Beyond Borders to Behind Bars: Examining the Impact of Mental Health on Migrants in Detention Centers in the U.S.
Whether it be the physical and mental shackles of slavery or its legacy of Mass Incarceration, the United States has a special fascination and dedication to systemic confinement. Such confinement is sketched within the U.S. Immigration Detention System, and how the overall conditions and environments affect the mental health of migrants.
In their book, The New Jim Crow, activist, lawyer and legal professor Michelle Alexander gives a thorough walkthrough as to how the United States (U.S.) War on Drugs perpetuated and upheld this dedication to bodily confinement, even containment. Following the Nixon administration instituting the War on Drugs, over the last few decades the prison population in the U.S. has imploded from 300,00 to 2 million incarcerated individuals. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, the U.S. prison system currently has the most persons per capita of any nation. Alexander writes,
“The nature of the criminal justice system has changed. It is no longer primarily concerned with the prevention and punishment of crime, but rather with the management and control of the dispossessed.”
This recognition by Alexander leans on the idea of the insistence to depreciate and deteriorate the bodies of the most vulnerable and least situated to privilege through systematic oppression. It is not so much about the security of the United States or protecting its border as it is about maintaining the systemic disenfranchisement of folks of colour and those who do not fit – who do not count in the world, yet contribute to the count in the system. Contributing slowly but very surely to the increasing prison population in the U.S. is the rise of individuals confined in migrant detention centers throughout the U.S.
This piece interrogates this notion and speaks specifically to the psychological warfare transpiring for those who have entered migrant detention facilities and remained within the realm of the immigrant detention system in its entirety. The population landscape for immigrant detention is ever growing and will eventually become a prominent issue as it pertains to Mass incarceration, especially given the United States’ firm and telling policy standings on immigration. It is imperative to demand the necessity of an unwavering right to mental health care for every person being held in these facilities. Equally as critical is the recognition that many migrant persons find themselves fleeing for safety reasons – often from political persecution, corruption, gang violence and conflict. These reasons already, and understandably, are attributed to negative effects on their mental health. Upon their confinement within the U.S. carceral (or prison) system, they encounter another form of violence, further aggravating the ongoing violence being faced by migrant persons.
In September of 2024, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) reported that there were 37 395 migrants detained in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities. Of these individuals, an overwhelming 60.1 per cent have no criminal record. More broadly, according to TRAC, has released data from the fiscal year 2022 indicating that an alarming 176 886 migrant individuals have tracking technology, known as Alternatives to Detention, or ATDs (ankle monitor, wrist bracelets, etc.). This represents the larger, systemic stronghold immigration has on those individuals, beyond the physical confines of the detention facilities. To live in a state of perpetual surveillance has the potential to be psychologically detrimental, as individuals may feel insecure and anxious with the cloud of deportation lurking above them (or on their ankle — literally). Though, according to TRAC, data from ICE has been accused of being misleading and inaccurate throughout the years. In the U.S., these numbers are only part of what is happening as the world is seeing a rise in large-scale migration. On a large scale and comparative note, despite the U.S. representing only 5 per cent of the world population, it accounts for more than 20 per cent of the world’s prison population and migrant populations contribute to this number. As migrant detainee numbers rise, so does the escalation of human rights abuses and the increase of mental and emotional turmoil.
Researchers and mental health experts from the National Library of Medicine offer a conceptual model on the various environmental conditions experienced in immigration detention facilities. Detained individuals may experience adverse mental health effects such as a sense of loss, the development and exacerbation of anxiety and depression, in addition to a looming fear of the future, and lack of security. Contributing, in part, to the detrimental mental health impact are the poor conditions and human rights abuses within these facilities. These include food scarcity, isolation, violence, pervasive overcrowding, family separation, absence of adequate medical care, lengthy confinement, and arguably, most importantly, the pervasive impact of detainment of the ongoing mental health issues of migrants due to, in part, lack of access to mental health services.
To address these detrimental impacts on the mental health of migrants within detention centers, the US government must abide by international humanitarian law. In particular, adhering to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). and the Refugee Convention and Protocol. Article 25 of the UDHR reads, “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.” Migrant detention centers have been reported to provide poor living conditions, lack of access to health care, and food scarcity. Additionally, Article 12 of the ICESCR goes on to further emphasize the right to mental health care, stating that everyone has the right to enjoy “the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.” The highest attainable standard of mental health does not reflect prolonged confinement, or lack of access to mental and medical health care. As mentioned before, many migrants find themselves fleeing as a safeguard or a protective measure. Accounting for this, Article 31 of the 1951 and 1967 Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees conveys that those persons or refugees fleeing illegally to the “contracting states” must be treated without discrimination or penalization if there is a threat to their life or freedom. The listing of these human rights documents is not to articulate the established human right standard, but to re-articulate “instructions” already outlined decades ago, that have yet to be fully realized, only espoused by the United States.
Observance of International Human Rights law begins on an international scale, as states are expected to act in compliance. Adherence, however, can only be truly driven home or addressed through changes and actions in domestic policy. There has to be a reforming of detention policies to reduce retention rates and streamline asylum processes to avoid prolonged confinement, and, therefore, the mental instability of migrants. Coinciding with this should be the promotion of legal assistance which would ensure access to legal representation, giving those detained hope. More importantly, to alleviate them from the conditions faced within detention facilities. Improving conditions where sanitations standards and needs are met is also imperative. Providing mental health support where trauma informed counseling and therapy is stressed is at the crux of this matter.
Failure to implement these reforms and uphold International Human Rights law perpetuates a cycle of neglect and systemic confinement, leaving thousands of migrants trapped in a system that not only denies their basic human rights but exacerbates the mental anguish they endure, reflecting a deep moral and humanitarian crisis at the heart of immigration policy. The time for change is now, as every moment of delay only deepens the psychological wounds inflicted on those most vulnerable.
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