“We’re Watching”: How Advocates Are Holding Detention Centers Accountable by ‘Witnessing’

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, Michigan.

The retired Ann Arbor residents started participating in a form of protest outside 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 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 over 25,000 people detained by ICE this year. 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 the Broadview ICE Facility in Illinois. Goodman witnesses by talking to people coming in and out of the detention center and by tracking 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.

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 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 from 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 to learn 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 denied claims of dehumanizing conditions and emphasized that there is proper oversight. 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.”

Core Civic did not respond to a request for comment.

Despite the claims of high standards, members of Congress have continued to call for 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.”

Goodman witnesses because he believes it has been successful. Witnessing efforts took place outside detention facilities in Tornillo, Texas, and Homestead, Florida. 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 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 speaks to staff 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. Marjorie Ziefert feels that by witnessing, she is “supporting their feelings of discomfort about the whole process.”

Like Goodman, Ziefert, and Kieffer’s driving reason for witnessing is to stand in solidarity with the detained. They have been in contact with attorneys who have clients inside 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.

Ziefert continues to recruit witnesses. 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 gathering information outside North Lake. He told her that he saw a woman coming out of the facility in tears after visiting her partner. She told him her story, explaining that she was allowed only a 35-minute visit after driving four hours 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.”

Members of Congress are also 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 private detention facilities 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 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.

Isabella Jacob covers immigration and demographics for Medill on the Hill. The Michigan native is a student at Northwestern University studying journalism and entrepreneurship.