Injections in chambers and rotten food: dozens of illegal immigrants have died in detention centers over the past two years

In April, a 54-year-old Mexican immigrant died after spending several days in a solitary confinement cell. In May, an 21-year-old man from India hanged himself in an Arizona immigration prison. 1 Jun. 25-year-old asylum seeker Medina Leon died in a Texas hospital after nearly six weeks in the US Immigration and Customs Service (ICE).

Photo: Twitter / ICE @ICEgov

The death of three ICE detainees since April, along with the release of several internal and control reports documenting the grim conditions in the ICE detention centers, provoked protest from the lawyers. They claim that the administration of President Donald Trump sends a growing number of immigrants to detention centers that are not equipped to care for them.

“What we are seeing is a reckless and unprecedented expansion of a system that is punitive, harmful and costly,” said Katarina Obser, senior policy adviser at the advocacy group Women's Refugee Commission. “The US government is not even doing the bare minimum to ensure [immigrants] get the medical and mental health care they need.”

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During the time of the Trump administration in ICE custody, the immigrant 24 died. This writes NBC News, referring to the analysis of federal data. At least four others, including Medina León, died shortly after being released from ICE centers. The number of deaths during this period remains below the peak of the deaths of illegal immigrants, which fell on the 2004 year, then 32 people died in ICE centers for the year.

At the same time, NBC News does not include immigrants, including five children who died in custody in detention centers run by other federal agencies.

The recent spate of deaths comes at a time when the number of immigrants in federal custody has reached record levels. As of early June, ICE was holding an average of more than 52 immigrants per day in a vast network of more than 500 detention centers across the country — up from 200 under the Obama administration.

Deaths in custody at ICE remain “extremely rare,” an ICE spokeswoman said. The agency said it was spending more than 269 millions of dollars in providing “comprehensive care” to each of 300 000 – 500 000 individuals who come under his care each year and analyzes the circumstances of all deaths that occurred in ICE custody.

Photo: Twitter / ICE @ICEgov

ICE "takes the health, safety and welfare of those in our custody very seriously, including those who come into ICE custody with pre-existing medical conditions or have never previously received appropriate medical care," ICE spokeswoman Danielle Bennett said.

“Any death that occurs while in ICE custody is concerning,” she added.

ICE immigrants are civilian prisoners, not criminals, and their detention is not intended to be punished. The Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed this fact in a report published this week in which they found “flagrant violations” in two detention centers that he checked. Among them: injections in the cells for prisoners, inadequate medical care, rotten food and other factors that threaten the health of detainees.

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According to interviews and internal documents, DHS and ICE employees express concerns about omissions in medical supervision and neglect, which exposes immigrants to the risk of injury or death.

Last month, a NBC News investigation revealed that during the Obama and Trump administrations, the ICE regularly placed immigrant prisoners suffering from mental illness or medical problems in solitary confinement. Ellen Gallagher, a DHS policy adviser, described it as “widespread human abuse”.

In December, the ICE supervisor found that staff ignored repeated warnings about a schizophrenic who later committed suicide in solitary confinement. In addition, prisoners with substance abuse disorders were subjected to improper detoxification.

Фото: Depositphotos

Neglect while in custody is not limited to one institution or one company, says Morin Bellushio, a senior lawyer in New York State.

Carlos Bonilla, the father of four children, told the medical staff about his liver cirrhosis when he arrived at the Hudson County Correctional Center in April 2017 of the year, according to a lawsuit filed in late May. The local prison, which for many years had entered into an agreement with ICE for the placement of detainees, was the object of several revelations about her medical care.

He had a cough, abdominal pain, rash, fever, dizziness and nosebleeds - all symptoms of complications from cirrhosis. Bonilla, according to the lawsuit, repeatedly “begged for medical attention.”

8 June 2017, the year Bonill was supposed to be at his hearing. But instead, he was urgently sent to the emergency room, where he died two days later from "internal bleeding and hemorrhagic shock."

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The representative of the Hudson County Correctional Center declined to comment because of the ongoing trial.

Almost a year ago, the NBC News publication filed a request for public information on the results of the investigations into the death of 12 illegal immigrants, including Bonilla. ICE has not yet published reports of these investigations, which are public information.

These records, along with the autopsies, can shed light on what can happen in the often non-transparent detention system. As the last three deaths have shown, the public does not always receive reliable information.

When 54-year-old Abel Reyes-Clemente died in a cell in Arizona in early April, the ICE press release pointed out complications from the flu. But a Pinal County medical expert found that he died of complications from cirrhosis, diabetes, and heart disease, and also noted that he had a positive result for bacterial pneumonia.

When Simratpal Singh, 21-year-old died a month later, ICE said in a press release that he had been found with no signs of life in the cell. A medical examiner in Maricopa County, Arizona found that he died from hanging.

The cause of the death of Medina Leon, an asylum seeker who passed away on June 1, remains unclear.

Like Roxana Hernandez, a transgender woman who died in a detention center last summer, Medina Leone was diagnosed with HIV when she was detained.

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