US: 24 Migrants Have Died in ICE Custody Under Trump

A total of 24 migrants have died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody according to an NBC News analysis of federal data.

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The findings are based on a report released this week by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security which found “egregious violations” at various detention centers it inspected.

According to the report, ill migrants do not receive medical attention and staff often ignores detainee’s requests for care. People are subjected to isolation and to the consumption of spoiled food, those with mental illness are put into solitary confinement and are also abused.

The recent increase of deaths of ICE detainees comes as the number of immigrants in federal custody hits a sky-high record. ICE is in fact currently detaining more than 52,500 migrants a day and the network of detention centers is spreading out across the country with more than 200 detention facilities tallied.

Last December, an ICE supervisor warned that the ICE Health Service Corps, the agency’s own medical service provider, was “severely dysfunctional” and that “preventable harm and death to detainees has occurred,” according to an internal memo sent to the director of ICE, Matthew Albence.

Annually, thousands of people try to cross the U.S.-Mexico border in search for opportunities for employment or simply for the chance of providing better lives for themselves and their families, but most of them end up being detained for months, mistreated and abused in detention facilities.

This tragic situation is the result of migration policies carried out by the administration of Donald Trump Trump, who has repeatedly mentioned that the solution to the problem is the militarization of the southern border.