deal, Santos agreed to pay $600,000 in restitution and forfeiture costs.

Santos pushed back on critics who claim the former congressman is not being held accountable for his crimes, and said that, beyond repentance, he has “dealt a second chance.”

“I understand people want to make this into “he’s getting away with it. I’m not getting away with it,” Santos said following his release. “I was the first person ever to go to federal prison for a civil violation … I don’t want to focus on trying to rehash the past and want to take the experience and do good and move on with the future.

In announcing Santo’s commutation on social media, Trump claimed that the former congressman had been “horribly mistreated,” and that “at least” the former representative had the “Courage, Conviction, and intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!”

Santos, 37, served fewer than three months of his seven year sentence. He said he has no plans to re-enter politics and would do his best to repay campaign donors based on “whatever the law requires of me.”

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a new Trump administration policy to keep migrant children in detention after they turn 18, moving quickly to stop transfers to adult facilities that advocates said were scheduled for this weekend.

U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras on Saturday issued a temporary restraining order to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement not to detain any child who came to the country alone and without permission in ICE adult detention facilities after they become an adult.

The Washington, D.C., judge found that such automatic detention violates a court order he issued in 2021 barring such practices.

ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond Saturday to emails seeking comment.

The push to detain new adults is yet another battle over one of the most sensitive issues in President Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda — how to treat children who cross the border unaccompanied by adults.

The Associated Press reported Friday that officials are offering migrant children age 14 and older $2,500 to voluntarily return to their home countries. Last month a separate federal judge blocked attempts to immediately deport Guatemalan migrant children who came to the U.S. alone back to their home country. Some children had been put on board planes in that late-night operation before a judge blocked it.

“All of these are pieces of the same general policy to coerce immigrant youth into giving up their right to seek protection in the United States,” said Michelle Lapointe, a lawyer for the American Immigration Council, one of the groups that asked Contreras to intervene in a filing made early Saturday, just after midnight.

Unaccompanied children are held in shelters run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which isn’t part of ICE. Contreras’ 2021 order instructed federal officials to release minors who turn 18 from those shelters to “the least restrictive setting available.” He ruled that that is what’s required by federal law as long as the minor isn’t a danger to themselves or others and isn’t a flight risk. Minors are often released to the custody of a relative, or maybe into foster care.

But lawyers who represent unaccompanied minors said they began getting word in the last few days that ICE was telling shelters that children who were about to turn 18 — even those who had already-approved release plans — could no longer be released and would instead be taken to detention facilities, possibly as early as Saturday. One email from ICE asserted that the new adults could only be released by ICE under its case-by-case parole authority for “urgent humanitarian reasons” or “significant public benefit.” From March through September, ICE has paroled fewer than 500 people overall.

The plaintiffs argued that “release on parole is all but a dead letter” and that children aging out of shelters would experience lasting harm from unnecessary and inappropriate adult detention” in jails that might be overcrowded or in remote locations. The plaintiffs said that was especially true because some of the clients they cited had been victims of trafficking or had been abused, neglected or abandoned by their parents.

U.S. border authorities have arrested children crossing the border without parents more than 400,000 times since October 2021. A 2008 law requires them to appear before an immigration judge before being returned to their countries.

Children have been spending more time in government-run shelters since the Trump administration put them under closer scrutiny before releasing them to family in the United States to pursue their immigration cases.

The additional scrutiny includes fingerprinting, DNA testing and home visits by immigration officers. Over the summer, immigration officers started showing up and arresting parents.

The average length of stay at government-run shelters for those released in the U.S. was 171 days in July, down from a peak of 217 days in April but well above 37 days in January, when Trump took office.

Amy writes for the Associated Press.

The city’s Democratic mayor says there is no need for the US president to send federal forces.

United States President Donald Trump has authorised the deployment of troops to the northwestern city of Portland, Oregon, as well as to federal immigration facilities around the country, in his latest controversial use of the military for domestic purposes.

