ICE detainees are being tortured in the private detention centers where they are being detained. Before the second Trump administration, ICE detainees were primarily undocumented border crossers, undocumented immigrants, and asylum seekers. Now ICE is also detaining and holding in prisons owned and operated by half a dozen large private prison corporations, ordinary non-violent, undocumented men and women, with no criminal record- many who have lived and worked in the country for years, have family here, and indeed have children who have been born in the US and are therefore US citizens.
WorldConsul worked for less than a year as an ICE-approved contractor- a mental health counselor- for one of these prison corporations after a career as a Consul and immigration adjuticator, out of concern for asylum seekers- a prison corporation that has renamed and rebranded- after it earned a very bad reputation for prisoner human rights abuse and cruelty. WorldConsul is being cautious in making any specific details/disclosures because he signed a non-disclosure contract with the corporation, and also the President- often using ICE as his personal domestic army, is now vowing to disrupt, destroy “enemies” https://www.npr.org/2025/04/29/nx-s1-5327518/donald-trump-100-days-retribution-threats
(Indeed, a large number of these undocumented US residents were brought here to the US by their parents as children, and have no roots or even contacts, family in their countries of citizenship.)
The fact that these corporations are contractors gives ICE, the federal government a layer of deniability, as the US government and particularly law enforcement and intelligence agencies use contractors since Nixon, to conduct the worse of its illegal and immoral activities. Further, reporting now says that these private prison corporations met with Trump representatives BEFORE the election to plan the current massive expansion- which has awarded these corporations with $billions. It’s unclear whether they gave Trump “contributions” like US Oil corporations did- via his crypto perhaps- or his PACS in anticipation/exchange for these windfall contracts. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/what-trumps-victory-means-private-prison-industry https://abcnews.go.com/US/private-prison-firms-contributed-1m-trumps-reelection-now/story?id=116046776
What does immigrant mistreatment look like and why does it rise to the level of torture?
US torture as taught by the US military in the School of the Americas and used in Central, South America left no forensic evidence to be “deniable” and featured research done in the US and Canada during the Cold War and Vietnam war, involving electroshock, sleep deprivation, beating and slapping, sensory deprivation and overload, depredation and bad conditions, humiliation and shame, fear, threats against family, stress positions and other pain inducing restrictions, isolation, starvation and thirst, and non-lethal poisons and “restraining agents”. See TAB II. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2246205 https://truthout.org/audio/the-fbi-appears-to-be-engaged-in-a-modern-day-version-of-cointelpro/
Under the Bush administrations, US torturers developed touchless torture which did not require detention. It focused on sleep deprivation as its main technique, (noisy neighbors, noisy cars, airplanes and helicopters, sirens etc.), uses medical manipulation and maltreatment, disruption of family and social isolation, job loss and financial stress and ruin, reputational ruin via lies, stress, open surveillance and hostility in public, uncertainty, legal harassment and “lawfare”, internet radicalization algorithms, etc. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10548313/ https://www.democracynow.org/2023/2/7/alphabet_boys_podcast_fbi_subterfuge https://truthout.org/audio/the-fbi-appears-to-be-engaged-in-a-modern-day-version-of-cointelpro/ https://clcjbooks.rutgers.edu/books/disrupt-discredit-and-divide-how-the-new-fbi-damages-democracy/ https://phr.org/news/enhanced-interrogation-architect-dr-james-mitchells-testimony-at-guantanamo-highlights-his-role-in-u-s-torture-debasement-of-psychological-ethics-phr/ https://www.bowdoin.edu/news/2022/09/exploring-americas-persistent-use-of-torture-over-the-last-century.html
Most of these detention facilities are prisons in Red-state rural areas that the private corporations bought from federal, states, or county governments for pennies on the dollar, often after the prison-industrial state and mass incarceration of drug users peaked from the GOP-led “war on drugs”. We now know the “war on drugs” was partisan “opium warfare” against Blacks, Native Americans, and the Left to “disrupt” the lives of users and their families, disenfranchise millions of likely Democratic voters, and recruit an army of police/Intel informants and operatives. https://www.businessinsider.com/nixon-adviser-ehrlichman-anti-left-anti-black-war-on-drugs-2019-7 https://history.wisc.edu/publications/the-politics-of-heroin-cia-complicity-in-the-global-drug-trade /
Further, these facilities are in Judicial districts that have very low rates of ruling for immigration cases. Blue coastal districts in Washington state and New York slightly favor immigrants and asylum seekers, but facilities in Texas and New Mexico in the Houston district rule against immigrants 95% of the time proving detention is highly partisan. https://tracreports.org/reports/752/
The largest cost for these private corporations in therefore not property/capital costs but rather labor. Labor in rural Red-Stare areas is the lowest of most sectors- for guards primarily. Often workers at these facilities are very understaffed, and forced to work a large number of overtime hours. Guards are therefore overworked and stressed. A tour of facility parking lots shows bumper stickers sympathetic to Right wing causes, Rebel flags, and vigilante causes like “the Punisher” and the Publisher motorcycle club. Thus, the guards are often predisposed to be anti-immigrant, harsh, even cruel to detainees.
