A pregnant detainee smashing her head against a wall. A man swallowing a razor blade. Another drinking cleaning chemicals inside a locked immigration facility. The growing number of suicide attempts and psychiatric emergencies insideUS immigration detention centresis exposing a system under mounting strain as the Trump administration expands mass detention policies across the country.
Emergency call logs obtained by NBC Newsreveal more than 1,000 requests for medical or police assistance over the past year from six immigration detention centres in states including Texas, Georgia, California and Michigan.
Among them were at least 28 serious self-harm incidents involving detainees in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE.
The figures arrive alongside another deeply uncomfortable statistic. Five detainees have already died by suicide in ICE custody this year, the highest number recorded in two decades, despite 2026 not yet reaching its halfway point.
The incidents are unfolding as ICE detention numbers surge sharply under President Donald Trump's second administration.
ICE is now holding close to 60,000 detainees nationwide, compared with roughly 34,000 during the Biden administration. At the same time, detainees are remaining in custody for longer periods, averaging about 50 days compared with 36 previously.
What makes the situation increasingly volatile, according to lawyers and health experts, is not only overcrowding but uncertainty. Many detainees reportedly have little sense of when they may be released, deported or transferred.
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, an immigration attorney based in Maryland, said despair inside detention facilities has become more visible as immigration proceedings drag on for months.
'The issue is not just the terrible god-awful conditions in the detention centres, it's the feeling of not knowing when or even if people will get out of those conditions,'he told NBC News.
That sense of indefinite confinement matters. Mental health specialists say prolonged uncertainty is often a major trigger for self-harm and suicidal ideation in custodial settings.
Source: International Business Times UK
