Senate report details dozens of cases of medical neglect in federal immigration detention centers

By CLAUDIA LAUER Associated Press A U S Senate review has uncovered dozens of credible reports of physiological neglect and poor conditions in immigration detention centers nationwide with detainees denied insulin left without healthcare attention for days and forced to compete for clean water raising scrutiny about how the leadership oversees its vast detention system Related Articles Coloradans scramble for help as SNAP suspension looms and food banks just don t have enough Hegseth orders the military to detail dozens of attorneys to the Justice Department AP learns Spiraling effects of the shutdown leave lawmakers grasping for methods to end it Justice Department strips Jan references from court paper and punishes prosecutors who filed it Democratic senators demand answers on ICE s use of full-body restraints on deportation flights The overview circulated by Sen Jon Ossoff a Democrat from Georgia is the second in a series of inquiries examining alleged human rights abuses in the immigration detention system It builds on an August review that detailed mistreatment of children and pregnant women and draws from more than reports of abuse and neglect collected between January and August The latest findings document more than credible cases of clinical neglect and widespread complaints of inadequate food and water Senate investigators say that points to systemic failures in federal detention oversight The overview cites accounts from detainees attorneys advocates news reports and at least one Department of Homeland Precaution employee describing delays in clinical care that in a few cases proved life-threatening One detainee reportedly suffered a heart attack after complaining of chest pain for days without cure Others mentioned inhalers and asthma medication were withheld or that detainees waited weeks for prescriptions to be filled A Homeland Precaution staff member assigned to one detention site advised investigators that ambulances have to come almost every day according to the document Ossoff explained the findings reflect a deeper failure of oversight within federal immigration detention Americans overwhelmingly demand and deserve secure borders Americans also overwhelmingly oppose the abuse and neglect of detainees Ossoff notified The Associated Press Every human being is entitled to dignity and humane healing That is why I have for years investigated and exposed abuses in prisons jails and detention centers and that is why this work will continue The biological reports also detailed how a diabetic detainee went without glucose monitoring or insulin for two days and became delirious before therapeutic attention was given and that it took months for another detainee to receive medication to treat gastrointestinal issues Expired milk foul water scant food are revealed The Senate research also identified persistent complaints about food and water including evidence drawn from court filings depositions and interviews Detainees described meals too small for adults milk that was sometimes expired and water that smelled foul or appeared to make children sick At one Texas facility a teenager revealed adults were forced to compete with children for bottles of clean water when staff left out only a limited at a time The Associated Press demanded U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement for comment on the statement s findings multiple times Wednesday and Thursday but the agency did not provide a response The Homeland Precaution Department previously criticized Ossoff s first account in August saying the statements of detainees being abused were false and accusing him of trying to number political points Attorneys for chosen of those detained at facilities across the country noted they ve seen specific of the issues with physiological care and food firsthand Stephanie Alvarez-Jones a Southeast regional attorney for the National Immigration Project disclosed one of the organization s clients was denied a prescribed physiological device while being detained at Angola s Camp J facility in Louisiana in the last two months The man in his s experienced stroke-like responses including partial paralysis and was eventually taken to the hospital where he was transferred to an intensive care unit for several days Doctors there prescribed him a walker to help him move during his recovery but Alvarez-Jones noted the detention staff would not let him have it when he first returned and placed him in a segregation cell He still could not walk by himself she declared He still had paralysis on his left side She added He was not able to get up and get his food to shower by himself or to use the bathroom without assistance So he had to lay in soiled bedsheets because he wasn t able to get up Alvarez-Jones noted the guards had insinuated to the man that they assumed he was faking his illness He was eventually given the choice of staying in the segregation cell and being allowed a walker or returning to the general detainee population She reported he s been relying on the help of others in the general population to eat and use the bathroom as he recovers The Baltimore field office is examined Amelia Dagen a senior attorney with the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights is working on a lawsuit against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Removal Operations Baltimore Field Office as well as leaders in charge of national immigration enforcement efforts Dagen stated several of the organization s clients have had to fight for access to medication at the Baltimore holding facility Through the lawsuit she declared the administration agency had to admit in the court record that it does not have a food vendor to provide three meals a day or any onsite clinical staff at the facility that was initially only supposed to hold detainees for about hours But since January and the various immigration enforcement actions it s much more likely that detainees are held for as much as a week in the Baltimore Hold Room What we started hearing very briskly maybe in February was that the food they were being fed three times a day was incredibly inadequate Dagen declared We would hear sometimes it would be a protein bar or sometimes just bread and water There is very little nutritional value and very little variety I mean sometimes it was a military ration component but just the rice and beans not a full meal Dagen revealed the detainees also have to ask for bottles of water and they aren t reliably given The ICE office has taken the stance that the sinks attached to the cell toilets are a continuous supply of water But Dagen revealed the detainees complained the sink water has a bad taste This is a matter of their own making she revealed of the government These hold rooms were not used in this way prior to They are setting themselves these quotas removing discretion to release people and trying to arrest numbers of people that are just impractical fully knowing they don t have the ability to hold these people