Poor Conditions at ICE and CBP Facilities

Table of Contents
18 Examples of Poor Conditions at ICE and CBP Facilities
  • Mubashir
    U.S. Citizen
    Minneapolis, MN
    Dec 10, 2025
    20-year-old Minneapolis resident and U.S. citizen Mubashir was slammed against a wall, put in a chokehold and handcuffed by two masked men and in the process is heard screaming in pain, "My hand!".
    • The ICE agents refused to look at digital and paper copies of his passport or to look him up based on his name and date of birth.
    • Then, they drove him around in circles pulling out maps feigning that they were lost.
    • When they arrived at a facility, they made him stand in the cold until he consented to a face scan which did not work, and they further refused requests for water, medical attention and to warm his hands.
    • Eventually, someone at the facility took the simple step of looking at his digital passport on his phone confirming both his citizenship and the egregiously racist and sadistic behavior of agents who arrested him.
    • And of course, when he asked to be taken back to where he was picked up, they told him to walk back in the cold and snow.
  • Godfrey Wade
    U.S. Army veteran
    Atlanta, GA
    Dec 7, 2025
    U.S. Army veteran and grandfather Godfrey Wade, who has lived in the U.S. for 50 years and was in the process of applying for citizenship, was detained for 3 months without a hearing before a judge due to a minor paperwork issue. His first 12 days, he slept on a makeshift bed on the floor with 80 other people sharing a dirty bathroom with sewage water on the floor. He also wasn't assigned a case agent for 55 days.
  • Wilmer Toledo-Martinez
    Washington State
    Dec 6, 2025
    DACA and marriage visa eligible Wilmer Toledo-Martinez, who has lived in the U.S. since 15 with a U.S. citizen wife and two kids, was lured outside his home under false pretenses by an ICE agent posing as a construction worker after which another agent sicced a dog on him in front of his family despite not resisting arrest or attempting to flee. He suffered gruesome bite marks, dizziness, blurred vision and was denied medical treatment for hours before being taken to a hospital. He received stiches for his injuries at a hospital and antibiotics he was prescribed were not immediately provided and another prescribed medication was never provided. Democratic senator Patty Murray has called for his immediate release from detainment.
  • Jose Paniagua Calderón
    Vancouver, WA
    Dec 5, 2025
    Jose Paniagua Calderón had his foot run over by an ICE agent of which a witness who filmed it said she "heard the screams of absolute pain that just stop you in your tracks." Instead of giving him medical attention, they put him handcuffed in back of a car and drove away. This was after they haphazardly and dangerously blocked a busy intersection with multiple ICE vehicles disrupting traffic and smashed his car window.
  • Somali woman U.S. citizen
    U.S. Citizen
    Minneapolis, MN
    Dec 5, 2025
    A Somali woman U.S. citizen was accosted by multiple ICE agents, zip-tied and detained 24 hours in Minneapolis for no reason. She was touched inappropriately and mocked with agents saying, "What could you be hiding under your hijab?" and "This would be the wrong attire to try and run away from us in."
  • Nayra Guzmán
    Mother of baby needing intensive care
    U.S. Work Permit Holder
    Chicago, IL
    Dec 2, 2025
    U.S. work permit holder and 22-year-old asylum applicant Nayra Guzmán and her family were detained by ICE on their way to see her baby recovering at the neonatal intensive care unit of a hospital after an emergency Cesarean section of which she also suffered pain and complications. Despite their paperwork and circumstances, she was detained for 34 hours without receiving any medical evaluation. And, she was forced to spend the entire time in a room which was very cold with only a bench to lie on and no blankets or anything for sleep. Afterwards, she had complications producing breast milk for her baby. While being transferred by van, agents, aware of her condition and ignoring pleas from her brother, drove recklessly fast and over potholes in a way that was very painful for Nayra.
  • Venezuelan father and 19-year-old daughter
    U.S. Work Permit Holder,Asylum Applicant
    Chicago, El Paso & New Mexico
    Dec 1, 2025
    A Venezuelan father and 19-year-old daughter asylum seekers were taken by ICE agents during a standard immigration check-in in Chicago despite having work permits and a good asylum case. They were taken to the Broadview facility where they were "cold, without any blankets, without any food and they were laying on the floor without any beds." They were later transferred to facilities far away in El Paso and New Mexico where placing a simple phone call costs $53 and overcrowded with 70 people in the room the daughter was held in. Medical issues were ignored where the daughter was not given any medication despite having a bad cough that was worsening and the father hadn't been given his medication for high blood pressure.
  • Martha Ruiz
    56-year old diabetic
    Green Card Applicant
    Gary, Indiana
    Nov 29, 2025
    56-year old diabetic Martha Ruiz, who has no criminal history and has lived in the U.S. since the 90s on a religious visa, had agents bang on her door and then immediately broke it down before she had time to answer.
    • Despite her telling them she had a hurt arm, agents forced it behind her back and handcuffed her on the ground.
    • One of their dogs obviously bit her repeatedly on her back and legs leaving bite wounds still noticeable two weeks later. When she yelled out in pain and out of a longtime fear of dogs, they dismissed her with "our dog doesn’t bite."
    • They then dragged her up the stairs and threw her on the ground fracturing her ribs which she did not receive any medical attention for until she was released two weeks later.
    • When she asked to use the bathroom, they refused.
    • She was transferred from a nearby ICE facility in Broadview, Chicago where she shared an overcrowded room with 170 people with only one window, a single open bathroom with no privacy and where some had to sleep on the floor.
    • She was then transferred to an El Paso, TX ICE facility much further away after a couple days where they finally treated just the pain from her injuries but only with a single injection.
    • She was finally taken to a women's shelter where people were kind and welcoming but obstinately felt the need to shackle her the entire trip all the way up until she walked in the door.