These corporations save huge amounts of money on labor, their highest cost, by paying detainees pennies on the dollar for low-skill labor- in effect a type of slave labor. Detainees earn $2-3 dollars a day. And yet many are grateful for it- not everyone gets to work for money though all are expected to do cleaning work. Detainees who don’t cooperate don’t get jobs and therefore often no commissary (yes, these corporations actually run stores where they make money off of the detainees) and are hungry, don’t get toiletries or soap, and can’t even contact/phone their families or reach out to non-profit agencies for immigration/legal advocacy. This creates an opportunity for predatory inmates to loan money/ create debt and obligation. Threats of violence and other inhumane treatment such as sexual abuse are also not uncommon among detainees. Overcrowding, another form of cruel profiteering, is becoming common making all these conditions and abuse worse. https://immigrantjustice.org/research/policy-brief-snapshot-of-ice-detention-inhumane-conditions-and-alarming-expansion/ https://www.vera.org/news/the-truth-about-immigration-detention-in-the-united-states https://www.americanprogress.org/article/immigration-detention-dangerous-womens-health-rights/
The type of torture used in ICE detention uses sleep deprivation with sensory overload (and sensory deprivation in solitary confinement): the lights are always on, these concrete facilities feature large common rooms which are always noisy and too hot or too cold. They are uncomfortable with thin, dirty, smelly mattresses- and too few blankets in the winter. Prisoners- no strike that they are “detainees”- detainees are always either hot or cold, and often many complain of hunger. The food is low quality and looks bad. The toilet facilities are primitive and there is no privacy. Toiletries are not always available, nor is clean clothing. Medical care is spotty (and caregivers are often politically partisan and harsh- and overworked/short staffed in rural areas) and medications are not always available or are hard to access. Detainees in medical crisis, especially mental health crisis, are often not referred out to specialized hospitalization as is official policy. https://worldconsul.com/tab-ii-torture-technique-from-dod-navy-sere-program-chinese-and-vietnamese-torture-of-u-s-pows-and-their-no-touch-torture-equivalents-in-parentheses/ https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/health-issues-for-immigrants-in-detention-centers/
Harmful by Design https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9713141/ https://www.laaclu.org/news/abuse-migrants-rampant-louisiana-ice-centers-report-finds/ https://www.disabilityrightsca.org/post/there-is-no-safety-here-the-dangers-for-people-with-mental-illness-and-other-disabilities-at https://www.aclunc.org/news/californias-immigration-detention-facilities-plagued-human-rights-abuse-new-report-finds
Behavior problems including non-violent protest are often handled with force or solitary confinement- widely regarded as torture. https://ccrjustice.org/torture-us-prisons https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/01/09/20-years-us-torture-and-counting https://static.prisonpolicy.org/scans/afsc/prison-inside-prison.pdf
The prisoners complain most of all that there is little good information on the process and information on their rights- especially of there is a language barrier. Confusion and stress and uncertainty are ubiquitous. They are always being pressured to self- deport- (often to places they have never lived or have no roots.) Sometimes they are even forced to leave without adequate representation or due process. Their cell phones, money, phone numbers and contact info, and effects are kept separate, locked away…and frequently lost “at the border” or “in the system”. Instructions about how to set up a phone account or commissary account are difficult to follow and require their loved ones to set up and fund accounts- or else the detainees have to work for pennies an hour at a job like cleaning, laundry, or cooking which would be hard to staff in rural areas at low wages. These facilities are almost always remote and visitation is also complex and difficult to access, as is even sending mail or calling- only after an account is set up and funded somehow. International treaties that mandate access to government Consuls are never followed in my experience.
