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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
José Olivares and Will Craft

Revealed: ICE violates its own policy by holding people in secretive rooms for days or weeks

men with handcuffs and ankle shackles walk out of an elevator
Detained migrants are led to a holding room on the 10th floor of the Jacob K Javits federal building for holding in New York on 10 July 2025. Photograph: David Dee Delgado/Reuters

US immigration officials have been increasingly detaining people in small, secretive holding facilities for days or even weeks at a time in violation of federal policy, a Guardian investigation has found.

These holding facilities – located at ICE offices, in federal buildings and other locations around the country – are typically used to detain people after they have been arrested but before they are transferred or released. In many cases, they consist of small concrete rooms with no beds and are designed to only be used for a few hours.

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