EXCLUSIVE w/ @micarosenberg: Federal inspections found serious health care lapses found in a US detention center housing transgender migrants in New Mexico reuters.com/article/us-usa…
Among the problems were hundreds of unanswered requests for medical attention, poor quarantine procedures and deficient treatment for mental illnesses and other chronic diseases. As a result, all of the transgender detainees were transferred to other facilities in January.
An ICE spokeswoman confirmed that a Dec. 2019 report by the ICE health corps found “several health care-related deficiencies” at the center, such as failing to complete laboratory orders or arrange for HIV patients to see infectious disease specialists within 30 days of arrival.
The transfers came as Democratic lawmakers have pushed ICE to enforce the agency’s existing detention standards for transgender immigrants laid out in a 2015 memo. The memo calls for immigrants to be housed according to their gender identity, among other steps.
None of the more than 200 US immigration detention facilities currently meet those standards.
Democrats directed ICE to adhere to the memo in December legislative guidance - but ICE rebuffed the request the following month, saying it’s ““not legally binding.”
Democrats directed ICE to adhere to the memo in December legislative guidance - but ICE rebuffed the request the following month, saying it’s ““not legally binding.”
