US ICE detention centers face criticism over conditions and planned expansion

Reports from the Farmville detention center in Virginia describe worsening panic attacks, inadequate medical care, and alleged mistreatment of a Belarusian detainee during the Trump administration’s expansion of the immigration detention network, which now holds about 68,000 people. Congressional funding of $70 billion over three years has been approved to support Immigration and Customs Enforcement without new restrictions, and prior inspections have identified unsafe sanitation and record‑keeping in facilities in Texas and Louisiana.

At the same time, community activists in Surprise, Arizona, are urging officials to block the construction of a new ICE detention warehouse. They warn that the proposed site near a chemical plant poses additional health risks and cite broader concerns about human‑rights violations in existing detention centers such as Delaney Hall in New Jersey. A local advocacy group staged a simulation of a “human cage” at city hall to press the city council to oppose the project.