ICE placed at least 10,588 people in solitary confinement from April 2024-May 2025 and solitary confinement rates are surging under the Trump administration, according to a new report published today by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), the Peeler Immigration Lab, and experts at Harvard Law School. As the crisis in immigration detention facilities across the United States escalates, the authors call on the U.S. government to end the use of solitary confinement – including urging state policymakers to ban the practice within their borders.
“Cruelty Campaign: Solitary Confinement in U.S. Immigration Detention” is the most comprehensive study to date on the extensive and increasing use of solitary confinement in immigration detention during the second Trump administration and in the final months of the Biden administration. Based on publicly available ICE data and records obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, the report documents how the monthly increase in the use of solitary confinement during the first four months of the Trump administration was twice as high as ICE’s rate of solitary confinement between 2018 and 2023 – and more than six times higher than during the end of the Biden administration.
“Solitary confinement placements lasting longer than 15 days meet international criteria for torture. But during the final months of the Biden administration and amid the Trump administration’s escalating attacks on immigrants, ICE’s own records show that the agency has subjected people to these torturous conditions – which cause devastating physical and psychological health harms,” said Katherine Peeler, MD, a report co-author, medical advisor at PHR, and assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
“Our report is likely just the tip of the iceberg as it relies in part on ICE’s self-reported data, which is known to be incomplete and unreliable,” said Arevik Avedian, PhD, a report co-author, lecturer on law and director of Empirical Research Services at Harvard Law School. “The full scale and scope of the solitary confinement crisis will continue to be obscured by ICE until Congress acts.”
The report is authored by PHR, the Peeler Immigration Lab, and experts from Harvard Law School’s Empirical Research Services and the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program, in a follow-up to their 2024 Endless Nightmare: Solitary Confinement in U.S. Immigration Detention report.
The new study provides national-level data as well as a regional case study on abusive practices in immigration detention in six New England-area facilities, as detailed records obtained through FOIA litigation revealed particularly egregious conditions in the region.
National findings include:
- Over a span of just 14 months (April 2024-May 2025) and across two administrations, at least 10,558 people were placed in solitary confinement in immigration detention centers across the United States.
- During the first four months of the second Trump presidency (Feb-May 2025), the monthly increase in the use of solitary confinement was twice as high as the rate between 2018 and 2023 – and more than six times higher than during the end of the Biden administration (April-Nov 2024).
- From February-May 2025, the number of individuals placed in solitary confinement by ICE increased by an average of 6.5 percent per month.
- The number of vulnerable people (such as those with mental health conditions) subjected to solitary confinement increased by an average of approximately 56 percent per quarter in 2025 compared to 2022, when ICE began reporting statistics on the solitary confinement of vulnerable populations.
- During the first three months of 2025, solitary confinement placements involving people with vulnerabilities lasted more than twice as long as they did in the first fiscal quarter of 2022.
New England regional specific findings include:
- Systemic use of solitary confinement for seemingly arbitrary and retaliatory purposes – in violation of international and domestic laws – including punishing people for filing grievances, requesting basic needs like showers, or sharing food.
- From 2018 and 2023, nearly three out of four solitary confinement placements lasted 15-days or longer, the threshold that UN human rights experts consider to be torture. On average, people spent about a month in solitary, and some were isolated for more than a year.
- Among the approximately 60 percent of solitary confinement placements where mental health status was recorded in New England, nearly half involved individuals with reported mental health conditions, despite ICE directives requiring its use only as a last resort for vulnerable populations.
The report notes the extensive flaws in ICE’s data collection and reporting systems. ICE’s systematic reporting failures mean that the findings in the report, while based on the best available data, may underestimate the true scope of solitary confinement abuses.
Recent U.S. legislation provides for a quadrupling of funds for ICE including new and expanded immigration detention facilities. The Trump administration has also frequently undermined oversight and accountability mechanisms that are intended to prevent abuses at the Department of Homeland Security, from limiting oversight bodies to restricting congressional oversight visits.
The report calls on the federal government to end solitary confinement practices against immigrants in ICE detention. Members of Congress should utilize all available oversight mechanisms and legislative tools at their disposal to curtail any abusive use of solitary confinement. States should also conduct rigorous independent oversight, exercise every available power, and pass necessary legislation to reduce or eliminate solitary confinement within their jurisdictions.
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a New York-based advocacy organization that uses science and medicine to prevent mass atrocities and severe human rights violations. Learn more here.