    • When finally released, her son had to fly all the way out to El Paso to bring her home where she was given an ankle monitor -- something they could have done very easily from the beginning.
  • Enes Abak
    Auto body shop manager
    Asylum Applicant
    Chicago and El Paso, Texas
    Nov 28, 2025
    Kurdish asylum applicant Enes Abak was detained despite following proper immigration procedures and having a very strong case for asylum due to his home county of Turkey's long history of human rights abuses and genocide against Kurdish people. Even more so, the day afterwards his wife officially became a U.S. citizen -- which, probably without coincidence, would have made his case even stronger to apply for a marriage visa. He was also moved to a facility in El Paso, Texas 1500 miles away.
  • Rodney Taylor
    Barber
    Green Card Applicant,Dreamer
    Georgia
    Nov 21, 2025
    A beloved DACA eligible and Green Card Applicant barber who has lived in the U.S. for 40 years since coming as a child under a medical visa was detained for a year without bond despite being pardoned for a crime in 2010 due to his strong character vouched by many. He is a double amputee and struggles with many health issues that are worsened by the conditions during detainment. He got engaged 10 days before being detained, and his fiancée has trouble finding the time to visit going 2 months sometimes as the facility is 150 miles away. They have seven children and on a recent trip to visit him, the ICE facility for no good reason limited the number of people who could visit forcing some of his children to wait in the parking lot.
  • Willian Gimenez Gonzalez
    U.S. Work Permit Holder
    Broadview ICE Facility near Chicago
    Nov 14, 2025
    Willian Gimenez Gonzalez, despite having a legal work permit and asylum application, was arrested without being told why or shown a warrant and detained for 7 weeks at a Michigan ICE facility ignoring a court order absolving him of attending an ICE appointment because it was 500 miles away in Memphis, TN. He described the food at the facility as "not very good" and was only allowed 30 minutes outside per day. They knew his full name and so everything points towards him being retaliated against for advocacy work he had been involved in with immigrant workers.
  • Carlos Guerra Leon
    Car wash employee
    Legal U.S. Resident
    New York & Louisiana ICE Facility
    Nov 1, 2025
    18-year-old legal U.S. resident Carlos Guerra Leon was detained by ICE for nearly 3 months at a facility in Louisiana 1400 miles away from his family in Spring Valley, New York.
  • Fernando Jaramillo-Solano
    Father of Two
    Asylum Applicant
    Durango, CO, ICE Facility
    Oct 29, 2025
    Asylum applicants Fernando Jaramillo-Solano, who worked three jobs and has no criminal history, and two of his children were detained at ICE facilities for a month before they were forced to deport back to Colombia due to the distress his children faced. ICE pulled them over while he while taking them to school in search of another person, and so they were detained without a warrant. His 12-year-old daughter said an ICE agent grabbed her breast while she was transported and experienced "acute psychological distress" during her captivity. And his 15-year-old son said when they arrived at the facility, they were treated badly, beaten and given nothing to eat or drink but potato chips and water for a day.
  • George Retes
    Iraq War veteran
    U.S. Citizen
    Los Angeles ICE Roadblock
    Aug 18, 2025
    U.S. citizen and Iraq War veteran George Retes was driving to his job as a security guard where he was stopped at an ICE roadblock -- and despite not resisting or posing a threat, even backing up when told to -- ICE thugs broke his window, teargassed and pepper sprayed him and forced him to the ground where two of their degenerates put knees to his neck and back. Despite him having a valid ID, he was detained by ICE fascists for three days in an isolation cell and not allowed to shower despite the exposure to toxic chemicals. Additionally, he was denied access to a lawyer or a hearing with a judge and prevented from making phone calls. His family had no contact with him and no idea where he was and he missed his daughter's third birthday.
  • Chaofeng Ge
    Queens, NY
    Aug 8, 2025
    Chaofeng Ge was found dead by hanging in the showers at a Queens ICE facility which was ruled a suicide attributed to mental abuse and neglect due to poor conditions during detainment; however, further reports showed that his hands and feet were also bound with no explanations of how he could have hung himself.
  • Yeonsoo Go
    20-year-old Purdue University Student
    Legal U.S. Resident
    New York City
    Aug 5, 2025
    20-year-old legal U.S. resident and Purdue University student Yeonsoo Go was handcuffed and then detained for several days in a Louisiana facility 1400 miles from New York City where she lived with her parents after a routine hearing to extend her legal Visa.
  • Zia S.
    Afghani Interpreter for U.S. Forces
    Asylum Applicant
    Hartford, CT
    Jul 16, 2025
    Afghani Interpreter Zia S. -- who risked his life for U.S. forces in Afghanistan over a five-year period -- was detained by ICE at a routine immigration appointment after the Trump administration disgracefully revoked his two-year special temporary legal status a year early while he was still in the process of getting a green card. They issued an order to expedite his deportation in a process that would preclude a hearing in immigration court and force him to return to Afghanistan where the threat to his life would be severe. With pressure from his lawyer and two U.S. Senators, the order to expedite his deportation was cancelled but not after three weeks of angst endured by him and his family. Zia was held at the ICE facility for three months away from his wife and five children. He was not allowed outside once during his detainment which was especially difficult for him as he routinely enjoyed hour long walks in nature with his wife. Most of his time was spent in a two-person room with a small window that he was allowed to leave only three times a day to visit common spaces and watch TV.
  • Mahmoud Khalil
    Palestinian Activist
    Green Card Holder
    New York City & Louisiana Ice Facility
    Jul 11, 2025
    30-year-old Green Card holder Mahmoud Khalil was detained by ICE for 100 days at a facility 1000 miles away from his family in New York City without charges for online posts critical of Republican policies during which he also missed the birth of his son.