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This immigrant served in the US military. Now he faces deportation
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On Thursday morning, a small group of advocates gathered outside the United States federal courthouse in San Diego, California.One of them pointed to a poster of a young man in a US Navy uniform, three golden medals pinned to his chest."This is my brother, Benito Miranda Hernandez, US Navy veteran," said James Smith, the founder of Black Deported Veterans of America.Smith and the other advocates had organised the demonstration on behalf of Hernandez, who was miles away at that moment, stuck in an immigration detention facility.Brought from Mexico to the US as a baby, Hernandez had completed three tours of duty with the US military during the Iraq war. His military service was meant to be his path to citizenship.But now, Hernandez is among the immigrant veterans fighting deportation under US President Donald Trump."These men and women were promised that they were going to get their citizenship if they served," Smith said. "Help this brother come home."Trump has pledged to prioritise immigrants with criminal records in his push for mass deportation.But advocates for US military members argue that veterans are particularly vulnerable, given their over-representation in prisons and jails. The majority have reported suffering from mental health problems after their service.Hernandez, for instance, said he struggled to reintegrate into civilian life after leaving the military. But on June 14, he had finally completed his years-long sentence for a drug conviction.As he waited for his mother, Maria Miranda, to pick him up, agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained him.Only afterwards did Miranda and her other son arrive. They spent hours that day looking for him, not knowing where he had gone."He was doing things right," Miranda told Al Jazeera in Spanish. "He had so many hopes, so many dreams."Benito Miranda Hernandez stands outside the reentry programme where he recently worked, before he was detained by immigration officials in June [Anna Oakes/Al Jazeera]Hernandez has since been transferred to the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego. He faces deportation, despite having received his green card for permanent residency earlier this year. He previously spoke to Al Jazeera about his experiences for an article published in April.Hernandez’s detention is part of a trend under the Trump administration.While the exact number of deported veterans is impossible to pin down – ICE has long failed to collect the veteran status of the people it detains, as is required – several advocates told Al Jazeera that they have been witnessing a rise in the deportations of US veterans during Trump's second term.The New York Times reported in March that at least 34 veterans have been placed in deportation proceedings in the last year.Some cases have received media attention. But advocates say other immigrant veterans have avoided the spotlight, fearing it may have a negative impact on their immigration cases."As the ICE raids continue and revamp across the country, there's going to be people that are veterans that have not become US citizens that unfortunately will end up falling through the cracks," said Robert Vivar, cofounder of the Tijuana-based Unified US Deported Veterans Resource Center.Veterans, like other immigrants across the country, have been detained while pursuing the mandatory steps in their immigration process, according to Danitza James, the president of Repatriate our Patriots, an advocacy group.They are often flagged for having outstanding warrants or criminal convictions that have not been vacated. James said she is in contact with about six veterans who had been detained by ICE in 2026 alone."Our government, they don't place any value in the service that our immigrants have," James, who is herself a veteran and naturalised citizen, told Al Jazeera. "They honestly see us as disposable."Danitza James, a former US military member, has led a push to repatriate deported veterans [Alejandro Cossio/Al Jazeera]For
The facility, located near the Everglade wetlands, has drawn human rights concerns and lawsuits over its conditions.The administration of United States President Donald Trump has announced that all immigrant detainees have been transferred out of a Florida detention facility known as Alligator Alcatraz, effectively shuttering the controversial facility.The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Wednesday that everyone being held in the state-run facility had been transferred out, citing concerns about the start of the Atlantic hurricane season.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Trump taps David Venturella, former private prison executive, to lead ICElist 2 of 3Florida governor announces deportation flights from Alligator Alcatrazlist 3 of 3How ICE deports refugees and migrants despite years of good conductend of list“For the safety of the illegal alien detainees, we transferred them to other facilities,” department spokesperson Lauren Bis told The Associated Press news agency in a statement.She did not specify how many people were transferred, or where they were sent. Her statement also did not indicate whether the detention facility was permanently shuttered, though reports of its impending closure had intensified for months.Several anonymous officials told The New York Times in May that the isolated facility, located inside Florida’s Big Cypress Natural Preserve, was too costly to maintain.The facility has attracted significant scrutiny since it was first announced nearly a year ago, on June 19, 2025.Named after the infamous Alcatraz Island prison in San Francisco, “Alligator Alcatraz” was billed as a temporary facility that would make use of its wetland surroundings as a deterrent for escape.“If people get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide,” said Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier.When it opened last July, Trump toured the facility personally with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a fellow Republican.Trump has pushed for the mass deportation of immigrants during his second term, and DeSantis, his former rival in the 2024 presidential race, has sought to deploy state resources to aid that effort.But the detention centre, located on an abandoned airstrip, faced controversy almost as soon as it started operations.Indigenous leaders from the Miccosukee and Seminole nations opposed the construction as detrimental to their homes and ceremonial sites in the nearby Everglades.Lawyers and rights groups, meanwhile, questioned whether the centre’s temporary units would provide adequate shelter from the intense heat, heavy rains and hurricanes typical of South Florida. The hurricane season stretches from June through November.Over its year of operation, Alligator Alcatraz has been the subject of lawsuits and human rights complaints.Detainees in the facility described being denied access to lawyers, medical neglect and food filled with worms. The government announced it would transfer detainees out of the facility in May.“Transferring people out of this cruel facility is an important step, but it does not erase the harm that has already been done,” said Amy Godshall, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).She helped lead a lawsuit against the state and the federal government, alleging a lack of access to legal services in Alligator Alcatraz. The detention centre’s remote location, it claimed, was part of a strategy to cut detainees off from resources.“The state and federal government must permanently close this facility and commit to never detaining people there again,” Godshall said.Detention facilities like Alligator Alcatraz have been the subject of protests across the country, with critics denouncing inhumane conditions as the norm.Alligator Alcatraz was designed to hold up to 3,000 people, and officials claimed that its “aluminium-frame structure” was capable of withstanding wind speeds equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane.Co
