WASHINGTON, D.C. — In May, Marjorie Ziefert and Chuck Kieffer realized that people in their community were disappearing, taken by immigration enforcement to the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Mich.
The retired Ann Arbor residents started participating in a form of protest outside of the center called “witnessing.” By being physically present outside of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention or processing centers, they attempt to create civilian oversight.
“[We] let the people who are in there know that there are people out there who know they’re there, who care about them and who are trying to do something about it,” Ziefert said.
The couple has been a part of Witness at the Border, an advocacy group that aims to monitor detention centers across the country. They used to travel to the US-Mexico border to witness outside facilities in El Paso. Since the reopening of North Lake, the largest immigration detention facility in the midwest region, Ziefert and Kieffer brought the advocacy tactics they learned at the border to home.
This form of protest is not confined to the midwest. Advocates across the country are organizing witnessing efforts outside of ICE detention centers.
ICE has detained a record number of immigrants since President Trump returned to office. There has been an increase of more than 25,000 people detained by ICE this year alone. In January, Trump reversed a Biden-era Executive Order that stopped Department of Justice contracts with for-profit, private prisons. The “Big Beautiful Bill” then expanded the budget for ICE detention capacity to over $45 billion. These steps directly led to an increased capacity to fill detention centers, allowing ICE to detain more people.
Witness at the Border advocates like Lee Goodman, a retired Northbrook, Ill. resident, have been witnessing outside of Broadview ICE Facility in Illinois. Goodman witnesses by talking to people coming in and out of the detention center and keeping track of license plates and buses that pull in and out of the facility carrying detainees. Advocates for Witness at the Border also track ICE air flights.
“Our process basically is to do what we can to see, to listen, to hear, to talk to people who know and to get the word out,” Goodman said. “We don’t want [ICE] ever to think they can do what they want without being observed.”
Nearly 90% of people in ICE custody are detained in facilities run by for-profit, private companies, a fact Goodman finds concerning.
“ICE detention centers, in these facilities, many of them are run by private companies and the oversight has not always been very good,” Goodman said. “Our federal government won’t let anyone find out what’s going on.”
Geo Group and Core Civic, the largest for-profit private prison companies in the world, are also two of the largest companies operating these facilities. Earlier this year, GEO group entered multiple contracts with ICE, including a $1 billion contract that is set to last 15 years.
Members of Congress like Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) share Goodman’s concerns. Crocket thinks it’s “sickening” that private prison companies are profiting off of immigration detention.
“They’ve decided to use people’s bodies that they’ve decided are second-rate citizens,” Rep. Crockett told the Medill News Service. “They have decided to profit off of their bodies.”
Elected officials have tried to enter Broadview in an attempt to discover more about the facility, but have been denied entry.
“Senators, Congresspeople, Mayors, all sorts of people have shown up and been refused entry,” Goodman said. “No one can find out what’s going on inside the place, which historically indicates there’s something that they don’t want us to know about. It’s very, very frightening.”
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has continuously denied claims of dehumanizing conditions and emphasized there is proper oversight within these facilities. On June 30, the Department of Homeland Security published a press release claiming that reporting of mistreatment and dire conditions within detention centers was “categorically FALSE.”
The press release went on to say that “ICE actually has higher detention quality standards than most U.S. detention spaces [for] actual U.S. citizens,” but did not provide any evidence for the claim.
A GEO Group spokesperson said their services are monitored to “ensure compliance with ICE’s detention standards and contract requirements regarding the treatment and services ICE detainees receive.” The spokesperson went on to say “in the event issues are identified, we quickly resolve all of ICE’s concerns as required by ICE’s Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan.”
Core Civic did not respond to a request for comment.
Despite the claims of high standards, members of Congress have continued to call for further transparency.
In September, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) wrote a letter to the U.S. Government Accountability Office calling on the organization to “provide oversight of contractor performance on selected detention facility contract awards since January 2025, and challenges, if any, overseeing contractor performance.”
Additionally, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus has expressed strong concern towards “a lack of Congressional oversight.”
