In the early morning hours of late February, a 911 call was made from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Mesa because a man was having a seizure after immigration agents used pepper spray on a group of 47 detainees in an enclosed room.
“Um, yeah we had, uh, a officer safety issue here,” ICE Ofc. Gene Rivero told a dispatcher with the Mesa Fire and Medical Department, according to a 911 call obtained by the Arizona Mirror through a public records request. “Pepper spray was used and we have a couple subjects that need to be looked at and one subject specifically that appears to be seizing.”
The incident had occurred at the Arizona Removal and Operations Coordination Center housed at the Mesa-Gateway Airport. The facility, first exclusively reported on by the Mirror, is a 25,000-square-foot facility at the airport. It opened in 2010 to little fanfare and can house up to 157 detainees and 79 ICE employees.
It is one of many temporary hold facilities across the country, meant to house detainees for short periods of time before they are shipped to longer-term facilities or removed from the country.
But a Mirror analysis of data of ICE detention records that the Deportation Data Project obtained via the Freedom of Information Act showed that, in some cases, detainees have stayed for longer than the 12 hours ICE has said the facility is meant for.
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And AROCC has regularly held far more detainees than it is supposed to. The day that ICE agents pepper sprayed the inmates as they were housed in a small room — each room has a capacity of no more than two dozen, though nearly 50 were in the room this day — there were a reported 332 detainees being held.
The pepper spray incident happened a week after a congressional oversight visit, prior to which ICE had shuffled around detainees so that AROCC had some of the lowest numbers it had seen all year.
ICE said the officers used pepper spray to quell disruptive behavior in the overcrowded detention room.
“Oleoresin Capsicum (OC) spray was deployed on a group of detainees at the Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center in Mesa, AZ, following repeated verbal commands to cease kicking the cell door, banging the windows, and exhibiting aggressive behavior toward officers,” ICE said in a statement to the Mirror. “At approximately 2:15 a.m., an ICE detainee was transported to East Valley Emergency Room (EVER) due to an asthma episode. The detainee was released from EVER at approximately 3:15 a.m.. There is no evidence to suggest that the asthma episode experienced was caused by exposure to OC spray with the detainee’s pre-existing medical condition.”
ICE did not respond to questions asking about the comments made by its own employee about the detainee “seizing,” if any employees of the agency also required treatment or what policies the agency has for the use of pepper spray in confined spaces.
From the 911 call, it’s clear that ICE agents were affected by the spray. As he spoke with the dispatcher, Rivero repeatedly paused to cough, and others can be heard coughing in the background. Rivero told the dispatcher that ICE agents were attempting to “air out” the facility to clear out the chemical agent.
Firefighters said they “found one individual outside with security that was struggling from the exposure to the pepper spray.”
“We also found many people sitting in the breeze way (sic) shackled at the feet. Security was bringing inmates out five at a time and placing them in the breeze way,” according to a fire department report obtained by the Mirror.
“At the beginning we only had the one patient. Eventually we ended up
evaluating a second patient who ended up refusing transport,” the report says.
A report of the incident obtained by the Mirror shows that firefighters said that there was only one patient, but approximately 30 others were “getting out of cells” and that they “may need a lot of ppl wash down” due to the pepper spray.
Both the Queen Creek Fire Department and Gilbert Fire Department helped respond to the call.
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Last month, three Arizona Democratic members of Congress showed up at AROCC unannounced for a surprise oversight visit. They said afterward that the holding rooms had roughly double the number of people than the maximum capacity posted outside each room. One said that detainees were packed in the rooms “like sardines.”
One of those lawmakers, U.S. Rep. Yassamin Ansari, told the Mirror in a written statement that the audio from the 911 call made her sick.
“This makes me sick to my stomach. You could hear detainees coughing and struggling to breathe,” Ansari said. “ICE is cruel — I’ve witnessed that cruelty firsthand. I’ve seen my constituent, Yari, coughing up blood while suffering from medical neglect. I’ve seen people packed into small concrete cells at Mesa Gateway, sick and crowded together like sardines.
“Time and time again, I’ve demanded answers from ICE and they’ve failed to show basic humanity or accountability. That’s why I’ll continue to vote NO on any additional funding for ICE.”
An airplane sits on the tarmac at Mesa Gateway Airport on the evening of April 9, 2026, outside of the Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center, an ICE facility where detainees are temporarily housed before they are put on a plane to either be deported or moved to a different ICE facility. (Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy/Arizona Mirror)
Another one of those lawmakers, U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva, said in a statement to the Mirror that she is “deeply concerned” with the increased use of force against ICE detainees.
“People who are simply asking for food, water, and medical care should not be met with force,” Grijalva said. “Equally concerning is the severe overcrowding at this facility, where the population on the day of the incident far exceeded the facility’s maximum capacity. When detention facilities become overcrowded and conditions deteriorate, the risk of escalation and harm increases significantly.”
The Tucson Democrat said she is also troubled by ICE’s response to questions about the incident and is calling for greater transparency on this incident as well as what protocols the agency has on use-of-force “particularly in confined spaces and against medically vulnerable individuals.”
“ICE’s immediate attempt to dismiss any possible connection between the medical emergency and the deployment of pepper spray is equally concerning and reflects a broader pattern of deflecting accountability and gaslighting the public,” she said. “I’m calling on ICE to provide full transparency regarding this incident, including whether proper protocols were followed and what steps are being taken to ensure the health and safety of individuals in custody.”
