Immigrants ‘Wasting Away’ At For-Profit Michigan Detention Center Months After ICE Arrests

Fernandez Escalante is one of hundreds of detained immigrants whose arrests appear to be in violation of a consent decree that limits warrantless arrests, attorneys with the National Immigration Justice Center said.

Many feel they never got a fair chance.

They feel trapped in a system “riddled with injustice,” far from the ideals of democracy, safety and justice they sought in the United States, several immigrants said. After months detained, they feel helpless, anxious and mistreated.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in an emailed statement that detained immigrants have access to a list of free legal services, access to a legal library and “various means to connect with their attorneys, including in-person visits, telephonic and virtual conferencing.”

Federal officials said immigrants who have a final deportation order “can remain in ICE custody while a travel document is obtained for their lawful removal to their home country.”

José García, an asylum-seeker from Nicaragua, has been detained in the North Lakes Processing Center for over nine months after being arrested in a traffic stop in Detroit in July.

It’s a different life from what he hoped for when he “gave up everything,” including his medical studies, and abandoned his native country due to political persecution. Under President Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, more than 345,000 people have been forced to leave Nicaragua as of July 2025, according to a Human Rights Watch report.

Over two months ago, on Jan. 13, an immigration judge ordered García be deported to Honduras, court records show. But he remains detained, “stressed, feeling claustrophobic, without options,” he said. He is desperate to be free.

“They don’t want us here, but they don’t let us go,” García said. “My life is wasting away.”

Conditions At The Center

Immigrants detained at the North Lakes Processing Center in Michigan said the conditions there are hard to bear. There is limited access to medical care and inadequate food, and staff constantly belittle them, eight immigrants said.

Civil and immigrant rights groups across the country have sued the federal government over “inadequate conditions” in immigration detention centers, many of which are run by private companies. In November, the American Civil Liberties Union of California sued the federal government over “inhumane conditions” at the state’s largest detention center, according to court records. Earlier this year, families and children in a Texas detention center said they received bad food, insufficient medicine and inadequate education, according to ProPublica.

The Michigan detention center has capacity to house 1,800 immigrants who receive “around-the-clock access to medical care” and “dietician-approved meals,” according to the company’s website.

But the immigrants who spoke to Block Club said medical care is only provided for a few hours a day and detained people with medical conditions do not receive adequate or timely treatment. Sometimes they have to buy medicine from the detention center’s commissary, though it could take a week for the order to be fulfilled — long after someone sick needs it, they said.

Others said the meals are insufficient and not balanced, consisting mostly of rice and beans, pasta and tuna and bread. Those detained can also buy more food from the center’s commissary, but the staff often throws it out when inspecting their cells, several immigrants said. Some have felt forced to work in the kitchen’s detention center, getting paid $1 for an eight-hour work shift that at least allows them to make the meals slightly better, they said.

In 2025, the Department of Homeland Security awarded over $811 million in contracts to the GEO Group for running supervision programs, detention centers and other services for detained immigrants, according to federal spending data. The contracts for running the Michigan detention center to house immigrants through the end of April are worth $77 million, according to Block Club’s analysis of federal spending data.

A GEO Group spokesperson said in an emailed statement the company was proud of its role supporting ICE’s law enforcement mission for 40 years. The company said it provides all the support services listed on its website, including “around-the-clock access to medical care, dietitian-approved meals and other services.”

“In the event issues are identified, we quickly resolve all of ICE’s concerns as required by ICE’s Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan,” the spokesperson said in the statement.

The toll on immigrants goes beyond the physical conditions of the detention center.

Inside the detention center, immigrants regularly discuss with each other how they were arrested, often without a warrant, recalling the moment their lives changed while awaiting news that could bring some hope, they said.

They see the hopes of other noncitizens crumble as immigration judges deny them bond, fail to notify their lawyers of their next court hearing or dismiss evidence, they said.

“There are too many irregularities,” Fernandez Escalante said.

An ICE spokesperson said in an emailed statement any claim there are poor conditions at the Michigan detention center “is false.” The agency said it maintains high-quality care, including medical, mental and dental care for detained people. Immigrants have access to a list of free legal services and can connect with their lawyers in person, over the phone or virtually, according to the statement.

“ICE facilities are bound by the National Detention Standards and Family Residential Standards — rigorous, federally enforced guidelines that prioritize safety, medical care and detainee rights. These standards are not optional — they are mandatory and strictly monitored,” the spokesperson said in the statement.

‘They’re My Everything’

Fernandez Escalante has been away from his wife, Filomena Chimaico Gomez de Fernandez, a Peruvian asylum-seeker and her 15-year-old daughter — “his girl too,” he said.

The family had a pending asylum case with an immigration hearing scheduled for 2028. They crossed the border in 2023, and they filed for asylum and attended check-ins in Texas, according to ICE records. Fernandez Escalante had no criminal record, he said. Block Club did not find criminal records for him.

This September, the family moved to Chicago as Chimaico Gomez de Fernandez pursued a job opportunity that offered double the wage she made in Texas, she said.

The family notified immigration authorities of the move, as required by the law. That “didn’t matter” to the agent who arrested Fernandez Escalante in Chicago, even when Fernandez Escalante said he had documents that proved he had a pending case and had always complied with authorities, he said.

Fernandez Escalante’s arrest is being reviewed as a potential violation of the Castañon-Nava consent decree, a spokesperson for the National Immigrant Justice Center said.

Fernandez Escalante was transferred to Broadview’s processing center, where he spent about a week as his wife frantically searched for him. There, he experienced firsthand the inhumane and horrific conditions immigrants were held in, he said. Dozens of people were crammed into small rooms, struggling to breathe due to confinement, forced to sleep on the floor or on small chairs and receiving inadequate food, he said.

