One officer at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center put an inmate in a chokehold while trying to break up a fight, federal investigators said. Another was seen stabbing a detainee in the thumb with a pen after the man refused to stop blocking a doorway from being closed, puncturing the inmate’s skin.
The two episodes were among multiple allegations of mistreatment documented last year at the Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, La., in a previously undisclosed report by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, an internal watchdog.
The 30-page report, which was reviewed by The New York Times, provides a rare and candid look at conditions inside an ICE detention center as the agency’s treatment of detainees has come under increasing scrutiny. It found that staff members had violated federal standards governing how officers use physical force, as well as other guidelines, and noted that the facility later refused to provide full video of some episodes of violence.
The report is part of a wider audit that the inspector general’s office is conducting of ICE’s roughly 200 detention centers.
The number of detainees at ICE facilities has swelled during President Trump’s immigration crackdown. The detention centers are essentially prisons for people who are awaiting hearings in immigration court, or for those who have been ordered removed from the United States. They are crucial to Mr. Trump’s plan to deport millions of immigrants. Most are run by private companies.
Over the past week, protesters outside a Newark facility have clashed with law enforcement officers after reports that inmates had gone on a hunger strike in response to rotten food and inadequate medical care. Detainees across the country told The Times last year that they had been denied showers and forced to sleep packed tightly together on bare floors. They also said that they had not received medications for diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic health problems.
The Trump administration has denied members of Congress access to the facilities, leading to litigation.
At the same time, ICE’s plans to retrofit commercial warehouses and detain immigrants inside them have been delayed because of opposition from residents and officials in the communities where the warehouses are located.
Investigators issued the new report after conducting a surprise visit to the Winnfield, La., facility, which is managed by a private contractor, in March 2025. The investigators also discovered unsanitary food storage and badly leaking ceilings, found that medical staff members were not properly documenting treatment, and concluded that detainees were not receiving adequate access to legal materials, such as information about free legal services.
The report also said that ICE had provided “remedial training” to officers on the legal uses of force, and had agreed to make other improvements.
Lauren Bis, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, described the report as uncovering “minor infractions.”
“ICE is working to address all these issues, including by adding additional training to facility staff,” Ms. Bis said in a statement. “ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens.”
She did not directly address the alleged use-of-force violations.
LaSalle Corrections, the private contractor that runs the Louisiana facility, did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did lawyers representing the company. Last year, a federal jury found the firm liable for the 2015 death of an inmate at a Louisiana jail, awarding the man’s family $42.75 million in damages.
Winn Correctional Center has previously faced criticism from federal investigators. In 2021, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties found several problems with the facility, including “inappropriate use of force, firearm safety and several serious environmental health and safety deficiencies.” At one point it recommended that I.C.E. stop sending more detainees there.
At the time of last year’s inspection, the facility was at its capacity of 1,576 inmates, according to the report.
Inspectors said they reviewed five incidents during which Winn staff members used force against detainees. They concluded that officers had violated ICE’s use-of-force standards by using “prohibited techniques” in at least three of the episodes, such as the chokehold and stabbing of an inmate with a pen.
ICE detention officers are trained to use only physical force that is “necessary and reasonable to gain control of a detainee,” starting with verbal commands and potentially escalating to lethal force if someone is in danger of death or serious injury, according to agency policy.
Investigators had viewed video of the incidents while visiting the facility. But their report said that detention center staff members later “refused” to provide the complete footage.
“Without this footage, we could not fully analyze the facility’s compliance with use-of-force standards,” the report said.
Michael Levenson contributed reporting. Emily Powell contributed research.
