The United States government has subjected immigrants detained in three Florida facilities to abusive, degrading, and in some cases life-threatening conditions.
A new report from Human Rights Watch and partners Americans for Immigrant Justice and Sanctuary of the South finds that detainees in these facilities have experienced denial of medical care, overcrowding, and degrading treatment, among other abuses. At least two recent deaths may have been linked to medical neglect.
>> Read more about the investigation here
These are not isolated incidents.
Rather, they are the result of a fundamentally broken detention system that is rife with serious abuses.
Since President Donald Trump took office in January, his administration has driven forward a surge in immigration detention nationally, with ICE data showing that 45 out of 181 authorized detention facilities across the country exceeded their contractual capacity in mid-April.
Many of those detained pose no threat to public safety yet are being held in conditions that violate basic human rights and dignity.
As Associate Director for HRW’s Crisis, Conflict, and Arms Division Belkis Wille put it, they are being treated “as less than human”.