Local groups sued the federal government over “horrific and inhumane conditions” at the facility. In November, a court temporarily ordered the Department of Homeland Security to fix some of the issues at the center, including improving the facilities’ conditions and ensuring detained immigrants had sufficient water, meals and access to lawyers. The case is ongoing, and a hearing on a preliminary injunction seeking to order the federal government to maintain those conditions is pending.

Later, Fernandez Escalante was taken to the Michigan detention center, where he has been for over five months. He had to interrupt his last semester of online journalism classes at a Mexican university and could no longer make it to English classes at Malcolm X College, which he attended with his wife.

“But most of all, being away from my home, my wife and my girl is horrible,” he said. “It’s been very difficult to carry this over my shoulders.”

Out of their apartment in Little Village, Chimaico Gomez de Fernandez is doing anything she can to free Fernandez Escalante while taking care of their daughter, who’s having a difficult time with the move to Chicago and being separated from her stepfather, she said.

The wife and mother works two jobs to earn enough money to stay afloat and pay for two immigration lawyers and legal costs for her husband’s defense. She started a GoFundMe to raise funds to support her family and is constantly on the phone, following up with lawyers or seeking help for her husband.

When she isn’t working, Chimaico Gomez de Fernandez looks after her 15-year-old and the family’s cats. She’s exhausted and worried about the future.

“It took months for me to understand it’s not my fault he was detained,” she said in Spanish. “For months, I was like a zombie, living while dead inside.”

Meanwhile, Fernandez Escalante is terrified he’ll be deported to Venezuela. He has been vocal against Maduro’s regime on social media. He helped collect signatures among Venezuelans asking the International Criminal Court to investigate Maduro for crimes against humanity and participated in protests against the government, he said.

While Maduro is now in U.S. custody, Fernandez Escalante fears he could still be persecuted in Venezuela, where Maduro’s aides are still in power, he said.

Chimaico Gomez de Fernandez talks to her husband almost every day through phone and video calls to the detention center that cost $40 to $80 a week, depending on how much they talk or whether she needs to send him information to help him prepare for his asylum hearing.

The calls also provide some emotional relief as they navigate this “nightmare,” she said.

“All we wanted was to live a better life, feel safe and keep my daughter safe,” Chimaico Gomez de Fernandez said. “But now, my heart is broken.”

‘If I Had Time, My Lawyer Would Have Been Able To Show Evidence’

While detained, asylum-seekers face mounting challenges to prepare for immigration court hearings and prove why they escaped their home countries.

Historically, detained immigrants are at least two times more likely to be ordered deported than those who are able to fight their cases outside detention, according to a report by the American Immigration Council that analyzed immigration court data from 2019-2024. Without a lawyer, immigrants have to defend themselves against highly trained government lawyers and interpret the country’s complex immigration laws, making it harder to win their cases, according to the nonprofit Vera Institute.

José Manuel Arias Briasco, a Venezuelan-born man who lived in North Lawndale, had a pending asylum case and an immigration hearing set for Nov. 9, 2027. He said he had no criminal record, and Block Club did not find any criminal records under his name.

But on Oct. 20, federal agents violently detained Arias Briasco while he was standing near his job site in suburban Berwyn, he said. He said he has evidence showing he was persecuted and targeted to be killed in his home country. But while detained in the North Lakes Processing Center, he had no way of retrieving photos and evidence about the attack, he said.

“If I had time, my lawyer would have been able to show evidence,” Arias Brisco said in Spanish on a recent morning. “But I have no access to my phone to show the proof I have. It’s egregious. It’s an injustice.”

Arias Briasco’s attorney gathered evidence to submit to the court ahead of a Feb. 17 hearing in the Detroit immigration court, but it was “very difficult,” he said. The immigration judge seemed to review his case quickly, Arias Briasco said.

The judge ordered Arias Briasco’s deportation on Feb. 17, immigration records show. Data shows about 79 percent of immigrants who had their cases reviewed by the Detroit immigration court while in detention were ordered deported, according to an analysis by the American Immigration Council.

Arias Briasco considered appealing the decision, but the cost of an attorney is high for his already struggling family in Chicago, he said. As of Tuesday, he remained in the detention center in “very hard” conditions, he said. But by Friday morning, he was in a facility in Louisiana.

“The [government] made my hearing harder just to give me a removal order, but I’m still here. I don’t understand,” Arias Briasco said.

Others are considering volunteering to be deported because they feel so desperate and tired of the conditions in the detention center and the challenges of the immigration system, they said.

“Being in detention is a choice, and the department encourages immigrants to self-deport,” an ICE spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

But immigrant and civil rights groups have raised concerns that the federal government is using prolonged detention to pressure immigrants to leave and give up their right to due process.

Jorge Garcia Neri, a Mexican national who is undocumented, called Chicago home for 32 years before he was arrested in October by immigration agents at a West Side 7-Eleven where he stopped to get coffee on his way to work, he said. Agents did not have an arrest warrant, he said.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of Chicago-area immigrants who were wrongfully detained have been deported — or have felt coerced — to leave the country, attorneys with the National Immigrant Justice Center previously said.

After months in detention and a judge denying him bond, Garcia Neri said he is desperate to get out. He has given up hope that he could find a pathway to stay in the country where his wife and son live, he said.

If offered to take a voluntary departure, Garcia Neri is willing to take it, he said on a recent morning. As of Tuesday, he was still being held at the detention center.

“I just want to get out [of detention]. If there is no other option, I’ll have to leave my wife and son behind,” he said in Spanish. “I wish I could stay, but maybe God doesn’t want me to.”