Immigration Detention Centers in the United States: Trump’s New System

Translated by Beatrice Mereta

From the detention of two Italian immigrants in the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” facility to reports by Human Rights Watch on abusive practices across Florida detention centers, Trump-era immigration policies raise grave concerns about human rights violations in U.S. custody. Overcrowding, medical neglect, and degrading treatment are among the most critical issues faced by detainees.

Alligator Alcatraz

The detention center for irregular immigrants, “Alligator Alcatraz,” opened in early July. Located in the swampy region of Florida known as the Everglades, it is surrounded by numerous alligators intended to prevent escapes, thus making it, according to Trump’s plan, a maximum-security penitentiary. The facility can hold up to three thousand detainees awaiting deportation from the United States. 

Last June, Fernando Eduardo Artese, a 63-year-old Italian and legal resident in the United States for nearly ten years, was stopped while driving with his family (who had legally reunited with him) toward Mexico, intending to move to Argentina. He was detained due to an outstanding arrest warrant for failing to appear at a hearing after being stopped for driving without a license. This detention concerns a minor offense. According to a New Yorker journalist, the reason for Artese’s arrest and that of others held there is that they are or appear to be of Latin American origin. The journalist, Blitzer, describes this as a formula for mass racial profiling. 

Gaetano Mirabella Costa, another Italian detainee, had completed a six-month sentence for assault and drug possession but, upon finishing his sentence, was transferred to the detention center instead of being released, accused of violating immigration law.

Conditions of detention

A New York Times correspondent described the facility’s conditions as “horrors of all kinds”: lack of medical care, sewage flowing on the floor, cage-style units with 32 detainees, and absence of any recreational or educational activities, along with constant lighting (even at night), unusable toilets, and inadequate protection from bad weather, allowing rainwater and large numbers of insects to enter the facility. 

All this leads to a higher risk of disease contraction, caused not only by poor hygiene but also by the limited amounts of food provided to detainees. Event the agents working inside endure hardship: they work twelve-hour shifts with only a fifteen-minute break and live in small rooms inside trailer-like structures. 

Local officials and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) claim these conditions result from the urgency to build the facility, which was constructed in just eight days. Despite the conditions, the annual operating cost of the facility is estimated at approximately 450 million dollars.

Alligator Alcatraz as a Model in Florida

According to a recent article by Human Rights Watch, the number of individuals detained by ICE in Florida has increased since the beginning of Trump’s presidency, due to both federal and state policies. ICE data show that, as early as mid-April, 45 out of 181 facilities had already exceeded their capacity.

Researchers report that the Krome detention center (Krome North Service Processing Center) holds individuals in overcrowded, cold cells without beds, denying them access to personal hygiene and medical care, even in cases of chronic illness. Furthermore, women are reportedly detained in an entirely male facility, depriving them of privacy and specific care they may require.

Two deaths — one at Krome and another at BTC (Broward Transitional Center) — have allegedly resulted from medical negligence. Human Rights Watch recounts the testimony of a man who was denied treatment for a strangulated hernia until he collapsed, while a woman reported the complete absence of psychological support: detainees, she said, avoid crying for fear of being placed in isolation for two weeks.

ICE’s Responsibility

These detention conditions violate not only international law but also federal standards themselves: ICE detention centers are required to ensure humane treatment, access to medical care, and protection from abuse. ICE is responsible for breaching these standards, and it is therefore urgent that such detention conditions come to an end.

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