In June 2025, the newly rebranded North Lake Processing Center started housing people arrested by federal agents and held in immigration detention.
The privately run prison near Baldwin, Michigan is still owned and operated by GEO Group, one of the largest companies of its kind. In the fall, the average daily population ballooned to more than 1,000 people as the Trump administration shifted to a mandatory detention policy for people who previously weren’t targeted for enforcement, including asylum seekers and those with no criminal record.
Michigan has a handful of immigration detention facilities, but North Lake is now the largest immigration detention center in the Midwest.
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Nicole Neri
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Minnesota Reformer
About three-fourths of people who were arrested in Michigan by ICE ended up being deported or removed in some way, including those who took a “voluntary departure."
Cydni Elledge
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Outlier Media
Cydni Elledge
/
Outlier Media
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Days after a different Afghan native shot and killed a national guardsman in D.C., an asylum seeker living in metro Detroit was called in for a check in with ICE. He was put into immigration detention at the North Lake Processing Center soon after and he said his life hasn’t been the same since. -
An asylum-seeking mother returned to Venezuela after months in immigration detention. Just weeks after her husband and children joined her, the region where they were restarting their lives was devastated by two of the worst earthquakes in Latin American history. -
Back home after three months in immigration detention, a Colombian asylum seeker named Juan Pablo Quivano said he was worried that his child might not be a U.S. citizen, if the Supreme Court decided to do away with “birthright citizenship.” -
After Hector Marin’s wife, Osmary Garcia, was arrested by immigration officers, he worried that the same thing could happen to him – leaving the couple’s six children to fend for themselves. He didn't know where to turn, until he remembered a flier for a Detroit Public Schools Community District staff person who was helping immigrant families navigate the immigration system in the wake of increased enforcement. -
In Michigan, immigrants being held inside detention centers often have no idea of when their cases will be resolved. Dozens have been held for over six months and for some it's been closer to a year. Mental health experts say the uncertainty coupled with the prolonged isolation can take a psychological toll, with the effects often growing more severe the longer a person is detained. -
Yerlys Moreno López, a Venezuelan asylum seeker, said she needed surgery after agents tackled her. -
![PLACEHOLDER: An editorial collage set against a muted gray-purple background, combining three layered elements. On the left, a torn envelope or piece of mail bearing the logo and address of the GEO Group's North Lake Processing Center. In the center, a heavily distorted, glitched portrait of a person whose face is obscured through digital fragmentation, suggesting anonymity and erasure. On the right, a partially visible medical report form with several fields heavily redacted in black. Visible handwritten entries include an incident date of 3-16-2026, a time of 09, a checked "Yes" box next to "necessary to notify physician?", "N/A" written next to a "Fighting" checkbox, and a handwritten description reading "Sexual assault from housin[g]" occurring at "3-4am."](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/9b8d60f/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1920x1070+0+5/resize/280x156!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F9f%2F3d%2F1547e7294b60b5ff7f4823f3a84d%2Fq-story-headers-wip-10.png)
Una ex detenida asegura que sufrió agresiones sexuales reiteradas en North Lake Processing Center y que sus intentos de reportarlas a los administradores del centro no recibieron respuesta inicial. -
A conversation with a reporter covering Detroit's efforts to increase rental safety. What happened when a sexual assault was reported at Michigan's largest immigrant detention center. And the latest episode of On Hand on where Up North begins. -
A former detainee says she was repeatedly sexually assaulted at the North Lake Processing Center and that her attempts to alert administrators initially went unheeded.
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Those who – like the plaintiffs in this case – have lived in the U.S. without incident should be able to request bond, according to the 2-1 ruling from a panel of judges on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. The court found the Trump administration’s “mandatory detention” policy to be an unconstitutional denial of due process rights.
![PLACEHOLDER: An editorial collage set against a muted gray-purple background, combining three layered elements. On the left, a torn envelope or piece of mail bearing the logo and address of the GEO Group's North Lake Processing Center. In the center, a heavily distorted, glitched portrait of a person whose face is obscured through digital fragmentation, suggesting anonymity and erasure. On the right, a partially visible medical report form with several fields heavily redacted in black. Visible handwritten entries include an incident date of 3-16-2026, a time of 09, a checked "Yes" box next to "necessary to notify physician?", "N/A" written next to a "Fighting" checkbox, and a handwritten description reading "Sexual assault from housin[g]" occurring at "3-4am."](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/750b7f9/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1920x1070+0+5/resize/560x312!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F9f%2F3d%2F1547e7294b60b5ff7f4823f3a84d%2Fq-story-headers-wip-10.png)
