Observers film US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as they hold a perimeter after one of their vehicles got a flat tire on Penn Avenue on February 5, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
In some cases, the administration has kept immigrants locked up even after a judge has ordered their release, according to an investigation by Reuters.
Judges across the country have ruled more than 4,400 times since the start of October that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has illegally detained immigrants, according to a Reuters investigation published Saturday.
As President Donald Trump carries out his unprecedented “mass deportation” crusade, the number of people in ICE custody ballooned to 68,000 this month, up 75% from when he took office.
Midway through 2025, the administration had begun pushing for a daily quota of 3,000 arrests per day, with the goal of reaching 1 million per year. This has led to the targeting of mostly people with no criminal records rather than the “worst of the worst,” as the administration often claims.
Reuters’ reporting suggests chasing this number has also resulted in a staggering number of arrests that judges have later found to be illegal.
Since the beginning of Trump’s term, immigrants have filed more than 20,200 habeas corpus petitions, claiming they were held indefinitely without trial in violation of the Constitution.
In at least 4,421 cases, more than 400 federal judges have ruled that their detentions were illegal.
Last month, more than 6,000 habeas petitions were filed. Prior to the second Trump administration, no other month dating back to 2010 had seen even 500.
In part due to the sheer volume of legal challenges, the Trump administration has often failed to comply with court rulings, leaving people locked up even after judges ordered them to be released.
Reuters’ new report is the most comprehensive examination to date of the administration’s routine violation of the law with respect to immigration enforcement. But the extent to which federal immigration agencies have violated the law under Trump is hardly new information.
In a ruling last month, Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz of the US District Court in Minnesota—a conservative jurist appointed by former President George W. Bush—provided a list of nearly 100 court orders ICE had violated just that month while deployed as part of Trump’s Operation Metro Surge.
The report of ICE’s systemic violation of the law comes as the agency faces heightened scrutiny on Capitol Hill, with leaders of the agency called to testify and Democrats attempting to hold up funding in order to force reforms to ICE’s conduct, which resulted in a partial shutdown beginning Saturday.
Following the release of Reuters’ report, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) directed a pointed question over social media to Kristi Noem, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE.
“Why do your out-of-control agents keep violating federal law?” he said. “I look forward to seeing you testify under oath at the House Judiciary Committee in early March.”
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Eighty migrants from Guatemala are deported to their home country in a United States military plane at the Fort Bliss facility in El Paso, Texas, on January 30, 2025. (Photo by Christian Torres/Anadolu via Getty Images)
At least three inmates have died in the facility in just two months, including one who witnesses say was choked to death by guards.
A group of Texas legislators have delivered an urgent warning about the treatment of detainees in the country’s largest immigration detention camp, which sits on an Army base in El Paso.
“We have received numerous credible reports of torture, killing, and inhumane treatment of detained individuals at the Camp East Montana migrant detention facility, located within Fort Bliss,” said Rep. Ana-María Rodríguez Ramos (D-102), who joined 35 other Democrats in the Texas state House on Tuesday to demand an investigation into the facility.
Camp East Montana was constructed in August as part of the Trump administration’s effort to ramp up Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) “mass deportation” of immigrants. The selection of Fort Bliss has historical precedent, having previously been used as a site for the internment of Japanese people during World War II.
Using a secretive contract undisclosed to the public, the Pentagonawarded roughly $1.2 billion to a private contractor in July to construct a sprawling tent city to hold around 5,000 people rounded up by ICE.
We have received numerous credible reports of torture, killing, and inhumane treatment of detained individuals at the Camp East Montana migrant detention facility, located within Fort Bliss.
We are demanding an independent investigation and public hearings by the House Committee… pic.twitter.com/7PLn3GOz0I
“Almost immediately upon its opening, detainees, their families, and legal watchdog organizations began bringing attention to conditions that were deemed unsuitable for detainees, even by internal standards set by Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” the legislators wrote in a letter to state Rep. Cole Hefner (R-5), who chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security, Public Safety, and Veterans Affairs.
