Since 2017, 39 adults have died in ICE custody or immediately after being released. Twelve of these deaths were by suicide while in detention. Detained immigrants have told researchers about facilities taking a week to set a broken bone and said that necessary medications, such as inhalers of asthma, were often not available. Multiple people interviewed by researchers at one Louisian facility reported no access to soap for bathing or cleaning supplies for their cells or bathrooms. 

     Many of these deaths could have been prevented had there been proper medical precautions in place. The current conditions of the detention centers are ineffective and inadequately equipped to support the large influx of detainees. We are pushing for H.R. 2415 and S.1243 (Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act of 2019) which urgently reforms the immigration detention system by ending the use of private detention facilities altogether, repealing mandatory detention, ending family detention, and prohibiting solitary confinement. With these proposed legislative changes, those seeking asylums will be welcomed into a safe and humane environment as they proceed through the process of naturalization.