Duckworth Slams Trump Administration for Inhumane ICE Detention Conditions in Illinois and Nationwide

Duckworth Slams Trump Administration for Inhumane ICE Detention Conditions in Illinois and Nationwide

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] - U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today called out the Trump Administration's inhumane conditions in United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities, where detainees have been subjected to overcrowding, inadequate medical care and abusive treatment. During her questioning at U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin's (D-IL) spotlight forum, Duckworth underscored the lack of timely data regarding ICE detainees in the Chicago area, the countless disability rights violations and the lasting trauma inflicted on young people like Ricardo, a Chicago Public Schools student, who missed his senior prom after spending two months in ICE custody. Ricardo testified as one of the witnesses. Duckworth's full remarks can be found on the Senator's YouTube.

"No one should ever be denied basic care, dignity and humane treatment while in detention, let alone children," said Duckworth. "Despite the lies the Trump Administration keeps trying to sell, Ricardo was not some hardened criminal, he was not the 'worst of the worst.' He's just a teenage boy who loves playing soccer. But for two excruciating months, when he should have been attending his cap and gown fittings for his high school graduation, Ricardo was in Federal custody, worried that he may never see his mother again. They want people in detention-including minors-to feel so hopeless that they would rather be deported than to spend another second there."

Since President Donald Trump took office again and implemented his anti-immigrant mass deportation agenda, the conditions at ICE detention facilities have dramatically worsened. Over 50 detainees have died, and 2025 was the deadliest year for ICE detention in over two decades. An April 2026 study found the current mortality rate has already exceeded the COVID-19 spike and attributed the increase to inadequate medical care, lack of oversight and overcrowding. A recent report revealed that 10 individuals that have died were deaths by suicides, and their deaths and can be attributed in part to facility staff ignoring signs of distress and delaying mental health treatment. Despite this, the Trump Administration has shut down Office of the Immigration Detention and Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, offices created by Congress to ensure oversight of our detention system.

Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans allocated $70 billion dollars in new funding to expand ICE detention while offering no meaningful reforms or oversight, failing to include commonsense protections such as mandatory body cameras, independent investigations into excessive violence as well stronger accountability measures that the American people have been demanding in the wake multiple killings at the hands of DHS agents. Duckworth voted against this additional blank check for Trump's ICE and Border Patrol, instead outlining how the $70 billion could be better spent lowering costs and improving the lives of Illinoisans.

"Reasonable accommodations are a human right," said Duckworth. "We, as a society, cannot begin to draw the line as to who has the right to accommodations, and we especially cannot let the Trump Administration draw that line. The Trump Administration's cruelty has extended to everyone caught in the immigration detention system, but they have shown an extraordinary backwardness in their neglect and abuse of individuals with disabilities."

Witnesses in today's forum include:

• Ricardo Hernandez-Navarrete (Illinois) was in ICE detention for two months, during which time he was transferred to facilities in multiple states and experienced harsh conditions and separation from his mother. He was born in Colombia and attending Chicago Public Schools when he and his mother were arrested at a routine immigration check-in. He was released just two days before his high school graduation. He is pursuing an asylum case and attending Truman College in Chicago.

• Michele Heisler (Michigan) is a Medical Director at Physicians for Human Rights and a professor of internal medicine and public health at the University of Michigan. She spoke about the lack of medical and mental health care in immigration detention.

• Michelle Brané (Washington, DC) previously served as the Office of Immigration Detention Oversight Ombudsman. She discussed how the dismantling of detention oversight and changes to detention management during this Administration has endangered detained individuals.

• Jennifer Babaie (Illinois) is the Associate Director of the National Immigrant Justice Center's Adult Detention Project. She highlighted the impact of the Trump Administration's interpretation of mandatory detention laws and the current legal landscape for detained individuals, including the impact of poor medical care, limited access to attorneys and coercive practices intended to convince individuals to self-deport.

Duckworth has fiercely pushed back against the Trump Administration's mass deportation campaign and has been leading the charge to demand accountability and reforms of Trump's DHS. During "Operation Midway Blitz" in Chicago, Duckworth and Durbin visited the Broadview ICE processing center in their Congressional oversight roles. During the visit, the Senators raised concerns about a lack of transparency and accountability, including reports of overcrowding, denial of access to basic necessities and troubling conditions facing detainees, while demanding answers from ICE officials about the treatment of people held in federal custody.

Earlier this year, the Senator introduced an amendment to the DHS Appropriations Act that would force independent investigations into Trump's agents' use of excessive-and at times deadly-force against American citizens, including by creating a process that ensures these incidents are reviewed by independent authorities rather than solely by the agencies responsible for overseeing the agents involved. Duckworth first called on the DHS and DOJ OIGs to investigate officer-involved use of force incidents last October, following a series of shockingly violent assaults and reckless shootings by Trump's masked agents against Illinoisans, and Duckworth reiterated and expanded her request following the brutal killing of Renee Good, an American citizen and mother of three. Shamefully, just days before Trump's agents murdered Alex Pretti, the DHS and DOJ OIGs-both of whom Trump appointed-denied Duckworth's request.

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