It's only halfway through 2026, and already, more than 20 people have died in ICE detention centers, making it likely that this year will be even more deadly than 2025, which was previously the worst on record
since 32 people died in 2004.. ICE and detention center staff have used chemical weapons or other extreme physical measures against detainees upwards of 780 times, and subjected detainees to force around 1,330 times.
Despite this, ICE is no longer subjected to rigorous oversight. The agency responsible for acting as a watchdog has been virtually eliminated. This means there's even less chance that these abuses will be resolved. All agencies must have watchdogs. Sign the petition to demand that Congress take action to protect and fully reinstate the Immigration Detention Ombudsman!And in Delaney Hall, an ICE detention center in New Jersey, conditions are particularly grim.
Approximately 300 detainees recently signed an "SOS" letter alleging horrific treatment, which they managed to share with the outside world. Detainees there have also filed upwards of 60 lawsuits, and are also engaging in a
hunger strike to bring attention to this miscarriage of justice. Allegations against ICE at Delaney Hall include:
physical torture, inadequate medical care, unsafe drinking water, and violence.One frightening example is
Jean Wilson Brutus. Brutus was a 41-year-old asylum seeker from Haiti. He was detained, locked into Delaney Hall, passing a medical intake assessment in the process. Then, somehow,
5 hours later, he was dead - though ICE continues to refuse to say how or why. Even his family has been left in the dark. The most we know is that one nurse ominously suggested that Brutus may have "fallen down a flight of stairs," but ICE continues to refuse to provide any information.
And ICE isn't limiting its abuses to immigrants who have been trapped for unnamed periods of time inside their facilities. As we all know,
it's also attacking protestors and family members. On Father's Day, a group of people gathered together to protest the abusive facility and urge Trump to let families separated by ICE reunite. While one woman in particular, Alex James, was peacefully standing with the group, a man in a red sports car came charging towards her from behind, so she didn't see him.
He slammed right into her, hit her, and kept going, while she was knocked right to the ground, her head only inches away from one of the car's tires. She was rushed to the hospital.
It turns out the perpetrator's name is Thomas K. Brown, and he is an employee of the GEO Group, a private prison-industrial corporation that runs Delaney Hall. Trump's administration gave the group a $1 billion, 15-year federal contract. Authorities in Newark, New Jersey have charged Brown with assault and reckless driving.
At the same time, the Trump administration is actively
dismantling the independent agency meant to act as a watchdog and provide oversight for ICE. The Immigration Detention Ombudsman used to have hundreds of employees. Now, only five employees remain. In other words, there is essentially no agency to investigate accusations of detention center abuses by ICE. With no genuine watchdog and no oversight, ICE more or less has free reign to now do whatever it likes. This is chilling.
No U.S. federal agency should be allowed to escape accountability or avoid oversight. We must demand that Congress take action to fully protect the Immigration Detention Ombudsman! Sign the petition! 