Physicians Sound Alarm On Worrying Issues In ICE Detention Centers

People sitting on benches inside a fenced facility.

An alarming new report reveals significant medical care failures and preventable deaths in ICE detention centers across the United States.

At a Glance

Taxpayers spent $400 million on ICE detention center medical services in 2023.
94% of deaths from 2017 to 2021 were preventable or possibly preventable.
ICE’s medical oversight was critically flawed, and actions to prevent future deaths were insufficient.
Private prison companies made significant profits despite these failures.

Significant Medical Oversight Failures

An in-depth report by Physicians for Human Rights, supported by the ACLU and American Oversight, has uncovered staggering medical care failures at ICE detention centers. Between 2017 and 2021, 94% of the 52 reviewed deaths were found to be preventable. Despite spending $400 million on medical services in 2023, ICE’s medical teams made incorrect, inappropriate, or incomplete diagnoses in 88% of these cases.

The report criticizes ICE’s inadequate oversight mechanisms that failed to conduct rigorous investigations or impose meaningful consequences. Little action has been taken to prevent such deaths in the future. Three detention facilities were fined, but no contracts were terminated despite clear evidence of medical neglect. ICE’s medical oversight has been described as “critically flawed.”

The @aclu, @weareoversight, and @phr, with @immcivilrights released a new report on deaths in ICE detention today. 95% of deaths in ICE detention between 2017-2021 could have been prevented if ICE had provided clinically appropriate care. https://t.co/cBRUhTlFfx /1

— Eunice Cho (@eunicehcho) June 25, 2024

Healthcare Expenditures and Profits

The ICE Health Service Corps received $352 million in funding, supplemented by $47.8 million spent on third-party medical services. Meanwhile, private prison companies like GEO Group and CoreCivic have profited immensely from these contracts. The report emphasizes the need for a drastic overhaul in the administration and healthcare provided to detainees to ensure proper use of taxpayer money and humane treatment.

“Each of these deaths represents a preventable tragedy, and underscores the systematic danger posed by placing people in immigration detention. ICE has failed to provide adequate—even basic—medical and mental health care and ensure that people in detention are treated with dignity,” said Eunice Cho, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s National Prison Project and report co-author. “Abuses in ICE detention should no longer go ignored. It’s time to hold ICE accountable and end this failed, dangerous mass detention machine once and for all.”

In addition, inadequate detainee death investigations, such as the destruction of evidence and failure to interview witnesses, further illustrate significant mismanagement within the system. Poor conditions continued during the COVID-19 pandemic, with insufficient precautions leading to preventable fatalities.

A report co-published by PHR, @ACLU & @weareoversight on preventable deaths in ICE detention has prompted U.S. Senate Judiciary Chair @SenatorDurbin to launch an inquiry into medical & mental health care for people in custody in ICE detention facilities.https://t.co/Apc30s7zMR

— Physicians for Human Rights (@P4HR) July 18, 2024

Urgent Need for Accountability

The report highlights systemic failures in medical and mental health care that caused preventable deaths. Independent medical experts concluded that 95% of these fatalities were avoidable with appropriate care. Further findings reveal mishandling of cases, including the premature release of witnesses and the destruction of video evidence related to deaths.

“The report’s independent medical reviews reveal egregious failings in health care. In most of the reviewed cases, inadequate or absent care directly contributed or possibly contributed to fatalities,” said Michele Heisler, MD, MPH, medical director at PHR and professor of internal medicine and public health at the University of Michigan. “This report reinforces a grim reality that has been well documented over the last 20 years: healthcare in ICE detention is often profoundly flawed. Effective and more humane alternatives to detention enable people seeking asylum and other immigrants in the United States to receive medical care in their local communities.”

The authors call for transparency and accountability in ICE’s operations. Recommendations include improvements to DHS’s oversight mechanisms, emphasizing the importance of holding responsible parties accountable and protecting the health and rights of detainees. Advocates urge U.S. Congress, the Department of Justice, and state and local governments to adopt these recommendations to rectify the failings.