Report: Guards increasingly using force inside ICE detention centers

As immigrant detention centers have become increasingly crowded as a result of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, guards are more frequently using force against detainees, according to a Washington Post investigation published Monday. 

The Post reviewed hundreds of internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement emails, called the “Daily Detainee Assault Report,” which detail incidents in which guards used physical force against detainees at 98 ICE detention facilities.

During the first year of Trump’s second term, detention center staff used physical force or chemical agents on detainees at least 780 times, according to the Post analysis, a 37% increase over the previous year. 

“In several incidents covered by the reports, guards forcibly handled detainees who repeatedly asked staff for things to which they are legally entitled, including food and water, medical care and personal belongings, according to interviews with the detainees or witnesses to these events,” the Post reports.

The investigation includes details about the use of force by staff at detention facilities where ICE sent people arrested in Minnesota during Operation Metro Surge. At the Torrance County Detention Facility in Estancia, New Mexico — where some Minnesota residents, including the father of a Minneapolis police detective, have been detained — guards pepper sprayed 65 people who were participating in a hunger strike over a lack of adequate food and showers, according to the Post.

The analysis is likely an undercount of use-of-force incidents, the reporters note, as it excludes around 140 facilities that hold approximately 14% of immigrant detainees nationwide.