"What's different about this is this is the first time we've seen ICE putting people in an actual prison as opposed to jail or a privately run facility, and that's why it gives lie to the notion that immigration detention is civil," he told The Washington Post. "Civil detainees should be held in conditions that are appropriate for somebody who is merely being held for non-punitive reasons. And if they're being placed in facilities that were built to hold people who have been convicted of crimes and who are being punished that raises really serious concerns."