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Consider This from NPR

NPR Investigation Reveals 'Barbaric' Conditions in ICE Detention Facilities

Consider This from NPR

NPR

Society & Culture, Daily News, News, News Commentary

4.26.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 August 2023

⏱️ 14 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Biden administration is under intense political pressure from Republicans over immigration, who accuse the president of being too lenient toward migrants.

Now, the administration is locking up more unauthorized immigrants and asylum-seekers in detention facilities, and NPR has exclusively obtained more than 1,600 pages of confidential inspection reports examining conditions inside those facilities.

They describe barbaric practices, negligent medical care, racist abuse and filthy conditions.

NPR's Tom Dreisbach reports on the abysmal conditions detainees are forced to endure.

In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Where you worried that you could die, see, you can almost window us.

0:12.0

That's Jose, telling NPR Investigative Correspondent Tom Drysbach about his experience in a detention

0:18.7

center run by immigration and customs enforcement or ICE.

0:23.2

We're using Jose's first name only because he's concerned about facing retaliation for

0:27.9

speaking out.

0:29.4

Back in the late 1980s, he fled civil war in his home country of El Salvador and came

0:34.9

to the U.S., where he found work as a handyman.

0:38.2

He has kids who are U.S. citizens.

0:40.5

He did not have legal authorization to remain in the country, and last year, 2022, Jose

0:47.4

was arrested, sent to ICE detention at the Orange County Jail in New York.

0:52.6

Jose has diabetes and heart problems, and when he arrived at the Orange County Jail,

0:58.0

he was taking prescription medications for them.

1:03.2

You're holding up all your medicines.

1:04.6

It's like one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine medicines every day.

1:10.4

He says that the Orange County Jail did not provide him with his medications, and as a result,

1:16.4

he had a heart attack.

1:20.9

It was like a form of punishment, he says.

1:23.3

He wants ICE to investigate to make sure they treat people like human beings, not animals.

1:36.7

Jose was taken to a hospital where he had to have a stent put in, then sent back to detention

1:42.4

where, again, he was not given his meds for days.

1:45.9

Jose, as you heard, was scared he would die.

1:49.3

Eventually, his lawyers were able to secure his beliefs because of the problems with his

...

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