This report is a collaboration between The Associated Press and KFF Health News.
An Albanian man said the pain became so unbearable that he pulled out one of his own teeth while languishing for months in an immigration detention center in New Mexico. A Honduran mother of two recounted being hospitalized with a heart problem after being denied blood pressure medication while detained in Florida. A Venezuelan man reported that his leg turned purple and swollen from a flesh-eating bacteria because staff at a facility in Vermont failed to take him to a scheduled medical appointment.
Hundreds of detainees in at least 33 U.S. states are alleging in federal lawsuits that immigration detention centers are failing to provide adequate medical care, according to an investigation by KFF Health News, a national newsroom specializing in health issues, and The Associated Press. The detainees say they do not receive their medications on time—or not at all—to treat conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, and HIV. Their requests for help went unanswered for weeks. Blood sugar levels spiked. Infections worsened. The cancers remained untreatedThe detainees suffered collapses and seizures.
For a long time, jails and immigration detention centers in the United States have struggled to meet the medical needs of those in their custody. But the system is reeling from the surge in detentions since President Donald Trump returned to office. By mid-January, more than 75,000 immigrants were being held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), compared to the approximately 40,000 from the previous year.
KFF Health News and the AP analyzed thousands of court cases, filed since Trump's second inauguration, that use a legal avenue known as habeas corpus to argue that ICE is illegally detaining people. The records offer a unique perspective on how detainees report—often under penalty of perjury—how ICE is addressing their medical needs. The journalists also interviewed more than 50 detainees, family members, and lawyers.
The investigation revealed allegations of medical negligence throughout the extensive detention system, including in offices not designed to house people, county jails, and makeshift centers with nicknames like "Alcatraz of the Alligators" in Florida.
ICE detention is more lethal now than it was in the past two decades, researchers wrote in April in the scientific journal The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported that 51 people had died in custody since the start of Trump's second term, and that Suicides skyrocketed to an unprecedented number.
KFF Health News and the Associated Press requested a response from the Department of Homeland Security regarding the findings six days before their publication, but the department did not comment. The department’s acting chief medical officer, Sean Conley, has previously stated that “it is long-standing policy and practice for aliens to receive timely and appropriate medical care from the moment they enter ICE custody,” and that the agency hires health care professionals to maintain high standards. “This is better and more effective medical care than many aliens have received in their entire lives,” he said.
Individual facilities and private prison companies contracted by DHS that responded to requests for comment for this story indicated that they adhere to ICE standards and that detainees receive adequate medical care when needed. Some said they were unaware of the allegations described in the court documents; others blamed some detainees for deficiencies in their medical care.
“I have never seen such contempt and medical neglect anywhere,” wrote Vardan Gukasian, a political dissident and former paramedic who spent years in prison in Armenia, in a March court filing challenging his detention in Nevada, which had already lasted 13 months despite his poor health.
Madeleine Skains, a spokeswoman for the city of Henderson, said that medical care is always available at their facility, and that the court had not ordered any changes to his care.
Last June, while Gukasian was experiencing the symptoms of uncontrolled high blood pressure — dizziness, nosebleeds and headaches — his cellmate knocked on the door for help.
“When he didn’t arrive, the rest of the ward banged on the doors,” he wrote. Gukasian was hospitalized that same day.
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“Blatant indifference to very obvious problems”
In its mass deportation campaign, the government has detained hundreds of thousands of people during routine immigration checks, at traffic stops, in their homes, and in hospitals.
Approximately 70% of those detained have no criminal record. Their immigration processes are civil, not criminal.
“I couldn’t understand why they were treating me so harshly,” emphasized a father of six in Georgia. He recounted how he was injured while handcuffed when the vehicle transporting him to a facility in Atlanta lurched, throwing him from his seat and causing him to hit a metal armrest. His wound became infected with E. coli because he had to sleep on a dirty cement floor among leaky toilets, he said.
Like other interviewees, they spoke on condition of anonymity. They said they feared for their safety and that of their families, or that speaking publicly would jeopardize their immigration cases. The AP and KFF Health News do not reveal the identity of anyone identified in court documents without their consent.
Staff at the Stewart Detention Center, in a rural area near the town of Lumpkin, Georgia, did not respond adequately to this man's request for medical assistance, according to court records, until he lost consciousness and was transported to a hospital about an hour away. There, he said, a doctor informed him that if they had waited any longer, his left leg would have had to be amputated. Medical staff had no record of any case matching this description, said Brian Todd, a spokesman for CoreCivic, the company that operates the facility.
The 48-year-old man, who emigrated to the United States from Guatemala more than two decades ago, was released in October and is now a legal permanent resident. However, he is unsure whether he can return to his job in the construction industry, as he explained that his injury prevents him from lifting heavy objects.
