Beds are seen inside a migrant detention center, dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," located at the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, as US President Donald Trump tours the facility in Ochopee, Florida on July 1, 2025.
Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
Some migrants who have been granted protection under the United Nations Convention Against Torture are being held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention for months or years after winning their cases, according to attorneys and detainees, even though they cannot be deported to their home countries.
Sarah Houston, managing attorney at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, told The Associated Press site that several of her clients with torture protection have remained in custody well beyond six months.
"They're just holding these people indefinitely," Houston told AP. "We're seeing people who actually win their immigration cases just languishing in jail." She said attorneys request release reviews every 90 days and that ICE has denied those requests.
One detainee, Felipe Hernandez Espinosa, a Nicaraguan asylum-seeker, said he has been held for nearly seven months across facilities in Florida and at Fort Bliss in Texas. He told AP he asked to be returned to Nicaragua but was told he must first see a judge. "I came to this country thinking they would help me, and I've been detained for six months without having committed a crime," he said. "It has been too long. I am desperate."
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Agency data show ICE detention has exceeded 70,000 people, with more than 7,000 held at least six months as of mid-January, including dozens detained for more than two years. The Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that immigration detention cannot be indefinite and identified six months as a reasonable limit for post-removal-order detention.
Other attorneys report similar cases. Ana Alicia Huerta of the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice said detainees who agreed to voluntary departure are also remaining in custody for extended periods. "All are telling me: 'I don't understand why I'm here. I'm ready to be deported,'" she said.
Conditions inside facilities have drawn additional scrutiny. Department of Homeland Security figures show four migrants died in ICE custody during the first 10 days of this year, following at least 30 detention deaths last year.
The administration is also moving to expand detention capacity. ICE and DHS have purchased or scouted dozens of warehouse properties that could be converted into detention centers, some designed to hold thousands of people as Bloomberg reported recently. Planned warehouse conversions could add tens of thousands of additional beds, despite local opposition in several communities.
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Tags: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Florida, Fort Bliss, Texas