Immigrants ‘Wasting Away’ Months After ICE Arrests in For-Profit Michigan Detention Center

At the North Lakes Processing Center in Michigan, a for-profit ICE detention facility run by CEO Group, immigrants are languishing for months under inhumane conditions and legal limbo. Luis Fernandez Escalante and seven others interviewed by Block Club reveal a grim reality: denied bonds without clear cause, limited access to legal help, and prolonged detention even after deportation orders.

Fernandez Escalante fled Venezuela fearing political persecution, only to be arrested during an immigration check-in while seeking safety with his family. Despite pending asylum claims, he remains locked up, echoing the stories of many others caught in a system that treats them like criminals rather than asylum seekers or immigrants with legal rights.

José García, a Nicaraguan asylum-seeker, has been detained for over nine months after a traffic stop and faces deportation despite an immigration judge’s order. “They don’t want us here, but they don’t let us go,” he said, describing the psychological toll of indefinite detention.

Conditions inside the center are dire. Medical care is limited and often delayed, forcing detainees to purchase medicine from the commissary at their own expense. Meals are sparse and repetitive, mostly rice, beans, pasta, and tuna, with detainees sometimes working for just $1 a day to improve their food options. Staff reportedly belittle detainees, compounding the trauma.

This facility, like many others run by private companies, profits from detaining vulnerable people while cutting corners on care and due process. The Department of Homeland Security awarded over $811 million in contracts to Geo Group and similar corporations in 2025, underscoring the scale of privatized immigration enforcement.

Civil rights groups have repeatedly sued over these “inhumane conditions,” yet the abuses persist. The stories from North Lakes expose a broken immigration detention system that prioritizes profit over human dignity and justice — a system that wastes away lives while dodging accountability.