Trump administration increasingly places immigrants in solitary confinement, report finds

"Use of solitary confinement in immigration detention is soaring under the Trump administration, according to a report published Wednesday by Physicians for Human Rights using federal data and records obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests. Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed at least 10,588 people in solitary confinement from April 2024 to May 2025, the report found. Contributors also included experts from Harvard University's Peeler Immigration Lab and Harvard Law School."

""Every month from February through May, which are the full calendar months of the new administration, the number of people placed in solitary in ICE [custody] increased by 6.5%," said Dr. Katherine Peeler, medical advisor for Physicians for Human Rights, and assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. "That was really dismaying.""

"The United Nations has called solitary confinement longer than 15 consecutive days a form of torture. ICE defines vulnerable detainees as those with serious medical or mental health conditions, disabilities, and those who are elderly, pregnant or nursing, at risk of harm due to sexual orientation or gender identity, or victims of abuse."

Use of solitary confinement in ICE detention rose sharply during the Trump administration, with at least 10,588 people placed in solitary from April 2024 to May 2025. The rate of placements increased each month during the first four months of the administration, averaging twice the rate seen between 2018 and 2023 and exceeding late-2024 rates by more than sixfold. Solitary confinement is used in detention both as punishment and to protect certain at-risk immigrants. The United Nations classifies solitary confinement longer than 15 consecutive days as a form of torture. Vulnerable detainees include people with serious medical or mental health conditions, disabilities, the elderly, pregnant or nursing people, those at risk due to sexual orientation or gender identity, and victims of abuse.

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