ICE detention has expanded faster than oversight of it. The population in custody passed 60,000 in 2026, the same year ICE cut its own inspection schedule from twice a year to once a year, or once every two years for facilities that don't hold ICE detainees exclusively, even ones holding 500 or more people a day.

ICE also removed the $1-a-day minimum payment previously required for detainee work programs, so people held in these facilities can now be required to work for nothing. The 13th Amendment bans forced labor with one exception: punishment after a criminal conviction. Immigration detention is civil, not criminal. Nobody in ICE custody has been convicted of anything by virtue of being there. That exception was never available for this labor to begin with.

The administration has also discussed buying private detention facilities outright, specifically because federal ownership could shield them from the state health and safety inspection laws several states passed after years of being denied access.

As Senator, Lydia will:

• Support legislation requiring minimum wage payment for any labor performed by a civil immigration detainee, closing a gap the Constitution's forced-labor exception was never meant to cover
• Push to restore mandatory twice-yearly inspections for every facility holding federal detainees, regardless of size or ownership
• Oppose any federal purchase or ownership structure designed to exempt a facility from state health and safety inspection
• Push to fully fund independent Inspector General oversight of detention facilities, instead of leaving inspection to the agency being inspected