Historically, detention centers are known for their inhumane conditions. As ICE raids increase, more detention centers across the U.S. are being exposed for what they are. Rather than acting as a holding location, they’re one step above a jail cell. Some might even argue that the treatment of prisoners is better than what detainees are currently facing, especially in this Missouri center.
A video posted in the EyesOnIce forum on Reddit provides in disgusting detail what these detention centers are like. What’s even more horrifying is that the detainee in question is a full-blown, visa-holding American citizen. The question on many people’s minds is this: If a citizen is receiving this kind of vile treatment, what’s happening to everyone else left in detention centers?
The video, initially posted by @fancysumatra on TikTok, begins by providing backstory. According to the video, a friend of the man’s mother told her one of his renters had been detained by ICE. He is a student at Illinois State University, and while picking up his brother from the train station, he was surrounded by ICE agents. “This man is here legally, on a student visa, and he is married to an American citizen. They detained him, and they took him from Norma, Illinois, to St. Louis, Missouri,” we’re told in the video.
The man continues, sharing gruesome details. “At 10 AM, they gave him a bottle of water. At 4 PM, he asked for another bottle of water, having had nothing in between,” he says. “They told him that if he was thirsty, he could drink out of the toilet.” Not only is this a legal issue given the man’s citizenship status, but it’s also now a human rights issue.
“He’s here legally,” the man in the video adds. “Not that I support any other deportations that bleep-bleep ICE is doing.” He ends the video by calling ICE, “Evil. Pure, unadulterated evil.” On TikTok, users were furious, with many commenting on the deplorable condition of detention centers. “This story x47,” says one user. “No justification. A stain on all of us citizens that we’re not stopping it.” Another commented, saying, “The cruelty is the point with these people.”
