Heartbreaking report from Human Rights Watch.

I’m writing today to share this heartbreaking report from Human Rights Watch.

https://www.hrw.org/report/2025/07/21/you-feel-like-your-life-is-over/abusive-practices-at-three-florida-immigration

It details the appalling conditions at several immigration detention centers in the United States, including disturbing overcrowding, unsanitary practices, and extremely cruel treatment. Even more critically, the report exposes an almost complete absence of medical care for those imprisoned. It mentions several people with ongoing health concerns who were denied their medications, and many others who developed severe conditions and remained untreated. Some of the incarcerated died due to inhumane treatment.

That this is happening right now in the United States is an abomination, and one we must speak out against. Holding people in these conditions is a violation of their rights under the United States Constitution, as well as several international human rights laws.

This story is disturbing, and I caution you to take care while reading it. It is important that we share first-person accounts of what is happening in these facilities, to raise awareness, and our voices, against this horrific injustice.
These conditions exist for all detainees, including those held without cause. And for those with disabilities, the conditions have become deadly. We cannot overstate the effect of mental and physical trauma on all of those incarcerated. It is a strong contributing factor to both mental health and physical disabilities, and we know that marginalized people experiencing systemic abuse are at higher risks of trauma, and therefore disability.

The ongoing internment of immigrants in this country echoes that of Japanese Americans in the 1940s, and the “undesirables” in Nazi Germany (Jews and Roma, LGBTQ people, and the disabled). These unjust mass incarcerations are viewed with disgust and remorse by the majority of people in our society. The practice was morally wrong then, and remains morally wrong today.

Rachael Cowan,

Systems Change Advocate