Medical care in ICE detention facilities deserves our scrutiny
On Sept .14, an unthinkable allegation emerged from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Georgia. Nurse Dawn Wooten, who previously worked at the Irwin County Detention Center, filed a complaint alleging “jarring medical neglect” there— most notably, mass hysterectomies.
Details surrounding the claim are fuzzy. But as horrifying as the allegation is, itwas just believable enough to remain in the public imagination. That’s telling.
Even if impending investigations put the hysterectomy story to rest, there’s still plenty to be angry about when it comes to medical blunders in migrant detention centers. From outbreaks to suicides, stories of negligence have become so common that medical complacency seems to be all but endemic to these facilities.
ICE’s shoddy record most recently garnered attention as COVID-19 raged through migrant detention centers. Thousands of detainees contracted the virus— no surprise given their squalid living conditions. At a center in Farmville, Virginia, 97% of migrants in custody tested positive for the virus. At the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, a warden prohibited staff from wearing face masks so as to not “scare inmates and detainees.”
But outbreaks are nothing new. During last year’s winter flu season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that detained migrants be vaccinated against the illness. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) rejected the advice out of hand, and as a result, hundreds of migrants became infected. Two children died. CBP’s justification? According to agency spokes woman Kelly Cahalan, it “would be logistically very challenging.”
That very same attitude is what led to nearly 900 confirmed and probable cases of mumps among detained migrants in 2019 and 461 cases of chickenpox in 2018. CBP nominally recognizes the epidemiological risk of long stays in close quarters. It advises that “detainees should generally not be held for longer than 72 hours,” but last December, individuals were being detained in ICE facilities for an average of 55 days. It’s nowonder that diseases have run rampant in such stagnant populations.
The individual cases are just as grotesque. Hamida Ali, an asylum-seeker from Sudan, was transferred to an ICE facility without notes on her history of schizophrenia and suicidal thoughts. Aliwas kept in solitary confinement for roughly nine months despite a suicide attempt in custody. Another detainee, Aristoteles Sanchez Martinez, was disallowed fromusing awheelchair despite bone spurs, neuropathy, and an expanding hernia. Yet another migrant, Mel vin Murillo Hernandez ,“went into life-threatening anaphylactic shock requiring hospitalization three separate times” in the space of three months, according to a lawsuit, because ICE staff didn’t screen him for medical issues or food allergies.
The weaknesses of these facilities and their staff create a perfect storm. Detention centers are notoriously crowded. But beyond this, detention centers commit “egregious violations” of health standards. Detainees are forced to endure moldy bathrooms, shortages of hygiene supplies and unsafe food. Should they become sick, migrants have to grapple with understaffing, neglect of chronic illnesses, and delayed treatment.
Throughout the years and across the nation, detention center staff have denied migrants medication, ignored preexisting conditions, and covered up deaths. The large number of exposés and federal audits leveled at ICE’s abuses should have compelled the agency to act differently, but still the cruelty continues.
Theway forward is clear. For one, ICE has the unilateral power to release detainees for humanitarian reasons. It’s time the agency exercised that power. Most immigrants in custody aren’t required to be there, nor do the vastmajority of detainees pose a risk to native-born Americans. In addition, reducing the capacity of detention centers would help prevent outbreaks andwould allow sick immigrants to receive proper screening and care elsewhere. If detainee populations remain large, then ICE should at least consider common-sense measures like banning the use of isolation for migrants with psychological conditions and maintaining a more reliable health record system.
Over 50,000 people were housed in ICE detention facilities on a daily basis in 2019. Today, the agency’s reform or resistance will have life-and-death consequences for huge numbers of immigrants. After somany years of controversy, there’s no better time for ICE to turn over a new leaf.