Detentions challenged as migrants held for days after waiver of 12-hour limit
Since returning to the White House in January, US President Donald Trump has pushed for a massive wave of deportations.
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 US Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices, or ICE, 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.
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Previously, ICE was prohibited by its own internal policies from detaining people for longer than 12 hours in these holding facilities. But in a June memo, the agency waived the 12-hour rule, saying people recently arrested by ICE can be detained in the holding rooms for up to three days.
In June, The Guardian reported on a Los Angeles ICE holding facility in a building's basement, where people, including families with children, were held for days with little food or water.
A recent report from the Times of San Diego said people had been held inside an ICE holding facility in the basement of a courthouse. And a story from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution alleged that people have been held for long periods of time inside an ICE holding facility in the basement of the agency's own offices.
According to court declarations reviewed by The Guardian in a New York-based federal lawsuit against ICE, people have been held at the New York City holding facility for multiple days at a time. One person was held there for five days, another for eight, another for 10 and one person for more than two weeks.
In mid-September, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to improve conditions for detained migrants at the holding facility. ICE began providing sleeping mats, three meals and toothbrushes in response to the court's order.
The judge also required that people detained by ICE be given an opportunity to consult with their attorneys.
The Board of Immigration Appeals, which is part of the US Department of Justice, issued a decision in September that endorsed the administration's interpretation of the Immigration and Nationality Act and required the denial of bond hearings.
A federal judge has granted class action status on Oct 31 to a lawsuit seeking to prevent Trump administration from subjecting thousands of migrants detained by immigration authorities in New England to mandatory detention without the possibility of being released on bond.
