Latest news with #EuniceCho
Miami Herald
04-07-2025
- Health
- Miami Herald
More ICE Deaths ‘Inevitable' as Detention Numbers Soar
Deaths in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers look set to surpass the previous year's total, with three months still to go. With 12 people confirmed to have died while in ICE custody since October 2024, when the current Fiscal Year began, the number has already matched the previous year's total. Human rights groups are warning more are certain. "These deaths are clearly attributable to the Trump administration's increased and aggressive detention policies, and I have no doubt that when more complete investigations take place, it will likely provide information that these deaths were likely preventable," Eunice Cho, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) National Prison Project, told Newsweek. The latest death came on June 26, when 75-year-old Cuban national Isidro Perez, in the country for decades, passed away in a hospital after suffering a heart issue while in a Miami ICE facility. In response to that news, President Donald Trump's border czar Tom Homan told reporters outside the White House: "People die in ICE custody." To be sure, ICE detention centers are not alone in experiencing deaths of detainees, with the the U.S. prison system — at both federal and state levels — frequently reporting deaths among inmates. In 2019, the mortality rate across the prison system was 259 per 100,000 inmates, based on Department of Justice figures showing 4,234 deaths in prisons at state and federal level nationwide. By comparison, the mortality rate of ICE detainees at the current numbers would work out to about 21.3 deaths per 100,000 people. The ICE population also has a far quicker turnaround than the prison system. In fiscal year 2022, running from the previous October through September 2022, three people died in ICE detention – the lowest number since reporting was mandated by Congress in 2018. The highest recent yearly death total came in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, with 21 deaths across the agency's various facilities. Those facilities are often run by private companies contracted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). ICE repeatedly says that individuals in its charge receive high-quality medical assessments and care, including 24-hour emergency medicine. But several independent reports over recent years, including from the ACLU and Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights, have given a very different picture of the conditions facing detainees who are awaiting immigration hearings or deportation. In 2024, the ACLU outlined a lack of oversight when it came to ICE detention deaths, suggesting evidence may have destroyed and highlighting efforts to blame low-level employees for the incidents. The organization, working alongside others, found that many deaths were likely preventable, should medical care have been more readily accessible. "People are dying preventable deaths in [Homan's] direct custody," Cho said. "People are dying because of the lack of constitutionally required medical care that should be provided to anybody in government custody." A year later, far more people are being placed in ICE detention. Since January, the Trump administration has been increasing its efforts to arrest and detain illegal immigrants. While Congress has allocated funding for around tens of thousands of more beds in the current tax bill, the number of detainees stood at roughly 56,300 as of mid-June. "There's never been a time where immigration detention hasn't been deadly, so it's just inevitable that the more people we detain, the more people who are going to die," Anthony Enriquez, the vice president of U.S. advocacy and litigation at RFK Human Rights, told Newsweek. ICE is struggling with limited capacity and resources to fulfill its mission of millions of deportations. In addition to the new funds being allocated to the agency by Congress, the White House is trying other novel ways to expand capacity, from repurposing Guantanamo Bay to new detention center contracts issued for private companies GEO Group and CoreCivic, to the new so-called "Alligator Alcatraz" in southern Florida. Following a tour of the new detention facility on Tuesday, which includes bunkbeds stacked together in wire-fenced cages, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem praised the standards on offer. "Alligator Alcatraz can be a blueprint for detention facilities across the country. It will provide DHS with the beds and space needed to safely detain the worst of the worst," she posted on social media. All of this is to deliver on the president's promise of mass deportations. Trump returned to the White House promising upwards of 11 million immigrants without legal status would be deported, targeting the "worst of the worst" first. Records have shown that a large share of those currently in detention do not have a criminal record, but civil immigration offenses instead. "A lot of people misunderstand the purpose and the nature of immigration detention, and they think that if it's a detention center, then it's a jail, and if it's a jail, then that means this is someone who has already been found guilty of some type of bad act and should be serving a punishment," Enriquez said. "But in fact, many of the people in immigration detention do have lawful status to be here in the United States." Cho, of the ACLU, told Newsweek that ICE was not exercising discretion with respect to those it was now detaining. Because more people are remaining in detention when they previously would have been released, the situation is leading to a "deterioration of conditions in custody," he said. "My fear is this trajectory is only going to increase," Cho said. "That is because Congress is on the cusp of passing a new reconciliation bill that is providing $45 billion to the expansion of immigration detention in the country, and I want to compare that to the current $4 billion that ICE already receives every year for its already massive immigration detention system. "This amount of money is going to provide ICE with the ability to not only double, triple, quadruple the capacity of people who are being held in immigration detention, it is going to allow a system that is larger than the entire federal Bureau of Prisons population put together, under the care of someone like Tom Homan who has expressed total disregard for the fact that people are dying in custody." Newsweek reached out to ICE via email Tuesday for comment on the increase in deaths and measures being taken to prevent any more. The agency did not reply before publication. 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Newsweek
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Newsweek
More ICE Deaths 'Inevitable' as Detention Numbers Soar
