Immigrant detention in America
Published 1:30 am Monday, April 20, 2026
By Susan Martin, Donald G. Herzberg Professor Emerita, Georgetown University
My first visit to a detention center took place in the 1980s. The center was a privately run facility for unaccompanied minors who had entered the country from Mexico. The visit was eye- opening. Most of the children had left their homes because of gang or domestic violence. They could neither return home safely nor reunite with relatives already in the U.S.
Subsequently, I visited detention centers for children and adults as the Executive Director of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform. Universally, the detention of immigrants and asylum seekers was problematic, whether the facilities were for children and/or adults. The Commission identified serious problems, including human rights abuses, physical abuse, stealing, harassment by guards, overcrowding, poor nourishment, mixing of women and juveniles with men and asylum seekers with criminals, as well as lack of access to health care, counsel, family, and recreation.
Different administrations have tried to improve the detention system, often pushed by litigation. For example, a class-action lawsuit settled in 1997 required the government to place unaccompanied minors in the least restrictive setting. It is still in effect and one of the few constraints on the government. The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 and subsequent renewals of the legislation also set out new protections for these children.
At the same time, steps were taken to develop alternatives to detention for adults and families. As described by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 2024, the Alternatives to Detention program “exists to ensure compliance with release conditions and provides important case management services for non-detained aliens.” Congress also passed legislation to address the poor conditions in detention centers, including establishing an independent Ombudsman who monitored ICE, Border Patrol, private contract, local jails and other facilities housing detainees. Unfortunately, much of this progress was lost during this past year. This is not to say that detention was not problematic under other administrations. Certainly, the Obama and Biden administrations used detention as a deterrent, particularly when facing large movements of immigrants into the country.
The current administration, however, is using detention in truly new and dangerous ways. According to the American Immigration Council, “arrests of people with no criminal record surged by 2,450 percent in Trump’s first year, driven by increases in tactics like ‘at-large’ arrests, roving patrols, worksite raids, and re-arrests of people attending immigration court hearings or ICE check-ins.” The percentage of people arrested by ICE and held in detention with no criminal record rose from 6 percent in January [2025] to 41 percent in December [2025].”
Congress facilitated this growth through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act by providing funds for massive expansion of detention. The Act provided $45 billion for ICE detention facilities to house an average of 100,000 plus individuals daily. By contrast, Congress allocated funding for an average of 41,500 detainees per day in fiscal year (FY) 2024. The fiscal cost of detaining an immigrant is significant. Daily costs to detain an adult immigrant are $164.65 per day while the cost of alternatives are as little as $8.00 per day. The human cost is impossible to calculate.
The expansion of detention centers has made the conditions even worse. Twice the number of detainees died in ICE detention in FY 2025 than in FY 2024. At the same time, the funds and personnel for monitoring those conditions have been gutted. Unfortunately, the list of abuses in detention that I observed in the 1980s and 90s is very similar to those experienced by today’s detainees.
Alternatives to detention have also been gutted. The Trump administration has interpreted the law to restrict immigration judges from releasing those who had entered the U.S. without permission. In addition, detainees are not allowed to have a bond hearing to determine if they should be released while their immigration case is under review. This applies not only to new arrivals but also to immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for decades and those who have U.S. citizen children or spouses and no criminal background.
The administration is using detention to increase deportations. Many detainees are ‘voluntarily’ requesting return to their home countries. Facing what will likely be long-term detention because of backlogs in adjudicating applications to remain in the country, immigrants decide that return is preferable to prison, even if conditions at home are dangerous. In addition, those in detention are less likely to be able to access legal assistance so more easily deported.
Short-term detention may be necessary to determine if a person entering the country poses a security threat. What we are seeing today, however, does not fit that purpose. Tell your members of Congress to stop funding detention and let them know there are humane alternatives that enforce the law while respecting the rights of immigrants.
