Senate report details dozens of cases of medical neglect in federal immigration detention centers

A U.S. Senate investigation has uncovered dozens of credible reports of medical neglect and poor conditions in immigration detention centers across the country — where detainees are denied insulin, left without medical care for days and forced to compete for clean water — raising scrutiny of how the government oversees the massive detention system.

The report released by Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Democrat from Georgia, is the second in a series of investigations examining alleged human rights violations in the immigration detention system. It builds on an August review that detailed abuse of children and pregnant women, and draws from more than 500 reports of abuse and neglect collected between January and August.

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The latest findings document more than 80 credible cases of medical neglect and widespread complaints of insufficient food and water. Senate investigators say that points to systemic failures in oversight of federal detention.

The report cites testimony from detainees, lawyers, human rights defenders, news reports, and at least one Department of Homeland Security employee, who describe delays in medical care that have proven, in some cases, to be life-threatening. One detainee reportedly suffered a heart attack after complaining of chest pain for several days without treatment. Others said inhalers and asthma medications were withheld, or that detainees waited weeks for prescriptions to be filled.

A Department of Homeland Security employee assigned to one detention site told investigators that “ambulances have to come almost every day,” according to the report.

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Ossoff said the findings reflect a deeper failure in oversight within federal immigration detention centers.

“Americans overwhelmingly demand and deserve secure borders,” Ossoff told The Associated Press. “Americans also overwhelmingly oppose abuse and neglect of detainees.” “Every human being has the right to dignity and humane treatment. That is why for years I have investigated and exposed abuses in prisons, jails and detention centres, and that is why this work will continue.”

Medical reports also detailed how one diabetic detainee went without glucose or insulin monitoring for two days, became delirious before medical care could be provided, and how it took months for another detainee to receive medication for gastrointestinal problems.

Expired milk, spoiled water and little food were reported

The Senate investigation also identified persistent complaints about food and water, including evidence from court filings, depositions and interviews. Detainees described meals that were too small for adults, milk that was sometimes expired, and water that smelled bad or seemed to make children sick. At one Texas facility, one teen said adults were forced to compete with children for clean water bottles when staff left only a few at a time.

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The Associated Press asked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for comment on the report’s findings several times on Wednesday and Thursday, but the agency did not provide a response. The Department of Homeland Security previously criticized Ossoff’s first report in August, saying allegations of detainee abuse were false and accusing him of trying to “score political points.”

Lawyers for some detainees in facilities across the country said they have seen some of the problems with medical care and food firsthand.

One of the organization’s clients was denied a prescribed medical device while detained at the Camp G Angolan facility in Louisiana in the past two months, said Stephanie Alvarez Jones, Southeast Regional Attorney for the National Immigration Project. The man, who is in his 60s, suffered stroke-like symptoms, including partial paralysis, and was eventually taken to hospital, where he was transferred to the intensive care unit for several days.

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Doctors there prescribed a walker to help him move while he recovered, but Alvarez-Jones said detention staff wouldn’t let him have one when he first returned and put him in an isolation cell.

“He still can’t walk on his own,” she said. “He was still paralyzed on his left side.” She added: “He was not able to get up and get his food or shower on his own or use the bathroom without assistance. So he had to lie on the dirty bedsheets because he was unable to get up.”

Alvarez-Jones said the guards hinted to the man that they thought he was faking his illness. Ultimately, he was given the choice of remaining in an isolation cell and being allowed to walk, or returning to the general detainee population. She said he was relying on the help of others from the general population to eat and use the bathroom while he recovered.

The Baltimore field office is being examined

Amelia Dagen, a senior staff attorney at the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, is working to file a lawsuit against the ICE’s Baltimore Field Office of Removals as well as officials responsible for national immigration enforcement efforts.

Dagen said many of the organization’s clients had to struggle to obtain medication at the Baltimore detention facility. Through the lawsuit, she said, the state agency had to admit in the court record that it did not have a food vendor serving three meals a day or any medical staff on site at the facility that was initially only supposed to hold detainees for 12 hours.

But since January and various immigration enforcement actions, detainees will likely be held for up to a week in a Baltimore detention room.

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“What we started hearing very quickly, probably in February, is that the food they were being fed three times a day was incredibly inadequate,” Dagen said. “We’d hear sometimes it might be a protein bar or sometimes just bread and water. There’s very little nutritional value and very little variety. I mean, sometimes it was a military food ingredient, but just rice and beans, not a full meal.”

Detainees also have to ask for bottled water, which is not always given to them, Dagen said. ICE has taken the position that sinks attached to cell toilets are a continuous source of water. But Dagen said detainees complained that the tank water tasted bad.

“This is a problem 100% of their own making,” she said of the authorities. “These detention rooms were not used in this way before 2025. They are setting themselves these quotas, removing the discretion to release people and trying to detain numbers of people that are not practical… knowing full well that they do not have the capacity to detain these people.”