The Shocking Way ICE Neglected Immigrant Detainees As They Died
- July 8, 2016
- ESTHER YU-HSI LEE Esther Yu-Hsi Lee
At least 18 people detained in U.S. federal immigration custody received subpar medical care that may have contributed to their deaths, a scathing new Human Rights Watch (HRW) report finds.
The people who have recently died in immigration detention included legal immigrants, undocumented immigrants, and people looking for protection under the country’s refugee law. The report reviews 31 cases of death after some of those details were released in June by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Detention Oversight (ODO).
HRW researchers hired two independent medical experts to consult death reviews from mid-2012 to mid-2015, concluding that at least seven of 18 deaths were likely preventable. Thirteen other deaths weren’t independently reviewed because ICE didn’t release enough information about them, according to the HRW report.