A succession of high-profile detentions is drawing renewed scrutiny to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after students, veterans and long-time residents described harsh treatment and, in some cases, mistaken custody. University of Utah nursing student Caroline Dias Goncalves, 19, says she spent 15 days in the Aurora, Colorado, ICE facility after a June 5 traffic stop on Interstate 70. Body-camera footage shows a Mesa County deputy questioning her birthplace before releasing her with a warning; minutes later ICE agents took her into custody. The sheriff’s office has placed the deputy on leave while it determines why her information was relayed to a Signal chat that included federal agents, in apparent violation of Colorado limits on cooperation with ICE. In Southern California, Army veteran George Retes, 25, alleges agents smashed his car window, used tear gas and held him three days during a July 10 marijuana-farm raid despite his repeated assertions of U.S. citizenship. He was released without charges and says he plans to sue the federal government, calling the episode proof that “it could happen to anyone.” Homeland Security officials confirmed the arrest but declined to specify why he was taken into custody. Video from Santa Ana shows a similar confrontation on June 21, when landscaper Narciso Barranco—father of three U.S. Marines—was pinned to the ground and punched before being charged only with illegal presence. He left Adelanto Detention Center on $3,000 bond last week and faces another hearing in August. The individual cases have intensified attention on conditions inside ICE facilities. Detainees at a newly opened Everglades center in Ochopee, Florida, told The New York Times they lack books, medicine and relief from extreme heat, while Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk detailed overcrowding and medical neglect during six weeks in the South Louisiana Processing Center. GEO Group, which operates both sites, said its facilities comply with federal detention standards and provide around-the-clock medical care. Civil-rights lawyers say the incidents underscore long-standing concerns that the nation’s 1,300-bed Aurora complex and other privately run centers prioritize enforcement quotas over due-process safeguards. Pending lawsuits and internal probes could test the Biden administration’s promises to impose tighter oversight on the sprawling immigration-detention system.