Under International law and treaty, torture is illegal- but only under very specific conditions. Private corporations, contractors holding the prisoners may circumvent the law which says torture is abuse conducted “under the color of law”- much as Nazis used prisoners of war and concentration camp labor held by private corporations to escape legal requirements for civilized treatment. Only the USA and Australia- in the entire world- detain immigrants while awaiting their legal and immigration hearings- and the US houses detainees in actual prisons along with other prisoners in the same facility. https://worldconsul.com/tab-i-legislation-regulation-and-treaties-regarding-torture/
Dr. Metin Basoglu, one of the world’s foremost experts on torture, defines torture scientifically as having four overarching qualities: 1) it is inescapable pain and suffering 2) it involves uncertainty and unpredictability, 3) it uses social and familial isolation and finally 4) it is incomprehensible- often being complicated or involving unfathomable hostility and cruelty. Using these metrics, the mistreatment of immigrants is torture. It isolates and denies. Suffering is caused by sleep deprivation, depredation, harsh conditions, cruel, degrading, and inhuman conditions. It is all about uncertainty and incomprehensible treatment and a confusing, inaccessible system especially the legal system. Detainees report a high incidence of anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, stress, distress, and hopelessness. PTSD and criminal abuse on the way to the US, in Mexico by cartels, is common. Suicide attempts are all too common, and regretfully occasionally successful. Detainee deaths in detention are the highest this year in decades. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/torture-and-its-definition-in-international-law-9780199374625 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-43722-000 https://www.npr.org/2025/10/23/nx-s1-5538090/ice-detention-custody-immigration-arrest-enforcement-dhs-trump
Why torture/mistreatment? Beyond just malice and racism, if past torture in the “war on terror” as in Afghanistan/Bagram and Guantanamo, torture is used for interrogation, to illegally judge the character of immigrants and asylees, and to recruit an army of informants and operatives to deploy both internationally and domestically. What’s new is that these are private corporations overseeing the cruel and inhuman treatment, and it is DHS/ICE that will control these operatives not the CIA or FBI under the National Security Council/ White House. Yes, Kristy Noem, who many describe as a Trump partisan and perhaps even unstable controls this whole process, hundreds of detention centers, including the ICE budget expanding four times to $200 billion. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/11/afghanistan-us-bagram-torture-prison https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzjuGl6Y3qc https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/kristi-noem-el-salvador-prison-photo-op-new-low https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/4633016-kristi-noem-kills-puppy-goat-shoots-gun-america-vice-president/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57561760
Draft #1 specific elements of detainee abuse:
I worked in a detention center as a counselor (I can’t reveal dets) and canned 1 month into Trump’s Admin. (too nice to the detainees, too much time with them) They are mistreating detainees, in a hundred clever covert ways. Then I found out private prison corps made a deal with trump before he was even elected. These Right wingers are cruel, sadistic, vengeful MFs. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/private-prison-companies-enormous-windfall-who-stands-gain-ice-expands 1
1) No consistent avail. of interpretation many detainees clueless about process, rights 2) phones don’t work without account except one 3 min call 3) phones taken away- how many phone numbers do you remember w/o your phone 4) no commissary without $ deposit from outside- their cash kept in storage with wallet and clothes 5) many detainees hungry not enough food 6) cold in winter hot in summer facilities are often old, in crappy condition 7) lights always on noisy 8) sleep deprivation 9) worry, 2
anxiety plague refugees/detainees- leading to sleep deprivation too 10) very hard to get any info on case, process 11) guards- shortage and many are Right wingers hostile to immigrants, overworked (many have to work 20-30 hrs mandatory OT) 12) medical care grumpy and pharmacy not stocked anymore- takes sometimes 1-2 weeks to see doctor, get meds- dental care can take months 13) very hard for them to get legal advice, rep. without family and $cash 14) Refugees rushed to sign deportation papers 3
15) related- immigrants pressured to sign self-deportation papers 16) US and Australia are the only 2 countries IN THE WORLD to lock up immigrant detainees without criminal records- all others are on the honor system show up to court/proceedings by appointment, live in half way houses or other less restrictive, less expensive housing jut fine, safely- the private prison companies are making $billions- and cost cutting on labor shortages, prisoners do the cooking, cleaning for pennies an hour! 4
16) Many of these prison facilities are old and were given to these private corps for nearly free due to decreased incarceration in the US lately- including vast acreages around them- one private prison company now openly calls itself a land development company. 17) detainees treated almost the same as prisoners, harshly, even housed in same facility as prisoners (being in the US “illegally” is at most a civil penalty e.g. misdemeanor) not requiring lockup 24 hour detention 18) no privacy 5
