Migrants locked up alone for 38 consecutive days on average: ICE increasingly uses isolation as punishment

"Solitary confinement is the practice of placing a person in a small cell without meaningful human contact for 22 hours or more per day. ICE maintains that it does not use solitary confinement in its detention centers, but reports the number of people it keeps in segregation. In detention centers, the agency avoids using the term solitary confinement and instead uses euphemisms such as segregation, segregated housing, or Special Management Units."

"It was also found that during the first three months of 2025, vulnerable individuals were held in isolation for periods of more than twice as long as when ICE first began publishing statistics: 38 consecutive days in early 2025 compared to 14 days in late 2021. The agency defines as vulnerable those who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or elderly; who suffer from serious mental disorders or illnesses; who are at risk of harm due to their identity; or who are victims of sexual assault or abuse."

"The study says that immigrants locked in such cells had been placed in administrative segregation. According to the report, in 14 months from April 2024 to May 2025, more than 10,500 people were placed in solitary confinement in detention centers across the country. Similarly, in the first four months of Trump's second term, the monthly increase in the use of isolation was more than six times higher than at the end of the previous administration."

Use of isolation in immigration detention has increased markedly under the second Trump administration. Thousands of immigrants have experienced segregated housing or solitary conditions since 2021, with the practice multiplying in recent months. Vulnerable detainees — including pregnant, elderly, breastfeeding people, those with serious mental illness, identity-based risk, or survivors of sexual abuse — faced much longer consecutive isolation periods, reaching 38 days in early 2025 versus 14 days in late 2021. More than 10,500 people were placed in solitary-style segregation from April 2024 to May 2025. ICE frequently labels solitary conditions as segregation or Special Management Units.

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