ICE Agents Are Now Pepper Spraying Immigrants In Detention Centers

Inside America’s immigration detention centers, people asking for food, water, or medical care are increasingly met with violent, chemical force.

VIA ACLU

A new investigation from The Washington Post found that ICE guards used pepper spray, restraint tactics, and physical force on 1,330 detained immigrants over the course of a year, a staggering increase from the year prior. Many of the immigrants targeted weren’t accused of violence; they were asking for basic necessities: access to doctors, edible food, water, or even their personal belongings.

In one especially disturbing case, detainees at an Alaska facility complained they were being held in cramped, windowless cells without access to their property. Guards responded by firing pepper balls into a communal room filled with detainees.

One 68-year-old man with a lung condition said he thought he was going to die after struggling to breathe through the chemical cloud.

These scenarios are not isolated.

In Georgia, detainees protesting a lack of medical attention were pepper-sprayed to “gain compliance.” In New Mexico, guards reportedly used chemical agents on detainees participating in a hunger strike over food quality and water shutoffs. Over and over again, the pattern is the same: detained immigrants ask for legally required care, and authorities respond as if those requests are security threats.

ICE continues to describe immigration detention as “non-punitive,” but these records paint a different picture, one that looks far more like a prison system operating with little transparency and even less accountability.

At least 106 detainees suffered documented injuries during these incidents, including broken bones, head trauma, seizures, and dislocated shoulders. Investigators also found evidence suggesting some injuries may have been omitted or downplayed in official reports.

The most chilling part may be how hidden this system remains. Many detention facilities are privately operated, surveillance footage is rarely released, and internal reports reportedly became less detailed after Trump returned to office, making public accountability even harder.

The United States often frames immigration detention as administrative, but when people asking for medicine, water, or humane treatment are met with pepper spray, it becomes impossible to ignore what these facilities are increasingly functioning as.

At some point, we have to stop pretending this is about “security” or “border management.” A system where people are pepper-sprayed for asking for medical care, water, or basic human dignity is not a system focused on safety; it’s one built on punishment.

The most dangerous part: how normalized it’s becoming. These facilities operate largely out of public view, hidden behind bureaucratic language like “compliance” and “detention standards,” while human beings suffer behind closed doors.

History will remember how we treated the most vulnerable people under our control. Right now, America is leaving behind a record of cruelty, secrecy, and dehumanization, one incident report at a time.