More elderly and disabled people are being held in U.S. immigration detention by the Department of Homeland Security, the Arizona Daily Star reported Sunday. Here are six takeaways from the Star's investigation:
- Cuban asylum seeker Julia Benitez, 79, has dementia and relies on a wheelchair. But she's been held in immigration detention at Eloy Detention Center for nine months, since she surrendered to border agents in May 2025 near Lukeville, Arizona.
- Benitez's daughter, Dayana Cosme Benitez, who lives in Miami, said she's desperate to take over the care of her mother, whose mental condition is rapidly deteriorating in detention. "I talk to her about everyday life to help her not to lose context," she told the Star. "I say, 'Don't worry, you'll get out soon. You'll hug your grandchildren, you'll kiss them because we're waiting for you here.' And she gets emotional, and I see tears in her eyes."
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has largely stopped using its discretion to release detained immigrants on humanitarian parole under the Trump administration, issuing "blanket denials" to the requests, legal advocates say.
- Benitez's detention is not an isolated case: The number of people age 65 and over detained by ICE in the first five months of 2025, under President Donald Trump, increased 150% compared to the same period in 2024 under President Joe Biden, according to a Lee Enterprises Public Service Journalism Team analysis of ICE data. The data was obtained by the Deportation Data Project.
- ICE did not directly respond to the Star's query as to why ICE can't, or won't, use its discretion to release Benitez on parole as her case proceeds.
- Immigration detention is civil, not punitive, and historically was used rarely, for immigrants considered a flight risk. But the industry has exploded since the 1990s, with the entry of for-profit prison companies, which hold 90% of ICE detainees today. Trump's mandatory detention policies are fueling private prison-industry profits, "literally funneling our tax dollars into their pockets," Phoenix immigration attorney Ravi Arora said.
