Google accused of censoring reviews of ICE detention centers

Google is actively purging reviews for the detention facilities network operated by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).​

Google Maps has become an irreplaceable tool for choosing restaurants, beauty salons, and other service providers, as the app displays reviews from other customers.

It is common for government bodies to allow reviews as well. The Pentagon, for example, has a rating of 4.1 on Google, with over 2,000 reviews, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's rating stands at 3.8.

However, Google has been deleting reviews for ICE detention centers and blocking users from writing new ones, according to a study published in the News Media & Society.

“The governmentality employed by Google shows how search engines can – on an ad hoc basis – limit attempts to circulate carceral narratives,” the study reads.

The author, Muira McCammon, a professor at Tulane University’s Department of Communication, collected 1,636 posts from 26 different ICE facilities where posting reviews was allowed in August 2025. At that time, 91 detention centers had no reviews.

“Almost all of the Google reviews that I originally collected in 2025 are now no longer available,” McCammon recently told The Intercept.

Only 4 ICE facilities appear to still permit reviews on Google Maps, she said.

Censorship may not only be America’s problem

ICE has been in the center of criticism since 2025, after the agency started deploying aggressive enforcement techniques to tackle illegal immigration, which also resulted in arresting US citizens and legal aliens and the killings of protestors.

Detention facilities were also criticized for harsh conditions and inhumane treatment of immigrants.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued the Donald Trump administration in June 2026 over the conditions for migrants detained at the Camp East Montana Detention Facility.

The lawsuit claims that immigrants were subjected to physical abuse, sexual harassment, “abhorrent medical care,” spoiled food, and inappropriate use of force.

Gerald Akari Angye, a plaintiff in the case, said no human being should ever have to go through this.

I have already experienced torture in my home country of Cameroon, and I never thought I would experience such severely violent treatment by guards here in the United States of America.

Gerald Akari Angye

If these claims are proven true, it's no surprise that ICE doesn’t want the public to see them.

Google’s policy, meanwhile, gives the company the right to delete reviews in places where they are “consistently unhelpful, harmful, or off-topic.” This includes places where people go without choice, such as police stations and prisons.

The company previously blocked Android users from downloading an app called ICEBlock, which alerts people to sightings of ICE agents.

Google appears to be closely aligned with the White House. The company renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America for Map users in 2025, following Trump's executive order, despite Mexico’s criticism.

Google was also accused of blocking AI search queries on Trump and dementia. The company said its systems automatically determine where an AI response will be useful.

McCammon warned in her study that censorship may not be limited to the US or to immigration.

She wrote, “Though this study focuses on carceral institutions in the United States, the method is transferable to other jurisdictions, including countries whose governments are now co-producing carceral infrastructure at the request of the Trump administration.”

Cybernews has reached out to Google for comment and will update this article once it receives a response.