Federal reports on immigration detention facilities, including one released just last month, have repeatedly pointed to the same troubling issues: contaminated water, inadequately trained staff, and slow responses to medical emergencies, both urgent and chronic.
Despite mounting concerns from disability rights advocates, a federal judge and the California Department of Justice, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities continue to earn high marks in the agency’s own internal reviews.
A new analysis from the Project on Government Oversight found that under the Trump administration, the number of ICE detention centers receiving the agency’s top rating — “superior” — has tripled since 2024. According to the watchdog group, that surge in top scores has come alongside a rollback of detention standards and a drop in the number of facility inspections being conducted.
The timing is notable: those glowing evaluations have coincided with a rise in deaths among detained immigrants. In fact, 2025 marked the deadliest year in ICE custody since 2004.
The Project on Government Oversight reported that four people have died at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino County since August 2025 — more than at any other detention facility in the country during that same stretch.
The ratings are issued by ICE’s own Office of Detention Oversight, which also tracks facilities’ failures to meet the agency’s detention standards. Those violations carry real consequences on paper — a facility that fails to meet standards twice in a row can lose federal funding.
“Despite this provision — or perhaps because of it — detention facilities rarely received failing grades from inspectors between fiscal years 2022 and 2026,” researchers with the watchdog group wrote in their report.
ICE detention centers are currently holding a record number of people, with at least 65,000 detained as of July 11. Yet even as the population under custody has climbed sharply, the agency has documented fewer violations inside its facilities.
The analysis found that reported violations at ICE detention centers dropped 68% between 2022 and 2025.
The Project on Government Oversight, which describes itself as a nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative organization, said in its report that ICE did not respond to multiple requests for an interview. The findings were published this week, and CalMatters has reached out to ICE for comment.
When reporters have raised concerns about conditions with the private prison companies that operate many of these facilities — including GEO Group and CoreCivic — those companies have typically responded by pointing to federal detention standards rather than addressing specific allegations directly.
Original source: CalMatters