Some detainees or their lawyers reported that they were even denied basic care: gauze to protect an open wound on the foot, prenatal care for a high-risk pregnancy, a pillow to relieve pain while sleeping with advanced stomach cancer, and sanitary pads for postpartum bleeding.
In its mass deportation campaign, the government has detained hundreds of thousands of people during routine immigration checks, at traffic stops, in their homes, and in hospitals.
Approximately 70% of those detained have no criminal record. Their immigration processes are civil, not criminal.
“I would like to believe that the government is looking out for the well-being of those it holds in custody for any length of time,” said Benita Pearson, a federal judge in Ohio, during an October hearing for a 70-year-old woman who claimed the government lost her glasses during her arrest. “If a person is unable to see because their glasses were lost during detention, that should be remedied.”
Dora Schriro, who worked for ICE and is now a special advisor to the American Bar Association, said that case law requires the government to treat people detained for immigration reasons with the same care it provides to those in traditional jails awaiting trial. But administrators are given discretionary power, and standards of medical care vary.
Detainees are frequently transferred across the country, often without prior notice, disrupting their treatment. A woman from El Salvador reported that she stopped taking her HIV medication for a week after being transferred from Colorado to a county jail in Wyoming.
A Russian man wrote that, while detained in Texas, he consulted a gastroenterologist about his painful gallstones and scheduled an appointment with a surgeon.
“Unfortunately, I was never able to see him because I was transferred between several detention centers,” he said.
Advocates say that even obvious disabilities, such as legal blindness, are ignored.
A detainee who lost one eye and suffered from severe glaucoma in the other needed eye drops twice a day to maintain his remaining vision. However, he reported that some days the drops never arrived.
“Now I can only see a little bit straight ahead. It often feels like I’m looking through gauze,” the man wrote in a court statement. “I’m terrified that one day I’ll open my eyes and not be able to see anything at all.”
She wrote that she is afraid she will not be able to see her son grow up.
“It’s a kind of blatant disregard for very obvious problems, things that a decade ago you would have thought were absurd, like the fact that you can’t see,” said Brian Hoffman, the man’s lawyer. “Before, you could try to work with people in government and maybe embarrass them enough to do the right thing. Now, it seems like to get anything done, you have to go to court and sue.”
Even court orders aren't enough in every case. A California judge ordered the government to take a man with prostate cancer symptoms to a specialist for diagnosis and treatment. Records show they didn't.
Lawyers representing ICE told the judge that the officials failed to appear due to an “internal scheduling error.” CoreCivic, the company that manages the facility, stated that it could not comment on ongoing litigation.
An increase in cases
When immigrants file habeas corpus petitions, they are exercising a right to challenge unlawful imprisonment, a right that dates back to the Middle Ages.
More than 40,000 such requests have been filed during Trump's second term, spurred by decisions last year to deny bail to many people detained on immigration charges. Judges are divided on the legality of this measure, and the issue appears headed to the Supreme Court.
Many habeas corpus petitions have been successful, but judges often cite reasons unrelated to the medical negligence described in the petitions, such as having been detained for too long before being deported.
The more than 300 medical malpractice lawsuits found in this investigation represent only a fraction of the problem. Details of habeas corpus cases are often hidden due to a federal law that prohibits the public from accessing such documents online. KFF Health News and the Associated Press obtained some documents directly and received records of 4,400 cases from Habeas Dockets, a project implemented by the nonprofit Immigration Justice Transparency Initiative. However, tens of thousands more remain largely inaccessible.
Some judges have written that habeas corpus is not the appropriate avenue for bringing allegations of medical negligence, and have refused to release detainees based on such allegations. Not all detainees who believe they have suffered medical negligence file a habeas corpus petition, nor do they cite their medical problems if they do.
José Antonio Segismundo's petition failed to mention that he was unable to consult an oncologist for the abdominal cancer he suffered while detained for more than seven months at the so-called "Alcatraz of the Alligators" in Florida and at the ICE Folkston D. Ray Processing Center in Georgia. Medical records in his court documents show that he was arrested approximately five weeks before his scheduled appointment with a cancer specialist.
His wife, María José González, said he received no treatment despite her sending his medical records and explaining his health problem to Folkston officials. She added that when he suffered severe stomach pains, often sudden and intense, he was given Tylenol.
GEO Group, the company that manages Folkston, meets ICE standards and provides medical care and access to outside medical specialists when needed, said spokesman Christopher Ferreira.
This spring, Segismundo, 48, was deported to Mexico, the country he left nearly 30 years ago, according to Gonzalez. Now, he added, he will have to seek medical care in the Oaxacan village where he grew up.
