The inhumane conditions of ICE detention centers led a group of immigrants at the Delaney Hall facility in Newark, New Jersey, to begin a hunger strike since last Memorial Day holiday weekend. Federal and state legislators who went to the premises to verify the complaints were received aggressively by the agents in charge of controlling the protests outside the building.

The Associated Press reported that six people were arrested in confrontations with federal agents.

New Jersey Democratic Senator Andy Kim was hit by a pepper spray ball and later mocked by DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who claimed that Kim “had no business being there,” even though federal lawmakers have the authority to visit these facilities to verify prevailing conditions.

Detainees complain of a lack of adequate medical care, including one woman who allegedly suffered a miscarriage and received no assistance. They also denounced that the food provided to them is in poor condition and that the conditions are unhealthy and deplorable.

However, as La Opinión reported, both Mullin and the border czar, Tom Homan, minimized the complaints, stating that, whatever the detainees do, nothing will stop the administration's plans to carry out its wave of mass deportations.

"I've been doing this since 1984. Hunger strikes never work. We're not going to change what we do because someone goes on hunger strike," Homan said, according to the newspaper.

“And, in fact, if the situation gets bad enough and the prisoners feel that they are putting themselves in serious danger, in danger to their health, then we will get a court order and we will force-feed them,” he added.

Mullin, for his part, went to X to mock the detainees. "There were only a handful of people who refused to eat because they wanted their ethnic food. Well, let them go back to their country and get the food they want. The fact is, we are giving them the calories they want. This is not a Holiday Inn," Mullin wrote.

Private detention centers that operate with multimillion-dollar federal funds paid for by taxpayers are a big business for these operators who keep detainees in overcrowded conditions, in unsanitary conditions, without access to medical or preventive care, denying them emergency medical care if they require it, even denying them medications for chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension. Sometimes medical help comes too late. Physical, sexual and psychological abuse has been reported in these facilities. In addition to a record number of deaths in recent years and months.

Increase in suicides in these centers

La Opinión reported that “an Associated Press investigation revealed an unprecedented increase in the number of suicides among immigrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during President Donald Trump's second term, raising new alarms about detention conditions and access to mental health care in the United States.”

"According to the report, at least 10 detainees have committed suicide since January 2025, a figure that far exceeds the agency's historical records. Since last October, seven deaths have already been officially classified as suicides, making it the deadliest year on record within the ICE immigration detention system," the newspaper added.

“Something is deeply wrong from any public health or mental health perspective,” said Dr. Sanjay Basu, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco.

La Opinión added that "according to the analysis, several centers ignored obvious signs of emotional crisis, delayed psychological treatments and left people considered at risk without adequate surveillance. The majority of the deceased were Hispanic men between 19 and 45 years old from Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua and other Latin American countries. Seven of them had no history of violent crimes in the United States."

And, as a consequence of Trump's aggressive immigration policy, arrests have skyrocketed to the point that at any given time there are more than 60,000 detainees in these private prisons.

The government continues to acquire facilities to continue housing people, since it has dedicated itself to stripping hundreds of thousands of immigrants of protections they had through programs that have been eliminated, such as TPS or humanitarian parole, among others.

In fact, the new guideline to apply for permanent residence abroad continues to generate concern.

And certainly many of these immigrants would be vulnerable to detention, because if they do not go abroad to process their green card, they activate expulsion for illegal presence.

Trump's strategy has been to delegalize millions of immigrants by eliminating the programs that protected them or by not renewing their permits, as in the case of DACA beneficiaries, making them vulnerable to being detained and deported.

La Opinion reported that the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) warned of the dangers of the change. Shev Dalal-Dheini, Senior Director of Government Relations, stated that “rather than improving the immigration system and increasing our security, this policy risks penalizing those who try to follow the law.”

At least one encouraging note

La Opinion reported that “a federal judge in California temporarily blocked a Trump administration policy that allowed immigrant victims of domestic violence, human trafficking and other serious crimes to be detained and deported, even when they had pending immigration applications.”

"According to the ruling, DHS must provisionally restore immigration protections for applicants for U and T visas and protections under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), while the litigation progresses. The resolution also orders allowing the return to the United States of three immigrants who had been deported despite having active immigration processes."

Quote of the week:

"To someone unfamiliar with the issue, this may seem like a simple technical change in procedure. It is not. This is a profound change with serious consequences for individuals, families and businesses across the country. It is another attempt to hinder the legal immigration system, making it slower, stricter and more unpredictable," said Ben Johnson, executive director of AILA, regarding the USCIS memo that would require certain immigrants to apply for their permanent resident card from their countries of origin even if they are already in the United States.

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