ICE detention centers are now a public health hazard
Infectious diseases will not respect razor wire and will just as effectively sicken US citizens.
According to new reporting from NPR, the U.S. Public Health Service has been quietly sidelined inside ICE detention centers, leaving medical care understaffed, unaccountable, and increasingly outsourced to the lowest bidder.
Unsurprisingly, medical care at ICE “detention centers,” or more accurately, concentration camps, has been eroded from its previously thin levels to a system so frustrating that the medical staff are quitting. Trump’s ghoul Stephen Miller’s version of detention has never been about safety or due process; it is about suffering.
The deployed officers include nurses, doctors, pharmacists, and other medical professionals. A growing number say these ICE assignments are not what they signed up for. Life-threatening delays in getting medicine and care to detainees, chaotic screenings, and overcrowded yet understaffed conditions have pushed some medical professionals to quit.
It’s the deadliest year for people in ICE custody in decades; next year could be worse
“We have been tasked with protecting and promoting health, and instead, we are being asked to facilitate inhumane operations,” said Rebekah Stewart, a nurse practitioner who left the service in October.
Public health professionals interviewed by NPR warn that what’s happening inside detention centers now isn’t just dangerous for detainees, but for staff and surrounding communities. Infectious diseases will not respect razor wire and will just as effectively sicken US citizens.