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Deaths in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers look set to surpass the previous year's total, with three months still to go. With 12 people confirmed to have died while in ICE custody since October 2024, when the current Fiscal Year began, the number has already matched the previous year's total. Human rights groups are warning more are certain. "These deaths are clearly attributable to the Trump administration's increased and aggressive detention policies, and I have no doubt that when more complete investigations take place, it will likely provide information that these deaths were likely preventable," Eunice Cho, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) National Prison Project, told Newsweek. The latest death came on June 26, when 75-year-old Cuban national Isidro Perez, in the country for decades, passed away in a hospital after suffering a heart issue while in a Miami ICE facility. In response to that news, President Donald Trump's border czar Tom Homan told reporters outside the White House: "People die in ICE custody." To be sure, ICE detention centers are not alone in experiencing deaths of detainees, with the the U.S. prison system — at both federal and state levels — frequently reporting deaths among inmates. In 2019, the mortality rate across the prison system was 259 per 100,000 inmates, based on Department of Justice figures showing 4,234 deaths in prisons at state and federal level nationwide. By comparison, the mortality rate of ICE detainees at the current numbers would work out to about 21.3 deaths per 100,000 people. The ICE population also has a far quicker turnaround than the prison system. How Many Immigrants Die In ICE Custody? In fiscal year 2022, running from the previous October through September 2022, three people died in ICE detention – the lowest number since reporting was mandated by Congress in 2018. The highest recent yearly death total came in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, with 21 deaths across the agency's various facilities. Those facilities are often run by private companies contracted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). ICE repeatedly says that individuals in its charge receive high-quality medical assessments and care, including 24-hour emergency medicine. But several independent reports over recent years, including from the ACLU and Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights, have given a very different picture of the conditions facing detainees who are awaiting immigration hearings or deportation. In 2024, the ACLU outlined a lack of oversight when it came to ICE detention deaths, suggesting evidence may have destroyed and highlighting efforts to blame low-level employees for the incidents. The organization, working alongside others, found that many deaths were likely preventable, should medical care have been more readily accessible. "People are dying preventable deaths in [Homan's] direct custody," Cho said. "People are dying because of the lack of constitutionally required medical care that should be provided to anybody in government custody." A Growing Number of Detainees A year later, far more people are being placed in ICE detention. Since January, the Trump administration has been increasing its efforts to arrest and detain illegal immigrants. While Congress has allocated funding for around tens of thousands of more beds in the current tax bill, the number of detainees stood at roughly 56,300 as of mid-June. "There's never been a time where immigration detention hasn't been deadly, so it's just inevitable that the more people we detain, the more people who are going to die," Anthony Enriquez, the vice president of U.S. advocacy and litigation at RFK Human Rights, told Newsweek. ICE is struggling with limited capacity and resources to fulfill its mission of millions of deportations. In addition to the new funds being allocated to the agency by Congress, the White House is trying other novel ways to expand capacity, from repurposing Guantanamo Bay to new detention center contracts issued for private companies GEO Group and CoreCivic, to the new so-called "Alligator Alcatraz" in southern Florida. Following a tour of the new detention facility on Tuesday, which includes bunkbeds stacked together in wire-fenced cages, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem praised the standards on offer. "Alligator Alcatraz can be a blueprint for detention facilities across the country. It will provide DHS with the beds and space needed to safely detain the worst of the worst," she posted on social media. President Donald Trump tours "Alligator Alcatraz," a new migrant detention facility at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility, Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Ochopee, Florida. President Donald Trump tours "Alligator Alcatraz," a new migrant detention facility at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility, Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Ochopee, Florida. AP Photo/Evan Vucci All of this is to deliver on the president's promise of mass deportations. Trump returned to the White House promising upwards of 11 million immigrants without legal status would be deported, targeting the "worst of the worst" first. Records have shown that a large share of those currently in detention do not have a criminal record, but civil immigration offenses instead. "A lot of people misunderstand the purpose and the nature of immigration detention, and they think that if it's a detention center, then it's a jail, and if it's a jail, then that means this is someone who has already been found guilty of some type of bad act and should be serving a punishment," Enriquez said. "But in fact, many of the people in immigration detention do have lawful status to be here in the United States." Cho, of the ACLU, told Newsweek that ICE was not exercising discretion with respect to those it was now detaining. Because more people are remaining in detention when they previously would have been released, the situation is leading to a "deterioration of conditions in custody," he said. "My fear is this trajectory is only going to increase," Cho said. "That is because Congress is on the cusp of passing a new reconciliation bill that is providing $45 billion to the expansion of immigration detention in the country, and I want to compare that to the current $4 billion that ICE already receives every year for its already massive immigration detention system. "This amount of money is going to provide ICE with the ability to not only double, triple, quadruple the capacity of people who are being held in immigration detention, it is going to allow a system that is larger than the entire federal Bureau of Prisons population put together, under the care of someone like Tom Homan who has expressed total disregard for the fact that people are dying in custody." Newsweek reached out to ICE via email Tuesday for comment on the increase in deaths and measures being taken to prevent any more. The agency did not reply before publication.