Goodman continues to witness as a form of protest because he believes it has been successful. Witnessing efforts took place outside detention facilities in Tornillo, Texas and Homestead, Fla. Both facilities have since been shut down. Goodman credits witnessing efforts, in part, with their closure.
“I believe we have contributed to some of these facilities closing down, and we have contributed to the public’s knowledge of what’s going on,” Goodman said. “I can’t claim that we have all the credit for it, but I think we helped.”
In November, Majorie Ziefert spoke to a man coming out of North Lake. He said he was in the car with his fourteen year-old daughter, when his wife was detained at her green card interview.
“He and his daughter are now visiting her mother in prison,” Majorie Ziefert said.
The couple also speak to staff members entering and leaving the processing center. They have had staff tell them that they “hate what they’re doing” but do it for a source of income. Majorie Ziefert feels as though by witnessing she is “supporting their feelings of discomfort about the whole process.”
The couple is working on tapping into other activist networks around Michigan to create a sustainable presence outside of the detention facility. It is located in a rural community not proximate to any population center which has made it a difficult place to reach, Kieffer said.
Like Goodman, Ziefert and Kieffer’s driving reason for witnessing is to stand in solidarity with those who are detained. They have been in contact with attorneys who have clients inside of North Lake. The attorneys said their clients can see them through several windows. Family members of those detained have thanked them for their persistent protest.
“We want them to know that they’re not forgotten — that there are people outside who care about them,” Goodman said.
Witnessing doesn’t just happen outside detention centers, but also in immigration court. Religious organizations like the Jesuit Refugee Service have created programs like court observation.
Fr. Michael Gallagher is a priest, attorney and advocate based in El Paso, Texas who has been doing work at the border for years and is a part of a court observation program. Gallagher goes to immigration courts to provide crucial legal information in English and Spanish to immigrants who face the possibility of deportation.
In March, he would speak to 60 to 70 people a day. But since May, when ICE started to arrest people at courthouses, he has had to alter his advice and has seen a massive decrease in people showing up to the courthouse.
Bridget Cusick, Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Jesuit Refugee Service, said there are observation efforts led by her organization alongside other religious organizations creating an informal patchwork across the country. Aside from providing legal advice, these efforts also include a way for someone to witness arrests and legal proceedings.
“It’s more about eyes on the process and documentation of what people are seeing,” Cusick said. “It is a show of solidarity, but it’s a little bit, maybe more about accountability, like we’re watching, we’re taking notes, we’re documenting this. We want you to know that we’re seeing what’s happening.”
Gallagher said witnessing at the courthouse has been difficult, and can be taxing for volunteers as well as other viewers witnessing these detainments. In late May, a courthouse guard told Gallagher he had to step out of the courthouse for a moment because they “couldn’t stand hearing the children crying as their parents were getting arrested.”
Immigration attorneys like Sophia Genovese acknowledge how different witnessing programs like court accompaniment are helpful in guiding detainees through immigration court.
“While court accompaniment isn’t necessarily a legal element that serves one’s legal case, it is a critical factor that helps people feel supported as they navigate immigration court,” Genovese said.
Back in Michigan, Ziefert is continuing to recruit those interested in participating in witnessing efforts. She says that witnessing “changes people” and has seen new advocates react to witnessing for the first time.
After guiding an individual, Ziefert received a text from a new “witness” who was trying to gather information outside of North Lake. He told her that he saw a woman coming out of the facility in tears having just visited her partner. She described to him her story and how she was only allowed a 35 minute visit after driving four hours to get to the facility.
Her tears moved him, and he told Ziefert, “What witnessing did today was change me, I’ve never experienced anything like that before, and I will never look away.”
Alongside advocates, members of Congress are continuing to push for oversight. On Dec. 3, Rep. Jayapal and Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) reintroduced the “The Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act” with 123 co-sponsors. This bill would phase out the use of private detention facilities, require DHS to establish civil detention standards and require the entrance of unannounced Members of Congress into ICE detention centers.
At a press conference reintroducing the bill, Rep. Jayapal said she believes this bill can gain momentum and advance.
“The American people across ideology, across political party are looking at what’s happening and saying ‘this is not who we are,’” Jayapal said.