19) counseling is available but most detainees get only a cursory screening- and many get anxious, depressed, and high number per capita suicidal 20) No one ever makes sure their families know where they are or how to contact them. They get a small amount of stamps free per month- enough for maybe one letter- depending on international rates, without working a job for pennies an hour. Same with commissary, phone. 21) by law citizens are required access to their country’s Consuls- rarely happens
22) Isolation and worse as punishment even for non-violent protest. All of these together equals torture. According to global expert on torture Dr. Metin Basoglu torture has 4 elements: 1) inescapable pain and suffering 2) uncertainty and unpredictability 3) incomprehensibility, often cruelty beyond reason 4) rupture of social and family bonds. Torture as taught by the US military, CIA starts with sleep deprivation- noise, light, cold/heat, bad air, bad food, discomfort, uncertainty, hostility 7
23) mattresses were too thin and smelly, only 1 1/2 inch thick for cement bunks-more sleep deprivation 24) in winter only limited blankets, light coats 24) frequent unexplained lockdowns 25) limited outdoor rec time- often due to staff shortages- females limited to small cages dubed “kennels”. 26) difficult rules for visitations especially due to remote locations 27) guard “advocate” positions not funded in all facilities- detainees face difficulties getting toiletries, etc. 28) linen shortages
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1993-97051-000https://ccrjustice.org/torture-us-prisonshttps://www.bowdoin.edu/news/2022/09/exploring-americas-persistent-use-of-torture-over-the-last-century.htmlhttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/09/cia-torture-methods-waterboarding-sleep-deprivationhttps://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3927https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2246205https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/12/09/usa-and-torture-history-hypocrisy
TAB I: Legislation, Regulation, and Treaties Regarding Torture
Scientific Definition:
Modern research on torture has identified four characteristics which produce the “torture effect” or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). These are all employed by the CIA/DoD “psychological” torture program (KUBARK and successors) and the FBI “no-touch” torture program:
- incomprehensibility (confusing, shocking, disorienting treatment—especially clearly illegal treatment, shockingly cruel and pathological treatment)
- inescapable physical and psychological suffering (unrelenting pain, fear, terror, horror, loss), but without actual physical detention
- unpredictably and uncertainty (stress, fear, and anxiety over time)
- rupture of social bonds, isolation
U.N. The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (commonly known as the United Nations Convention against Torture
For the purpose of this Convention, the term “torture” means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him, or a third person, information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in, or incidental to, lawful sanctions.
Legislation, Regulation, and Treaties Regarding Torture in the United States
Torture is illegal and punishable within U.S. territorial bounds. Prosecution of abuse occurring on foreign soil, outside of usual U.S. territorial jurisdiction, is difficult.
Prohibition under domestic law
Bill of Rights
It is debated as to whether or not torture as a punishment falls under the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The text of the Amendment states that:
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
The U.S. Supreme Court has held since at least the 1890s that punishments which involved torture are forbidden under the Eighth Amendment.[3]
18 U.S.C. § 2340 (the “Torture Act”)
An act of torture committed outside the United States by a U.S. national or a non-U.S. national who is present in the United States is punishable under 18 U.S.C. § 2340. The definition of torture used is as follows:
As used in this chapter—
(1) “torture” means an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control;
(2) “severe mental pain or suffering” means the prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from—
(A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering;
(B) the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality;
(C) the threat of imminent death; or
(D) the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality; and
(3) “United States” means the several states of the United States, the District of Columbia, and the commonwealths, territories, and possessions of the United States.
The FBI’s “Disruption Strategy”: Blacklisting and “No-touch” Torture
The FBI’s disruption strategy is laid out in a 2009 memorandum from the Counterterrorism Division to all field offices instituting a “baseline collection plan,” which itemizes the types of information that FBI agents should seek during investigations of suspected terrorists. The plan describes implementation of a “disruption strategy” that is eerily reminiscent of the COINTELPRO-era disruption activities that were specifically designed to suppress First Amendment activity. The 2009 FBI memorandum states that when “the risk to public safety is too great, or if all significant intelligence has been collected, and/or the threat is resolved,” agents may employ a disruption strategy “including arrests, interviews, or source-driven operations to effectively disrupt subject’s activities” [emphasis added]. This means that groups the FBI believes, but cannot prove, are involved in terrorism (perhaps because they aren’t) can still be investigated and targeted for sting operations or other invasive techniques, not to mitigate a threat, but to disrupt their activities.