A sign marks the entrance to a series of hardened tents at the Camp East Montana immigrant detention center in the desert at a U.S. Army base on the outskirts of El Paso, Texas, Feb. 13, 2026. Morgan Lee/AP hide caption toggle caption Morgan Lee/AP Four detainees at the largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in the U.S. filed a federal lawsuit on Saturday alleging human rights abuses, "horrific" conditions and "severe medical neglect" at the facility. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, details "inhumane" treatment inside Camp East Montana on the U.S. Army's Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas. The suit describes a litany of abuse allegations, including a lack of medical care and physical violence at the hands of guards, and accuses the government of human rights and constitutional violations. "Detained people are regularly subjected to severe beatings or sexual harassment by guards; squalid living conditions; spoiled and inadequate food; no meaningful programming or recreation; inadequate access to basic hygiene products such as soap, razors or nail clippers, outbreaks of disease; and limited or no access to sunlight," according to the complaint. It's the first lawsuit against the facility. Immigration advocates and former detainees have been calling for the massive facility to be shut down for months. The plaintiffs filed the suit on behalf of themselves, all detainees of the facility and future people held there. They're seeking class-action status for the legal challenge. According to the complaint, the center's guards beat Gerald Akari Angye, one of the named plaintiffs, so severely he had to be hospitalized and placed in a wheelchair. Angye, who has been at Camp East Montana for just over a month, claims he was then locked in solitary confinement for 15 days. "No human being should ever have to go through this," Angye said in a statement released by the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the organizations representing the detainees. "I have already experienced torture in my home country of Cameroon and I never thought I would experience such severely violent treatment by guards here in the United States of America." Another detainee identified in the complaint only as Navdeep, a former mail handler with no criminal history, says he experienced dirty toilet water flowing into his sleeping area, difficulty accessing cups for drinking water and breathing problems because of excessive dust from the desert. Navdeep wore the same clothes, including underwear, for three weeks, according to the lawsuit. "We could die here, and it feels like no one here would care," Navdeep said in the ACLU statement. People being held at Camp East Montana don't receive timely medications to manage a range of serious medical issues such as HIV, cancer and diabetes, according to the lawsuit. In February, the detention center was closed temporarily to visitors because of a measles outbreak, according to Marfa Public Radio. The complaint also describes housing units without windows, crammed spaces and a constant odor of urine and feces, a lack of clean water and reports that detainees receive only two pieces of bread, a piece of ham or bologna, a slice of cheese and a cookie for all three meals. ICE Director Todd Lyons and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin are named as defendants in the lawsuit. In an email to NPR, a DHS spokesperson who would not give their name, rebutted the claims in the lawsuit saying they are "categorically false." "ICE is regularly audited and inspected by external agencies to ensure that all ICE facilities comply with performance-based national detention standards. All detainees are provided with proper meals, quality water, blankets, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers. ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S.
Protesters have returned to the Delaney Hall immigrant detention centre in the United States, a site that has become one of many flashpoints in President Donald Trump‘s push for mass deportation.The centre, located outside Newark, New Jersey, has long been controversial.Reopened in February 2025 after a period of closure, Delaney Hall is part of a web of immigration detention centres designed to accommodate the thousands of immigrants Trump seeks to expel in his second term.Local officials, including Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, have maintained that the facility was repurposed without the proper permits and approvals. Critics have also decried the conditions inside the facility, claiming human rights abuses.The latest round of protests has been unfolding this month in response to reports that detainees are staging a hunger strike inside Delaney Hall.New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill said that health authorities seeking to inspect the facility were denied full access.“As I’ve said repeatedly, refusing to provide full access raises serious questions about what ICE is trying to hide from public view,” New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill said in a statement on Thursday.Elected last year, the Democratic governor has backed calls for the facility to be closed.On Wednesday night, protesters clashed with law enforcement as they attempted to block access to Delaney Hall.Demonstrators, some wearing gas masks, erected makeshift barriers and linked arms to form a human chain.According to the Department of Homeland Security, six demonstrators had been arrested for allegedly assaulting federal agents overnight.“Assaulting and obstructing ICE law enforcement is a crime and felony,” the department said in a statement. “Anyone who assaults law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”But some critics have questioned the charges the Trump administration has filed against the Delaney Hall protesters. A year ago, in May 2025, Mayor Baraka was arrested during a protest for alleged trespassing.The Trump administration quickly dropped the charges, but it then proceeded to charge a US Congress member who was in attendance, LaMonica McIver, with assault. She has denied the charges as “purely political”.Democratic lawmakers like McIver have arrived at Delaney Hall to exercise their congressional oversight duties and tour the facilities.On Wednesday night, three US representatives — Jerry Nadler, Daniel Goldman and Adriano Espaillat — inspected the centre. They described dire conditions, including medical neglect and spoiled food.Representative Frank Pallone, who previously visited the facility, said he witnessed similar conditions.“I saw it with my own eyes: moldy food. People needing immediate medical attention who can’t see a doctor for over a week or who can’t get their medicine,” he said in a social media post.But the Trump administration has faced accusations that it has attempted to conceal the poor conditions in detention facilities around the country.Earlier this week, for instance, Governor Sherrill was reportedly denied access when she attempted to access Delaney Hall for an inspection. Members of Congress have said they too were turned away at other facilities, in defiance of their legal oversight authority.A report from CNN found that 50 immigrants nationwide have died in detention during Trump’s second term in office, the most in at least two decades.Delaney Hall is currently run by a private contractor, GEO Group, as part of a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
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