Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continues to disregard medical issues detained immigrants experience in its detention centers. An email from Homeland Security investigators to ICE revealed that a transgender immigrant detained in a private remote New Mexico jail, Cibola County Correctional Center, alerted staff she was bleeding from her rectum, only to have to wait almost two weeks for care.
According to the secret memo, obtained by BuzzFeed News, the detained woman had to wait 13 days for urgent medical care and when finally tested was positive with HIV. The Cibola County Correctional Center is the only ICE facility with space specifically for transgender women. The email from Aug. 21, 2019, also revealed that ICE officials waited months to move people from known poor healthcare conditions at its facility. Despite health concerns raised in the email, ICE continued to detain a population of over 100 at its facility until January.
“The negligence of addressing a medical emergency such as this not only placed the infected detainee at risk for severe medical complications, but it also exposed other detainees and facility and ICE staff to an infectious and potentially deadly disease,” Dana Salvano-Dunn, director of the compliance branch for the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) wrote, according to BuzzFeed News. In the facility, transgender immigrants are reported to have waited up to 17 days for urgently needed medical care, in addition to not being provided prescribed medications including those for diabetes, epilepsy, and tuberculosis. According to the email, expired medication was also found in the facility’s pharmacy with one detainee mentioned as having received the wrong dose of medication for days.
The email surfaces as the latest internal document sharing insight into ICE facilities. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform launched an investigation last year after complaints surfaced that ICE repeatedly ignored medical issues detainees faced including issues that resulted in two preventable surgeries. While reports show ICE officials took months to respond to requests, an ICE official claimed that upon receiving the email the agency took steps to address the problems, including developing a “corrective action plan” with CoreCivic, the private prison company that runs the facility.
The official told BuzzFeed News that ICE officials visited the facility in December, “it was determined that the deficiencies were not yet fully resolved and that detainees with chronic care issues should be removed. ICE immediately coordinated the transfer of all those with chronic medical issues to other detention facilities.”
However, a report by ICE Health Services Corps (IHSC) in December found issues outside of those raised in the email, according to BuzzFeed News. Not only were laboratory tests not being completed as ordered but medications were delayed alongside medical staff not being familiar with detention standards. “The concerns raised by CRCL in its August 21 communication to ICE described health care conditions that presented a clear and present danger to the health of individuals residing at the facility,” Marc Stern, a public health expert and a faculty member at the University of Washington School of Public Health said. “This required an immediate response to protect the safety of residents, not a response 90 days later. Further, when the critical conditions were found not to have been resolved at well after 90 days, ICE still took no action to evacuate residents from the danger until the following month.” According to Stern, those who were not removed from the facility continued to face threats to their health.
In the reports, officials also noted that files were “missing documentation” and medical requests were not responded to in a timely manner. An immigrant formerly detained in the facility told BuzzFeed News that detainees often wrote to immigration advocates and organizations nationwide pleading for help. Congressional aides have reviewed the reports and are aware of the issue, Reuters reported. According to Reuters, the reports surfaced at a time when Democrats in Congress accused “ICE of not living up to the agency’s own standards for caring for detained transgender immigrants.”
ICE continues to deny the inadequate medical care it provides immigrants. According to ICE spokesperson April Grant, the agency “is committed to ensuring that those in our custody reside in secure, humane environments and under appropriate conditions of confinement. The agency takes very seriously the health, safety, and welfare of those in our care, including those who come into ICE custody with prior medical conditions or who have never before received appropriate medical care,” she said in a statement to BuzzFeed News. While the agency insists it cares about those detained in its facilities, its history of neglecting the medical care of immigrants—including minor children—in its custody, in addition to the violence it perpetuates against immigrants, shows otherwise.