From Manufacturing a “Black Separatist” Threat and Other Dubious Claims: Bias in Newly Released FBI Terrorism Training Materials, Michael German, Senior Policy Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office, 2012
TAB II: Torture Technique from DOD Navy SERE Program (Chinese and Vietnamese Torture of U.S. POWs) and Their “No-touch” Torture Equivalents
- Physical pain through hitting, stress positions (pain from poisoning, illness, chronic sleep deprivation)
- Shaming, humiliation (kompromat, “announced” surveillance in bathroom, bedroom)
- Threats against family, friends (threats against family, friends, recruitment as informants)
- Social isolation, rupture of social bonds (social isolation, rupture of social bonds through intimidation, slander, recruitment as informants, undercover agents and informants)
- Ridicule of religion, core values, culture (stalking in church and ridicule of religion, intentionally defying legal and Constitutional principles, abuse obvious to target but which leaves no forensic evidence, mocking and preventing attempts to seek legal or administrative protection, medical care, religious counsel, etc.)
- Sleep deprivation (sleep deprivation from noise, vibrations, faulty physical and environmental controls, diathermy (using radio or microwaves to heat the body))
- Waterboarding (smothering using C-pap machine-induced sleep apnea, respiratory illnesses, allergy, to restrict and interfere with breathing, especially while asleep)
- Simulated funeral, mock execution (death threats, medical scares e.g. cancer, severe chronic illnesses caused by stress and sleep deprivation, poisoning)
- Loud noises, stress inducing and disorienting environment, sensory overload (same)
- Excessive heat, cold (sabotage of environmental controls, plumbing, fever from illnesses induced by “restraining agents”)
- (financial damage, property damage, loss of job, blacklisting, false charges and legal threats, false diagnosis, medical and pharmacological tampering, poisoning, etc.)
What is Psychological Torture? Chapter One, The Trauma Of Psychological Torture, Ojeda, Praeger Press, 2008 adapted (“Psychological torture” is misleading; many are physical):
- Prolonged Isolation
- Sleep Deprivation
- Severe Sexual and Cultural Humiliation
- Use of Threats including death threats, threats against family
- Deception
- Environmental Manipulation (noise, heating and cooling, smells, tampering with food, medicine)
- Invading physical space, hostility, yelling, insulting
- Fear up, Fear down (manipulating fear and anxiety)
- Pride and Ego up, Pride and Ego down (manipulating the ego of the target)
- Omnipotence, “We know all” (demonstrations of omnipotence by revealing private information, obvious stalking and surveillance, false stories of “mind control” technology, etc. see Gaslighting)
- Use of phobias to increase stress
- Gaslighting (attempting to convincing target or others they are crazy)
- Degradation
- Monopolization of Attention
- Induced Debilitation and Exhaustion (restriction of light, activity, air, clean food, sanitary conditions)
- Restraining Agents (use of “non-lethal” biologicals and chemicals, etc.) pharmacological abuse
- Control of Information (limited access to information, medical treatment, lawyers)
- Sensory and Temporal Disorientation (deprivation, overload, assault, manipulation, loud noise)
- Punishment and Reward
- Enforcing Trivial and Absurd Demands
- Induced Desperation (indefinite harassment, sense of guilt, painful physical conditions, illness)
- Psychological torture
- Often combined with physical methods, these techniques are designed to break the victim’s will and identity.
- Death threats and mock executions: These tactics are often reported by victims as being subjectively worse than physical torture and lead to severe, long-lasting trauma.
- Forced confession: This is a key goal of modern torture and is often the result of overwhelming physical and psychological abuse.
- Sensory deprivation and overload: These tactics involve depriving detainees of normal sensory input (e.g., hooding, solitary confinement) or subjecting them to extremes of light, noise, or temperature.
- Sleep deprivation: This is a classic torture technique used to weaken a person’s resolve and cognitive function.
- Isolation and confinement: Solitary confinement and overcrowded conditions are both used to inflict psychological distress.
- Musical torture: Exposure to loud music or noise for extended periods is used to disorient and psychologically break detainees.
- Humiliation: This can include tactics that are sexual in nature or target the victim’s religious or national identity.
- Why modern torture is distinct
- Modern torture differs from its historical counterparts in several key ways:
- Less visible: The use of “clean” techniques and a preference for psychological abuse means the effects are less likely to leave public, visible scars.
- Psychological focus: While pain is still a tool, the primary goal is often to manipulate the prisoner’s mind to produce compliance and altered self-perception.
- State-sanctioned concealment: Torture is often carried out secretly, with states frequently denying that it is occurring.
- Technology: Modern technology, such as electric shock devices, allows torturers to inflict intense pain with minimal effort and without leaving behind hard evidence. Google AI
WorldConsul 