We are seeing an alarming increase in the number of clients who have severe medical issues or chronic illnesses and who are experiencing potentially life-threatening medical neglect in ICE custody. This at least partially because, more than ever, ICE is choosing to detain everyone, regardless of their medical history, regardless of whether they can obtain the medical care they need in ICE custody, and regardless of how unsafe detention conditions would be for them.
These are the experiences of some of the people we have met recently in ICE detention in Arizona:
- At least three detained pregnant women since the beginning of the year, including women who were in their third trimester. None of the women we have worked with reported receiving appropriate pre-natal care.
- A woman with a severe mental illness who began experiencing seizure-like convulsions after she was detained, which both a Florence Project attorney and social worker have witnessed firsthand. At first, guards assigned her to a top bunk, creating a serious risk of injury in a fall. Despite her ongoing convulsions, ICE has not sent her to the hospital, despite the attorney’s multiple requests.
- A person with stage 3 chronic kidney disease, glaucoma, and hypertension who has been sent to the hospital multiple times yet remains detained.
- A young man with leukemia, anemia, diabetes, elevated liver function, and acute renal failure, who is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment that requires him to be at the hospital for multiple weeks at a time. While he is in the hospital receiving treatment, his foot is cuffed to his hospital bed. His immune system is so depleted that while in the facility he stays in medical isolation. Any infection could be fatal, and it is extremely dangerous for him to be in a detention facility.
- A man who started having severe nose bleeds during his detention. While coming back from the hospital one night, his nose began bleeding in the transport van. His arms and legs were shackled and attached to a chain at his waist so he could not try to stop the bleeding. He begged the transport guards to help him, but they would not turn around. When they finally turned to look at him, his face and clothes were covered in blood. He was extremely traumatized and was scared he was going to die because it was so much blood.
- A man who has been experiencing electric like-shocks on the side of his head and down his body, as well as neck pain, and impaired vision on that side. He said that when he reported these issues to medical, they told him to eat more salt and drink more water. He also has a painful cyst on his lower back that is not being addressed.
- A man who is legally blind and has Marfan’s Syndrome – a genetic disorder that affects the connective tissue that anchors organs and other bodily structures such as the heart, eyes, blood vessels, and skeleton – who had to wait months for surgery to correct an aortic aneurysm, which would have been fatal if it ruptured. He finally had open-heart surgery to correct the aneurysm and install a pacemaker and stayed in the hospital for almost two weeks while handcuffed to the hospital bed. He was forced to recover from surgery in detention where he was not given a special diet or rehabilitative care. He lost a significant amount of weight because he was too scared to eat the food in detention, which is not heart healthy.
- A man with late-stage cirrhosis, chronic back and knee pain, and various other medical conditions who was referred to multiple specialists while detained, including a gastroenterologist and orthopedist. Medical records indicate that those recommended appointments were eventually cancelled because, “per ICE directive….the only service authorized at this time is emergency care via the ER.” He recently began coughing up blood but has yet to see specialist for his condition or symptoms.
- A woman who spent two months in isolation and three months on medication due to tuberculosis. She has been wheelchair bound for several months now due to a burning sensation and pain on her skin, which began shortly after she began tuberculosis medication and made it too painful for her to walk.
- A woman who was supposed to have surgery to repair a broken ankle before she was detained in early 2025. She believes that her ankle is still broken and she is still in serious pain, but she has not had surgery despite having been transported to the hospital on various occasions. Due to her ankle and neuropathy, which makes using crutches impossible, she is wheelchair bound. She reports that parts of the detention center are not suitable for wheelchair use, including areas of the law library that she needs to access to work on her immigration case. While in custody, she has also experienced lapses in her prescribed pain medication, resulting in excruciating pain.
- A man with spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spaces within the spinal canal which cramps the spinal cord and the nerves leading to back pain and nerve issues, who is in so much pain that he began using a wheelchair during his detention. He has reported leg swelling, numbness in his legs and believes he desperately needs back surgery. He says the medication he is being given is doing nothing to manage his severe pain.
- A man with an enlarged prostate, which has resulted in pain and frequent urination that has gotten worse since his detention. He has not been taken to see a urologist or other specialist despite his multiple requests and the risk of underlying prostate cancer.
We are again sounding the alarm. Our clients tell us that conditions are bad and worsening; many have reported that they fear for their lives in detention. And, increasingly, we hear reports of ICE and detention staff simply ignoring people’s basic needs, like one woman who is in a wheelchair and had a medical emergency in the housing unit, but rather than assist her, the guard simply pushed her into the hallway telling her to get herself to medical if she needed help that badly. Last week, the Guardian reported on the incredibly harmful impacts of the lack of oversight of these facilities.
We are asking you to take action:
- Share this email with your friends and family. Share our social media posts.
- Call your elected officials and urge them to visit ICE detention centers in their state to conduct oversight.
- Call for the immediate release of all medically vulnerable people in ICE detention.
- Get involved in your local community to organize against the expansion of ICE.
- Call for the closure of all detention centers.
Thank you for your support and solidarity.