AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from The Verge, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.

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Four men detained at the Folkston ICE Processing Center in rural Georgia used the facility’s video calling software to record a five-minute message exposing conditions inside. The detainees described an intentionally dysfunctional legal system designed to keep them trapped in federal custody for months or years within privately owned facilities that profit from their confinement. They noted that workers are paid only $1 a day, which is just enough for a ten-minute phone call, allowing them to buy supplementary food and stay connected to people outside.

The video cost the men literally and figuratively. Since its release, all individuals featured have been placed in segregation, facing retaliation as expected by advocates. Samantha Hamilton, an immigration attorney with Asian Americans Advancing Justice, reported that 45 detainees wrote an open letter detailing conditions while an estimated 73 are now on a hunger strike. Communications at Folkston rely on GettingOut, proprietary software owned by Telmate, which was ordered to pay $4.23 million in 2024 for a data breach exposing users’ names and payment details.

The facility is operated by GEO Group, a publicly traded company whose stock price jumped more than 75 percent after the 2024 election. The company received over $165 million in government contracts earlier this year and donated $1.4 million to Trump’s super PAC in July. While ICE detention is ostensibly meant to ensure people show up for hearings, advocates say the conditions are virtually indistinguishable from prison life. Detainees face expensive communication fees, and funds deposited into accounts can be forfeited after 180 days of inactivity.

Trump’s administration has transformed the immigration legal system into what one detainee called "deportation courts." Federal data analyzed by Syracuse University researchers showed that 81 percent of detained cases logged in Georgia immigration courts over the past year involved people with no legal representation. Immigration judges in Atlanta denied 89 percent of asylum cases decided so far this fiscal year, compared to 63 percent in 2023. The Department of Justice has fired over 100 judges whose decisions did not align with the administration’s mass deportation push and hired at least 153 new ones. Hamilton reported that clients have been released with new medical conditions like diabetes due to inedible food and filthy water containing worms.