Writing on his Truth Social network on Saturday, the US president said he would be asking his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, to carry out the order, adding that the soldiers would be permitted to use “full force, if necessary”.

Trump claimed the move was necessary to protect “war-ravaged” Portland and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities from “domestic terrorists”, but the city’s mayor and other Democratic leaders were quick to condemn the decision.

Just days before Trump’s announcement on Saturday, a deadly shooting took place at an ICE facility in Texas. One detainee was killed and two others were severely injured in the attack, which Trump blamed, without providing evidence, on the “radical left”.

Protests against the US government’s anti-immigration policies have taken place outside ICE facilities in cities, including Portland.

It was unclear whether just the National Guard or other military branches, or both – as happened in June in Los Angeles, amid protests against immigration raids, will be deployed to Portland.

The US government has also deployed troops to the US capital, Washington, DC, in what Trump claimed was a bid to stamp out crime.

Portland and state leaders lambasted Trump on Saturday, saying his actions were against their wishes. By law, the National Guard can generally only be deployed at a state governor’s request, and there are ongoing lawsuits in California as well as Washington, DC over the deployment of troops.

“The number of necessary troops is zero, in Portland and any other American city. The president will not find lawlessness or violence here unless he plans to perpetrate it,” said Keith Wilson, the mayor of Portland.

Meanwhile, US Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, noted Trump’s decision to send federal forces to the city in 2020, after protests broke out there following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Wyden said on X that Trump “may be replaying the 2020 playbook and surging into Portland with the goal of provoking conflict and violence”.

Despite Trump’s claims about Portland, overall violent crime in the city was down by 17 percent from January to June, when compared with the first six months of 2024, according to a recent report from the Major Cities Chiefs Association.

On Friday, after securing her place in Sunday’s 800m final, Hodgkinson said she may have to change her routine.

She said: “With the whole warm-up situation, you’re warming up for almost two hours.

“It can be quite draining, so maybe we will have to look at doing something better come Sunday.”

Last week, American middle-distance runner Nikki Hiltz described it as “weird”, adding: “It’s definitely not usual, but we’re all in the same boat.”

Jamaican coach Stephen Francis was more critical. In an interview with his country’s TVJ news channel, Francis described what he felt were a number of logistical issues, including the “distance from the stadium to the warm-up track”.

He added: “Those areas of a meet are not befitting the top meet of the year for World Athletics.”

A World Athletics statement said: “The athlete experience is of utmost importance for World Athletics and the local organising committee at these World Athletics Championships, and we have put a lot of consideration into their preparations within the constraints of locations and venues.

“This type of configuration is not unique – as we have seen from previous Olympic Games and other major athletics championships.

“The rules regarding warm-up, call room and transport apply to every team and every athlete without exception.

“The brilliant performances we have seen so far from the athletes speak for themselves.”

A TikTok travel influencer has shared her “favourite” trick for enjoying five-star accommodations and facilities around the world on a budget, with a single-purchase day pass

A budget-conscious travel influencer has shared one of her top tips for being “bougie on a budget”. This little-known hack allows travellers to enjoy luxury service without the hefty price tag.

Em, aka @emsbudgettravel on TikTok, frequently shares cost-efficient travel advice and tips with her over 100,000 followers. On a recent solo trip to Mumbai, the content creator disclosed one of her favourite hacks to indulge without breaking the bank.

At the tail end of her trip, Em booked herself into a five-star hotel—but only for a day. In her TikTok video she shares: “As my flight isn’t until this evening, I thought I’d treat myself with a day pass to a five-star hotel.”

The travel influencer shared that while “hotels rarely advertise” the day passes, but she opts for them “all the time” during her many adventures.

“It’s perfect if you have a flight home in the evening as it means you don’t have to drag your bags around the city after you’ve checked out,” Em said. She also emphasises that the often cushy accommodations are a “great way to relax after a busy trip.”

