New data contradicts the Trump administration’s arguments to justify a sharp rise in violence by federal officers against migrants in detention centers.
Federal immigration authorities appear to be systematically undercounting injuries sustained by detainees during use-of-force incidents, according to internal records reviewed by the Washington Post — a finding that undermines the government’s core defense of conditions inside its rapidly expanding detention network.
The discrepancy surfaced in an incident at a temporary holding facility at a Mesa, Arizona, airport, where guards deployed pepper spray against a group of 47 detainees. The facility’s official report, filed through ICE’s internal “Daily Detainee Assault Report” system, stated that “no injuries were reported.” But a 911 call obtained by the Post through a public records request told a different story, showing an ICE officer on the recording said a man was experiencing seizures following exposure to the chemical agent.
The Department of Homeland Security denied that anyone had a seizure as a result of the incident, saying one detainee was hospitalized for an asthma episode but that there was no evidence it was caused by pepper spray exposure.
The Mesa case is not isolated. The Post found that injuries are “sometimes omitted” from the official reports across multiple facilities, meaning the agency’s own count of at least 106 detainees injured in use-of-force incidents since 2024 is likely an undercount.
The finding matters because those internal reports are the primary mechanism through which ICE tracks and accounts for the treatment of detainees across 98 facilities nationwide. If the reports are incomplete, there is no reliable internal record of the scale of harm occurring inside the system.
During Trump’s first year back in office, the number of people subjected to force rose 54 percent — nearly 10 percentage points faster than the 45 percent growth in the detained population itself, and that gap directly contradicts the administration’s position that any increase in force incidents is simply a proportional consequence of a larger detainee population.
“Why are they resorting to this use of force in such bigger numbers?” said Jeff Schwartz, a police trainer and associate professor of law and justice at Rowan University in New Jersey. “It could be the overcrowding, it could be the lack of staff, it could be the lack of training — or a combination of all of them.”
Administration officials told the Post that officers are trained to use the minimum force necessary and that the agency maintains standards of care exceeding most prisons holding American citizens.
“ICE law enforcement officers are trained to use the minimum amount of force necessary to resolve dangerous situations to prioritize the safety of the detainees, the public, and our officers,” said Lauren Bis, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security. “Officers are highly trained in de-escalation tactics and regularly receive ongoing use of force training.”
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