During the camp’s first 50 days of operation, ICE inspections revealed that it had violated more than 60 federal detention standards. The report, compiled in September, was not released to the public, but was reported on by the Washington Post, which spoke with dozens of detainees.
“On ICE’s webpage titled ‘Detention Management,’ it states that ‘detention is non-punitive,’” the legislators wrote Tuesday. “Yet, according to reporting by the Washington Post based on sworn statements from dozens of detainees, the facility, for months, was being run like a prison in a country without standards for oversight, health, or safety for the inmates.”
“There were complaints that the toilets and sinks didn’t work for the first few weeks after the facility’s opening last August. There were complaints logged that, for the first few weeks, the facility didn’t adequately feed detainees. They also complained about another violation of ICE standards: the lack of access to telephones for detainees to communicate with family and legal representation,” they continued.
Earlier this week, US Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), who visited the facility unannounced on Friday, disclosed that at least two cases of tuberculosis and 18 cases of Covid-19 had been identified at the facility.
“While the private corporation continues to pocket our tax dollars, it’s clear the conditions are only getting worse,” she said.
🚨 I just conducted an unannounced visit to Camp East Montana, the largest, most expensive immigration detention facility in the country.
While the private corporation continues to pocket our tax dollars, it's clear the conditions are only getting worse. pic.twitter.com/4pBLaxZHTZ
The state lawmakers also cited a letter sent by the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, and several other civil rights groups in December addressing “cases of illegal, extrajudicial attempts to deport detainees to Mexico.”
One inmate, a Cuban immigrant identified as “Benjamin,” said he was threatened by guards who attempted to make him sign a letter agreeing to be deported to Mexico.
“The guards told him that if he did not, they would handcuff him, put a bag over his head, and send him to Mexico. Benjamin refused to sign the document, stating that he was scared to go to Mexico, because he had heard that migrants are often kidnapped, robbed, or killed there,” the ACLU letter said.
The letter also provided several examples of inmates being subject to physical and sexual assault at the hands of officers.
“People detained at Fort Bliss report that officers have crushed detainees’ testicles with their fingers, slammed detained people to the ground, stomped on detained people and punched their faces, and beaten detained people even after they are cuffed and restrained,” it said.
The legislators also noted that three detainees have died in the facility in just two months.
On December 3, 48-year-old Guatemalan inmate Francisco Gaspar-Andrés was reported to have died of natural causes, namely liver and kidney failure, according to an ICE press release.
Since then, two other inmates have died. On January 14, 36-year-old Victor Manuel Diaz was found dead of an apparent suicide, though the cause of death remains under investigation.
Prior to that, the Department of Homeland Security reported that the death of another inmate, 55-year-old Geraldo Lunas Campos from Cuba, on January 3, was also a suicide.
However, witnesses have said they saw guards choking Lunas Campos and that he was heard saying, “I can’t breathe.” His death has since been ruled a homicide after an autopsy revealed the cause of death to have been “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression.”
The letter notes that while Lunas Campos was “convicted of heinous crimes,” including sexual contact with an 11-year-old, “he was not sentenced to death by a judge or jury—he was killed by someone responsible for his care, for unknown reasons or circumstances.”
“It is our responsibility as Texas legislators to ensure that we can trust that jails, prisons, and detention facilities in Texas operate to our high standards and expectations,” the lawmakers said. “We must learn more, investigate, and provide answers to the millions of Americans demanding the truth. We must also ensure this does not happen again in any federal detention facility.”
The call for an investigation comes as DHS plans to rapidly convert at least around two dozen warehouses into massive new detention centers across the country. At least three of these locations are planned for Texas. One of them, planned for the town of Hutchins outside Dallas, is expected to hold around 9,500 inmates.
