Ismael Ayala-Uribe, a 39-year-old who had lived in California since childhood, died on Sunday, Sept. 21. Uribe, a former recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, was detained during an August raid on the carwash where he had worked for 15 years, and transferred to ICE’s Adelanto detention center near Los Angeles. Shortly after, he became ill with coughing and fevers. Family told the Los Angeles Times that he was given little more than Tylenol as his condition deteriorated, before he died while awaiting surgery on an abscess. Ayala-Uribe’s brother said that Ismael “tried asking for help, but they wouldn’t really do anything.”
Physical conditions aren’t the only medical needs going unmet. El Pais reported this week that suicide attempts in U.S. detention centers are increasing, partly due to a lack of proper mental health treatment. …
In many cases, detainees who express suicidal ideation are placed in solitary confinement or similar isolated settings, which are widely understood to worsen mental illness. That practice is part of a broader increase in the use of solitary confinement in detention that The Marshall Project and Univision reported on earlier this month.In at least one case, the lack of care has also extended to an expectant mother.
This week, The San Francisco Chronicle told the story of Angie Rodriguez, a 26-year-old San Jose, California, woman who discovered she was pregnant, and then miscarried while in ICE custody. Rodriguez said she received no meaningful prenatal care or dietary support, and was placed in medical isolation, which she compared to solitary confinement.When she started to bleed, Rodriguez was “transported to the hospital in metal restraints around her wrists and ankles and connected by a waist chain,” despite ICE policy that says pregnant individuals should not be transported in restraints, according to the Chronicle.
In ICE Concentration Camps, Rising Deaths and Neglect: ‘They Wouldn’t Really Do Anything’