Detainees use facility video calls to speak out

Four men detained at the Folkston ICE Processing Center in rural Georgia used the facility’s own video conferencing software to make a five-minute video about life behind bars. In it, they sought to expose conditions inside the detention center and criticize President Donald Trump’s approach to the immigration courts. The recording gave the men a way to address people beyond the center while they remained in custody.

The video was made by asylum seekers detained at the center, using a system intended for video calls. Asylum seekers are people seeking protection through the immigration system; here, the men were held at the facility while their cases were connected to immigration courts. Rather than keeping their accounts within those conversations, the men used the facility’s technology to speak publicly about what they were experiencing. Their recording offered a view of detention from people held inside the facility, while also directing criticism beyond its walls to the courts handling immigration cases.

The men described those courts as “deportation courts,” a phrase that captured their condemnation of Trump’s immigration system. Their five-minute video brought together two concerns: conditions at the rural Georgia facility and the treatment of asylum seekers in immigration proceedings. By using the center’s video calling software, the detainees turned a tool for communicating from behind bars into a way to share their criticism. The report does not give further details about the calls or explain how the recording was shared.

Criticism of Trump’s “deportation courts”

In the five-minute video, four men detained at the Folkston ICE Processing Center in rural Georgia spoke out against what they described as President Donald Trump’s hostile takeover of the immigration courts. They also decried what they called “deportation courts,” using the facility’s video conferencing software to deliver their criticism from behind bars. These phrases express the men’s view of the courts; they are not presented as a formal name for a court system.

The men’s remarks formed part of a broader effort to expose conditions inside the detention center. Rather than using the video call only for its intended purpose, they used the system to make their concerns visible beyond the facility. Their denunciation linked their experience in detention with their view of changes to the courts handling immigration cases. In practical terms, the video allowed them to put both subjects into one public statement: their circumstances at Folkston and their criticism of the immigration proceedings.

The video offered a rare glimpse of detainees speaking directly about the immigration system while held at the center. Their description of the courts as “deportation courts” conveyed their opposition to the changes they attributed to Trump, while their account of a hostile takeover underscored the seriousness of their criticism. The men’s statements were recorded as they remained in custody at Folkston. Their account is presented as the detainees’ criticism, rather than as a detailed explanation of particular court changes.

The Folkston detention center

The facility at the center of the report is the Folkston ICE Processing Center, an immigration detention center in rural Georgia. Four men held there used its video conferencing software to speak out about conditions inside and President Donald Trump’s takeover of the immigration courts. The location matters to the account because it is where the men were detained and where they used the facility’s own system to record their message.

A photo accompanying the report showed detainees in the facility’s yard on September 9, 2025. It identified the location as Folkston, Georgia, and credited the image to Elijah Nouvelage/AFP via Getty Images. The photograph’s date and credit identify the image; the report does not say that the video was recorded on that date.

The report and its author

The report is by Gaby Del Valle, a policy reporter at The Verge. Her coverage includes surveillance, the Department of Homeland Security, and the tech-right. In this report, Del Valle examines how four men detained at an ICE facility in rural Georgia used its video conferencing software to expose conditions inside and criticize President Donald Trump’s approach to the immigration courts. Readers seeking to understand the account should keep its central distinction in view: the five-minute recording communicates the detainees’ own criticism, while the report identifies the facility, the technology they used, and the subject of their remarks.