Former ICE Worker Says Women Detainees Were Given Diapers Instead of Sanitary Products

It’s become impossible to overstate the human costs of Trump’s vicious deportation campaign. ICE has literally caged people, fed them inedible slop, and shackled those who were pregnant or miscarrying. A new report reveals still more grotesque and systemic human rights violations.

At the end of January, a video from inside an ICE facility in Baltimore, Maryland, went viral for its cramped conditions. A former ICE employee at the detention center recently spoke to WUSA9 to say the video was not only “100% real,” but just the tip of the iceberg. 

“I worked there for several months and it was probably day one, day two that I saw the abuse,” the worker, who remained anonymous because they had to sign an NDA, said. “I saw people laying in feces. People throwing up, people laying in urine.” 

When detainees were on their period, they were also allegedly given diapers instead of pads or tampons. “Because you can’t put the diapers in the toilet, the rooms didn’t have trash cans,” he said. “So some of us would give them boxes, and they would fill up with these diapers.” 

According to internal documents the whistleblower shared with WUSA9, up to 56 detainees would be stuffed in a cell like the one seen in the footage, though up to 50 would also be placed in smaller cells. “You can’t lay in that cell with 50 people unless you were touching someone from your head to your toes to your arm,” he said, adding that the overcrowding reminded him of pictures he saw in school of Africans being packed in boats during the Transatlantic Slave Trade. 

He says he was fired right after he reported the dismal conditions to his supervisor, and dismissed because he was not a “good fit.” WUSA9 said they confirmed his former employment documents. 

“These accounts raise grave concerns about the conditions detained immigrants are enduring,” Zain Lakhani, the Director of Migrant Rights and Justice at Women’s Refugee Commission, told Jezebel. “[WRC] is tracking numerous reports of pregnant and postpartum women being denied sufficient food, water, and basic medical care, resulting in devastating outcomes, including miscarriages while in custody. This most recent documented treatment further reveals how the dignity and health of women are neglected in detention.”

This is exactly why they won’t let inspectors in https://t.co/rzRNkD7q2d

— Stephen W. Smith (@smithECGBlog) February 8, 2026

While ICE requires its facilities to uphold “standards of cleanliness and sanitation,” the agency has long abandoned adhering to any level of human rights, let alone its own rules—one of which states that agents aren’t allowed to detain people who are pregnant, postpartum, or nursing, except in extreme circumstances.  

According to another one of ICE’s policies, short-term detentions—which Baltimore’s facility was allegedly built for—should be no longer than 12 hours. In June, a legal complaint was filed by former detainees in the U.S. District Court in Maryland, claiming tha’s been repeatedly violated, with plaintiffs saying they were held for up to 36 hours, if not several days. That same month, the agency issued a waiver that extended the period to 72 hours.

Speaking to WUSA9, a spokesperson for ICE predictably denied everything. “Overcrowding does not happen,” they said. “The recent video that the media is using to falsely accuse us was a temporary result of flight cancellations due to a historic snowstorm. What that video ACTUALLY shows is that ICE had the staff and resources necessary to take emergency measures and ensure everyone was taken care of [in] an emergency situation.” The agency also claimed appropriate hygiene supplies and sanitary products were provided to all detainees, though the statement did not clarify what those supplies actually were. 

As of late January, more than 70,000 individuals are estimated to have been detained by ICE, up 75% from 2025. At least 170 of these individuals were American citizens; about a third of them had no prior criminal record; and at least 32 have died in custody.

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