Behind reams of barbed wire, in the shadows of watchtowers kept by armed guards, more than 73,000 people are being held in the United States’ biggest immigration detention operation in history.
In buildings which once served as state prisons, Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) face allegations of physical abuse, refusing medical care for detainees, and running centres with sewage leaks, pest infestations and inadequate food.
Sami Hamdi, a British journalist and activist held by ICE for 18 days, is considered “one of the lucky ones” following his release at the end of 2025. In San Francisco, he had been waiting to board a plane to Florida when he was approached by ICE agents and told his visa was no longer valid. Despite being born in Lambeth, south London, his requests to fly home to the UK were rejected.
“They weren’t going to let anyone know that he was being detained,” his wife Soumaya Hamdi tells The i Paper.
“We weren’t able to get in touch with him at all until several days after that. He is a British citizen, he was there on a valid visa, not even on an ESTA. It was revoked without his knowledge. Logically speaking, you would expect a functioning democracy, a country like the United States – supposedly a close ally operating under the rule of law – to inform someone if they are revoking their visa.“He was informed his visa was revoked two days prior – so they deliberately designed it so that he would have stayed illegally without his knowledge.”
