From desperation to isolation: Migrants trapped in America’s solitary cells

The use of solitary confinement in U.S. detention facilities has been on the rise since Trump’s second presidential term.

According to a report published by the NGO Physicians for Human Rights, thousands of migrants have been placed in solitary confinement since the Biden administration took office in 2021, and in recent months this practice has multiplied despite risks to detainees’ mental health.

The report also found that during the first three months of 2025, vulnerable people were held in isolation for periods more than twice as long as when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) first began publishing statistics — that is, 38 consecutive days in early 2025 compared with 14 days in late 2021.

The agency defines vulnerable people as pregnant, breastfeeding, or elderly individuals; those suffering from serious mental disorders or illnesses; people at risk of harm because of their identity; or victims of rape or sexual abuse.

Solitary confinement is defined as placing a person in a small cell for 22 hours or more per day without meaningful human contact. ICE claims it does not use “solitary confinement” in its detention centers. The agency avoids the term “solitary confinement” and instead uses terms such as segregation, separate housing, or Special Management Units. The study says migrants held in such cells were placed in administrative segregation.

According to the report, more than 10,500 people were placed in solitary confinement in detention centers across the United States over a 14-month period from April 2024 to May 2025. Similarly, in the first four months of Trump’s second term, the monthly increase in the use of solitary confinement was more than six times higher than at the end of the previous U.S. administration.

The report also cites a study showing that solitary confinement in immigration detention has risen at an alarming rate and an unprecedented number of migrants are being kept in isolation. It warns that, due to a recent increase in congressional funding approved to expand migrant detention centers, widespread and prolonged use of solitary confinement is likely to worsen.

The United Nations considers solitary confinement of 15 days or more to be torture. Katherine Piller, one of the study’s authors, said in a statement that agency records from late in the Biden administration — amid increasing attacks by the Trump administration on migrants — show that ICE has exposed people to these torturous conditions, causing devastating physical and psychological harm.

Experts say prolonged isolation can cause paranoia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression — all of which can lead to suicide.