We have spent the last few years researching migrant flows into the United States, and this data is consistent with research our team has conducted with roughly 300 returned Central American and Mexican migrants. For the most part, Central Americans were detained after crossing the border as they awaited an asylum hearing, while the majority of Mexicans spoke of being raised in the United States, playing by the rules and being apprehended for minor traffic violations — speeding, a broken taillight or driving without a license. None of the handful of deportees who were found guilty of more serious crimes had languished in immigration detention. They had been summarily deported after serving time in federal prison.

Detention facilities also hamper the ability of both prospective refugees and undocumented migrants to gain asylum or to successfully plead their case to remain in the United States. Such facilities limit inmates’ communication with the outside world, a situation further compounded by their remote location. And once locked up, detainees are deprived of the means to earn the income required to hire the professional lawyers they need to have a realistic chance of success.

The treatment migrants receive in detention centers is inhumane. While the traumas that detained children face are well documented, the adult immigrants we interviewed also told countless stories of abuse, including racist taunts, physical aggression and the deprivation of their most basic needs.

Jason, a young man voluntarily traveling back to Mexico by bus, was apprehended on the bus and detained because his visa had expired two weeks earlier. He was sent to a detention facility. He told us of begging for food, only to have a guard toss a burrito onto the floor of a fly-infested cell that reeked of excrement. Israel Concha, a young man stopped for speeding and separated from his pregnant wife, described an immigration hearing in which he was prevented from even touching his newborn son.

Such stories make it easy to see why Democrats pushed to shrink ICE’s capacity to detain people. But cutting back on capacity will not solve the abuses of immigration detention. In fact it is more likely to make things worse (a fact that Democrats have quietly conceded by allowing ICE to adjust the facilities’ capacity if they need to, which is why Republicans claim the actual number of beds allowed is much higher).