30b5a936 D86b 4f98 A603 6a73c294179f · 31 questions

ICE detention guards used force 780 times in Trump's first year

780 force incidents in Year 1, as incident reports shrank to one-third their former length·May 4, 2026

A Washington Post investigation published on May 4, 2026 found that ICE detention center staff used physical force or chemical agents on detainees at least 780 times during the first year of Trump's second term — a 37% increase over the previous year. The number of individuals subjected to force rose to 1,330 people, a 54% increase. The Post reviewed hundreds of internal ICE emails called the "Daily Detainee Assault Report," which summarize every use-of-force incident at 98 ICE detention facilities from January 2024 through February 2026. The reports detail how guards have increasingly used chemical agents and physical tactics on detainees, including groups demanding adequate water, food, and medical care. One of the most documented incidents occurred in March 2025, when guards at the CoreCivic-operated Torrance County Detention Facility in Estancia, New Mexico, pepper sprayed 65 detainees who were on a hunger strike over inadequate food and lack of showers. The investigation also found that after Trump took office, incident reports shrank dramatically — to an average of 40 words, about one-third as long as they were the previous year — making it harder for overseers to track what happened in each incident.

Key facts

The Washington Post obtained hundreds of internal ICE emails called the Daily Detainee Assault Report — a document that ICE requires detention facilities to file every day summarizing any incident in which staff used physical force against detainees. The Post analyzed 1,460 use-of-force incidents recorded at 98 ICE detention facilities between January 1, 2024 and February 28, 2026. This gave reporters an unusual window into a program that ICE has largely shielded from public scrutiny.

During the first year of Trump's second term — January 2025 through February 2026 — detention center staff used physical force or chemical agents on detainees at least 780 times. That was a 37% increase over the previous year under Biden. The number of individuals subjected to force rose even faster, reaching 1,330 people — a 54% increase — because guards increasingly used force against groups of detainees simultaneously rather than in individual confrontations.

One of the most extensively documented incidents occurred in March 2025 at the Torrance County Detention Facility in Estancia, New Mexico, operated by CoreCivic, one of the two largest private prison companies in the United States. Detainees had organized a hunger strike to protest inadequate food, water cutoffs, and lack of adequate shower access. On March 6, 2025, guards used pepper spray on 65 detainees participating in the hunger strike, locking the affected men in their cells for several days afterward.

The ACLU of New Mexico and the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center filed a lawsuit against CoreCivic and Torrance County over the incident, arguing that using chemical agents against detainees engaged in a peaceful hunger strike violated their constitutional rights. The Torrance County facility had also previously failed its annual ICE inspection, and the DHS Inspector General found inhumane conditions there.

After Trump took office on January 20, 2025, incident reports shrank dramatically in length and detail. The average narrative in use-of-force reports dropped to 40 words in 2025 — about one-third as long as the average report written during the previous year under Biden. Facilities switched from writing descriptive narratives of what happened to producing short, formulaic sentences with minimal information.

The reduction in report length makes it substantially harder for immigration courts, oversight bodies, and advocates to assess whether force was proportional, whether detainees were injured, and whether proper procedures were followed. The DHS Inspector General, members of Congress, and immigration attorneys rely on these reports as primary tools for monitoring detention conditions.

The expansion of ICE detention capacity is the broader context for the use-of-force increase. ICE held approximately 47,600 people in detention at any given time as of early 2026 — up from around 38,000 at the end of the Biden administration. The Big Budget Act that Congress passed in 2025 appropriated nearly $75 billion over four years for immigration enforcement, including $45 billion specifically for detention — a 400% increase over the previous year's detention budget.

As detention capacity expanded rapidly to accommodate Trump's mass enforcement strategy, facilities added detainees faster than they added staff and services. Overcrowding, reduced services, and new detainee populations unfamiliar with facility rules created conditions that advocates and former officials say predictably led to more confrontations between guards and detainees.

ICE contracts with private companies for roughly 80% of its detention capacity. CoreCivic and GEO Group, the two largest private detention operators, have significant financial ties to Republican immigration enforcement priorities. CoreCivic's lobbying infrastructure has supported Republican immigration enforcement priorities for decades, and GEO Group made a $1 million donation to a Trump Super PAC in 2024.

Private detention operators are required to follow ICE's National Detention Standards, but enforcement of those standards is uneven. ICE inspections of its own contractor facilities have found widespread violations at facilities that were still renewed for contracts. The Torrance County facility that pepper sprayed 65 hunger strikers had failed an ICE annual inspection but remained in operation under a CoreCivic contract.

New Mexico enacted a specific legislative response. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the New Mexico Immigrant Safety Act (HB9) into law on February 5, 2026, which prohibits New Mexico counties from contracting with ICE to operate immigration detention centers. The law takes effect May 20, 2026 — meaning the Torrance County Detention Facility must close or transition away from ICE detention within weeks.

New Mexico's law is part of a broader pattern of state-level responses to federal immigration enforcement expansion. Illinois, California, and Washington have also enacted or strengthened restrictions on state and local cooperation with ICE detention operations.

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons announced his resignation on April 16, 2026, with the resignation taking effect May 31. Lyons had served as acting director since March 9, 2025, after being installed during Trump's mass enforcement push. ICE has not had a Senate-confirmed director since January 20, 2017 — more than nine years. The agency is set to enter a period without a director at the same moment detention operations are facing new legal scrutiny.

Lyons told Congress in February 2026 that ICE made 379,000 arrests during the first year of Trump's second term and removed over 475,000 people from the United States. The scale of arrests and removals, combined with the detention expansion, created the conditions the Post investigation documented: more people in custody, under more stress, with less staff trained for the increase.

The Washington Post investigation drew on a government employee who provided the internal ICE records. ICE typically resists releasing these reports in response to Freedom of Information Act requests, arguing they are law enforcement sensitive. The employee's decision to share the records is part of a pattern of federal employees raising concerns about detention conditions through unofficial channels as formal oversight mechanisms face political pressure.

The NAACP, Human Rights Watch, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association have all separately documented increased use of force in ICE detention since January 2025. A 2025 DHS Inspector General report on Torrance County found conditions that violated ICE's own detention standards, but the facility remained open and under contract while the findings were under review.