This hack is a great way to experience a hotel you may not otherwise be able to afford. “It’s usually way cheaper than actually staying the night, but you still get full use of the facilities,” she confirmed.

Em strategically booked her day pass for the Aurika by Lemon Tree Hotel, which sits conveniently close to the Mumbai airport. “Literally [the] perfect location as well,” she said, “so I can go straight there in the evening and I don’t have to worry about traffic.

But what exactly is the price for a day pass at a five-star hotel? “It cost me £36 for the day rate—and that’s per room, not per person,” Em states. “So if you’re travelling with someone else, it would be even cheaper.”

In her TikTok video, Em shared footage of her luxe single room and the pool area where she was able to relax and recharge before her evening flight. “The room was really nice and I got food delivered for lunch,” she said, which amounted to a cost of £5.

During her day, she “spent a few hours chilling by the pool and having a swim” heading back to the room to take a very long shower, wash her hair and enjoy a nap before catching an Uber to the airport.

She ended the video by saying how she felt it was an “excellent” way to spend her final day in Mumbai.

To get access to a day pass like Em, you can head to Resort Pass, DayPass and Hotel Treats—these are only some of the apps offering a day’s access to facilities for around £30.

Sept. 8 (UPI) — State officials in Louisiana, Indiana and Nebraska are taking cues from Florida’s so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” to expand detention space for immigrants.

More than 61,000 immigrants are in detention in the United States as of the latest update on Aug. 24 by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan research center at Syracuse University. About 70% of detainees have no criminal convictions.

President Donald Trump has claimed through his campaign and into his current term in the White House that his immigration policy will focus on detaining and deporting criminals he deems “the worst of the worst.” According to TRAC Reports, only 1.55% of new deportation orders in fiscal year 2025 were based on alleged criminal activity.

After Florida’s pop-up detention facility in the Everglades, “Alligator Alcatraz,” garnered the attention and support of federal officials, including the president, officials in other states have proposed their own plans to detain immigrants.

ICE’s plan to expand detention

At stake for those states is a share of the $45 billion infusion of federal funds into detention and deportation efforts approved by Congress in its budget reconciliation package.

The funding aims to expand detention space for immigrants, adding 80,000 new beds.

“Maintaining current bedspace is critical for enforcing immigration law and removing illegal aliens form the United States,” a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson told UPI. “As ICE arrests and removes criminal illegal aliens and public safety threats from the U.S., the agency has worked diligently to obtain greater necessary detention space while avoiding overcrowding.”

Being in the United States without authorization is a civil offense, not a crime.

The ICE spokesperson said ICE has the funding to bring more than 60 new detention facilities online for immigrant detention. It has already made arrangements for 18,000 additional detention beds, some of which are active and others are pending.

Names like “Cornhusker Clink” in Nebraska, or Indiana’s proposed “Speedway Slammer” downplay the conditions that detainees are dealing with, who largely have not committed a crime or who have already served their punishment for past crimes, critics say.

“We see this in other countries who have experienced mass atrocities,” Haddy Gassama, senior policy counsel in the ACLU’s National Policy Advocacy Department, told UPI. “It’s dehumanizing, making light of or sanitizing something so horrific. It is also worrisome in the sense that some of these states are seeing this as an opportunity to either attempt to get some federal revenue into their states at the risk of a whole bunch of other issues, or to be in this administration’s good graces.”

The Department of Homeland Security is embracing the idea of more new detention space. Last month it announced new partnerships with the states of Nebraska, Indiana and Louisiana. In its press releases announcing these partnerships, DHS credits “Alligator Alcatraz” as the inspiration for new detention spaces.

Unlike “Alligator Alcatraz,” these states are looking to existing facilities for expand detention space.

“Louisiana Lockup”

The Louisiana State Penitentiary is making 416 beds available for ICE detention. The prison, also known as Angola Prison, is the largest maximum security prison system in the United States.

