The migrants were allowed to call their families, who were waiting in the hall. Shock presented itself in varied responses among the relatives of the detained: one woman collapsed to her knees and sobbed as she said goodbye to her mother. \u201cThey didn\u2019t even let us hug,\u201d she said. A man attempted to reason with one of the officers who passed in the hall. \u201cI don\u2019t know the details of the case,\u201d the ICE agent said. \u201cShe was on our list.\u201d One woman went to move her car after waiting for hours, only to find her brother had been taken while she was away. She stood for several seconds, wide-eyed, without saying anything.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Their first prison would be the basement.<\/p>\n
Detained migrants, and relatives of people who have been detained, told Times of San Diego that the holding space includes cells and repurposed offices.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Esteban Rios Sosa, who spent a night in the basement two weeks ago, said he estimated his cell, which he shared with six other men, was 8 by 16 feet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A young woman seeking asylum from Venezuela, who spent a night and two days <\/strong>in the basement last week, said up to 10 people were held in a cell with her.\u00a0<\/p>\n She said the women in her cell were forced to huddle together for warmth at night, given only foil sheets as blankets. Fluorescent lights were kept on all night, preventing the detainees from sleeping. The mattresses resembled yoga mats, Rios Sosa said, an inch and a half thick, and five feet long.\u00a0<\/p>\n In some cells, there is no mechanism for privacy while using the toilet. There is a shower in the cell where immigrants are brought to eat meals, Rios Sosa said, but it has no door or curtain and the detainees are not provided with towels.\u00a0<\/p>\n The immigrants held in the basement say they wear the clothes they arrived in, not changing their underwear for up to four days. One immigrant got her period during the meeting in which she was detained, and was forced to wear that same underwear for days.\u00a0<\/p>\n In an interview, the Venezuelan woman\u2019s aunt said she was wearing high heels when she arrived at her ICE appointment. After wearing them for several days in detention, her ankles became swollen, and now she sleeps with her legs up on the wall in an attempt to lessen the inflammation. Sleeping on the floor has caused her constant back and neck pain.\u00a0<\/p>\n The food is inedible, migrants said. Rios Sosa and the Venezuelan woman said they were served a still half-frozen burrito with potatoes the woman said \u201ccrunched like carrots.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The Venezuelan woman\u2019s aunt said immigrants in the basement are allowed short phone calls with a family member, often just a few minutes, but the recipient of the call is forced to pay $53 by inputting card information into the phone to be able to speak. One man, Rios Sosa said, asked for a phone call for days, while an ICE agent said \u201csoon\u201d but never allowed him to use the phone. The Venezuelan woman\u2019s first call was just thirty seconds long, her aunt said.\u00a0<\/p>\n While in the basement, the immigrants are not searchable on ICE\u2019s detainee locator system, giving their families no information on where they are. Volunteers are now encouraging anyone who enters the ICE office for a check-in to write their loved ones\u2019 phone numbers on their arms in sharpie.\u00a0<\/p>\n There is no medical attention available in the basement, immigrants say. On Friday, ICE agents at the courthouse detained a woman named Bea with severe epilepsy. \u201cShe needs to be watched 24\/7. She cannot be alone,\u201d or she\u2019ll \u201cfall and hurt herself\u201d her sister said, her voice breaking as she relayed to the rest of the immigrants waiting in the office that Bea had been detained.<\/p>\n Even when Bea\u2019s lawyer presented a letter from a doctor saying that she was \u201cat risk of death\u201d in the basement, an ICE agent argued she should remain detained and said \u201cshe\u2019ll be fine.\u201d To release her, the agent said, she would need to be transferred to the Otay Mesa Detention Facility and undergo a medical review.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a statement last week sent to NBC, ICE said that the basement facility is \u201cwell-equipped\u201d and detainees are held there for the \u201cminimum amount of time necessary to complete processing.\u201d<\/p>\n Rios Sosa described the emotional state of the detainees in the basement as shock, frustration, and uncertainty. Even as they were detaining him, Rios Sosa says the agents claimed it was a routine check-in, and he was being led to the basement just to take fingerprints and photos. \u201cThere was a moment where I thought, OK, this is not good. And my heart was at a million beats per minute\u2026 I was crying internally, and my nerves were exploding.\u201d Rios Sosa\u2019s wife, who was detained with him, was transferred to Otay Mesa, where she has begun taking antidepressants to cope with the detention.\u00a0<\/p>\n Immigration detention under scrutiny<\/p>\n Immigration officials have long faced scrutiny both for conditions inside their detention facilities and for holding migrants \u2013 whose immigration violations are civil, not criminal \u2013 in a range of structures unsuitable for habitation.<\/p>\n In 2018, during the first Trump administration, authorities housed migrant children in warehouses divided into cells made of chain-link fencing, drawing backlash over images of children in cages<\/a>. Many migrant families were apprehended and held in Border Patrol operating bases \u2013 desert-area facilities more suited to garage patrol vehicles than to house young children. Public outcry rose amid reports of illness and poor treatment there, including the deaths<\/a> of multiple migrant children<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nationally, immigration detention facilities have faced criticism for inhumane conditions, including reports of inadequate and inedible food<\/a>, with federal inspectors finding a range of food, sanitation and other deficiencies at ICE facilities. Some of the same facilities were revealed<\/a> to be the scene of systemic cases of abuse, sexual assault, mistreatment and inadequate medical care, as well as forced sterilization.\u00a0<\/p>\n ICE has increased the number of immigrants detained in the country by over 50% since January. Twenty-three people <\/a>have died in ICE detention nationwide in 2025, the highest number since 2004, leading the American Immigration Council to write that the \u201cTrump administration is deadlier for detainees than the COVID-19 pandemic.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Migrants\u2019 and advocates\u2019 descriptions of conditions in the San Diego basement, which echo previous allegations against ICE in other locations, began to prompt alarms from elected officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Monday, U.S. Reps. Juan Vargas (D-Chula Vista) and Scott Peters (D-San Diego) attempted to enter the facility as part of their right as congressmen to inspect detention centers \u2013 the same kinds of inspections<\/a> that accompanied public revelations of mistreatment in the past.\u00a0<\/p>\n ICE turned them away, redirecting them from the immigrants\u2019 cells to management offices. \u201cIt was an order from Washington,\u201d Vargas said in a press conference on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you were obeying the law and you were following procedures, you would want us to see this\u2026 It makes me very suspicious,\u201d Peters said.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Immigration](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_1678.jpg\")
<\/a>Immigration agents walk a detainee away at the downtown court facility in a photo taken earlier this year. (File photo by Adrian Childress\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n