US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has put more than 10,500 people in solitary confinement over a single year, with the use of the practice increasing rapidly under the Trump administration, according to some shocking new research. A recent report from a team of researchers from Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), the Peeler Immigration Lab, and Harvard Law School, published this past Wednesday, is shining a light on what’s been happening inside US immigrant detention facilities.
They found that an increasing number of vulnerable people are being subjected to solitary confinement for longer periods of time. The report, titled Cruelty Campaign: Solitary Confinement in US Immigration Detention, found that the use of solitary confinement grew by an average of 6.5% each month during the first four months of Trump’s second term. That is a significant increase of more than six times the average monthly increase seen during the final months of Joe Biden’s administration.
