That is an excellent question. The best theory I've seen is that there is money and kickbacks being passed around for these "detentions."

Meta: I am finding that it is very difficult to have an intelligent discussion about deeply stupid things. This leads to many of these posts getting flagged.

One article I read said their home countries refused to accept them https://kagi.com/news#2025-07-16-11

Wow, how did i not know about kagi news? Thanks for this!

I think the cruelty is the point

No, cruelty is just a tactic to convey as negative a forced deportations experience as possible to an illegal immigrant. The point is actually to encourage self deportation and to discourage further illegal immigration. The folks going through this will eventually get back to their countries of origin with an ugly story to tell about their awful experiences of deportation. Some people tht hear of that experience and will opt out of taking the illegal path. News stories like this viewed and read here in the US motivate folks to take the easier self deportation path.

The us of a is addicted to/dependent on to the labor of illegal immigrants. None of this makes any sense to me unless it is to make illegal labor even cheaper/more precarious in the long run.

> Wouldn't it make more sense to just send them to the home countries if that's the point anyway?

The point isn't to repatriate immigrants to their countries of origin. It's to inflict as much cruelty and suffering as possible to act as an example/deterrent for future would-be immigrants, and to encourage as-yet undetained immigrants to self-deport.

(I am not defending this policy, I think it's abhorrent)

Cruelty and for-profit prisons are the point. Recently, an Irishman overstayed his visa by 3 days and ICE grabbed his for 3 months because GEO Group makes money the longer he stayed with them. They fed him stuff worse than dogfood and threw his medication under the door on the ground.

There are many countries that refuse to take back their citizens (despite the international law).

In that case you either need to kep them detained in your country with the problem of space, protests, haggling with the recipient country; or outsourcing the problem, possibly ultimately cheaper.

We have the problem in France: convicts are not accepted by their country. Being a lawful country we are basically stuck.