Tell Congress: Make ICE Stop Delaying Detainee Medical Care

ICE is locking people up then failing to pay the doctors they need.

New reporting shows Immigration and Customs Enforcement has struggled to maintain a functioning system for paying outside doctors and hospitals that treat people in its custody. The result is more than unpaid bills. People detained by ICE have reportedly faced delays in specialty care while medical providers wait for millions of dollars in reimbursement.

Detainees rely on outside doctors for serious conditions detention facilities cannot treat themselves — including cancer, heart problems, kidney failure, seizures, pregnancy complications, and other urgent medical needs. A bureaucratic breakdown should never stand between a patient and necessary care.

Tell Congress: Make ICE pay its medical bills and stop delays in detainees’ care.

The federal government chose to detain these people. That means it has a responsibility to protect their health and safety while they are in custody. ICE cannot take away someone’s freedom and then allow its own administrative failures to interfere with their access to doctors.

The scale of the breakdown is already staggering. One Colorado health system reported nearly $4 million in unpaid reimbursements after providing roughly 150 hospital admissions, appointments, and emergency visits for detained immigrants.

ICE says a new claims system is being put in place. But after months of dysfunction, Congress should demand proof that the problem is actually being fixed.

Congress must hold oversight hearings, make sure medical providers are paid, and ensure that no one else will wait for critical treatment because ICE failed to do its job.

Add your name and tell Congress: If ICE chooses to detain people, it must provide the medical care they need. Bureaucracy cannot become a barrier to treatment.

The petition to Congress reads:

“Investigate ICE’s medical-care payment failures, require outstanding medical claims to be paid promptly, and ensure no person in immigration detention is delayed or denied medically necessary treatment because of ICE’s broken payment system.”