The inhumane treatment of immigration detainees requires more coverage

[Nevilledog]

https://presswatchers.org/2026/02/the-inhumane-treatment-of-immigration-detainees-ought-to-be-a-bigger-story/

Why does someone who overstayed their visa need to be held in shackles? Why does someone who isn’t a flight risk need to be indefinitely confined in a filthy overcrowded cell? Does any child belong in a prison camp? Does anybody at all deserve to be forced to sleep on a concrete floor, or underfed, or brutalized, or denied medical care?

Why is this being allowed to continue?

These are some of the questions journalists should be raising as they step up their coverage of the inhumane treatment of potentially tens of thousands of people who have been caught up in Donald Trump’s brutal immigrant dragnet.

The terrorizing of American cities by masked federal agents was, by comparison, an easy story to tell, due to all the people shooting videos and posting them on social media. Even then, it took months — and the murder of two white people — for the news media to fully recognize what was going on.

The detention story will be much tougher, because it’s all happening behind locked doors. But it is essential that the news media not effectively sanction this kind of inhumanity by turning a blind eye to it.

There has been some isolated and excellent reporting on conditions in these facilities – I link to some examples below. But that’s not enough. We need a drumbeat of stories that continues as long as the inhumane conduct continues. We need our best investigative reporters and feature writers on the case. We need to be relentless.

*snip*