From festering infections to untreated cancer, ICE detainees across the US describe medical neglect

A person, who was detained at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Ga., and did not wish to be identified, poses for a portrait, April 22, 2026, in Flowery Branch, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)2026-06-02T13:02:09Z An Albanian man’s pain grew so unbearable, he said, he pulled out his own tooth as he languished for months in a New Mexico immigration detention center. A Honduran mother of two said she was hospitalized for a heart problem after she was denied blood pressure medications while held in Florida. A Venezuelan man said his leg grew purple and swollen from flesh-eating bacteria when staffers at a Vermont facility did not bring him to a scheduled doctor’s appointment.Hundreds of detainees across at least 33 states allege in federal lawsuits that immigration detention facilities are failing to provide adequate medical care, an investigation by KFF Health News and The Associated Press found. Detainees say they didn’t get medications on time — or at all — for conditions including high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, epilepsy, Parkinson’s and HIV. Requests for help went unanswered for weeks. Blood sugars rose. Infections festered. Cancers remained untreated. Detainees collapsed and had seizures. U.S. jails and immigration detention centers have long struggled to meet the medical needs of the people in their charge. But the system is sagging under an influx of detentions since President Donald Trump returned to office: More than 75,000 immigrants were being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as of mid-January, up from around 40,000 a year earlier. KFF Health News and AP analyzed thousands of court cases filed since Trump’s second inauguration that use a legal route known as habeas corpus to argue people are being held illegally by ICE. The records offer a rare window into how those detained say — often under penalty of perjury — ICE is handling their medical needs. Reporters also interviewed more than 50 detainees, family members and lawyers. Read More The investigation revealed that medical neglect is alleged across the sprawling detention system, including in offices not designed to house people, county jails and quickly staged sites with nicknames such as “Alligator Alcatraz.” ICE custody is deadlier than it has been in two decades, researchers wrote in JAMA in April. The Department of Homeland Security reported 51 people had died in detention since the start of Trump’s second administration, with suicides spiking to an unprecedented number. KFF Health News and AP asked DHS to respond to the findings six days before publication but it did not provide comment. The department’s acting chief medical officer, Sean Conley, previously said “it is both policy and longstanding practice for aliens to receive timely and appropriate medical care from the moment they enter ICE custody” and that DHS recruits healthcare professionals to maintain high standards. “This is better, more responsive healthcare than many aliens have ever received in their entire lives,” he said.Individual facilities and private prison companies contracting with DHS that responded to requests for comment said they follow ICE standards and that detainees receive medical care when it is required. Some said they were unfamiliar with the allegations outlined in court documents; others blamed the detainees themselves for lapses in their medical care. “I have never seen such disregard or medical neglect like this anywhere,” Vardan Gukasian, a political dissident and former paramedic who spent years behind bars in Armenia, wrote in a court declaration in March to contest his detention in Henderson, Nevada, as it stretched to 13 months despite his health problems. Have a news tip?Contact AP’s global investigative team at [email protected]. For secure and confidential communications, use the free Signal app +1 (202) 281-8604. Madeleine Skains, a spokesperson for the city of Henderson, said medical care is always available at the facility and that the court had not ordered changes to his care.Last June, as Gukasian experienced the symptoms of uncontrolled high blood pressure — dizziness, a nosebleed and a headache — his cellmate banged on their door for help. “When it did not arrive, the rest of the block banged on their doors,” he wrote. Gukasian was hospitalized that day. ‘Brazen indifference to really obvious problems’ A person, who was detained at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Ga., and did not wish to be identified, poses for a portrait, April 22, 2026, in Flowery Branch, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson) A person, who was detained at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Ga., and did not wish to be identified, poses for a portrait, April 22, 2026, in Flowery Branch, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson) –> Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. –> Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard P

A person, who was detained at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Ga., and did not wish to be identified, poses for a portrait, April 22, 2026, in Flowery Branch, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)2026-06-02T13:02:09Z An Albanian man’s pain grew so unbearable, he said, he pulled out his own tooth as he languished for months in…

A person, who was detained at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Ga., and did not wish to be identified, poses for a portrait, April 22, 2026, in Flowery Branch, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)2026-06-02T13:02:09Z An Albanian man’s pain grew so unbearable, he said, he pulled out his own tooth as he languished for months in a New Mexico immigration detention center. A Honduran mother of two said she was hospitalized for a heart problem after she was denied blood pressure medications while held in Florida.…