ICE Detention Centers

ICE detention centers are the facilities where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement holds people while their immigration cases or removals are pending. Immigration detention is civil, not criminal, but people are confined. Facilities include ICE-owned sites, local jails that rent bed space to ICE, and centers operated by private prison companies under contract.

ICE says every facility housing its detainees, whether owned by ICE, a state or local government, or a contractor, must comply with one of several sets of written detention standards, such as the Performance-Based National Detention Standards 2011 or the National Detention Standards. These standards cover medical care, food, safety, use of force, and access to lawyers. Which standard applies depends on the facility's contract.

Detention centers are the subject of several kinds of lawsuits. Class actions have challenged conditions such as inadequate medical care, overcrowding, and access to counsel, usually asking a court for injunctive relief (an order to change practices) rather than money. Individual lawsuits seek damages for injuries or deaths in custody, often against private operators, since suing the federal government directly has special rules and limits. Detained workers have also sued private operators over pay for work performed inside facilities.

These cases are complex and depend on who runs the facility and which law applies. Allegations in a complaint are not proven unless a court rules. Our guides on injunctive relief and class certification explain how conditions cases work, and how to sue a company covers claims against private contractors.