Study Finds that Immigrants in Detention Centers Are Up to Twice as Likely to Suffer from PTSD Than Combat Veterans

by Sarah Terzo

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The Study and Its Findings

A study published in 2025 in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association found that immigrants who spent time in detention centers were up to twice as likely to suffer from PTSD as combat veterans.

This study, which was published on January 24, 2025, four days after Donald Trump’s inauguration, used data on detainees released in 2020 and 2021. The data paints a dire picture of the conditions inside immigrant detention centers — conditions which may well have only worsened over the past year.

In the study, the mean length of time in detention before release was 9.9 months. This was similar to the findings of a 2017 study, which showed that the average length of detention was 271 days. A 2023 study of Mexican immigrants found that nearly half (45.8%) were imprisoned for at least a year before being deported.

According to the JAMA study’s summary:

In this cross-sectional study of 200 recently detained US immigrants, there was a high prevalence of poor self-rated health, mental illness, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for all, but especially among those who had been detained for 6 months or longer, who had a significantly higher likelihood of poor or fair self-rated health, mental illness, and PTSD...

These results suggest that the duration of custody is one mechanism by which immigration detention can serve as a catalyst for worsening health.

Declining Health

Of detainees who spent under six months in custody, 30.4% rated their health as fair or poor. For those detained for six months or more, that number was 49.1%. In contrast, fewer than 17% of US adults in the general public judged their health to be fair or poor in a 2005-2008 survey.

This study suggests reasons for people’s health worsening during incarceration:

·        Delayed access to care

·        Subpar quality of care in a reactive rather than preventive medical care system

·        Meals with insufficient nutritional value

·        Sleep deprivation

·        Isolation from family and support systems

·        Physical and psychological threats to safety, including abuse by guards

·        Disciplinary practices such as solitary confinement.

According to the study, “These conditions often co-occur and exert cumulative harm.”

PTSD Rates

Among those in detention for under six months, 34.8% met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD, as did 59.3% of those detained longer.

A review of 33 studies on veterans from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars found that 23% suffered PTSD. Statistics from the Vietnam War vary, but one well-known study put the percentage of male veterans who suffered from PTSD at some point in their lives at 30.6%.

Comparing these statistics, we can see that rates of PTSD among those who spent time in immigrant detention centers are even higher than those among combat veterans. Of course, we don’t know how many immigrants already had symptoms of PTSD when they were arrested.

The Majority of Detainees Aren’t Criminals

According to the Cato Institute, only a small minority of those currently held by ICE have a criminal record. Only 5% have ever been convicted of a violent crime. Seventy-three percent have never been convicted of a crime of any kind. A further 3% were convicted of a property crime, such as theft.

Of the rest of those who were convicted of crimes, 5% were only convicted of an immigration violation, e.g., entering or reentering the United States illegally. For 6%, the crime was a traffic conviction.

A further 3% were arrested for a vice crime, such as prostitution. This group could include victims of sexual trafficking who were kidnapped and smuggled into the United States or lured here with false promises of a better life, only to find themselves enslaved by a pimp and then arrested and detained.

Twenty-six percent of the detainees have pending charges against them. According to the Cato Institute, charges against immigrants are “often minor and regularly dismissed.”

These statistics are in contrast to practices during the Biden administration, when only one in 10 arrests were of people without a criminal conviction or charge. From January to July 2025, the number of arrested immigrants who were never charged with or convicted of a crime increased by 1,500%. 

According to a July 2025 Fortune article, each ICE detainee was assigned a threat level of 1 to 3. One is the highest. Those with no criminal record were classified as having “no ICE threat level.”

In June 2025, 84 percent of detainees had no threat level. Only 7% were graded 1. The rest were split between 2 and 3. ICE knew that most detainees weren’t a threat to anyone.

The majority of people in immigration centers were law-abiding before their arrests. 

Conclusion

Conditions inside immigration detention centers were bad under past administrations and may be worse now. In future articles, I will examine more research and accounts.