The U.S. State Department’s 2023 report on the prison noted “significant human rights issues” that included arbitrary and unlawful killings, cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners and life-threatening prison conditions.

“Angola has a long and storied history,” Silky Shah, executive director of the Detention Watch Network, told UPI. “As somebody who started doing this work many years ago and growing up in Texas, the story of Angola and the people who had been put in solitary confinement for decades and the ‘Angola Three’ was such a central story to learning about this prison system and the harms of the prison system.”

Three Black men — Robert Hilary King, Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace — became known as the Angola Three after spending more than 40 years in solitary confinement at Angola Prison. Woodfox was the last to be released from prison in 2016.

“Federal intervention has happened around Angola. Really one of the worst facilities in the world,” Shah said.

More than 4,000 inmates are detained at the Angola Prison. The average daily population between 2022 and 2023 was 4,716, according to a report by a Prison Rape Elimination Act auditor.

The “Louisiana Lockup” detentions will take place in Camp J, a four-building section of the penitentiary that has been closed for several years. When it was in operation, it was referred to as the “Dungeon” due to much of its space being dedicated to solitary confinement.

“The question is are they going to put in the investment to bring it up to constitutional standards before they start putting people in there?” Joseph Margulies, professor of practice in the Department of Government at Cornell University. “In their zeal to be cruel to people, are they going to cut these corners around conditions?”

As an attorney, Margulies represented prisoners who were held at Guantanamo Bay after Sept. 11 in the first case brought against the administration of President George W. Bush regarding post-Sept. 11 detainments.

Eight Black inmates sued the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, the Louisiana State Penitentiary and the state’s Department of Public Safety and Corrections for alleged racist mistreatment while performing forced labor at the prison. They are suing on behalf of others who are similarly situated, according to court filings.

The men work on Farm Line 24/25, a work assignment that places inmates in the prison’s agriculture fields picking crops. The men allege they have been subject to racist epithets from guards, told to defecate out in the open fields and threatened to be hanged.

The lawsuit alleges that working on the Farm Line is an Eighth Amendment violation because it subjects inmates to cruel and unusual punishment, due to working in dangerous heat and overall poor conditions.

They also alleged it was a Thirteenth Amendment violation because it subjected them to involuntary servitude as punishment. A judge dismissed this claim.

Nebraska’s “Cornhusker Clink”

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen said in a statement on Aug. 19, announcing that the McCook Work Ethic Camp in McCook, Neb., will be converted into an immigrant detention facility. The camp is located on the outskirts of the community in rural Southern Nebraska.

McCook has a population of about 7,400 according to the 2020 census.

“I am pleased that our facility and team in McCook can be tasked with helping our federal partners protect our homeland by housing criminal illegal aliens roaming our country’s communities today,” Pillen said. “I am also proud that the Nebraska State Patrol and National Guard will be assisting ICE enforcement efforts, as well.”

A Nebraska legislative report on the McCook Work Ethic Camp, published in November, said it was once referred to as an incarceration work camp. It is meant to reduce prison overcrowding so there is space for violent offenders.

The facility began accepting probation offenders in 2001. It used to house male and female detainees but since 2013 it has only accepted males.

The McCook Work Ethic Camp has 200 beds. At the time of the November report, 197 people were housed there.

The press release from the Department of Homeland Security says it will expand to 280 beds for immigrant detainees.

Indiana’s “Speedway Slammer”

Indiana is adding 1,000 beds for immigrant detention at the Miami Correctional Facility in Bunker Hill, Ind. The facility is located about 3 miles southwest of the small, rural town.

Bunker Hill had a population of 888 people during the 2020 census.

Annie Goeller, chief communications officer for the Indiana Department of Correction, told UPI there is not yet a timeline for beginning to detain immigrants at the facility.

“We do not have a timeline yet and are determining details, including funding,” she said.

