I'm a lawyer. At ICE detention center, my bra wasn’t the real problem.

When a colleague and I arrived at the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan, on Feb. 24 to visit a potential client in U.S. Customs and Immigration detention, we were completely unprepared for the indignity that awaited: Being told that we had to take off our bras.

I’m a lawyer on a fellowship with the ACLU of Michigan. My colleague, who is an experienced translator and advocate, went with me to visit a potential client who only speaks Spanish, and has been detained at North Lake, the largest ICE detention facility in Michigan, for months.

Degrading as it was, what happened to me pales in comparison to the cruelty more than 1,400 immigrants locked away at North Lake endure every day.

Like the woman I visited, who faced the impossible choice of deportation to a country she’s not from and has never been to — and without her infant daughter — or returning to the very country she fled.

During our visit, my colleague and I heard one gut-wrenching story after another. And it's not just this facility, which is privately owned and operated by the GEO Group under a contract with ICE. A growing body of reporting shows that what is happening at North Lake is happening to people in ICE detention all across the country.

My experience was just one small example of a deliberately inhumane system that wields power both randomly and frequently to humiliate, intimidate, punish and, ultimately, terrorize people into submission.

'My bra was the problem'

My most recent encounter with that system started with a needless hassle over questions about the translation skills of my colleague, Elvira, who’s spent over 25 years as a bilingual advocate.

Things got even weirder when I tried to make it through a metal detector. After removing my coat and shoes, the machine beeped for a third time as I tried to pass through. That’s when the screener asked if I was wearing an underwire bra. When I said “yes,” she informed me that my bra was the problem, and that I could not get in without passing the screening.

“I can give you scissors to cut the wire out,” she said coldly. Given the price of bras, that wasn’t happening. I headed to the car and angrily flung my bra off. My colleague, also wearing an underwire bra, did the same. Braless, we were finally allowed in.

Arbitrary and dehumanizing

I felt furious and humiliated, but my first thought was about the family members who face such treatment when they come to visit. Getting to the facility, which is located in a sparsely populated rural area, requires a drive of many hours from much of Michigan, and even more for people coming from out of state to visit a loved one. Imagine how crushing it is to travel all day, only to be turned away because of some arbitrary requirement.

And “arbitrary” is exactly the right word. There is nothing at all on the facility’s website telling visitors what they can and can’t wear. There were other ways this situation could have been handled. Underwire bras are incredibly common; in a YouGov poll, 70% of women reported having worn them. When underwire bras set off metal detectors at airports, staff simply use a wand or pat someone down, rather than forcing a traveler to either destroy their bra, or take it off entirely.

Other attorneys and advocates told me that not only are women being turned away for wearing underwire bras — they have also being denied entry for* not *wearing a bra. I was told some have been denied entry for wearing clothes as common as torn jeans, sweatshirts or khakis.Making up rules and then imposing them with no forewarning is guaranteed to inflict hardship and grief.

That is the point.

Without her daughter

But that was far from the worst thing we encountered at North Lake.

The woman we were there to meet is a native of Venezuela, in her early 20s, who fled to the United States to escape violence and political turmoil. She told us that after using the CBP One app and undergoing a screening for asylum eligibility by immigration officials, she was legally permitted to enter the United States in 2024 through a port of entry in Texas. After she got to the United States, her family purchased a plane ticket for her to come to Michigan.

Her only interaction with police came in 2025, when an abusive ex-partner, who was attempting to harm her and her daughter, falsely accused her of abusing him, she said. Though court records show the charges against her were dismissed, she was turned over to ICE.

What’s particularly heartbreaking about her case is that authorities ripped her away from her 3-month-old baby.

She told us she hasn’t seen her child for six months, and that her baby is being cared for by her father, who is ill-equipped to handle the demands of an infant. She applied for asylum, she told us, but was told by the government that to pursue her claim, she would have to go to Ecuador, a country where she would be completely on her own with zero support—and without her daughter.

Faced with that prospect, she withdrew her asylum application. As terrifying as the thought of returning to Venezuela is, the thought of going to Ecuador without her daughter is even scarier.

Documented problems

Although the fate of her and her baby is her biggest concern, it wasn’t the only thing she wanted to talk about. In addition to telling us about how ICE is forcing people to pay for their own medication, and how she has only been allowed outside twice ― in total ― since arriving at North Lake, she shared how they are not given enough food or time to eat it. Particularly devastating, she said, was witnessing a pregnant woman still eating when a guard took away her food, leaving the expectant mother sobbing.

Problems with conditions at ICE detention facilities have been widely documented, both across the country and at North Lake. Nenko Gantchev, a business owner who had lived in the United States for over thirty years, died at North Lake just two months ago.

In fact, a staff member told me that a medical emergency occurred while I was visiting the facility: Someone was found unresponsive in their cell. I could not find out what happened to them.

No guardrails

The nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) recently issued a disturbing report that noted:

“ICE facilities saw significant overcrowding in 2025, worsening and substandard medical care, growing complaints of abusive conditions, and documented extensive violations of detention standards. As the system expands before officials ensure there are enough staff or infrastructure in place, people have been ‘disappearing’ for days as ICE’s detainee locator system has become unreliable and access to phones uncertain. Sadly, 2025 was the deadliest year for ICE detention on record, and 2026 is looking to be worse.”

Making matters worse, the Kaiser report explained, is the recent removal of protective watchdogs.

“The Trump administration has reduced oversight of operations in immigration detention facilities, which may have negative implications for conditions and health risks in detention centers, including for children and families in detention. The Trump administration has shut down watchdog agencies in DHS, including the Immigration Detention Ombudsman office that conducted oversight on conditions at immigration detention centers.”

Again, the tactic is clear: Make life as miserable as possible for the people being detained to coerce them into “voluntarily” giving up and agreeing to deportation, even if it means leaving their families behind.

Our experience at North Lake was deeply disturbing, and incredibly heart-wrenching. But it did provide clarity.

ICE is willing to go to extraordinary lengths to demean and degrade both the people in its custody and those who care about them. We must be equally willing to remain firm in our support of immigrant communities.

Ewurama Appiagyei-Dankah is a legal fellow with the ACLU of Michigan. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters, and we may run it in print and online.