Experts Warn US Immigration 'Detention Centers' Now Cross Line Into Concentration Camps

The Trump administration’s immigration detention centers are not just bureaucratic holding pens—they are increasingly resembling concentration camps, experts warn. Historian Andrea Pitzer, author of One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps, argues that the US has crossed a historic line by detaining migrants en masse without due process based on identity, a hallmark of concentration camps.

While government and ICE officials use sanitized terms like “detention centers” or “processing centers” to downplay harsh realities, immigrant advocates and historians see through the euphemisms. These facilities, including warehouses recently purchased by ICE, hold people indefinitely without trials, often under brutal conditions. Reports of inadequate food, poor sanitation, and outbreaks of diseases like measles and Covid are rampant. Eighteen people have died in ICE custody so far this year—more than double last year’s toll.

Holocaust historian Waitman Beorn emphasizes that concentration camps do not have to be extermination camps like Auschwitz to warrant the label. The early Nazi camps started as makeshift detentions in warehouses and sports arenas, much like ICE’s current use of warehouses. The key factor is mass detention based on group identity rather than individual crimes, a practice ICE has expanded by targeting legal immigrants and even US citizens, especially among Somali and Haitian communities.

The use of terms like “concentration camps” remains controversial. Critics accuse politicians like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of diminishing the Holocaust’s horrors. But experts argue that understanding the full historical context is crucial to preventing abuses from escalating. They call for public recognition that the US system today fits the definition of concentration camps and demands urgent accountability.

As the Trump administration doubles down on immigration crackdowns with little oversight, the language used to describe these facilities matters. Calling them what they are—concentration camps—is a necessary step toward exposing systemic cruelty and demanding reform before more lives are lost.