While going through the process of getting a green card, a California woman went to social media to share disturbing conditions she endured. According to TikTok user Milathekilla (Mila), she spent an entire week dealing with poor sleep, cramped spaces, and freezing temperatures.
Mila detailed her experience in great detail on TikTok, focusing on what it was like for her to go through both an ICE processing facility before ultimately winding up at an ICE detention center. After being detained, Mila explains that she had to first get processed at the San Diego Federal Building, which she says looks a lot like a “county jail.”
For 12 hours Mila dealt with poor sleeping conditions while she was being processed. For starters, she had to stay in an ordinary cement holding cell. Although it had a bench and a toilet, there weren’t any good spots to actually sleep. Mila chose the bench first, before moving to the floor, which was “a little bit comfier.” And although Mila was wearing multiple sweaters, the cell was “around 55-degrees.” (That’s Fahrenheit.)
Additionally, ICE agents would frequently disturb her. They would call her name for no reason or go as far as to jangle the keys to her cell, but never enter. “I don’t know if this was on purpose,” she says in her TikTok video, but it still made it “hard to sleep.” It was then another seven hours in a new cell once she was transferred to the Otay Mesa Detention Center. Mila shares that the conditions at the detention center were more or less the same.
According to Mila, her cell had “ten women,” despite only having accommodations for eight. To get around that, her cell was given “two-inch pads” to sleep on. And if you could find a comfortable spot, “bright white cafeteria lights” are on all hours of the day, even at night.
Add in ICE agents “making noise” in the hallways and needing to wake up as early as 5:45 AM for breakfast (if you wanted to eat), the experience sounds incredibly miserable.
People on TikTok Were Disgusted, Calling the Conditions ‘Inhumane’
Numerous comments on Mila’s TikTok video were disturbed by the conditions of the ICE facility. Many offered kind words, sympathizing with Mila, and arguing no one should have to endure that kind of suffering.
One commenter, claiming to be a Marine wrote, “This is not what I fought for as a Marine. So November election will be critical.”
Another TikTok user, Kirb, called her sleeping conditions “psychological torture” and stated, “You not sleeping for 24 hours is what they want.” Keep in mind she had a green card interview the following day, where you’re asked numerous questions. Another commenter wrote, “My dad said he slept on newspaper inside of a cell.”
In regards to the guards, TikTok user Jackie’s Cheese wrote, “The thing with the keys is in fact on purpose.”
One of the top comments asked Mila what the food was like. While Mila didn’t have an answer, she did respond in the thread, saying, “I’ll make more videos on this soon.” If her this experience is anything to go off of, it can’t be good.
