U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Chantilly field office, typically used for administrative proceedings, is being turned into a “makeshift” detention facility, dozens of immigrant rights advocacy groups say.
With arrests surging during the ongoing federal takeover of D.C., ICE has begun detaining individuals for “several days at a time” in a holding room intended to keep people just for a few hours during processing, according to organizations in the Free Them All VA Coalition.
“Reports from individuals released or transferred out of Chantilly reveal that while detained there, they are deprived of access to food and water, do not have adequate sleeping quarters and are sleeping on the floor with makeshift blankets, are denied medical care, and are subjected to unsanitary and degrading conditions,” the coalition said in an Aug. 27 letter to the D.C. region’s Congressional leaders.
The coalition — whose members include activist groups like La ColectiVA and Indivisible NOVA, nonprofits like Legal Aid Justice Center, Hamkae Center and the Centreville Immigration Forum, and community collectives like Bailey’s Mutual Aid — urged Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, Reps. Don Beyer and Suhas Subramanyam, and their Maryland and D.C. counterparts to increase oversight of the facility.
Detainees denied food, legal help, advocates say
Reports of “alarming” conditions in ICE’s Washington Field Office at 14797 Murdock Street were first raised on Aug. 22 by PODER VA, a campaign started by immigrant rights organizations that operates a hotline for gathering information on ICE activities.
According to PODER VA, it has received reports of as many as 100 people being detained at the Chantilly office for up to five days, exceeding both ICE’s standard holding limit of 12 hours and an extension to 72 hours under a nationwide waiver issued by ICE on June 24.
Many of the people held in Chantilly were picked up at checkpoints set up by D.C. police and federal agents while they were heading to work in D.C., the organization says, alleging that those detained are receiving inadequate water and only one meal a day.
“The rise of detentions through checkpoints in Washington, DC is delaying cases and causing loved ones to disappear without contact,” PODER VA said, calling on elected officials to investigate and demand the release of those being detained.
The lack of contact with people being detained extends to their attorneys, the immigrant advocacy groups say.
According to the Free Them All Coalition’s letter:
Lawyers have received reports of people opting for self-deportation rather than continue to suffer inhumane conditions at Chantilly. While there, they have no way to communicate with their families or lawyers, causing serious harm to their mental health as a result of isolation, fear, and abuse. People held at Chantilly often do not appear on the ICE detainee locator, which creates a troubling situation where our migrant neighbors are effectively disappearing from our communities and being held incommunicado for days.
In at least one case, a lawyer was denied access to their client for seven days, according to Monica Sarmiento, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights (VACIR), which also said it has received “credible reports” of “inhumane and unsafe conditions” at the Chantilly field office.
“This is a blatant denial of due process, and attorneys cannot be assured of their clients’ safety or well-being. This is unacceptable,” Sarmiento said. “… Everyone, regardless of status, deserves humane treatment. Generations before us fought to secure the right of due process — rights that are clearly being denied in Chantilly today.”
ICE denies allegations of poor conditions
ICE didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time, but an unnamed senior Department of Homeland Security official denied the advocates’ allegations in a statement to MSNBC:
“No detainees are staying at the Chantilly facility for seven days or over the legal limit … The Chantilly field office is at 37 percent capacity — nowhere near maximum capacity. Detainees are receiving three meals a day, have access to phones, showers, legal representation, blankets, and medical care.”
One immigrant who was detained in Chantilly with his father told MSNBC that they were given a single burrito per day to eat, and the crowding forced his father to sometimes sleep while sitting up. His father was detained for six days and later transferred out of the state.
According to an attorney with ACLU Virginia, the DHS statement contradicts information provided by detainees and their families, as well as an ICE agent stationed in Chantilly, including reports of no showers, no access to medications, “excessively hot temperatures” and illness spreading in the holding rooms, MSNBC reported.
The Free Them All Coalition notes that similar conditions have also been reported at ICE field offices in New York City and Baltimore, where lawsuits have been filed. Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered DHS to improve conditions at its Manhattan facility, but the lawsuit over conditions in Baltimore was denied class-action status, pushing legal advocates to pursue individual claims instead.
“These offices fail to meet detention standards and, more critically, violate the due process and human rights to which every person is entitled,” the coalition said in its letter to federal lawmakers. “We urge your office to exercise its oversight authority by conducting an on-site visit at Chantilly, speaking with individuals in ICE custody, documenting your findings, and pressuring ICE to stop this practice. We are available for a meeting ahead of your visit to the makeshift prison to ensure your office has all the context and resources it needs to move forward.”
Advocates decry planned National Guard deployment
Since President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20 after advocating for mass deportations during his campaign, ICE has conducted 4,179 arrests in Virginia, as of July 28 — a five-fold increase compared to the same time frame in 2024, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, citing data collected by the Deportation Data Project.
Supported by a Virginia State Police task force created in late February by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, ICE agents have reportedly detained people showing up for scheduled hearings at the federal immigration court in Annandale and the Fairfax County Courthouse, creating what Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano recently described as “a culture of fear” deterring people from assisting with criminal investigations.
Youngkin’s decision to deploy about 60 Virginia National Guard troops to provide “administrative and logistics support” to ICE, possibly starting in early September, will further exacerbate the hostile environment that many immigrants are experiencing, advocacy groups fear.
“This plan diverts our local resources towards the detention and deportation system, which is rooted in racism and criminalization, instead of investing in housing, healthcare, education, and other support that Virginians urgently need,” La ColectiVA, the Free Them All VA Coalition, Arlington for Palestine, Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid and PODER VA said in a joint statement also signed by 35 other organizations.
“By embracing Trump’s agenda to militarize immigration enforcement and entrench police-ICE collaboration across our region, Governor Youngkin is actively enabling state violence over community safety,” the groups said. “… The question is not if the National Guard’s role in immigration enforcement will expand, but when.”