The facility is designed to hold 3,188 detainees at full capacity. According to a 2024 report by a Prison Rape Elimination Act auditor there was an average daily population of 1,424 for the 12 months ending in September 2024.

There were 10 allegations of staff-on-inmate sexual abuse that resulted in criminal investigations at the facility. One was referred for prosecution and three more were ongoing at the time of the report.

The facility was determined to be compliant with the Prison Rape Elimination Act, a federal zero-tolerance standard for sexual abuse and harassment in U.S. prisons. The auditor confirmed that inmates have multiple ways of reporting abuse, also meeting minimum standards.

The auditor noted that in at least one instance it was unclear if a victim was provided the opportunity to connect with a victim advocate. The victim was airlifted to a local hospital with serious injuries including likely head trauma. As corrective action, the facility’s staff must document whether or not an advocate is offered to victims of violence and sexual abuse.

The prison was also deemed to have met standards for access to emergency medical and mental health services and for accommodating detainees with disabilities and detainees who have limited English proficiency.

WASHINGTON — Mattresses on the floor, next to bunk beds, in meeting rooms and gymnasiums. No access to a bathroom or drinking water. Hourlong lines to buy food at the commissary or to make a phone call.

These are some of the conditions described by lawyers and the people held at immigrant detention facilities around the country over the last few months. The number of detained immigrants surpassed a record 60,000 this month. A Los Angeles Times analysis of public data shows that more than a third of ICE detainees have spent time in an overcapacity dedicated detention center this year.

In the first half of the year, at least 19 out of 49 dedicated detention facilities exceeded their rated bed capacity and many more holding facilities and local jails exceeded their agreed-upon immigrant detainee capacity. During the height of arrest activity in June, facilities that were used to operating with plenty of available beds suddenly found themselves responsible for the meals, medical attention, safety and sleeping space for four times as many detainees as they had the previous year.

“There are so many things we’ve seen before — poor food quality, abuse by guards, not having clean clothes or underwear, not getting hygiene products,” said Silky Shah, executive director of Detention Watch Network, a coalition that aims to abolish immigrant detention. “But the scale at which it’s happening feels greater, because it’s happening everywhere and people are sleeping on floors.”

Shah said there’s no semblance of dignity now. “I’ve been doing this for many years; I don’t think I even had the imagination of it getting this bad,” she added.

Shah said conditions have deteriorated in part because of how quickly this administration scaled up arrests. It took the first Trump administration more than two years to reach its peak of about 55,0000 detainees in 2019.

Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the allegations about inhumane detention conditions false and a “hoax.” She said the agency has significantly expanded detention space in places such as Indiana and Nebraska and is working to rapidly remove detainees from those facilities to their countries of origin.

McLaughlin emphasized that the department provides comprehensive medical care, but did not respond to questions about other conditions.

Detainees do stretches outdoors as a helicopter flies overhead at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Krome detention center in Miami on July 4, 2025.

(Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press)

At the Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami, the maximum number of detainees in a day in 2024 was 615, four more than the rated bed capacity of 611. In late June of this year, the detainee population reached 1,961, more than three times the capacity. The facility, which is near the Everglades, spent 161 days in the beginning of the year with more people to house than beds.

Miami attorney Katie Blankenship of the legal aid organization Sanctuary of the South represents people detained at Krome. Last month, she saw nine Black men piled into a visitation room, surrounded with glass windows, that holds a small table and four chairs. They had pushed the table against the wall and spread a cardboard box flat across the floor, where they were taking turns sleeping.

The men had no access to a bathroom or drinking water. They stood because there was no room to sit.

Blankenship said three of the men put their documents up to the window so she could better understand their cases. All had overstayed their visas and were detained as part of an immigration enforcement action, not criminal proceedings.

Another time, Blankenship said, she saw an elderly man cramped up in pain, unable to move, on the floor of a bigger room. Other men put chairs together and lifted him so he could rest more comfortably while guards looked on, she said.

