Nearly 100 immigration advocacy groups want the Biden administration to release vulnerable migrants being held in detention centers across the United States, saying current policies have had deadly consequences.
In a letter first seen by Newsweek, 94 groups asked President Joe Biden and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to stop holding those with serious illnesses or disabilities, LGBTQ+ people and those at risk of persecution or torture.
While Biden promised to end for-profit immigration detention in 2020, the capacity within such facilities has expanded by 150 percent over his term. Between Oct. 1, 2023, and Sept. 30, 2024, ICE detained 62,890 people, while Customs and Border Protection (CBP) held at least 87,000.
“One of the one of the main issues is transparency,” Sarah Decker, a staff attorney at RFK Human Rights, told Newsweek. “So we don’t actually have ICE detention data on who exactly would fit into this definition.
“We know that there are a number of individuals in ICE detention that we have interacted with over the years that have disabilities and serious medical conditions that remain undetected by ICE. Similarly, the reporting on the number of LGBTQ+ individuals, especially trans individuals, is inaccurate because many people are fearful of reporting their queer trans identity or are misidentified by officers.”
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The letter, signed by RFK Human Rights, alongside the Detention Watch Network, National Immigrant Justice Center, and others, highlights the stories of those who have suffered while in immigration detention.
One of those was Jesse Jerome Dean, Jr., a 58-year-old man from the Bahamas, who died in ICE custody after suffering an undiagnosed gastrointestinal hemorrhage. He had lost almost 20 pounds in three weeks and suffered from severe nausea, but medical staff did not refer him to a doctor.
“On the night before his death, Dean collapsed twice, hitting his face on a door,” the letter read. “Although one nurse stated that she checked on him after an initial assessment, ICE’s review of surveillance footage showed that she did not.”
An ambulance was called the following night, but he died on the way to the hospital.
As highlighted by Newsweek in June, migrants from the LGBTQ+ community face increased levels of sexual and verbal abuse in detention. Half of those spoken to by the groups behind the letter said they had been put into solitary confinement.
Newsweek has reported on multiple claims of abuse within ICE and CBP facilities in recent months. Hundreds of officers have been investigated for alleged misconduct, while migrants have made claims of sexual assault at facilities along the southwest border.
In early October, Democrats called for ICE to cut ties with the companies running detention centers in California, citing “disturbing” claims of abuse.
Decker said that the for-profit model of immigrant incarceration was to blame for the increase in detentions and the abuse being suffered by those within the facilities.
“The for-profit motive creates this really perverse incentive where the private companies that are operating these facilities are incentivized to abuse people,” she said.
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“So, for example, not providing sufficient clothing, not providing sufficient food and water, denying people access to even the most basic forms of medical care, and that creates this inherently inhumane system that is particularly dangerous for people who have these vulnerabilities in detention,” Decker added.
The attorney said that people were being killed by this system, and that the president needed to issue a directive to create a system that presumes release of individuals, pending thorough screening, before they are held in custody.
Newsweek reached out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for comment via email Monday afternoon.
