While ICE recently reported the 16th immigrant detainee death of the year, the number of people in ICE detention centers has dropped by 11% since February.
There was a time when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials released three-page reports on what happened following the death of immigrant detainees in custody.
But as the number of deaths has gone up, NBC News reports, the details have decreased to a few paragraphs.
“Under these conditions, certain administrative and public-facing updates are not fully operational. In a shutdown driven by Democrats’ failure to fund the government, non-essential reporting functions can be slowed even as ICE continues its core mission,” DHS said in a statement.
Under the Trump administration, DHS has committed to detaining and deporting as many immigrants as possible. However, lawmakers have focused on deaths in facilities like Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, which has more immigrants than any other facility.
As U.S. leaders like Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas have called for Montana’s closure due to its conditions, world leaders like Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum have criticized immigrant deaths while in U.S. custody, including those with Mexican backgrounds.
According to PBS, Sheinbaum claimed, “There are many Mexicans whose only crime is not having papers.”
“Growing dissatisfaction around ICE activities in the United States creates a more comfortable platform for members of the Mexican government to raise concerns about the fate of Mexican citizens,” vice president of content strategy for the Council of the Americas, Carin Zissis, said.
DHS defended the reported increase in death rates, calling them a small percentage of the overall detainee population.
“All detainees are provided with proper meals, water, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers,” the agency said. “In fact, ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens.”
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Source: Black Enterprise