The legislators said: “Human rights abuses, ignoring due process requirements, repeated violation of federal regulations, clear disrespect for the United States Constitution, and murder are unconscionable on any inch of American soil—but these crimes against real people are happening in Texas, and require proud Texans to stand up in defense of our Constitution and use our power to end this widespread abuse.”er to end this widespread abuse.”
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Seamus Culleton said conditions at his detention centre in Texas were akin to “torture” and that the atmosphere was volatile. “I’m not in fear of the other inmates. I’m afraid of the staff. They’re capable of anything.”
Speaking from the El Paso facility to Ireland’s RTÉ radio, Culleton implored the taoiseach, Micheál Martin, to raise his case with Donald Trump when he visits the White House next month for St Patrick’s Day celebrations.
“Just try to get me out of here and do all you can, please. It’s an absolute torture, psychological and physical torture,” Culleton said, adding he did not know how much more he could take. “It’s just a horrible, horrible, horrible place.”
Originally from County Kilkenny, Culleton, 42, runs a plastering business in the Boston area. After buying supplies at a hardware store on 9 September 2025 he was followed by ICE agents and arrested.
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Federal agents detain a person after attending a court hearing at immigration court at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in New York City, New York, on July 1, 2025. (Photo by Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The DHS report shows only 14% of immigrants taken into custody by ICE in 2025 had either been charged with or convicted of violent criminal offenses.
A leaked document obtained by CBS News reveals that only a tiny fraction of immigrants detained by the Trump administration last year have violent criminal records.
According to CBS News, the internal US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) document shows that just 14% of immigrants taken into custody by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 2025 had either been charged with or convicted of violent criminal offenses.
The DHS report also shows 40% of immigrants detained last year have no criminal record at all except for civil immigration law violations, such as living unlawfully in the US or overstaying a visa, which CBS News noted “are typically adjudicated by Justice Department immigration judges in civil—not criminal—proceedings.”
The internal document undermines President Donald Trump’s past claims that his administration is focused primarily on deporting “the worst of the worst” undocumented immigrants, such as those belonging to criminal gangs. In reality, the document shows, less than 2% of immigrants detained last year had any sort of gang affiliation.
As noted last month by Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, ICE during Trump’s second term has grown more aggressive in detaining people with no prior criminal offenses save for civil immigration law violations.
In January 2024, for example, immigrants with no prior criminal record accounted for just 6% of ICE detainees. By January 2025, that percentage surged to 43%.
ICE has drastically ramped up its arrests of immigrants in the last year, as White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller has demanded that the agency hit arrest quotas of at least 3,000 per day.
While ICE has not yet reached that goal, they did make an estimated 393,000 arrests during Trump’s first year back in the White House, an average of more than 1,000 per day.
CBS News notes that the internal DHS document “does not include arrests by Border Patrol agents, who the Trump administration has deployed to places far away from the US-Mexico border, like Los Angeles, Chicago, and Minneapolis,” where they “have undertaken aggressive and sweeping arrest operations, targeting day laborers at Home Depot parking lots and stopping people, including US citizens, to question them about their immigration status.”
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Alberto Castañeda Mondragón suffered a shattered skull during an arrest by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents last month in Minneapolis. (Photo by Alberto Castañeda Mondragón/GoFundMe)
“They were very racist people,” Alberto Castañeda Mondragón said of his ICE attackers. “No one insulted them… It was their character, their racism toward us, for being immigrants.”
A Mexican man beaten within an inch of his life last month by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents is on the mend and on Saturday spoke out to refute what one nurse called the agency’s “laughable” claim that his injuries—which include a skull shattered in eight places and five brain hemorrhages—were self-inflicted.
Alberto Castañeda Mondragón told the Associated Press that ICE agents pulled him from a friend’s car outside a shopping center in St. Paul, Minnesota—where the Trump administration’s ongoing Operation Metro Surge has left two people dead and thousands arrested—on January 8.
The 31-year-old father was thrown to the ground, handcuffed, and then savagely assaulted with fists and a steel baton.
“They started beating me right away when they arrested me,” he said.
