Inside ICE’s Broken System for Inspecting Detention Facilities
NEW INVESTIGATION (Illustration: Luna Velez / POGO) Inside ICE’s Broken System for Inspecting Detention Facilities When the inspectors came to Prairieland Detention Facility, pancakes appeared on the breakfast menu, Leqaa Kordia recalled. The walls sported a fresh coat of paint. A new water cooler appeared in the intake room. In the days before the inspection in December 2025, Kordia — who had been held at the Texas ICE facility for nine months at that point — said she observed a dramatic transformation. A sub-agency of ICE, the Office of Detention Oversight (ODO) is required to inspect detention facilities like Prairieland, making sure conditions are safe and align with detention standards. If a facility gets a failing inspection grade twice in a row, its contract with ICE is supposed to be defunded and terminated . Kordia, a Palestinian woman who was detained by ICE in March 2025 for overstaying her student visa and incarcerated at Prairieland for a year, described the co...