Blankenship visits often enough that people held in the visitation and holding rooms recognize her as a lawyer whenever she walks by. They bang on the glass, yell out their identification numbers and plead for help, she said.

“These are images that won’t leave me,” Blankenship said. “It’s dystopian.”

Krome is unique in the dramatic fluctuation of its detainee population. On Feb. 18, the facility saw its biggest single-day increase. A total of 521 individuals were booked in, most transferred from hold rooms across the state, including Orlando and Tampa. Hold rooms are temporary spaces for detainees to await further processing for transfers, medical treatment or other movement into or out of a facility. They are to be used to hold individuals for no more than 12 hours.

On the day after its huge influx, Krome received a waiver exempting the facility from the requirement to log hold room activity. But it never resumed the logs. Homeland Security did not respond to a request for an explanation of the exception.

After reaching their first peak of 1,764 on March 16, the trend reversed.

Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) visited Krome on April 24. In the weeks before the visit, hundreds of detainees were transferred out. Most were moved to other facilities in Florida, some to Texas and Louisiana.

“When those lawmakers came around, they got rid of a whole bunch of detainees,” said Blankenship’s client Mopvens Louisdor.

The 30-year-old man from Haiti said conditions started to deteriorate around March as hundreds of extra people were packed into the facility.

Staffers are so overwhelmed that for detainees who can’t leave their cells for meals, he said, “by the time food gets to us, it’s cold.”

Also during this time, from April 29 through May 1, the facility underwent a compliance inspection conducted by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Detention Oversight. Despite the dramatic reduction in the population, the inspection found several issues with crowding and meals. Some rooms exceeded the 25-person capacity for each and some hold times were nearly double the 12-hour limit. Inspectors observed detainees sleeping on the hold room floors without pillows or blankets. Staffers had not recorded offering a meal to the detainees in the hold rooms for more than six hours.

Hold rooms are not designed for long waits

ICE detention standards require just 7 square feet of unencumbered space for each detainee. Seating must provide 18 inches of space per detainee.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Sanitary and medical attention were also areas of concern noted in the inspection. In most units, there were too many detainees for the number of toilets, showers and sinks. Some medical records showed that staffers failed to complete required mental and medical health screenings for new arrivals, and failed to complete tuberculosis screenings.

Detainees have tested positive for tuberculosis at facilities such as the Anchorage Correctional Complex in Alaska and the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California. McLaughlin, the Homeland Security assistant secretary, said that detainees are screened for tuberculosis within 12 hours of arrival and that anyone who refuses a test is isolated as a precaution.

“It is a long-standing practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody,” she said. “This includes medical, dental, and mental health intake screening within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility, a full health assessment within 14 days of entering ICE custody or arrival at a facility, and access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care.”

Facility administrators built a tented area outside the main building to process arriving detainees, but it wasn’t enough to alleviate the overcrowding, Louisdor said. Earlier this month, areas with space for around 65 detainees were holding more than 100, with cots spread across the floor between bunk beds.

Over-capacity facilities can feel extremely cramped

Bed capacity ratings are based on facility design. Guidelines require 50 square feet of space for each individual. When buildings designed to those specifications go over their rated capacity, there is not enough room to house additional detainees safely and comfortably.

American Correctional Association and Immigration and Customs Enforcement

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Louisdor said a young man who uses a wheelchair had resorted to relieving himself in a water bottle because staffers weren’t available to escort him to the restroom.

During the daily hour that detainees are allowed outside for recreation, 300 people stood shoulder to shoulder, he said, making it difficult to get enough exercise. When fights occasionally broke out, guards could do little to stop them, he said.

The line to buy food or hygiene products at the commissary was so long that sometimes detainees left empty-handed.

Louisdor said he has bipolar disorder, for which he takes medication. The day he had a court hearing, the staff mistakenly gave him double the dosage, leaving him unable to stand.

