Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.
To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to upgrade your browser.
2018, Center for Migration Studies Essays
The death of seven year-old Jakelin Amei Rosmery Caal Maquin in December of 2018 while in US Border Patrol custody has led to outrage, frustration, and a host of unanswered questions. We know that she and her father were apprehended at 9:51 p.m., but Jakelin was not admitted to Providence Children's Hospital in El Paso until 8:51 a.m. the following morning. Other than that, the public awaits credible information on the cause of her death and, in particular, whether she perished because of Border Patrol failure. Beyond this tragic case, our research-which consists of more than 1,100 post-deportation surveys with unauthorized Mexican migrants-suggests that the denial of medical attention to migrants in US custody is a widespread and systemic problem, and one that appears to affect indigenous language speakers disproportionately. Research Methodology As part of the Migrant Border Crossing Study (MBCS), we surveyed 1,109 recently deported Mexican migrants who crossed the border without documents, were apprehended, and deported to Mexico. From 2010-2012, we completed surveys in Tijuana and Mexicali, Baja California; Nogales, Sonora; Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua; Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas; and Mexico City-achieving a response rate of over 90 percent. We have conducted research on unauthorized Mexican migration for more than a decade. Over the years, we were eyewitnesses to a host of problems, such as people being deported with injuries and in poor condition, some unable to walk, and many dehydrated and hungry. On several occasions, we interviewed people who had just hours before been released from surgery. For instance, one young man had fractured his vertebrae while crossing the border in the desert, but was deported the same day as his spinal surgery. In a separate case, a man was deported with a broken collarbone protruding from his skin.
2013 •
This report is about concerns and complaints expressed by people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Otero County Processing Center (OCPC) located in Chaparral, New Mexico, an immigration detention facility managed by private prison contractor Management and Training Corporation (MTC). Between August 2019 and June 2020, attorneys and volunteers with the El Paso Immigration Collaborative (EPIC) spoke to 232 individuals detained at OCPC. The primary purpose of the conversations was legal advocacy for unrepresented individuals. Out of the conversations with 232 persons, 153 raised concerns or troubling information about some aspect of their experience with the immigration process. When complaints were raised, EPIC staff and volunteers recorded this information. This report is an analysis of those records. The 153 individuals who raised concerns come from 16 countries and speak eight different languages. This sample of individuals registered 259 concerns, complaints, or troubling issues. These are organized into 14 categories. The categories are merged into three procedural groups that pertain to different aspects of the immigration process these individuals experienced: conditions in pre-ICE Detention (19%), conditions in ICE Detention (57%), and Legal issues while in ICE Detention (24%). Out of the total number of complaints, the most common categories of concern were Medical issues while in ICE Detention (37%), Due Process matters experienced while detained (17%), and CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) detention Conditions (14%) experienced prior to ICE Detention (“Pre-ICE Detention”). Notably, these top three areas of complaint pertain to the three major components of immigrant incarceration discussed in this report: detaining migrants upon arrival, imprisoning migrants at greater length, and deciding on their potential release or asylum cases. In the current sample, 66% of the individuals spoken to raised a concern of some kind. This is substantially higher than the complaint rate obtained by ICE inspectors (4-8%) at the same facility. This discrepancy corroborates earlier criticism of the ICE inspections regime. We argue that ICE inspections constitute performative compliance that gives the illusion that entities are conforming to the “agreed” rules of contract delivery. This reform-oriented approach to systemic problems ends up justifying and sustaining the troubling situations that evoke the need for reforms in the first place. Among the concerns raised in the Pre-ICE Detention group, perhaps the most significant result is the increasingly long periods of time that individuals are held in “temporary” CBP custody, inside the so-called hieleras or “ice boxes”. The current sample shows that in 2019 people were being held in hieleras on average (M=14, SD=15) seven times as long as they were between 2011-2015. The conditions in hielera holding cells are consistent with definitions of torture and constitute a form of “clean torture” that causes physical harm but may produce no immediately-visible physical marks. Among the concerns raised in the ICE Detention group, Medical issues dominate and are varied in nature. Both mental and physical ailments go untreated. Moreover, mental ailments can be so acute that individuals turn to self harm and suicide attempts. The mental harms resulting from detention are consistent with categories of mental suffering resulting from torture. Medical neglect is responsible for two recent deaths at OCPC, and the present sample demonstrates that the problems with medical care are ongoing. ICE’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, discussed in multiple sections below, further underscores the profound harm the agency causes to the health of those detained. Among the ICE Detention Legal issues, Due Process violations top the list. Advocates and individuals in immigration custody and proceedings widely observe Due Process violations and concerns across various agencies including ICE, CBP, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR). Focusing largely on the issues raised by individuals with whom EPIC spoke, we affirm and underscore the conclusion that ICE detention is inherently abusive, the ICE inspections regime occludes and facilitates systematic abuse, and that detention presents severe legal obstacles that are designed to make it as hard as possible for individuals to succeed in their immigration cases. Certain facets of ICE detention, prolonged use of solitary confinement, and ongoing inhuman or degrading treatment by facility staff are consistent with definitions of torture. Drawing on larger conversations, we further conclude that ICE detention is impervious to reform. In fact, prior reform attempts made the situation worse. Immigration detention does not make communities safe, it is costly, and it is unnecessary for its stated purpose of ensuring that individuals attend their immigration proceedings. Importantly, the many instances of violence against and abuse of detained individuals reported here represent a pattern of behavior — not an aberration — that aligns with what is documented by detained and formerly detained individuals, and by our colleagues who support them across the United States and beyond. Simply put, the violence and abuse cannot be explained away by “a few bad apples;” it is systemic. On these grounds, we argue that ICE detention, the use of CBP temporary holding facilities, and the practice of returning immigrants to Mexico to await a hearing should be abolished.