Castañeda Mondragón was then dragged into an SUV and taken to a holding facility at Ft. Snelling in suburban Minneapolis where he says he was beaten again. He said he pleaded with his attackers to stop, but they just “laughed at me and hit me again.”
“They were very racist people,” he said. “No one insulted them, neither me nor the other person they detained me with. It was their character, their racism toward us, for being immigrants.”
UPDATE: We spoke with Alberto, the man whose 8 skull fractures ICE blamed on a brick wall
He says @ICEgov beat him with the same metal rod they used to smash his friend's car windows
Castañeda Mondragón was taken to the emergency room at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) suffering from eight skull fractures, five life-threatening brain hemorrhages, and multiple broken facial bones.
ICE agents told HCMC nurses that Castañeda Mondragón “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall,” a claim his caretakers immediately doubted. A CT scan revealed fractures to the front, back, and both sides of his skull—injuries inconsistent with running into a wall.
“It was laughable, if there was something to laugh about,” one of the nurses told the AP last month on the condition of anonymity. “There was no way this person ran headfirst into a wall.”
“There was never a wall,” Castañeda Mondragón insisted.
Castañeda Mondragón was hospitalized for nearly three weeks. During the first week, he was minimally responsive, disoriented, and heavily sedated. His memory was damaged by the beating—he said he could not initially remember that he had a daughter—and he could not bathe himself after he was discharged from the hospital.
In addition to facing a long road to recovery, Castañeda Mondragón, who has been employed as a driver and a roofer, has been relying upon support from co-workers and his community for food, housing, and healthcare, as he is unable to work and has no health insurance. A GoFundMe page has been launched to solicit donations “for covering medical care and living expenses until he can begin working again.”
“I don’t know why ICE did this to me,” Castañeda Mondragón said in translated remarks on the page. “They did not detain me after the hospital, I am not a criminal, and the doctors say they were untruthful about how the injuries occurred. But I prefer not to fight, I only want to recover, pay my bills, and go back to work.”
On January 23, US District Judge Donovan W. Frank ruled that ICE was unlawfully detaining Castañeda Mondragón and ordered his immediate release.
Frank’s ruling noted that “ICE agents have largely refused to provide information about the cause of [Castañeda Mondragón’s] condition to hospital staff and counsel for [him], stating only that ‘he got his shit rocked’ and that he ran headfirst into a brick wall.”
The ruling also stated that “despite requests by hospital staff, ICE agents have refused to leave the hospital, asserting that [Castañeda Mondragón] is under ICE custody.”
“Two agents have been present at the hospital at all times since January 8, 2026,” the document continues. “ICE agents used handcuffs to shackle [Castañeda Mondragón’s] legs, despite requests from HCMC staff that he not be so restrained. Petitioner is now confined by hospital-issued four-point restraints in an apparent compromise between the providers and agents.”
“Prior to this case, ICE had not provided any explanation for [Castañeda Mondragón’s] arrest or continued detention,” Frank added.
Castañeda Mondragón legally entered the United States in 2022 but reportedly overstayed his visa.
Castañeda Mondragón’s arrest came a day after ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed 37-year-old legal observer Renee Good in Minneapolis. Seventeen days later, Customs and Border Protection officers fatally shot nurse Alex Pretti, who was also 37, in South Minneapolis after disarming him of a legally carried handgun.
The Department of Homeland Security has not announced any investigation into the attack on Castañeda Mondragón, sparking criticism from civil rights advocates and some Democratic elected officials.
Castañeda Mondragón told the AP that he considers himself lucky.
“It’s immense luck to have survived, to be able to be in this country again, to be able to heal, and to try to move forward,” he said. “For me, it’s the best luck in the world.”
But he suffers nightmares that ICE is coming for him.
“You’re left with the nightmare of going to work and being stopped,” Castañeda Mondragón said, “or that you’re buying your food somewhere, your lunch, and they show up and stop you again. They hit you.”
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