An internal report, obtained by the Washington Post and published as part of a larger database of use of force incidents at detention centers, gives a little more insight into the incident.
“On February 27, 2026, (Enforcement and Removal Operations) Phoenix reported the use of force on a group of 47 detainees while housed at the AROCC in Mesa, Arizona,” ICE wrote. “No injuries were reported, ERO leadership. (Mesa Fire and Medical Department), and the ICE (Office of Professional Responsibility) Intake Center were notified.”
Mesa Fire had already seen the overcrowding at the facility a few weeks prior and had given ICE a list of corrections.
In late January, the local agency responded to a medical call at AROCC, where it found such severe overcrowding that it gave ICE a list of corrections it needed to make.
ICE told Mesa Fire that the 238 people records show were detained that day was an aberration because of a measles outbreak at another Arizona facility. The agency promised the number of detainees would be back under the listed maximum capacity of 157 within a week.
But the next day, records show the daily population was 646 people. The day after that, it was 526. Within a couple of days, there were 777 people being housed at AROCC. On Feb. 4, the day ICE had said the overcrowding would be resolved, there were 513 people locked in the facility’s detention rooms.
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The use of force incident at AROCC is one of many this year.
In 2024, there were 23 reported use of force incidents for the entire year at detention centers in Arizona. In 2025, that number rose to 34. In just the first two months of 2026, there were 13 incidents, putting ICE on pace to use force on immigrant detainees 78 times.
From the start of January to the end of February in 2024, there were three use of force reports and in 2025, there were five. This year marks a 333% and 160% increase from the same timeframe in previous years.
The majority of use-of-force incidents are taking place at the Eloy Detention Center, and the reports offer little information on what happened.
So far in 2026, the Eloy Detention Center has reported 4 use of force incidents; the narrative supplied in the official database only lists the nationalities of those involved, the date of the incident and that there was a “use of force.”
In 2024, under the administration of President Joe Biden, reports included more information.
For example, a report on Jan. 6, 2024, provides a narrative about how “contract staff” issued verbal commands to a “Senegalese national detainee” to “stop punching and kicking his cell door.”
“The EDC staff deployed a short burst of OC spray into the detainee’s cell to gain compliance. The detainee was extracted and escorted to the shower area for decontamination,” the narrative says. It goes on to say that the detainee was evaluated and later released in “administrative segregation pending a disciplinary hearing.”
Reports since President Donald Trump began his second term in January 2025 have become less transparent. While reports in 2025 continued to include some information about the use of things like pepper spray and why use of force was used, reports on incidents in 2026 have virtually no details.
“ERO Phoenix reported the use of force on a Jamaican national detainee and a Syrian national detainee while housed at the EDC in Eloy, Arizona. No injuries were reported. ERO leadership was notified,” the narrative for one 2026 report states.
“ERO Phoenix reported the use of force on two Mexican national detainees and two Cuban national detainees while housed at the EDC in Eloy, Arizona. No injuries were reported. ERO leadership was notified,” another report says.
None of the 2026 narratives supply information about what force was used or what led up to the use of force.
ICE did not respond to the Mirror’s questions as to why the narrative section of the use of force reports has become less detailed this year.
But getting a glimpse behind the curtain on use of force by ICE has never been simple.
“It’s never been easy to get data on this,” Katherine Hawkins, senior legal analyst of the Constitution Project at the Project on Government Oversight, told the Mirror.
Requests for use-of-force data often are withheld as sensitive law enforcement information, and incidents are generally learned about via detainee lawyers.
“It has never been particularly transparent,” Hawkins said.
A detainee boards a 747 that is part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Air Operations at Mesa Gateway Airport on Sept. 23, 2025. (Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy/Arizona Mirror)
Reporting by the Washington Post has found that, during Trump’s second administration, use of force at ICE detention centers has surged. Their analysis found that detention staff have used force 37% more times than the previous year and a 54% increase from under Biden.
Meanwhile, populations at these centers, like AROCC, are continuing to grow and outpace the size of the facility.
The airport where AROCC is located has raised concerns that conditions there could be a violation of the lease agreement with the private company that sub-leases the space to the federal government.
At AROCC, ICE is detaining more people for longer periods than it ever has. The average length of stay in 2026 is about 36 hours, compared to the same time frame in 2025, when detainees were housed for just about 12 hours on average.
In 2025, the average daily population was approximately 21 people for the same timeframe. So far in 2026, there have been an average of 274 detainees each day. The Mirror found one individual in the data who stayed for 18 days, coinciding with a time when the population of the facility was near its peak of 777 people.
Conditions at the Eloy facility and the Florence Detention Center, where there have been multiple reports of abuse that has led to deaths, have garnered headlines.
Oversight of facilities like AROCC, Eloy and Florence exists in theory, but appears to be minimal, at best. Such oversight generally is done internally by the Office of the Inspector General or internal DHS units that have all been gutted by the Trump administration.
Just this month, the administration closed the office meant to provide oversight of detention center abuses.
“Accountability has always been very, very limited and in short supply,” Hawkins said, adding that finding people willing to come forward about issues inside can be considerably difficult, as well. “The witnesses may be deported before it can even be investigated.”
Additionally, facilities like the one in Eloy and the Central Arizona Florence Correctional Complex are run by private companies, meaning that there is a “less clear chain of command for discipline.”
Those facilities are run by CoreCivic who reported a 25% increase in total revenue for the first quarter of this year, largely attributing government contracts with DHS and ICE to their success.
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Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: [email protected].
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