Detention center population grows

Surge of migrants held by ICE at Torrance County facility comes amid water shortage, plumbing problems

While advocates wait to see if a soon-to-be closed state prison in Lea County will become a new immigration detention center, immigrants from across the Eastern seaboard are already being shipped to a lockup in Estancia.

The population of the Torrance County Detention Facility — reduced to a handful of detainees following a scathing report from a U.S. Department of Homeland Security inspector in 2022 — is growing again, according to advocacy groups.

The surge comes amid reports of worsening plumbing problems and a water shortage in Estancia affecting the prison as well as the community.

New Mexico’s Democratic congressional delegates have repeatedly called for the facility to be closed, citing reports of inhumane living conditions, and immigrant rights advocates

packed a public meeting in March, pushing Torrance County commissioners not to renew a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

But the all-Republican County Commission voted unanimously to continue its deal with ICE, and the facility’s population has reportedly more than doubled since the beginning of the year as the Trump administration has carried out a crackdown on illegal immigration.

Exact numbers for the constantly shifting population are difficult to obtain.

‘Hard to get the number’

The number of immigrant detainees at the Torrance County facility has increased from about 300 on Jan. 1 to about 800 in recent weeks, according to Ian Philabaum, director of legal organizing for the Innovation Law Lab, an Oregon-based nonprofit that advocates for immigrants and refugees.

An ICE spokesperson said, however, the immigrant detainee population at the facility was far less than that — only 402, down from 501 in November.

The facility also holds other types of detainees, including county jail inmates and those accused of federal crimes, which could help explain the difference between the actual physical capacity versus the number of detainees ICE is contracted to house there.

For example, while private prison operator CoreCivic has said the detention center was built to “care for approximately 900 individuals,” ICE is contractually limited to holding 505 inmates.

Neither agency is eager to clear up the confusion. Asked for clarity, each referred questions to the other.

“For safety and security reasons, we don’t cite our exact population numbers,” CoreCivic spokesperson Ryan Gustin wrote in a recent email.

Philabaum said the Law Lab used to get the population numbers from ICE during monthly stakeholder meetings and through a publicly posted daily population average. Those meetings have been discontinued, he said, and it appears ICE is no longer posting the population numbers.

The nonprofit now estimates the numbers primarily by talking with detainees who report their visual observations of pods filling up and more inmates waiting in medical lines. Philabaum said the Law Lab also gets information from detainees who work in the kitchen about the numbers of meals being prepared and served.

“It’s so hard to get the number,” attorney Sophia Genovese, with the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, said in an interview Thursday.

That organization also has relied on anecdotal information to make population estimates inside the facility after the El Paso stakeholder meetings were discontinued, Genovese said.

The law center’s most recent estimate puts the population at “over 500,” Genovese said, adding the population can fluctuate wildly from day to day due to frequent transfers in and out.

Syracuse University researcher and assistant professor Austin Kocher and migration data scientist Adam Sawyer have developed a system of estimating populations they call an “interval average daily population.” They use ICE average daily population reports from different time frames. According to Kocher, this provides numbers that are “more accurate and timely … than what ICE currently provides in its biweekly detention spreadsheet.”

ICE doesn’t report specific numbers, which can have a “smoothing” effect on the data and obscure population spikes, according to Kocher.

A May 12 post by Kocher and Sawyer regarding “hidden population spikes” at some detention centers highlighted the Torrance facility.

The New Mexico facility “provides among the sharpest contrasts,” the story says. “ICE’s most recent Reported [average daily population] is 400, while our method finds that recent Interval [average daily population] was around 679 — about 70 percent higher than reported.”

‘Extreme and dangerous’

They type of detainee being held by ICE in Torrance County has also shifted dramatically since January, Philabaum and Genovese said.

“It used to be people that were recently arriving to seek asylum or another type of safety in the United States. It is now people that have been detained in the interior of the United States and, for the most part, transferred from New England, New Jersey or Florida.”

Whether someone is incarcerated and whether they have legal representation are the two most important factors when it comes to whether they’ll win an immigration case, Philabaum said. Detainees arriving in Torrance already have been ripped from their communities and any legal counsel they may have there, dramatically lessening their chances of prevailing in court.

