In a change that could obscure the full human cost of the Trump administration’s mass detention policies,
🔥Immigration and Customs Enforcement will no longer report deaths of detainees who have recently been released from its custody
The move rescinds a 2021 policy implemented by the Biden administration that required ICE to report to Congress and investigate deaths of detainees that occur within 30 days of their release.
The goal of the 2021 policy was to ensure that ICE could not avoid accountability for deaths by releasing severely ill people from custody.
🆘 Detainees who were brain-dead or suffering from infection, for instance, have died shortly after ICE released them in the past.
Two health experts who have investigated ICE custody deaths criticized the change Friday.
“Tracking deaths immediately after custody is a standard approach that allows health systems in jails, prisons and immigration detention to learn about gaps in care that may occur before a person leaves a facility,”
said Dr. Homer Venters, former chief medical officer of the New York City jail system.
⚠️“Eliminating reporting of these deaths represents a willful act of ignoring the most serious health outcome that can reflect inadequacies in care or help track outbreaks.”
💥ICE detainees also routinely die at hospitals where they are taken for treatment after their conditions deteriorate inside detention facilities, records show.
Those detainees, however, have generally been considered to remain in ICE custody.
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