Trump Expanded Detention 71%, His Department Cut the Watchdogs, and a Judge Found Unconstitutional Punishment
Chapter 1 — Four Rooms in Manhattan
Chapter 2 — More Custody, Fewer Checks
Chapter 3 — More People Died in Custody
Chapter 4 — Responsibility for What the Government Built
1 · Four Rooms in Manhattan
1.1 — ICE Held 175 People in Rooms With No Beds
1.2 — A Judge Found the Conditions Were Punishment
1.3 — ICE Broke Capacity Orders and Filed a False Sworn Count
On July 1, 2025, ICE held at least 175 people in Manhattan holding rooms with no beds, showers or windows. After a trial, a federal judge found that ICE imposed those unconstitutional conditions to punish detainees and push them to leave the country. Trump had ordered more immigration detention, and his Secretary had approved abolishing every General Schedule staff position in two watchdog offices. At least 38 people died in ICE custody in fiscal 2026.
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Four Manhattan holding rooms designed for short stays became a place where people remained for days. A judge found overcrowding, no beds or showers, inadequate meals and blocked lawyer visits. After trial he held that ICE used these unconstitutional conditions to punish people and induce self-deportation. He also found lasting trauma and that some detainees decided to leave the country to escape the conditions.
The conditions of confinement to which ICE subjected immigration detainees at 26 Fed during the summer of 2025 were inhumane and unconstitutional.
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The court's orders reduced crowding and time in custody. ICE nevertheless exceeded room limits on at least eighty-four days and took more than six months to make lawyer calls confidential. A supervisor swore the current count was eight when ICE's records showed sixty; the court found intentional concealment or reckless disregard of the truth.
ICE’s disregard of this Court’s orders regarding capacity limits at 26 Fed has been persistent, egregious, and, at a minimum, reckless, if not willful.
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2 · More Custody, Fewer Checks
2.1 — Trump Signed the Order and the Funding
2.2 — Congress Created the Offices; Noem Abolished Their Staff Positions
2.3 — The Ombudsman's Shutdown and a Narrower Death Review
Trump's January 20, 2025 order directed his Homeland Security Secretary to build or contract for detention facilities. On July 1 he visited a Florida detention site and publicly backed more like it; on July 4 he approved the law providing $45 billion for detention capacity. ICE's detained population rose 71% from January 2025 to July 2026, GAO reports.
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Congress gave two DHS offices duties to investigate civil-rights complaints and inspect immigration detention. Noem approved abolishing every General Schedule staff position in both. DHS said publicly that the offices obstructed enforcement, and in court that it was reorganizing them. Its own admissions show a nearly five-month halt in the detention ombudsman’s inspections and complaint closures, alongside other investigative work after the cuts.
Trump fired Noem and named Markwayne Mullin as her replacement in March 2026, NPR reported. In May 2026, DHS announced the detention ombudsman's shutdown and blamed Congress's funding decision; NPR reported that the appropriations measure did not require the office to close. In June 2026, ICE's new death-review directive removed a provision that had covered deaths within 30 days of release when its director requested review.
3 · More People Died in Custody
3.1 — At Least 38 People Died in One Year
3.2 — A Homicide Ruling at a Camp That Opened Without Inspection
ICE's fiscal 2026 table lists 36 deaths, but two later deaths reported separately raise the minimum to 38. The highest earlier annual count in the published series was 28. A medical-journal study found the death rate rose too, in a partial-year comparison that did not adjust for detainees' health.
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Geraldo Lunas Campos died at Camp East Montana after staff used force, according to ICE's own death report. News organizations that obtained his autopsy reported a homicide ruling from neck and torso compression; DHS said guards were preventing suicide. GAO found that ICE had opened the camp without its required pre-occupancy inspection.
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4 · Responsibility for What the Government Built
4.1 — Congress Funded Detention; It Did Not Authorize Punishment
4.2 — The Charge Is Abuse of the Public Trust
Congress funded more detention, and the Supreme Court has upheld limited detention during removal proceedings and given administrators substantial discretion. Those powers do not authorize unconstitutional punishment, which a judge found after trial. The administration won a May 5 procedural ruling denying an Adelanto preliminary injunction without prejudice. But Kaplan’s September opinion cites an August 12 ruling in that case among decisions finding conditions punitive and likely unconstitutional.
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The charge is that the administration enlarged its power to confine people while weakening safeguards, and ICE used unconstitutional conditions as an enforcement tool. Hamilton described abuse of public trust as grounds for impeachment. The case rests on Trump's expansion order, his Secretary's cuts and ICE's treatment of people it confined. Kaplan linked the Manhattan conditions to Trump's Project Homecoming self-deportation policy, citing its White House fact sheet and ICE's flyers as support for treating the harsh conditions as part of the program's threatened enforcement and penalties.
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Full Source Index
Primary Sources
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Secondary Sources
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- [9]Ximena Bustillo, NPR, DHS blames funding lapse for shutdown of internal detention oversight (KUNC, May 7, 2026) · reliable secondary (attributed)
- [10]
- [18]
- [19]NPR (carried by KUNC), 'Homeland Security makes cuts to civil rights and immigration oversight offices' (March 21, 2025) · reliable secondary (attributed)
- [20]NPR, report on the President's removal of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem (March 5, 2026) · reliable secondary (attributed)
- [24]C.J. Ciaramella, Reason, ICE Deletes Reports Flagging Medical Neglect in Detention Center Deaths (October 1, 2026) · reliable secondary (attributed)
- [26]Ashley Clarke, The Banner, Laurel mans pleas for medical attention in ICE detention were ignored, lawyer says (October 9, 2026) · reliable secondary (attributed)
- [27]NPR, 'Deaths of migrants in ICE custody hit record high under Trump' (April 17, 2026) · reliable secondary (attributed)
- [31]
- [32]NBC News, report on the final autopsy of Geraldo Lunas Campos (January 30, 2026) · reliable secondary (attributed)