On with Kara Swisher Inside the ICE Detention Boom: Soaring Abuse Claims and Little Oversight
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Mar 23, 2026 
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, immigration lawyer at the American Immigration Council, Austin Kocher, Syracuse researcher tracking detention data, and Ximena Bustillo, NPR reporter covering DHS, unpack ICE’s detention surge. They dig into warehouse holding plans, abuse claims, rising deaths, private prison growth, gutted oversight, disappearing data, and how detention is being used to pressure migrants.
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Inside Calls From Detention Show A Two Tier System
- Detainees describe overcrowded rooms, spoiled food, uncertain transfers, and a daily grind of calling family from confinement.
- Ximena Bustillo said some have teams of lawyers while others call reporters because another detainee shared a number and they have no legal help.
Most Detention Deaths Are Preventable But Normalized
- Detention deaths rose because facilities hold more people than they can safely manage, then evade accountability when failures occur.
- Austin Kocher said research finds about 95 percent of detained deaths are preventable, including suicides that proper staffing and monitoring should stop.
ICE Wants Mega Centers Bigger Than Major Prisons
- Mega-warehouses would remake detention into giant ICE-run hubs larger than anything the agency has ever operated.
- Aaron Reichlin-Melnick said ICE wants 16 regional processing centers and eight sites holding 7,500 to 10,000 people, despite running only a handful of older centers itself.