- ICE widely uses the WRAP full-body restraint on deportation flights, often beyond safety guidelines, causing physical and psychological harm to deportees.
- Investigations, lawsuits, and rights advocates say the device’s misuse risks fatalities and violates civil‑rights standards, yet ICE lacks transparent policies and monitoring.
In a chilling pattern emerging from ICE operations, deportees are recounting terrifying experiences of being immobilized in a full-body restraint known as “the WRAP” – often dubbed “the burrito” or “the bag” – during long-haul deportation flights.
These black-and-yellow suits, which bind hands, feet, and torso in a straitjacket-like fashion, are being deployed not just for safety, but allegedly as a tool for intimidation and punishment, according to multiple immigrants, attorneys, and a federal lawsuit.
A Nigerian man, part of an ongoing legal challenge, described being awakened in the dead of night in September, shackled, and then forced into the WRAP after requesting to speak with his attorney.
The FrankNez Media Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here.
He and others were flown 16 hours to Ghana – a country none called home – while fully restrained.
“It was just like a kidnapping,” he told reporters from a detainment camp in Ghana, speaking anonymously out of fear of retaliation.
This isn’t an isolated incident.
An Associated Press investigation uncovered at least a dozen cases since 2020 where ICE used the WRAP on deportation flights, based on interviews with five deportees, witnesses, and family members across four countries.
The device, manufactured by Safe Restraints Inc., was originally designed to protect officers from violent individuals.
However, deportees claim ICE officers apply it far beyond the manufacturer’s guidelines, often after immigrants are already in standard hand and foot shackles, simply for verbal protests or pleas against deportation.
From Safety Tool to Alleged Torture Device
The WRAP has drawn scrutiny for its role in fatalities outside immigration contexts.
In the last decade, at least 12 deaths involving local police or jailers cited “restraint” as a contributing factor in autopsies, with the device implicated in 43 total fatalities reviewed by investigators.
For instance, in Virginia Beach last year, Rolin Hill died after being left in the WRAP following an arrest; his death was ruled a homicide due to asphyxia from restraint and compression.
Similarly, Othel Moore Jr. in Missouri asphyxiated while restrained, hooded with a spit mask, and pepper-sprayed, leading to charges against five jailers.
Despite these red flags, ICE has continued using a modified version of the WRAP, tailored for long transports like flights and bus rides.
This version includes a front ring for cuffed hands to allow limited movement for eating or drinking, and soft elbow cuffs for circulation.
Safe Restraints CEO Charles Hammond emphasized that the device is meant as a “lifesaver” for handling threats to officers or self-harm risks.
“If it’s not a current or potential risk, then restraints aren’t justified,” he said when informed of deportees’ accounts of non-violent scenarios.
Yet, ICE’s threshold appears lower.
Deportees report being placed in the WRAP for hours – sometimes entire flights – after expressing fear of returning to violent homelands.
One man from Cameroon, deported in 2020, said he was strapped in after stumbling from dizziness, mistaken for resistance.
“They bundled me like a log of wood… carrying me like a corpse,” he recalled.
Another from Cape Verde endured a 10-hour flight in 2023 with a concussion and dislocated jaw, exacerbated by the device’s metal ring digging into his chest.
Federal spending records show DHS has paid Safe Restraints $268,523 since 2015, with 91% under the two Trump administrations.
ICE declined to provide usage records or policies, despite repeated requests.
Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin stated only that restraints are “standard ICE protocol” for safety, aligning with “established legal standards,” but offered no specifics.
Personal Horror Stories Highlight Broader Civil Rights Concerns
Juan Antonio Pineda, an El Salvadoran legally in the U.S., shared a video from an Arizona detention center detailing his ordeal in late September.
After a mix-up at an immigration appointment, he was detained and driven four hours to the Mexico border in the WRAP.
Refusing to sign incorrect deportation papers, he alleges officers broke his arm and blackened his eye before returning him – still restrained – another four hours.
The next day, the process repeated without food or water.
“Please help me,” he pleaded in the footage.
Pineda was eventually deported to Mexico, his wife confirmed.
Advocates argue this violates human rights.
“The use of these devices is inhumane and incompatible with our nation’s fundamental values,” said attorney Noah Baron, representing West African deportees.
A 2023 DHS civil rights report flagged ICE’s lack of policies and training on the WRAP, citing death risks from local law enforcement uses.
ICE partially agreed but disputed classifying it as a “four-point restraint,” which would impose stricter limits.
The office behind the report was later dismantled amid government restructuring.
Texas A&M law professor Fatma Marouf, who has sued over the device, stressed it should be a last resort.
“Just being bound up like that can inflict a lot of psychological harm,” she said.
One lawsuit alleges a deportee was left in the WRAP for 16 hours on a Ghana flight, with only brief relief for the bathroom.
Beyond Borders
The WRAP’s origins trace to the late 1990s as an alternative to “hog-tying,” now used by over 1,800 U.S. agencies.
But lawsuits are mounting, equating misuse to torture.
In a 2020 Texas jail case, Alberto Pena died after two hours in the WRAP unattended, despite cries for help and known bipolar disorder.
An autopsy linked his death partly to prolonged restraint; a family lawsuit was dismissed on immunity grounds, but experts called it avoidable with medical intervention.
Hammond defends the device’s aviation use for high-stakes safety, noting proper application allows movement and de-escalation.
Still, deportees’ traumas persist: swollen limbs, limps, and lasting pain from hours immobilized.
One Cameroonian man said he was displayed in the WRAP as a warning to others: “I told him ‘I can’t breathe.’ He responded, ‘I don’t care, I’m doing my job.’”
As deportations ramp up under President Trump’s goals, critics fear escalating abuses.
ICE tracks force incidents per federal law but isn’t monitoring WRAP usage specifically, raising accountability questions.
This surge in restraints echoes broader accusations of dehumanization, from street arrests by masked officers to harsh detention conditions.
Immigrants and advocates demand transparency and reform to prevent what they call preventable suffering.
Also Read: Republicans Face Growing Backlash as Voters Blame Them for Govt. Shutdown
Follow us on X: @NezMediaCompany
