ICE’s “Short-Term” Detention Centers Are Anything But: Detainees Suffer Neglect and Overcrowding

The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has turned so-called “short-term” ICE detention centers into de facto long-term prisons, where basic human needs are routinely ignored. Cuban asylum seeker Deris Perez Martinez spent eight harrowing days in Arizona’s Florence Staging Facility, a holding center designed for stays no longer than 72 hours. Instead, Perez Martinez found himself packed into a crowded room with 130 other adults, forced to share filthy communal toilets and sometimes sleep on the floor.

During those eight days, Perez Martinez repeatedly asked for medical help as his diabetes spiraled out of control. Despite five requests, he was denied care. By the time he was transferred to the nearby Florence Correctional Center, a private prison run by CoreCivic, he was dangerously close to a diabetic coma. Medical records obtained by the Arizona Daily Star showed his blood sugar hit 499 mg/dL—nearly five times normal levels. The neglect left him with lasting vision problems and a very real fear for his life.

Perez Martinez’s story is not an isolated incident. Across the country, ICE’s short-term holding facilities are overcrowded and holding detainees far beyond their intended capacity and time limits. Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Arizona, recently conducted an unannounced visit to the Florence Detention Center campus, which includes the staging facility and the processing center. She was barred from speaking with detainees or accessing common areas but heard reports of detainees held for up to two weeks in appalling conditions.

The Mesa airport facility, known as the Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center (AROCC), designed for 157 people, reportedly housed as many as 777 detainees earlier this year. Grijalva and other Arizona Democrats described the conditions there as “inhumane,” with people packed “like sardines.” Similar overcrowding and neglect have been documented at Texas’ Dilley Immigration Processing Center and other ICE facilities.

ICE’s own standards mandate a comprehensive medical screening within 12 hours of detention, or sooner if urgent health needs exist. Yet Perez Martinez’s ordeal and countless other reports reveal a system that routinely fails to meet even these minimal requirements. ICE did not respond to requests for comment on these conditions.

This pattern of neglect and overcrowding underscores the brutal reality of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement: a sprawling, for-profit detention system that prioritizes incarceration over humane treatment. The consequences are not only violations of civil rights but also life-threatening medical neglect.

We will keep tracking these abuses and demand accountability for the lives ICE’s policies endanger. Neglecting sick detainees like Perez Martinez is not just a bureaucratic failure—it is a moral crisis.