A U.S. Senate investigation has revealed numerous credible reports of medical neglect and poor conditions in immigration detention centers across the country, with detainees denied insulin, left without medical care for days and forced to compete for clean water, raising scrutiny over how the government oversees its vast detention system.
The report, released by Senator Jon Ossoff, Democrat of Georgia, is the second in a series of investigations into alleged human rights abuses in the immigration detention system. It is based on August. conducted a review detailing the abuse of children and pregnant women, based on more than 500 reports of abuse and neglect collected between January and August.
The latest findings document more than 80 credible cases of medical negligence and widespread complaints of insufficient food and water. Senate investigators say it points to systemic failures in federal detention oversight.
The report cites accounts from detainees, attorneys, advocates, news reports and at least one Department of Homeland Security employee describing delays in medical care that in some cases proved life-threatening. One detainee reportedly suffered a heart attack after complaining of chest pain that went untreated for several days. Others said inhalers and asthma medication were refused, or that detainees waited weeks for prescriptions to be filled.
A Homeland Security officer assigned to one detention site told investigators that “ambulances have to come almost every day,” according to the report.
Ossoff said the findings reflect a deeper failure in federal immigration detention oversight.
“Americans overwhelmingly demand and deserve secure borders. Americans also overwhelmingly oppose detainee abuse and neglect,” Ossoff told the Associated Press. “Every person has the right to be treated with dignity and humanity. That’s why I spent years investigating and exposing abuses in prisons, jails and detention centers, and that work will continue.”
Medical reports also detailed how a diabetic detainee had no glucose or insulin control for two days and became delirious before receiving medical attention, and that it took months for another detainee to receive medication for gastrointestinal problems.
Expired milk, dirty water, little food are reported
The Senate inquiry also found persistent complaints about food and water, including evidence from court documents, depositions and interviews. Detainees described meals that were too small for adults, milk that was sometimes expired, and water that smelled or seemed to make children sick. At one Texas facility, a teenager said adults were forced to compete with children for bottles of clean water when staff left only a few at a time.
The Associated Press made several requests to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday and Thursday for comment on the report’s findings, but the agency did not respond. The Department of Homeland Security previously criticized Ossoff’s first report in August, saying allegations of detainee abuse were false and accusing him of trying to “score political points.”
Lawyers for some of those detained in the country’s facilities said they have seen first-hand some of the problems with medical care and food.
Stephanie Alvarez-Jones, regional attorney for the National Immigration Project, said one of the organization’s clients was denied a designated medical device when he was detained at Camp Angola in J Louisiana for the past two months. The 60-year-old man experienced stroke-like symptoms, including partial paralysis, and was eventually taken to hospital, where he was transferred to the intensive care unit for several days.
Doctors gave him a walker to help him get around during his recovery, but Alvarez-Jones said detention staff wouldn’t let him have one when he first returned and placed him in isolation.
“He still couldn’t walk on his own,” she said. “He still had paralysis on his left side.” She added: “He couldn’t get up and eat, shower or use the bathroom without help. So he had to lie in dirty sheets because he couldn’t get up.”
Alvarez-Jones said the guards told the man they believed he was faking his illness. Finally, he was given the option of staying in the isolation cell and being allowed to walk, or returning to the general group of detainees. She said he relied on other people to help him eat and use the bathroom while he recovered.
Baltimore office examined
Amelia Dagen, senior staff attorney at Amica Immigrant Rights Center, is handling the lawsuit against the Baltimore office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Removal Operations and officials responsible for national immigration enforcement efforts.
Dagen said several of the organization’s clients have had to fight for access to medication at the Baltimore detention facility. In the lawsuit, she said the government agency had to admit in court records that it had no food vendor to provide three meals a day or any medical staff at the facility, which was originally supposed to hold detainees for only about 12 hours.
But since January and various immigration enforcement actions, it’s much more likely that detainees will be held in a Baltimore holding room for as long as a week.
“Very quickly, maybe in February, we started hearing that the food they were being fed three times a day was incredibly inappropriate,” Dagen said. “We’ve heard that sometimes it was a protein bar and sometimes it was just bread and water. Very little nutritional value and very little variety. I mean sometimes it was a component of a military ration, but just rice and beans, not a complete meal.”
Dagen said detainees also have to ask for bottled water and they are not always given. The ICE office has maintained that the sinks attached to the cell toilets provide a constant supply of water. But Dagen said the detainees complained that the sink water tasted bad.
“This is 100% a problem of their own making,” she said of the authorities. “These detention facilities have not been used in this way until 2025. They’re setting these quotas themselves, taking away the discretion to release people, and trying to detain a lot of people that is just impractical … knowing full well that they can’t detain these people.”