Middle East Eye
15-02-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Rights groups sue Trump administration over migrants transferred to Guantanamo
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), along with a slew of US-based rights organisations, is suing the Trump administration for preventing migrants transferred to Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba from speaking to lawyers. 'Our Constitution does not allow the government to hold people incommunicado, without any ability to speak to counsel or the outside world,' Eunice Cho, senior staff attorney with the ACLU's National Prison Project, said in a statement shared with Middle East Eye. US President Donald Trump had ordered the military to prepare at least 30,000 beds at the US-run facility to accommodate the number of deportees that he said are 'violent criminals' who entered the country illegally and do not hold an immigration status. 'Some of them are so bad we don't even trust the countries to hold them because we don't want them coming back, so we're going to send them out to Guantanamo,' the president said. But many say their family members who have not committed a crime have been taken away by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters One of them is Eucaris Carolina Gomez Lugo, a plaintiff in the ACLU case, who was shocked to see a photograph of her brother being held at Guantanamo, according to the lawsuit. The Trump administration has published several images of men in handcuffs being led onto military planes for deportation to the island prison. Lugo learned that the government was alleging that he and other men being detained were Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang members, and she is now very concerned about his safety. Aside from setting a quota for ICE agents to round up between 1,200-1,400 people daily, the Trump administration has provided virtually no information about those newly moved to Guantanamo, 'including how long they will be held there, under what authority and conditions, subject to what legal processes, or whether they will have any means of communicating with their families and attorneys,' the ACLU said in a statement. 'Detaining immigrants at Guantanamo Bay without access to legal counsel or basic due process protections is a grave violation of their rights and an alarming abuse of government power,' Rebecca Lightsey, co-executive director of American Gateways, said, according to the ACLU statement. Rights groups also believe the Trump administration is putting on a very public show of force to placate its most hardline anti-immigration base and that it sets a dangerous precedent for the country. 'Guantanamo is a breeding ground for violence, abuse, and neglect. Our government is targeting [migrants] and unnecessarily moving them to a notoriously difficult-to-access offshore site for no reason other than political theatre,' Jennifer Babaie, director of advocacy and legal services at Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso, Texas, said. As of 2019, there were at least 11 million undocumented immigrants known to be in the US, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Experts believe that figure has risen to some 14 million since. According to NBC, in order to fulfil Trump's pledge that 'millions and millions' of migrants will be deported, ICE would have to ship out over 2,700 people every single day to reach the one million mark in a year. Trump vs Biden So far, about 11,000 people have been deported in less than three weeks of the Trump administration being sworn in, whether it's to Guantanamo Bay or back to their countries of origin. The crackdown appears to have deterred illegal border crossings. 'Illegal migrant encounters between the ports of entry are down nearly 87 percent,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said this week. But according to figures from the Department of Homeland Security, no presidents have ever deported as many people as Barack Obama and Joe Biden, both Democrats whose time in office preceded the Trump administration. More than four and a half million people were removed from the US during Biden's four-year term, when immigrant crossings surged as his party sought to distance itself from hawkish Republican rhetoric toward immigrants. During Obama's two terms, 5.3 million people were removed, earning him the label 'Deporter-in-Chief.' In Trump's first term, just over two million migrants were removed. History Migrants have been held at Guantanamo Bay before. But according to Politifact, historically, the US has used the facility to hold migrants stopped at sea - mostly Haitians, and also Cubans in the 1990s. The difference is that now, Trump is sending people who were detained on US soil. The US has had rights over what is now its military base in Cuba since a treaty was signed between the two countries in 1903. It can be voided only by mutual agreement. Guantanamo Bay is widely known for housing the detention centre which was set up in 2002 by former President George W Bush during the "war on terror" and was used to hold more than 800 Muslim men accused of being linked to militant groups like al-Qaeda. There are 15 detainees remaining in the prison after the majority were released without charge. Former President Barack Obama vowed to close the prison when he came into office, as did Joe Biden. However, the two Democratic presidents only managed to reduce the prison's population. Trump has repeatedly vowed to keep the prison open. The prison became a symbol of American human rights abuses during the US-led "war on terror", with detainees being subject to a range of torture techniques, including waterboarding and sexual torture, according to rights groups.
