“Treated Like Garbage”: Harrowing Human Rights Violations in Trump-Era U.S. Migrant Detention Facilities Revealed in Explosive HRW Report
In a chilling new report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW), damning evidence has emerged of systemic and inhumane treatment of migrants detained across the United States during the second term of former President Donald Trump.
The report, based on extensive interviews and inspections conducted at three major immigration detention centres in Florida — the Krome North Service Processing Center, Broward Transitional Center (BTC), and the Federal Detention Center (FDC) — reveals conditions so brutal and degrading that they amount to clear violations of both U.S. law and international human rights treaties.
Mass Incarceration and Explosive Overcrowding
As of June 2025, the U.S. was detaining more than 56,000 migrants, the highest number ever recorded, and a 40% increase compared to the previous year.
Nowhere is the crisis more visible than at Krome, where the detained population ballooned by an alarming 249% within weeks of Trump’s second swearing-in. According to HRW, the facility was at times housing more than three times its intended capacity.
Overcrowding has pushed thousands of detainees into unsanitary, hazardous, and degrading conditions that defy any standard of humane treatment. Makeshift sleeping arrangements on cold concrete floors, overcrowded holding rooms, and a lack of privacy are just the tip of the iceberg.
Cruelty Behind Closed Doors: Shackles, Starvation, and Solitary
The report is replete with graphic, firsthand accounts from detainees who describe daily experiences of humiliation, neglect, and physical torment:
- Migrants, some of whom have no criminal record, were shackled for hours at a time, denied food and water, and forced to urinate in bottles due to a lack of access to toilets.
- In one particularly cruel practice, detainees were forced to kneel and eat using only their mouths while their hands remained shackled behind their backs, likening the experience to being treated like animals.
- Women detainees, many of whom were asylum seekers or survivors of trauma, were locked in men’s facilities without access to basic hygiene, including sanitary napkins and clean toilets.
- The neglect extended to urgent medical needs. One woman with gallstones was denied care for days. When she finally collapsed and underwent emergency surgery, she was sent back to her cell without any pain medication or post-operative monitoring.
In other cases, detainees suffering from mental health crises were punished with solitary confinement, a tactic widely regarded as psychological torture. One woman described the fear of expressing emotional distress: “If you cry, they might take you away for two weeks.”
A Deadly Silence: Deliberate Negligence and Cover-Ups
The report also raises grave concerns about accountability and transparency:
- CCTV cameras were allegedly turned off by staff during protests or incidents of unrest, raising suspicions of intentional cover-ups.
- Medical emergencies were ignored or delayed, with HRW linking at least two detainee deaths directly to grossly inadequate healthcare within the facilities.
The Shadow of Fear: Chilling Effect on Migrant Communities
Beyond the walls of the detention centres, the impact of these abuses has extended into migrant communities nationwide. HRW documents a climate of terror and hopelessness, where individuals — even those without any legal violations — are now too afraid to visit immigration offices, churches, or hospitals, fearing arbitrary arrest and prolonged detention.
A man detained for over two months without ever being charged with a crime put it bluntly:
“You feel like your life is over. They treat you like garbage. It’s psychological abuse.”
Violation of Legal Norms and International Conventions
These systemic abuses not only breach U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s detention standards but also violate multiple international treaties, including:
- The United Nations Convention Against Torture
- The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
- The UN Mandela Rules for the treatment of prisoners
HRW emphasizes that indefinite detention, especially without trial or charge, and the denial of medical and mental health services, amounts to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment under international law.
HRW’s Call to Action: End the Cruelty, Restore Humanity
Human Rights Watch is urging the U.S. government to immediately end the use of detention as the default response to immigration violations. Among their key recommendations:
- Dismantle local law enforcement partnerships with ICE
- Guarantee access to legal counsel and medical care
- Uphold due process rights for all detainees, regardless of immigration status
- Shut down detention facilities that fail to meet constitutional and humanitarian standards
Despite growing calls for reform, for thousands of migrants, the trauma has already been inflicted, both physically and mentally. Many will carry scars from their detention experience for life.
A Shameful Chapter in American Immigration Policy
The revelations in HRW’s report lay bare a deeply disturbing chapter in the United States’ treatment of migrants, characterized by cruelty, neglect, and institutionalised abuse.
As the country reckons with the legacies of its immigration policies, the haunting testimonies from Florida’s detention centres demand a serious moral and legal reckoning — and urgent reforms to prevent such suffering from being repeated.
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