ICE Detention Centers: Detainee Rights, Care, and Complaints

Anyone held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement keeps a specific set of rights in ICE detention, covering medical care, legal access, phone and visitation, religious practice, humane living conditions, and formal ways to complain when those rights are violated. These protections come from federal statutes, ICE’s Performance-Based National Detention Standards, and the contracts facilities sign to house detainees. The written rules are consistent across the system; enforcement is not, and the gap between the two is where most problems arise.

Immigration detention is civil custody, not criminal punishment. The government’s stated purpose is to make sure noncitizens appear for hearings or can be removed, and that framing shapes what detainees are owed. It also shapes what they are not owed: there is no constitutional right to a government-appointed lawyer, which is the single biggest difference from criminal jail.

The Right to Seek Release

For most detainees, the most important right is the right to ask to go home while the case continues. Under 8 U.S.C. § 1226, ICE may release someone on bond of at least $1,500 or on conditional parole while removal proceedings play out.¹ An ICE officer sets the initial bond amount, weighing danger to the community and risk of skipping hearings. If ICE denies bond or sets an amount the person cannot pay, they can ask an immigration judge for an independent hearing. Judges routinely set amounts of $5,000, $10,000, or higher. Bond can be posted in cash or through a surety company that typically charges around 10 percent as a non-refundable fee.

At the hearing, the detainee carries the burden of showing they are neither dangerous nor a flight risk. Judges look at family ties, length of residence, work history, criminal record, and likelihood of returning to court.

Not everyone is eligible. Under § 1226(c), the government must detain, without bond, people who are inadmissible or deportable on serious criminal or terrorism-related grounds. The only carve-out for release is cooperation as a witness in a major criminal investigation.¹ Bond eligibility for people who entered without authorization is currently unsettled, with federal circuits reaching different conclusions, so current legal advice matters.

After a final removal order, 8 U.S.C. § 1231 gives the government 90 days to carry out removal, with detention mandatory during that period.² Beyond that, the Supreme Court held in Zadvydas v. Davis that six months is the presumptively reasonable limit for post-order detention. Once six months pass, a detainee who can show there is no significant likelihood of removal in the reasonably foreseeable future is entitled to release, unless the government proves otherwise.³

Access to Legal Help

Because there is no appointed counsel, finding an attorney falls on the detainee. The Executive Office for Immigration Review keeps a list of pro bono legal service providers, updated quarterly, that every facility must make available to people in custody.⁴ Demand far outstrips supply, and many detainees go through their whole case unrepresented.

Law Library

Each facility must maintain a law library in a designated, well-lit room with tables, chairs, computers, and printers. Detainees are entitled to at least five hours of access per week, with the standard encouraging up to 15 hours where resources allow. People with filing deadlines get priority scheduling. Those who are illiterate, have limited English, or have disabilities are entitled to special assistance, including bilingual staff, interpretation, or auxiliary aids like Braille.⁵ Facilities cannot make anyone trade their recreation time for library time.

Phone Access

Facilities must provide reasonable phone access during waking hours, with a minimum call length of 20 minutes and at least one working phone for every 25 detainees. Even where the general phone system runs on collect calls, detainees must be able to make free, direct calls to immigration courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals, consular officials, and legal service providers on the ICE pro bono list. Indigent detainees cannot be charged for local calls or calls involving a compelling need.

Legal calls get extra protection. Facilities must provide phones where legal conversations cannot be overheard, and electronic monitoring of legal calls is prohibited without a court order. Where other calls are monitored, notices at each phone must explain how to request an unmonitored legal call. Under federal rate caps implementing the Martha Wright-Reed Act, audio call rates from confinement facilities are now capped between $0.09 and $0.17 per minute, depending on facility size.⁶

Legal and Family Visits

Legal visits must be allowed seven days a week, including holidays, for at least eight hours per day on weekdays and four hours per day on weekends and holidays.⁷ Family and social visitation must be available at least on weekends and holidays, with each visit lasting at least one hour under normal conditions.

Medical and Mental Health Care

Every person entering a detention facility is entitled to a medical, dental, and mental health screening within 12 hours of arrival, identifying urgent needs, contagious disease, and suicide risk.⁸ A full health evaluation by qualified medical staff must follow within 14 days.⁹ Detainees can submit sick call requests daily for ongoing care.

Facilities must provide emergency treatment, chronic disease management for conditions like diabetes or hypertension, and necessary dental care. Where a facility cannot deliver specialized treatment on site, it must arrange transport to an outside provider.⁸

Mental health care runs on a parallel schedule: the initial screening within 12 hours, a full evaluation by a qualified mental health professional within 14 days, and active suicide prevention protocols at all times.⁸ Every medical and mental health encounter must be documented. Medical failures are one of the most common subjects of litigation and federal investigations.

Language Access

Detainees who do not speak English must receive interpretation during medical evaluations and any other interaction that affects access to programs and services. ICE maintains a centralized language services contract, available around the clock, that covers more than 100 languages, including rare and Indigenous languages, which facilities without in-house interpretation can draw on.¹⁰ The National Detainee Handbook and facility-specific handbooks must be translated or interpreted orally for anyone who cannot read the English version.

Food, Hygiene, and Daily Conditions

Meal plans must be reviewed by a registered dietitian to meet daily caloric requirements and provide balanced nutrition. Facilities must accommodate religious dietary needs such as halal and kosher meals on request, and follow medically prescribed diets. Kitchen hygiene, food storage temperatures, and preparation practices face regular inspection.

