'A moral failure': Grijalva slams conditions at Arizona ICE facility

Grijalva, a Tucson Democrat, said in a speech on the House floor Wednesday night that lawyers and family of people detained at Eloy describe "deteriorating" conditions, including "inedible" food, that she says risk detainees' health and safety.

"This is an outrage," Grijalva said. "At least 57 people have already died in ICE custody this year, four of them in Arizona. ... How many more human beings need to die before we do something?"

Grijalva said she'd just met with the wife of Phoenix resident Arbella "Yari" Rodriguez, who has leukemia and has been detained at Eloy since February 2025. 

Rodriguez's wife "told her that detainees are only being given ice chips for water, which they have to wait until they melt," Grijalva said. 

Rodriguez has lost 60 pounds since she was detained last year, as her health has declined precipitously. ICE has refused to release Rodriguez on humanitarian parole, despite pleas from friends and family.

Over the past year, dozens of Eloy detainees have reported smelly and undrinkable water, leading to dehydration, in interviews with the Arizona Daily Star.

Grijalva also said two housing blocks at Eloy have been without air conditioning recently.

A spokesman for for-profit prison company CoreCivic, which operates Eloy, called Grijalva's claims "inaccurate." He said Thursday the facility's air conditioning was not malfunctioning.

"Facility maintenance staff routinely monitor and maintain critical infrastructure, including HVAC systems," spokesman Ryan Gustin wrote in an email. "Should an issue arise, we have established maintenance protocols and contingency measures in place to address it promptly and help ensure appropriate living conditions are maintained," including on-site maintenance staff, an HVAC technician and temporary cooling equipment.

In July, two pregnant detainees told the Star they were dealing with "suffocating" heat at Eloy, due to broken air conditioning. CoreCivic did not respond to the Star's query on the women's claims at the time.

Tucson immigration attorney Mo Goldman said he's received reports from multiple detainees or their families that they aren't getting enough citrus fruit or water at Eloy, just one cup of ice chips per day, he said.

One of Goldman's immigration clients described seeing another detainee at Florence Correctional Center, also run by CoreCivic, carrying what looked like a glass of milk. But it was actually a glass of water, so clouded and murky that it appeared white, Goldman said.

The two detainees sat and watched the water for 10 minutes before the debris settled and the water cleared somewhat, Goldman said in an interview.

"It seems like this is just an ongoing theme we’re seeing in different ICE, often CoreCivic, facilities," he said.

In response to the Star's query about whether detainees have access to "quality drinking water," Gustin wrote: "Individuals in our care always have access to drinking water."

"We also provide three nutritious meals daily, with menus reviewed and approved by a registered dietitian," the email continued. "Accommodations are made for religious, therapeutic and cultural dietary needs."

Detention volume rising 

The Star has been reporting on ICE detention conditions since last year, as the number of people held in ICE custody — including elderly people, pregnant women and those without any criminal record — has soared under President Donald Trump's second term.

That's in part due to a contested DHS policy that presumptively denied bond to immigrants who entered the U.S. without permission, regardless of whether they posed any public safety threat, and due to ICE officials' decision to largely stop releasing detainees on parole if they pose no public threat.

Critics say the push to detain more people is more about enriching the private prison companies that hold the vast majority of ICE detainees, rather than public safety.

Prison companies CoreCivic and GEO Group announced a combined $1.4 billion in profits in their last quarter alone, largely thanks to Trump's focus on detaining immigrants, Goldman noted. 

The growing profits make the poor conditions of detention even more inexcusable, he said. 

"It makes you really start to wonder, where is all this money going?" he said. "That money is all going into the pockets of these investors. But they’re cutting corners."

ICE is civil detention, not criminal, and no one in ICE detention is serving a sentence for a crime. Immigration courts are administrative bodies under the U.S. Department of Justice.

About 70% of the nearly 66,000 in ICE custody, as of July, had no criminal convictions on their record, according to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. Many of those with prior convictions committed minor offenses, such as traffic violations.

Grijalva has conducted five unannounced oversight visits in her first term in the House. Grijalva successfully advocated for the release of an elderly Cuban woman whom detainees called "la abuela" — the grandmother in Spanish — after the Star reported on the woman's declining physical and mental health that month.

Julia Benitez, 79, was released from Eloy and reunited with her family in Florida, less than two weeks after the Star's story was published. 

In a Thursday statement, ICE spokesman Fernando X. Burgos said ICE complies with national detention standards and provides "safe, secure, and humane conditions for all individuals in custody."

Burgos claimed detainees receive medical and mental health screenings within 12 hours of arrival, which contradicts accounts from detainees interviewed by the Star over the last year.

Some diabetic detainees have reported their blood-sugar levels reaching dangerous levels while they were held at the Florence Staging Facility, run by ICE, due to negligent medical care.

In March, Haitian asylum seeker Emmanuel Damas died in ICE custody after five months at CoreCivic's Florence Correctional Center. Doctors attributed his death to sepsis, stemming from an untreated tooth infection, his family said. 

"Claims of improper feeding, cruel treatment, or inhumane conditions are false," Burgos wrote. "While detention is not a destination resort, ICE remains committed to maintaining appropriate conditions of confinement and rejects baseless allegations regarding the treatment of those in its care. Facility staff treat all detainees equally, respectfully, and with dignity."

Accountability reduced

Grijalva called ICE detention conditions at Eloy a "moral failure."

"I’m calling on DHS to immediately address these conditions and ensure that all detainees have access to safe drinking water, edible food, and humane living conditions," she said.

CoreCivic's Gustin claimed the company has a "robust grievance system" for detainees to raise concerns. "At this time, we are not aware of grievances substantiating the allegations outlined in your inquiry," he said.  

Detainees have told the Star that grievances they file are routinely ignored, or result in retaliation, like time in solitary confinement.

In May, a Star investigation revealed ICE's misuse of solitary confinement, which detainees said ICE uses as a tool to coerce detainees into signing voluntary-removal forms, or as punishment for complaining about detention conditions.  

In July, 120 detainees signed a letter describing "human rights abuses" at Eloy, including verbal and physical abuse by guards, The Arizona Republic reported.

Gustin also claimed that CoreCivic's facilities are "subject to significant oversight and accountability, including regular audits, inspections and monitoring by our government partners."

But advocates say independent oversight, which was already weak, has been reduced dramatically in Trump's second term.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has largely dismantled three independent oversight agencies that used to provide an avenue for detainees or advocates to file complaints, reducing staff in two agencies to a skeleton crew and shutting down the third entirely.