(Adnkronos) – Hundreds, at least 780, are the incidents in which physical force or chemical agents were used to restrain immigrants in Ice detention centers. This is revealed by the Washington Post, citing agency documents to which Donald Trump entrusted his deportation campaign, documents that were handed over to the newspaper by a federal employee. These include hundreds of internal Ice emails, titled “Daily Detainee Assault Report”, daily reports of detainee assaults, which report all incidents in which force was used against detainees in 98 detention centers in the period from January 2024 to February 2026, thus the last year of the Biden administration and the first of the Trump administration.
The emails provide, the Post reports, a hitherto unprecedented picture of the treatment of Ice detainees during the deportation campaign launched by Trump, which filled detention centers across the country in record numbers, with a 45% increase in the detained population. According to the reports, guards resort to punches, kicks, takedown maneuvers, physical restraint techniques, and restraint chairs, along with the use of Taser guns and pepper spray.
During the first year of the Trump administration, center staff resorted to force in 37% more incidents than the previous year, with 1330 people being victims, 54% more than the previous year. “Why do they use force so much more frequently? It could be overcrowding, it could be lack of staff, or adequate training, or a mix of everything,” comments Jeff Schwartz, a police instructor and law professor at Rowan University, after analyzing the Post’s data.