Watching loved ones deteriorate
Detainees who receive inadequate medical care have few options. Last year, DHS dismantled the Office of Detained Immigrant Advocacy (OIDO). In early May, it closed the office entirely, citing a lack of congressional funding.
Previously, the advocate's staff could facilitate medical care or investigate claims of negligence, according to Matt Boles, an immigration attorney in Georgia. Now, he said, there is no one to call.
Meanwhile, the families of the detainees say they feel powerless and are making desperate calls to the facilities, the government, and their legislators, as they watch the health of their loved ones deteriorate.
Riya Khan watched her mother deteriorate at the California City Detention Center, owned by CoreCivic, one of the largest private prison companies in the country. When she visited her a week after she arrived at the facility, located in the Mojave Desert, Riya recounted that the 64-year-old woman staggered when she sat down. She was trembling and breathing with difficulty.
Masuma Khan arrived in the United States from Bangladesh in 1997. According to records, she has no criminal record and was detained in October when she showed up for her routine ICE check-in appointment.
During the month she was detained, according to her daughter, she only received her medications intermittently for various conditions, including hypertension, hypothyroidism, and prediabetes.
CoreCivic treats chronic diseases in accordance with applicable medical standards, Todd noted.
“For CoreCivic, nothing is more important than the health, safety, and well-being of the people in our care,” he added.
Khan said he received his asthma medication for the first time two days before his release, and his glaucoma eye drops never arrived. Staff told him he should buy some of his medication at the prison store, but they didn't have it there.
Before ICE detained Masuma Khan, she made friends with everyone, her daughter said. She worked for years at Lucky Boy, an iconic Pasadena fast-food restaurant, and in her free time she fed the birds and left fruit for the bees that visited her apartment balcony.
Now she's terrified to go out. She still has to report to ICE regularly, and that terrifies her every time she goes.
A stroke during a video call
Previously, detainees with serious medical needs would likely have been released under humanitarian parole, in part to avoid the cost of their medical care, noted Andrew Pelcher, Vermont attorney.
In fiscal year 2023—before the detention population surged—ICE spent more than $390 million on health care for detained aliens, according to its most recent annual report to Congress. At a conference in May, then-acting director Todd Lyons stated that ICE had spent “nearly $500 million” on health care for detainees this year.
Now, under “mandatory detention,” lawyers say people are being held captive with serious and costly medical problems.
A Romanian man underwent several heart surgeries, including an emergency triple coronary artery bypass in April 2025, before being arrested in July. As part of his recovery, the 52-year-old was required to take 16 medications daily. While in an ICE office in Baltimore, according to court documents, he went two days without his drugs before authorities transferred him to a facility in New Jersey.
He was hospitalized three times while detained after complaining of chest pains, in part because—according to medical records and court documents—despite “countless requests,” the detention center failed to provide him with all of his medications. Hospital discharge papers cited by his lawyer show that he received only eight of the 16 medications after his second discharge from the hospital.
In fiscal year 2023—before the detention population surged—ICE spent more than $390 million on health care for detained aliens, according to its most recent annual report to Congress. At a conference in May, then-acting director Todd Lyons stated that ICE had spent “nearly $500 million” on health care for detainees this year.
“Could you speak with the ICE detention center to ensure he receives his medication?” his treatment providers wrote in medical records included in court documents. “He was admitted last week for chest pain, and was readmitted today for chest pain due to noncompliance with his medication regimen.”
Several weeks later, in August, he suffered a stroke while on a video call with his daughter, according to court documents. “He was having trouble breathing, pointing to his chest, where he felt pain again, and suddenly stopped speaking.” His daughter cried for help through the monitor, according to his complaint. “Eventually, an officer came in to help him and cut the connection.”
The man lost the ability to speak for four days, the document says. He was returned to detention, where he remained until a federal judge ordered his release in November.
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Families of those detained by ICE face impossible decisions
Cassandra Amador waits every morning for the phone to ring, desperate to ask her husband the question that has woken her up every night for months: "Did you receive your medicine?"
Her husband, Pedro Javier Amador Gutiérrez, 36, suffers from hypertension and depends on the Florida state center, nicknamed the “Deportation Depot,” to receive the medications that have kept him alive for years. Many mornings he tells his wife that they didn't give them to him.
When she talks to him, she says, he sounds weaker and more frightened every day, very different from the cheerful man who used to take his children for ice cream.
“You can tell from her voice how she feels,” she said.
Now, she added, he is considering returning to Cuba, from where he fled due to political persecution, for fear of dying in detention without his medication. Amador and their children would go with him, she said, even though she was born in New Jersey, has never been to the Caribbean island, and doesn't speak much Spanish.
But he has already fainted twice at the Baker Correctional Institution in Sanderson, Florida, his wife said. And she is terrified that he won't wake up next time.
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