On arrival, each detainee receives hygiene items including soap, a toothbrush, and a comb, along with bed linens: sheets, a pillowcase, and a blanket.¹¹ Sleeping areas must have adequate space, lighting, air circulation, and heating, and overcrowding that compromises safety is prohibited. Staff use of physical force is restricted to preventing self-harm, injury to others, or significant property damage, and every use of force must be documented.

Recreation

General-population detainees are entitled to at least one hour of outdoor recreation daily, seven days a week, weather permitting, with the standard encouraging up to four hours where scheduling allows.¹²

Religious Practice

Detainees have the right to practice their faith in ways consistent with facility safety. Accommodations are not limited to practices considered central or compulsory within a tradition; any sincerely held belief qualifies. Facilities must schedule worship, prayer, and meditation, including outdoor worship where outdoor space exists.¹³

Personal religious items such as holy books, rosaries, prayer beads, prayer rugs, and religious medallions are generally permitted. Religious headwear including kufis, yarmulkes, turbans, and headscarves for women is allowed throughout the facility, subject to safety considerations. Detainees can request new religious programming, and the facility must evaluate the request within a reasonable time.¹³

Protections for Vulnerable People

Detainees With Disabilities

Under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, ICE must provide reasonable accommodations and effective communication to detainees with disabilities, regardless of immigration status. Accommodations can include sign language interpreters, extra time to follow instructions, wheelchairs and other mobility devices, access to necessary medication, documents read aloud, and modifications to how staff restrain or move someone. Detainees can request accommodations at any point during custody.¹¹

Sexual Abuse Protections

ICE has a zero-tolerance policy for sexual abuse and assault. The Department of Homeland Security’s standards under 6 CFR Part 115, modeled on the Prison Rape Elimination Act, apply to immigration detention. Facilities must provide multiple private ways to report sexual abuse, including at least one method that reaches an entity outside the facility, and staff must report any knowledge or suspicion immediately.¹⁴ Every facility must designate a compliance manager and undergo routine audits. As of the end of fiscal year 2023, ICE had adopted these standards at facilities housing 98 percent of the average daily population.¹⁵

Rights in Restrictive Housing

Detainees placed in Special Management Units, the detention equivalent of solitary confinement, keep specific protections. Disciplinary segregation is capped at 30 days per incident, except in extraordinary circumstances involving the most serious offense categories.¹⁶ Supervisory staff must review each placement on a recurring schedule, and the facility administrator must review disciplinary placements after the first 30 days and every 30 days after that to decide whether continued segregation is warranted.

People in administrative segregation get at least one hour of exercise outside their cells daily. Those in disciplinary segregation get at least one hour per day, five days a week.¹² Access to legal materials and the law library is the same as for the general population.⁵

Rights During Transfers

ICE can move detainees between facilities, sometimes hundreds of miles away. Before the transfer, the person must be told they are being moved and not removed from the country, and the sending facility must provide the name, address, and phone number of the destination facility in writing. After arrival, each transferred person must be offered a free domestic phone call, and ICE must notify the attorney of record within 24 hours.¹⁷

For security reasons, the standards prohibit disclosing the specific time or route of a transfer, and phone and general-population contact are restricted from the moment of notification until arrival. Transfers remain one of the most disruptive aspects of detention, since they can separate people from counsel mid-case and force attorneys to withdraw.

How to Complain When Rights Are Violated

The first channel is the facility’s internal grievance system. Every facility must maintain grievance procedures with reasonable time limits and a way to appeal decisions to the ICE field office.¹⁸

For problems the facility will not fix, or that go beyond one facility, the DHS Office of Inspector General runs a toll-free hotline at 1-800-323-8603, which accepts reports by phone, mail, or online form.¹⁹ Medical concerns specific to ICE facilities can also be reported to the ICE Detention Information Line at 1-888-351-4024.

Behind the scenes, several bodies inspect facilities: the internal Office of Detention Oversight, the DHS Office of Inspector General, and the Detention Management Control Program. When they find violations, facilities can be required to develop corrective action plans, with timelines that vary by the type of violation. Under the sexual abuse prevention standards, facilities that fail audits have entered 180-day corrective action periods.²⁰ Persistent failure can lead to lost accreditation or contract termination.

The gap between the standards on paper and daily life inside is well documented. Inspector General reports, lawsuits, and investigative reporting have repeatedly identified delays in medical care, overuse of restrictive housing, and conditions that fall short of what the rules require. Knowing the written rights is the starting point; using the grievance system, the OIG hotline, and outside legal help is how those rights get enforced in practice.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1226 – Apprehension and Detention of Aliens
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1231 – Detention and Removal of Aliens Ordered Removed
3
Legal Information Institute. Zadvydas v Davis
4
Justice.gov. List of Pro Bono Legal Service Providers
5
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. PBNDS 2011 – Law Libraries and Legal Material
6
Federal Register. Implementation of the Martha Wright-Reed Act Rates for Incarcerated Peoples Communication Services
7
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. PBNDS 2011 – Visitation
8
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE Directive 11744.2 – Intake Screening and Reviews
9
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE/DRO Detention Standard – Medical Care
10
ICE. ERO Language Access Information
11
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. National Detainee Handbook
12
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. PBNDS 2011 – Recreation
13
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. PBNDS 2011 – Religious Practices
14
eCFR. 6 CFR Part 115 – Sexual Abuse and Assault Prevention Standards
15
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE Sexual Abuse and Assault Prevention and Intervention Program
16
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. PBNDS 2011 – Special Management Units
17
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. PBNDS 2011 – Detainee Transfers
18
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. PBNDS 2011 – Grievance System
19
DHS Office of Inspector General. OIG Hotline
20
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. PREA Audit Corrective Action Plan Final Determination