“There must be oversight and accountability for a department that is mercilessly killing immigrants in its own facilities and actively blocking medical care”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have once again proven that inside the walls of detention centers, their capacity for cruelty and inhumanity knows no bounds.
BuzzFeed recently obtained a Department of Homeland Security memo citing ICE negligence in its jails that have resulted in “two-preventable surgeries, including an 8-year-old boy who had to have part of his forehead removed, and contributed to four deaths” – all of which officials could have avoided if they had given migrants needed – and already funded – medical attention, rather than letting them suffer in their cells before it was too late.
Even after immigrants in detention have died from the flu and amidst protests from doctors and advocates seeking to vaccinate migrants, ICE has reverted back to its old ways by covering up footage highlighting its inhumane and intentional disregard for human beings in their care.
Pili Tobar, Deputy Director for America’s Voice, said,
We cannot overstate our outrage or our demands for concrete and systematic changes into ICE’s detention authority. There must be oversight and accountability for a department that is mercilessly killing immigrants in its own facilities and actively blocking medical care. Trump and ICE officials silently watch as chaos, cruelty and inhumane indifference ensues. Rather than use the resources already allocated for medical care, they instead cover up, deflect and turn a blind eye to migrants seeking medical help. ICE and CBP officials are the incompetent individuals who are grossly neglecting proper medical care, but we know this climate of dehumanizing cruelty comes from the man at the top in the Oval Office. We owe it to the American people and the families of the deceased to stop the ongoing abuse, neglect, and death of immigrants and asylum-seekers in U.S. custody. The Department of Justice must commence civil and criminal investigations of all the deaths in ICE detention and bring those responsible to justice.