“It’s really hard to get representation if you are detained,” he said.

There aren’t enough immigration attorneys in New Mexico who are willing and able to take the cases in Torrance, he said, adding judges in the so-called “borderlands” also have a reputation for denying pretrial bond at higher rates than their East Coast counterparts.

“It really seems like a very intentional manipulation of people’s custody and immigration matters by ICE to achieve their intended outcome, which is longterm detention until they’re able to effectuate deportation,” Philabaum said.

The Torrance prison doesn’t have room to provide confidential spaces for detainees to have legal meetings in person or by phone, he said, and the burgeoning population compounds other problems.

“They’ve had staffing issues for years now. They’ve had logistical issues for years now, like the water and the sewage, and so those are all exacerbated by doubling the population of the facility,” he said.

Philabaum said his group used to get information directly from ICE, but since the federal agency discontinued stakeholder meetings, the nonprofit now relies on detainees for information about conditions inside — which, the organization has been told, have become horrific.

“According to firsthand testimonies from people inside … backed-up toilets have overflowed, the facility is restricting water usage by assigning each unit only a few hours a day to shower, and lack of laundry service leaves people to wear filthy clothing,” the Innovation Law Lab wrote in a statement.

“People report a horrific stench emanating from the toilets and showers in the units where they are forced to sleep and eat,” the statement says.

“Unable to use the toilets, men have reportedly defecated on their food trays and sought to discard them as best as they can. Staff bring drinking water jugs to detention units only periodically, consistently leaving people thirsty and exacerbating health issues for people already struggling from lack of medical attention and adequate food. The situation … has become extreme and dangerous.”

ICE, CoreCivic push back

A spokesperson for the detention center’s owner-operator, CoreCivic, wrote in an email the private prison operator is providing a service the country needs.

“We know this is a highly charged, emotional issue for many people, but the fact is the services we provide help the government solve problems in ways it could not do alone — to help create safer communities by assisting with the current immigration challenges, dramatically improve the standard of care for vulnerable people, and meet other critical needs efficiently and innovatively,” Ryan Gustin wrote.

“These are problems the American public has made clear they want fixed,” he added.

Estancia’s water supply issues are tied to dropping groundwater levels and a malfunctioning well; local officials urged residents to conserve water a few weeks ago. Gustin wrote CoreCivic has been impacted by the same issues affecting the entire community and has made changes in response.

“Drinking water is always available within our housing units, and bottled water was provided in addition to the readily available drinking water container,” he wrote. “At no point have those in our care been without drinking water. While laundry services and showers were placed on a schedule, those services were still available to all of those in our care. Water was provided to assist in the flushing of toilets as an added measure to reduce water consumption.”

ICE spokesperson Monica Yaos wrote in an email the agency is “committed to ensuring that all those in its custody reside in safe, secure and humane environments under appropriate conditions of confinement.”

ICE and the Department of Homeland Security employ a comprehensive oversight program, and compliance officers “conduct daily on-site reviews to monitor detention conditions, address deficiencies, resolve concerns and implement corrective actions,” she added.

“Any concerns identified or investigated during these assessments are promptly escalated to the warden and ICE management to ensure appropriate and timely resolution,” Yoas wrote.

Senators call for closure

New Mexico’s congressional delegates have been calling for closure of the facility for years. U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján reiterated this stance.

“ICE’s continued failure to meet basic standards for humanitarian conditions is deeply concerning, and it’s why I’ve repeatedly called on them to terminate their contract with the Torrance detention facility. I won’t stop fighting until this finally happens,” Heinrich said in a recent statement.

“ICE pays Core Civic over $2 million per month, and they should be held accountable to meet basic standards for those placed in their care,” the senator’s spokesperson, Luis Soriano, wrote in an email.

Luján “believes immigration enforcement must be focused on criminals who pose threats to public safety,” spokesperson Adan Serna wrote in an email.

“Instead, the administration is playing politics, instilling fear into our communities, recklessly flouting orders by federal judges, threatening lawful permanent residents, and breaking up law-abiding immigrant families who are contributing to this country,” Serna wrote.