Boston College Law Review
The Grapes of Wrath: On the Health of Immigration Detainees2016 •
INTRODUCTIONOn April 6, 2015, Raul Ernesto Morales-Ramos, a forty-four-year-old Salvadoran national who had been in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") custody since 2010, died of intestinal cancer. 1 The Adelanto Immigration Center in Adelanto, California ("Adelanto"), which ignored Morales-Ramos's complaints of severe abdominal pain, uncontrollable leakage of urine, and diarrhea, refused to provide the detainee any medical care. 2On March 4, 2012, Fernando Dominguez Valdivia, a fifty-eight-yearold Mexican national, died of multiple organ failure caused by an infection that spread to his bloodstream following one hundred days in ICE custody, also at Adelanto. 3 Following an investigation of his death, the Federal Office of Detention Oversight ("ODO") determined that Adelanto's medical staff failed to properly examine Dominguez Valdivia, failed to create medical records that would ensure the continuity of his health care, and failed...
Background In the past decade, the U.S. immigration detention system regularly detained more than 30,000 people; in 2019 prior to the pandemic, the detention population exceeded 52,000 people. Inhumane detention conditions have been documented by internal government watchdogs, news media and human rights groups, finding over-crowding, poor hygiene and sanitation and poor and delayed medical care, as well as verbal, physical and sexual abuse. Methods This study surveyed health professionals across the United States who had provided care for immigrants who were recently released from immigration detention to assess clinician perceptions about the adverse health impact of immigration detention on migrant populations based on real-life clinical encounters. There were 150 survey responses, of which 85 clinicians observed medical conditions attributed to detention. Results These 85 clinicians reported seeing a combined 1300 patients with a medical issue related to their time in detention,...
SSRN Electronic Journal
A Continued Humanitarian Crisis at the Border: Undocumented Border Crosser Deaths Recorded by the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner, 1990-20122013 •
2013 •
Death Studies
Fatal Prescriptions: Immigration Detention, Mismedication, and the Necropolitics of Uncare2020 •
This article focuses on detention care and its deadly consequences in the United States. Between October 2003 and October 2019, there were at least 196 deaths in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, many the result of grossly inadequate medical practices. Drawing on the case of Juan Carlos Baires, who was denied antiretroviral medication, the essay argues that, rather than being beneficiaries of care, noncitizens in detention are often victims of uncare—of a dearth or absence of both affective (concern about) and practical (providing for) care. The consequence of this uncare is that migrant lives are imperiled to the point of death.
2007 •
Open Forum Infectious Diseases
Clofazimine for Rapidly Growing Mycobacterial Infections2017 •
International Emergency Nursing
Grey areas: New Zealand ambulance personnel’s experiences of challenging resuscitation decision-makingRegional Educational Laboratory Midwest
Differences in Spending in School Districts across Geographic Locales in Minnesota. Summary. Issues & Answers. REL 2012-No. 1242012 •
2007 •
Frans Manik
KONSEP TEOLOGI TENTANG ANUGERAH ALLAH: PEMAHAMAN, IMPLIKASI, DAN RELEVANSINYA DALAM IMAN KRISTEN2024 •
CULTURA EDUCACIÓN Y SOCIEDAD
Respuesta Autonómica de estrés en estudiantes de Doctorado2020 •
Revista Brasileira de Cancerologia
“Eu entro num Consórcio Funerário”. Percepções e Representações de Adultos sobre Embalagens Padronizadas de Cigarros2022 •
Arkhais - Jurnal Ilmu Bahasa dan Sastra Indonesia
Afiksasi Pada Karangan Anak Usia 10 – 12 Tahun DI Kuningan, Jawa Barat: Sebuah Kajian Morfologi2016 •