Trapped in "El Pozo": As Overcrowding in ICE Detention Increases, So Does Solitary Confinement

"“They beat me a lot,” Lemus-Linares said in a phone interview from inside Hutto. “They had left my ribs and sides all bruised.”"

"On three occasions from October 2023 to December 2025, he said, officers at the facility locked him in the solitary unit without giving a satisfactory reason other than that they don't like him. He spent 24 hours a day isolated in the cell with virtually no access to medical care or even a bathroom until officers decided his punishment was over."

"Lemus-Linares is one of thousands of individuals that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has locked in solitary confinement in its custody-a practice that has soared during the Trump administration's nationwide crackdown on illegal immigration. More than 10,500 detained migrants were thrown in solitary confinement in the 14 months ending in May 2025, according to a recent report by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR)."

"In the first four months of Trump's second term, the monthly increase in the harsh punishment was twice the rate documented between 2018 and 2023. Trump has built on increases during the Biden administration, when it grew by 56 percent each quarter in FY 2025 compared to 2022."

A 32-year-old migrant from El Salvador seeking political asylum described being shoved into a filthy, cramped solitary confinement cell and beaten by ICE officers after another detained person attacked him while in ICE custody. He said he was held for seven consecutive days in “el pozo” at the T. Don Hutto Detention Center in Taylor, Texas, a privately run facility. He reported multiple instances of being locked in solitary without satisfactory reasons, spending 24 hours a day isolated with virtually no access to medical care or even a bathroom until punishment ended. Thousands of detained migrants have been placed in solitary confinement, with the practice rising rapidly during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Read at The Nation