During the last few months of visits, Emery says her husband, who was detained in Stewart before being deported last month, explained the severe overcrowding. “He told me that Trump would take over, they were rolling up the mats in the hall. People were sleeping there.”
Emelie is a pseudonym given for privacy. She says that the conditions lost weight, became increasingly uneasy, and made visible sacrifices to her husband, who struggled to sleep amidst the noise and tension. He said he had to wait for a long stretch between meals. When her husband came down for the flu, he filed call requests for multiple illnesses but never received care, she says. “He had Covid-19 once,” she says. “The same thing. People are just left to get sick and get worse.”
“You don’t keep Stewart up a chance,” says Emery. “It’s a death sentence for you and your family.”
When asked about overcrowding at Stewart, Todd told Wired: However, three lawyers who regularly visit the facility said they consistently described their clients sleeping in a plastic container with floors and thin mats attached. Three relatives, current and former detainees, supported these accounts.
Corecivic didn’t respond when asked how to define “bed.”
Scramble to deal with it
The consequences of overcrowding are far beyond Stewart.
“We see more transfers happening suddenly and desperately,” says Jeff Migliozzi, communications director for immigrants’ nonprofit freedoms, who runs the National Immigration Detention Hotline. “They’re scrambling.” The hotline has more than doubled from 700 in December to 1,600 in March. Many people can’t answer, says Migliozzi. Because the lines are often too busy.
Dispatch data obtained from these detention facilities across the United States reflects a surge. Six of the 10 facilities reviewed by Wired experienced rapid spikes each month on 911 calls at some point in 2025. For example, between January and May, nearly 80 emergency calls were placed from the Remot South Texas Ice Processing Center. Logs show that calls have risen more than tripled in March from 10 in February to 31. The dispatchers have announced 11 individual calls at a facility run by Geo Group, one of the nation’s largest for-profit prison operators.
Migliozzi warns that while the rise in 911 calls does not necessarily indicate a worsening condition, it will not only surge in the detainee population within the already disastrous system. Other experts pointed out that an increase in calls could hypothesize that staff could insist that they could call help quickly.
Three of the seven 911 calls obtained over the wire, including this year’s suicide attempt, came from South Texas Center. In February, a 36-year-old man swallowed 20 over-the-counter pills. In March, a 37-year-old detainee ingested the cleaning chemicals. Two weeks later, it was discovered that a 41-year-old man had amputated himself.
Immigration detention doesn’t seem to be punitive, says Anthony Enriquez, vice president of human rights advocacy, Robert F. Kennedy. “However, the conditions for confinement in custody are extremely cruel,” he says.