Since then, Louisdor said, conditions have slightly improved, though dormitories are still substantially overcrowded.

In California, detainees and lawyers similarly reported that medical care has deteriorated.

Tracy Crowley, a staff attorney at Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said clients with serious conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and cancer don’t receive their medication some days.

Cells that house up to eight people are packed with 11. With air conditioning blasting all night, detainees have told her the floor is cold and they have gotten sick. Another common complaint, she said, is that clothes and bedding are so dirty that some clients are getting rashes all over their bodies, making it difficult to sleep.

Luis at Chicano Park in San Diego on Aug. 23, 2025.

(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)

One such client is Luis, a 40-year-old from Colombia who was arrested in May at the immigration court in San Diego after a hearing over his pending asylum petition. Luis asked to be identified by his middle name out of concern over his legal case.

When he first arrived at Otay Mesa Detention Center, Luis said, the facility was already filled to the maximum capacity. By the time he left June 30, it was overcrowded. Rooms that slept six suddenly had 10 people. Mattresses were placed in a mixed-use room and in the gym.

Luis developed a rash, but at the medical clinic he was given allergy medication and sleeping pills. The infection continued until finally he showed it over a video call to his mother, who had worked in public health, and she told him to request an anti-fungal cream.

Luis was held at Otay Mesa Detention Center after his May arrest. It was at capacity when he arrived but by the time he left in June, it was overcrowded, he said.

(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)

Other detainees often complained to Luis that their medication doses were incomplete or missing, including two men in his dorm who took anti-psychotic medication.

“They would get stressed out, start to fight — everything irritated them,” he said. “That affected all of us.”

Crowley said the facility doesn’t have the infrastructure or staff to hold as many people as are there now. The legal system also can’t process them in a timely manner, she said, forcing people to wait months for a hearing.

The administration’s push to detain more people is only compounding existing issues, Crowley said.

“They’re self-imposing the limit, and most of the people involved in that decision-making are financially incentivized to house more and more people,” she said. “Where is the limit with this administration?”

Members of the California National Guard load a truck outside the ICE Processing Center in Adelanto, Calif., on July 11, 2025.

(Patrick T. Fallon / AFP/Getty Images)

Other facilities in California faced similar challenges. At the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, the number of detainees soared to 1,000 from 300 over a week in June, prompting an outcry over deteriorated conditions.

As of July 29, Adelanto held 1,640 detainees. The Desert View Annex, an adjacent facility also operated by the GEO Group, held 451.

Disability Rights California toured the facility and interviewed staffers and 18 people held there. The advocacy organization released a report last month detailing its findings, including substantial delays in meal distribution, a shortage of drinking water, and laundry washing delays, leading many detainees to remain in soiled clothing for long periods.

In a letter released last month, 85 Adelanto detainees wrote, “They always serve the food cold … sometimes we don’t have water for 2 to 7 hours and they said to us to drink from the sink.”

At the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Ga., Rodney Taylor, a double amputee, was rendered nearly immobile.

Taylor, who was born in Liberia, uses electronic prosthetic legs that must be charged and can’t get wet. The outlets in his dormitory were inoperable, and because of the overcrowding and short-staffing, guards couldn’t take him to another area to plug them in, said his fiancee, Mildred Pierre.

“When they’re not charged they’re super heavy, like dead weight,” she said. It becomes difficult to balance without falling.

Pierre said the air conditioning in his unit didn’t work for two months, causing water to puddle on the floor. Taylor feared he would slip while walking and fall — which happened once in May — and damage the expensive prosthetics.

Last month, Taylor refused to participate in the daily detainee count, telling guards he wouldn’t leave his cell unless they agreed to leave the cell doors open to let the air circulate.

“They didn’t take him to charge his legs and now they wanted him to walk through water and go in a hot room,” Pierre recalled. “He said no — he stood his ground.”

Several guards surrounded him, yelling, Pierre said. They placed him in solitary confinement for three days as punishment, she said.