Padilla, Booker Announce Legislation Cracking Down on Cruel ICE Detention Facilities and Practices

WASHINGTON, D.C. - With Congress set to consider legislation to further increase Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) funding and detention beds this week, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) announced the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act to end the use of private, for-profit detention facilities, prohibit the practice of detaining families, and ensure due process for detained individuals. It would also end mandatory detention and increase federal oversight, accountability, and transparency of the immigration detention system.

The bill announcement comes after Padilla and Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) conducted an oversight visit last week to the largest detention center in California, located in California City, to learn firsthand of the concerns surrounding the inhumane conditions detained individuals are facing at the private, for-profit facility. The Senators investigated reports of unsanitary and unsafe facility conditions, inadequate medical and mental health care, insufficient access to legal counsel, a severe lack of accommodations for people with disabilities, and the unnecessary use of solitary confinement.

During the visit, the Senators met with dozens of Californians and other detained individuals, many with no criminal record, whom ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have swept up indiscriminately amid the Trump Administration's mass detention and deportation campaign. Over 70,000 immigrants are currently detained by ICE, reaching historically high numbers. After 32 people died in ICE custody in 2025, the deadliest year since 2005, at least six individuals have already died in their custody this year.

"Last week, I saw firsthand in California City the appalling, inhumane conditions that detained individuals are facing at for-profit facilities as detentions reach record levels. I met with countless people who were injured while being detained or whose basic medical needs are not being met - including a mother who was denied access to her medication to manage her diabetes and received no treatment after ICE grabbed her by the neck," said Senator Padilla. "As Republicans funnel tens of billions to ICE and CBP, we need to bring back oversight and accountability to the federal detention system, while restoring the right to legal counsel and due process, ending family detention, and raising detention standards. Our bill would finally stop private, for-profit detention centers from lining their pockets by advancing Donald Trump's cruel mass deportation campaign at the expense of our communities and economy."

"Delaney Hall, and every detention center like it, are a moral stain on our country. The conditions are an abdication of the federal government's responsibility to care for those in its custody. GEO Group was awarded a 15-year, one billion dollar contract by the Department of Homeland Security to warehouse our immigrant neighbors. As taxpayers, we're footing the bill for a system that is brutalizing those detained within it. Enough is enough," said Senator Booker. "With the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, we can move away from this system of neglect and cruelty. We can strike a blow against the corrupt for-profit prison model of incarceration. We can guarantee due process for our immigrant neighbors and ban mandatory detentions. Doing this will safeguard our communities and it will bring us steps closer to achieving an immigration system built on dignity and justice that we know is possible."

The Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act is proudly endorsed by a nationwide coalition of over 125 organizations. In addition to Senator Padilla, current cosponsors in the U.S. Senate include Senators Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). The bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in late 2025 by Representatives Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.-07) and Adam Smith (D-Wash.-09).

"Under the Trump Administration, we have seen a shocking surge in the detention of people who have committed no crimes, being locked up in increasingly horrifying conditions, and a dramatic increase in deaths in custody," said Representative Jayapal. "People, including children, are being held in squalor, largely in private, for-profit detention facilities, all to pad the bottom lines of prison corporations that donate to Donald Trump and Republicans. As Trump has struck down legal pathways and made it nearly impossible to come to or stay in this country, even for those who have been here for decades, this will only continue to get worse. The Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act is a commonsense solution to protect the civil rights of every person in this country."

"We are witnessing appalling conditions for immigration detention and a clear disregard for basic human rights," said Representative Smith. "No one should be subjected to overcrowded cells, denied medical care, or held in facilities that profit off of human suffering. This legislation establishes the oversight and guardrails needed to end these abuses and ensure that people are treated with dignity."

The Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act would bring much-needed justice and oversight to the immigration detention system. Specifically, the legislation would:

• Prohibit the detention of families and children in family detention;
• Phase out the use of private detention facilities and jails over a three-year period;
• Repeal mandatory detention and replace it with a system that requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to present evidence that the people in its detention centers are a threat to public safety or national security;
• Require DHS to establish civil detention standards that provide, at minimum, the level of protection in the American Bar Association's Civil Immigration Detention Standards;
• Mandate the Inspector General of DHS to conduct unannounced inspections with meaningful penalties for failure to comply with standards; and
• End the use of solitary confinement in immigration detention.

Senator Padilla has been a leading voice in opposition to President Trump's cruel and indiscriminate mass deportation agenda and denial of basic services for detained individuals. Last year, Padilla introduced the Access to Counsel Act to ensure that U.S. citizens, green card holders, and other individuals with legal status can consult with an attorney, relative, or other interested parties to seek assistance if they are detained by CBP for more than an hour at ports of entry, including airports. Padilla and Schiff also introduced the Restoring Access to Detainees Act, a bill to ensure the Department of Homeland Security allows detained noncitizens to contact legal counsel and their families. Last July, Padilla joined a Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee hearing to set the record straight on President Trump and Stephen Miller's cruel mass deportation campaign, blasting the Administration for intentionally stoking fear and scapegoating immigrants.

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